Page 145 of Echoes of Us

He glanced at me, then back down at his phone. “Do you want to know something embarrassing?”

I dipped my head.

He stopped the song. “You know when I went to your dorm the first time you had me over?”

“Yeah.”

“That day, I realized how much I liked you,” he said with a shy smile.

My heart bounced to my throat at his words. Had that been it?

“I told Holly about it afterward and showed her this song. I told her that’s how you made me feel. It’s called ‘Can’t Fight This Feeling.’ Have you heard of it?”

“No.”

He pressed play again, and the song resumed. Noah started singing and I smiled. I had never heard Noah sing without joking. He had a really nice voice. That same shy smile on his face made him look incredibly handsome.

I listened to the words he sang, smiling at them in the context of us. As the song progressed, my smile faded bit by bit, and my heart clenched. It wasn’t just about the guy realizing he had feelings for someone—it was deeper than that. It was about love giving him a reason to change. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Did he actually mean this?

He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. He smiled, the song picking up its pace, sounding brighter. I was swept away by the words. Noah started walking over to me, increasing the drama of his performance, trying to lighten the mood, but I couldn’t look away. He reached me, dancing to the rhythm, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

His hands curled on my shirt before his smile brightened playfully. “Atty, I can’t fight this feeling anymore,” he finished, chuckling as he did, his nose scrunching.

I was blown away. He had never made my heart beat like this before. This side of him, this incredibly honest side, was perfect. It was about me, how he felt about me. I was so fucking in love with him.

“Noah,” I let out.

He chuckled again. “What? Was that the cringiest thing you’ve ever witnessed? Holly still gives me crap about this song.” He seemed embarrassed.

“Not at all.” I touched his face. “That’s how you felt about me?”

“Feel, I guess. I think you’ll always be a candle in the window on a cold, dark winter’s night for me,” Noah said with a side smile.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” I asked.

He shrugged.

“I think…” I started, and he waited for me to go on. “I think you were love at first sight for me, Noah. You should have said something. I always wanted to be with you.”

His smile slipped too. “I thought you wanted to hook up until that day. I kind of put two and two together with the way you looked at me and it freaked me out. You’re like, perfect. I didn’t think this would work out.”

“I love you.” I leaned closer, pressing my lips to his.

His hands went into my hair and held me close. “I love you, too, Atty. My heart hurts when I’m with you, all the time,” he said close to my lips.

I wrapped my arms around his waist and hugged him. He was so close. Our eyes locked and I drowned in him.

“Do you think it’s fate? You and me? It feels like that,” he whispered.

“It does feel like that,” I whispered back and saw the corners of his lips tug upwards.

“Sometimes, I feel like the universe sent you to me, so you could fix everything, to balance out all the shitty karma.”

That hurt to hear.

“Noah—”

“You know what I’m going to do?” He took a deep breath and shifted back just a bit, trying to move past what he had just said.

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