Page 86 of Sweet Ruin

“Yeah, that’s probably for the best,” Cress agreed. “I hear her mom’s a social-climbing nightmare. She’d probably freak out if she knew about this. And the two of them look so cute together; I’d hate to be the reason they broke up.”

Veronica’s actions finally felt like they made sense to me. If she really was with Eric, then maybe she pretended to date Noah to hide her real relationship, especially from her mom. Maybe Eric was the boy that got caught in her room. It was actually all kind of romantic.

“Incoming!” Anna squealed as she noticed a group of guys charging toward us from the side. They were pelting snowballs at us in quick unison, and from the angle they were approaching, the bench offered us no protection. We’d taken our eyes off the game for a minute, and our fortress had fallen.

“Go, go, go!” Anna shouted, waving her hands at us.

I scrambled to my feet and started to run with Cress and Anna right behind me.

“Damn it,” Anna cried. “I’m out.”

“I’m down too,” Cress groaned.

I started to slow down and looked behind me so I could check on my friends, but the girls shouted at me to keep running.

“Save yourself, Isobel,” Anna cried out. “Live to fight another day.”

She looked deadly serious, so I did as she ordered and continued to sprint away along the perimeter of the courtyard. It was no use though. There were three boys and only one me. And they were fast. I had no hope. I ran until I reached the corner of the boys’ dorm. There was a walkway leading down the side of it, but I knew I couldn’t take it without being knocked out of the game. There was no escape for me, so I crouched down to quickly gather some snow together before I stood tall and turned to face the boys pursing me.

I kept my snowball cradled behind my back as they closed in. They were laughing as they slowed to a walk and surrounded me. Each one had a snowball gripped in their hands. My lone snowball would be useless against three guys even if I did trust my aim to get one of them out. Which I didn’t. I kept it hidden behind my back in case by some miracle they all missed and I had the opportunity to escape. It was a long shot though.

The three boys lifted their snowballs above their heads. With the wall to my back and the boys fanned out in front of me, there was no room to dodge out of the way and nothing to use for protection, and they were so close there was no chance they’d miss. I shut my eyes tight as I braced for impact. It was about to be game over for me. Anna would be so disappointed.

But then I heard shouting, and as I opened my eyes, Noah appeared in front of me. He was cradling a pile of snowballs with one arm, and he was launching them at the three guys with the other. He threw them hard and fast and with unnerving accuracy. Noah might have been brilliant at soccer, but I was surprised he wasn’t also the star of the baseball team with an arm like that.

The guys had been so focused on me they weren’t able to react fast enough. And by the time they realized what was happening, it was already too late. They were out of the game, and they groaned with frustration as they trudged off through the snow.

Noah turned to me, his eyes bright with excitement and his cheeks flushed from the cold.

“Thanks, Noah, but you didn’t have to do that.”

A playful smile was on his lips. “Maybe I like coming to your rescue?”

I scoffed. “I don’t need rescuing.”

“Well, maybe I just wanted to get you out myself.”

I glanced down at the snowballs in his hands. He wasn’t primed to throw them at me, but I’d just seen exactly how quickly he could move.

“Oh, are you going to take me out with one of those?” I asked, taking a slow step toward him. I still had one snowball behind my back. Perhaps if I could get him to let his guard down, I might be able to throw mine first. “You’re going to hit a girl while she’s alone and unarmed?”

“I never said I played fair.” He taunted me as I came to stand before him. He tilted his head to watch me, his eyes narrowing like he was trying to figure me out. Trying to understand why I would walk toward him when he was threatening me with snowballs. He was so focused on my face he didn’t see my arm as it sneaked out from behind my back.

I lifted the snowball above my head and crushed it against the side of his face. “I never said I played fair either.”

There was a stunned look in Noah’s eyes, but then he burst out laughing. The sound was so light and full of joy I found myself smiling too.

“You got me there, Crash,” he said through his chuckles. “But you also got yourself. No snowballs to the face, remember?”

“Oh, I forgot about that.” I shrugged but my smile didn’t drop. “I think it was worth it.”

“I can see that.” He grinned.

It was strange sharing this moment with Noah. It was easy and fun. It felt like it shouldn’t belong to us.

“I guess we should join the rest of the spectators,” Noah said.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

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