Chapter 22
I was running late to PE. I’d left my sneakers in my dorm room this morning and had to rush back to get them before making my way across campus to the school gym. I hadn’t had a chance to change yet either. I was almost to the locker room when a hand snaked out and caught hold of me from behind.
“What’s the rush?”
I gasped and turned to find Wes grinning down at me. He’d just emerged from the boys’ locker room, so I hadn’t seen him coming. He was already dressed for our sports lesson and didn’t have nearly the same urgency about him that I was feeling.
“I’m running late.”
He laughed and looked down at my school uniform. “I can see that.”
“And you’re not helping. I need to get changed.”
His smile simply widened. “You’re cute when you’re flustered.”
“Still not helping.” I blushed at the ease with which he called me cute and how it made me feel.
He shouldn’t be calling me cute. And he shouldn’t be standing so close to me.
I was trying to forget about the kiss we shared in his room, but it was all I could think about when his body was pressed against mine like this.
“You better get a move on, or you’ll be late to class,” he murmured.
I scowled at him because I had a feeling he knew exactly the direction my thoughts had been tracking. “That’s what I was saying,” I complained before turning to dart into the girls’ locker room. His soft laughter followed behind me.
I changed in what must have been record time before rushing to the basketball courts. One of my shoelaces was undone, and my hair was a mess from throwing my top over my head, but I didn’t care. I could fix it all when I got to class. I just hoped I wouldn’t get a detention.
I’d been worried about being late to class, but the teacher hadn’t shown up yet either, and most of the students were milling around on the bleachers.
I joined Cress and Anna on one of the benches, and as I sat, I noticed Noah scowling at me from the other side of the court.
I had no idea what I’d done to piss him off, but I chose to ignore him.
“No Coach August yet?” I asked the girls.
Anna started to respond, but as she did, the teacher walked into view. “We’re moving on to squash today, everyone,” he said. “So, we’re going over to the squash courts.”
There were a few groans from the class, but I wasn’t sure why. I’d never played squash before, but it looked like fun. I stood with Anna and Cress and was about to follow the rest of the class, but Coach August came over to me.
“Not you, Miss Grace,” he said. “You still haven’t completed the beep test from the first class of term.
You’ll be undertaking it today along with one other student.
I won’t be here to oversee it, so I’m putting a lot of faith in you to be honest with your results.
If you score yourself higher than you actually achieve, you’ll have no room for improvement this year. You’ll only be failing yourself.”
“Yes, Coach,” I replied, as Cress and Anna both grimaced in my direction. Squash was looking really good right about now.
He turned and joined the rest of the class leaving the gym while Anna and Cress continued to hover at my side.
“This sucks,” Cress said. “I thought he’d forgotten about your beep test.”
“Me too,” I replied. “I guess I better get it over with.”
The girls shared sympathetic smiles.
“Maybe we can go to Toddy’s after school for milkshakes to make you feel better?” Cress suggested.
“That sounds really great,” I replied. “I think I’ll need a pick-me-up.”
“It’s a date then. We’ll see you after class.” The girls waved and then lightly jogged to catch up with the rest of the class, disappearing from the gym far too quickly.
Once they were out of sight, I turned to search for the cones and the stereo Coach August had left behind for me. Only it wasn’t the cones I noticed when I turned. Noah was standing there waiting for me.
“What are you doing? Wait, you’re the one who’s redoing the test?”
“I didn’t get the result I was after.” Noah shrugged.
“Besides, I asked to redo it weeks ago so you wouldn’t have to take it alone.
It was back when we were…” He didn’t need to finish his sentence.
I knew he was talking about when we were dating.
It was sweet he’d done that, but it made things awkward now.
“Well, I’m sure Coach August will understand if you tell him you don’t want to retake it.
” I was sure the last thing Noah wanted was to spend an entire class alone with me.
I certainly wasn’t keen given the way things were between us.
Everything felt relatively civil, especially after he took care of me last week in New York, but that didn’t mean it was easy to be around him.
It hurt to be in his presence. To feel my heart tugging me toward him and know I couldn’t act on it.
And there was always an underlying tension.
Whenever he was near, it was like the air was snapped taut between us, and it didn’t matter whether I liked him, hated him, or wanted nothing to do with him, that feeling was always there.
“Who said I don’t want to retake it?” he replied.
I let out a sigh. I was trying to give him an easy way out, but apparently Noah was a glutton for pain. “I guess we better get started then.”
I walked over to the stereo that had been left on the ground and turned on the recording before walking to the first cone. Noah came and stood right by me. We had the whole court to ourselves; did he really have to stand so close?
The test didn’t start right away. There was a monologue at the start of the recording explaining how it all worked. I wasn’t sure I heard a single word. I was too focused on Noah. If we were going to be stuck together like this, then I had something I needed to ask him.
“I saw you on Friday,” I said as we waited.
He seemed confused by my comment. “That’s hardly surprising seeing as we were both on the same field trip.”
“Except you weren’t on the field trip,” I said. “I saw you outside my father’s building.”
A flicker of surprise shot through Noah’s gaze. He quickly covered it with a shrug. “So, we both skipped The Met. Again, not that surprising.”
“Given your history with my family, it was kind of surprising. What were you doing there?”
“Certainly not seeing your father, if that’s what you’re getting at,” he said. His features twisted with such distaste I reeled back from him.
I wasn’t going to be put off by the irritation in his eyes. “So, what were you doing there then?”
“That’s really none of your business.”
“I guess I’ll just have to ask my father then.”
Noah huffed in response. “Like I said, my visit had nothing to do with him, so he won’t be able to tell you. If you must know, I was there to see my lawyer. He has the great misfortune of sharing an office building with The LaFleur Corporation.”
“Oh,” I murmured. Wes had mentioned there were other offices in the building. Maybe it was a simple coincidence. I couldn’t imagine why a seventeen-year-old needed to see a lawyer, but Noah wasn’t your average teen.
“So, is being nosy something we do now?” Noah asked. “Because you looked awfully close with Wes outside the gym just before...”
I shot him a scowl. I didn’t need to explain myself to him. Still, I found myself taking the bait. “Wes and I are friends; of course, we’re close.”
“It looked more than friendly to me.”
“Well, you must be seeing things. Maybe you should get your eyes checked out?”
Thankfully the first beep of the test finally sounded, and I started to jog, eager to get away from Noah. He fell in right beside me, his feet slapping against the ground in perfect unison with my own.
“I’ve heard things too,” he said after we’d done several laps between the two cones. Apparently, he wasn’t done with our discussion. I definitely was, and I chose to ignore his comment. “Sawyer likes to talk a lot at soccer training.”
“He likes to talk a lot period,” I muttered. “But I prefer not to talk when I’m running.”
I wondered if Noah was trying to hint that he knew Wes and I had kissed. I had a bad feeling that was exactly what he was getting at, and I really didn’t want to talk about it with him.
Noah remained silent for several more laps. We were already jogging quite quickly, and my breaths were beginning to come in faster. He barely sounded puffed in comparison, but that was hardly a surprise given how fit he was.
“Are the two of you together?” His voice hitched slightly as he spoke.
I stopped in the middle of the court and turned to him. “Why are you asking me this?” I said between exhausted breaths. “Why do you care?”
He’d stopped barely a foot away from me, his green eyes stormy and filled with pain. “You know I still care. It’s just… I didn’t think you’d move on from us so fast.”
“I can move on however fast I want,” I replied. “You broke up with me. You don’t get to dictate how I move on.”
“You are with him then?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m not. We’re friends, just like I told you.”
“So, you’re kissing your friends now?”
“I’m kissing whoever can make me forget about you for just one moment.
You think I’m moving on too fast, but that’s just the problem.
I can’t seem to move on from you at all.
You didn’t just break my heart when we broke up, you decimated it, and no matter what I do, I can’t fit the pieces back together again.
So, yeah, I kissed Wes, and maybe I’ll do it again.
We can’t be together, and I’m trying to accept that. Maybe you need to accept that too.”
I turned to walk away, but Noah called after me. “You think it’s easy for me to accept losing the best thing that’s ever happened to me?”
His words were a dagger straight to my heart, and I glanced over my shoulder at him. “If you really felt that way, we never would have broken up.”