It Was Always You

It Was Always You Plot Summary

Introduction

The gymnasium air hung thick with tension as Lexi Stevens watched her longtime crush Harrison Carter through the brass section, her trumpet forgotten in her lap. She'd spent months crafting the perfect conversation starter, dreaming of the moment when the golden-haired first chair would finally notice the girl who'd been sitting just one seat away. But dreams have a cruel way of shattering against reality. When Harrison arrived at the Friday night movie theater with his arm wrapped around a stunning blonde girlfriend Lexi never knew existed, her carefully constructed fantasy crumbled. Standing frozen among his popular friends, clutching her trumpet case like armor, she felt the familiar sting of being invisible. That's when Noah Taylor appeared beside her with two sodas and a lie that would change everything. The star athlete, her brother's best friend who'd never given her a second glance, suddenly claimed to be her boyfriend. What began as a rescue from humiliation would spiral into something neither of them expected, forcing two people from different worlds to confront the thin line between pretending and feeling.

Chapter 1: The Accidental Arrangement: A Fake Relationship Forms

The overhead lights of the movie theater lobby cast harsh shadows across Lexi's face as she stood trapped among Harrison's circle, her cheeks burning with mortification. The trumpet case in her hand felt impossibly heavy, a brass anchor dragging her deeper into social quicksand. Harrison's girlfriend laughed at something one of the boys said, her perfectly manicured fingers intertwined with his. The sound cut through Lexi like broken glass. "Sorry it took so long to get the drinks. You wanted Coke, right?" Noah Taylor materialized beside her, his auburn hair catching the fluorescent glare, holding two sodas like they'd planned this moment for weeks. His brown eyes met hers with steady confidence, offering her a lifeline she desperately needed. Without hesitation, she took the cup, her fingers brushing his warm skin. "Thank you. I was worried we'd miss the previews, and I know how much you love those." The words spilled from her lips with surprising ease, years of watching him from the sidelines suddenly useful as she played along with his improvised performance. The group around them shifted, their attention sharpening on this unexpected development. Noah Taylor, the football star who could have any girl in school, claiming the band geek as his own. Harrison's eyebrows lifted in surprise while his girlfriend's expression soured with confusion. Lexi felt Noah's presence beside her like a warm shield, his confidence infectious. "Are you two here on a date?" someone asked, skepticism dripping from the question. Lexi's pulse hammered against her throat, but Noah's fingers found hers with practiced ease. "Yeah, of course. Did you think she came here by herself?" The way he said it made their relationship sound like the most natural thing in the world, like he'd been hers all along instead of someone who barely acknowledged her existence. The movie was terrible, but sitting in the darkness beside Noah felt like stepping into another version of her life. When they left early, abandoning the alien nonsense on screen, she almost forgot it was all pretense. Almost forgot that come Monday morning, she'd go back to being invisible while he returned to his throne among the popular elite.

Chapter 2: Shelter in Secrecy: When Pretending Reveals Vulnerability

Snow swirled through the parking lot as Lexi discovered Noah sleeping in his car on her street, his tall frame cramped against the passenger seat, wrapped in sleeping bags like a homeless teenager. The December cold had crystallized the windows, turning his Mazda into a frozen prison. Her breath formed clouds in the frigid air as she tapped on the glass, watching him starttle awake with the disoriented confusion of someone who'd been sleeping rough. "What are you doing in here?" The question came out sharper than she intended, her concern masked by disbelief. Noah Taylor, the golden boy with the perfect life, reduced to sleeping in a car like a runaway. His explanation came in broken pieces, pride and shame warring in his voice. Paul, his stepfather, had exploded in rage. Noah had stepped between his mother and another beating, earning a punch to the face and banishment from his own home. His real father, wealthy and distant, preferred his replacement family to the son who reminded him of past mistakes. The car had been Noah's shelter for a week, his dignity the price of warmth. Lexi's bedroom window proved frozen shut, the glass refusing to yield despite their combined effort. She found herself sneaking Noah through the back door like a refugee, her heart hammering as they crept past her father's room. The drill sergeant who'd raised her on discipline and rules would lose his mind if he discovered a boy in her bedroom, especially this boy with his reputation for breaking hearts and crossing lines. Noah fit in her walk-in closet like a giant in a dollhouse, his shoulders nearly touching the walls as he spread blankets on the floor. The domesticity of the moment struck her, how easily he'd accepted her help, how naturally she'd offered it. When she handed him extra quilts her grandmother had made, their fingers brushed in the darkness. The contact sent electricity up her arm, a reminder that however much she told herself this was charity, her heart had other ideas. The sound of his breathing filled the space between them as they lay separated by five feet and a lifetime of assumptions about who they were supposed to be.

Chapter 3: Practice Makes Perfect: Boundaries Begin to Blur

The school basement felt like a tomb beneath the gymnasium bleachers, dusty and forgotten, the perfect place for secrets. Noah's hand traced the brick wall beside Lexi's head as she pressed her back against the cold surface, her trumpet forgotten upstairs with the rest of her ordinary life. The fluorescent lights above cast everything in harsh relief, but his eyes held a gentleness she'd never seen directed at her before. "Are you sure you want to do this?" His voice carried the weight of crossing a line they could never uncross. The question hung between them like smoke, dangerous and intoxicating. She nodded, not trusting her voice, watching as he leaned closer. His thumb traced her jawline with the careful attention of someone handling something precious. When his lips finally met hers, the kiss was nothing like she'd imagined in her teenage fantasies. This was gentle, patient, teaching rather than taking. His mouth moved against hers with practiced skill, but there was something underneath the expertise, a tenderness that made her chest ache. The taste of him lingered as he pulled back, his forehead resting against hers. "You sure you've never kissed before?" The question came out breathless, surprised, as if she'd somehow exceeded his expectations. The compliment sent warmth flooding through her veins, better than any trophy she'd ever won. Their bubble of intimacy shattered when Ashlyn Brooks and Luke Davenport stumbled into their hiding place, searching for their own private moment. Embarrassment flooded Lexi's cheeks as Noah straightened, his hand still warm on her waist. But Ashlyn just smiled, her expression knowing rather than judgmental. "I think it's so cute that you two got together," she said simply, as if their coupling was inevitable rather than impossible. Walking back through the school hallways, Noah's fingers still tingled against hers, Lexi couldn't shake the feeling that something fundamental had shifted. What had started as practice was beginning to feel dangerously real.

Chapter 4: Breaking Up to Make Up: Acknowledging Real Feelings

The auditorium stage stretched before them like an empty arena, red seats marching up into darkness while emergency lights cast long shadows across the floor. They'd come here to end their charade, to return to their separate worlds before anyone got hurt. But Noah's hesitation filled the space between them, his usual confidence fractured by something resembling vulnerability. "There's this one last thing I want to do," he said, the words hanging in the air like a confession he couldn't quite make. Before he could finish the thought, Easton's voice cut through the moment, destroying whatever revelation balanced on Noah's tongue. Her brother's interruption felt like cosmic intervention, the universe conspiring to keep them in their designated roles. Noah became the dutiful best friend again, she returned to being the little sister, and their week of borrowed intimacy dissolved into memory. But later that evening, as she baked cupcakes in her family's warm kitchen while Noah and Easton soaked in the hot tub outside, something shifted in the careful choreography of their pretense. Noah appeared in her kitchen, water still dripping from his hair, his chest bare and distracting in the overhead light. The domestic scene felt charged with possibility, flour on her hands and desire crackling in the air between them. "I really like you, Lexi," he whispered against her neck as she tried to focus on frosting, his confession more dangerous than any kiss they'd shared. "Even though I shouldn't." His hands traced her arms with reverent attention, like he was memorizing the texture of her skin. When he spun her around to face him, trapping her between the counter and his body, she could see her own longing reflected in his dark eyes. The kiss that followed was different from their practice session, hungrier and more honest, carrying the weight of weeks of suppressed attraction. "If someone told you a week ago that we'd be doing this, would you have believed them?" he asked against her lips, his voice rough with wanting. "Definitely not," she breathed back, but even as she said it, she wondered if some part of her had always known this moment was inevitable.

Chapter 5: Family Storms: Navigating Disapproval and Abuse

The sound of Noah's phone buzzing cut through their stolen moment like an alarm, dragging them back to reality with cruel efficiency. His sister's voicemails painted a picture of terror in three acts: first confusion, then fear, finally desperate sobbing as eight-year-old Brielle begged her brother to come home. Paul had exploded again, but this time Noah wasn't there to shield their mother from his rage. Noah's face went white as he listened, his hands shaking as the messages played. "I think Mommy's hurt really bad. Please hurry. Daddy went away and I'm scared." Brielle's broken voice shattered something in his expression, replacing the boy who'd been kissing Lexi with someone much older and more desperate. He found his mother crumpled on their living room floor like a discarded doll, blood trickling from her mouth, her eyes swollen shut. The familiar tableau of domestic warfare painted in bruises and terror. This time, though, she didn't resist when he scooped her into his arms and carried her to the car, Brielle trailing behind in her kitten pajamas. The hospital emergency room became their refuge, sterile white walls and antiseptic smells replacing the violence of home. While doctors examined broken ribs and catalogued damage, Noah held his sister and made promises he wasn't sure he could keep. This couldn't happen again. This had to be the last time. Meanwhile, Lexi faced her own reckoning when her father discovered Noah's shirt in her room, evidence of their secret intimacy. His military bearing became pure threat as he dragged Noah from her bedroom, his voice shaking with the kind of rage reserved for fathers confronting their worst fears about their daughters. "You are never going to step another foot in this house again," he roared, his face red with fury and betrayal. The words hit Noah like physical blows, another rejection from another father figure who found him lacking. But it was too late for simple banishment. The week of pretending had awakened something neither could ignore, and both families were about to learn that some lines, once crossed, could never be uncrossed.

Chapter 6: Finding Courage: Standing Up for Love and Safety

Noah's father's brick mansion had never felt like home, but desperation makes strange bedfellows of pride and necessity. Standing on the doorstep at midnight, Noah swallowed years of resentment and knocked on the door that had been closed to him since his parents' divorce. His mother's broken body in his arms, his sister's terrified eyes, the weight of responsibility too heavy for eighteen-year-old shoulders. "Dad, I need your help," he said when the door opened, the words scraping his throat raw. What followed was the kind of grace Noah had stopped believing in. His father and stepmother opened their home without hesitation, creating space for a fractured family to heal. The police took Paul into custody, his mother finally pressed charges, and for the first time in years, Noah slept without fear that violence would shatter his dreams. At the Stevens house, Lexi faced her own consequences. Her father removed the doors from her bedroom, closet, and bathroom with military precision, each hinge a reminder that privacy was a privilege she'd forfeited. "Kissing in your bedroom is where it all starts," he said, his disappointment heavy as stone. But something had softened in him too. Perhaps seeing Noah's genuine crisis had reminded him that not every teenage rebellion was a march toward ruin. When Lexi suggested they face him together, honest about their feelings instead of hiding behind lies, her father listened with the attention of a man reconsidering his assumptions. The kitchen table became neutral ground where Noah sat across from the drill sergeant who'd threatened him with prison, speaking truth instead of excuses. His past wasn't perfect, his reputation wasn't spotless, but his intentions toward Lexi were honorable. The conversation was stilted, formal, hedged with rules and restrictions, but it ended with permission instead of banishment. "I'm kind of looking forward to paying for you to go to Yale," Mr. Stevens said finally, his smile grudging but genuine. Outside on the porch, Noah pulled Lexi close under the winter sky, their breath forming clouds in the cold air. The week of pretending was over, but something real had taken its place.

Chapter 7: It Was Always You: Choosing Authenticity Despite the Rules

Monday morning arrived with the sharp clarity of winter sunlight, transforming Ridgewater High into a stage where their private truth would become public performance. Noah waited for Lexi at the front entrance, his letterman jacket pristine, his smile carrying none of the uncertainty that had marked their fake relationship. This time, when he offered her his hand, it meant something. The hallways buzzed with speculation as they walked together, no longer hiding behind the elaborate fiction of their arrangement. Raven's jealous stare, Harrison's surprised acceptance, her brother's grudging approval, all the reactions they'd orchestrated through deception now earned through honesty. The irony wasn't lost on either of them that their fake relationship had become more real than anything they'd experienced before. In band class, Lexi took her second chair position with new confidence, her trumpet no longer a shield between her and the world. Harrison, nursing his own romantic wounds, offered friendship instead of the impossible crush she'd chased for months. The gesture felt like closure, the final severing of her old dreams to make room for new ones. The rules her father had imposed created a careful choreography of supervised dates and chaperoned moments, but Noah navigated the restrictions with the patience of someone who'd found something worth waiting for. No more sneaking through windows, no more sleeping in closets, no more pretending that proximity was the same as intimacy. Their first official kiss as a real couple happened on her front porch, witnessed by nobody but the winter stars and her father's kitchen window. It tasted of honesty and possibility, of choosing each other despite the obstacles rather than because of convenience. "You know it was always you, Noah," she whispered against his lips, speaking the truth she'd carried for years without daring to voice it. His answer came in the form of another kiss, deeper and more certain than anything they'd shared during their week of performance art.

Summary

What began as a desperate rescue from teenage humiliation evolved into something neither Lexi nor Noah had anticipated: a love story built on the foundation of genuine understanding. Their fake relationship had been a masterclass in discovery, stripping away assumptions and social hierarchies to reveal the people they actually were beneath the roles they'd been assigned. The band geek and the football star, the drill sergeant's daughter and the broken home survivor, all labels that dissolved under the weight of authentic connection. The scars from their respective battles remained. Noah's family would need time to heal from years of abuse, and Lexi would spend months proving her trustworthiness to a father whose fears were rooted in love rather than control. But they faced these challenges together now, no longer hiding behind elaborate performances or societal expectations. Sometimes the most profound transformations begin with the simplest of lies, and sometimes pretending to be something you're not is the only way to discover who you really are. In choosing each other, they chose authenticity over safety, love over convenience, and truth over the comfortable fiction that some people are simply meant to remain in different worlds forever.

About Author

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Judy Corry

Corry crafts stories that resonate with themes of romance, self-discovery, and the emotional journey of falling in love, which are central to her young adult and contemporary romance novels. Her works are known for their accessible style and endearing characters, providing readers with engaging plots and heart-pounding moments. This approach is evident in her series such as the Ridgewater High and Eden Falls Academy, which focus on relatable characters navigating complex emotions. Her ability to create slow-burn romances set in compelling environments has contributed to her recognition as a USA Today Bestselling Author.\n\nHer writing career took off after attending a local writing conference, which fueled her passion for storytelling. Within a year, she completed her first manuscript and eventually published her debut book, "Don’t Forget Me," in 2017. Corry’s method of refining her work through critique and feedback has allowed her to grow a significant following. She connects with readers not just through her novels but also via social media and her podcast, "The Writing Gals," where she provides advice to aspiring writers.\n\nReaders of Corry's books benefit from her emphasis on hard-won happily ever afters, which mirror real-life challenges and triumphs. Her ability to weave compelling narratives while addressing contemporary issues makes her a favorite among fans of the genre. As an author with a growing repertoire, her stories continue to inspire and entertain, illustrating the universal experience of love and personal growth.

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