Watercolour Smile (21 page)

“One of these days,” Cabe’s smile was back, “I’m going to be the injured one, and you’re going to rush to my defence.” He picked up his jacket and slung it over his shoulder as Noah shook his head, laughing. “You won’t be able to resist fixing me up.” He winked as he walked past and pulled the door open. “See you in Gym!”

Noah got up to follow him, but paused before Quillan, levelling him with a stern look. “We’ll lay off, for now, but if I find out that Samantha Trick is trying to take her sister’s place and you’re protecting her out of some kind of misplaced guilt for Annie, I
will
set Silas onto you.”

“He’s my twin,” Quillan’s mouth hinted at a smile. “He’ll take my side.”

“Like hell he will.” Noah shook his head. “Silas is a renegade.
She
,” he pointed at me, “is the only one who will ever be able to pull the rank card between us five, and you know it.”

“Is it because she’s prettier than me?” Quillan’s smile had grown wide now, and he turned, making a show of appraising me.

“Maybe it’s because her methods are messed up,” Noah said. “She’s like Houdini. She just faces off with him, like she isn’t a measly five feet tall, and and I’m pretty sure it scares the hell out of him.”

“I’m right here,” I waved my hand in the air.

“Yeah you are.” Noah checked his watch. “And we’re late for lunch. You know how those zoo animals are, if we skip lunch together, they’ll think we’re hiding out in the janitor’s closet, and they’ll cry incest.”

I made a face at him. “I don’t need to be reminded of what you do in the janitor’s closet, Noah.”

He grabbed my shoulders and turned me around, propelling me toward the door. “Say goodbye to Mr. Quillan.”

“Goodbye, Mr. Quillan,” I said dutifully, shooting a look at Quillan over my shoulder.

His face was creased in distaste. “Ugh,” he said, as the door closed behind us.

We walked toward the cafeteria, but Noah nudged me to the side when we were halfway there. He reached over my shoulder, pulled on a door handle and crashed up against me, twisting at the last second so that we both fell through the dark doorway and he landed against something, with me stumbling into his chest.

“Noa—” I cried out, a second before his hand slapped over my mouth.

“Shh.” He was laughing quietly, and he reached around me to pull the door closed.

“Are we in the janitor’s closet?” I asked, dumfounded. The scent of disinfectant burned in my nostrils.

“Maybe.” Noah cupped the side of my face, drawing me closer. “You didn’t sound like too much of a fan. I thought I’d do what I could to convert you.”

I pulled back and smacked his chest. “Not funny!”

He leaned back against the shelf and laughed, his teeth flashing white in the shadows. “Who said I’m not deadly serious?”

“I know. You’re not allowed. Silas told me.”

The smile disappeared. “Why would he tell you that?”

I shrugged a shoulder, before realising that he might not have been able to see the movement. The light was shining in from under the doorway, casting a faint glow over him and turning me into a silhouette. “I don’t know.”

“Liar.”

I bit back a laugh, reaching up to push his hair back into place. His hair was usually slicked back perfectly, the style almost military, but our dive into the closet had messed it up.

“Did he kiss you?” Noah asked quietly.

“He didn’t break the rules.” I hedged.

“It’s always hard to tell with him. Sometimes I think he likes you… sometimes I think he hates you. He doesn’t like when people touch you, but he gets so tense when you’re anywhere near him.”

“I know.”

“But he’s attracted to you.”

I wondered if it was the darkness or the rare alone-time that was spurring this talk, since the guys usually didn’t question my relationships with the others.

“Maybe it’s just who he is.” I felt my shoulders slump forward. “I think he doesn’t know how to control his anger very well. He gets very passionate, and sometimes it’s violent… sometimes it isn’t.”

“But he hasn’t kissed you?”

“He didn’t break the rules,” I repeated.

Noah was silent, and then suddenly he was moving. He switched our positions rapidly, pushing me back against the shelves of cleaning products and whipping his arms up against one of the racks to box me in.

“Where?” he asked.

I blinked, my mind snagging on the picture that I had drawn, wondering if the other girl would see the same intense spark in Noah’s eyes that I was seeing now. He wasn’t leaning against my body, so the scratching was absent, but there was a tension in the air that I had never felt before with Noah.

“He didn’t—”

“Where?” he repeated.

I raised a shaky hand and pressed it to my neck. His eyes followed the movement. He didn’t say anything, only stared at my neck, following the path of my fingers as I slid my hand away and let it fall back to my side, and then his eyes were back on my neck again. He shifted forward slowly, and I tensed. He breathed out a sigh, backing up again.

“Why do you always react like that?” he asked me, the pain and frustration in his voice unmistakable.

Tears threatened my eyes with a prickly warning, and I quickly looked away from his face, swallowing my guilt.

“I’m sorry,” I choked out.

“I know you asked for time.” He backed off me fully, sweeping his hands through his hair, messing it up again. “I’m the one who’s sorry. I’m being impatient…” he turned and I reached out, snagging his arm.

When he faced me again, I entertained the brief notion of pulling him into my arms. I wanted to hold him, like I would Poison, or Clarin… like I would a friend… but that wasn’t what he wanted. That wasn’t what was causing the pain to cloud his light eyes in the darkness. Instead, I touched his face, the light scrape of my fingers bringing him close again. His hands returned to the shelves, his eyes watching me as I cupped his face. I rose up and pressed a kiss to his cheek, his skin a strange combination of rough and smooth against my lips. He stayed very still, not crowding me with his body, and a steady tickle of pleasure rippled through me. I pulled back, swallowing past the lump in my throat. The emotion hadn’t been mine; it had belonged to the bond. The realization threatened to break my heart.

I dipped forward and kissed his cheek again so that he didn’t have to see the pain in my eyes, and he released a deep breath. I hadn’t even realised that he had been holding it.

Something buzzed between us.

“Noah.” My voice came out muffled, since my lips were still pressed against his skin.

“I don’t want to answer it,” he said lightly. The way his arms shook either side of me betrayed his tone.

When it buzzed again I pulled away and he whipped out the phone, turning away from me.

“What?” He sounded angry now. He said nothing more to the person on the phone, and after a few seconds he hung up and stepped out of the closet, closing the door firmly behind him.

“Ey!” someone yelled on the other side of the door. “Who you got in there, Noah?”

“Keep moving.” Noah would have sounded calm to whomever he was talking to, but I heard the note of steel that hinted beneath his words.

I waited for a few minutes and then he wrenched the door open and pulled me out. The hallway was empty and we walked toward the cafeteria without touching each other.

“I’m…” Noah hesitated outside of the door we needed to walk through, passing a pale hand through his hair once again. I knew that he was about to apologise.

“It’s okay.
” I smiled shakily, touching his arm and going in ahead of him. 

We found Cabe sitting at our usual table, tapping his phone against his palm and looking worried. When he saw us, his brows drew together, his eyes flicking over our expressions before surprise settled into his face.

“Hey, Noah!” someone called out from the nearby table. “You leave Amber in the closet or something?”

Noah ignored the boy, sitting beside Cabe as I took the seat across from them. Cabe’s mouth was hanging open, his stare fixed on Noah. “Seriously?” he asked.

Noah cringed. “It was kind of an accident.”

I looked to the boy who had yelled out, and then cast my eye over their table. Tariq was sitting there, and a few girls were hanging around. I didn’t see Amber anywhere.

“Who are you going out with on Saturday?” I asked Noah, causing them both to look away from each other.

“Amber.”

I masked my reaction. “Your ex-girlfriend?”

“I wouldn’t say that we
dated
, exactly. Besides, she asked me at practise in front of the whole team and the cheerleading squad. She backed me into a corner. Should I cancel?”

Should he
? If he did, maybe Amber would find another way to make my sketch a reality. At least this way I had a plan to intervene.

“No,” I said easily, despite the anxious pounding of my heart. “It’s cool.”

We walked to class lost in our individual thoughts. Noah was probably wondering if going out with his ex-
whatever
was crossing some line in this weird charade that we were all trying to keep up, Cabe was undoubtedly wondering what had happened in the janitor’s closet—judging by the looks he was shooting Noah and myself—and I was wondering how I was going to get Danny alone without my good-guy-stalkers.

Mrs. Valory spent half of the lesson running through the requirements for our composition, which was due in two weeks, and then she released us to our individual work. Danny was in the corner of the room with Mike and few other guys. He was tapping distractedly on a drum kit, laughing at something Mike was saying, while Mike was trying to covertly watch Poison, who was busy with the xylophone. I went into the practise room with the piano and Noah sat down and started playing while Cabe stood at the window.

“I need to fix things with Poison and Mike,” I told them, stating only half of the truth. “I’ll be right back.”

Noah nodded absently, still lost in his thoughts, and Cabe turned for a moment. “Ask her if she’s going to do her original composition on the xylophone, and, if yes, can she teach me?”

I smiled. “Good idea. Why did we take music again?”

His smile stretched enough to give me a glimpse of sunlight, and I quickly backed out of the room, unwilling to watch it fade again. I walked over to Poison and crouched beside her.

“Cabe wants to know if you’re going to do your composition on that thing,” I said.

“Hells yeah I am. Bitches love xylophones.”

“Are you lesbian now?”

“Munchkin, I love you, you know that—but I’m all for the heavy-duty equipment. When I said bitches, I was referring to Mrs. Valory. Teacher-bitches love xylophones.”

“I’m not sure that they do, but I don’t dislike your logic.”

She chuckled. “You gave your secret-keepers the slip. Is it time for Operation Cock-Block?”

“If that’s what we’re calling it, then
no
.”

“Awe.” She pouted. “Come on!”

“Okay fine. Yes, it’s time for Operation… whatever.”

“Don’t pretend that you don’t have a dirty hooker mouth. Say the whole thing.”

I sighed. “No.”

She seemed greatly amused by my reluctance. “Go get us some dates, then!”

“What if he says no? He might like the girl that I drew. They probably already agreed to go out together.”

“Duh, that’s why you’re cutting in, because he has the hots for you and we already know that he’s going to be wherever they’re going. Now go!”

I made a face at her and got up, walking over to the drum kit. Danny spotted me first and stopped playing. The guys stopped talking and turned to stare at me.

“What’s up, Duchess?” Danny spoke up, twirling one of his sticks.

“Saturday,” I answered.

The drumstick slipped from his fingers, clattering to the ground. One of the guys whistled under his breath.

Danny shot the guy an annoyed look.

“Are you asking me out?” he questioned, picking up the stick.

“Nope,” I answered.

His lips spread into a smile. “I was planning on going to Reds on Saturday. Want to come along?”

“Okay,” I said, turning around. I took a step before I paused and sought out Mike with my eyes. “You too,” I said, and then walked off. When I got back to Poison, she was lying on the ground, her arm bent over her face, laughing. “What?” I frowned at her.