Page 96 of Best Friends for Never

My mother was always so upset with me for that.

“Come on,” Noel says, taking my hand and leading me from the kitchen.

He turns the lights off as we go, stopping once we walk into his bedroom.

It’s strange coming back in here. Of course I’ve been inside his room many times, but not as an adult. Gran has always kept the door closed, and it’s another instance where we’ve pretended Noel didn’t exist.

Noel closes the door, then crosses the room and flips on the light beside his bed, casting the room in a low, yellowish light.

Save for the luggage in the corner and the tux hanging off the back of his closet door, the room is the same as when he left. The walls are littered with movie posters, his action figures and awards are still sitting along the top of his old wooden dresser, comics and thrillers line his bookshelf, and—

I burst out laughing.

“What?” Noel asks, brows drawn tightly together. “What’s so funny?”

I roll my lips together, trying to contain the laughter. “Nice sheets.”

He glances down at the bed and shrugs. “You lovedSpider-Manas much as I did. Maybe even more,Peter.”

“Stop it,” I hiss, pointing to the bathroom. “Safe in there?”

He rolls his eyes because he knows I’m referring to the time I walked in there when he was peeing and he made a mess all over the bathroom. We were both mortified, but it’s not my fault he didn’t lock it.

“Yes. Here.” He turns to the dresser, pulls out a shirt, and then hands it to me. “You’re short. This should work as a nightshirt.”

“Rude.” I take the shirt anyway, stepping into the bathroom.

I do my business, wash my hands, then grab a washcloth from the cabinet and clean my face the best I can. I strip out of my clothes and pull Noel’s shirt over my head. He’s right—I am short compared to him, and it hits midthigh on me. He’s so big it hangs off me nearly everywhere. I like it, being in his clothes like this. He’s lent me jackets or hoodies before, but those didn’t feel the same as this does.

This feels ...intimate. Before, it was innocent, but things are clearly different now. Being in his clothes feels like I’m announcing I’m his.

But then again, I guess I always have been in one way or another.

I squirt some toothpaste onto my finger, using it as a makeshift toothbrush. Then I pull my hair from my trusty bun and redo it, only to finally settle on keeping it down.

I’m stalling. I know I am.

I don’t know why.

No. That’s a lie.

Idoknow why.

I’m about to spend the night next to Noel. I’ve done it before, but that was before I had sex with him. Before I knew what it felt like to orgasm on his face. Before I practically confessed that I had feelings for him.

Everything feels so different now. So much ...more.

And it scares the heck out of me.

I inhale slowly and exhale even slower. I do this several more times before placing my hand on the doorknob.

“Go out there, Parker. It’s just Noel,” I whisper to myself. “It’s just the boy you used to love and could possibly love again, but big deal. You’ve faced harder things. You got this.”

I take another deep breath, open the door, and come face-to-face with Noel.

He’s naked.

Okay, so he’s notnakednaked, but he’s in nothing but a pair of tight black boxer briefs, and they leave nothing to the imagination.

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