Let Love In

Images flashed across the screen of the television and the familiar dialog rang through the speakers from a movie both had seen numerous times before, but their attention was drawn elsewhere as Garrett drew figure eight patterns into Noah's thigh, slowly creeping his way up higher towards the hem of her pajama shorts. As his fingers drew shapes, he left kisses across her shoulder, distracting her from watching the movie. She swatted him away a few times, scolding him for not watching the movie before sighing a defeated sigh and rotating to curl into his chest, running her fingers slowly across his collarbone.

As Garrett leaned in kissing her neck, he mumbled incoherently against her skin, causing the butterflies to flutter and her pulse to rapidly increase.

"You're cute when your pulse races. I could feel it that time, right here." Garrett gently kissed the pulse in her neck below her jaw, causing her to blush.

Noah's hands reached over to cover her face in embarrassment, but quickly became tangled in Garrett's mess of a haircut as their lips connected. Garrett reached to untangle the blanket from between them and the couch, pulling it over their heads and tucking it under them like a cocoon.

He knew all of the right words to mumble against her skin, kissing all of the right places, and his hands found themselves in all of the right places as they laid hidden in their cocoon, the movie long since abandoned.

Noah hardly remembered leaving the couch, let alone the stumbling race down the hallway and up the stairs to her room, only briefly acknowledging reality at the slam of her bedroom door as Garrett's shirt being pulled over his head caused their lips to part momentarily.

"Stop me if you think I'm going too far, Noah." The words barely left his lips in a shallow whisper before she moved to kiss the newly exposed skin across his shoulder, pushing them backwards and crashing onto her bed.

"Don't stop." Those two simple words hung in the air between them for a few brief moments of hesitation as they stared at each other in the dim lighting of the room before the intensity of Garrett's kiss and their mutual struggle to remove any remaining clothing as fast as possible put them both on the same page.

Noah slowly floated back into consciousness with the complaint of her roasting body temperature at the front of her mind and started freaking out at the heavy weight restricting her movement before her eyes shot open to see the skin of Garrett's neck centimeters from her eyes quickly reminding her of last night, his arm draped across her shoulder holding her close to him as he slept.

"Gare." Noah whispered into his neck as she placed soft kisses on the skin in front of her.

"Garrett." He momentarily stirred at the sound of his name, but continued to sleep as she whispered his name a few more times before resorting to more severe movements. Running her fingers across his chest, she kissed across his collarbone, adding a little more volume to each whisper of his name, throwing in a few "Wake up."s to the mix.

"Garrett, I know you're awake now. You're such a faker." A smile crept across his lips as his eyes stayed shut, followed by an elongated sigh. He opened one eye to see her staring at him about an inch or so from his face, causing the other eye to open and embrace the morning.

"So... about last night." His words whispered their way into the space between them, causing Noah to blush and curl herself closer into his neck to hide her face as she quietly giggled a "mhmm..." The gentle kiss she placed against his skin caused a satisfied smirk to grace his lips as he rolled away from her onto his back against the pillow.

Noah didn't know what else to say, but the silence between them felt comfortable enough that she didn't need to break it right away. The two laid there without speaking for several minutes, Noah listening to the sound of Garrett's heart against her ear as she ran her fingers across the words tattooed onto his side by his ribcage.

"What made you decide to get this tattoo?" Her voice quietly broke the silence and she felt him tense up momentarily before shifting uncomfortably.

"I, uh, um, I like Death Cab For Cutie..." His tone of voice gave off more than he chose to say, and Noah turned to look him, debating whether to ask about what he wasn't saying. "Can we not talk about that right now?"

"Oh, um, yeah. Sure." Her voice was quiet, like she was walking on egg shells as she turned to lay back against his chest, staring off at the wall. Garrett subtly pushed her away as he sat up to climb out of bed, looking for his phone.

"I gotta call John and track his ass down, we're supposed to drive back home tonight."

"Tonight? Oh." Noah sat there watching Garrett as he pulled his clothes back on, avoiding her gaze as he searched for his things that were strewn about the room.

Garrett disappeared through the door and into the bathroom, leaving Noah alone to her thoughts as she got dressed. She stared at herself in the mirror and at the sight of her room as she pulled a shirt over her head, unsure of what just happened, but something she'd said had struck a nerve in him.

"John wants to know if you were hungry and wanted to meet up for lunch in a few minutes?" Garrett poked his head through the door, his phone attached to the ear, waiting for her answer.

"Um, what? Food? Oh, uh, yeah, sure. I guess. Yeah, that sounds, um, yes." Garrett disappeared again and Noah shook her head, gathering her scattered thoughts as she looked back in the mirror for a long moment before pulling her hair into a tangled bun at the back of her head and running her hands across her face.

The ride to the restaurant was quiet; Garrett kept both hands on the wheel, drumming along to the song on the radio and keeping his attention on the road rather than sneaking glances over at Noah or really paying any specific attention to her. As they walked towards the door, Noah reached to grab his hand, and he held it limply rather than slip his fingers into hers like she was accustomed to. Noah tried not to let this bother her, but worry slowly ebbed away at her nerves as they were escorted towards their table with John and Riley waiting for them.

Noah hardly contributed to the conversation as the other three rambled on about this and that as they ate. The inches between her and Garrett's chairs felt like miles as Noah looked over at the electricity between John and Riley across the table. John and Riley kept stealing food off each others plates, swatting each other away, playfully rolling their eyes and making snide comments at every little thing making the lack of direct conversation Noah was receiving from Garrett seem that much harder to ignore.

Worry mixed with regret started to filter through the pit of her stomach as she pushed away her plate, claiming she was full and requesting a box to take home more than half of her meal.

The rest of the day was spent walking on egg shells with Garrett, Noah didn't know what was wrong with him but couldn't find the words to bring it up to him before he left. The four of them had returned to her house to watch a movie and spend a couple hours of quality time together before they had to leave, and even though Noah spent the movie wrapped up in Garrett's arms like the night before, something was still off.

As they walked outside to Garrett's car on their way to leave, Garrett pulled Noah into a hug and whispered into her ear. "I'm sorry about earlier." He placed a sweet kiss on her lips before pulling away to scan her face. "Is it bad to say I miss you already?"

Noah chewed her lip as she looked in his eyes before kissing him back, trying to stall. "I miss you already too."

"Gare, I'm gonna hijack your car and leave your sorry ass behind if you don't get in this car right now, time's a-wasting. Then again, you're the one that needed to go back tonight, not me. I'm fine with staying another night, but I won't be the one paying for it later."

"What does he mean by that? What do you have to go back so soon for?" Noah looked him in the eye, hoping for a straight answer.

"Someday I'll let you in." He kissed her forehead, giving her a final hug before dropping his arms and waking swiftly away towards the car, climbing in with a stiff wave of his hand goodbye. As they drove off, Riley turned towards Noah with a confused look on her face.

"What was that about?"

"I have no idea."