15| Spill The Tea, Miss Pierce

    I couldn't explain exactly what I was feeling as I woke up the next morning. I had fallen asleep easily last night right when I had finished having a discussion with Coach as to why my running away wasn't okay. But for some reason, I found it hard to stay asleep. I woke up at just past 4 in the morning, although I still felt tired.

    I just couldn't sleep as I recalled what happened last night. My mind annoyingly decided to focus on the thought of Noah.

    He had been so... different last night. Different from what I expected from him, that is. I knew we had actually been trying to get along this week, and it was working, but last night was to a completely different extreme. He listened to me, and he made me smile.

    In what kind of a fucked up alternate universe did Noah Locke manage to make me smile?

    For some reason, the thought of last night made me uncomfortable. Noah and I weren't supposed to like each other. We weren't supposed to listen and talk to each other. We weren't supposed to enjoy each other's company. We were, however, supposed to hate each other. I had gotten used to that fact since we 1st met.

    But the way I felt last night terrified me. The way we laid so closely together, arms almost touching, cold wind blowing against us. The way I could feel Noah's eyes focused on me, listening intently. I didn't want to admit it, but I felt good. I was close to admitting that I almost enjoyed laying next to him.

    And that's why I decided right then and there that it could never happen again.

    Hours dragged on as I laid awake in my bunk until it was finally 8 in the morning. Everyone else was awake and getting ready to head to breakfast. I quickly changed into a pair of shorts and a plan, black t-shirt. As I was pulling my hair up into a high ponytail, I caught a glimpse of Gracie eyeing me questioningly.

    "What?" I asked.

    "Nothing," she said, shrugging. "You look really tired. What happened last night, anyway? You wouldn't tell me when you got back. Will you tell me now?"

    I sighed. "Nothing happened, Gracie. Noah came and found me and I was just being stubborn, so it took awhile for me to agree to come back. Now, can we please just go eat? I'm starving."

    Gracie just nodded, and we left the room and headed to the main cabin.

    I didn't want to tell Gracie about what actually happened, and I definitely didn't want to tell her about my confusing feelings. I hate feelings. They're so useless and invasive. But anyway, I knew that if I told Gracie, she would tease me about actually liking Noah. She would say "I told you so" about us getting along, and then I would feel even more conflicted and be forced to think of him more than I already had been.

    We walked into the main cabin and made our way over to the stack of plates. There was a breakfast bar this morning, kind of like the mediocre ones at hotels. Gracie grabbed a mere bowl of cereal, telling me that she would wait for me at the table. So I was left alone to get my food. I grabbed a banana and placed it on my plate, then feeling a warm hand land on my shoulder.

    My heart raced, and as I turned around, it was exactly who I expected. Noah shot me a small smile. "How you doing, Pierce?" He asked.

    "Fine," I managed to breathe out, turning back to the food and quickly grabbing a bagel and some packaged cream cheese. "None of your concern, Locke, but I'm hungry. Gotta go."

    I quickly excused myself before Noah could muster up a reply. I wanted to avoid him, that was, until the daily activities started back up. I don't think I would be able to be around him normally right now.

    As I took a seat across from Gracie, she was looking at me weirdly. So was Cayden who sat beside her, and Rose, too. "Oh my god, seriously?" I asked. "Can we go 1 minute without any of you looking at me like I have a fucking penis growing from my head?"

    "Sorry," Cayden muttered. "We just couldn't help but notice that awkward encounter... between you and Noah."

    "It wasn't awkward. Just a normal encounter of hatred," I said, peeling open my banana. I wanted to avoid the subject, but judging by their expressions, they weren't going to give up so easily. I groaned. "Okay, can someone just say what you're all thinking?"

Rose sighed. "We all think... that something happened with you and Noah last night—"

"And we think that for many reasons!" Cayden chimed in. "First of all, Noah didn't tell me anything last night. He was happy, but he didn't say anything. Second of all, you didn't tell Gracie anything, and third— you're acting all weird. And that interaction was not even remotely normal."

"Did you two, like... get intimate or something?" Gracie asked, and my eyed widened and mouth gaped.

"Are you seriously asking me that?" I questioned, and she just shrugged. "Oh my god, no! That's so... ugh, no, that didn't happen at all! And it would never happen!"

"Then what did?" Gracie asked. "You tell me everything, Log. Why can't you tell me about this?"

I sighed and set my banana down. "Okay, if I agree to tell you all what happened, will you stop bugging me about it? And will you not interrogate me anymore today?"

"Fine," Gracie sighed. "Just spill!"

"I need to know, Logan. I just need to," Cayden said, sipping his coffee. "Spill the tea, Miss Pierce."

✯ ✯ ✯

    After telling Cayden, Rose, and Gracie everything that happened last night, they completely disregarded their promise to not interrogate me. They pried, and they kept asking questions about the whole thing. So I just told them the truth of how I felt: that I couldn't be friendly with Noah anymore. I didn't want to be, did I?

    Although they tried to talk me down, I convinced them to stop intervening. And now I stood by them as Coach D and Coach Reid started to explain what we were going to be doing today activity-wise. Apparently, the big event was a scavenger hunt. Great.

I had been hoping for some more volleyball, or group activities. But, unfortunately, I was going to have to spend the majority of the day alone with the one person I wanted to avoid the most. This was going to be great.

Coach Reid came around and handed each pair a sheet. It was a list of all of the items we had to find on the scavenger hunt. Basically, the pair to come back with all of the items first would win, but everyone had to find all of the items. And the coaches were timing us, too, which seemed a little pointless. Actually, the entire thing seemed pretty pointless to me.

Coach D blew his whistle, and everyone was off. I turned on my heels, starting towards the edge of the camp and into the forest. There was a small dirt trail that no one had wandered on yet, so I decided it was the best way to start. I wanted to get this scavenger hunt over with, and fast. Not because I wanted to win, but because I wanted to spend as little alone time as possible with Noah.

We walked in silence as I lead the way through the trees, searching desperately for anything on the list. I held the bag we were supposed to put all of the items in on my left arm. Spotting a pine cone, I picked it up and threw it in the bag.

One item down, 9 more to go.

"So do you want to plan out how to find everything?" Noah asked, breaking the terribly awkward silence. I was walking a few steps ahead of him, doing everything in my power to avoid looking at him.

"Nope," I simply said, continuing my search. Noah and I were walking down the trail, headed towards a large lake in Fort Yaron.

"Do you want me to hold the bag?"

"I'm good."

"Can I look at the sheet?"

"Nah."

Suddenly, Noah ran in front of me, stopping me. His hand was placed firmly on my arm, and he quickly retracted it. "Okay. What's going on?" He asked. "Why are you so standoffish?"

I shrugged. "I'm not. I'm just really stoked to find that Y-shaped twig!" I exclaimed.

"Something is definitely going on," Noah said, studying me intently. "Just last night I thought we were really getting somewhere. You opened up to me, I opened up to you. And now you're just putting me off?"

"Maybe I just realized that it shouldn't have happened," I muttered, brushing past him to continue towards the lake. I could hear Noah's footsteps racing to catch up with me.

"Seriously?" Noah said, his tone filled with disbelief. "Are you seriously going to act like us talking last night shouldn't have happened? Logan—"

"You don't know me, Noah. So don't try and change my mind."

Noah's hand caught into my shoulder, and he spun me around to face him. "You're seriously infuriating, you know that? One minute you want to kill me, then you're confiding in me, and now you're back to wanting to kill me?"

"I never stopped wanting to kill you."

Noah looked at me, his face was confused and angry all at once. "What kind of game are you trying to play?" Noah asked me, his jaw clenching.

"I'm not playing a game—"

"Then what the hell are you doing?" Noah asked.

"Nothing!" I exclaimed. "You want an explanation? Here it is! I don't want anything to do with you. I don't like you, and I never will. Us getting along this week? It's all an act, Locke. I still hate you, and I still want to rip your balls off. You're the last person I would want to be friends with."

Noah was still. He didn't move a muscle, although I could sense his irritation with me. Then, instead of yelling at me some more, he just laughed. And now I was confused. But Noah just kept laughing.

"What's so funny?"

He paused his laughter to look at me and shake his head, a stupid smile still plastered on his face. "I was starting to think that maybe, after this week, we could actually get along. After last night I even thought, hey— maybe we could be friends!" Noah exclaimed. "I should have known it was too good to be true. The callous Logan Pierce could never legitimately let someone in and be okay with it."

"What do you mean?" I asked, crossing my arms together.

"You're afraid," Noah said, taking a step towards me. His humorous expression then turned into a cold, angry one. "You're afraid of letting me in. You're afraid that we could actually be getting along instead of hating each other, and you can't stand it, can you?"

No way. No way was he trying to go all psychological on me right now. He had no right.

"You don't know me, Locke," I retorted. "You only know what I told you last night because I was vulnerable and needed someone to talk to. You were my only option, and clearly you're proving to me right now that you don't actually care."

"You make no sense."

"I make no sense?" I scoffed. "You make no sense! You want to kill me, too, and then suddenly you're acting like the good guy. You're not trying to get back at me, you're trying to be friendly, and you're listening to me? You are the confusing one!"

Noah rolled his eyes, and I started to walk again. This time he didn't follow me.

"You know, I tried this week because Cayden told me to. I didn't want to, but I did. And for a minute there, I thought he was right— that we could actually get along. But you proved him completely wrong today, Pierce!" Noah yelled after me. "You really do run away from your problems."

I stopped walking, holding my fists in right balls as I felt my heart rate accelerate. The overwhelming anger inside of me was threatening to spill out, but I didn't dare turn back. So I just kept walking, and again, Noah didn't follow after me. I was grateful for that.

He had thrown Savannah's hateful words back into my face, right after I told him about my sister. I knew that confiding in him was a mistake.

Noah Locke and I were never going to get along. It was all bullshit, and Coach would just have to deal with that. We were hopeless. 2 people who loved nothing more than to hurt each other, and ruin each other's lives. That would never change.

I was right: a stupid week-long bonding camp couldn't change anything between us.

✯ ✯ ✯

Back to square one?? Or worse? You decide.

Dude, I know. I'm mad at myself for making them hate each other again, too. I'm more mad at Logan, but at the same time, Noah was kind of a dick, too. Just hold on, and things will get better for them I PROMISE.

But you can hate me for now.