by S. A. Hunter
I sighed and looked up into the crooked, spreading branches of the banyan tree. It seemed less complicated than my life.
THE NEXT DAY, NO ONE noticed that Damien and I weren’t speaking. He wore oversized headphones the whole time, though he wasn’t listening to any music. Mr. and Mrs. West saw us off. They were staying for a few more days. I half expected Damien to decide to stay with them. No one would begrudge him some extra time in Hawaii with his parents, but he’d shuddered at the suggestion.
As we flew back, my family was chipper. They were happy to be headed home. Noah had his nose glued to his phone, and Angela was quiet but had a smile for everyone. I tried to appear happy and normal, but I tensed up whenever I glanced at Damien. I didn’t want anyone to know that there was a problem between us, but it was difficult to hide.
My text alert sounded. I pulled it out, and Noah had sent me a message from across the airplane.
*What happened last night?*
*What do you mean?*
*You know what. Between you and Damien.*
*Nothing for you to worry about.*
*It is if he does something crazy.*
He’d already done something crazy, but I wasn’t going to tell Noah. He’d just figure out a way to use it to blackmail me again.
*Did you and Angela have a nice chat?*
I knew she’d spoken to him after his confession.
*I destroyed the recording.*
That surprised me. It had been his insurance to keep me as his fake girlfriend. Could I trust his word? He didn’t have any reason to lie to me about destroying it. Actually, he had every reason not to tell me. But he also knew that I couldn’t break up with him. At least not right now, not after what had happened at the New Year’s Eve party. We had to stick together at least for a few more months.
*Thanks. I’m sure Angela is relieved.*
*Yeah. BTW, she’s pretty scary when she’s angry.*
Noah was telling the truth. Angela had given me chills in the past.
*So what’s up between you and Damien?*
I frowned at the text. I hadn’t expected to get that question from Noah before anyone else. Angela had nodded off, and my family was amusing themselves in the front. Damien was facing his window. I wondered if he was awake. There’d been no threatening of duct taping this time at takeoff. Damien had taken his seat and hadn’t moved from it.
*Nothing.*
*He has never been good at hiding his feelings. He’s clearly hurting about something.*
Hurting? I didn’t like the guilt that word brought up in me, but I was in the right. We could not get engaged.
*Don’t worry about it. It’ll blow over.*
*You might as well tell me what happened.*
*Why?*
*Because I’m your boyfriend.*
That text caused a very unladylike snort from me.
*If you don’t tell me, he will.*
*No, he won’t.*
“Damien, why are you upset with Sarah?”
Noah’s voice startled me so bad I dropped my phone.
Damien didn’t turn from the window. “None of your business, Nash.”
“So you won’t mind if I take Sarah away for Spring Break?”
He shrugged and kept looking out the window.
*Jesus, what did you do to him?*
I glared at Noah across the plane and turned off my phone.
ARRIVING BACK AT NOBLE was a relief. It meant I could get away from Damien’s silence. Angela had finally picked up on his mood and had been giving me questioning looks. We Smiths all went home to decompress. I unpacked and straightened up. Mom and Dad took Cora home. I decided it was safe to turn my phone back on.
There was a new text from Noah.
*Can you come by my apartment? There’s something I need to give you.*
I wondered what he wanted to give me, but I hoped it wasn’t another piece of jewelry. I still couldn’t bring myself to wear the diamond-encrusted angel.
*You want me to come by now?*
*The sooner the better.*
I went to the West Dorm, and as I rode the elevator up, I wondered what Damien was doing. I was beginning to feel bad that he was still upset. I wasn’t going to say yes to him, but I did feel bad.
The elevator doors opened on Noah’s suite, and I could see him standing, facing someone on the couch. The someone on the couch had poufy dark hair.
Noah raised his eyes at my entrance but didn’t acknowledge me.
“So did you and Sarah break up?”
Damien sighed loudly. “I don’t know. Maybe?”
“WHAT?”
I went around the couch to face him.
He looked up at me resentfully. “What? You rejected me.”
I turned to Noah. “Could you wait outside?”
“This is my suite,” he said.
“Yep, and this is what you get for sticking your nose in our business. Go wait in the lobby,” I said.
He seemed ready to argue but relented. “Just don’t break any of my shit,” he said as the elevator closed.
“He has barely any shit to break,” Damien muttered.
“You think I broke up with you?”
He turned his face away from me and shrugged.
“Bullshit.”
“Isn’t rejecting someone’s proposal an automatic breakup?”
“I didn’t reject your proposal.”
“Bullshit,” he said repeating my earlier rebuke.
“I told you that we’re not old enough to get engaged.”
“And I say we are.”
I wasn’t going to convince him that we were too young. I would need to take a different tact. “I’m not going to say yes no matter how much you try to guilt-trip me.”
“I’m not trying to guilt trip you.”
“So the silent treatment is because everything’s hunky dory?”
“Just like you won’t say yes, I’m not going to smile and be all happy about getting rejected.”
We were going around in circles, and it was driving me crazy. “You don’t get it! I’m not rejecting you!”
“You said no! That’s rejection.”
“No,” I winced at having to use the word, “Forget I said no, pretend I didn’t say anything at all.”
“That’s the same as no.”
“No, it isn’t. It means I haven’t answered. In eight or nine years, I could answer and it will be yes.”
“Eight or nine years?”
“Maybe ten,” I hedged.
“This is ridiculous. You’re ridiculous.”
“Keep that attitude, and it’ll be twenty years.”
He glared at me.
Tentatively, I sat at the other end of the sofa.
Maybe it was my imagination, but it seemed like he was starting to soften or maybe I was wearing him down.
“I’m sort of glad classes are starting again,” I said. “It’ll be nice to get back into a normal routine.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
“I’m sorry the trip didn’t go quite like you hoped.”
“Maybe we can go back sometime or am I too young to suggest that?”
My heart fluttered at the idea of going back to Hawaii, but I couldn’t get distracted by that.
“I don’t know. Am I spending spring break with Noah?”
“Anything you do, he’ll have to come with you, won’t he?”
“Yeah, if we’re still together.”
“Just break up with him. You don’t have to date him.”
“I have to stay with him. At least until his mother stops trying to set him up.”
“That’s his problem.”
“It helps keep suspicion off us. If I come to West Dorm, everyone will assume that I’m going to see him.”
“But anywhere else, you have to be with him.”
“Yeah, but you know it’s fake.”
“I don’t like being fake.”
“Me neither, but everyone we care about knows the trut
h so it’s not that bad.”
“I guess.”
I inched over on the couch. “Come on. I know it’s not perfect, but it’s not that bad. We love each other.”
He didn’t answer. I inched over a little more.
“And with classes starting, we’ll be hanging out more than ever again.” I inched closer. Damien finally noticed my movement and turned his body to face me. A smile tugged at his mouth, though he tried to squelch it.
“I guess I should be glad that Noah doesn’t share any classes with you.”
I leaned in until we were nose-to-nose. “That’s right.”
It was cute how my closeness flustered him. He dropped his eyes and his cheeks began to redden. I reached up and ran my fingers down his cheek. “It’ll be nice sitting next to you again,” I said softly.
He was almost panting. I began to worry that I was overdoing it. He might get upset and bolt. I started to back off, but he followed me. I got confused and fell back on the couch. He landed on me. We stared at each in shock for a moment then Damien straightened and looked around the room frantically.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
He relaxed and turned back to me. “I expected your dad to come busting in and drag me off you.”
I propped myself up and combed my fingers through his hair. He leaned into the touch. His eyes fluttering closed. “He’s not here,” I breathed.
His face was blank as he stared at me, but his pupils were huge. I felt like I was being sucked into them.
He leaned down and our lips met.
“Hey, not on my sofa!” Noah said in dismay.
Damien looked over the back of the couch at him. “What did you expect when you started dating Sarah?”
“You have your own suite. Go there.”
“No, I better go home or my dad will appear. See you tomorrow, Damien.”
“What about me?” Noah asked.
“Do I have to see you?”
“No...”
“Then nope. Bye bye.”
I left West Dorm with a bounce in my step. I was excited to start school again. The break had been fun and relaxing for the most part, but it would be nice to have things back to normal.
“Excuse me, is this West Dorm?” A girl my age asked. She was blonde and tall. She had on designer clothes and had a rolling suitcase with her. A transfer student? Noble barely ever got those mid-year.
“Yeah. Go in and enter your code in the elevator to go to your suite.”
“Are you one of my neighbors? Hi, I’m Tara Gigi.”
I blinked. “Hi. No, I’m not one of your neighbors. I was visiting someone.”
“Then I guess I’ll see you around...” she trailed off waiting for me to supply my name.
“Sarah Smith,” I said.
Tara’s head tilted back and she looked down her nose at me. “Oh, we’ll be seeing a lot of each other then, but we won’t be friends.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because your boyfriend should be mine.”
“Did Patricia Nash tell you that?”
“No. It’s just what’s meant to be. I’ll try to go easy on you, but prepare to be obliterated.”
“Okay then. See you in school.”
I turned and headed home, but I no longer had a bounce in my step. Why had I jinxed myself? Things could never be normal at Noble.
I took out my phone and sent Noah a text.
*We got trouble.*
OTHER BOOKS BY S.A. HUNTER
Check out these other series by S.A. Hunter.
THE NOBLE ACADEMY SERIES
My Demon vols. 1-3
THE SCARY MARY SERIES
Scary Mary
Stalking Shadows
Broken Spirits
Strange Girl
Scamming Death
Mr. Conjure
UNICORN BAIT SERIES
Unicorn Bait
Dragon Prey
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