reached the car. I heard a beep, saw the flash of lights, jumped in and slammed the door behind me. I swiveled in my seat and looked out of the rear-view window as Noah walked towards it.
“Hurry!” I shouted, and waved my arm. He seemed to be walking towards the car without a care in the world, as if reptiles had not just been chasing me. He climbed in casually, shut the door and then turned to me and smiled.
“Why are you smiling? Did you see that? They were chasing me!”
Noah laughed. “They were not chasing you, they were just running across the floor.”
“Towards me! Me! They were looking at me funny, didn’t you see that?”
He laughed even more. “I promise you, they were not chasing you.”
“Animals hate me! What’s wrong with me? Is there something about me, something on me that makes them want to attack me, or run away from me?”
“They don’t want to attack you, I’m sure you’re just imagin—” Noah stopped talking and stared at the windshield, his eyes widening.
“What?” I turned and . . . “Oh my God! I told you. I told you,” I hissed at him, as two lizards clung to the windscreen and glared at me. “They are looking at me, can you see it?” I gasped as another one suddenly scuttled up the bonnet and joined them.
“What the hell?” Noah leaned forward and looked at them.
“Quickly, get rid of them!”
“How?”
“Windscreen wiper! Swipe them off!”
Noah reached for the wipers and first a spray of water blitzed the windscreen and then the arm came out and, with a slow, loud, squeaking sound, it moved the lizards off the windshield.
“Thank God,” I inhaled sharply with relief.
“NO! They’re coming back!” Noah pointed at the ground as the three lizards started running towards us. “Let’s get out of here!”
“Quick!” I shouted at Noah as he started the car and then we flew out of the parking lot. When we were a little way away, we stopped the car and both looked out the rear-view window.
“What the hell was with them?” Noah asked.
“I told you, animals hate me.”
Noah looked at me and this time he seemed to actually consider it. “Better add it to the list.”
“Brave, fearless, bad at climbing and hated by animals, reptiles and birds,” I repeated, and Noah burst out laughing.
“It’s not funny,” I insisted.
“It kind of is, actually,” Noah said, and pulled off onto the road again. “We just got swarmed by a group of lizards.”
“It’s actually a lounge of lizards, by the way,” I said, and this made Noah laugh even more, and soon I was also laughing. He looked at me over his shoulder as he drove and flashed me a smile that gave me that same feeling that I’d had before. Warm, and fuzzy and tingly in places that I’m not sure I should even tingle in!
CHAPTER 23
When Noah and I got home, the day passed in a daze of Game of Thrones, popcorn and chocolate on the couch. He ate the popcorn while I tucked into the chocolate. The marathon lasted almost all night, and finally, at around 2 a.m., the two of us said our goodnights and retired to our bedrooms. I lay there with a smile on my face. We’d had such fun that day, even the gym incident and the lizard incident had become something to laugh about together. I wondered if this was what friendship was like. You met someone, and from the start, just clicked. You felt so comfortable with them that you could spend an entire day and night with them without getting bored or feeling like you needed your own space.
I closed my eyes, that happy thought filling the space between my ears. I rolled over on my pillow and then . . .
“Oh God.” I shot up when I caught a whiff of my armpit, and almost gagged. I needed to give my clothes another wash. I couldn’t keep wearing the same clothes over and over again like this, but I didn’t have a choice. I wasn’t going to ask Noah if I could borrow some of his. I tiptoed out the bedroom and into the bathroom, careful not to wake him. I didn’t want to draw attention to the fact I was still wearing the same clothes. Gross.
I stripped naked and wrapped a towel around me, and then, with a bar of soap, I washed all my clothes and hung them up to dry in the shower. I stuck my