The Years That Followed

Chapter Four: Dates Are Always Awkward

As was the normal routine of my life I gathered all of my little composure to make it through the week like everything was fine. Because although everything wasn't fine- it was normal. And that was the worst part.

Now I was sitting through probably one of the most boring dinners that I have had the joy to witness. Yep, Noah had actually got things together for this double date that he was so excited about.

Why? Don't ask me- do you think I have any idea what runs through that boy's head? Really?

But here I was- not at Giovanni's but instead at some French restaurant that Kat apparently loved. When I mentioned it to Clark he began to sing its praises too making me wonder what the world has come to where people place anything above pizza.

I stare into my watery soup, mainly filling up on the bread that comes on the side of it. Kat herself seems lovely- just like Noah depicted.

Within half an hour of meeting her, she had told me her entire life story. How she worked as a receptionist for her dad's hotel, about how she loved her volunteer work at the animal shelter, even how cool she found it that we were friends with her favourite band 'Catching Flames.'

If I wasn't already exhausted when I arrived, I was completely drained when the dessert finally came around.

'So Emma, Noah said that you like to run too- have you tried that route round the park by his flat? I did it once but there were so many people outside, with nothing to do but watch me that I just gave up trying again.' Kat spoke, forcing me to look her in the eye. I gave her a tired nod, agreeing with her.

Noah added his input to the conversation with his impersonation of the looks that were often thrown to us when we went on our route, making Kat giggle-which in turn made Noah smile.

They did look together, I can admit that.

The good part of the evening was Kat's chatty demeanour meant there wasn't any space for awkward silence. Instead, Clark- the reserved man that he was- even spoke up a few times and participated in the conversation. Kat complimented Noah's extroverted character- they, at least appeared, like they were on the same wavelength with the same outlook on life.

But as the evening came to a close and me and Clark had gone to bed, my mind was reeling from replaying the dinner over and over. For something that I had found relatively boring at the time, now I was lying in our dark bedroom, my eyes shut but my mind awake I thought about how I used to spend my evenings as the young twenty something that I was compared to everything I did tonight.

We never used to spend our time always at the restaurant. Noah used to come up with exciting new things for us to do. Every so often, I felt like I was living how every story depicted.

One time, before me and Noah were even officially dating- it must have been just before my graduation. He had just come back from filming a project, and in the middle of the night he texts me saying to meet him and the others outside St. Paul's Cathedral. Noah was wide awake from the jet-lag but the rest of the gang were just as sleep deprived as me.

Upon arrival- after a full 15 minutes of debating if I should ignore Noah, I joined up with Emma, Theo, the guys in Theo's band and friend's of friends. We waited together like penguins trying to conserve heat. It was sort of reminiscent of the feeling on bonfire night when it is far too cold to be outside but you find yourself there anyway.

In the freezing cold, Noah stood in front of us- the way only an actor could as he proclaimed a competition.

Like he was giving a performance he exclaimed;

'Tonight is the most important race of your lives. For tonight we finally decided who amongst us is the best Londoner! The aim of the game is to be the first person to come from here, the lovely St Paul's, to the Natural History Museum. I shall call it- the Race down the Thames.' The accompanying hand gestures Noah used were big and loud, flourishing up when he gave a bow at the end of his speech.