Undeclared(21)

When I get to boot camp they tell me the Marines are a branch of the Navy. The Navy, Grace. The Marine recruiter must have noted that I had an aversion to water, because every punishment I ever received was water-related.

The moral of this story is that I can’t go around telling people my greatest fear, because someone will use it against me. It ain’t water anymore.

~Noah


Grace

A soft knock on my bedroom door woke me up the next morning. I sat up, disoriented. The sun was filtering through the sides of my curtains. I grabbed for my phone, but I had forgotten to plug it in last night. The dark screen stared up at me mockingly. It was dead. Crap. What time was it?

I scrambled out of bed and opened the door to find Lana standing with her hand raised.

“Knock, knock,” She lowered her hand. Her expression was unreadable and that was sufficient to alert me that something was wrong.

“What time is it?” I looked at her bare wrist. “Why don’t we wear watches?”

“Because we have phones?”

“My phone is dead! I’m supposed to meet Noah for breakfast at 9 a.m.”

I heard a cough from behind Lana. Noah was standing in our living room, waving to me. He was dressed in jeans and another dark T-shirt. Sunglasses hung from his collar. He wore a watch, only I couldn’t tell the time from here. I smiled weakly, gave him a half-wave. I grabbed Lana’s arm and dragged her into my room.

“How long has he been here?” I asked, running to the bathroom attached to my bedroom.

“He just got here,” Lana said.

“My God, what should I wear? Do I have time to shower? How could I have overslept?”

“Yes, take a shower, but don’t wash your hair. We’ll put it up. It kind of looks like sexy bedhead.”

I screamed a little when I looked at myself in the mirror. I had a pair of boxers on and one of Josh’s old shirts. My hair was matted on one side and stuck up about four inches from the top of my head. I couldn’t believe Noah saw me like this.

“Go out there and tell him I’m sick,” I instructed Lana as I turned on the shower and waited for the hot water to climb four stories from the basement.

“Sick with what?”

“Sick with bad hair.” I attacked my hair with a brush. Sexy bedhead, my ass. I looked like a drunken housewife. I only lacked the raccoon eyes.

“While you and I may think that’s an illness worth staying in bed for, my guess is Mr. Hard Body out there isn’t going to fall for that.”

“Pick something out for me to wear and go stall him.”

“Are you two dating now?” Lana called as I jumped in the shower. I washed all my parts in the quickest shower known to womankind. I tried to keep my hair from getting wet, but the ends were dampened. After toweling off, I pulled my now-combed hair into a low ponytail.

“No. We’re ‘friends.’” I curled my fingers into air quotes.

“Ugh, the worst.” Lana laid some clothes on the bed and went out to entertain Noah.

I grabbed some lip gloss and mascara and headed for the bedroom to see what Lana had chosen for me. On the bed were the shortest shorts I had ever seen. I swear she hides random outfits in her closet that she trots out right when I can’t refuse to wear them. I pulled on the bright blue shorts and a racerback bra lying next to the shorts. A white floral racerback tank completed the outfit. It was dressier than I would ordinarily wear, but the loose fit of the tank made up for the brevity of the shorts.

Ten minutes after jumping out of bed, I walked out of the bedroom. Lana was ensconced on the sofa and Noah was in my chair. She was full of smiles, but her eyes signaled to me that we were going to have a long talk about Noah. If only I had answers for whatever questions she’d have.

“Sorry about that, but I’m ready now,” I announced, double-checking to see if I had a credit card, my school ID, and keys in my bag. My phone was charging on my nightstand. It was at 5% when I left the bedroom.

Noah stood up and looked me up and down. He opened his mouth and then closed it. His lips curved up slightly at the ends and this time the smile, albeit small, was real, all the way from his mouth to his eyes, unlike last night. “You have some sandals or something?”

I looked down to see my feet were bare. I turned around and ran back to my room, returning momentarily, properly shod. I fiddled with my bag a little to hide my embarrassment. Could I never catch a break around this guy?

Noah turned to Lana and held out his hand. “Great to meet you finally, Lana.”

“I’ll see you around, I’m sure,” Lana shook his hand and grinned at me. Apparently it had taken Noah no time at all to charm Lana. I was right to be wary. Lana liked to play overprotective mother hen, although the kind that finds hookups for her charges, not the kind that separates the girl chicks from the boy chicks. That he was able to make her so at ease in less than ten minutes told me I had almost no chance at keeping a barrier between us.