The Summer Deal

Thirty one - You've already seen it all

Noah Jordan's POV:

Later that night while everybody ate their dinner around the bonfire, I kept playing with my food, my mind replaying the kiss I shared with Sarah like a broken record player.

Sarah didn't like me. She barely showed any signs of affection or feelings towards anything except horses and her job. Half of the time I think she just tolerates my presence because she doesn't know anybody else here well enough.

I happen to be the most under-appreciated person in her life, so why did she lie to me about Carol and Sonya's presence and kiss me like that?

"... remember that, Noah?"

I snapped out of my daydream and turned to Dennis. "Huh, what?"

Dennis eyed me weirdly. "I was just talking about the time we got caught stealing chalks because we had a habit of eating them on our way home from school. You do... remember that, don't you?"

"Oh," I remembered that. Not all of it but I did. "Yes. I do. We were addicted to it."

Dennis faced the group to continue his story. "Things were so bad that I once licked it straight from a chalkboard, and oh man, the amount of scolding we had received from our fathers was unbearable. My father was ready to sponsor both of us to be homeschooled only to avoid contact with chalks, and Noah's father wanted to ship us both to different boarding schools to get rid of our addictions."

I shoved a mouthful of meatloaf to distract my sudden sullen mood. It tasted like dry ash to me. The topic of my father was very sensitive to me, and hearing Dennis talk about him and our childhood together brought back feelings and memories I had locked away a long time ago. It made me feel nostalgic and almost made me miss my home and family, but then it also made me nauseous and uneasy in my stomach at the same time.

Dennis knew everything. He found it out on his own a couple of months ago when he was searching for me to send his wedding card. I knew he ended up in my old home but won't say anything about what happened or how my father's widow was for my sake.

I didn't realize how lost I was in my dark thoughts until Dennis placed a reassuring hand on my knee and patted it gently while talking to the rest of his friends.

He continued. "We had so much fun together when we were kids. I'm so glad I found you in time, man. And I'm happy that you managed to keep up with our promise no matter what. Just make sure you remember to call me when it's your turn."

"I'm glad that you remembered me and our childhood together but about my turn... that's not happening any time soon," I managed to keep a faint smile on my face as we clink our glasses and accidentally looked at Sarah who was sitting far opposite to me, watching us like a hawk.

Our eyes met for a brief second and she turned her head away to Andrea. Her mood had changed back into a mean, old lady, and she was avoiding me for obvious reasons by sitting far away from me and talking to everybody except me.

I ingested half of the meatloaf in a sour mood and without giving any attention to the conversations going around in the group until Sonya interrupted me.

"... and? How did you two meet, Noah?"

"Meet who?" I asked, uninterested. I just wanted to hit the bed and call it a night. Maybe I'll have another glass of wine first.

"I'm asking how you and Sarah met."

I nearly dropped my spoon. Oh. Right. That. I looked at Sarah who was just as surprised as I was. Say something, she mouthed. What was I supposed to say? That I was fake dating Sarah only because I felt out of place and wanted to stay like that so I brought her with me to make sure of it? The truth was far from it and Sarah had easily caught on to it.