Say You Swear

He chuckles. “Wouldn’t dare.” He clicks on the TV, turning down the volume, leaving reruns of The Office to play quietly around us.

Food piled high on my plate, I chew on the inside of my lip. “Thank you for this, Noah.”

“Juliet, look at me.”

My eyes slide his way and he smiles.

“Stop thanking me like I’m doing you a favor. I’m not. I saw you sitting there with Brady the second I stepped through the door. Went in specifically to find you, if you really want to know, and I was about to walk over to ask if you wanted to hang for a while when I saw Mason and Chase slip up behind you. All they did was beat me to the starting line.” He looks back to his food, and then, as if deciding to go with his last thought, he hits me with a sly grin. “Looks like I won.”

My hand comes up to cover my mouth as I laugh, and I flick my eyes to his. “So what you’re saying is… I’m looking at a winner?”

He turns to me with a mouth full of food and winks, pleased with my lyric of choice.

Giddy, I focus on my meal.

It seems Noah gets me.

I think I like that.

Once we’ve eaten, Noah tosses our plates into the trash and comes back to join me on the couch.

He’s quiet for a minute, and when I twist to face him, he does the same.

“You’ve never been here, have you?” he asks.

I sigh and drop back against the old cushions. “Nope. Now that you mention it, I feel like a jackass.” I shake my head. “They are definitely going to get their feelings hurt when they find out I came here today.”

“They’ve been waiting for you to come?”

“Mason and Brady have invited me so many times, but I just… haven’t.”

He eyes me. “Chase hasn’t been? Begging you to come over?”

Pulling in a full breath, I say, “No, he hasn’t. I can’t decide if he’s giving me the space I’ve made clear I need or if he’s giving it to himself, but either way, I’m kind of tired of it now.” I look down, scratching at the glitter polish on my fingernails. “I want to be able to hang out, watch movies and do absolutely nothing other than be with my friends again. Dumb right? Since I’m the one messing it all up to begin with.”

“You’re not messing anything up if you’re doing what feels right.”

“That’s the thing,” I say quietly. “It doesn’t feel right. Necessary, but not right. When we’d fight growing up, it was over the next day. We just don’t get mad at each other, you know? None of us. Annoyed, pissy, all the time, but not angry, like for real angry. It sucks, and we didn’t come to college together for this to happen during our very first semester.”

Noah doesn’t say anything at first, but once I look to him, he gets more comfortable. “How did that happen?”

My gaze drops to where his jean-covered knee now touches mine, and a small smile pulls at my lips. He doesn’t notice, he’s simply relaxed, and I realize I am too. My shoes are off, my legs tucked under me, and my body settled into the cushions as if I’ve sat in this spot a thousand times.

It sort of feels like I have.

I look up and find his insane blue eyes surveying me, and for some reason, I feel the need to look away.

“Ari?”

“Hm?”

Noah grins. “How’d your whole group end up at Avix?”

“Oh.” I laugh. “Right. So our counselors in high school thought we were crazy because, literally, the first day of freshman year, we went to the office as a group, notes from our parents in hand, and told them our plan, asking for schedules that would help make it happen. We took summer school every year to get ahead and just in case we struggled later. Once we agreed we’d make it happen, we started narrowing down schools based on what everyone wanted. None of us wanted to leave California, so that tightened the list, but we still applied out of state, just in case. We pretty much knew the boys would get in anywhere, so we looked for the best team versus the best child development program for Cameron. In the end, we chose Avix.”

“I didn’t hear your name in there.”

“You’re right, you didn’t.” I grin. “I didn’t care where we went.”

“Really?” He’s more curious than surprised. “Not a single stipulation?”

“Nope.”

The corner of Noah’s mouth hikes up. “Why do I get the feeling there’s a reason behind it that you’re choosing not to tell me.”

“Because there is.” I laugh. “It’s too embarrassing to share, but I will admit I did push for a fat house off campus, but my dad shot that down so fast. After the boys had their meeting with the athletic director, who was kind of a dick, by the way, we learned that was out regardless. Honestly, the level-three dorm we scored is perfect anyway.”