Page 48 of It Was Always You

"He what?" Finally, it was her turn to be the most uncomfortable person in this conversation.

I nodded, not having to fake my confidence quite as much now. "I think he felt sorry for you." I shrugged and broadened my smile. "But I'm actually really happy that you brought it up. Because you have no idea how hard it has been to see those soft lips of his at school and not just kiss him in front of everyone."

She didn't say anything, just pressed her lips together and stared straight ahead.

We were almost to the cafeteria now, and I needed to make sure I came out of this conversation swinging.

"So can I tell Noah that you don't mind?" I waited for her reaction.

The corners of her mouth slowly turned up into what I could only describe as a smile-grimace. "Of course you can tell him. Don't let me stop you."

In the cafeteria, my gaze immediately zeroed in on Noah who was already sitting at our table. It was amazing how instantly my senses were able to find him now. Like I had some sort of Noah tracker in my brain.

Before we could reach him, I turned to Raven. "Thank you so much for chatting with me. I can't wait to tell Noah."

I scooted my seat closer to Noah, my palms getting all sweaty. I wiped them on my pants, trying to get them less clammy in case Noah decided to hold hands again.

"I need to talk to you," I whispered. "Something came up with Raven."

Noah glanced at Raven who was setting her purse down and taking her seat.

"Private conversation or public?"

"Private."

"Okay, come with me." Noah tugged on my hand and pulled me out of the room. I only caught a slight glimpse of Raven's reaction, but I hoped she assumed we were sneaking away to make-out.

Noah pulled me through the cafeteria's back exit, down the hall, and then to the stairs that led to the gym.

"Is this private enough?" He stopped us about halfway down the stairs.

"Yeah."

"So what did you need to talk about? Does Raven know that I slept at your house last night?"

I covered his mouth with my hand and quickly looked around. "Shh. Don't say that here."

"I thought this was private enough."

I shook my head. I didn’t think there was a place secluded enough for us to start talking aboutthat. I could still barely believe it was real. An image of us standing inmy closet, so close with his hand caressing my arm, came to mind.

I blinked my eyes to get the memory out of my head, telling myself that it hadn’t been a romantic moment. He'd just seen something in my glasses after he'd kept me from falling over like a klutzy fool.

I drew in a deep breath and stared into his dark eyes. "Do you still want to continue this fake-relationship thing?"

A worried crease formed on his brow. "Why do you ask?

"Raven was asking me questions today, and I'm thinking she might be onto us."

He leaned in closer. "What kind of questions?"

"Um..." I tried to remember, but the way he was looking at me made it hard for my brain to form coherent thoughts. I had to look at my hands, unable to return his intense gaze. "She asked me why we never kiss in public." I blew out a long breath and adjusted my glasses. "She said you've never had a problem with PDA before, and so something must be off with the way you feel about me."

He scrubbed a hand over his face. "She really is paying attention, isn't she?"

I nodded. "So what are we going to do about it?" I dared to look at him, anxious for his answer.

"Do you think we need to do something about it?" His voice was more gravelly than usual, and my mind had areally, really hard time not thinking about how it sounded super sexy.

---