"Goodbye, Noah."
He laughed at her dismissive goodbye and walked over to his truck. It was only after he pulled out that she left herself, and as Noah drove back home, he couldn't help but think to himself that Professor Bryant was alright.
.
CHAPTER
13
NOAH
A
FTER THEY HAD LUNCH TOGETHER, EVERYTHING CHANGED. With Melanie’s advice, Noah stopped worrying while he practiced on the ice, and without him worrying, he was playing at his best again. No longer was Coach Benson hurling insults at him, but telling him to keep up the good work. And when it came down to his work outside the ice, he was doing better too. The tutoring sessions were helping, and his grades were getting better with him getting B’s on his last two quizzes.
“Did you get all of that?” Melanie asked as she grabbed the dry eraser. They had just finished going over the fourth chapter together, and it was now almost nine o’clock, meaning their session would soon be over.
“Yeah,” Noah said, and he watched as she wiped off all of the things she had written on the board. Noah stood from his seat, stretching his limbs before he started to pack all of his things. This had been one of the hardest things for him to learn. Still, once she explained everything to him, especially with him understanding the other material from the previous chapters, it was much easier to get now. Noah even had faith that with this upcoming exam, that he’ll be able to ace it if he was able to keep on passing the quizzes and homework.
“Let’s go,” Melanie said as she grabbed her things. They turned the lights off behind them, leaving the classroom empty as they chatted while walking out of the building together, giving the security guard their goodbyes in passing.
When they made it outside, Noah cursed, seeing the heavy rainfall slam against the pavement. He totally forgot that it would be raining tonight, but, apparently, Melanie didn’t as she took out her umbrella from her purse and opened it.
“You should really keep up with the weather,” she told him pointedly, and Noah elbowed her playfully for her sarcasm.
“I did know it was going to rain today.” She arched a brow. “But I forgot to bring my umbrella. It happens.”
“Yeah, yeah,” she said dismissively. “You can use my umbrella so you can walk to your car, but drive back over here to the entrance and toss it back to me.”
“What about your car?” Noah asked with a frown, and when he looked at the parking lot, even with the heavy rain, he saw her car wasn’t there.
“I had to take it to the shop,” she said reluctantly, glancing at him suspiciously, waiting for his taunts.
Noah didn’t want to be the person she thought he was, but he couldn’t help it. “That’s what happens when you drive around in an old car like that.”
This time she elbowed him. “I like my car, you know. I’ve had it for ten years.”
“I can tell,” Noah said, and this time she elbowed him harder. He rubbed his arm and asked her, “Are you going to wait for a cab?”
She nodded as she pulled out her phone. “Yeah, I’ll probably call an Uber.”
Noah frowned as he thought about some of the recent horror stories he heard about with Uber. The thought of her getting in an Uber during this type of weather bothered him.
“I can give you a ride home.”
He said it without even thinking about it, but Noah knew the moment he said it, he couldn’t take it back. Melanie glanced at him, lifting her umbrella so she could get a better look at him as if his offer was on his face. She hesitated for a second as she looked at her phone, then the parking lot, and then back at him. And Noah wondered what was making her so hesitant. The fact that it was strange that a student was driving his professor back home, or that it was even stranger that a male student was driving his female professor back home. Or maybe she was thinking none of these things, and she simply did not want him to know where she lived.
Noah ready himself to back out of it by making some type of joke as he started to feel uncomfortable under the scrutiny of her gaze. It was not like he was trying to hit on her. He just simply wanted to offer her a ride home so she wouldn’t be stuck in this kind of weather. But before he could take it back, she nodded.
“Okay,” she said.
“Okay,” he repeated.
And then he took her umbrella before walking over to his truck, and once he got himself inside, he drove around the parking lot back to the entrance and let her get inside the passenger side before he pulled off. Melanie typed her address into his GPS, and they were on their way. She lived forty minutes away, and though the idea of the forty-minute drive back and forth bothered him, at least she wouldn’t be murdered by some crazy psycho person driving Uber.
As they drove down the road with the rain still pouring heavily, Noah turned the heat on in the car to combat the cold air from the rain. Melanie looked relieved when the heat came on as she wrapped herself deeper in her coat.
To fill the awkward silence, Noah spoke.
