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"To protect you.”

I released a sigh and glanced down at my overflowing plate as I gathered my thoughts. I must have really been distracted because there was a bizarre variety of food in front of me.

“The reason is irrelevant,” I said as I looked up at him once more. “Like I said, we’re over, and I’ve moved on. You need to respect that.”

Noah ground his teeth together as he met my gaze. “I can respect that,” he said. “But I don’t like it.”

“I didn’t say you had to.”

I went to walk away, but Noah reached out and touched my arm, stopping me. “I haven’t given up on us,” he said. “I can step back and let you play house with Wes if that’s what you want. But when you realize he’s not enough. That he doesn’t make your heart race like I do. That you’re done playing it safe. I’ll be here.”

His words rattled me. I shook him off before I turned and marched over to my table. I could feel Noah’s eyes on me as I moved away from him. He had said he’d respect my relationship with Wes, but I got the feeling he wasn’t going to leave me alone. That he was well and truly done keeping his distance.

As I mademy way to English after breakfast, Veronica pulled me aside in the hallway. She jerked her head toward the girls’ bathrooms, and I followed her in. I hadn’t spoken to her since she asked me to keep quiet about the fact she’d been caught with a boy in her room. A boy who wasn’t her boyfriend. I now knew that she’d never even been in a relationship with Noah. Maybe she was finally going to explain her side of the story.

She checked the stalls were empty before she turned to me. “You weren’t with Noah at breakfast,” she said. The accusatory tone to her voice made me frown.

“Uh, no. Why would I be?”

“Because he’s in love with you, obviously.” She rolled her eyes. “He told you that me and him were never together, right?”

“He did…” I replied. “So, you really weren’t cheating on Noah then?”

“Clearly.”

“But I thought you were in love with him.”

She laughed. “Why on earth would I love someone who isn’t the least bit interested in me?” Her eyebrows slowly lifted. “You think someone like me would really pine after a guy who was in love with another girl? Please, I’m amazing, and if a guy can’t see that, he’s not the guy for me.”

She pulled a lipstick out of her bag and began to apply it, checking her reflection in the mirror and pursing her lips as she did.

I shifted slightly on my feet, uncomfortable with the way she was so openly talking about Noah’s feelings. How did she even know Noah had confessed his love for me? Was it that obvious?

“But I don’t understand,” I said. “Why would you agree to pretend to date him?”

“He’s not the only one who needed to hide things from his family,” she said. “And pretending we were in a relationship suited my own purposes just as much as it helped him.”

“What were you hiding?”

She let out a laugh and put her lipstick back in her bag. “Like I’d tell you.”

“You told me about getting caught in another boy’s room...”

“Of course, I did. I knew Noah was about to tell you the truth, so I figured I’d do you a favor. I suspected you might not believe him when he told you everything with me was faked, so I decided to give you a hint first.”

I stared at Veronica, the frown becoming more apparent on my face. I was never going to understand this girl. When I’d first gotten to this school, she’d taken it as a personal insult that I got close to Noah. Now she seemed to be pushing us together.

“Not that any of this matters to me anymore,” she continued. “Thanks to your father buying out my father’s investment in Hastings Laboratories, I don’t have to keep pretending I worship the ground Noah walks on.”

"Your father was the investor Matthew bought out?”

“Yes.” She looked down her nose at me like I was stupid for missing it. “And thank God. That company was a sinking ship.”

I stared at her, still in shock. “That’s why your families were always forcing you together?”

“Ugh, don’t remind me. I’m so glad that’s over. Maybe now my mother will be a little less interested in who I spend my time with.”

I shook my head at her. “You know, I really thought you’d accidently revealed to me that you got caught in that boy’s room.”