Happy- A Noah Schnapp fanfiction

37-I dont like you

My mouth dropped and time froze. "Paige?" I heard Noah say, but it was muffled as if I had cotton stuck in my ears. I felt the room spin gently and I had to shut my eyes to keep from getting nauseous. My face began to burn more than my usual blush and Noah placed his hand on my shoulder. "Paige!" he exclaimed scared. "what's wrong? what is it?" I couldn't speak. I moved my hand to my side so he could see the posts but I kept my eyes shut. He grabbed the phone and I heard him gasp quietly.
"oh god," he whispered. "are you ok?" he asked. I tried to speak but only small squeaks came out. Noah suddenly jumped up and I saw he had anger plastered on his face. He grabbed the curtain to the apartment window and swung it shut. "I have no idea who took that," he said. "but it's so messed up."
"What do we do now?" I found the ability to speak again. "it's not like we can make up another excuse for this. That's clearly us!" I pointed out. Noah opened his mouth for a second, then closed it.
"I don't know," he sighed. "it's out there now." I wrapped my forehead in my hands and took a deep breath. "what are people saying about it?" he asked.
"Can you check? I can't look," I shook my head. he nodded and tapped through the pictures. I could tell from his hitched breathing that it wasn't anything good.
"It's mostly things like 'OMG NAIGE' or 'is this real? someone explain?'. Everyone's just confused." That's when my head shot up.
"I have the perfect idea!" I exclaimed smiling. He looked at me curiously. "We say it's an edited picture! That it's not really us and somebody photoshopped it!"
"But the person who took the picture knows it's real," he said before pausing. "But honestly, the fans will probably trust us more than a random source, right?"
"it's worth a shot?" I shrugged. He nodded and pulled out his phone. He took a picture of a black screen for his instagram story and began typing. "Hello everyone," he recited out loud. "there's this pic of Paige and me circling around and I just wanna say that it is not real. Lots of editors will photoshop pictures and some are so cool and realistic that I have to clarify that they're fake. Thank you all and great edit!"
"Perfect!" I gushed. "it sounds like it really is a photoshop." He smiled and posted it.
"You should wait a little before you post something about it so it doesn't look like we plotted this," he suggested. I nodded.
"Good idea." He sighed out of relief and sat back down.
"This is gonna be really hard, isn't it?" He asked. I nodded.
"We're gonna need to tell them at some point..."
      "I just don't know when that 'sometime' is," Noah sighed. "any ideas?"
      "This might be unrealistic, but I feel like saying anything before the release of the seasons could ruin stuff," I said quietly. "Plus who knows how long we'll be together?"
      "You think we'll break up before the season comes out?" Noah asked a little upset.
      "That's not what i meant it's just-" I saw Noah's eyes grow sad. Not like he was so hurt by what I said, but like the idea of breaking up upset him. "Noah, I just meant that the show won't come out for at least another year. And I don't wanna start drama if there's a chance something could happen between us first, you know?" He nodded.
      "Yea I do," he started. "it's just..."
      "what?" I asked.
      "Well, I know it's stupid, but I don't want this relationship to just be like something that could end over one little argument or something."
       "Yeah," I began. "Of course we wouldnot break up over one fight-"
        "No," he interrupted. "I don't know how to explain it it's just..." The room went silent for a second. "I just care about you a lot, ok?" he sighed. "like more than any other girl ever."
       "Me too," I smiled. "I like you more than any other guy I've-"
       "Paige no," Noah interrupted again. He was starting to sound irritated because he couldn't get his point across. "I don't like you, ok?" I scrunched my eyebrows.
      "you don't?" I asked confused.
      "No," Noah sighed looking down. We both fell silent for a few seconds. Nothing Noah was saying made any sense to me. He didn't wanna break up but he didn't like me... That's when it all made sense.

"I love you Paige."