The next morning, Brian awoke with a throbbing headache, which wasn't all that surprising. His memories from the night before were a bit foggy, except for one part—the part where he told Noelle that he loved her. He could have sworn that he had fallen asleep with her wrapped in his arms where she belonged, except now, she wasn't next to him. Brian's bed was empty except for himself and he had to wonder if maybe he had dreamed the entire encounter.

When he sat up in bed, he was still wearing the clothes that he'd worn to the party the night before, which got him thinking. If he had dreamed about Noelle staying with him the night before, wouldn't he have at least made it a steamier dream?

Maybe she'd just freaked out when she woke up? Or maybe AJ had called wondering where she had disappeared to?

As the possibilities ran through Brian's head, he jumped when Noelle walked out of the bathroom wearing the dress that she had worn the night before. Apparently, he'd been wrong. It wasn't a dream. She was really there and she didn't seem to be freaked out at all.

Noelle smiled at the spooked expression on Brian's face. She didn't expect him to remember many of the details of the night before, but she hoped that he'd at least remember that she'd been there. “So, I um, put your t-shirt back into your suitcase. It might smell like me, so I don't know if you want to keep it there when you go back to the wife or whatever.”

Brian groaned and fell back down onto the bed. Suddenly, the throbbing in his head was beating like a drum. “I can't believe that we're about to have this fight again.”

“No, no.” Noelle jumped in, feeling stupid for even saying what she'd said. That was the thing about her. When she got nervous, she said stupid things. She sat down on the bed next to Brian and sighed. “I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that the conversation that you're planning on having with her is going to be difficult enough without having to explain why one of your t-shirts smells like some other girl.”

Brian nodded his head, glad that she was finally starting to understand. “I was planning on telling her about you.”

“You shouldn't,” Noelle interrupted. “That will only complicate things for you.”

Brian sat back up and took her hand into his. He looked down and rubbed the tops of her soft fingers with his thumb. He knew that she probably thought that he had forgotten about what he said last night, and he needed her to know that he didn't. He didn't know how, exactly, to slip the fact that he loved her into the conversation when he was completely sober. “Noelle, I told you that I loved you last night.”

Noelle nodded and looked down at their intertwined fingers. “I remember.”

“And that doesn't mean anything to you?” Brian questioned. He didn't know what he was expecting her to say. Maybe he wanted to hear the words too, though it was obvious that she was never going to say them.

“Of course if means something to me, but I'm going to tell you the same thing that I've been telling everyone else. It doesn't matter,” Noelle replied softly as she rubbed her eyes with her free index finger and thumb. “Listen, you're leaving to go divorce your wife, which isn't going to be easy. I'm leaving to try to get back into school. You're going back on this tour, which Alex says is going to last about a year. I helped you get through a bad time in your life and I'm glad that I could do that for you, but we're better off just walking out of each other's lives now while there are no casualties.”

“I hate this,” Brian growled lowly as he fell back onto the bed again. “I hate that I have to walk away from you, from someone so amazing that makes me feel so much.”

“But you know that I'm right,” Noelle replied. “Somewhere inside of you, you know that this is for the best.”

Brian shrugged. “Maybe for now it is. I don't know. I just... I can't imagine you not being around. You made this entire thing bearable for me.”

“I'm sorry, but that just makes me wonder about what you said last night. Do you love me because you're lonely? Do you just think that you love me? You're getting out of a marriage. I just... it scares me. I don't want you to love me right now, not if it means that I fall in love with you and you break my heart later because you didn't mean it.” Noelle looked up at Brian again and then quickly looked down. She didn't want him to see the words in her eyes. She didn't want him to see that she loved him too.

“Noelle,” Brian replied, sitting up once again. He put a finger under her chin and tilted her head up so that she was looking at him. “I meant what I said and nothing in this world is going to change that. I love you and I know that you're freaked out about the whole 'divorcing my wife' thing, but I promise you that I don't feel the way that I feel about you about anyone else in this world.”

Noelle tried her best to smile, but really she was just sad. She never really believed in star-crossed lovers until that minute.

“I need to go,” she whispered and Brian nodded. She stood from where she was sitting next to him and ran her hands through her hair. “I ordered you some breakfast because I figured you'd need it, and there's some aspirin on the bedside table.”

“Thank you,” Brian replied sadly. “Have a safe trip back home.”

“Yeah, you too.”

She took two steps toward the door and then turned around and took the same two steps back toward Brian. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. Secretly, she wanted to stay there forever.

Shocked, Brian had trouble processing the endearment for a second, but then promptly returned her hug. He pulled away slightly and then leaned his forehead against hers.

For what seemed like the thousandth time since her and Brian's initial falling out, tears began to spill down Noelle's cheeks. “I really will miss you.”

Brian nodded slowly and then brought his lips to hers for a short, soft kiss. “I'll miss you, too, Noelle.”

He wiped the tears from her eyes and kissed her one last time before she stood up once again and, this time, was actually gone.

Brian had never felt so empty. When Noelle walked out of the room, a large part of him went with her and it scared him to think that he didn't know when or if he would ever feel whole again.

-----

Later that morning, AJ had been waiting in the lobby for Noelle for over 15 minutes. They were supposed to take the shuttle to the airport together, but if she didn't hurry AJ was going to have to leave without her. His flight left a couple of hours before hers did, so he guessed that it was understandable if she decided to sleep in, but he had a couple of questions for her, like, for instance, 'where the hell did you end up last night?' He wouldn't lead off with that, but he was really hoping that he could get an answer.

Just as AJ was about to tell the driver to go on without her Noelle came rushing out of the lobby to the van. She was wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt. She'd also had on a page-boy style cap and a large pair of sunglasses, which was curious. Either she was getting used to hanging around with a bunch of guys who had to wear sunglasses and ball caps everywhere, or she was trying to hide something—like tears.

When Noelle jumped into the van, she smiled apologetically at AJ.

“I'm sorry I'm late,” she greeted. “You're not going to miss your flight or anything are you?”

AJ shook his head. “No, I should be fine. Are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah,” Noelle replied quickly. “I'm fine. Why?”

AJ laughed to himself and shook his head. “I'm just wondering. You were in the hospital a couple of days ago.”

“Oh, right,” Noelle sighed. She bit down on the corner of her bottom lip and then glanced out of the window. “I'm good.”

“So, you patch things up with Brian last night?”

Okay, so AJ didn't want to jump right in there like that, but he was starting to get a little annoyed. It was just a week ago that Noelle was balling her eyes out about this guy. Granted, the circumstances had changed a little, but mostly, they were still the same.

Noelle rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Nothing happened, Alex.”

“Hmm,” AJ replied, “that's interesting, considering that you've lied to me about him before.”

“I never lied to you about Brian,” Noelle responded, growing annoyed herself. “Nothing happened. His friends got him hammered last night and decided that it would be okay to just let him leave alone. I helped him get back to the hotel. We fell asleep and talked a little bit this morning. That's it. I didn't sleep with him or anything. In fact, he didn't even try to sleep with me.”

“Would you have slept with him if he did try?” AJ asked boldly. He could feel his anger for Brian rising again, except this time it was a brotherly thing more so than an 'I hate you' thing.

“Not that it's any of your business, but probably not,” Noelle replied, shooting daggers at him through her eyes. “He was piss-ass drunk for one and for two maybe he actually cares about me in more ways that just for my naked body.”

“I don't deny that,” AJ responded. “At least now, I don't.”

“Look, I get that I pulled you in the middle of all of this and that it may be annoying that you possibly ruined a friendship because of me. Even if you're talking again, things are weird, I get that,” Noelle replied softly. “Things are just different since that day in the restaurant. We talked about everything, but we said goodbye and it's kind of killing me. Okay? So, I'm sorry that I'm in a pissy mood, it's just… it hasn't been a good day so far.”

AJ nodded slowly and then sighed. “I'm sorry, too. I didn't mean to go all big brother on you. I just don't want you to get hurt again, especially by Brian.”

“I'm probably going to get hurt a lot of times in my life, Alex. So expect more broken noses.” Noelle laughed softly and AJ chuckled.

“Yeah,” AJ replied. “Try not to get hurt by my best friends and maybe we won't have to worry about that. My face is too pretty for broken bones.”

Noelle shook her head, but continued smiling. “You're such a girl.”

“I'll take it.” AJ laughed and then paused, wondering if there was more that Noelle wanted to say. “So, what did you guys talk about?”

The smile fell from Noelle's face and she shook her head. “Nothing really.”

Initially, she didn't want to say the words. She wanted to keep the things that Brian told her to herself, bottled up inside, so that they were only hers. If she didn't say out loud what Brian told her, maybe it wouldn't get soaked into the atmosphere like all of those other 'I love yous'.

Instead, with a shrug, the words poured out. “He told me that he loved me.”

“That's not 'nothing',” AJ replied. When Noelle simply shrugged again, he continued, “Did you say it back?”

Noelle shook her head slowly. “Nope.”

AJ observed his sister's body language and wondered if he should leave the conversation at that. Of course, he opted to continue, “But you wanted to?”

This time, Noelle nodded. “Yep.”

With a sigh, AJ replied, “You should have.”

Noelle's head snapped in AJ's direction angrily. When she saw that he was serious, she narrowed her eyes at him and shook her head. “Would you make up your freaking mind? One minute you're telling me I'm an idiot for talking to him; the next minute you're telling me that I should have told him that I love him, too? Which is it, Alex? Leave him alone or love him back?”

“Okay,” AJ replied. “I get how that can sound contradicting, but I never said you shouldn't talk to him, I said you shouldn't sleep with him. I'm in the school of 'say what you need to say'. Even if it wouldn't have changed anything, you'd feel better knowing that he knew how you felt.”

“Maybe,” Noelle shrugged and then sighed. “But doesn't matter now. He's gone.”

AJ had to fight to keep the growing smirk off of his face. Noelle didn't seem to know that she and Brian were going to be on the same flight. That whole layover-in-Atlanta thing really seemed to go right over her head and days before, AJ certainly wasn't going to be the one to break the news. He could have told her right then, but that might have meant that Noelle would have a panic attack right there in the van and as much as it sucked, AJ just didn't know if he could handle that.

When they arrived to the airport, Noelle waited with AJ until his flight was called. Before he boarded the plane, she promised to call when she got home safely and that she would come to see them if the tour ever made its way to Florida. Then, she was alone and suddenly feeling sick all over again as it hit her that this was it. Her amazing summer was gone. She might never see the man that she loved ever again. Her life was worse than it was when she'd left Florida over three months earlier. She may have had a bad reputation when she left Gainesville, but at least she didn't feel like her insides were being ripped out piece by piece.