Noah was humming to the tune of every song that played on the radio while I nervously pulled on my sleeves.

So close to my house... yet so far.

A date. I couldn't remember the last time I went on a date.

Dreadfully, I did remember the one time I went to the movies with my crush when I was twelve, and my mother insisted we couldn't go alone. So, of course, she bought tickets for the seats right behind us, and kept making unnecessary awkward comments during the movie just to ensure that we both knew she was there. He never asked me out again, naturally.

After that I wasn't exactly in any hurry to date. Which, now that I think about it, might have been her plan all along.

"So where are we going tonight?" My voice was dry when I spoke. The unease I was feeling about absolutely everything making the desire to jump out of the moving car blossom within my chest.

"Hm, let's keep it a surprise. But you can dress casual, if that's why you're asking. Just wear whatever is comfortable," he said, his lips pulled up in a cocky smile.

Wear whatever, he said. Just be comfortable, he said.

Great. That's just great.

The only problem was that wearing whatever wasn't really an option for me.

Could I have just worn anything from my closet? Sure. Sure I could have.

Would I do that? No, of course freaking not.

Dating Noah felt like I was a lone soldier on the battlefield of love, and every soldier needed a uniform, preferably equipped with some sort of armour. Considering he seemed to know that I did not, in fact, like him very much -- or at all really -- it meant I had to adjust my battle strategy. He wouldn't just open up and reveal his secrets to someone he knew disliked him. No, of course not. He was smarter than that, that much I could acknowledge.

Which meant I would now have to convince Noah I was falling for him, and simultaneously do what no other girl at high school has managed to achieve in the past year.

I needed to make Noah Archer fall in love with me.

Was it an impossible task? Probably.

Did I have confidence I could achieve it? Not even remotely.

Would I try my best to science the love out of him? Absolutely.

Unconsciously nodding my head to my own internal resolutions, my face scrunched up with planning, I barely noticed we had parked in front of my house.

"You looked like a cartoon villain just now." The comment caught me off guard and my head immediately snapped in Noah's direction. My eyes instantly took in that usual sparkle in his eye, the annoying grin that seemed to be his default setting. It took my brain a second to recover, but when I did, I put the biggest grimacing smile on my face that I could muster.

"Sorry, I wasn't aware I needed to have a perpetual smile in your presence," I said, widening my eyes.

Noah's eyes widened as well, his face changing from shock to laughter within seconds.

"That is terrifying. Never do that again, please." He chuckled, clasping his hands into a pleading gesture to annunciate his desperate request.

Relaxing that deadly smile, I raised my eyebrows at him once before opening the car door. Before I could leave, I felt his hand grasp mine, and turned to face him.

"I'm glad you asked me out, Skyler," he said, and the sincerity in his voice made unwanted guilt trickle into my stomach, like pebbles slowly weighing me down.

You won't be by the end of these two weeks.

The thought that would remain unsaid disappeared from my tongue before I could blurt it out. Instead I struggled for words, something that as an ex-debate member, I was definitely not used to experiencing.

"I don't--What do yo---" Mumbling my words, I was barely coherent even to myself. Unsure of what I was even trying to say; Why would you say that? Why did you accept? I don't understand.

He let go of my hand, and waved it through the air as if what he said was no big deal.

"Tonight. We can talk about that tonight." It was a statement, no room to argue. All I could do was open up the car door and exit, waving to him with what felt like a perpetual frown forming on my face.

Once I saw his car turn a corner, I started walking up my sidewalk, taking a few deep breaths as I went.

This was it. The official date, and it was time.

Time to put my war paint on.

Getting ready for a date wasn't easy.

Getting ready for a date you had a tsunami of different emotions about was even harder. Once I had my casual makeup on point, I needed a deadly-but-didn't-try-too-hard kind of outfit. Which is how I ended up on a call with Melissa, trying to twirl my body enough to show all angles in the confines of my room.

"Yup, that's the one girl," she stated with confidence as I awkwardly spun around in my black jeans and long sleeved, silk, purple shirt with a deeper than comfortable cleavage tucked into my pants.

"You look effortlessly sexy but also sort of casual like, 'oh hello, fancy meeting you here, I'm just doing some late night grocery shopping after a busy day' kind of thing." Mel did her little play acting, naturally shoving her boobs in first plan, enthusiastically. I was glad she didn't see me wince, Even though the fabric around the cleavage was layered, her making me aware of the whole thing wasn't exactly great.

"I would never wear this to the grocery store," I mumbled, searching my table for a pin that could close the gap in my shirt before Mel started waving her hands erratically.

"Wait, Sky, wait! I was just kidding, okay? You're eighteen girl, live a little! You look amazeballs. I swear!" Mel's face consumed the camera as if she was willing me to see the sincerity in her eyes, and in a weird way it worked. I still didn't feel entirely comfortable in this outfit, but you could never feel comfortable when you were out to war, right? Just as I was thinking that I saw a small flurry of curly hair burst into the screen in the background screaming something intelligible. Mel pressed a button on her laptop and turned to talk to the mini carbon copy of her, a deep frown settling on her face as she spoke, before she turned back to the screen. She turned on her microphone and exhaled in frustration.

"Ugh, Tally is being a pest so I have to go now, but don't you dare change out of that outfit, you hear me?"

Before I even had the chance to nod, she hung up.

I stared at myself in the mirror for the last time before resigning myself to this outfit.

My favorite black jacket and this was it. Comfortable or not, it was go time.

I wasn't exactly an expert at dating, but I knew it wasn't exactly typical practice to show up on your first official date with a little baggy that had your boyfriend's sweatpants and shirt stuffed into them.

Not like we were typically dating however, so this was fine. Right?

Noah pulled up at my house right on time, because of course, why wouldn't he? He was supposed to be the prince in the shining fancy car right? I just had to make sure I wouldn't fall for his game.

Since there was absolutely nothing worse than feeling exposed, I speed walked to the car. I opened the door and sat down with a sigh, when I finally turned to face my date.

His eyes were wide, his lips kept closing and opening like he was a fish out of water. Well, well, well.

Finally, it was my time to smirk.

"Hi to you too, Noah." I said, trying to appear casual despite the huge grin on my face.

"Uh, yeah, hi." He shook his head as if leaving a trance before giving me a brilliant smile, "Sorry, I guess I never saw you in your out-of-school outfit before, you look beautiful." I saw his Adam's apple bob as he let out an awkward chuckle. "I mean you always look--"

I raised my hand to stop him and chuckled, "Yeah, yeah, I get it. Just give me that shovel before you dig a hole that's way too deep."

His eyebrows lifted before he laughed, and gave me such a sincere smile I almost felt guilty. I knew my plan was to make him like me, but at the same time I wanted to create a persona. Someone he could fall in love with. Someone that wasn't me.

The fact that he was laughing at my jokes. That he was complimenting my outfit. It all just made this whole thing seem too real.

"I brought the clothes you lent me," I mumbled, holding the little bag in front of me as if it was some victory medal. Noah just hummed and nodded a thanks, taking the bag and putting it somewhere in the back. 

After that he started up the car and I relaxed into the seat, trying to get my thoughts under control.

After about 45 minutes of driving, Noah pulled up to what looked like a clearing on top of a cliff, surrounded by occasional trees. Of course, why was I even surprised?

"Why do you always seem to take me to some secluded areas?" I said, raising one quizzical eyebrow as I studied him, "You're not exactly convincing me that you're not a murderer."

Noah just chuckled and smirked. "Oh ye, of little faith. You have your friend's finder app so you're safe, right?" Oh, that was a diss if I ever heard one.

"You bet. And that's just one of my back up plans." I muttered, shaking a finger at him in warning.

Noah chuckled, nodding his head as he bit down on his lower lip in a way that made it seem way too delicious.

No, snap out of it.

He leaned toward me, and for one frozen second I was convinced he would try to kiss me, my hands already rising defensively in front of me. Just as I was about to ask him what he thought he was doing, he leaned back toward the back seat and grabbed a bag that was there.

My face flushed a dangerous red at how wrong I'd read that moment. It didn't help that when he leaned back into his seat with the bag, there was a smirk on his face, as if he knew exactly what had gone through my mind just seconds ago.

"Come on, let's go." Noah opened up his door and stood in front of the hood, waiting for me.

Slapping my face a few times, and taking more than a few calming breaths, I opened my door, eager for the night air. His hand was reached out toward me, and I grasped it automatically, before I even realized that I should have definitely been troubled by the fact I even viewed holding his hand as something automatic already.

I felt like the dog in Pavlov's experiment, conditioned into doing exactly what Noah wanted from me.

"So, you said you would tell me on our date," I asked, mainly to distract myself from my previous realization.

"Tell you what?" He tilted his head to the side as he looked at me.

"Why you agreed to date me even though you knew I didn't like you," I said, narrowing my eyes at him suspiciously. There had to be some insidious reason for that decision. No one would just willingly date someone they knew disliked them, right?

Noah let out a dark chuckle, running a hand across his face and looking up at the sky. After a few moments he let out a sigh and looked at me.

"You might judge me for this, but I wanna be honest with you."

"I mean, honesty would be preferable, yes." I let out a small chuckle before clearing my throat.

"I accepted because you didn't like me." He stated so matter of factly, like it was the most normal thing, that I just stopped in place, bringing him to a halt as well.

"Okay, what kind of weird reverse-psychology is that?" My narrowed eyes studied him for some kind of hint of what he was thinking.

"Wait, let me explain." Noah said, and then let out a deep sigh. He took a few moments, as if trying to organize his thoughts before speaking again. "You know that feeling when you can tell people aren't being themselves with you? Like fake laughter, fake interests, fake conversation?"

He looked at me with a sad smile on his face, and it look me a few seconds to realize that wasn't actually a rhetorical question.

"I mean yeah, I guess most times you can tell when someone isn't acting like themselves, but what does that have to do with anything?" I said, tilting my head to the side in confusion.

"Well, that's kind of been the majority of my dating experience this year. It makes it really hard to get to know someone when they're giving you the answers they think you want to hear, laughing at jokes they don't actually find funny.... Recently everything started feeling so staged. It's becoming hard to tell what's real and what isn't." He let out a deep sigh, and ran his hand through his hair, his face crumpling a bit as if he was exhausted.

This answer made him seem even more like an enigma. If he didn't think this two week dating thing was actually going anywhere, why the hell was he even doing it?

"Even though I'm never single, it still kind of feels like I'm always alone, you know?" He added and shrugged, my heart clenching at how sad his words really sounded.

"Noah, I...." I started but before I could even think of how to really respond, he leaned closer to me and tilted his head.

"So, you asked me out and I thought, hey, she absolutely doesn't like me. Figured if you don't like me, you won't feel the need to pretend to be someone I'd like." His usual smirk returned and he wiggled his eyebrows at me in amusement.

Then he squeezed my hand and started pulling me forward again, his eyes focusing in front of him.

"It made me want to get to know you, and maybe, since you don't give a fuck, you might actually let me do that. Maybe, in the end, you can get to know me too." He didn't look at me, almost like he was embarrassed of this confession but the smile on his face was so bright and full of hope I could see it even from his profile. Suddenly, it felt like a ton of bricks was pressing against my chest.

Instant regret surged through me. Here I was, planning a fake personality he could fall for in my head, and here he was, looking so excited about the fact that I'd be the first girl he was sure wasn't fake with him.

Noah stopped near the edge of the cliff, dropping the bag that was slung over his shoulder to the ground next to him before turning to face me.

He grinned and nodded his head in the direction we'd just been walking in.

I glanced beyond the edge of the cliff and a breath caught in my throat when I saw the sparkling lights of the huge city beneath. What made the view even better was how dark it was where we stood. Dark enough that if you looked straight up you could see the stars in the sky, along with the glistening lights of the urban jungle underneath us.

"So, did that answer satisfy you?" I heard his soothing voice next to me and swallowed hard.

No, it confused the shit out of me.

"Yeah," I muttered, my mind reeling from the view and the confession from the mysterious boy next to me.

This plan of mine was quickly backfiring. 

Hi lovelies! ❤️

So happy to be here with you again!

How have you been? Hope your 2021 has started off better than last year. 

I'm soooo looking forward to writing about the Sky and Noah love story!

A sad thing I realized is that.... Luna's boyfriend in MMIQ is also called Noah. FACEPALM. I guess I really liked that name and didn't realize, lol. But yeah that messed with me a bit when I realized.

Anyway, I'll keep this shortish since I feel like  most of you read MIQ as well, but just for those that didn't, there have been a few updates for my writing schedule. 

Two Weeks to Fall in Love will still be updated weekly, if I can manage it, maybe even two times a week. 

Maddox in Quarantine will be updated biweekly, which means every 2 weeks. 

I really want to focus on new stories to get my writing inspiration back on track. That being said. 

I decided to participate in the ONC. Because one of the prompts I read instantly just flared my inspiration.

The story will be called Love Bitez and the genre will be a comedy/romance/adventure style.

The prompt I decided to do is:

"During a zombie apocalypse, you and your party are surrounded by zombies. In a Hail Mary move, you bite a zombie, and to your surprise, it turns back into a human."

I hope it'll be as hilarious for you to read as it is while playing out in my head. I might even have the first chapter up later today. If not today, you can expect it tomorrow.

Anyway, if you're curious here's a little intro sentence from the story:

When I imagined my high school crush would be dying to eat me, this wasn't exactly what I had in mind.