All Chapters of Before We Were US: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

The gray hoodie smelled like him,that was the problem.It smelled like cedarwood, laundry detergent, and the faint, lingering scent of woodsmoke from the bonfire. I should have thrown it across the room the second I realized what it was.Instead, I wore it. It was a stupid thing to wear a masochistic choice, but it was the first thing I’d grabbed from the floor in the dark.I sat on the edge of my bed as dawn turned the walls from violet to pale gold, touching my swollen mouth with two fingers . My heart felt like it had been put through a paper shredder.I waited until I heard the shower stop in his room. I timed it perfectly so I’d be downstairs when he was, because if I hid, he’d know he had power over me.When I walked into the kitchen, the air instantly thickened.Noah was there, looking exactly like the golden boy the scouts expected. Broad shoulders, jaw set, gym bag at his feet. But then I saw his mouth. The split skin. A dark bruise started to bloom where I slammed him into

The hospital lights hit my eyes so hard I had to blink twice, and for a second everything looked too bright and too real.As we walked,one thought kept ringing in my head, drowning out the ambient noise of the hospital corridor; “ what do I feel for Noah Callahan? Why does it feel like a part of me longs for him?”Elena was still holding my hand tightly like she already knew the answer to a question that hasn’t even fully formed.Every step toward Room 402 made my stomach twist tighter.I kept thinking that if I walked through that door, everything would click back into place like the last five minutes of some movie where the music swells, the mistakes unravel, and everyone gets their ending. But life has never been that kind of film, like the kind of change you don’t notice until later, when you realize there’s no way to go back to who you were before.We were almost there when his voice cut through the hall.“No.”I froze.It was loud enough to echo throughout the hospital. It carrie

If you look at math, there’s this thing called temporary equilibrium. It’s basically when two completely opposite forces balance each other out for a split second. But it’s a total lie, because it only works on paper. In the real world, gravity always wins.Right now, waking up on the edge of this rock-hard hospital bed, I am just trying to figure out how to breathe without waking him.The room smelled awful like that fake lemon bleach they use to scrub down ERs but Noah was warm against my side. He was completely knocked out, his breathing heavy and ragged from the painkillers. His left hand was still clamped around my wrist so tight my fingers were starting to tingle, holding me exactly where I’d fallen asleep in his arms last night. Every time I tried to wiggle away, his grip would tighten and he’d let out this tiny, painful grunt in his sleep. Then my eyes drifted to his right shoulder, locked up in that massive, ugly black brace. My stomach did a sick flip. That was the shoulde

Madison’s question hung in the air like a physical barrier between us, and every eye in North Hills was locked on Noah, waiting for him to find his words.But Noah couldn’t speak. He just stood there, his left hand half-raised, his face pale and completely frozen as he stared at Madison.Looking at the way his jaw tightened as he battled the answers in his own head, something inside me finally snapped.I stepped around Dani, pulling myself up to my full height. The burgundy silk of my dress rustled around my ankles, the structured corset keeping my spine completely straight as I faced Madison down for the first time in my life."Noah has other responsibilities aside from just being your boyfriend, Madison," I said, my voice cutting through the dead silence of the room.Madison blinked, her eyes widening in shock that I was actually talking back to her."He is a son, he is a teammate, and until a few days ago, his entire future was resting on his shoulders," I continued, stepping closer t

Isla’s pov As the city lights disappeared behind me , the road became quiet. There was only one place left in the world I wanted to go to .Sunset Bay.It was the beach Mom used to take me to when I was little. Growing up, whenever Mom had a bad day at work, or had too much on her mind, she’d drive us out there with a bag of snacks and a big fuzzy blanket. We’d sit near the old wooden jetty for hours, watching the horizon until the sky turned purple.“Isla, love,” she’d always say, her fingers gently combing through my hair while I ate the snacks , “the beach has a way of making everything feel a little lighter.”Back then, I never understood what she meant. I was too young to understand that the vastness of the ocean could make human problems look beautifully small by comparison.Tonight, I think I finally did.The cab rolled to a stop near the gravel turnout at the beach entrance. I pulled a few folded bills from the pocket of my gown, handing them through the partition to the d