Obsessive ~ Noah Foster [1]

Chapter Twenty// Thinkin' About You.

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"You fucking hit me with the phone, dick!"

--Stu Macher(Original ghostface)

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"Something's wrong? What's wrong?" Audrey asked Noah and I. We both frowned, and watched her facial expression go from confusion to anger. "What happened? I know something happened. You two haven't spoke to each other all morning, and I've just been talking to you two." Audrey grumbled. "Uh... nothing's wrong." Noah assured her. "See? Hey, Arielle. You look super pretty this morning." Noah turned to me. "Why, thank you, Noah. But, are you sure about the pretty? I mean, I do have a bruised up cheek." I touched my cheek and sighed sarcastically. "Totally. You could be bald, and still super pretty." Noah told me. And I had a feeling this wasn't part of the joke... "Thank you." I whispered. We both looked at Audrey again. "See?" We said in unison. "Okay, something definitely happened." Audrey nodded her head. "Nothing happened." I told her. It seemed like a light bulb turned on in Audrey's brain. "You two are acting weird, Arielle goes beet red every time you look at her." Audrey pointed at Noah. "Did you two, like, bump foreheads and accidently kiss?" Audrey laughed. "What?" I squeaked. "Or... did you bump foreheads on purpose?" Audrey's mouth fell open. "Dude, I'm going to need you to let this go." I scoffed. "Tell me, and I'll let it go." Audrey crossed her arms. "Uhm, Arielle had lost a lot of blood, and I kissed her so that she would calm down." Noah said suddenly. "Seriously?!"

"Seriously. It was no big deal." I waved her off. Behind Audrey, I saw Emma walk by. "Hey.. uh, guys, it's Emma." I whispered. They looked at me as if I were insane. Emma hadn't been to school in a week. "This is not done." Audrey pointed at us. Then turned around. "Emma, Emma, hey, wait up!" Audrey called to Emma, who stopped at her locker. "Why did you tell her?" I asked Noah in rage. "She was gonna find out eventually." Noah said. "You...you, uh... said it was no big deal?" Noah asked, looking hurt. "Uh, I didn't mean it like that, Noah. It's just--"

"No, I get it."

I didn't want to talk to Noah. I didn't even wanna talk to Audrey. She knew about it. And it seemed weird now. I sat in the way-way back of Mr. Branson's classroom, because my normal seat was right beside Noah.

Turns out, Mr. Creep Ass was back. He looked normal, as if nothing happened. But I knew he knew that we knew. If that makes sense. I kept my eyes down, reading the same sentence in The Crucible over and over again, trying not to think about Noah. But I couldn't help it. Did I like him that way? I never thought about him in that way... Noah was always-- okay, I can't say that. I've always felt something every time I was around him. These two months were scary, scary and scary. And it seemed like every time I was in trouble, Noah was right there. I heard shifting beside me. I quickly looked to see Noah sitting beside me, and Audrey beside him. I closed my book, and grabbed my bag, getting up. "Woah, Arielle, where are you going?" Audrey frowned. "Uh, it's kind of cold back here." I lied. Audrey and Noah both looked at me with questioning looks. "Okay, class, take your seats." I groaned, and sat back down.

"Intolerance, deception, hysteria." Branson said, sitting on the front of his desk, closing the book he held. "These are all central themes to The Crucible. See, hysteria causes..." But I couldn't focus on his words as I heard Audrey spoke to Noah in small whisper. "Look who's talking, Mr. Not Branson." My ears perked up as I listened. "Listen to him. He's sending us a message because we know his secret." Noah told her. "All we know is that he changed his name." Audrey pointed out. Mr. Branson changed his name...Maybe it was just an ugly name... "And he was conveniently not around for the bowling alley incident." I jumped in my seat, as Mr. Branson banged the desk I usually sit in with the book in his hand. "Noah, Audrey. Would either of you care to discuss the parallels between The Crucible and McCarthyism?" Everyone turned to look at them. Noah and Audrey looked at each other with wide eyes, with Audrey shaking her head. "Well!" I raised my hand. Everyone looked at me now, their eyes off of Noah and Audrey. Branson sighed, and squinted his eyes at me. I cleared my throat, and continued on. "In his play, Arthur Miller used the Salem witch trials to represent the McCarthy Era because he saw that the nation was facing the same events that Salem went through back in the late 1600's. Arthur Miller wrote "The Crucible" in an attempt to create moral awareness for society. He did so by making a few small changes to the history and creating parallels in the play with racism, human tendencies... and, uh, yeah." I said quickly, taking even myself by surprise. Mr Branson stared at me. As did everybody else. "Arielle is right." I sighed in relief. Mr. Branson went on with his discussion, and I looked over at my friends, who smirked at me.