Present Perfect(17)

Noah suddenly stopped at the bottom of the steps. “Tweet.” His voice was low and raspy.

“Yeah?” I tried to keep my voice steady.

“Tonight was amaz…,” he paused. “You’re amazing.”

“Noah…” I trailed off as I choked back a sob.

“I wish you believed it,” he said.

He left without saying another word.

Standing alone, watching him walk away, the only thought running through my mind was, I wished I believed it too, so I could be your girlfriend.





I was at my locker the Monday morning after my kiss with Noah. I hadn’t seen or talked to him since our practice on Friday night. His date with The Interloper was Saturday night. I had to work on a paper all day Sunday, so there really was no time to get together.

Plus, I wasn’t all that interested to find out how his date went. That’s a lie. I was a little interested. That’s a lie too. I was completely consumed by thoughts of his date the entire weekend.

I startled when he came up behind me and whispered in my ear. “Mornin, Tweet.”

“Good morning.”

“I’ve missed you. I called you all weekend. I saw your mom yesterday. She said you were busy working on a paper.” He leaned his shoulder against the lockers.

“English,” I said.

Just then one of Noah’s teammates, Brad Johnson, walked up, slapped Noah on the back, and said, “Hey Stewart, heard you had a great time this weekend. I just got out of class with Brit. She couldn’t stop singing your praises, dude. Way to go.” As Brad walked off, Noah turned to me and shrugged.

Two other teammates, Jeremy and Spencer, came up. Spencer playfully grabbed the back of Noah’s neck, and said, “Heard you had a hot date this weekend. How about that, just a freshman and already a player.” Noah looked back at me as the guys walked off.

Innocently, I asked, “Your big date was this past weekend?”

“Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Play dumb. You’re no good at it, Tweet.”

“Well, it sounds like your first date was a success,” I said with just a tad bit of snarkiness in my voice.

“I would say my first date was perfect.”

I started shoving books around in my locker, not looking at him. I knew I was being ridiculous. I knew he had the date with her Saturday. As I banged things around, I could feel him smiling at me. The bastard.

“Uh…you about done beating up that innocent locker, Rocky?”

“Congratulations! I’m glad your first date was…”

“Perfect.” He was enjoying himself at my expense.

“Perfect,” I repeated, sounding pissed off. “Oh, did I tell you that I joined the school newspaper? You know, maybe I could write an article about having the perfect date and interview you and your perfect date since your date was so perfect.” My words got snippier the longer my sentence ran on.

“Do you have any idea how adorable you are right now?” I narrowed my eyes at him. “Those guys are talking about my second date.”

“You’ve already had a second date?”

“Saturday night.”

“Saturday night?” My anger and confusion were about to go through the roof. “I thought Saturday night was your first date.”

“Friday night was my first date.”

I scrunched up my eyebrows, not understanding what he was talking about. “But you were with me all Friday night.”

He leaned in so close our noses were almost touching. His voice was low. “You didn’t think I wanted Brittani to be my first date and kiss, did you? I’ve shared all my firsts with you.” His eyes scanned my face as a shy smile played across his full lips.

Maintaining eye contact, he pushed off of the lockers, turned and then sauntered down the hall without saying another word, leaving me dazed, confused, and breathless. That had to be the sweetest, and hottest, thing any guy had ever said to any girl.





He had the power to fill me with 1000 lifetimes of happiness. He also had the power to bring me to my knees. Most people would jump at the chance for that much happiness, but not me. The more happiness you have, the more devastating the fall is, and there is always a fall, a crash,, or a collision of some kind. With all consuming, earth shattering happiness, there are always casualties, it’s unavoidable.

No, I’ll maintain my subpar happiness. I’ve had a taste of what it feels like when the fall starts. Just a taste, almost destroyed me.

I might not experience 1000 lifetimes of happiness, but I won’t be shattered into a million pieces that I can’t put back together. I’ll maintain subpar because it keeps everything intact, in place, under control.

(Note to self: Eating king size Hershey bar and drinking Diet Pepsi @11:25 pm, not a good idea. Hope what I just wrote makes sense tomorrow when I come down from my sucrose and caffeine (sucraffiene) overdose. Check to see if sucraffiene is an actual word. Once vetted, start to use it, so it will begin to infiltrate into society. Man, I am wired beyond belief.)





Academically, my freshman year had been okay. I ended the year with a B+ average. As usual, I missed my goal, but collected another ribbon for participation. Yay for me. I’m nothing if not tenacious, though, and it was a new school year. I needed to achieve that perfect A status as a sophomore and finally get that trophy.