High School Treachery | ✓

33 | Put Yourself Back Together

Noah rolls his eyes, then leans back in his chair, making the front lift off the ground. "Just that class. Calm down, Lynnie."

I take another bite of my sandwich, chew hesitantly, then speak my next words lowly. "Is that you're one class alone with Daniel?"

"Don't," he quickly says, slamming the front of his chair to the ground. "You don't want me mentioning Jalen, so don't mention that shit right now."

I raise my hands in surrender. "Calm down, Noey," I say while mocking his deeper voice. "I'm just trying to keep the conversation going. The silence is killing me."

"You ain't talk to no one all day?" Noah asks with a laugh.

I think back to my unpleasant talk with Malia. "No one I wanted too," I tell him. "How about you, social butterfly? Are people talking to you?"

"Why wouldn't they?" he asks, sounding obnoxious as fuck. He leans back in his chair again. "I'm a good ass time."

Rolling my eyes, I ask, "Who'd you talk too? The freshmen who don't know any better?"

It wouldn't surprise me if Noah turns to the freshmen to talk. He avoids feeling shitty by hanging around people, and if Malia's right and we're truly social outcasts, the freshmen won't know any better but to talk with him. It'd make sense, to be honest. It'd explain how he knew Knox was even in the building.

"Don't judge me," Noah says playfully. His face turns serious as he says, "I did talk to Eli, though."

I raise a brow. "Really?"

Noah nods and grips the table with his hands, using that as leverage to move the chair as if he's swinging. "He's been cool about everything."

I remain quiet, and that results in Noah staring at me. "What, creep?"

He shrugs, continuing to swing. "Nothing, nothing. I was waiting to see if you talked to him, too, but I'm gonna take the silence as a no."

"I haven't even see him, so..." I say, and though the words are true, I'm not sure what I'd do if I did.

Last time we spoke, I was at his house, invading his and his mother's space, and pretty close to a blubbering mess because of my shitty parents. A lot has happened since then.

"You probably should," Noah says. When I took at him in confusion, he adds, "You know, see how he feels or what he knew...?"

"What'd you say to him, or what he'd say to you?" I ask, feeling my chest get a little tighter.

Did Elijah know? No, he's a good person. Then again, I swore Daniel seemed good, and it's clear to me he knew a little something about the games. Everyone at this school is untrustworthy.

"We didn't talk too much, and definitely not about that shit. I did ask if he knew about the Danny shit, and he said he thinks it was just a huge ass misunderstanding. As for Jalen..." Noah says, pausing his swinging long enough to continue his sentence, "that was a can of worms neither of us wanted to open."

"So, you don't even know if this kid knew?" I ask, narrowing my eyes. He kept talking to him even though he most likely knew Jalen was playing the fuck out of me? I sigh heavily, shaking away the annoyance. This isn't the time to turn on each other. "Doesn't matter," I say dismissively, waving a hand. "It's my problem, not yours."

Noah goes back to swinging. "I can make it my problem."

Hearing the tone of his voice and seeing that reckless look in his eyes, I quickly raise my hands. "No, no. Don't do anything that'll get you in trouble, you psycho."