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He'd never lied to her before, and she wanted to believe him, but he'd kept this from her for some reason. Lips pressed in a thin line she looked down at the letter again, picking out a few key words. "Okay." She knew that more than one person could crush on the same individual, she knew that very well. Just because someone else liked Noah didn't mean anything had happened, or would happen. Roland liked her, or at least she was almost positive he did, though he'd never said it outright, but he wasn't her best friend. She didn't see him all the time, not like Al and Noah.

Al... Peyton didn't trust Al. He'd done some truly stupid things in the past, and continued to make unfortunate choices. Was he trying to take Noah away from her? Was he actively pursuing him? That was what was really bothering her.

Drawing in a long breath she held it for the space of a few seconds before letting it out slowly, meeting his eyes. "Am I going to have to worry about this?"

The knot loosened at the confirmation, and the tension that had crawled it's way into her shoulders began to ease. She nodded at his logic, as if that made sense to her, and it sort of did. What would she have said then? Would she have been pissed? It was so hard to know how she'd have reacted to finding out in a different way.

It hurt just seeing how miserable he looked, and she wanted to reach out to him, to pull him in and tell him it was alright, but there was one thing still nagging at her, one more question. "He accepted that you're taken and hasn't done or said anything to try to change your mind?"

Pey was nodding too, letting it all sink in, gaze sliding off him and out into the room, not really focusing on anything. Not even when he moved to set the bottles down on the desk. "Okay." It felt like she should be saying more, or doing more. Like she should be more upset, or more...something. Right? No?

Once again she was out of her depth, but she thought about what he said, repeating it over in her head, and after a quiet moment she reached out and lay her hand on his hip, fingers searching for his belt loop so she could tug him around until he was standing in front of her and she could look up at him. The uncertainty was fading. "If you tell me I don't have to worry about this, I believe you." She didn't wanna be mad at him, and she wasn't going to talk herself into it.

"You didn't tell him no just because you didn't want to hurt me, right?" God she hadn't wanted to ask that, but she said it quick, getting it over with, like a tearing off a bandaid. "I really..." Vulnerability had never been a comfortable fit on Peyton, she didn't like it, but she was trying. "I don't think 'like' is a good enough word anymore, it just doesn't seem big enough to properly say how I feel." Her hands were very still on his hips.

She didn't wanna say it, not if there was any doubt in his mind. She didn't wanna do that to herself.

That was what she wanted to hear, and the last of the anxiety she'd been holding onto leaked away. There was no tension in her shoulders as his hands came to rest lightly on them, and a small, soft smile tugged at the corner of her lips. Reluctantly she let her hands fall away from his sides, but only so she could lift herself up so she was sitting on the desk, knees framing his legs, heels tucked up behind them.

He still looked nervous, so she traced her fingertips lightly along the underside of his arms. "I'm not mad, it just caught me by surprise." A small hand circled his wrist, drawing his hand down so she could lay a kiss on the back of it, then she was sitting up straighter. "Come here, Handsome."

The sad fact was it wasn't that unlikely a fear. Noah knew there was no lost love between his bestie and is girlfriend, and she could see where his concern came from.

Lips tugging down at the corner, she mirrored him, wrapping her arms around him loosely so she didn't have to crane her neck to look up at him, features thoughtful. "It's not a completely invalid fear, not considering our past, but he's your best friend." Small thumbs slid along the top of his jeans, a comforting, nervous gesture. "You get to chose who get's to be your friend, not me. All I can do is express how I feel concerning him, but if he's being respectful, then it's fine." That seemed inadequate, but she couldn't think of a better way to say it.

"I'm pretty sure Roland likes me," she watched his face as she said it. "He hasn't come out and said it, and I'm no expert in that sort of thing, but it seems that way." She kept pale eyes on his face, watching him. "But he knows I'm happy with you, maybe that's why he hasn't brought it up." She wasn't sure, but she wasn't going to poke at Ro about it. The entire thing made vaguely guilty. Not that she wished she'd gone out with him instead, but that she knew he liked her, and couldn't do anything about it. She didn't like the idea of someone being unhappy and not having any way to fix it.

A tension she hadn't known she was holding slipped away with Noah's sigh of relief. "I don't want you to be grumpy," she admitted softly as his arms tightened around her. "Just, in the interested of honesty."

Her own breath eased out as he leaned his forehead against her's, and glossed lips ticked up in the corners before dipping down again. "It does." But they weren't going to sit there and spend their time together dwelling on problems they couldn't solve.

He'd given her a gift. An incredibly thoughtful, adorable gift. Smile sneaking back into place, pale eyes took on an impish light as she tipped her head back to catch his lips, hands coming up to disappear within soft hair as she wrapped her legs around his waist.