"Do you wanna come over to my house and hang out?"
The words were perpetually on the tip of Noah's tongue. But when he actually tried to form them, they dissolved away like salt in water.
He stared down at his lunch tray. All the food on it had only been picked at. All around him was the usual chaos of the cafeteria. It made his head pound.
Noah rested his head in his hand. He wasn't even sure if he could go through with this.
Cody would say yes. He knew that. But Noah didn't know if he could trust himself not to fuck it up.
He felt like an imposter. Who did he think he was? The Old Noah would not be sitting here fretting over this. He'd know what to do. He always did. He was calm, cool, collected.
The New Noah was overly anxious and sappy. He was so juvenile, writing love letters and asking his mom for advice about them. He was just letting his friends steamroll over him by letting him drag him into this whole mess in the first place.
Noah rubbed his temple with his fingers, as if he could summon forth the Old Noah like that.
Actually, maybe that was what he should do-
A bag slammed down next to his head. He jolted back to see that it was Izzy, with Eva right behind her.
"Gwen asked us if you wrote the letters," Eva said plainly, sliding into the seat across from him. "We told her no." Her nose wrinkled. "But she's onto us. I can tell. And chances are she's told Cody about this, too."
Noah sat there, calm and stoic as always.
On the inside, he was about to explode.
Gwen…why did she have to get involved? Why couldn't she go back to hanging around that punk and stop sticking her nose in other people's business?
She hung around Cody a lot, always pushing and prodding him to do things. She'd probably get him to talk to him.
And it might ruin everything.
Noah's nerve failed him right then and there, all the electricity draining out of his body.
But then, just as suddenly, he felt more rejuvenated than ever.
He knew what he had to do, now.
He had to get to Cody first.
Noah stood up, scraping his chair on the floor, and ran out of the cafeteria as fast as his legs could carry him.