Page 80 of Intermission

“Our song.” There’s a strange softness in his echo, almost as if he has a sore throat, but I know better.

The song ends, replaced with a commercial for an auto parts store. Noah dials the volume down. “So, where would you like to go?”

“I don’t know. Have you eaten?”

“No. I was planning on taking you out. Or...” Noah pauses. “Did you eat dinner already?”

“No. What sounds good?”

“Anything but pizza. I’ve been eating leftover pizza all week.”

“We could just drive through somewhere, grab sandwiches. Have a picnic?”

“A picnic?” Noah laughs. “Sure, why not. Where?”

“How about a park or something? If we’re going into Sommerton anyway to get the food, we could go to that park on the north side of town. The one with the duck pond and the fountain. It’s April, so they should have the picnic tables out by now.”

“It might get a little chilly tonight. Maybe we should eat in and then pick up some coffees to go or something before we go to the park.”

After eating sub sandwiches in a mostly deserted fast food restaurant—thankfully, I don’t know any of the patrons, which means they won’t recognize me and report back to Mom—we head to the drive-thru lane at Grady’s Grind. Ten minutes later, we’re walking a tree-lined, paved pathway to the picturesque duck pond, frothy coffees in hand.

“Let’s go away from the trees so we can see the stars,” he suggests, guiding me to a bench.

Noah’s arm wraps around my shoulders. I snuggle into his side. Comfortable silence envelopes us as we gaze across the still water to the tiny island where recently-returned geese gather for the night.

“Faith,” he begins in a voice just above a whisper, “your parents don’t know you’re with me, do they?”

“No,” I admit the omission that’s been riding me all night. And most of the afternoon, really. But... “This was Gretchen’s idea. And since they left her in charge...”

Noah is silent for a few moments, but I feel tension building between us, and I don’t know how to make it disperse.

Finally, he exhales a long, slow breath, but a sense of dread washes over me when that sigh is followed by, “We need to talk.”

Noah pulls his arm from my shoulders, and the temperature seems to drop a few extra degrees.

“This sneaking around and lying to your parents... it’s not right.”

“But Gretchen—”

“Gretchen’s approval is only adding a more palatable layer to the lie.” Noah’s look sends a twinge of guilt through my heart.

“I know,” I whisper. I don’t know why I tried to justify it. “And I guess I lied to you, too, when I texted that I had permission to see you. You probably thought that permission was from Mom and Dad.”

He looks down at his hands, now clasped in his lap. “I hoped. ButIwould be lying if I said I didn’t suspect there was more to your text than what it said. I mean... you sent it from Gretchen’s phone. That’s why I waited so long to reply. I wondered if the message really was from you or if your mom and your sister were setting some kind of trap.” He shakes his head. “We’ve gotten ourselves in a pretty tangled web, haven’t we?”

I scoot away, lifting my knee sideways on the bench so I can face him. “I’m sorry. I should have explained. But I was afraid that if I did, you wouldn’t...”

I let my voice trail off. My gaze swerves out over the pond. I can’t meet his eyes.

“You thought I wouldn’t agree to see you.”

“Exactly. And... you would have been right to stay away.” I look down at my hands for a minute and then meet his eyes again. “Noah, you’re so...good. Don’t get me wrong, I love that about you. I do. You always know the right thing to do, and you always do it, even when it’s the hardest possible thing to do.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Yes, you do. Like going to see my parents last week. That was the right thing to do, but it took a lot of guts.”

He shrugs.