After a detour to get supplies - mainly consisting of wine, crisps, and a huge crate of beer - Ben, Holly and I pulled up outside a huge house with its own gates and a driveway. Not easy real estate to find in London, especially when you're students.
Once Ben had squeezed in among the other cars already gathered, I stepped out of the backseat and took a long look at house in detail. Its brown brick exterior suggested it hadn't been built that long ago. Wooden beams adorned the outside for little more than effect, and the front garden was immaculate considering four young guys lived here.
If I didn't know better, it looked like a family home where the family had been cast aside for an unknown group of musicians to live there instead. For a second, I began to doubt we were even at the right place. Until I spotted Noah's black Camaro or whatever Cole had called it, parked at the front of the driveway.
Shit, that meant he was there. Why had I even expected he wouldn't be? It was his home after all. And why was I suddenly so nervous about being there in the first place?
As Alex opened the door wide, he grinned at Holly and Ben.
"Guys, welcome! It's good to see you both again," he exclaimed. His voice was warm and friendly, with an unexpectedly strong Irish accent, and his strawberry blonde hair fell messily over his forehead.
"Sorry, I don't think we've met yet have we?" he continued, extending a hand to shake mine. "I'm Alex, and you are?"
"Abigail," I smiled shyly, "Sorry, Abi. I prefer Abi."
"Well, Abi," Alex smiled, "Welcome to casa de l'ambition, where the drinks are free and the good times are even cheaper." Laughing at his own cheesy line, he gestured with a wide arm for us to enter.
Whoever was paying for this house wasn't short of money that was for sure. A giant staircase swept up from the middle of the hallway, leading off in opposite directions at the top. The floors were dark wood and a collection of what looked like genuine modern art adorned the walls. This was definitely not what I expected a shared student house to look like.
While my eyes drank in the details of the grand reception area, two figures began to descend down the stairs. There was no denying who the male half of the duo was - after all, he did have a habit of just conjuring up out of thin air. But I didn't recognise the girl walking behind him. She definitely wasn't on our course; she looked too old to be a first year, at least mid-twenties. Her long, bleached blonde hair was teamed with smoky eye make-up, thick false lashes and a striped trouser suit.
"Noah! Come on down you moody bastard, we've got more guests," shouted Alex, stopping right in front of me with his hand fully stretched onto the bottom of the bannister, blocking any chance I had of escaping.
As Noah and his acquaintance reached the bottom step he stopped, staring directly at me with a deadpan look across his face. His green eyes were glowing with something I hadn't seen before. Anger, maybe? Annoyance? Shame?
"Nomeo, this is Ben, Holly and Abi," Alex continued. "But you know that already, she was your singer today, right?"
"Yeah, she was. It's good to see you all," Noah replied bluntly. "Enjoy the party."
As Noah strode towards the door, his accomplice trailing behind him in her high heels, Alex rolled his eyes at me. Turning to face them, he called out, "Where are you going Hartnett? The fun's not even started yet."
"We've already had our fun," giggled the blonde woman.
I wanted to run after her and rip her stupid bleached hair from her head.
His face undeniably flushed, Noah's wide eyes changed in an instant as he shot a furious look at her.
"Time to go," he commanded, ushering her out of the house and pulling the door shut hard behind them.
"Such a weirdo," laughed Alex, pulling an awkward face at us. "I swear if he wasn't such a mean, lean, guitar machine we'd have kicked him out of the band long ago. Plus, he's pretty good eye candy for the fans you know?" he added with a wink.
"Known him for years though, heart of gold underneath it all," Alex continued as he escorted us through the house, looking directly at me as he added, "Don't let him fool you otherwise."
Oh crap, does he know about Noah and me?
I doubted it very much, seeing as Noah blatantly had more than one woman on rotation and clearly didn't hide them from his friends, like he'd obviously been doing with me. Alex had only mentioned me singing with Noah, after all.
Heading into the kitchen, I spotted Kris making up a pitcher of Pimms at the counter and made a beeline for him.
"Abs!" he squealed, clearly already a few drinks in. "How you doing today babe? Recovered from the drama in your room last night?"
"Yeah, I suppose," I responded with a weak smile.
"Want to talk about it now?"
"No, not now. You're clearly having a good time, I don't want to bring your mood down with my problems."
"Abi, I'm your friend," he said gently, "You can talk to me about anything you need, whenever you need. Even if I am almost seeing two of you right now."
Laughing at his confused pout, I reached up to give him a hug then grabbed a glass from the line he was filling with the red, fruit-infused cocktail.
"Does this mean we've got party Abi tonight then?" he squealed, grinning.
"Why the hell not?" I replied, raising the glass to my mouth and taking a long gulp, before almost spitting it straight back out when I realised how much alcohol he'd put in there.
"Good girl," he said with a smirk. "You deserve to have fun as much as anyone else."
"Yeah," I responded, smiling back at him and raising my glass. "Yeah, I do."
Four drinks later, with a stagger in my step, I think it's safe to say I was having a good time. I had met all the other members of Noah's band, spoken to people from my course I'd never even said 'hello' to before, and - unless I'd got the wrong end the stick completely - even had a couple of guys flirt with me.
Yep, I was having fun. I also needed to find a bathroom quickly, before I peed myself. Having seen a queue forming outside the downstairs toilet, I decided to try my luck upstairs.
"Alex!" I called as I spotted him leaning against a door with his iPhone in his hand, "Where's the bathroom up here?"
"This is it I'm afraid," he responded, looking remorseful, "And Charlotte's currently spewing her guts up in there."
"Argh, how can a house this size only have two toilets?" I whined, squeezing my legs together in an effort not to wet myself.
"There's a third, but it's an en-suite so we're trying to keep it hidden from everyone," he replied.
I made a pained face back at him in response.
"But," he continued, "At the risk of you pissing right there on the floor, go ahead and use it."
"You're a life-saver, thank you!" I beamed at him.
"Third door on your left down there," he instructed, "In Noah's room."
Of course it was.
I barely even had time to look around the bedroom as I closed the door behind me and headed straight for what I hoped was the en-suite.
As I sat there, relief washing over me as I finally broke the barrier on the world's longest pee, I couldn't help finding the fact I was using Noah's toilet funny and started to laugh quietly to myself.
Well they definitely have a cleaner, I thought, as I looked around the pristine white suite. Either that, or this guy has got some serious OCD.
Not a thing was out of place. The hand towel was folded perfectly on the hook, the bottles in the shower lined up neatly, the toilet roll was hanging the 'right' way round and there was even a Jo Malone candle on the windowsill.
What student guitarist has a bloody Jo Malone candle?
As I washed my hands - with soap from a matching wash and moisturiser set, obviously - I stared absent-mindedly at my reflection in the bathroom cabinet. I had almost forgotten where I was by the time I finished rubbing the luxurious-smelling cream into my skin. But, remembering this was Noah's bathroom and not some hotel, I was reaching to open the cabinet before I could even think about how weird my behavior might be.
Ignoring the bumper-sized box of condoms on the bottom shelf, I surveyed the rest of the contents. I don't know what I was expecting besides the usual things; dental floss, cotton buds, face cream. On the top shelf, I spotted an expensive-looking clear bottle. As I pulled off the silver lid it was as though Noah was in the room with me - the fresh, clean smelling scent of him gently flooding my senses as I sniffed it.
Just one squirt won't do any harm, I thought, spraying the inside of my left wrist with Eau de Noah.
Placing it back carefully, I turned my attention to the drawers under the sink. The top drawer contained a couple of clean, folded hand towels piled next to yet another box of condoms.
Okay, I get it, Noah. You're a big man, congratulations, I thought, rolling my eyes.
In the second drawer, I was almost disappointed to find a few razors, an electric shaver and some hairdressing scissors.
At least that explains the messy hairstyle, I snorted to myself.
Bending down to open the bottom drawer, I was definitely not expecting to discover what I did. Four toilet rolls neatly formed a square to fill the drawer. Nothing unusual about that, but one of the rolls at the back caught my eye. Tucked in the cardboard centre, barely noticeable unless you were a crazed stalker rifling through his things, like me, the corner of a plastic wallet poked out.
With my subconscious screaming at me louder than normal not to be so nosy, I pinched it between my thumb and forefinger and pulled the wallet clean out.
Crisp fifty pound notes, at least ten of them at a guess, filled the small bag.
What the actual fuck?
A knock on the door startled me as Alex's voice called from the other side.
"Abi, are you done? I'm going to move Charlotte in here so people can use the main bathroom again."
"Yeah just washing my hands, I'll be two seconds," I yelled back, carefully stuffing the wallet back into the toilet roll and closing the drawer.
As I unlocked the door, Charlotte fell through onto the floor. Picking her up between us, Alex and I got her relatively comfortable next to the toilet, before I pulled her hair back into a ponytail using the hair tie from my wrist.
"I'll stay here, you go back to the party," smiled Alex.
"No, it's fine, I'll stay with her for a bit," I smiled back. "It's your party. Plus, she'll be mortified to know you witnessed her vomiting."
Laughing gently, Alex stroked the back of her head with a tenderness that surprised me. Maybe not all of these guys were as bad as Noah?
"I'll be back up soon, baby," he said softly in her ear before planting a kiss on her hair, then giving me the double thumbs up as he backed tentatively out of the bathroom.
Within about three minutes, Charlotte was fast asleep on the floor, her head resting on the rolled-up towel pillow I had made for her. And I was bored, silently cursing myself for leaving my phone downstairs in my bag.
Getting up from where I had been sat next to Charlotte, I wandered over to the door and headed out into Noah's room. Unsurprisingly, given the condition of his bathroom, his room was equally as pristine.
Decorated with light grey paint and the same dark wood floor that ran through the house, he was definitely a minimalist. The pure white sheets of his king size double bed were neatly made up. A large black wooden wardrobe dominated one side of the room, with a matching desk placed under the window and two large graphic prints hung on opposite walls - one above his bed and the other next to the en-suite door. The only hint of the person residing here was the rack over in the far corner that held five guitars, and a digital piano pushed up against the wall by the door.
Where were the photos of friends and family? The dirty plates under the bed and the Freshers Week T-shirts dumped on the floor by the laundry basket? I thought uni boys were supposed to live in filth, not five-star luxury?
There must have been something in that sanitary cocoon of a bedroom that would give away even a hint of the real Noah. As wrong as I knew it was to snoop, the alcohol in my blood and the security of knowing Noah wasn't home bolstered my curiosity. Anyway, considering he'd called things to 'an end' between us before they'd even started, chances are I would never have the opportunity to be alone in his room again.
Ignoring the nagging voice in the back of my head, I moved quietly to the wardrobe and opened it up. A collection of T-shirts hung neatly on the rail; grey, white and black - no colour - and, reassuringly, not arranged into shade order. Maybe he wasn't full American Psycho after all.
The jeans folded on the shelves were all dark, skinny and fashionably distressed. As I pulled out a wire rack containing his underwear, I was almost relieved to see that the mainly designer collection of unexpectedly bright-coloured boxer shorts weren't all neatly folded, too.
I don't know what I was expecting to find, but I felt somewhat disappointed. Moving on to the desk under the window, I studied the row of books lined across the back. A few of the classics - looking beaten up and well read - sat alongside a couple of music books and one or two untouched modern thriller-types. Nothing too exciting or unusual there, either.
I slid open the drawer of the desk to find a leather appointment book laid next to an Apple laptop. I trailed my finger across the smooth, brown leather binding of the book, before my tipsy brain finally went all moral on me and I decided it would be too much to have a peek inside. What if it was a journal or something? I wanted to know more about Noah, I wanted to know everything about Noah in fact, but I wanted to know it from him.
A faint warning click on the door handle allowed me to just enough time to slam the drawer shut before the bedroom door swung open. Spinning around to face the light flooding in from the landing, I leant my hands on the desk behind me with what I hoped wasn't a guilty smile plastered across my face.