31. Lexi

31

LEXI

My legs wobbled the whole way back to my room. I still couldn't believe what Noah had said—that I had the ability to tempt him to cross those lines. It was mind-boggling. But I was glad he'd told me, so I'd know how to be more careful. I had no idea what I was doing, and I didn't want to mess things up. Even though I wanted to date and kiss him—the guy my dad forbade me from hanging out with—I didn't want to cross that line. I wasn't going to be the girl who forgot all her plans, goals, and desires just because she was finally dating the guy she'd always liked.

I didn't really think Noah would do that, either, since he'd been the one to stop things. But it was still smart to be careful.

I walked into my room, flicking on the light before going to my closet. Noah stepped just inside the doorway like he wasn't sure he could come in.

"You don't have to wait there, Noah. It's not like you haven't been in here before."

"I just don't want to get you in trouble. I don't think your dad would be very happy to find me in here."

I waved my hand. "He told me I shouldn't expect him back until about midnight. We should be fine." I was just grabbing his shirt, anyway. It wasn't like he was going to be sleeping in my room again.

I opened my closet and looked around for his shirt. I was pretty sure I'd seen it in here earlier when I was trying to figure out exactly what to wear. I put my hands on my hips and frowned at the huge mess I'd made this evening.

"Your closet looks a little different than it did when I left this morning," Noah commented, coming to stand beside me. I tried not to feel too embarrassed about how it was totally obvious that I'd tried on about everything I owned before throwing it onto the carpet.

"Trying to look nice for someone today?" There was a smile in his voice.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, okay you caught me. I was trying to get you to notice me."

He laughed and leaned against the door frame to my closet. "Oh, you already had my attention." He touched the sleeve of my dress. "But this didn't hurt, either. "

I felt a blush rise to my cheeks. I shook my head. What was I doing in here again? Oh yeah, finding his shirt. I lowered myself to my knees so that I could dig through the messy pile of clothes on the floor. A moment later, I spotted it. I grabbed the gray shirt then jumped back up.

I stood up too fast and felt lightheaded. Noah grabbed my arm again. "Does that happen every time you look for things on your closet floor?" he asked.

I gripped his waist to steady myself. "It only seems to happen when you're around."

He smiled. "As long as it's only when I'm around."

I found myself getting caught up in his eyes but decided I needed to stop. He’d already told me he was tempted to be with me, so it would probably be a good idea to stop finding ourselves in my closet from now on. It seemed to have some sort of magical pull for us when we were in it.

I handed him his shirt and stepped away. "Here you go. I think that's all you left here this morning."

"I guess I better leave you with something else then." He pulled me against him and kissed me one more time.

I let myself lean into him, still not believing this was real.

"What's going on here?" My dad's voice cut through the air.

Oh crap !

Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!

I slowly turned to face my dad, knowing the guilt on my face would make him doubt anything I said next.

"It's not what it looks like, Dad," I hurried to say, stepping away from Noah, hoping that if I moved fast he'd have less time to imprint the image of me and Noah kissing in my closet into his mind.

"You need to get out of here now, Noah!" My dad stepped into my room, looking more threatening than I'd ever seen him before.

"I promise this is not what it looks like, Dad." I stood in front of Noah as if that would protect him from my dad. "I was just giving him back his shirt."

"His shirt?" My dad looked incredulous. "What in the world do you have his shirt for? What have you two been doing together?"

He stomped closer to Noah, and the look on his face had me worried about what he might do.

From what he'd just seen and heard, he probably thought his worst nightmare had come true.

"I promise I didn't do whatever it is you're thinking," Noah said.

"What I just saw was more than enough. You are never going to step another foot in this house again. You hear me?" He gripped Noah's arm and yanked him away from me, catapulting him toward my door. "I warned you to stay away from my daughter, and this is what you do? I knew better than to let Easton be friends with you."

Noah glanced at me, his expression pained, before going into the hall with my dad on his heels.

I chased after them. "I was helping him out! If you would just listen, I could explain."

My dad looked over his shoulder at me. His face was red, and it looked like his vein was about to pop on his forehead because it was so pronounced right now. "Oh, I'll bet you were helping him out. I know exactly what kind of guy he is. This isn't the first time I've had my daughter taken advantage of by an older boy."

We were in the living room now. Noah grabbed his coat from the closet and shrugged into it like he couldn't get out of here fast enough.

"Is this why you had me fix your window last night? So you could sneak that...that..." He pointed at Noah like he couldn't even bring himself to say his name. "That boy into your room?"

"We didn't do anything. He just slept in my closet."

I clamped my mouth shut, and from the look Noah gave me I realized that I'd said too much.

My dad gritted his teeth. "You need to get out of here, Noah." He pointed to the door behind him. "Now!"

Noah looked like he was debating on whether to leave or not, but a moment later he sighed and put his hand on the door handle .

But before Noah could make his escape, Easton appeared at my side.

"What's going on here?" he asked Noah.

"I have to go," was all Noah said, not looking anyone in the eyes as he pulled the door open.

"Wait," Easton said, stepping past my dad and putting his hand on Noah's shoulder. "You forgot your phone. I looked at the screen and you missed a few calls from your sister."

Noah's eyes went wide as he took his phone. Panic rose to his face and he disappeared out the door.

Was something wrong with his sister?

I wanted to chase after him to find out.

"Don't even think about going after him." My dad shut the front door and blocked it.

"But I need to know if everything is okay," I pleaded.

"I think you need to be more worried about yourself than that boy. But if you can't, I'm not above getting a restraining order."

"What are you guys talking about?" Easton asked.

"I caught your sister kissing Noah in her room. Turns out he's been sleeping in her room."

"My closet, Dad! There's a huge difference there."

"You are so naive, Lexi! Can't you see that he was using you? It starts out with the closet, then once you're comfortable, it's your floor by the closet, and then pretty soon he's in your bed. Does that purity ring on your finger even mean anything anymore?"

"Of course it does, Dad. I didn't do anything wrong! I'm not Maddie!" I shouted. Why wouldn't he just listen to me?

He shook his head. "If I ever see that boy around you again, Yale is off. I will not pay one penny for your college. I paid my own way, and you can too. We had a deal. And if you break my trust, it's over."

Then he turned on his heel and went to his room, slamming the door and making the whole house shake.

I shoved my hands into my hair, resisting the urge to pull it all out. "Dad is ridiculous!" I huffed and dropped onto the loveseat in the living room.

"Noah was sleeping in your room?" Easton asked in a quiet voice from behind me and when I turned to glance up at him, he had a look on his face that made me think he felt betrayed somehow.

"Nothing happened."

He walked over to the couch and dropped down. "Was it real then? Were you sneaking around right in front of my face this whole time?"

I rolled my eyes. "It was all fake until today, Easton. We told you the truth. Noah just needed somewhere to stay since he got kicked out of his house."

"Wait... What?" Easton shook his head like he didn't think he'd heard me right. "Since when did Noah get kicked out of his house? And why the heck did he tell you and not me?"

I scooted forward on the loveseat and sighed. Telling Noah's secret was probably the only way to keep my dad from getting a restraining order on him. "His stepdad kicked him out on Saturday."

"He's been sleeping here since Saturday?"

I blew out a frustrated breath. "If you’ll just let me talk, I can explain everything."

So I told him all about Noah getting kicked out and sleeping in his car and me finding him in there. "He just slept in my closet for two nights. I promise he didn't lay a finger on me. I'm still wearing my purity ring, see?" I hated that I had to say it.

"But why didn't he tell me?"

"He didn't want anyone to know. The only reason why he told me was because I found him. He probably would have stayed in his car in the freezing cold last night if I hadn't begged him to come over."

Realization dawned on his face. "Is that why you didn't want me looking in your closet?"

"Yes." I crossed my arms.

Easton shook his head. "I still can't believe he didn't tell me."

We were quiet for a while. But then he said, "Wait, you said it wasn't real until today. What happened today? I thought you broke up. "

Oh man. My stupid mouth was ruining everything, wasn't it?

"Lexi..." he prodded when I didn't say anything.

I blinked my eyes shut, knowing I'd been caught. It wasn't like it mattered, anyway. There was pretty much no chance of Noah ever talking to me again after all the things my dad had said.

I opened my eyes again. "Turns out, Noah actually liked me."

"And what makes you think that?"

"Because he just told me." And the way he'd been kissing me had certainly made those words really believable, too.

Why did my dad have to find us and ruin everything?

Easton sat up straighter. "Don't let yourself get too attached to that thought, okay? I know how Noah is with girls. He loses interest fast."

Sharp pains stabbed at my heart. But I tried to force it away. "He dated Ashlyn for almost a year," I said. A whole year was not losing interest fast.

"Yes, but after her, it was a new girl every week."

I furrowed my brow. "How come I didn't know about this?"

"Because you don't go to our parties. You don't hang out with our crowd." He shrugged like it was obvious.

"I don't believe you. He started this whole fake dating thing because he wanted to get Raven off his back."

Easton stared at me like I was missing a screw in my head. "And he only did that because he'd already made out with her at a party and couldn't man up enough to tell her it was just physical. That's how Noah is with girls. That's how all guys are."

No. That couldn't be true. He'd just stopped me from wrapping my legs around him because he didn't want to do that anymore. Easton didn't know what he was talking about.

"You say all guys are like that? Why are you lumping yourself into that category?" Since when was Easton like ‘all guys’?

He blinked and looked away as if he didn't like my question.

Was he that way?

When he finally turned back to me, he had a tortured look on his face.

What had he done?

"I'm not a saint, Lexi." He sighed heavily and glanced in the direction of Dad's bedroom as if to make sure he wasn't listening. "Haven't you noticed something has been missing on my left hand for a few months now?"

I looked at his ring finger. His purity ring wasn't there. But hadn't he just said that he'd lost it?

"You didn't lose it when we went camping?"

His eyes tightened, and I knew I'd hit a nerve. I didn't want to believe it. Easton couldn't have done that .

"I really don't want to talk about it with you." He brushed my question away, and I was grateful. I didn't want to know that about him if it was true.

He pressed his lips together and seemed to switch back to the topic at hand. "But like I said, guys are wired differently than girls, and I don't want you to think that things are different with Noah. I don't want to see you get hurt."

"You don't need to worry about me, Easton. I know what I'm doing."

"Don't be so naive, Lexi."

That was the second time I'd been called naive tonight. I hated that word.

"Noah said he didn't do that stuff with Ashlyn."

Easton covered his eyes with his hand for a moment before looking back at me with more annoyance than I felt I deserved. "That's because Ashlyn was special."

Translation: Ashlyn was special, and I would never be.

Tears sprung to my eyes, threatening to topple over. My own brother had pretty much just confirmed my biggest fear in this whole thing. I was not the kind of girl guys went after. I'd just been stupid enough to think Noah might make an exception for me after getting to know me better.

I blinked back tears, not wanting to cry in front of Easton and let him know that his words had hit their mark. "Thank you for imparting your brotherly wisdom on me." I swallowed down the lump rising in my throat as I stood to leave. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go to my room and find out how many cats I'll be allowed to live with when I'm forty and still haven't ever been asked out on a real date."

"Lexi, wait—" He stood.

I put my hand out to stop him. "I think you've said enough tonight."