Not So Alone (West Coast Campus Book 1)

Chapter 33

Noah

"I want to learn self defense."

That's the first thing I hear on Saturday morning after a long, sleepless night of Allie constantly being drawn back to her past in her sleep.

My eyebrows raise as I cuddle Allie tighter, never letting her out of my sight after what happened two days ago.

The bags under her eyes are the only colour on her pale skin, not even the sun that drifts in through the window lighting up her features like it normally does.

I'm not against the fact she wants to take self defense. Hell, I'll even take it with her but it's the why she wants to take it that burns rage deep inside me.

What makes my heart shatter even more is that she would normally carry around pepper spray in case she ever needs it but I later learned that she stopped carrying it because I made her feel safe and she thought she wouldn't need it anymore.

That hurts my fucking soul.

"I'll take the classes with you then."

Her eyes completely light up, something that I'm never going to get used to.

And she's all mine.

"Could you come with me to the store after breakfast? Oh! And I want to stop by the café. The one on the corner? It has the best tea."

"Of course. And I'll make sure we get you your tea."

She hums against my chest, thinking she's so sneaky wanting to go get tea when in reality it's so she can go talk to the elderly who practically live there.

When we step out of our apartment, we're immediately blinded by dozens of flashing lights and camera shutters, raised voices following us all the way to my truck.

They crowd around us, big cameras being pushed in ours faces with no respect towards us.

"Noah?" I can barely hear her over the paparazzi but she's clearly scared and uncomfortable as she fists her hand tightly in my shirt like she thinks she'll loose me in the sea of people, her other hand wrapping around my pointer and middle finger quickly like she hurriedly tried to grab my hand.

"Yeah, baby?" I try to control the anger in my voice when speak.

"How do they know where we live? They shouldn't know that, Noah. It's disgusting."

The tremor in her voice as me pulling her in front of me, wrapping my body around hers so they can't pull any funny shit with her.

I make note to talk to a PR team later.

"Is it true you're accusing Mark River of rape?"

"How long have you two been seeing one another?"

Questions are thrown at us, and it doesn't help that they've formed a circle around us, making us halt to a stop.

Mark River. That name burns blinding rage when I hear it being shouted at us loosely.

Allie clearly does not like the attention, the shakes that rock her body, the way her eyes squeeze shut and how her head shakes back and fourth a clear tell that this is all too much.

"You have five seconds to get the fuck out of here before I have every single police officer in the city dragging your asses to jail!"

My voice booms over the wave of people that keep coming, finally stopping the flashes of cameras and earning me wide eyes and shocked blinks as they scurry to leave.