Two
1017 Words
The sun shines so brightly that I can’t help but wake up with a smile. The thought of meeting him again makes me giddy. It’s been over a month since he started at Meadowbrook High, but it feels like I have known him for years.
Elara dances as she dresses up for school. She is so into the moment that she doesn’t notice Maya has walked in.
“Girl what’s up with you?” Maya asks
“Nothing”
“Nothing? You have been too happy since he got in the picture” Maya said with a smirk
“Who?” Elara pretends to be confused
“OMG! My friend lies” she says with a chuckle
“ No I don’t”
“ I actually love it. You finally have something else to think about apart from Uni, Grades, Food, and me”
“Who says I think about you” She asks as they both walk out of the room
“ Me. My friends in love” Maya says in a sing-song way
“I don't know what you are on about”
“Yes you do “
They keep up with the banter as the walking down the stairs
“ What is the bantering about? Elara’s mom asks
“It’s Elara. She…” She stops as Elara covers her mouth
“It’s nothing, Mommy. Good morning”
“Good morning love. Hope you slept well”
“Yes, I did. I have to go now “
“Sure” She says as she hands them each a glass of juice and a slice of sandwich which they eat quickly.
“Thanks, Mom. See you later” she says as she walks towards the door
“ Bye Mrs James” She says as she hurries to meet her friend.
“Lover girl, wait for me”
“Stop it” Elara says with a chuckle
When they get to school, they go to their respective classes. Elara is deep in thought as she heads to her class. She keeps thinking of all Maya said. Is she really in love with Noah? Of course not. She just met him.
Elara James had never believed in sudden shifts. She has never believed in soulmates theory. She still found the love story of her parents incredibly cringe.
She believed in routines. In gradual change. In cause and effect and that belief didn’t exclude Noah Blackwood.
What began as a coincidence settled quickly into a pattern. Mornings meant walking through the halls together. Lunch time was just with her and Maya and now they were like the three musketeers just that two out of the three were building a bond she couldn’t compare.
They were friends. That was the word Elara clung to.
Friends talked. Friends laughed. Friends noticed each other.
Friends did not feel their hearts beating too fast in their chest when the other walked into a room.
Yet every time Noah appeared sliding into the seat beside her, calling her name as it belonged to him something tightened inside her. Not fear. Just excitement…awareness. She felt seen.
He was everywhere now. Not loudly. Just… present. Like he’d always been in her life and she hadn't been paying attention
“You’re early,” Noah said one morning, dropping his bag beside her desk.
“You’re late,” Elara replied without looking up from her notebook.
He leaned closer. “Miss me?”
She glanced at him, unimpressed. “Nope.”
“Liar.”
She smiled despite herself.
That was how it went. Teasing with a bit of flirting. Silences that stretched too long without feeling awkward. Conversations that drifted from homework to dreams without warning.
Noah asked questions. What scared her? Her perspective on sensitive topics? What she wished she had? Her dreams? Everything and Elara answered more than she meant to.
She told him about her plans to leave town, about how she liked organizing things because chaos made her feel small. She admitted she hated disappointing people more than failing. Things only her mom and Maya knew
He listened as her words mattered.
In return, Noah gave her pieces of himself, carefully stated. He spoke about expectations that were never clear. It was like he wanted to be a mirror to her… like he wanted nothing hidden apart from his family. He suddenly became uptight when the topic came up.
When Elara asked once, casually, his smile faltered for just a moment before returning brighter than before.
“They’re complicated,” he said. “Aren’t they all?”
She let it go.
Still, the air between them changed.
Their hands brushed too often to be accidental. His knee bumped hers under the lunch table and neither moved away. When he leaned close to whisper something, her breath stuttered like she’d forgotten how it worked.
People noticed. The whole school talked about them. The attention she loathed now hung over her like a halo.
“So,” her friend Mara asked later that afternoon, nudging her. “You and Noah.”
“There is no ‘me and Noah,’” Elara said too quickly.
Mara raised a brow. “You talk like you’re already defending it.”
Elara frowned. “We’re friends.”
“Uh-huh.”
But even Elara could hear the lie in her own voice.
Then again he wasn’t in school today.
She had called but he hadn’t picked up. So she left a text
She remembered one day after school. While they were waiting for Maya, she talked about her dreams and asked if her choice was weird
“I know you would be exceptional in anything you choose to do,” Noah said suddenly.
She looked at him. “ You are just saying”
“I mean it.”
Elara shrugged. “I just don’t want to waste my time chasing ideas.”
Noah’s gaze softened. “You won’t.”
He said it as if he were certain. A confidence that made her throat tighten.
She blushed just remembering.
The moment had passed. But it left something.
A spark she didn’t want dimmed.
- Writer
