Page 23 of Overeager
“Yeah.” Noah cleared his throat, his eyes on his laptop. “We’ve, um, met before.”
It was weird keeping secrets. Normally Noah would have told his roommates first thing once he’d found Eli, especially after all that moping he’d been doing about not getting a text. But with how freaked out Eli had been about their … statuses, Noah wasn’t going to go blabbing it to everyone. He was young—as Eli loved to point out—but he wasn’t stupid.
Unfortunately, neither was Chase.
“You said your older omega was a teacher. The one from Sedona.”
“Yeah.” Noah nodded. Super casual. Super chill. “Middle school.”
“You said youthoughtit was middle school,” Chase corrected mildly, fiddling with the spine of one of Noah’s textbooks. “You hadn’t actually asked him.”
“Oh. Um. Right.”
“And I’ve noticed you haven’t been checking your phone for texts like a fucking maniac. Not since Monday.”
“Yep.” Noah kept staring at his laptop. He wasn’t reading a word—the screen starting to blur as he lost focus—but who the fuck needed to know that? “I gave up. He’s not gonna text.”
There was a long silence, then Chase spoke, so softly Noah almost missed it. “I’m not going to tell.”
Noah finally took his eyes off his laptop. Chase was looking back at him, calm and not at all expectant. Like Noah could tell him it was none of his business and he wouldn’t be offended.
“There’s nothing to tell,” Noah told him, and when Chase gave him a wounded look at the blatant lie, he added, “Because if therewassomething to tell, it wouldn’t be my secret. Or, you know, I wouldn’t be the one hurt by it in the end. You get it?”
Chase’s expression cleared, and Noah grinned. He wasn’t freaked out Chase had figured it out, not exactly. Chase wasn’t a blab or anything. Noah just didn’t want to say it out loud. Notwhen Eli was the one whose job could be in jeopardy if word got around.
Still, it was a relief to have a friend who might be in his corner, even if he didn’t know any of the details.
Noah’s grin turned mischievous as he leaned into Chase’s space. “Hey, did you know our university doesn’t have an official fraternization policy between students and professors?”
Chase’s eyes widened. “What?”
“Like, I’m sure it’s still frowned upon majorly, but it’s not in writing. Some universities have it in writing.”
Noah knew because he’d checked. And double-checked. And triple-checked. He was going to be engaging in a battle for Eli’s affection, and the battle was going to be between Noah’s charm and Eli’s common sense. No way was Noah walking into a thing like that unprepared.
Chase nodded slowly, his lips twitching at the corners. “Interesting, man.”
“Yeah.” Noah grinned so wide it made his face hurt. “Interesting.”
And then he let out a loud “oomph!” as he was hit with a twenty-ton weight. A.k.a. Spencer, who’d dive-bombed on top of him on the bed and was now rubbing his nose into Noah’s hair, obnoxiously scenting him as Noah fought for his life. “What’s so interesting? And don’t say homework. You two are nerdy enough as it is.”
It was a ridiculous thing to say, considering Spencer had perfect grades. He was anal as fuck about his academic scholarship, and he didn’t take any chances with it.
“We’re discussing babes,” Noah told him dryly, giving up the fight and letting himself be flattened into the mattress. It was the only way with Spencer. If Noah tried too hard to buck him off, he’d just turn it into some all-out wrestling match.
“No, you’re not,” Spencer said. “Without me?”
He let out an oomph of his own as Chase decked him with one of Noah’s pillows.
Noah prepared himself for that to turn into the exact kind of wrestling match he’d been trying to avoid, but Spencer let the pillow bounce off him, tucking his head into Noah’s shoulder instead. “Hey,” he said, uncharacteristically subdued.
Shit. Had someone died?
“You know I’m sorry about Sedona, right? I didn’t know.”
“I know you didn’t.” Noah reached a hand behind his back to blindly pat somewhere in the direction of Spencer’s shoulder. “We’re good, man.” He wasn’t going to hold a grudge over something like that, especially not after he’d found Eli again.
“You’re not avoiding me?”
