Present Perfect (8 page)

Moving away from my neck, he smiled down at me, and said in a low voice, “Thanks for helping me, Tweet.”

“You’re welcome.” I was so overwhelmed with what had just happened, my voice was almost inaudible.

Noah matched my gaze, and then asked, “You know what they say, don’t you?” I shook my head. “Practice makes perfect. We may need to practice a lot. I’m kind of a slow learner.” He waggled his eyebrows and smirked.

I took in a huge gulp of air. “Do you want to start now?” My voice was so high pitched, it sounded like a dog’s squeak toy.

He dipped down closer to me before pushing away, and vaulting off the bed.

“Can’t right now. I got a dentist appointment. Mom will be picking me up soon.”

I rose up on my elbows, still feeling quite dazed. “Oh…okay.”

I slid both my hands into Noah’s outstretched ones. He pulled me off the bed, and into his chest, gently pinning my arms behind my back.

Looking down at me, smiling, he said in a commanding tone, “Tonight. Seven o’clock. Our spot.”

“Okay, I’ll see you then,” I said, breathlessly.

Taking a couple of steps back, he took his Red Sox cap off, ran his fingers through his hair a couple of times, turned his cap around, and put it back on. We never took our eyes off of each other.

Noah’s Adam’s apple bob up and down a couple of times as he swallowed hard, and said, “Thanks again, Tweet, for helping me out. I’ll see you tonight, okay.”

“Okay…yeah…tonight…see you then.”

I watched as he walked out the room, letting out a deep sigh once his perfect ass had disappeared from view. I needed to get a hold of myself and get Noah out of my system. I won’t risk losing my best friend just because of a stupid girly crush.

The adrenalin was pumping so fast through me after leaving Noah’s house I needed to keep moving, so I hopped on my bike, and went for a long ride. Cycling had always been my stress reliever. Whenever I had a problem or just needed to clear my head, cycling was my therapy. I loved the solitude, the freedom, and the control I felt when I was out for a ride.

When I got home I showered and dressed quickly in my pale green maxi dress and sandals. I put my hair up in a high ponytail and threw on a pair of small silver hoop earrings. I wasn’t trying to dress special. The temperature was still hot in Charleston. I would feel cooler in this dress with my hair up.

After getting dressed, I still had a lot of nervous energy. There was no point eating supper because I felt like I was going to throw up at any minute. My stomach was in a constant state of flip-flopping. Adding food into the mix would have been disastrous.

As I walked into the park, I saw Noah standing at our spot. His back was to me. I could tell he heard me approach, my steps crunching on the gravel that surrounded the picnic area. When he turned around and saw me, his eyes looked as if they had doubled in size and it looked like his mouth formed the word,
‘wow’.
I shyly smiled at him. He looked perfect in his baggy black shorts that hit him just below the knee, showing off his tan muscular calves. His broad chest was covered in a white Nike t-shirt. He had on his black and white Nike shoes, and as usual, his Red Sox cap, turned around backwards.

As he stepped away from the table I couldn’t believe my eyes. Dinner for two had been setup; a red and white checkered tablecloth, paper plates, sodas, and napkins had all been placed on our table, at our spot. In the middle of the table sat a candle in a red glass holder, just like at the pizza place. Noah’s iPod was playing our favorite music.

He was standing with one arm behind his back. As he approached, he brought his arm around, and handed me the most beautiful bouquet of wildflowers I had ever seen. No one had ever given me flowers before.

“These are for you,” he said, smiling at me.

I took the flowers, brought them up to my nose, and inhaled their sweet scent.

Noah stood rocking back and forth on his heels with both hands in his pockets. He was nervous and adorable. “You look really pretty, Tweet.”

My face began to heat up. “Thanks. What is all this?” I was completely overwhelmed that he went to all this trouble for me.

“I wanted to thank you for helping me out. I know it’s a lot to ask.”

I smiled even though I could feel tears forming behind my eyes. I wanted so much for this to be a real date and not just one friend helping out another. A feeling of sadness overtook me as I reminded myself that this was just Noah’s sweet way of thanking me and knowing that tomorrow night another girl would be having a real date with him.

Lightening the mood, he walked over to my side, nudging my arm with his elbow. “Stop standing there being such a girl,” he teased. “It’s just our regular old table. Sit down.”

“Thank you, Noah. This is…it’s…” For the first time in my life I was at a loss for words.

Sitting across from each other at the table, we stayed quiet, looking at each other, and listening to the music. It wasn’t awkward at all. It felt comfortable and natural.

“Can I ask you something?” I said, breaking the silence.

“You can ask me anything, Tweet.”

“Do you think it’s weird for us to be best friends?”

“What do you mean weird?”

Shrugging my shoulders, I said, “Beth thinks it’s weird.”

He reached across the table, took hold of my hand and laced our fingers together.

“It doesn’t feel weird to me. When I’m with you everything feels perfect. I can’t picture anyone else being my best friend and I don’t want to.”

Looking down at our joined hands, my pulse quickened. I had to keep reminding myself that this was not a date, I was not his girlfriend, and would never be.

I cleared my throat and whispered, “I feel the same way.”

A tear rolled down my cheek as I let out a deep sigh. I tried to wipe it away before Noah noticed it, but I wasn’t fast enough.

He brought my hand up to his lips and placed a soft kiss on the palm of it, never taking his eyes off me. “Don’t cry, Tweet.”

There was something in the tone of his voice and the look in his eyes that made me think he wanted to tell me something, but didn’t know how to say it. Noah knew me better than anyone else and could read my thoughts and feelings. No doubt he could tell I was getting all girly and mushy with the dinner, the music, the flowers, and him. He was trying to figure out a way of letting me know, this was just a thank you and not a date, without hurting my feelings.

The sound of a car horn saved Noah from the awkwardness of letting me down and me from any embarrassment. Raising his free hand and pointing his index finger in the air, he said, “I believe our dinner has arrived.”

We had pizza for dinner and breath mints for dessert. Noah thought of everything. Now it was time to practice.

We were both nervous. Noah hit the table a few times like he was playing the drums. He looked like he was trying to decide on something. He stopped drumming and looked at me.

“I guess standing would be the best way to do this,” he said. I nodded my agreement.

We stood, he walked over to me, landing a couple of feet away, directly in front of me. He rolled his shoulders, forwards and backwards a couple of times, stretched his neck from side to side, and then shook his arms out. It looked like he was gearing up to run a track meet. He bent down, rubbing his palms over his shorts a couple of times while exhaling a few deep breaths. Standing back up, he announced, “Ok, here it comes.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to slap a warning label on it.”

“I’m not going to say that tomorrow.” I gave him double thumbs up.

“Sorry. I thought that might have been one of your moves.”

Noah moved in closer to me, leaving very little space between us. Looking into his eyes I could see that the nervousness had somehow already disappeared and had been replaced by a look of excitement. We stared at each other. My heart was beating so loud I was sure he could hear it. Tingles shot through my body. They started at my core and exploded in every direction until I was completely consumed by them.

I felt Noah’s hands cup my face just before his thumb lightly stroked my right cheek, causing a shiver. He smiled down at me when he felt how my body responded to his touch. My breathing had become shallow and I was burning up. If it were not for the beautiful boy standing in front of me, I would have thought I was coming down with the flu.

Light blue eyes gazed at me with intensity; I was completely mesmerized by them. It was as if he were trying to memorize every part of my face. Noah’s gaze lingered on my lips for a while then moved back up to my eyes. His thumb made its way towards my mouth and gently, he ran it over my lips a couple of times before returning it to my cheek.

We both started breathing faster. I swear I could hear the blood pumping through my veins. Parts of my body that I didn’t know existed were vibrating.

Slowly his lips moved closer to mine. Our song, ‘
Everything’,
filled the air. When our lips met it was like a fireworks stand had exploded in me.

At first, his lips were gentle and lightly touched mine. I felt the tug of my bottom lip as he sucked on it slightly. I nearly fainted. My hands reached out grabbing his arms to steady myself. Then I felt the tip of his tongue between my lips waiting for me to make the decision. I willingly parted them. Our tongues met, lightly stroking each other at first.

I had heard about French kissing and thought it sounded disgusting. It wasn’t disgusting
at all
.

Noah tasted so good. He didn’t taste like cherries. He tasted like peppermint. Our tongues started to move faster with more eagerness. I had never felt anything this amazing in my life before.

A slight moan escaped from me as our movements began to slow. Noah pulled away a little bit, our lips still touching. I thought I heard him whisper, “You’re perfect.” I was so discombobulated, that he may not have said a thing.

We stood there, eyes closed, foreheads resting against each other while trying to catch our breath. Noah ran his hands down the length of my arms, clasping our hands together. All sense of time, space, and others disappeared.

After our breathing finally calmed down we opened our eyes, but our foreheads stayed together. Noah glanced at me and whispered, “Wow.”

“Man,” I said, breathlessly. Are you sure you haven’t done this before because you have some pretty awesome moves. Where’d you get moves like that?” I asked.

“Wal-Mart.” A sly grin crept across his face.

The corners of my mouth slowly started moving up to form a smile. “How long did it take you to think that one up?”

“It just came to me actually. I thought it was pretty good.”

After cleaning up, Noah walked me home in a comfortable silence. When we reached my front door we hesitated. It felt strange, like neither one of us knew how to end the night. We were still friends even though that kiss was definitely more than friendly. My feelings were rapidly becoming stronger. I needed to force myself to get past this. He was my best friend and I wasn’t going to do anything to jeopardize that. I had to keep telling myself that nothing could ever happen between us. Besides, he didn’t think of me that way even though that kiss was amazing. Teenage boys would kiss almost any girl, they were so horny.

Finally, I broke the silence. “Well, goodnight. It sure was fun practicing with you. Brittani is a lucky girl.” My face immediately contorted and I regretted the words that came out of my mouth.

“Don’t bring her up, not now.” He looked back and forth from my lips to my eyes. “Thanks for tonight.”

He glanced away for a second, and then looked back at me as a sweet smile spread across his face. “Goodnight, Tweet.”

“Goodnight Noah.”

As I watched him back away and walk down the front steps, tears started to collect in my eyes. I suddenly had this empty feeling. I didn’t want him to leave. I didn’t want these feelings. They were going to ruin everything.

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.”