Chapter 9 -Mixed Signals
610 Words
The hallway stayed painfully silent after Chloe’s words.
Lily could practically feel hundreds of students pretending not to listen while absolutely listening.
Jason looked like he wanted to evaporate.
Noah, however, looked furious.
“Can we not do this here?” he said sharply.
Chloe crossed her arms. “Why? Afraid she’ll finally see the real you?”
Lily’s stomach twisted uncomfortably.
Noah exhaled slowly like he was forcing himself to stay calm.
“You’re being unfair.”
Chloe laughed softly.
“Am I?”
The tension between them felt too personal.
Too practiced.
Like this wasn’t the first argument they’d had.
And somehow that bothered Lily more than it should have.
Chloe noticed immediately.
Of course she did.
Her eyes softened slightly when she looked at Lily again.
“I’m not trying to be mean,” she said quietly. “I just don’t want you getting hurt.”
Before Lily could answer, Noah suddenly stepped forward.
“That’s enough.”
The coldness in his voice surprised everyone.
Even Chloe looked hurt for half a second.
Then her expression hardened again.
“Fine.”
She glanced at Lily one last time.
“Just don’t say nobody warned you.”
Then she turned and walked away down the hallway.
The second she disappeared, noise slowly returned around them.
Whispers.
Phones.
Drama.
Westwood High returning to normal.
Jason cleared his throat awkwardly.
“So… anybody else suddenly craving violence or just me?”
Nobody laughed.
For once, even Jason looked uncomfortable.
Lily shifted her books against her chest carefully before looking at Noah.
“Were you and Chloe together?”
Straight to the point.
Noah rubbed tiredly at the back of his neck.
“Yeah.”
The answer hit harder than Lily expected.
“Oh.”
Jason looked between them nervously.
“I’m gonna… go be somewhere else.”
Neither of them stopped him.
The second Jason disappeared into the crowd, silence settled again.
Noah looked at Lily carefully.
“You wanna know the full story?”
Part of her did.
Part of her absolutely didn’t.
But curiosity won.
“A little.”
Noah leaned back against the lockers with a sigh.
“We dated last year.”
Lily hated how much the word dated bothered her.
“It wasn’t serious at first,” Noah continued quietly. “At least… it wasn’t supposed to be.”
“But?”
He looked away briefly.
"Chloe wanted something I couldn’t give her.”
Lily frowned slightly.
“What does that mean?”
Noah hesitated.
And somehow that hesitation told her everything.
Commitment.
Feelings.
Something deeper.
“She thought I’d eventually change,” he admitted softly. “I didn’t.”
The honesty in his voice made Lily’s chest tighten unexpectedly.
Because at least he wasn’t pretending.
Still…
Chloe’s words echoed unpleasantly in her head.
> Girls get attached. Then somebody gets hurt.
Lily swallowed carefully.
“So what now?” she asked quietly.
Noah looked at her for a long moment.
And suddenly the hallway felt too small again.
“Now,” he said softly, “I try not to screw things up with you too.”
Her heart skipped embarrassingly hard.
Oh.
That sounded dangerously close to something real.
Before Lily could respond, the warning bell rang loudly through the halls.
Students immediately rushed around them again.
The moment shattered.
Noah pushed himself away from the lockers slowly.
“We should get to class.”
Right.
Class.
School.
Normal things.
Not whatever this was becoming.
Lily nodded quickly.
But as they started walking side by side through the crowded hallway—
She couldn’t stop thinking about one terrifying possibility.
What if Chloe was right?
- Writer
