Noah’s lip curled up on the side, his sharp eyes meeting mine and holding. “You don’t seem to have the best track record with them.”
Mutilated pens and laughing Hello Kittys danced across my vision.
I cleared my throat and took another sip of coffee as he held my gaze. He was still here, and it kind of felt like we were hanging out. Was that even something Noah did—hang out? Did he feel even a smidgen of the attraction I felt for him?
I offered him a small secret smile, and glanced at my coffee cup before meeting his eyes. “Not all of it was bad.”
I held his stare, watching the tilt of his lips slowly disappear until he was simply studying me.
Okay, so maybe I was the only one planning which patterns to use in our future scrapbook.
“So, does that make this pity coffee?” I asked, trying to brush off the fact that he’d completely disregarded my attempt to flirt.
“It’s truce coffee.”
My lips parted in surprise, and I glanced down at the coffee with renewed interest. “Can’t say I’ve had that brand before.”
He chuckled and brushed at the knees of his slacks. “I was a little short with you last time we spoke, and I don’t want that overshadowing the rest of the semester.”
That almost sounded like an apology.
“Which brings me to the real reason I stopped by.” Noah cleared his throat. “Slade wanted me to fill you in on a change in plans.”
My gut clenched. Had Slade sent Noah to tell me I was cut?What sort of monster—I stopped that line of thought and swallowed around the lump forming in my throat. My eyes couldn’t seem to stop blinking. “What plans?”
He leaned back on his hands, watching for my reaction. “Cheyenne dropped the class.”
That wasn’t what I’d expected to hear, and my mind raced to remember what little I’d seen of Music Theory this morning. There’d been a handful of empty seats when class began, but I hadn’t given them a second thought. “What? Why?”
“She failed the first quiz.”
It hadn’t even crossed my mind that others might’ve failed, too. A wave of nausea hit so suddenly, I jerked up straighter. “I thought she—wait, but she’s my partner for the duet!”
Noah offered a tight-lipped smile. “That’s where I come in. Say hello to your new partner.”
I blinked back at him.
… Oh dear.
“But you already have a partner,” I said, remembering just how happy Blaise had looked to be paired with Noah. Not to mention how not-unhappy he’d looked with her.
“Slade put me with Blaise because the class size was uneven. She was simply filling in,” Noah explained. He didn’t seem to care that he was trading in a frontrunner for a potential flunkout. And he had no idea I’d failed the quiz, too.
Oh boy.
“That’s… great,” I squeaked out.
“We can meet Wednesday after class to go over a plan of action and make arrangements. I booked the music room for an hour,” Noah said before getting to his feet and gathering his bag. He slung the blazer over his forearm and paused long enough to check his phone. “Bring your own pen.”
He disappeared amongst the sea of students crowding the sidewalk before I could process what he’d said, and I slumped back against the tree, speechless.
Noah was my new duet partner, and I couldn’t think of a single superstition to blame this on.
CHAPTER9
A Music Room
Time spedby much too fast for my liking, and it wasn’t long before I found myself unable to sit still in the music room on Wednesday. My leg took it upon itself to get the jitters so badly it kept wobbling about like a newborn fawn. I clamped a hand down on it, determined to get through this session with as much poise as possible.
