Page 94 of The Secret Of Us

Call me when you’re free

I get ready for bed by showering and changing into one of Noah’s hoodies, but when I check my phone again, there’s still no response from him. It’s late, so maybe he got back from dinner and went straight to sleep. He’ll text me in the morning when he wakes up, and I can tell him everything then.

When I lie down, I face the right side of my bed, like I’ve done every night for the past week. But for the first time, I don’t fall asleep to the sound of Noah’s voice in my ears.

* * *

As soon asI wake up, I check my phone. Still nothing.

The worry that I’ve been forcing down since last night sits heavy in my gut, and I text Luke to try to get any kind of update. He calls me a few minutes later.

“He left yesterday.” Luke’s voice is somber. “He had a family emergency in Korea, so he flew straight from here. I dropped him off at the airport and told him to let me know when he landed, but I haven’t heard anything else from him since.”

My ears ring as Luke speaks, not believing anything he’s saying. I can’t think of a single thing to say, my mind racing with a thousand possibilities of how bad something had to be for him to leave early and fly all the way to Korea.

“Give him time, Izzy,” Luke says before he hangs up.

A few seconds later, I hear Isaac’s phone ringing, and I know it’s Luke. I stay frozen in my bed, listening to the muffled sound of his voice and the heavy sigh he lets out.

Izzy

I’m sorry

Please just let me know you’re okay

I don’t hear from Noah for a month.

33

NOAH

“Noah.”

I lift my head when I hear Izzy’s voice for the first time in a month. She’s staring down at me, opening and closing her mouth like she’s lost for words. I don’t expect her to say anything at all to me, considering I disappeared for a month and haven’t spoken to her at all.

I stand up, dusting off my jeans and hoping she can’t tell that my left leg is asleep from sitting in front of her door for so long. I thought she would return earlier, right after classes ended, but she must have been with her friends because it’s already late evening.

“Hi,” I say, all other words escaping me.

I can’t believe she’s right in front of me. I see the way her eyes flit over my face, the way she keeps blinking as if she can’t believe I’m real.

I don’t feel real, haven’t for the past month.

“What are you doing here? Where have you been?” she asks, her voice quiet as she steps closer to me.

I notice the twitch of her hands, how she curls her fingers into her palm instead of reaching for me.

“Can we talk?” I nod my head toward her room, hoping she’ll invite me in so we can have this conversation in private.

I’ve already had enough looks from the other girls on her floor from sitting here for so long. I don’t want an audience for this, too.

“Yeah, come in.”

She brushes past me to open the door, and I can already feel my heart caving in at being so close to her again.

I follow her into her room, closing the door behind me. She sits at her desk, but I stay standing. I don’t know if it’s okay for me to lean on her desk or sit on her bed like I used to.

We’re both silent for a moment as we take each other in. Her hair isn’t blonde anymore, back to the dark brown she told me was her natural colour. Her green eyes shimmer, a thousand questions in them. She still looks as beautiful as I remember.

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