Said & Done |Noah Sebastian/ Bad Omens| Spencer Charnas/INK|

21: Heatwave (Part one)

Authors note: 6K reads on this silly story, 6k reads making me realize how special writing is to me, how I forever am grateful for the love and support you all continue to show me. Thank you.


~Imogen's POV:~


Bethany and Noah pulled out of her driveway, I stood at my window watching as Noah had decided he was going to be the one to drive since he was inviting her out for the day.
Feeling the warmth of a body behind me, I smiled softly to myself knowing exactly who was standing behind me. "You know, with a view like this it makes me never want to leave" catching his reflection in the window, it wasn't hard to tell he was checking me out.

"Hmm, well good thing I am going to let you stay as long as you wish" turning to face him I smiled at the man who had just asked me out not too long ago. With Billy it was more of a fucked-up situation, there was a lot of pain involved and lack of love. He didn't love me; he was obsessed with me because I was the only female who made him question himself.

"Okay!" my back door bursts open as Dustin hauls in his suitcases from Bethany's house. "That is the last of them!" He hollers as he drags them down to the room, he knows he will be staying in.
Following my brother down the stairs, I cross my arms as I lean against the door frame watching as he tears into his stuff to put away for a while. "You know, this reminds me of when you moved into our house" my feet freeze to the floor, I lived with my father growing up, and after enough time with the bastard I had made contact with my mom and she helped me move in with her and Dustin, who I only met a handful of times over the years.

"Don't mention it" I mumble watching him. "You need to back off Bethany, as well. Your crush on her is freaking her out" he looked up at me wide eyed. "Everyone here can see it; Beth was the last one to find out. Dustin, you know she doesn't see you like that" it felt wrong crushing the guy when he was already down, but he needed to remember.

Carefully placing an action figure, he was gifted when he was a kid down on the nightstand, he sat down on the bed with his head in his hands. "I didn't mean to freak her out. Just, I never felt this way with someone, and she was always there for me" because she is a good person. "I just want someone to want me, like how I want them—maybe Billy was right," he mumbled at the end.

Alarm bells ringing in my head, my arms unfolded from my chest as I stepped into the room. He should know Billy is a jerk, sadly one that could get under anyone's skin without even trying. Taking a seat on the bed beside him, I nudged him with my elbow feeling the anger I felt for him the last few weeks subside. Would I forgive him for not telling me about our mom? Maybe, but right now I just wanted to be his big sister that he clearly needed for so long.
God, he dealt with our mother alone. He must have had such a hard time. Feeling like an ass, I let out a breath nudging him once more.
"Dustin, you will find someone." He scoffed, not quite believing me, understandable. "I didn't think I would find anyone after Billy" he looked at me, brows furrowing a bit. "You see, in the years I spent with him, he molded me to how he wanted me to be, not how I should have been, now we both know Bethany would never do that to you—but you need to understand her love for you comes from being like an older sister to you, but the more you chase her the more she will become scared and then she will disappear" he nodded his head listening.

"She likes Noah, doesn't she?" This time I was the one to nod my head. He blew out a breath, "God-- i want to hate him, but he is a decent guy, why hasn't she gone for him yet?"

Chuckling I stood up brushing my shirt down. "He thinks she is dating; his jealousy is cute" my brother rolled his eyes. "Dustin, what did happen to mom?" the curiosity wouldn't stop peaking. Would we end up like her?

His eyes glossed as he smiled softly up at me. "She went to the doctors; they told her she had early onset dementia—she was good for a little, but then I noticed she would forget the small things which eventually led to the bigger things. One night I woke to the smoke detector going off, she had started cooking and left it on the stove, when I got downstairs the smoke was getting bad and I burned myself trying to get the pot off the stove" the fear in his voice stuck to me. "When I was looking for her, there was a knock on the door. She was still in her night clothes, hair curled in her curlers, and it was her friend dropping her off—she thought she was about to miss their book club which wasn't for another week, and it was three in the morning. Once I had her settled in bed, I made the call" his lip shook. "Steve was kind and helped me, Billy knew of it, and tried forcing himself in because mom couldn't remember him, she trusted him" my gut churned knowing Billy had touched my mom. "I didn't know what to do, so I packed up and came here—the house is still under mom's name, so I couldn't do anything, but I couldn't stay there either" a sob racked up his body as he shook. "The house was empty" he rubbed his eyes.

Sitting back down, I pulled him into my arms feeling my own throat tighten. He really had to go through all of that.
Seeing a shadow in the doorway, Spencer appeared—glum expression on his face telling me he had heard everything my brother had just said to me. But now wasn't the time for me to fall apart, Dustin needed to break more than I did.
He went through hell alone.



~Bethany's POV: ~


Noah pulled into a parking space after what felt like forever trying to find one. Getting out, I followed him as he slid on a pair of shades that suited him nicely. Trying to keep up with him felt like a sport, I could feel the sun beating down on me. Seeing me stumble behind, Noah chuckled the sound warming my cheeks as he slowed his pace to keep up with me. "Sorry, I always forget how tall I am sometimes" he slid his hands into his shorts pockets as he kept up with me. "Super sunny day, we should all go to the beach or something" he smiled looking down at me.

The thought of the beach had the coffee I took from Imm's threatening to creep its way back up my throat. "Oh, maybe" I said shyly looking around as we entered the mall. Part of me felt terrible, the sun was brutal today and the mall that usually is freezing had a sign up saying their air-conditioning was broken now. "So, where to first" I asked Noah trying to focus on anything else but the heat, I have done worse in the heat and my sleeves. I wasn't going to let a mall take me down.

Noah smiled as he looked around, once he spotted a store interesting enough, he gently placed his hand on my shoulder guiding me towards it. "This way, young one" I couldn't help but chuckle at the joke.
Entering the store, I saw it was a music store and Noah was instantly looking at equipment. He found a keyboard and began playing soft tunes as people in the store stopped to look in our direction. "Do you know how to play anything?" he asked looking over at me from where he stood. I shook my head, "maybe I could teach you sometime." Again, I nodded, feeling shyness creeping in on me.

"Oh-my-god you're Noah!" my eyes widened as I stepped back, a few people wanting to crowd around Noah. "What brings you to this area?" she asked, her tank top basically showing off her entire body.
I hated being jealous, but I couldn't help but admire her in a sense—she didn't have to hide scars like I did, damage inflicted onto her, she could show off her body and be confident when I struggled with mine.

Not being rude, Noah smiled—one that would steal anyone's hearts as he began speaking to her and the small group that was gathered asking how he created his songs. Feeling smaller in that moment, I slipped out of the music store and looked around. I am sure he was more than happy to be in there with them.
Going into a smaller store, I peeked around at the items on the shelves. Admiring how they were all handmade, imagine having that much talent. "You know, running away won't make me lose sight of you" yelping, I turned my head to see Noah standing there his cap still securely over himself as he smiled down at me. "You didn't want to see the music store?"

"Ugh no, sorry just the crowd I didn't want to really be in that" he looked at the small decorations I was also admiring. "These are all handmade, it's cool, isn't it?" asking, trying to change the subject as much as possible.

Noah looked at a few of the pieces, admiring them as I had moment before. "Which one is your favorite?" he questioned.

Chewing my lip, I could see Noah out of the corner of my eye studying me. Finally settling on one, I pointed at the moon with some stars around it. Not even asking me about it, he scooped it up and headed towards the counter with me hot on his heels. "What are you doing?"

He smirked as he slid his card out, not even replying to me before the machine beeped. "Buying you a present. You and Imogen have been taking care of Spencer and I, let me take care of you" my cheeks burned as sweat trickled down my back—why did it have to be so damn hot in here?

Following him out of the store. I followed him around; he grabbed what he needed before leaving me out front of one store as he slipped inside promising not to take too long. Standing at the door waiting for him, I heard a whistle making me look up. "You're BlondeGhost aren't you?" a guy questioned as he looked over at me.

Gulping, I nodded my head. "The one and only" I tried sounding brave, but I was feeling like shit. This heat was getting to me.

"Your friend is pretty hot, the girl in the videos with you" he smiled over at me. Scrunching my face, he could see I was not going to just hand her number over to him. "I binged all your videos the other night, the guy you sleep with—he seems lucky" my heart plummeted into my stomach, he was thinking I was sleeping with Noah.

He waved me off as Noah exited the store. "Hungry?" he asked, leading the charge towards the food court. "I will get us something if you want to just have a seat" he smiled as he placed his bag of stuff down with me before heading towards somewhere.

Pulling out my phone, I gulped seeing all the notifications I had on my TikTok account. Opening it, I blew out a breath—clearly, I was hitting something in the algorithm, usually no one would just come up to me like that before, I was the nobody that was always in the shadows.
Bile threatened to rise in my throat as Noah came back with what looked like smoothies. "It's hot in here, so cold drinks for us" he slid one over to me.

Clicking my page, I nearly choked on the air around me—the video had over three million views, making this my highest-ranking video on my page. Nerves took over as I clicked the comments scrolling and scrolling. Some of them were nice, fun even but then my mind zeroed in on the ones that had my heart hurting.

'She is just using him for clout.'

'Such a fucking poser not sure what Imogen sees in her'

'God, not one of those wannabe band girls again. Bet Noah didn't even want to do that'

'What a fucking nobody.'

I wiped my eyes feeling them sting as Noah furrowed his brows. "Bethany?" he asked softly.

It was too hot, too much. I felt my breathing becoming rapid as I placed my phone down on the table. Noah not even caring as he scooped it up and looked at the comment. Cursing under his breath, "Beth--" but I didn't hear him, not as I stood up feeling like a joke. Was he doing this out of pity.

Fucking nobody
Noah grabbed the bags as I turned, not even hearing him yell after me as I quickened my pace out of the mall—clawing at my chest feeling like I was caving in on myself as sweat slid down my neck. Pushing the doors open, I collapsed to my knees feeling the weight of the comments on me.

Feeling hands on me, Noah lifted me up looking at me. "Beth, hey—maybe you need to take this sweater off, you're warm" he sat me down on the bench as he grabbed the drink he managed to carry with him.

I shook my head though, the sweater needed to stay on. I needed to hide from the world. I wanted to delete everything, since I was a nobody. Noah handed me the smoothie. "Drink" he ordered, looking at him through my lashes, his expression carried worriedness and the emotion hurt my heart more for whatever reason.
But I did, I listened and drank the smoothie—appreciating that it was a nice flavor before handing it back to him.

"I am sorry" I said standing as we made our way back towards my car.

"For what?" he said looking down at me as he put the bags in the back. "You have nothing to be sorry about, those comments are fucking pathetic, it's people living in echo-chambers. Once one person goes off, the rest follow. Don't listen to them" he said.

Thankfully the drive back wasn't too bad, we went inside Imogen's where Dustin, Spencer and her all sat around the counter. Imogen wore black-ripped shorts as well as a tank top. Her hair on top of her had in a messy bun, all of us trying to survive this heat. "I love the heat, but goddamn" she fanned herself with the paper Spencer was just holding, "how was the mall?" she questioned.

"Good" I said softly taking a seat on the counter beside her.

"Bethany had a hard time" Noah admitted, looking at me, "but I think today can go better for her" he smiled as he dug through his bags. "I think we all need to unplug from the world a little bit, and just relax which is why I grabbed this" he pulled it out to reveal a slip n' slide.

My stomach only plummeted more.