“You’re right,” I mumbled. “You should go.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, and then he was staggering indoors and through the beach house, running out.
I touched a finger to my lips, listening to the front door slam.
And I let him go, too.
• • •
It felt like I’d been standing there for hours when footsteps clattered up onto the patio.
Lee’s eyes flitted around before settling on me. “What happened? Was that Levi? Where’s Noah?”
I froze.
“Was that the door?” Rachel said, going to look. “I thought I heard Noah’s bike….Where’s Levi?”
“They’ve gone,” I managed to say. “They’ve both gone.”
Lee sighed. “Maybe just as well. First time I’ve ever seen Noah walk away from a fight. What the hell was that all about?”
I was shaking my head, but then Amanda piped up, sparing me having to come up with any kind of answer. (Because how exactly was I supposed to explain what had just happened? I wasn’t even so sure myself.)
“Well, I can’t say I’m surprised,” she told us all. “Not after that talk they had earlier.”
I huffed, exclaiming, “Oh my God, what talk? What the hell did they even say? What was so damn special about thischat?”
Amanda blinked at me. “Well, Noah confronted him. Told him to stop mooning over you. It’s a little bit sad, really. The way he looks at you. I feel bad for the guy.”
I suddenly remembered last spring, before Noah and I got together, when I found out he’d been “warning” guys to stay away from me in some stupid and misguided attempt to look out for me.
Frowning at Amanda, I folded my arms and demanded, “Did he tell Levi to stay away from me? Keep his distance or something?”
She shook her head, looking startled. “No! He just said it was about time Levi got over you and that it wasn’t fair to either of you to carry on the way he was. Then, of course, they had that big bust-up down on the beachanyway.I did tell him, I said, if you’re going to talk to the boy, atleasttry to be a grown-up about it.” She sighed and rolled her eyes; there was something almost indulgent about it, though. “That idiot, honestly. There’s no talking to him sometimes. He’s so bloody headstrong.”
“That’s one word for it,” Lee muttered.
They were all looking at me.
Waiting for me to protest, I guessed, like the last time this subject came up.
“I…”
They kept looking at me and waiting.
I flushed. “Okay, so…so maybe you guys have a point. About Levi having…having a crush on me.”
“Oh!” Rachel sighed, throwing her hands in the air. “Now she sees it! Did it really take Noah getting punched in the face for you to realize that?”
Itmaybetook Levi kissing me again to realize that, but…
“Don’t look at me like that,” I muttered. “He’s still my friend. It’s notmyfault I never noticed.”
Lee slung his arm around my shoulders roughly, pulling me forward and ruffling my hair. “You’re an idiot sometimes, Shelly.” He let me up. “So what did he say? Levi? And Noah, for that matter.”
“Noah didn’t exactly say much,” I explained. “Levi…”
Oh man. That was a whole other can of worms. One I wasn’t quite ready to deal with just yet.
