Grace Tucker

Next October

Jake

We made our way back into my dorm room to get ready for the party when we were finished with dinner. Noelle looked remarkably awake for somebody who’d woken up in Austria, asking me if I’d been in pretty much every campus building that we passed.“So, what do people wear to these things?” she asked as we traipsed down the hallway to my door. I twisted the handle, letting us both inside. “Shouldn’t you lock that?”She noticed literally everything. “Nobody does,” I said with a shrug, flipping on the lights. Dante wasn’t home, but it looked like he’d stopped back while we were out—one of his dresser drawers was wide open, his backpack was missing, and the case of beer tucked next to the mini fridge was nowhere to be seen.Noelle let my explanation about the lock slide, wandering into the room and planting her hands on her hips as she surveyed her bags. I walked around her, sliding the tripping hazard (also known as her boot bag) safely under my desk before flopping back on my bed.“But seriously,” she said, staring at one of her duffels with narrowed eyes. “What do people wear? All I have is ski clothes.”“Uh…” I said. I was pretty sure people wore a lot of black. But honestly, she could show up in that exact sweatshirt and she’d still look great. “Whatever you want?”Noelle snickered, glancing up at me out of the corner of her eye. “Never mind,” she said. “I’ll text Olivia.”Saved by the bell, again. “That sounds like a good idea.”As I lounged on my bed—in a few minutes, maybe I’d throw on real pants instead of the sweatpants I grabbed after practice—Noelle took a seat on my desk chair and kicked her legs up next to me. She was concentrating hard on her phone, eyebrows furrowed as she typed.I nudged her foot with mine. She rewarded me with a quick smile.“What time do we leave?” she asked. She spun around in the desk chair, reaching down to unzip one of her bags and take a picture of the contents.This was going to be an amusing process.“Whenever,” I said. “The guys who live there are just hanging out.” People would probably come and go for the next few hours. It was a pretty standard Thursday night pregame.Noelle pulled out a few pieces of clothing, draping them over the top of the bag to send Olivia a better view. Then she stood up, paced across the room to her other bag, and dug around until she located a pair of jeans.I chuckled as she snapped yet another picture. She was looking between the phone and the pieces of clothing in her hands skeptically, like she didn’t quite believe whatever Olivia was telling her. She texted furiously for a moment before finally clicking off the phone.“Okay.” She tossed the phone onto the bed next to me, holding a pile of clothing in her hands. She bent down to pull out a toiletry bag. “I’m going to get ready in the bathroom.”“It’s like three doors down to the left,” I told her. “Don’t get lost.”She gave me an enormous eye roll. “If I’m not back in fifteen minutes, send the search party.”I laughed, still sprawled across the bed, as she slipped out the door.I flicked through my phone for a few minutes before hauling myself to my feet. My shoulder complained as I pushed myself upright, courtesy of a check into the boards at practice. I was probably going to end up with a bruise.I rolled it out as I puttered across my room to grab some sort of presentable clothing. Dante and I hadn’t thought to bring a mirror, so my hair was going to have to be good enough.As I was attempting to restore some sense of order to the room—boot bag safely out of the way, one duffel on top of the desk, the other right beside it—Noelle stepped back inside.“Ready whenever you are,” she announced.I turned around, and holy shit.Somehow, despite claiming that she had nothing to wear in all of her ski bags, she’d managed to pull out a top that hugged all of her curves and left a sliver of golden skin bare above the waistline of her jeans. Her hair was tousled in loose waves like she’d tumbled out of bed in the best way.Unfortunately for her curiosity, I didn’t think I was going to notice what another girl was wearing ever again.A slow smile grew on her lips, like she knew exactly what I was thinking.Knowing Noelle, she probably did.“Are you sure you still want to go?” I asked. There were a few other ways we could spend the evening that were looking increasingly appealing.Her smile grew wider. “Yes.”“Damn it,” I said, taking a step across the room. “In that case, let’s do this.”She just laughed, grabbing a bag off of my desk chair and tossing it over her shoulder as we ventured back out into the world.It was kind of crazy how easy it felt, just having her in my space. If you’d told me that this was what the first visit was going to look like after the kind of fall we’d had so far—her bouncing from training camp to training camp all over the damn world, and me attempting to survive college hockey—I probably wouldn’t have believed it.Although maybe I should have. We’d always fit together a little bit too naturally.Now, I just got to enjoy it.Noelle reached out and grabbed my hand as we stepped out onto the sidewalk, like we’d done this a hundred times before. “Do you know everyone who’s going to be there?” she asked.I glanced down at her, picking up on the slightest hint of nerves lurking underneath her words. So I laid out all the information. “We’re going to Bradham’s place—he’s a sophomore on the basketball team.”Noelle nodded.“His roommates are McHale, who’s on my team, and then this other guy named Rivera who’s not usually around. You met Dante—he and a few of the other first years on the basketball team will definitely be there. And then pretty sure Beckett is coming. I’ve mentioned him before. He’ll bring his girlfriend, Avery.”“Am I going to learn anyone’s first name other than Avery and Dante?” she asked sarcastically.I chuckled. “Probably not unless you ask.”“Do you know their first names?”I thought about that one for a second. For the hockey team, yes. The basketball team, it was a tossup. “Some of them.”She was definitely rolling her eyes at me now. I squeezed her hand.“Greet everyone like I’m in the locker room. Got it,” she said.I grinned out at the dark street. “You’ll fit right in.”The apartment we were going to was just off campus, so it wasn’t long before we were walking back indoors. The music got louder as we walked down the hallway, several apartments having the exact same idea as us.I opened the door to typical Thursday night chaos. Half of this group was pregaming before going out to the bars, and another quarter would probably end up playing video games until three a.m. unless some of the girls convinced them otherwise. Dante was sprawled across the couch next to Sophie, the girl he’d been hanging out with, drink in hand and gesticulating wildly as he told some sort of story. McHale spotted Noelle and me as soon as we walked in, throwing a hand in the air like he’d been waiting months for this moment.“Halifax!” he bellowed, weaving across the room. At least ten heads swiveled in our direction, and most of them weren’t looking at me.Noelle started laughing under her breath. “You’re popular,” she said.“And the ski racer!”“Nope, you’re popular,” I corrected.McHale reached us, slapping my hand in a high five. “Glad you made it,” he said to me. Then he turned to Noelle. “I’m David, nice to meet you.”She grinned. “Hey, I’m Noelle.” Then, raising her eyebrows at me, she continued, “Somebody only told me last names, so thanks for the introduction, David.”He snickered.Yep—there she was.“This is McHale,” I said helpfully.“We’ve heard your name quite a few times,” he said to Noelle, shooting me a sly smile.Her lips tugged up at the corners, subtle enough that she could plausibly deny it. She bumped my shoulder with her own. “Only good things, I’m sure.”“Only the best,” he agreed. “I have plenty of stories for you later.”“Uh oh,” I groaned, watching out of the corner of my eye as Noelle’s smile grew even further.McHale smirked. “In the meantime, come on in. There are drinks and stuff in the kitchen.”Noelle shot a quick glance at me. “Perfect,” she said. We followed McHale deeper into the room.McHale wasn’t the only one eager to introduce himself to my—apparently—mythical girlfriend (those were Beckett’s words, not mine). The next thirty minutes, at least, were a whirlwind of introductions and jokes at my expense.I stayed close at first, but it was very quickly clear that she could hold her own. She volleyed jabs with Dante like she’d known him for much longer than five hours, managed to get a full rundown of who was who from one of the girls who lived on my hall, and coerced McHale to tell her not two, but three stories of all the times I’d allegedly changed the subject to talk about her.There was some healthy exaggeration involved, but they were all at least partially true.I’d do it again.A couple of hours and a few drinks later, we were clustered around the table with Beckett and Avery while Beckett tried to watch the Eagles game on TV.“You do realize you’re in Boston,” McHale deadpanned, walking by.Beckett flipped him off, glaring at the screen as the defense turned over the ball.Avery glanced up from her conversation with Noelle to roll her eyes. “Don’t mess with this boy and his ball.”Noelle laughed, reaching for her drink. “This is empty,” she said, sounding surprised as she picked up the can. She tapped it against the table once, rolling her head toward me. “Should we stay for one more?”I mock-sighed, but I couldn’t hide the grin on my face. “You said that an hour ago.”Noelle gave me a challenging look as Avery looked around her and said, “Oh, come on Jake. You guys have to stay!” She and Noelle tapped their cans together in a “cheers."“Yeah, Jake, stay!” Dante mimicked from somewhere across the room, joining in on the fun.I rolled my eyes at everyone’s antics, pushing off the couch that I’d been leaning against. Noelle grinned at me, sensing she’d won.I let her. How could I not?“Come on,” I said.Triumphantly, she set her empty can down on the table before pushing herself upright. I took half a step toward her instinctively as she wobbled, but her eyes were steady and bright. She shot me a self-satisfied little smile. Convinced that she was in control of her own limbs, I took off toward the kitchen and let Beckett’s knowing eyes roll off my back behind me.The party was in full swing around us, an old Chainsmokers song blasting through the speaker in the corner and my teammates scattered around in various conversations and games. I glanced back over my shoulder to make sure Noelle was still behind me as we wove through the room. She was—catching my gaze, she broke into a skip and practically twirled past me through the kitchen door.I cracked a smile. I didn’t know that it was possible to have another favorite version of Noelle, but this playful, walls down version was quickly becoming one of them. It was the version that she didn’t usually share.I followed her through the doorway into the relative calm of McHale’s kitchen. Out of nowhere, she pivoted, whirling on her heel to stop directly in front of me.I reached out an arm to catch her, scanning her face. But she was still open, still smiling. Her cheeks were flushed from the heat of the room and the alcohol, and somehow that was even more devastating than usual.She reached up and planted a warm hand on my cheek, rising on her tiptoes in her best attempt at standing face to face.I raised an amused eyebrow at the sudden proximity. “Oh, hey,” I said, waiting to see where she was going with this.She tipped her head at me in mock seriousness, a twinkle in her hazel eyes. They looked almost golden in this light. “Checking in,” she said. “Are you having fun?”I almost laughed—that was supposed to be my line, and here she was trying it on for size. Tipsy, but still herself. “I am having fun,” I answered just as seriously.Her eyes softened just a hair as she leaned closer. “I like meeting your friends,” she said.I wrapped an arm around her waist a little bit more securely, brushing the bare skin at her hip that I couldn’t stop thinking about. “Oh yeah?” I said.“Yeah.” With a little smile that was way too adorable for anyone’s good, she twisted her fingers into my hair and sent a jolt of electricity down my spine. “I also like you.”Jesus, this girl was going to kill me.But I couldn’t let her off that easily. “I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” I chuckled.She grinned. “Don’t get used to it.”At this rate, I was never getting used to her. “I’ll remember that the next time you say you love me.”That elicited a full, bubbling laugh. She leaned back into my arms, finally coming down from her toes. “I do, you know,” she said.There was that warm spark again. It still hit every time she said it.“I figured.” I reached for the hand that wasn’t tangled in my hair and twisted our fingers together at her hip. “I love you, too.”Her eyes glowed, letting the words land without hesitation. Another thing I was never going to get used to.I would have kissed her or taken her home right then and there—forget the rest of the party—but McHale breezed through the door. “Gross,” he called over his shoulder as he strolled to the cooler and pulled it open. Noelle snickered. “Do you guys want something?” he said.I pulled Noelle into my side, breaking eye contact but unwilling to let her go too far. She nestled in.McHale had a shit-eating grin stretched across his face as he waited for my answer.I laughed. “Toss me a beer and a seltzer.”Noelle twisted in my arms so she could look up at me indignantly. “Did you just assume I want a seltzer?”McHale tossed a can across the room. I reached out my other hand and snagged it.“You can choose which one you want,” I said to Noelle, calling her bluff. She’d taken a sip of my beer hours ago and promptly decided to get something else.She reached around me, plucking the seltzer out of my hand. “No, I want this.”Called it. I laughed again, catching the beer that McHale tossed my way next.“You picked the wrong sport,” Noelle informed me, looking at my outstretched hand with a raised eyebrow. She cracked open her drink.“I did?” I said.McHale wasn’t even trying to hide his laughter as he grabbed his own beer out of the cooler and shut the lid.“You should be a baseball player with a catch like that.”“She’s right. You go do that and leave some ice time for the rest of us,” McHale piped in.Noelle waved a hand. “See?”She’d recruited half the party to her side of various arguments tonight. She was mostly using her talents for good, but I knew I didn’t stand a chance.“I’m going to take that as a compliment,” I told both of them, popping the top of my own drink.We made it out of the kitchen in one piece and rejoined the party, for better or for worse. Better, because my entire fucking team was in a great mood tonight, and it was endlessly entertaining to watch them line up for a chance to talk to my girlfriend. Worse, because for a minute there I thought we could leave.And now that the thought was in my head, I couldn’t shake it.Noelle laughed beside me at something one of the freshman basketball players was saying, taking a sip of her drink. Feeling my gaze, she looked up at me and winked.
She was making this impossible.I loved her so much.Some time after midnight, we reached the point of the party where somebody decided Taylor Swift karaoke was a good idea. "You Belong With Me" was blasting from the TV speakers, McHale and a cluster of girls half singing, half yelling along.Noelle turned away from her conversation with Sophie, who was headed to the kitchen for another drink.I leaned down into her ear. “Still good?”Her smile was dazzling as she bopped her head to the song, but I could see the jet lag in her eyes. It was the crack of dawn, Austria time. “I’m good.” She reached out and grabbed my hand, squeezing it. “Want to head back soon?”Finally.I pulled her closer by the hand. “I thought you’d never ask.”

Her eyes softened as they met mine. “Then let’s go.” She tugged gently, tipping us into motion.Beckett reached out his fist for a fist bump as we passed, taking a sip of his beer. “Leaving already?”“Oh! Are you staying for the rest of the weekend?” Avery said, completely ignoring me as she twirled out of the Taylor Swift group to wrap an arm around Noelle. Noelle grinned at me over her shoulder.“Yeah,” she said, sounding almost surprised.Avery said, “Amazing. We can sit together at the game on Saturday. There aren’t nearly enough girls.” I raised an eyebrow at Noelle. Beckett noticed and elbowed me in the side.“I’d love that,” Noelle told her, tearing her gaze away from mine as they stepped back from the hug. She swung our hands between us. “I’ll find you.”Avery turned to me. “You know where to drop her off.”Avery and a handful of the other girlfriends had a very specific set of seats they’d adopted. It was like some sort of exclusive club up there. “That I do,” I said. Noelle shook her head.We made it the rest of the way across the room without further interruptions. Noelle laughed as we passed Dante, who was holding court around the beer pong table. He waved like he was going to stop us as I hustled her out the door, done with everybody else.“In a hurry?” Noelle teased as I pulled it shut behind us, the sound of the music and voices more muted now that we were in the hallway. She tipped off balance into my side as we walked.I didn’t buy it—I’d seen her barrel down icy mountains on one leg at high speed. I wrapped an arm around her shoulders anyway, reveling in the feeling of her weight and her warmth in my arms. “If we don’t hurry I might not make it all the way back,” I murmured in her ear.A lie. There was nothing in the world that could stand between me and getting her home.She turned her face up ever so slightly, so now my lips were brushing her jaw.“You wouldn’t,” she breathed, calling me out.We came to a stop as we waited for the elevator. “Try me.”Her lips curled up into a smirk, like a challenge.My arm flexed around her, because despite all of my talk, I was, in fact, going to be a responsible adult.She leaned into my side again as we stepped onto the street, letting out a laugh. “That was fun,” she announced. She turned her face up toward mine. “Did you really tell Avery the stupid French fries at the rink in Ridgefield are the best?”I snorted. “She told you that?”“She told me lots of things,” Noelle informed me. “But that’s the most relevant, because it’s factually incorrect.”“Whoa,” I said, pulling her closer to my side. “That’s a bold statement.”“Telling people that is a bold statement,” she argued. She laughed again. “It’s spreading misinformation.”“We were eating French fries. It was relevant,” I defended myself. Of course I hadn’t been able to resist telling everyone about one of our longest-running debates.Noelle let out a huge yawn. “Still wrong. You didn’t even give other fries a chance to defend themselves.”It was much quieter when we got back to my building, a reminder that it was still technically a school night. After the music, the singing, the traffic—it was like we’d let out a breath.We made it back to my blissfully empty dorm room. I flicked on a desk lamp and locked the door behind me so I’d hear it in the unlikely event that Dante decided to come back for the night.Noelle laughed. “I thought you didn’t lock the door,” she said, twisting toward me.I caught her hips and kissed her, like I’d been waiting to since the moment she’d walked in the door that afternoon. She responded immediately, taking the final step in so she could curl a hand around my arm. Her other hand found the back of my neck, lips parting as she pulled me closer.Both of us made a sound that felt like pure release.She pulled a fraction of an inch back and laughed again—God, I loved when she was this light—before pulling me back. One of my hands traced up her back until she was so impossibly close that all I could feel was the hitch of her breath, her lips, her heat.Her chest rose and fell against mine as we came up for air a moment later. I rested my forehead against hers as she smiled, tracing a line along my jaw before curling her fingertips into the collar of my hoodie.“Hi,” she said, breath fanning across my face.I couldn’t help the smile tugging at the corners of my mouth as our eyes locked. “What were you saying about the door?”“Absolutely nothing,” she murmured, fingers continuing their journey to brush my collarbone and send shivers down my spine. Then, somehow, she curled in closer and relaxed so I was supporting most of her weight. “I’m tired,” she said against my lips.“It’s late,” I agreed. “And it’s like six a.m. your time.”“That’s showbiz, baby,” she said. This time, I was the one who laughed.Only Noelle.Her arms wrapped around my neck as I pivoted us so she could sit on the bed. “You must be tired if you’re letting me carry you around.”She shot me a half-sleepy, half-tipsy grin. “I’m going to make you carry me more often. Great rest for my legs.”“Oh, is it now,” I retorted, straightening up just enough so I could reach the t-shirt she’d discarded when we went to dinner. She plucked it out of my hand. I turned around and pulled off my own shirt while she changed.The sight of her nearly knocked the breath out of me when I turned back around a minute later—sitting there, legs curled underneath her, dark hair loose and wild around her shoulders. It shouldn't have been possible for an outfit to hit harder than what she wore to the party, but this did. My t-shirt would win every time.She yawned as I climbed up onto the bed, sitting back so I was leaning against the wall.“Do you want to sleep?” I asked, pulling her beside me.She curled in so her head was resting on my shoulder and her legs were folded on top of mine. “Yes. But no.” I traced a slow line up her arm, the silk of her skin warm under my fingertips. “I want to stay right here.”“Good,” I murmured.We still had days before anyone had to leave again. And I wanted to stay right here, too.

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Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for the next Ridgefield Mountain story.