He Faked a Romance, Noah Gave Him One Real Chance novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Nodding Along
The Board plays Noah's video of the bullying, with Cassian nodding in the background, and Cassian says sure to the wrong question; afterward Norman and Britteny hand him a slide deck and a plan, and he says sure to that too.
In the video, Cassian Haverstock was nodding along to the bullying.
The campus board had it up on a wall screen in the room under the library.
His own grey car sat at the curb on the screen, and his own head bobbed behind the windshield.
In front of the car, Norman had a first-year's backpack on his shoulder and was laughing with her, her lunch card in his fingers.
Britteny stood beside him with her tablet, telling the girl where the rest of the bags went.
Then a third person walked into the frame, and the picture shook.
"No," a boy said, off screen, in a very calm voice. "She's not carrying those."
Cassian remembered the day. He remembered the curb. He remembered nothing that was said on it.
The dean paused the video on his frozen, nodding face.
"Young man," she said. "Would you like some water?"
"Sure."
A paper cup of sparkling water was set in front of him. He hated sparkling water.
He put his phone down beside it, face up, the way he put it down everywhere.
It had never had a passcode, because a passcode meant choosing six numbers.
The screen was open on a note called Things I Said Sure To, and he added a line: Sparkling water, the dean.
"You were present at the time of the incident," the dean said.
"Sure."
"And these are your close friends."
"Sure."
"Would you say you encouraged them?"
Cassian was looking at the screen, where his head was stuck in the middle of a nod.
It really did look like he was agreeing.
"Sure," he said, to the picture of himself.
On his left, Norman studied the ceiling.
On his right, Britteny's pen stopped moving.
The stenographer typed for a long time.
"The Board will rule on the first morning after the break," the dean said. "If the complainant submits a letter of forgiveness before then, the Board will weigh it."
At the far end of the table, the boy from the video looked at Cassian for the first time.
He had brown eyes, a green hoodie with the cuffs worn thin, and a face that gave nothing away.
Cassian waited for him to say something.
"That seems clear," said Noah Blaze, and he picked up his canvas bag.
In the hall, Cassian stood with his headphones around his neck and tried to work out which part of him had just confessed.
Footsteps stopped behind him.
Noah reached past his shoulder and lifted the left cup off his collarbone.
His knuckles brushed the side of Cassian's throat.
He held the cup to his own ear and listened for a while.
"It's a lecture about bees," he said.
"Yes."
"You nodded for a full minute at the part where the drones die."
"It's a good part," Cassian said.
Something moved at the corner of Noah's mouth and was put away.
"You didn't hear anything they said."
"No."
"Then why did you say sure to the dean?"
"I say sure to everything," Cassian said. "It ends the conversation."
"That's a problem," Noah said, and put the headphone back on his neck with two fingers.
Cassian's stomach did something he decided was hunger.
Noah walked off down the hall without looking back.
Norman and Britteny were waiting on the bench in the courtyard, and Norman got up and took both his hands.
"Cass. We're so sorry. We never thought they'd drag you in."
"We'd never let you take the fall," Britteny said. "That's why I made a plan."
She turned her tablet around.
The first slide said OPERATION SOFT LANDING over a pie chart: seventy percent charm, twenty percent sorry, ten percent pity.
"Noah signs a letter of forgiveness, the Board drops it, and all three of you are clear," she said. "Phase one is be nice. Phase two is be nicer."
"Phase three is the letter," Norman said. "And honestly, he looked at you in that hall."
"He looked at me like I'd stolen his bike."
"That's chemistry."
Britteny held up her phone with the red dot already lit.
"I'm recording so you don't have to remember the steps. Okay? Make him fall for you and get the letter."
Cassian looked at Norman's open, sorry face and thought about how long it would take to say no.
So he said sure.
He added it to the note: Sure: get Noah Blaze to fall for me and get his letter.
Then he texted his mother, because it was the only way he knew to get a tutor.
Mom, can you hire me a statistics tutor for the break? Noah Blaze, the scholarship student.
Her answer came before he put the phone down.
Noah from the library dedication? He gave me directions to the ladies' room. I'll have the registrar offer it tonight. Monday, nine sharp.
A second text came under it.
I put "a family placement" on the form and left your name off. He doesn't know it's you. Surprise!
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