It Was Always You (Ridgewater High Romance Book 3)

by Judy Corry

  Poor girl. She really did like the guy. I was sure I'd overheard her and her friend giggling about Harrison last summer when I was at her house.

  "Who invited the nerdy sophomore to hang out with us tonight?" a female voice sounded from behind me.

  My ears perked up. Were they talking about Lexi?

  Another voice spoke. "Harrison said he told her about going to the movie. Pretty sure she's stalking him."

  "What a loser," the first girl said.

  I clenched my hands into fists at my sides and looked back over to where Lexi stood. She was still in the same spot, but now she was gazing around the room as if looking for some excuse to leave the group.

  The line ahead of me cleared out. I stepped forward, formulating a plan in my mind.

  "I'd like one ticket for Whispers from Another Galaxy." The girl at the counter tapped on her screen then turned it around for me to pick my seat. I chose one then asked, "Can I also get your biggest popcorn and two drinks?".

  She nodded and put in my order. "What would you like to drink?"

  I strummed my fingers on the counter, trying to remember what Lexi usually got. Then I remembered—we always ordered the same drink. "Two Cokes."

  After I paid, I awkwardly gathered the popcorn in my arms and carried it with the two drinks over to Lexi. I swallowed and hoped she wouldn't punch me for what I was about to do. I never could be sure with Lexi.

  I squeezed into the space between her and the lanky redhead to her left. "Sorry, it took so long to get the drinks. You wanted Coke, right?" I offered her the soda, hoping she'd play along.

  At first, she startled, but then her face went through a range of emotions: shock to confusion to relief.

  Her lips quirked up into a smile, and she took the soda-filled cup from my hand. "Thank you. I was worried we'd miss the previews, and I know how much you love those."

  "Are you two here on a date?" a guy next to us asked, his eyebrows raised.

  I looked at Lexi, giving her the opportunity to answer that question however she wanted.

  She linked her arm through mine and gave the guy a broad smile. "Yeah, of course. Did you think I came here by myself?" She winked at me, and I worked hard to hold in my chuckle. I'd committed to this when I first came over here; I wouldn't blow it now.

  The guy had the insight not to look too surprised, which I had to give him credit for. I knew my reputation around the school. I wasn't exactly known for hanging out with Lexi's crowd—usually going more for the drill team and cheerleaders. But who was to say I wouldn't ever branch away from my typical type? Me taking Lexi on a date couldn't be that far-fetched. She was two years younger than me, and yeah, she was kind of nerdy and could talk circles around me when it came to music and science, but she had always been fun to hang around. And despite what she'd said earlier in my car, she was kind of cute in her big glasses. And I liked that she was short enough that I could wrap her under my arm if I wanted to. Not that I'd thought about that before...

  "Should we go find our seats?" I asked, not wanting to make small talk with a bunch of people I didn't know very well.

  She sighed and gave my arm a gentle squeeze. "Yes. You know how much I love Justin Banks."

  "And you know how much I love previews." It was a super corny thing to say, but I actually did like watching the previews and seeing which movies were coming out next.

  We handed our tickets to the guy at the ticket podium then headed to theater four. It wasn't until we were looking at our seat numbers that I realized we wouldn't be able to actually sit by each other.

  "What's wrong?" she asked when she noticed my troubled expression.

  I held up my ticket. "I'm sitting in seat 4I." Then I pointed to hers. "And you're sitting in seat 15J."

  Understanding replaced her look of confusion, and she bit her lip. "I guess that is a problem."

  "There was still a seat open next to mine when I bought the ticket. Do you want me to see if I could trade yours? Or do you want to still sit with your friends?"

  "And let them know that I totally lied to them?" Her eyes were wide. "I'll wait here with the drinks and popcorn while you go check."

  I walked her to a bench and then left her with my armload of junk food. A few minutes later I was back. I held up the new ticket. "Looks like you get to cuddle with me tonight after all."

  Her cheeks flushed at my joke. "We're not cuddling."

  "Fine." I shrugged. "I'm just saying that if you really want to sell this to your friends in there, you might need to get a little closer."

  She smacked my arm and gave me a warning look. "Stop messing with me, Noah. I'm already nervous enough as it is."

  I laughed. "Come on. It's not like we've never watched a movie together before."

  "Yes. But you know as well as I do that I've never been on a date before, so yeah, cuddling is definitely out of my comfort zone. Even if it’s fake."

  Would she count this as her first date then? That wasn't an unpleasant thought.

  "Well, since this is your first date, I promise to be a complete gentleman and follow your lead."

  She smiled and seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. "Thank you."

  "Though, if you do decide that you wanted your first date to end in a first kiss, I can get on board with that, too." I winked. I couldn't help myself, and the look of terror in her eyes was totally worth it.

  "I'm going to pretend you didn't say that. Let's go find our seats, okay?" She turned on her heel and left me to carry the popcorn and both of our drinks.

  3

  Lexi

  I don't know why I thought that showing up to the movie theater to try and get Harrison to notice me was a good idea. I really must have left my brain at home today. I wanted to die as I stood there by him and his friends, pretending like I was supposed to be there. And I'd wanted to go completely invisible when his girlfriend, who I didn't even know existed up until that point, showed up. Guys who dated girls from other schools should have some sort of label on them, so girls like me, who crushed on said guys, wouldn't look stupid trying to make something happen.

  I wished Juliette wasn't in Paris doing her semester abroad. If she'd been around, she would have talked some sense into me before I showed up at the movie theater today.

  I literally could have kissed Noah when he came up to me with the sodas, looking all dashing with his shaggy auburn hair pushed just far enough away that I could see the golden flecks in his big brown eyes. I was pretty sure that if I looked up "knight in shining armor" on the Internet, his picture would have earned him the top spot after saving me today.

  Well, until he started teasing me about cuddling, that is.

  "Do you think you'll like this movie then?" Noah asked as he shrugged out of his letterman jacket and let it rest behind him in the seat.

  I pulled my arms out of my coat as well, deciding to get comfortable. "I've never seen Justin in an alien movie before, so maybe this one will be fine."

  Noah peeked over his shoulder briefly before leaning closer to my ear, speaking in a low voice, "Looks like your friends are right behind us. Wanna give them a good show?"

  "A good show?" I asked, not understanding. We were all here to watch the same movie.

  He leaned closer and whispered conspiratorially. "I figured you might want to cuddle up with me like we talked about earlier."

  Why did he have to keep saying stuff like that? Didn't he know that I’d dreamed of doing that for so many years? Imagined his soft, pouty lips brushing against mine and telling me he liked me, too?

  But if he didn't know it, I was certainly not going to give him a reason to start thinking it now, so I pretended the thought of cuddling with him didn't affect me at all. "Do you want me to regret going on a fake date with you? I thought you were here to help me out, not tease me all night."

  The wicked smile was back on his lips. "Who says I can't do both?"

  "Me. Just—" I gestured to the screen in front of us. "Just watch the movie. Let me wo
rry about the people behind us."

  Afterwards, Noah was a lot more tolerable. He did lean in closely a few times to whisper things in my ear. And I might have noticed that he smelled really good tonight. But he didn't attempt to put his arm around me or hold my hand, so I didn't get too anxious. About halfway through the movie, the storyline was so dumb that I could barely stand the idea of sitting through another forty-five minutes of aliens blowing up while Justin Banks’ character miraculously managed to come out of the scene unscathed.

  "This movie is ridiculous," I said under my breath.

  Noah leaned close, his warm breath on my ear doing weird things to my stomach. "But I thought you loved Justin Banks."

  "Not in this movie."

  "Well, you could've always chosen the Zac Efron movie."

  "Yeah, even that one would probably be better than this."

  Shock formed on his face and he grabbed my arm. I tried not to notice how my skin warmed under his calloused hand. "Are you going mainstream on me, Lexi?"

  "Psssh. Hardly. This movie is just terrible."

  "Terrible enough to leave?" he offered.

  "What would we do?" I asked, wanting to see what I was getting myself into before I agreed.

  He shrugged. "I don't know, we can do whatever you want. It’s your first date after all. Make it a night to remember."

  Was I really going to count this as my first date? The thirteen-year-old girl inside wanted me to definitely count this as a first date, since she’d always hoped for a date with Noah. But the sixteen-year-old and much less naïve version of me knew it was fake. Noah didn't date girls like me. He dated prom queens.

  I checked behind me to see what Harrison and his dumb girlfriend were doing. Of course, his tongue was totally stuck halfway down her throat. Why did I think he was so cool? He was just like all the other guys whose hormones went into overdrive at the first sight of a hot girl.

  His girlfriend probably didn't even know the little things about him. Like how his blue eyes had tiny flecks of gray and green. Or how he always pinched his lips together in a super cute way before pulling his trumpet to his mouth.

  She didn't deserve him.

  I looked up at the screen and sighed. This whole night was getting worse and worse. "Let's just go. Now."

  Noah nodded, seeming to take in my depressed mood. "Okay."

  Once we were in the hall that led to the lobby, we tossed our empty cups and popcorn bowl in the trash and shrugged into our coats.

  "Do you need to tell Easton that you're leaving?" Noah asked.

  I zipped up my coat. "No, I was planning to bum a ride home with someone here, so I told him not to worry about me." It was embarrassing the lengths I had gone to today. I was thankful Noah seemed to be in a more generous mood tonight. Any other day and he'd probably give me an even harder time than he already had.

  "Okay, so where to next?" he asked.

  "I don't know. You're the one who asked me on this date."

  "Oh, so it is a date." He wiggled his eyebrows.

  I shrugged. "It's whatever it is. You saving me from utter humiliation. A date. Pretty much the same thing."

  "So, from what I gathered back there, I'm guessing Harrison didn't know that tonight was a date."

  I scrunched up my face, embarrassed. "Yeah, pretty sure I was just stalking him and hoping something magical would happen."

  "His loss."

  "I kind of think he's happy with that supermodel of a girlfriend he has back there."

  "Well, she is hot." And there he was again. Noah had managed to act kind of like a gentleman for the last hour. But, alas, it was short-lived.

  Two girls, Sarah and Ava, who I'd seen hanging out with Harrison earlier turned the corner and were walking toward us. They eyed Noah and me in our coats as we got ready to leave.

  "That was a fast date. I knew the world would right itself soon enough." Ava, the girl with long, straight blonde hair, looked at me with disapproval.

  "What are you talking about?" Noah asked, his tone more irritated than it had been a moment earlier.

  Sarah answered his question. "We knew you overheard us talking in the line and that was the only reason you went up to Lexi. We figured you were doing your best friend's little sister a favor by faking a date since her brother wasn't around to save her from her stupidity."

  How dare they say any of that! They didn't even know me!

  It was either insanity or anger or both that made me do what I did next. But I was not about to end an already bad night on an even worse note. So I stepped closer to Noah and linked my arm through his possessively.

  "Yes, please tell everyone it was just a favor. I really don't want Easton or anyone else finding out that we've been secretly dating behind my brother's back for months."

  They didn't look convinced. "If you're secretly dating, why are you leaving early?" Ava asked.

  My mind went blank, but Noah pulled me even closer, overpowering my senses with his too-heavenly cologne. He gave me a suggestive look that made me blush all over. "We wanted to find somewhere more private. Easton never leaves us alone and we can't pass up this chance."

  My insides did a little flip at his words. Was he suggesting we were going to make-out? Make-out with Noah? I would probably hyperventilate if he actually tried.

  And Easton would most definitely kill Noah...if my dad didn't get to him first. The backseat of a car was exactly where my cute nephew, Grant, got his start, and ever since my dad found out he was going to be a grandpa at thirty-seven years old, he'd been paranoid that I'd follow in my sister's footsteps. So, thanks to my sister Maddie, I was the one who got the super strict rules and the purity ring with the promise that my dad would pay for my college if I kept it on.

  But these girls didn't have to know about any of that, so I pulled on Noah's arm and said, "We only have an hour, Noah. Let's get to the overlook before we miss our chance."

  To his credit, Noah didn't even laugh at my ridiculous suggestion. Instead, he winked at the girls, leaving them standing there with their mouths hanging open and their minds in a daze. Then he pulled me toward the back exit.

  We burst up laughing as soon as the doors shut behind us.

  "That was priceless!" I said when I finally stopped to catch my breath.

  "The look on their faces!" Noah bent over and slapped his knee. "You're hilarious, Lexi. I wonder how many people they've told already."

  That sobered me right up. "You think they're going to tell people?" If my dad caught wind of something like that, I would be so dead.

  "I can take you to the overlook right now if you're worried about people following us." He raised an eyebrow. I was surprised he didn't seem to mind the repercussions that rumors about him dating a lowly sophomore would have on his reputation. Did he really not care what people thought about him?

  "Yeah, no. You know I'm going to need all the college funds I can get from my dad if I want to go to Yale. So, like pretty much everything else I've said tonight, that was a lie."

  "I'm crushed." He held his hand to his chest dramatically. "I was really hoping things were going somewhere between us."

  "Somehow I think you'll get over it." I shook my head. "I don't know what's happening to me today. I've never lied so much in my life."

  The lights on his car flashed when he pressed the button to unlock it. "Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find me."

  I looked at him pointedly. "And my dad knows where to find you, too."

  His eyes got big at my mention of my dad.

  "Okay, yeah. I'll take you home. We'll try parking at the overlook some other time."

  4

  Noah

  Easton: My date was awesome! Do anything fun last night?

  So, Lexi hadn't told him about our fake date. That was probably good...since it was fake, after all. I could only imagine what he'd do if he found out and thought it was real. There was some sort of unwritten guy code that says you don't date your best friend's little
sister.

  But I texted him back just to be up front about everything. I didn't trust those two girls we'd run into to keep their mouths shut for a second.

  Noah: I ran into Lexi at the theater last night. We both thought the movie sucked so I took her home.

  Easton: I thought she was on a date?

  Oh, oops.

  Noah: You should probably ask her about that.

  Easton: You getting your college applications done today?

  Noah: Yup. Just about finished.

  Easton: Me too. College is going to be awesome!

  Yeah...it probably would be awesome for Easton. He was a good student. As for me, I'd be lucky to get into Ridgewater Community College with my grades. I really should have tried harder to study more during my first few years of high school. According to the school counselor, suddenly getting my act together my senior year probably wasn't going to work the miracles I was hoping it would. But hopefully, the lacrosse teams at Syracuse University or Cortland State would be watching me later this year and be willing to overlook the past three years and give me a spot on the team.

  I sent off my application to Yale—a last-ditch effort—and tried to read the boring Pride and Prejudice book my English teacher assigned me as her latest form of punishment. As my eyes traveled over the words, my mind wandered off. I thought of how weird it was that teachers always talked about how reading was the single most important indicator of success in education, only to assign this old crap that might as well have been written in a foreign language. I mean, I'd probably enjoy reading a heck of a lot better if I actually got to pick the book. But since ESPN Magazine didn't count as approved reading material, I was stuck with one of the books Ashlyn had always raved about.

  The ornery Mr. Darcy guy was insulting the Elizabeth girl when I heard the yelling coming from downstairs. I listened for a minute to get a gauge on its intensity. At the moment, it was just a low rumble. If it stayed that way, I wouldn't have to go down and interfere.