Page 21 of Torn Mate
Ada
The day had come:Noah’s birthday dinner. I didn’t go to school today, I took the day off to plan. You know, pick the perfect outfit and how to do my hair and makeup, the normal stuff girls did to get ready. Only, I had a heap more time to do it.
Destiny had me on Facetime, trying to show me a wing liner or something called that, but I couldn’t pull that off. My eyes just looked like I had been punched in the face. Lexi was good at this, I should have asked her. Her eyeliner always looked awesome. But I just had to suck it up, wash it all off, and start again. And eyeliner was hard to get off. Thankfully, I had heaps of time to get ready.
I was so nervous, but this wasn’t a date. I had exchanged a couple of messages with Noah since swapping numbers, and he had sent a message that he was going to drive me to dinner himself which was a slight change of plan, but I felt better not being stuck in a car with his family. Did they even have a car big enough? He had four dads. When I heard the knock at the front door, I wasn’t ready. I only had all day and I wasn’t ready. How did that even happen?
Okay, so I might have accidentally binge-watchedCold Case Files. Even though I had watched them all and knew the answers… I was still hooked.
“Coming,” I called out. He would hear me. He had superpower hearing and stuff. I quickly put the blue denim jacket on over my pink dress. It had a trim of lace at the hem. It was really pretty, but not over the top. Destiny had told me to get it from her room, and it was perfect.
I grabbed my purse and my phone and ran to the door. My parents knew I was going out for dinner and to expect me late. They hadn’t gotten home from work yet, they were going to get pizza for dinner from Huxley’s shop. I got to the front door and took a deep breath, my heart racing.This isn’t a date, I thought to myself, but then why was I so nervous? Because I was meeting his family? Because I do like him, and I didn’t want them to think I was too old and nerdy for him.
I opened the door and looked over to him. My heart skipped a beat. He stood there wearing a nice button-down blue shirt that made his eyes pop and some dark slacks. He was so handsome, holy crap. The smile on his face had me melting on the spot.
“You look, wow. Like, Ada…” His hands slipped from his pockets and he gestured to me. I blushed at his words, my foot doing some weird thing, and I held onto my purse. “You are gorgeous.”
Well, that had me all hot and flustered. I needed to fan myself… all over. Especially under my dress. I looked over to the black Jeep Wrangler in the driveway.
“Oh, shit.” I ran back into my room, grabbing the birthday gift I had bought for him. I didn’t have a lot to spend so I kind of half crafted it a little. I ran back to where he was standing in the exact same spot.
“Happy birthday.” I wanted to face palm because I didn’t say that before when I opened the door. He took the card and little homemade box from me. His smile had me grinning ear to ear as he read the card.
When he opened the box, I held my breath. I hoped he liked it. It wasn’t much, but I just didn’t know what he wanted. He did say at lunch yesterday he really wished for a Jeep and that was the only thing I could come up with when I ran down to the shop to get him something.
“Oh my gosh,” he started to laugh, the rumble of it deep in his chest. I wanted to put my hand there and feel it. He pulled out a tiny toy Jeep Wrangler. It wasn’t black like he had said he wanted, so I used black nail polish and painted it last night. Then he pulled out a keychain. I thought it might be good if his parents did buy him a car. He turned it in his hand and burst out in the biggest laugh.
That laugh was worth it. It was a fluffy gray wolf’s head and it had a pink ball in its mouth. I had sewn them together so it looked like him when he shifted for me and I threw the ball to him. It wasn’t a pink ball I threw him then, but it was the only sized felt ball I could find in my craft supplies that would work with it.
“This, you really gave me the best gift.” He moved in and wrapped his arms around me in a huge bear hug. He smelled amazing, warm, and I felt so small and protected in his arms.
“Well, not the best. You got your real Jeep.” I pointed to the black one parked in my driveway. I bet he was happy that they gave him his dream car.
He shook his head. “No, really, this. This has to be my favorite gift.” I think my cheeks would be hurting by the end of the night if he kept these compliments up. I wasn’t used to them.
The driveto Port Angeles was filled with so much talking. It was different when we were just together and the rest of the Kiba boys weren’t around us. It was like Noah relaxed more and it helped ease my nerves. We had been talking aboutTeen Wolf. It was nice having someone to talk to about it.
“I think Stiles is the best character inTeen Wolf, hands down,” Noah said, laughing at me when I told him that I totally ship Derek and Stiles. Like, how perfect would they be. But I agreed, I felt like Stiles was the main star of that show.
“Derek reminds me of Saint, I think that’s why I don’t like him as much,” Noah teased. And I kind of agreed. He did have similar traits—that intense staring thing with the unreadable face was one of them. Whereas Noah was a little more Stiles… Oh, better change the subject.
“So, you’re a gamer?” I asked. I had heard him and Luca talk about playing some COD after school, so I googled it. It wasn’t fishing for cod like a fish, it wasCall of Duty,one of those gun games.
“Yeah, I like a bunch of different ones. I play a lot of COD and Fortnite. I want to be a game designer; I’ve been trying to work out how to do that without physically going to college. I can do an online computer science course and I can work my way from there. But yeah, basically I’m a computer nerd who likes to game.”
I smiled and patted his hand that rested on his knee. “I’m a big nerd too.”
When we gotto the restaurant, Noah came around and opened my door for me. He held out his hand and helped me down to the sidewalk. I smoothed out my dress where it had crumpled a little on the drive. I could feel the butterflies in my belly.
“I think they’re all in there waiting for us, are you ready?” he asked, his elbow held out for me. He was so much different than at school. Hell, so much different. I smiled and held onto the crook of his elbow. I needed his strength to go in there. Because, was I ready?Hell no.I wished this was just a date now, just the two of us.
Did I want to turn around and go home?Hell yes. I was freaking out meeting his parents. I had kinda already met his mom, but not his dads and grandparents. This was making the butterflies in my stomach a permanent thing. I didn’t know how I was going to eat with them messing with my nerves. I didn’t want to say something stupid in front of them and embarrass myself, or Noah, on his birthday.
“It will be fine, Ada. They’re excited to meet you.” He patted my hand with his larger one.
Yeah, that wasn’t making this any better. They were probably expecting a sixteen-year-old girl. I was a fumbling eighteen year old and way out of my comfort zone.
