Page 44 of Finding Noah

“What the fuck?!” Ash exclaimed.

Not at Meg, but at me.

One glance at her face told me she was pissed, as if it didn't faze her in the slightest to be caught doing that.

“Seriously?” I asked, flabbergasted.

That was when Meg turned to look at me, her eyes narrowed. “Wait. Noah?”

I cleared my throat and awkwardly smoothed my T-shirt and readjusted my waistband.

“H-hey, um … hi.”

God, I could barely speak to her.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

Here.

Did she mean the party … or what she'd just walked in on me doing with Ash?

I wasn't sure, and I didn't want to ask.

Still, it was a high schooler's party, and Meg was far from being a high schooler. I wasn't sure exactly how old she was, but she had to be in her early twenties. Maybe twenty-two, twenty-three.

So, I gathered every bit of confidence I could muster and asked, “W-what are you doing here?”

Meg turned her gaze from me to level Ash with an angry glare. “Your sister asked me to stop by after work and make sure you weren't up to anything your parents wouldn't be okay with, Ashley.”

Then she crossed her arms and turned back to me. “And yours definitely wouldn't be okay with any of this.”

She was angry. And disappointed … in me?

“Oh, shut up, Meghan,” Ash muttered, rolling her eyes. “Like you weren't doing this shit when you were a teenager.”

Meg's expression morphed into one of condescension as she scoffed. “Oh, I had way more respect for myself than that.”

“Yeah, because your daddy forced you to be a prude,” Ash fired back, crossing her arms tightly over her chest, mimicking Meg's stance. “I bet you're still a virgin.”

Eyes widened, I turned to look at Meg. Shocked by the comfortable way Ash was talking to her while also being sort of curious as to what her response might be.

I didn't know much about Meg. Didn't know if she had a boyfriend, didn't know what she did for fun. Hell, I didn't even know how to find that stuff out, so if Ash's brazen commentary could help me learn something about the woman of my dreams, then …

“I am not discussing my intimate life with either one of you,” Meg stated. “Let me point out that you're children.”

I wilted on the spot at that word. Children. I felt ten times smaller, despite being a foot taller than her. Four years separated the me now from the kid I'd been that night when I first met her. I grew hair on my face now. My voice was deeper. I could lift heavier things and reach higher places.

But she didn't see any of that.

She saw a child.

“And you're a bitch,” Ash said with a sneer.

I turned to her with a furrowed brow, instantly disgusted that I’d allowed her to put that mouth on me when she could say such a horrible thing to a woman who was anything but.

Meg seemed unperturbed though. “Whatever. Get these kids out of here and clean up before your sister comes home. Let's go, Noah.”

I glanced in her direction with a raised brow, only to watch as she hurried from the doorway and toward the stairs.