14. Noah

14

NOAH

My alarm went off and I immediately silenced it. Just five more minutes.

I turned on my side and fluffed up my pillow, releasing a long, contented sigh. Then I opened my eyes, realizing where I was. I hadn't woken up this warm all week. I took in my surroundings as the memory of last night came to mind. I was sleeping in Lexi's closet.

Fully alert now, I rolled over to my other side, so I could see out her closet door. Had my alarm awakened Lexi? Did I alert her dad to my presence?

Lexi was still asleep on her bed, one arm hanging off the side, her hair a huge mess over her eyes.

I stifled a laugh. She was dead to the world. And if she hadn't woken with my alarm when she was only a few feet away, then hopefully, her dad hadn't heard it either .

I turned the alarm and ringer sound down on my phone just in case it decided to try and alert everyone to my presence again.

I still had over an hour and a half until school started, but what was I supposed to do now? Should I risk sneaking out of Lexi's house and possibly getting caught by her dad and the now early-bird Easton? Or should I stay hidden until they all left, and then bum another shower in her bathroom?

I tried to relax my breathing and perked up my ears for any sounds in the house. I was pretty sure the Army had turned Lexi's dad into an early riser. Which meant he was probably already up and at 'em.

Sure enough, a moment later, I was able to pick out the sound of pots and pans clanking in the kitchen.

I glanced at Lexi again. She was still sleeping.

I looked over to her window, wondering if I could get it open now that I was inside and had better leverage. If I were to leave now, I could still get to school in time and just shower in the locker room. I didn't want to risk getting caught in Lexi's room and have her get into trouble because of me. She'd already done so much to help me out.

I pushed the warm blankets off me then stood.

My head immediately crashed against the rod in her closet. I swore and rubbed at the sore spot. Stupid giant-people problems .

"Who's there?" Lexi said, her voice full of alarm. Panicked, she scrambled and reached for something on her nightstand.

"It's just me," I said through gritted teeth, the throbbing pain in my head making it hard not to release a string of curse words that would probably make angelic Lexi blush.

But telling her it was just me in her room and not a serial killer didn't seem to calm her down at all. Instead, it had the opposite effect. Her hand groped around for another few seconds—touching her phone, a book, and then her lamp before it stopped on her glasses. She pushed her hair out of her eyes and slid her glasses on.

Her eyes focused on me a second later. "Why are you making so many loud noises?" she whispered. "Are you trying to get us caught and me grounded for the rest of my life?"

I continued to rub the spot on my head that was already turning into a big bump.

"You think I purposely banged my head on your closet?"

That seemed to bring her back to reality, and she took a deep breath before relaxing against her headboard. "Sorry, I just heard this loud sound and woke up."

I leaned against the closet door frame. "Sorry to scare you. "

"Is your head okay? That sounded pretty painful from how loud it was."

It was pretty tender. "A bag of ice might be nice."

She pushed her blankets away and kicked them the rest of the way down. "Okay, I'll see if I can sneak some up here. Just stay in there, okay? I'm going to leave my bedroom door open, so my dad won’t think I'm hiding something in here."

"Okay." And I stepped back into the closet, shut the door, and waited in the dark for her to return.

I listened to the muffled sounds of her family going through their morning routine. It sounded like her dad was talking to her about something. It took a while for her to come back, but eventually, her bedroom door clicked shut, and then she was opening the closet door for me to come out.

"Here, sit on my bed and let me look at it," she instructed.

I did as I was told. She stood in front of me, handed me the ice pack, and then was looking intently at my hair. "Which side hurts?"

"Right on top." I pointed to the spot about halfway down the center of my head.

She gently touched a couple of places on my scalp.

"Ouch," I said, once she'd found the spot.

"Sorry." She leaned closer to get a better view. And I couldn't help but notice how good she smelled. Pretty sure I stank first thing in the morning, but she smelled amazing.

Which reminded me to shut my mouth, so she wouldn't be as likely to catch a whiff of my nasty morning breath. I may be a homeless guy at the moment, but that didn't mean she needed to smell it on me.

I closed my eyes as she pushed my hair aside to get a better look. Chills ran down my neck from the way it felt to have her hands in my hair, nerve endings sparking to life. I wondered what it would feel like to have her run her hands through my hair as I kissed her...

"Looks like you hit your head pretty good there. But there isn't a cut or anything, so I think you'll be okay."

I opened my eyes, coming back to reality and stopping myself from daydreaming about pulling her onto my lap and keeping her there.

She'd probably scream if I did that anyway, and then our secret would definitely be out. So I kept my hands obediently in my lap even though they were itching to touch her.

She took the ice pack from my hands and gently set it on top of my head. "How about you just lie down on my bed and keep this on your bump for the next twenty minutes?"

"You don't think your dad or Easton will find me? I can try to get the window open and sneak out to my car."

She stepped back and seemed to study me. "My dad has to go into the office early again today, so I can just tell Easton that you're coming to pick me up again and you can come out once he's gone."

"Okay." I lay down on her bed, trying not to think about how she'd just been asleep here moments before.

What was happening to me? Why was I suddenly having these kinds of thoughts about Lexi? This was not part of our plan.

She wrung her hands in front of her. "I, um, have to take a shower, though. Just, uh, stay over there, okay?"

She was cute when she was nervous. And for the first time, I was thinking that maybe she did have a reason to be nervous, because I was starting to have physical reactions that I shouldn’t be having to her presence.

I cleared my throat. "You don't have to worry about me sneaking in there."

She laughed awkwardly. "Of course I know that." But her face turned bright red, and I was pretty sure mine was already that shade as well.

She grabbed some clothes out of her dresser, making sure to block my view, hugging them to her chest before she disappeared into the bathroom.

I lay back on her pillows and sighed. I was in trouble. And if Easton could read the thoughts running through my mind, he would kill me.

"Thanks for letting me stay in your closet last night," I said as I stuffed my dirty clothes into my backpack after my quick shower.

"No problem," she said. Then, with a pause, seemed to think better of it. "Well, thankfully my dad or Easton didn't notice, so it didn't become a problem." She laughed.

"Yeah, that would definitely be bad." I zipped my backpack shut and threw it over my shoulder, ready to leave her room for the first time that morning.

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to sneak you breakfast up here."

"It's okay." And thankfully, my stomach behaved and didn't grumble at me.

"I'll figure out something better tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

Her face flushed. "Well, didn't you say something about going back home on Saturday? I'm feeling brave enough that I'm stupid enough to think that we can pull this off again. I know my closet isn't the most comfortable place in the world, but it was better than sleeping in your car, right?"

"Definitely better."

She turned off her bedroom light, and I followed her down the hall, trying not to notice how good she looked in her dark jeans today.

Eyes up, Noah, I chided myself .

She stopped in the kitchen before heading out and rummaged through the pantry for a moment.

She came out holding two energy bars. "Will these tide you over until lunch?" she asked.

A warm feeling spread through my chest at her thoughtfulness. I took the bars from her hand. "These will be perfect. Thank you." I gave her a meaningful smile, hoping she'd understand how grateful I was. "You're kind of the most thoughtful fake girlfriend I've ever had before."

"You say that like you get fake girlfriends on a regular basis." She raised an eyebrow.

I laughed. "Nope. You would be the first."

"And hopefully the last. I don't think faking relationships should be a regular thing for either of us."

I nodded. "Yeah, they tend to make things confusing." Like how I was starting to get confused into thinking I wanted this to turn real.

She nodded and held her hand out to me. "Well, are you ready to go, fake boyfriend?" she asked.

I looked at her outstretched hand for a moment before taking it in my own. "Yeah, let's go." I gave her hand a squeeze and forced myself not to think about how good it felt in mine and how happy I was that she'd offered it to me even when no one from school was around to see it. I would just let this be whatever it was right now and try not to mess Lexi's life up too badly.