Chapter Twenty-Two

Sara A few weeks passed. Mom refused to do anything about Greg. Noah had told me he’d found his dad, but because Mom didn’t want to, I left it alone. I could only steam about it.

I woke up one morning to my phone ringing. I heard a groan from beside me, before Noah shifted around and grabbed the phone.

“It’s your mom, Sara,” he mumbled, still half asleep.

I blinked my eyes open and took the phone, then slid out of bed so I wouldn’t bother him. Mom already knew about us since I’d told her we were seeing each other a couple weeks back, but she didn’t know we were this close already. It had both surprised and delighted me when she was happy for me, unconditionally.

“Hey, Mom?” I said, covering a yawn. “What is it?”

“Honey, why do you sound so tired? Did I catch you at a bad time?”

It wasn’t all that early in the morning, but Noah and I had been up late last night, and I felt exhausted. Only, it was the good kind of exhausted that came after long, fun rounds of fulfilling sex. Of course, there was no way I was telling Mom that.

“I was just up doing some assignments,” I said, quickly coming up with the excuse. “I’m sorry. What is it, Mom?”

“Sara, I got the money back!”

I blinked a couple times, then frowned, wondering if I was still sleeping.

“What did you say, Mom? You got the money back? Really?”

I heard movement behind me. I glanced over, to see Noah looking at me as he slowly sat up in the bed. His expression was astonished, probably as much as mine was.

“Yes! I just got a call from the bank this morning, all the money is back. Greg hasn’t said anything to me, can you ask Noah if he’s talked to him?”

“Sure, Mom,” I said distractedly. “I’ll ask. And, I’m happy for you.”

She sighed. “I’m just glad to have it back. Your father left it to me after all, and he worked hard to obtain it. Anyway, you can go back to sleep, honey, you still sound a little tired. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Later,” I murmured, then cut the call.

“Dad returned the money?” Noah asked as soon as he saw I was off the phone. “He really returned all of it?”

I nodded. “According to Mom, yes. I’ll ask for more details some other time. Have you heard from your dad?”

“No, I haven’t,” he said quickly. “He took so long, I really didn’t think he was going to…”

As he spoke, he got off the bed with the sheets wrapped around his waist and picked up his jeans. I realized I was naked, but after a second, disregarded it. I walked over to the bed and sat down and tugged on the edge of the sheet to cover myself a little, but it wasn’t anything Noah hadn’t seen before. I still had fresh marks from last night to prove it.

Noah checked his phone and was still for a long minute.

“Noah?” I called tentatively. “What is it?”

He glanced over at me, then came back to the bed. His expression was strange as he handed the phone to me. I met his gaze as I took it.

“I got a text message from Dad,” he said quietly.

I looked down and read the message.

“Don’t worry about paying for college anymore. It’s paid for the whole year.”

“Wait, really?” I said, turning to him.

He shrugged. “I’d have to go to the office and clarify it, but he wouldn’t send the message if it was a lie, right?”

I checked the timing of the text. It came late last night while we were both busy, so we didn’t hear it. That meant he must have cleared it yesterday, right? I did sigh in relief, though, because we were nearing the semester’s tests, and he couldn’t take them without his tuition paid. This came at just the right moment without me having to figure out a way to either get Noah to take my money or get it done without him knowing. Neither would have been easy.

“But,” I frowned. “If he returned Mom’s funds and still paid your tuition, where did the extra money come from? Mom told me it was all back.”

He was surprised again, having only realized the fact when I said it.

“I have no idea,” he admitted. “I’m not sure he’d tell me if I asked.”

“This means you can quit your part-time job, right?”

He frowned. “Uh, not exactly. Even if my tuition is paid, there are other expenses, like living expenses, that I still need money for. I don’t know if he paid for me to stay in the dorms, either, for this and next semester…”

Not long after, we got ready and headed out. It was a weekday, so we had classes, just later in the morning than usual or I would have tried holding back last night.

“Guess what?” I heard Tracey say a while later.

I looked up at Tracey. She, me and Hayley were outside after class, studying, when she broke into my thoughts.

“What?” I asked, a trace of a smile on my lips.

She and Hayley both grinned.

“Sext Me is back online!”

They broke out into giggles, and I joined them. Tracey and Hayley were now my closest friends. When they heard about the Sexy Me line and the rumors Alicia and Caroline helped to spread about Noah and me, they were supportive. In the end, I explained to them most of it, if not the whole story.

Of course, I knew the line wasn’t actually back online. I was just playing a harmless prank on Noah. Although, in a way, this was also to help both of us.

Ever since Alicia and Caroline started spreading those rumors, I couldn’t go anywhere without people looking at me, whispering. If the same thing happened to Noah, he didn’t seem to care much. I, on the other hand, could not stand it, even knowing the rumor would die down on its own if I let it.

For this one day, the rumor was going to spread far and wide, and I was going to get rid of it in one swift blow. Well, Tracey and Alicia were going to fix it. I was going to be busy.

That night, when I went back to my room, I found Noah outside, pacing a tight circle in front of my door. I smiled, but tried to school my expression so I wouldn’t give the game away early.

“Noah?” I called.

He froze, then slowly turned to me. His expression was tight, but when he saw the frown on my face, he looked even more agitated.

“What are you doing here?” I asked slowly.

His expression was stiff for a moment, before he tried to smile. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”

I hummed and turned away from him, pretending to search in my bag for my keys.

“About what?” I asked, sounding disinterested.

“Just something important… have you heard any rumors around the school?”

I hummed again, pulling my keys out.

“Have I?” I murmured. “There was one thing, if that’s what you mean. A new rumor about Sext Me…”

The door unlocked, and I walked inside. Noah followed quickly behind me, as if afraid I would close the door on him.

“I swear it’s not me,” he blurted out. “I heard about it this morning and I tried to get rid of it, but it’s not my account and I don’t know whose it is! Sara, I swear, I haven’t started it up again, okay?”

I let him stew a little, keeping my back to him as I set my bag on the desk then went to the fridge and pulled out some drinks for us. Then, I moved to set them on the bed, before finally turning to Noah.

He looked at me with such an earnest and anxious expression that I couldn’t help softening.

“You don’t have to look so worried,” I said, walking over to him.

He immediately relaxed in relief. “You trust me?”

I cracked a smile. “Well, it’s me this time, so it would be totally unfair of me to let you take the blame for it, right?”

His face dissolved into shock, and the look was so funny that I couldn’t help giggling.

“I’m not doing it, either,” I said, amused. “You’re the only one for me, Noah.”

Stopping in front of him, I circled my arms around his neck and kissed him. He was frozen for another couple seconds, but in the next moment, he relaxed and kissed me back, filling me with warmth.