The Secrets We Share

FIFTEEN

Dawn

Aria was back to normal on Monday, which was weird as hell. After all, I'd been a bad friend, ditched her, Kat and Jason at the beach, and she was laughing and talking to me like a normal best friend usually did. As I said, weird. Had she forgiven me or was she just in a good mood?

Kat on the other hand, was the one acting weird, ignoring me and playing some stupid game on her phone. Or if she did look up, she would give me a nervous look like she was scared of my reaction to something. At least that was what it seemed like.

Aria had asked me how the date was; Kat hadn't. In fact, she was annoyingly intensely focused on the game, eyes narrowed and not looking where she was going. 

I snatched the phone away from her unresistant grip and raised an eyebrow when she whined at me to give it back. 

"You need to focus where you're going or you'll bump into someone."

"But I was just about to kill that little biatch!"

Lately, my hormones had been kicking up; first the unnecessary, ugly crying breakout when Aria and I had a fight, then the day with Noah where I experienced really weird feelings, and now this. I knew I shouldn't be getting all worked up about Kat ignoring me, but I couldn't help it.

"No one cares about your freaking game!" I almost hissed. "Why are you acting all nervous like a mouse?" 

She looked taken aback. "Well, um, nothing."

What kind of reason was that? 

I opened my mouth to tell her so when I felt a hand on my shoulder. Turning, I almost ran right into a wall of hard muscle. 

"Mmmphh what the freaking hell- oh, uh, hi Noah."

I glared at him as he smiled down at me through his eyelashes. 

"How are you?" 

I rolled my eyes. "Pretty good. You?"

"Average."

So this was a random conversation. Were we back to being awkward?

"I want to know whether you could hang out with me again? You know, for fun. Like on the weekend or after school or something?"

"Uh, okay. I can do that." I gave him a nervous smile. 

"Could we go to your place?" 

"Of course." I was going to Dad's place tonight, and I was pretty sure he wouldn't mind... if he did, I could just call Noah a friend. 

Nervously shifting from foot to foot, I glanced at Noah, then away, then at him, then away until Kat pushed her way between us and tried to tug her phone out of my suffocating grip. 

"Gimme my phone back!" She muttered, prying it out of my stiff fingers. Giving me a glare, she hurried after Aria, who was heading towards her locker. 

"I'll just go now," I murmured, glancing at Noah one last time. "See you in English." 

"See ya," he said, and stepped closer to me until he was one breath away. I swallowed, my throat dry. The bloody hell was he doing?

Then he leaned forwards and brushed his soft lips on my forehead, hands resting on my shoulders, then he lifted my chin with one finger and tried to peer into my eyes. 

I stepped back a few paces and looked down to the ground. "Bye," I told it, then rushed off. My nerves were jangling and damn I was confused. 

I supposed I still needed some getting used to the fact that if I had Noah as a boyfriend, I was bound to get affection from him in public since he clearly wasn't one to hide his feelings, and that I should be expecting it. Taking a deep breath, I forced the red from my cheeks to fade away, then got my books for maths from my locker and headed down to roll call.