the beach | noel miller

xv

Cody refocuses his attention back on Noel, who looks distraught. This entire situation to them is so foreign, everything is so serious and tense. "What happened?" Cody asks the question everyone's thinking, his voice full of concern. "I- uh-" Noel starts out while he's rocking on his heels, "fuck it" he mutters before walking in the direction that Rose just went in. Cody looks at his girlfriend "do I?" he says, questioning whether he should go out there or not. "No, not yet babe" Kelsey replies knowing whatever just happened was between the other two. They share a look, they'd be smiling if this was under different circumstances. Cody and Kelsey don't share any words and just refocus their attention to the dinner Noel was attempting to make, which was now burnt.

His mind drifts to seeing how distressed she looked and how that somehow hurt him, seeing her like that. He slides the door open seeing Rose standing in the corner looking at the unbelievably shitty view (especially for the price they're paying.) Before Noel could even speak she rushes out "that.. uh that wasn't you back there, it was me I-" he does the same thing she just did "No, Rose please don't apologise I pushed you or made you fe-" she chuckles sinisterly "please will you just shut the fuck up, I said it wasn't you, just go" she says finally him in the eye, "please" she begs feeling her eyes starting water translation: stay. Noel can even feel some lump forming in his throat just watching herself, he'd call himself a pussy if he wasn't already focused on the sight in front of him. "I'm not gonna do that." Is all he says. Followed up by "I mean if you really want I will but you- you're not okay and I'm not gonna leave you ." This was enough to push her over the edge, she whimpers tears falling rapidly still looking over the edge. She takes notice of how Noel must have walked closer to her since he's in reaching distance, "talk to me" he says above whisper, nearing her. All he can hear is the sound that he recently figured out he hates the most, her sobs.

Rose doesn't know what to say or do, for fuck sakes she's crying in front of her sometimes enemy. "No" is all she says, a sad smile ghosting her lips. He can tell she's already trying to turn this into a joke, it's a defensive mechanism. And he knows it. "Rose" he says again, but he's cut off. "My name sounds so bitter on your tongue." She continues "The way everyone else says it is so.. sweet, so melodic, but you, your way sounds nice." He furrows his brows that what she just concluded to, "don't change the subject" he says leaving out her name he was gonna add. Noel doesn't want her to think of herself like that- bitter. She's not bitter. To people maybe, but she isn't bitter. He wishes sometimes his brain wasn't in overdrive because right now he's trying to puzzle the pieces together of her behaviour when really he should be focusing on her. His mind always goes to the worst possible thing, but this time he's thinking it isn't just his brain. She's finally stopped crying, "i'm not"  she lets out a shaky breath before continuing "i'm not ready to talk and I don't want to talk." she tries to muster up any sort of bite she has left. "Okay" is all he says, his face  looks sad and his eyes soft, he tries to continue saying that he's here for her but she continues the pattern of cutting him off, this time not with words. Her arms are around his neck, face buried in his neck holding him as tightly as she can. He takes a few seconds to react before wrapping his arms around her waist, and whispers a  "I got you."

Rose dreads the moment she lets go because she knows it's time to go face Cody and Kelsey. Noel heads to do the door, looking back giving the girl a reassuring smile and opens it, they both get hit with the smell of burnt pasta. Her face scrunches up at the fact their dinner was done for. They immediately see the faces of the couple sitting on their couch, Kelsey leaning back while Cody sits forward, hands on his knees looking like he's the main character in a show sitting in the hospital waiting room. His head snaps up at the sound of the door sliding open, finally he thinks. Cody goes to ask her if she's okay but from past experiences that isn't the question to ask if you want a response out of her. So he opts to do what he knows best, "you guys burnt the pasta, how the fuck do you burn pasta?" This earns a chuckle out of all of them, including his sister. Noel takes a seat at the dining room table not really knowing what to do. Rose still stands looking around the room she's seen thousands of times before, "well this is fucking awkward." This causes Kelsey to join Cody in parent mode "hey no it's not it's fine, we're fine." Noel catches Rose soften at Kelseys exclamation. Cody's next to break the silence "well i'm still really hungry." Kelsey catches his drift and springs up, "okay what are we ordering? mexican, chinese, thai there's endless possibilities."