Page 41 of The Secret Of Us

We pass the rest of the walk back to the dorms in silence, and I gradually catch up to her so we’re walking side by side again. When we reach the split, Izzy starts to take her arms out of my hoodie, but I stop her.

“You can just give it to me tomorrow.”

“Oh, okay. Thanks.” She smiles again, and this one does something strange to my stomach.

“See you tomorrow,” I tell her as she starts to walk backward toward her building.

“Goodnight, Noah.” She spins on her heel, and I stay rooted where I’m standing, watching until she makes it safely inside.

15

IZZY

I’m not expectingNoah to already be in the classroom when I enter it, but he’s sitting at our desk. He usually arrives as close to the bell as possible every morning. I assume it’s so he can avoid having to listen to everyone talk about him. But he’s shown up early today, and I can’t help but think it’s for me.

I walk toward him, and I don’t know why my stomach feels like it’s doing backflips when we’ve sat next to each other every morning since the first day of school. Things feel different after our conversation last night though.

It was nice to talk to him like that, even if we were mainly speaking about the ridiculous plan I’ve come up with. I’m still surprised he’s agreed to go along with it, but I’m grateful he’s willing to take a chance and didn’t go running for the hills instead.

Noah’s attention is focused on his phone, but when he looks up and notices I’m nearly at our desk, he pulls my chair out for me. The unexpected gesture has my steps faltering, and I can feel my face getting warmer.

Last night, I never mentioned him having to do anything like that, so it’s not something I expected.

I like it more than I should.

I can’t hide the smile on my face as I sit down.

“Hey,” he says casually, the corners of his mouth lifted slightly. I’m still waiting to see his full smile.

“Hi. Thanks for that,” I say, as he gently pushes the chair forward to tuck it under the desk.

“It’s nothing.”

It feels like something to me.

He keeps his hand on the back of my chair, his fingertips brushing my spine in a way that sends shivers down it. I don’t take my eyes off Noah, but I can feel the whole class looking at us.

“Weird, right?” he says, his gaze focused on me. “How you can feel all their eyes on you?”

“Very weird,” I confirm, and then I’m hit with a wave of annoyance at myself. Noah’s been dealing with this every day since school started, and I’ve made it worse for him.

I chew on my lips, my hands tightening in my lap. But then Noah’s hand is pressed flat against my back, and I instantly relax into his touch.

“Don’t worry,” he says quietly, turning his full body to face me, his knee grazing my thigh. “They’ll get bored soon.”

“How does this not bother you?” I ask him. It’s barely been a couple of minutes, and I already want to yell at everyone to tell them to stop.

And even though he may not be, I amextremelybothered right now. I blame it on everyone looking at us rather than the supernaturally heightened feeling I have in every place that he’s touching me.

“I knew it would happen when I joined. They’re going to talk regardless, so why should I let it get under my skin?”

It’s such a level-headed answer that it throws me. He’s completely right though. Everyone formed an opinion without even talking to him. He could either let it get to him or not, and he’s chosen not to.

“That’s very mature of you,” I tell him.

From the moment I walked in, I felt some mixture of anger, embarrassment, or something else bubbling under the surface and threatening to spill out. It would be all too easy to raise my voice and tell them to look elsewhere, but that would just be feeding into what they want.

Noah just shrugs, his hand still on my back, and his body still turned to me, when Mrs. Harper enters the room. She takes attendance and does some general announcements, but I can’t pay attention to anything because my focus is entirely concentrated on where Noah is still touching me. If people weren’t talking about us before, they certainly will now.

---