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~Thursday April 28th~

"Do you remember when you locked me in a classroom?" Noah immediately begins laughing, the vibrations in his chest very noticeable from my current position. Noah woke up before my alarm went off this morning, and though it wasn't his intention, he woke me up as well by running his fingers through my slightly knotted hair. He apologized for waking me up but I really didn't mind, since this is probably one of the first times ever that I've woken up early and not been mad about it. Throughout the night we shifted sleeping positions so that when I woke up, my head was resting on Noah's shoulder with both of his arms around my waist, holding me close to him.

"Oh yes, I remember that," Noah says with a genuine smile, then kisses the top of my head.

"Why on earth did you do that? You really could have just talked to me like a normal person instead of kidnapping me," I ask what I have wanted to know since that day.

"Technically, I didn't kidnap you," Noah starts, but that's not what I was getting at.

"Whatever," I cut him off. "Why?" I ask again.

"The reason why I didn't just talk to you in the hallway was because of how mad I made you the day before, I didn't think you would be willing to talk to me. Now before you deny that," Noah says, seeing my confused face, "I didn't know you back then like I do now. Now I know that you're too genuinely nice to hold a grudge about something like that, and I would have been fine. But I didn't know that back then. Also..." Noah trails off and looks down at me, only peaking my curiosity.

"What?" I urge him on.

"Well, I had pretty much just then realized that not only did I like you, but I also wanted you to be mine, and no one else's. For that to happen, you had to like me back, though. I'm pretty used to girls wanting me right away," I roll my eyes at that, "but I knew you didn't. I was a little caught off guard on how to win you over, and pretty desperate to do so."

"So locking me in a classroom seemed like a good move?" I laugh.

"At the time, for some reason, yes. Looking back... it all worked out fine, so sure, good move," Noah smiles down at me before squeezing me into his chest so tight that I can barely breathe.

Noah leaves not long later, since we both have to get ready for school. He kisses me at the front door before he leaves, and promises to find me at school before the first bell rings. I don't doubt that he'll keep that promise.

~~~~~

~Friday, April 26th~

(the next day, NOT the same morning. this is important)

"Theresa?" As soon as I hear his voice alarm bells start ringing in my head, and anger immediately bubbles beneath my skin. I close my locker a little more harshly than usual and walk away from him.

"Theresa, please just talk to me for a second," Andrew follows behind me, but I continue to ignore him.

"It's not what you think, I'm not going to ask you out, I swear," he continues to plea, but I don't believe him. He's tried that too many times before, and I'm so over it.

"Theresa it's really important, please," he begs. I turn to glance at him as I continue walking away from him, and he looks just as pathetic as he sounds.

"It has nothing to do with me and you, I swear. It's Noah." Now this gets my attention a little bit. I'm not sure what Andrew could tell me about Noah that I don't already know, but even still I falter a little bit as I'm walking. I don't express my hesitation and continue down the hall.

"Come on Theresa, I need to tell you something really important." No response.

"I'm not going to leave you alone until I can tell you this." I sigh out of frustration and give in, wanting this to end so bad.

"Fine! Okay! What do you have to say to me Andrew," I say, moving to the side of the hallway so that we aren't in everyone else's way.

"Look at this," Andrew says, holding up his phone. "This is a picture I took of Jessica's phone." It's a picture of a text conversation, apparently between Jessica and "Noah <3" which is the name at the top of the screen. I read the texts supposedly between Jessica and Noah.

Last night was amazing, we should do that again soon. Jessica sent.

Of course baby. I wouldn't do it with anyone else. Noah's response. I stop reading and look up at Andrew.

"Why should I believe you? How would I know that you didn't make this all up yourself?" I can't deny that I am a little hurt from reading those texts. Even though I know they very, very easily could be fake, just the thought of Noah being with Jessica - or anyone -  makes my heart ache.

"Jessica is - or was - my girlfriend," which is honestly news to me, but beside the point, "this hurts me too. I don't want to believe it either Theresa, but it's real. I wish it wasn't, but it is." I'm still suspicious of Andrew. It's not exactly out of character for him to lie straight to my face, but he does seem pretty sincere and hurt by this conversation. I start to panic a little at the thought of this not being a fake trick, what if this is actually happening? What if Noah actually slept with Jessica while we were... talking? What even are Noah and I?

But why on earth should I trust Andrew, after everything he's done to me?

I'm still trying to sort out my thoughts when I see him walking towards us down the hallway. This is my chance to sort things out. I can show Noah what Andrew is showing me, and Noah can show us his phone, and I'm sure it will all be fine.

Andrew can tell that I see something - or someone - down the hallway, and he turns to look too. Noah doesn't see us yet, as he is still pretty far down the hallway, and he walks while looking down at his phone.

"Here he comes, we can get his side of the story," I say to Andrew - still not believing him - and he looks at me hesitantly before looking back at Noah.

I swear she comes out of nowhere. A second ago she wasn't there, and then suddenly Jessica is right in front of him. She places a hand on his chest which makes him look up from his phone, and my eyebrows furrow in confusion as I watch. He puts his phone down and opens his mouth to say something, but before he can she kisses him, right on the lips.

I am a bit surprised by this, so far what Andrew is saying is adding up. But still, this could all be orchestrated. Noah can push her off of him, come running over to me, and explain how he has no idea what she is doing, then show us that those texts were fake. There's still hope.

Just as she pulls away from him and grabs his hand, a crowd of students walks between myself and Noah and Jessica, and when they clear out, they're both gone, walking down the hallway in the opposite direction of me, hand in hand - I assume.

My mouth falls open slightly and tears begin to form in my eyes. I can't believe it! It's one thing for Jessica to force herself on Noah, followed by him then pushing her off of him and leaving her. But for him to let it happen, then walk away from me with her?

I start to panic, because it's all adding up too well. The texts Andrew showed me could be real, but what I just witnessed with my own eyes definitely was. I look back at Andrew as the first tear rolls down my left cheek.

"I'm sorry Theresa. I didn't want to see that either, but maybe now you understand that I'm not making this up. I wish I was," Andrew says, looking like he's in pain too. If there's one thing I know about Andrew from growing up with him as my best friend, it's that he's a terrible actor. He can't fake sadness to save his life, he just bursts out laughing.

I feel myself start to break down so I turn and run away from Andrew to the nearest bathroom. He doesn't deserve to see me weak, even if he just "helped" me by telling me all of this.

I'm grateful that the bathroom is empty, and I run into the first stall and shut the door. I try my best to breathe deeply, so I don't freak out more than necessary. With tears clouding my vision, I take out my phone and text Olivia, telling her to please come meet me in this bathroom, because it's an emergency. She responds right away saying she's on her way. I know she can tell that this is serious, and it is.

"Theresa?" She calls into the bathroom two minutes later. I open the stall door and she sees me. I must look like a mess, tears streaming down my face and hyperventilating. "Oh no honey, what happened?" She doesn't make me answer before pulling me into a tight hug. She lets me cry into her shoulder for a few minutes before pulling me away from her, holding my shoulders. "Theresa you need to tell me what happened so I can help you," she says in a caring, motherly voice.

"Noah... Andrew..." I get out between breaths.

"Did they get into a fight? I would have heard about it by now, and I would think Noah would be comforting you," she guesses, me not having given her much information at all. I shake my head and try to catch my breath more to explain. "Here, sit," she brings me over to the counter that the sinks are on and gets me to sit down on it, then pulls my water bottle out of my bag. After a few big sips, it's easier for me to breathe and I can talk more clearly.

"Andrew showed me a picture of a text conversation between Jessica and Noah, and it was talking about them hooking up," I start.

"Bullshit. I call bullshit. There's no way that's real," Olivia immediately says.

"I know, that's what I thought too, until..."

"Until what Theresa?" She encourages me.

"I saw Noah. He was walking towards us but he didn't see me and then she came out of nowhere and kissed him and led him away and... and he let her. He didn't push her off of him or anything. He went with her, willingly. Probably to have sex in a closet or something," I add on that last part out of anger mostly, though at this point I wouldn't be all that surprised if that's what is happening right now. Just the thought makes me burst into tears again, but this time more out of anger than sadness. "I can't believe I let him fool me into thinking he changed, that he wasn't the stupid player I knew he was. I thought he cared about me. I thought I was special," I meet Olivia's eyes, completely hopeless.

"Oh, Theresa," she says and pulls me into another hug. "I'm so, so sorry. I thought it was different too. I didn't see this coming at all. I'm still not sure if I believe it, but it seems like the evidence is there." I nod into her hug, so incredibly grateful that I have such an amazing friend.

"What would I do without you," I say to her, and she hugs me tighter.

"I'll stick with you all day today, as much as I can. I'll ditch Cameron every second for you. If he knew this was going on, which he might have, then he deserves for me to ignore him anyway."

"I love you, Liv," I sniffle, trying to compose myself.

"I love you too, hon. We're gonna figure this out. Maybe it's all just a big misunderstanding. Either way, I'll be here for you. And worst case scenario, it won't be long until we graduate and move on and you'll never have to see his face again. Alright?" I nod my head, but even after what has happened these past ten minutes, it hurts me to think about never seeing Noah again after graduation. I try to put that feeling away in a box somewhere. It's what needs to happen. "Now let's get you cleaned up, I know you don't want to miss class." I groan loudly.

"Class! I have class with him! What am I supposed to do?" I exclaim as I try to clean up my face, wiping the tears off my cheeks. Olivia takes my hands away from my face and replaces them with a soft tissue.

"You can be confrontational about it, but knowing you you're not going to want to do that," she starts.

"No, I don't want to bring it up. I don't want to cry in class. What if he brings it up?"

"You mean if he admits to it, or just asks you why you seem upset? Because you know he'll be able to tell something is wrong." I sigh

"Yeah, he'll know something is wrong, whether he knows it's him or not." I silently curse the fact that Noah seems to know me better than myself. "If he hasn't admitted it yet then I doubt he will now. Should I just ignore him when he asks me what's wrong?"

"That's probably the best move. That tells him that something is definitely wrong, but that you're not going to talk to him about it," Olivia says. I look at myself in the mirror after she finishes whatever she was doing with my face. I'm definitely not back to normal, but I look more put together and less miserable than I did a few minutes ago. The warning bell rings through the school, telling us we have five minutes until our first class starts, and I reluctantly slide off the counter.

"Thank you Liv," I say, seriously meaning it.

"Of course, I know you would do the same for me," she pulls me into a side hug as we exit the bathroom. "I'll find you as soon as you get out of class, I promise."

"Okay."

"Good luck," she says as we are forced to part ways to get to our respective classes.

"Thanks," I say softly, but she can't hear me anymore. I sigh and walk to history. When I walk in the door to the classroom I see that Noah isn't here yet, luckily. I would have been miserable if I had to ignore his small talk for a full five minutes until the bell. I sit in my normal seat, hoping that Noah won't sit in his usual spot next to me, but I know he will.

A minute before class starts he walks into the room. I don't look up because I don't want to make eye contact, but I know that it's him; an instinct that I'm starting to not like anymore.

"Good morning," he says sweetly, and I despise that I'm already struggling to stay mad at him. Him in the hallway with Jessica just moments ago replays in my mind, and the thought keeps me quiet. "How are you today?" Is he seriously acting like nothing just happened? How long has he been hiding this from me if it's that easy for him to pretend like nothing is going on behind my back? "Teresina?" He says when I don't respond to him, but I continue to keep quiet and not look at him. Mr O'Connor enters the classroom and saves me - I never thought I'd say that about any history teacher - by starting the lesson.

Unfortunately for me, Mr O'Connor ends his lesson a few minutes before the bell rings, and allows us to talk amongst ourselves. I know what's coming even before he opens his mouth, and I try to brace myself.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" Noah says softly beside me, and the fact that he chooses now to use a pet name makes my eyes immediately water again. I liked it when he would call me those. But now I know there's obviously no meaning behind them if he can kiss Jessica and call me 'sweetheart' within the same morning. "Teresina?" I stand my silent ground. "I can help you with whatever is upsetting you, please just tell me?" I pretend to read the article we were assigned for homework, but I'm sure Noah can see that my eyes are fixed on one spot, not actually moving down the paper. "Please, was it me? Did I say something or do something?"

"You know exactly what you did," I spit out before I can stop myself. I make a second mistake of glancing up at Noah for a millisecond, and the confusion and immense hurt on his face make my heart feel like a knife is being stabbed into it. But he hurt me so much more than I'm hurting him right now.

"I'm sorry Teresina. I don't know what you're talking about, but whatever it is, I'm sorry,"

Noah says sincerely. The bell finally rings and I quickly pack up my things and swing my bag over my shoulder, while Noah stays frozen in his seat. I can feel him watching me the whole time. I'm about to be out the door, out of earshot, and out of his presence until last period, when he speaks with such pain laced in his voice that I have no choice but to turn around and acknowledge him.

"Teresina?" I turn around and try to glare at him, but I'm not sure that I'm very menacing when I'm on the verge of tears. "Will you please just explain to me?" He says desperately, and I almost feel bad.

"Why don't you ask Jessica," I say instead, anger forcing it out of me. Before I have to watch his reaction or hear his response, I turn and book it out of the room and down the hallway. Olivia is by my side soon, but I block out my emotions so I don't start crying again. I'll have to become numb if I'm supposed to make it through the rest of this school day.


~~~~~

Written 12/18/19, Published 12/18/19

Hi again, I'll bet you weren't expecting to see me again this soon! I decided that for these last chapters, I might as well just publish them as soon as I finish writing them, there's no reason to wait until the nearest Sunday when my updating schedule is already this messed up.

So, about this chapter... don't be mad at me? Lol I know you all will be. I'm not gonna say anything hopeful or unhopeful, because that ruins the suspense of not knowing if their relationship will work out! The only comfort that I can give is that after hitting the Publish button on this chapter, I'm gonna get a snack and start working on the next one. So hopefully you won't be waiting too long.

Remember to vote, comment, and share this story with your friends if you like it!


As always, thanks a whole bunch for reading :)

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