Page 35 of The Secret Of Us

I freeze. Noah peeks his head through the crack in the slightly open door, glancing around the room before his eyes land on me. He opens it fully then, stepping in and closing it behind him before approaching me.

“Thanks for coming,” I say.

Noah doesn’t say anything else, and we both stand awkwardly looking at each other. Something I’ve come to notice about Noah is that he always keeps his head down except for when he speaks to me. When we talk, he keeps his gaze trained on me, as if he’s trying to read my mind through all the little expressions on my face.

I don’t want him to worry about another rumour, but I don’t have a solution to remedy it either. I thought I’d buy myself some time by asking him to meet me at lunch. I spent all morning racking my brain, trying to figure out how to get everyone to stop spreading it. But I couldn’t think of a single thing.

Now, Noah’s in front of me, his lips pressed into a thin line and his hazel eyes focused on me. I don’t have anything to say to him that can help. I’m worried that whatever I do, I’ll make it worse for him.

“Shall we sit down?” he says, breaking the silence as he gestures toward the desks.

“I don’t think anything in here has been cleaned in months,” I tell him and his breathy laugh catches me by surprise. It helps to cut through the tension, and the air in the room feels easier to breathe than it did when I first got here.

I consider my next words, trying to figure out the best way to start this conversation. Instead, I end up saying how I really feel.

“I just don’t want people to keep saying stuff about you.”

The corners of his mouth perk up for a second before they drop again, the ghost of a smile on his face.

“I’m fine, really,” he says, nodding. “I figured out how to ignore them all pretty quickly.”

“It shouldn’t even be something you have to ignore.” For some reason, it seems I’m more frustrated about this than Noah is. “I don’t know how exactly, but I’ll get them all to stop talking. I can get the girls to shut down any conversations they overhear about us. Something else will probably pop up soon, and we’ll be old news.”

Hazel eyes fix on mine as he tilts his head to the side and I mirror him, worrying my bottom lip between my teeth.

“Honestly, Izzy, I’m more concerned about you,” he says, surprising me. “Ryan’s already been borderline harassing you, and this might make it worse.”

“Or maybe he’ll realise I don’t want anything to do with him ever again.”

My eyes widen, an idea popping into my head and the different endings playing out in my mind. It might be too much, and maybe Noah will run away and never want to speak to me again. I let myself say it before I can overthink it.

“Maybe we should date.”

Noah’s jaw drops open, his eyes wide as I scramble to give more context.

“Not really date,” I say, waving my hands in front of him. “I mean, we can pretend we are and maybe that’ll finally get him off my back.”

He considers me for a moment, and surprisingly, it seems like he’s actually giving it some thought. Noah runs his hands through his hair, shaking his head lightly so it sits back perfectly again. I keep going.

“It might help you, too. People might stop talking about you as much if they know I like you.” He must think I have the biggest ego in the world. I start blabbering, not making eye contact with him as my hands flail around, the idea seeming worse and worse the more I stumble over my words. “Not that I’m anything special, I’m not saying that. I just think?—“

“You are,” he cuts me off.

I blink a few times, my face warming and my stomach swooping, and I have to force myself not to think too much about what he meant by that. I shake myself out of it, holding up both hands in front of him as I stare down at our feet.

“Actually, forget I said anything at all. I’m gonna go now.”

I give him a double thumbs up, then quickly retract them, and silently wonder how many times I can keep embarrassing myself in front of him. He makes me so nervous that I keep doing weird things.

I move to walk past him, letting out a long exhale. I have to stop myself from breaking out into a run in case I embarrass myself any further. I’m halfway to the door when he finally speaks.

“It’s not a bad idea.”

I stop. I keep my stare focused straight ahead on my escape route, not daring to face him. The floorboard creaks, and the sound of footsteps gradually slows until Noah stands in front of me. He doesn’t give me a choice to look anywhere but at him.

“It could work.” He keeps his voice low, his tone gentle, and it reminds me of how I used to speak to him at the start when I was scared of spooking him. “If you think it’ll help you, then we can do it.”

My eyes flit across his face, searching for any sign that he might be saying it just to make me feel better, but there’s nothing of the sort. He’s completely sincere. He’d really do this for me.

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