I Kissed a Girl by Jennet Alexander

Author:Jennet Alexander
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2021-05-12T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Noa’d intended to play everything totally cool the next morning. It didn’t last long.

Lilah was curled up in the makeup chair in a baggy gray hoodie, the sleeves pulled down over her hands as she cradled a cup of coffee between them. Faint purple smudges marked bags under her eyes, her strawberry-gold waves pulled back in a hasty, unbrushed ponytail.

“Rough night with the new man?” Noa asked as a joke, but the wan smile she got in return was hardly worth the effort.

“I don’t sleep well the first night in a new place. I’ll be fine once I’ve had my coffee,” Lilah explained, but there had to be more to it than that. Her attention jumped to over Noa’s shoulder when the door swung open, and Noa could have sworn that Lilah’d flinched at the sound. Noa’s protective instincts swelled up inside her. Lilah was everything gentle, kind, and soft; she couldn’t say no to anyone to save her life. Noa’d seen that firsthand yesterday. Which meant if she was in trouble, Noa needed to be there to save her from herself.

“Seriously,” Noa said quietly, perching on the counter next to Lilah’s chair. She grabbed a concealer stick and leaned in, pretending to be looking at Lilah’s skin while she spoke. “You’re all upset—something’s wrong.”

Lilah shook her head, leaning away, expression blossoming into one of her big pageant smiles, all teeth and no sparkle. “I’m fine, honest! The running and screaming wears on you after a couple of days, and it’s all the ‘escape the burning cabin’ exteriors today and tomorrow. I’m not looking forward to this part, even with Sadie doing the worst of the stunts.”

“Liar. That’s a fake smile,” Noa pointed out. Denise wasn’t in the trailer, and no one was watching, so she laid a hand protectively on Lilah’s arm.

“Know me that well, do you?” Lilah murmured, turning her head in toward Noa, some loose tendrils of hair sweeping across her face.

“I like to think I’m learning. Don’t pretend around me anymore, please? I like the real you. The more I learn about her, the better I like her.” Was it a pipe dream? How could you really know what went on in someone else’s mind? But Lilah had her tells, and Noa resonated along with them.

Lilah met her eyes for the first time that morning, the dark circles a sign of how stressed out she had to be. “Not a lot of people want that, you know,” she said, trying to tease, the lightness in her voice falling flat. “Pretending is the thing I’m best at.”

Oh, there it was, an undercurrent of sadness that Noa hadn’t really noticed before, so preoccupied with her hair, her eyes, her laugh—she would do better, for Lilah’s sake and for her own. She’d be better. “Pretending’s your job, but it’s not everything you are.”

Noa stroked the pad of her thumb along the inside of Lilah’s wrist and felt a tiny shiver go through her at the touch. She felt Lilah’s stress down through every fiber of her being and ached to be the one who could soothe it.

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