“True. Although, we could have watched movies without the plan.” He talks about other TV shows he has on his to-be-watched list.
I wonder if Noah’s right — would we have hung out without The Jealousy Pact? Would we have walked around the lake and talked as often as we did? I doubt it.
I wonder what will happen when all of this drama drifts away. Will Noah and I drift away too? Almost certainly. The thought makes my heart drop.
When I tune back to Noah’s voice, he’s talking about his English essay grade. When he thanks me, I say he wrote his own essay, no need to thank me, but he goes on and on about my intelligence.
I make all the right sounds while ruminating on the idea of a pretend breakup. I can see it happening in my mind. People would think that Noah used me for sex before breaking my heart. Noah’s reputation would be untouched. He’s popular and likeable, not to mention a guy. As for me? I’m a nobody. People would look at me with pity.
If we pretended to break up, it would confirm us dating in the first place. It’s a bad idea from all angles — emotionally and logically.
“What about the rest of your weekend?” Noah says, interrupting my thoughts.
“I killed time and waited for my headache to disappear,” I answer, remembering how I’d watched YouTube for hours. Until someone knocked on the door. I sit up straight. “Oh, my god Noah, I can’t believe I didn’t tell you this. Yesterday, Oliver came over to my house.”
His eyes widen too. “Oliver? What! Oh — I shouldn’t talk so loud,” he chuckles, glancing around.
Our voices have risen, though when I glance around, no one is looking at us. Mr Patterson is on the other side of the classroom, helping a student with a question.
“Oops,” I grin. “Okay, let me tell you everything.”
I do, although I skim over the details, finishing with: “and then we made out for a while. Then he left.”
“Damn,” Noah says with a whistle. “I’m so happy for you, Eve.”
My smile fades. “I need to talk to him. What if he believes what people are saying?”
He shakes his head. “He knows you, and he knows we weren’t dating, right?”
I nod.
“Does he know about our Jealousy Pact? To let people think we were …”
“No,” I hiss. “There’s no way I’m telling him that.”
Noah raises a brow.
“I don’t want him to think that we’re psycho, by pretending we were in a relationship or whatever.”
Noah hesitates before nodding. I wonder if he feels the same hint of guilt around the Jealousy Pact that I do. Even though we did nothing wrong. Right?
“If I explained it, I might have to go into detail about you and Henry. I wouldn’t out either of you, but I’d have to explain that you wanted to make someone jealous too.”
Noah nods.
We hear Mr Patterson talking as he wanders over to help Alison behind us, and so Noah and I complete some questions. At least I am. I think Noah’s pretending—
I look over and to my surprise, he’s writing answers down. Huh. I look away before Noah catches me watching.
When Mr Patterson leaves to help someone at the back of the classroom, Noah speaks.
“I told my brother yesterday.”
I glance at him. He’s still writing answers with his head lowered. “Ben?” I ask.
He nods. “I … came out to him. I told him about Henry. Not that we are — that wewere— hooking up. I don’t want to expose Henry. But I told him how I felt.”
I smile. “How was it?”
