Page 58 of It Was Always You

Lexi seemed to finally break out of the daze from her nap—her eyes went wide and she jumped off the couch. "We were just working on Noah's school project and I fell asleep."

Her dad narrowed his gaze, clearly not believing her. "I think it's time for you to go home, Noah."

I launched myself out of that couch, faster than I'd ever moved before. "Uh, yeah. Of course, Mr. Stevens. I was just leaving anyway."

I slipped past him, feeling his glare burn a hole in theback of my head as I walked up the stairs. I could just imagine him debating whether to grab his shotgun.

My hands were shaking as I pulled on my letterman jacket. I was about to walk outside when I heard Mr. Stevens' voice again, speaking to Lexi. "You can stay sitting, Lexi. We need to have a talk."

19

LEXI

My dad satdown on the other side of the couch. I wasn't usually afraid of him since he was my dad, but he didn’t look happy at all. And I had a feeling it had everything to do with him finding me at home alone with Noah Taylor. I'd fallen asleep while watching a movie, but that wasn't a crime, was it?

My dad looked at me with his stern expression. "Is there something going on between you and Noah?"

What exactly had he seen? Did he somehow find out that Noah had slept in my closet last night? Or had someone said something to him about Noah and I pretending to date?

"What do you mean?" I asked, hoping my non-committal answer wouldn't make him even more upset.

"I saw the way you were laying on him. We have rules,Lexi." Okay, so he didn't know about everything else. But this still wasn't good.

"Laying on him?" My voice squeaked. I'd been sleeping, but I hadn't been sprawled on Noah, had I?

"Don't play stupid with me. Why were you two sitting alone in the dark basement?"

My stomach shrunk in on itself. When he put it like that, it soundedreallybad.

"I wasn't l-laying on Noah." I stuttered. "We were watching a movie for his class, and I fell asleep. And we weren't even alone—Jake Haley was here, too."

Where had Jake gone, anyway? How long had I been asleep?

"You were alone with that boy when I got home. I wouldn't put it past Noah to pull some kind of stunt with you. Just yesterday, his dad was telling me about how Noah’s always getting into trouble. I don't want you spending time with him anymore. In fact, I'm going to talk to Easton about it when he gets home."

Frustration bubbled up inside me, my muscles tensed into knots. He couldn't do that.

"His dad doesn't have any idea what's going on with Noah."

"His dad thinks he's getting into drugs."

"His dad is a jerk who doesn't even take five minutes to listen to his son," I said before I could think better of it. At my father's glare, I shut my mouth.

"Then why else would Noah be getting into fights all the time? Mr. Taylor says he's pretty much emptied his bank account in the past week."

Because he's homeless!I wanted to shout. And I wanted to march up to Mr. Taylor and tell him what was really going on with his son. But I bit down the words. That was Noah's secret to tell. I made him a promise and I wanted him to trust me.

So I said the only thing I could. "He's not getting into drugs. I would know if he was."

"And why would you know, Lexi? Are you sure there isn't anything going on between you two?" Dad narrowed his eyes at me, and I couldn't get over the feeling that he might see right through me.

"I just know, Dad. Nothing’s going on."

"Didn't look like nothing from the look on that boy's face when he saw me. That was the look of trouble."

What had Noah been doing while I was sleeping? My dad made it sound like I was on top of Noah. Had I really fallen asleep on him...and he didn’t shove me away? Was it possible that he was okay with me being so close to him? I really hoped I didn't snore.

I shook my head. "We're barely friends. He just needed a place to watch a movie for class."

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