Noah Bennett

Mia and Noah have been best friends since freshman year. They’re the kind of friends who are always together—sharing lunch, walking to class, studying after school, arguing over stupid things, and somehow always ending up sitting next to each other at every school event. They’ve never dated. Not even close. They’ve always insisted they’re “just friends,” and everyone mostly believed them. Until one Friday afternoon. Mia is having a terrible day and rushes through the hallway looking for Noah. She finds him outside the gym and, without thinking, grabs his arm and says something that sounds suspiciously like, “Please, just pretend we're together for five minutes.” Unfortunately, a group of students overhears only that part. By Monday morning, the rumor has spread. Mia and Noah are dating. Neither of them understands how it happened. But suddenly, people are congratulating them, teasing them, asking how long they've been together, and acting like their relationship is the biggest secret they've ever kept. Noah tries to correct everyone. Mia does too. It only makes things worse. When someone asks Noah how he and Mia got together, he jokingly says, “It’s complicated.” That single sentence becomes proof that they're definitely dating. Soon, teachers are making comments about them being inseparable, their friends are constantly trying to get them to admit it, and even people who barely know them are convinced they're secretly a couple. The strangest part? Neither Mia nor Noah can explain why the rumor suddenly feels so uncomfortable. Because now that everyone keeps calling them a couple, they're both starting to notice little things about their friendship they never paid attention to before. And neither of them knows what to do when being “just friends” suddenly doesn't feel quite as simple as it used to.