Special thank you to @FandomFreak9383 for helping me write his whole story, she's been my writing buddy and editor throughout this whole process and she is also working on her own story - The Cat Ships It - which you should probably go take a look at ;)

~Monday, January 3rd~

Not long after I sit down in my usual seat near the front of class next to some of my acquaintances I watch Noah walk into the classroom, barely making it into the room before the second bell rings. Much to my disappointment, I can still see fire in his eyes. Maybe standing up to him wasn't such a good idea.

All class I try to focus on the lesson in case it is on a quiz anytime soon, but I feel heat on the back of my head that I know is caused by Noah's intense glare from the back of the classroom. I try to ignore him as much as I can, and there's no way I would risk turning around in fear of being blasted by his laser-like vision. But you know what they say, if you ignore your problems they'll just get bigger.

Somebody somewhere probably says that.

Sure enough my problem grows like a pot of water that's been boiling for too long and is ready to bubble over. I hear shuffling and crinkling of paper from behind me and to my right but I refuse looking at what is going on. Mrs Linn turns to write the next point of our notes on the board and I lean forward to write it in my notebook as well. Suddenly a balled up piece of white paper lands on my desk, causing me to freeze mid-word in my notes. I slowly un-crinkle the paper, already anticipating who it is from. Flattening it out with my hands, I read "Nobody talks back to me and gets away with it. Do yourself a favor and wait outside of the classroom after the bell rings so we can finish our conversation. -NT"

It looks like I won't be using that pot of water to make mac n' cheese anytime soon.

I re-crinkle the paper into a wad and place it in my bag to be recycled later - no need to draw anymore attention to myself by getting up now. But I know there's no way I'm staying afterclass, that would definitely not be doing myself a favor, it would be giving myself a death wish. I'll have to rush out of here as fast as possible and pray he'll give up on hunting me down. Somebody else probably says that confrontation is the best way to resolve an issue, but I'm just going to ignore that one and let this fizzle down on its own. Two minutes before the bell will ring I begin putting away my things, and soon the entire class hears the rustling of my things and takes the social cue that we're almost free. Mrs Linn turns around from the board.

"Stop packing up, we still have two full minutes left of class." Okay, what? Is two minutes really that big of a deal? We're only given five minutes in between classes, the best teachers could do is let everyone pack up just a tiny bit early. Nonetheless, no one stops packing up, we just pack up slower and quieter, taking one object off our desks at a time instead of a whole pile at once. Highschooler logic.

As soon as the bell rings I book it, swinging my bag over one shoulder and not even taking the time to push in my chair before I dash out of the classroom towards homeroom, not risking a look behind me to try to find the monster himself.

~~~~~

I plop down in my seat next to Olivia in the bustling cafeteria, my other friends surrounding us. Then I grab my small lunchbox from my bag, pulling out the salad and protein bar that I packed last night.

"Any more conversation from Andrew?" Olivia begins with one of my least favorite subjects to talk about.

"Nope. But I'm sure he'll come apologize to me by the end of the week."

"And what about Noah?"

"He passed me a note in calculus threateningly asking me to talk to him right after class, but I practically ran to homeroom. Like you said, the more witnesses the better next time I have to encounter him," I explain. Olivia swallows her food slowly.

"Speak of the devil and he will appear," she says looking behind me before ducking her head down, letting her blonde hair cover her face.

"What?" I say dumbly before I feel a finger tap my shoulder, immediately explaining what she meant. I place my fork down and slowly turn around, trying to keep calm.

"How can I help you?" I say when I meet the eyes of not only Noah, but thank goodness Cameron too. I see Noah's expression reblaze at my snarky question.

"You ran away from me earlier, join me outside the cafeteria so we can finish our conversation?" Noah says, making it sound more like a statement than a question. I gulp down my saliva, and probably my dignity too. Before I even get a chance to respond he turns and walks out the doors of the cafeteria. I turn to Olivia and she gives me an expression which clearly means If you're in your right mind you won't even think about following him, but she doesn't say anything since Cameron is still standing next to her. Half of my mind and probably most of my logic says she's right, but the rest of my conscience says I should go out there, appologize, then come back inside and never have to talk to him again. Simple.

"Don't worry, I calmed him down. He won't hurt you or anything," Cameron interrupts my internal monologue, probably seeing my thought process written across my forehead. I huff out a breath.

"Fine. If I'm not back in five minutes, call the police," I say to Olivia before reluctantly getting up from my seat, leaving my uneaten lunch on the table. A few paces before I reach the door I look back at our table to find Cameron sitting in my seat talking to Olivia, whose cheeks are slowly turning a soft pink. Atleast something good is coming out of this.

I open one of the double doors and look down the hallway to my left, finding Noah casually leaning his back against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. Even with the intimidating situation I can't help but notice how attractive he is, his hair slightly disheveled and muscles taut across his arms.

"Finally, I thought I was going to have to go in there and drag you out with me," he says when he notices me. My plan is simple: apologize like my life is on the line (it likely is) and then run back into the cafeteria where there are more witnesses.

"Look Noah, I didn't mean for the locker to hit your head, honestly. Olivia and I were both worked up because of Andrew and she said something that made me shove her - gently of course, I would never hit her - and she bumped into her locker and it bumped into your head and-" I begin to ramble before I am cut off.

"Will you please shut up," Noah says giving me a bored look. Well at least he said please? "I didn't get you out here to make you apologize to me, I could've done that anywhere. What I want to know is why you lied to me."

"What?"

"I know you lied to me. Obviously you didn't push Olivia into her locker door, she just opened it too wide. But why you lied is much more interesting, so spill."

"I didn't-"

"Don't even bother," he cuts me off again. Yes, I did lie to him, but admitting to it would be like letting him win, and the way he's been treating me makes me want to avoid that. Then again, he already has his mind set on what happens to be the truth, and he's so stubborn I'm not sure I'd be able to convince him otherwise. After much debate crammed into about two seconds of thought, I decide I have to give in.

"Fine. Yes I lied to you." Noah smirks in victory.

"Why?"

"Umm..." Should I lie to him again? Odds are he'd probably figure it out. But there's no way I'm telling him the truth. "Because," I say intelligently. All he does is scoff and wait for me to continue. "I'm not telling you," I decide.

"Why not."

"It's private information," I say quickly, technically not lying. His eyes narrow at me and I take his confusion as a chance for escape, turning around and speed walking back into the cafeteria. As soon as I open the doors I spot Olivia and Cameron still talking at our table. Their heads turn to me when I get closer to them and Cameron stands up out of my seat.

"See you later Liv," I hear him say before he walks off. I plop down in my seat and immediately Olivia begins to question me.

"How did it go, what did he want?"

"As soon as I walked out there I started apologizing, because obviously I was scared, but he made me stop and instead asked me why I lied to him by saying it was my fault. I tried to convince him I hadn't lied, but he wouldn't buy it. Obviously I wasn't going to tell him the truth about why I did that, so I just said it was personal information and left," I explain.

"Theresa I can't thank you enough. Not only have you managed to cover for me twice now, but while you were gone Cameron sat here comforting me about how he made sure nothing would happen to you. It was the cutest thing ever, I was melting!"

"Comforting you? If anyone needed comforting it was me!" I say smiling at her. "I did see you two talking before I left, you were blushing a lot."

"I was?" She says, beginning to blush again.

"Don't worry about it, he probably thought it was cute."

"Well at least you survived that conversation," Olivia says.

"Yes, looking on the brightside, I did. However, with the way it ended, it probably won't be the last conversation I'll have with him." But I've managed to keep Olivia's secret for about a year now, and there was no way I was giving up yet.

Girls just don't spill about their best friend's crush.

~~~~~

Written 7/7/17, Published 8/3/17

Chapter 2 is up! I just started school this past week (ugh) but that shouldn't change my updating schedule at all - I am determined this time!