Noah

I pick up my phone for the tenth time in the space of 5 minutes before slamming it back down onto the counter. I'm twitchy, and I'm jumpy, and I'm irritated. I don't like this, not one bit. I'm gonna go for a run soon.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Will asks, looking up at me from the TV. "You've been acting weird all day."

"I'm fine." I practically bark at him. He raises an eyebrow at me, and I sigh and rake both hands through my hair. Why is this annoying me so much?

"I'm going out for a run. Zach might show up." I snap at Will before hauling the door open and getting the hell out of my dorm.

She hasn't replied to my text, and I have no idea why. She skipped English Lit class yesterday, she was weird as shit when I ran into her outside Symposium, but I was with Will to be fair, so I'll let that one slide. But, what the hell happened? I can't wrap my head around it. Everything was fine, we were making out, she let me carry her up the stairs and lay her down on her bed... I honestly have no idea what went wrong. 

Okay, so she's probably feeling angry with herself for giving into the sexual pull between us again, but it's fine. I've been fine about it. There's no need for her to be ghosting me right now, and I know she's ghosting me because I checked. She opened my text like 5 minutes after I sent it, and she hasn't replied. Should I text her again? Am I above a double-text? Jesus Christ, why do I even care? What the hell is happening to me!?

I'm barely 10 feet down the street when I spot Zach. I slow down to a walk when I approach him. 

"Did you forget I was coming over?" He asks me, puzzled. 

"No, I'll be quick." I inform him. "Will's upstairs."

"Okay... Everything all right?" He asks, he can probably see the irritation on my face. He knows me far too well. 

"I'm fine, it's just..." I trail off, unsure what I was even about to say. 

"Kim told me Jamie drove to New York yesterday to visit her friend." Zach informs me, effectively seizing my full attention. She's in the City?! "That have anything to do with your frown lines?"

"What? Why would she drive to New York? Has she been there before? She didn't mention that on Sunday night." I can't make sense of this. 

"She didn't tell you when you were over there?" Zach smirks at me, "She knows you're a New Yorker, right? Weird that she didn't mention it... Unless..."

"What?" I snap at him. I already know where this is going, and I'm afraid he's right. 

"She drove to the City, spur of the moment, because she wanted to see her friend... After spending Sunday night with you." He raises his eyebrows at me and folds his arms across his chest. "Something happened again, didn't it?"

I link my hands together and place them on top of my head, slowly exhaling and looking up at the sky. What the hell is going on in Jamie's head right now? She didn't need to leave town to see her friend because of what happened (or almost happened) with me... did she?

"Hello? Earth to Noah?" Zach waves a hand in front of my face and I look at him. "What happened when you went over to her house? Did you finally fuck her?"

"No." I sigh and bring my hands down, running them over my face. "We almost did though. She told me she had homework though, pretty much kicked me out." 

Zach bursts out laughing and I roll my eyes at him. I wait for him to compose himself. 

"What the hell is this girl doing to you, dude?" He asks me through his laughter. 

"Fuck off." I glare at him. "You're one to talk, what about Kim? I've never known you to work so hard on one girl." 

"Have you seen Kim?" Zach finally manages to stop laughing, he's still smiling though. "She's worth the work. You totally like Jamie though, don't you?"

"Zach, don't." I snarl.

"Hey, we're all friends here. I won't tell a soul, I swear." He holds his hands up in mock surrender, and I completely ignore him and run past him. I hear him call "Don't take too long!" after me as I run off. I'll take as long as I damn well please. 

By the time I arrive back in the dorm, I've decided that I am gonna text Jamie again. I can't explain it, I just feel badly. If she really did wanna get the hell out of dodge for a night after we almost, well, I feel a little responsible. And she missed classes. If this is on account of what happened with me, I need to make amends. I need to check that she's okay at the very least. I don't know why exactly, I just want to. So I text her again. 

Me, 19:57pm: Hey, so, should we talk about the other night? We don't need to. We can if you want though. Just wanna make sure we're cool.

Not a masterpiece, but it'll do. I shower, and by the time I'm back in my room getting dressed, she's replied. So soon? I wasn't expecting that. I practically drop my phone as I slide her message open.

Jamie, 20:13pm: We don't need to talk about it. Sorry I didn't reply sooner, I've been busy.

Me, 20:16pm: Busy doing homework?

Shit, I hope she doesn't take that the wrong way. I want her to tell me about New York though. I don't know why. My phone buzzes almost immediately.

Jamie, 20:16pm: I was in NYC actually. I met Sarah. She's my friend Erin's roommate.

This time, I do drop my phone. Holy fuck.

I dart through to the sitting room, where Zach and Will are watching some show about gladiators and drinking beer.

"Zach, a word." I command, before heading back into my room. Seconds later, he joins me.

"Have you talked to Sarah lately?" I ask, my tone clipped. He knows I'm on edge.

"Um, I called her yesterday, she kinda blew me off though, why?" Zach replies.

"Has she said anything to you about Jamie?" I ask, deadpan.

"What? No? Why would she?" Zach's confused.

"Jamie just told me that Sarah is her friend Erin's roommate. Jamie fucking met Sarah last night! She spent the night in her fucking dorm room!" As I say the words, the reality of the situation sinks in more. I can't believe this, and it's bad. God, it's bad. Sarah knows so much about me.

"You're fucking kidding!? That is hilarious!" Zach looks delighted, I don't share his enthusiasm at all. "Did Sarah tell her about you? Jesus, she could have told her anything! She could have told her..."

Suddenly, Zach stops smiling. His face totally falls as he realises that Sarah could have told Jamie stuff about him too.

"The sharing game." I finish his thought for him.

"Fuck." He whispers, and his eyes are frantic now. "I don't want Kim finding out about that. Or anyone else. Fuck!"

"Yeah. This isn't good, Zach." I say as he pulls his phone out of his phone and dials someone, presumably Sarah.

"You met Jamie Hawkins last night? Your roommate is her friend? So do you know..." He pauses and listens intently.

"Yes, she's the girl I've been telling you about. Noah's North Bridge girl." I glare at him, because he's been talking to Sarah about me. Dick.

"So did you tell her..." Another pause. "Fuck. Yeah." He looks up at me then hands his phone to me. "She wants to talk to you."

I take the phone from him and sit down on my bed. "Sarah."

"Well hi there, Hot Asshole." I freeze. How much did she and Jamie talk about me!?

"Sarah, this isn't funny. What did you tell her?" I demand.

"Nothing she didn't already know. You've been through your share of girls, you've never dated, nothing surprised her."

"Okay. So... What did she say to you?" I'm afraid to ask, because I don't wanna seem overly interested. But fuck it, I am.

"Noah, it's none of your business. And believe it or not, we didn't spend the entire night chatting about you. Her life doesn't revolve around you."

"I know that." I hiss into the phone. "You shouldn't have talked to her about me at all."

"Noah, grow up. She told Erin about how your roommate is her ex boyfriend or something, I figured out she was talking about you. What was I supposed to do? Pretend like I had no idea who you were? Get a grip."

She has a point. "Fine, but I don't like this."

"Why not? Because you like her?" Sarah sounds happy about this.

"No. Because I don't like knowing that some girl I almost fucked was talking to my friend about me."

"You almost fucked her?!" Sarah sounds shocked. Shit.

"Um...no. Well, yeah. She didn't mention that?"

Sarah laughs. "I'm totally fucking with you, she did mention it."

"Sarah!" She can be so annoying. I don't know why I tolerate her. "Okay, so did you tell her about..."

"About?" She prompts.

"You and me...you know."

"Jesus, no. She does not need to know that we lost our virginities together. Repressed memory, my friend."

Thank fuck. "Okay good, and don't tell that girl Erin either. I don't want it getting back to Jamie."

"Noah, like I said, we have better things to talk about than you."

"Okay." I hold the phone out to Zach, but I can hear Sarah talking, so I raise it back up to my ear. "What?"

"How are you? We haven't talked much since school started. You liking North Bridge?"

"I don't have time to chat. Here's Zach." I shove the phone back into Zach's hand.

"Hey, yeah I know, he's on edge because he likes her." Zach says into the phone, and I glare at him. "Yeah, I'll tell him. Talk to you later."

"Sarah says you should get over yourself and take Jamie to the movies or something." Zach says to me as he ends the call.

This angers me. I'm on edge about all of this shit enough as it is.

"Zach, would you fucking stop!? I do not fucking like her! She's hot, I want to fuck her, that's it!" I'm shouting at him, but he's not phased.

"So prove it. Fuck her." Zach says, perfectly even.

"I would if I fucking could! She blew me off the other night! Or I would have done it then!" I pick up my phone and open my chat with Jamie.

Me, 20:29pm: I'm coming over.

I march past Zach out of my bedroom door. I don't even know if she's at home. Whatever, she'll tell me if she isn't, then I'll abandon this plan. Right now, it's happening.

"Where are you going?" Zach asks, following me into the kitchen.

I ignore Will as he glances up at us from where he's sitting watching TV. He looks curious. I don't care. He can make his own conclusions about what I'm about to say next. Everyone else seems to have convinced themselves that I like her, I should really stop caring about what any of these dicks think, and just do what I wanna do.

"I'm going to fuck her." I growl at him, before leaving the dorm and slamming the front door behind me.