Everybody had fallen quiet to listen to their argument—not that it was exactly difficult, with both of them raising their voices. Levi barged forward, ducking under the net to face off with Noah. He was shorter, skinnier, but that didn’t seem to bother him right now.
I did try to reach for his arm and hold him back, but he was too quick.
I’d never seen Levi so riled up like this. I definitely hadn’t ever seen him look so pissed off—it stunned me into silence. I felt Lee drifting closer, his arm brushing against mine.
“Oh shit,” he whispered.
“What?”
But he only shook his head with a look that said,I knew this would happen sooner or later.
Amanda was standing with her arms crossed, looking warily between the two of them. She caught my eye and gave a small shrug, the look on her face not too dissimilar to Lee’s.
What the hell had I missed?
“Watch your mouth, kid,” Noah was growling.
“Ha. There he is. The infamousFlynn,the school badass.”
“And what about you? You think this act is fooling anybody? This whole ‘innocent friend’ thing you’ve got going on—it isn’t fooling anybody. Everyone knows why you’re here, why you’re still hanging around.”
He was invited,I almost said.
And why shouldn’t he be here? He was our friend—of course he was here.
What was Noahtalkingabout, with the “innocent friend” thing?
“And I’m sure you’re gonna tell me why,” Levi snapped.
“Because you’re still pining after Elle!”
The words felt like a punch in the gut. My mouth fell open and I stared at them both.
It seemed to hit Levi pretty hard, too: he fell back half a step. “Shut up.”
“It’s so obvious,” Noah carried on ruthlessly. He took a step closer to Levi, his hands balling into fists. “Everyone can see it! You’re spending all this time acting like her friend, acting like that’senoughfor you, but we can all see it.”
“Shut up!”
“She doesn’t want you,” Noah barked at him, their faces only inches away, both of them scowling and glaring. Levi was shaking. “She didn’t want you then and she doesn’t want you now. And the sooner you get that through your thick head, the better for everyone.”
Noah punctuated it with a final smirk.
Levi’s fist went swinging.
I gasped as he punched Noah in the jaw—pretty hard, actually. Way harder than I would’ve expected from Levi.
(Although considering it wasLevi,any kind of punch was unexpected.)
My eyes flew to Noah and I braced myself, waiting for the familiar sight of his shoulders squaring, his feet planting firmly against the ground, his hands curling into fists at his sides….
His jaw clenched, the muscle there jumping.
Amanda hesitated, not sure if she should intervene or not. Rachel was tugging on Lee’s other arm, saying, “Do something!”
Noah’s eyes slid across to mine.
I’d seen Noah get into fights before. Any second now, he’d launch himself forward, tackle Levi to the ground, lay into him….
