"I see," Abigail said, matching Noah's grin before turning a mischievous smile on Melanie. "I didn't know you had it in you."
Oh, hell no. This wasn't happening.
"You've gotten your rest now, Noah. You can go," Melanie said, dismissing him with a wave of her hand before she grabbed her friend's arm and tugged her to the bedroom. Immediately, after slamming the door shut, Melanie said, "Nothing happened."
Abigail gave her a 'bitch, please' look before she took in the state of her bed.
"Wait," Abigail said wide-eyed. "He slept in your bed?"
Melanie sighed before she went to her closet to grab her clothes for the day. "I put him on the couch last night, and when I woke up the next morning, he was here."
"Good," Abigail said. "You didn't want to mess up his back before the game."
"Are you freaking serious, Abi?" Melanie said, annoyed as she snatched on a plain t-shirt. "You sound like him."
Abigail bubbled over with laughter as she dropped down on her bed. "I'm just saying. Hockey is a strenuous game. He has to be careful where he sleeps."
"I didn't plan any of this. He just came to my apartment last night because he was drunk. What? Was I supposed to send him away? By the way, I tried to do that."
Abigail's amusement died down with a sigh. "I know, Melanie. There is no way a cookie-cutter girl like you would be doing anything with your student."
Melanie breathed a sigh of relief. Thank God, Abigail wasn't paying too much attention; otherwise, she would have noticed that the state of her disheveled look wasn't because of her just waking out of bed, especially if she took notice of her bruised lips. Abigail would know that her friend wasn't as cookie-cutter as she thought. Melanie could have told Abigail what happened, but she didn't want the 'I told you so,' and she also didn't want to deal with the bad advice. Sometimes, with your friends, you had the ones who gave you great advice, and then you had those who influenced you to do bad things. Abigail was the latter. She was the devil on your shoulder, giving you horrible advice. And Abigail would definitely tell her to do more than kiss Noah when, right now, all Melanie wanted to do was run away from him.
She couldn’t believe what just happened a few moments ago. She and Noah were too hung up on lust and winning, and something terrible had come from it. Now, she would have to have another conversation with him all over again, and this time she would make sure it didn't end with another kiss.
Abigail stood up. "I'll let you keep getting ready. I'm going to watch some TV."
Melanie waved her off as she continued to get dressed. She was glad that Abigail was giving her some space to think because everything that happened today was too much to deal with. It took her another thirty minutes to get dressed as she had to do her make-up and fix her hair before she stepped out of her room. And to her surprise, when she came into the living room, both Abigail and Noah were on her couch watching the highlights of a hockey game.
"That shot was terrible," Abigail said. "You should tell your coach to take him off the team. He's terrible."
"He's new to this and still a little nervous. The coach puts some of the players out during certain games to give them some time on the ice. He'll get better."
Abigail shook her head. "He shouldn't risk it. I need you guys to make it to the frozen four. It's going to be so exciting."
"We will," Noah declared, and Melanie couldn't help but roll her eyes, wondering where he got all of this cockiness from.
"What are you both doing?" Melanie asked as she walked over to grab her purse and wallet from the kitchen table. "Don't you have something to do today, Noah?"
"Not really," he said as he stood from the couch, walking over to her. When he got a step too close, she took a step back, but he didn't acknowledge the distance she made. "Besides, Abigail invited me to go car shopping with you guys."
Melanie gave Abigail a look. Abigail shrugged her shoulders. "What? I'm not that good with cars anyway. Noah knows them better than both of us."
"That's what the car salesmen are for," Melanie said.
"You can't trust them too much," Noah said. "They're just trying to get you to buy a car. It doesn't matter what they sell you."
Melanie sighed. She was hoping to get rid of Noah so she could at least think, but he wouldn't allow that. Noah stared at her before he leaned down to her ear.
He whispered, "Don't make a big deal about it. It wasn't anything. We won't talk about it or mention it anymore."
Melanie should have been relieved, but she wasn't. It was something they should talk about to draw a line in the sand, but on the other hand, did she even want to talk about this again? And, to be honest, Melanie wasn't sure she actually wanted to draw a line in the sand. Of course, she didn't want her relationship with Noah to go anywhere romantically. But she also didn't want to lose her friendship with him either. If she drew a line in the sand, what would they have left?
Melanie swallowed her worries and nodded. Noah grinned as he took some steps back, giving her space she desperately needed. Sometimes, she couldn't think straight around him.
"By the way, I won," he said, "and so my reward will be you taking me with you guys to the car dealership."
Melanie blinked. "How did you win?" she asked, genuinely.
