"𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚛𝚍 𝚆𝚑𝚎𝚎𝚕"
ᴀᴜᴛʜᴏʀ
𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕟𝕖𝕩𝕥 𝕕𝕒𝕪
𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘦'𝘴 𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵
"MINI PRENTISS!" Penelope shouts from the kitchen.
"Yes!" Noah shouts back from the bathroom. She is drying her hair, seeing as she just got out of the shower.
"I have the number for Italian, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, or Mediterranean!" Penelope says as she reads the cards stuck on her fridge.
Noah comes out of the bathroom, brushing through her wet hair, "We've never tried the Mediterranean."
"Mediterranean wraps are the best," Penelope tells her. "We definitely have to get that."
"Order me whatever, you know what I like," Noah says as she plops down on the couch, which is made into her bed.
Penelope talks to the person on the phone, telling them more information than needed, being her usual self. Noah would normally smile to herself about it, but all she can think about is Emily. Sometimes her bravery gets the best of her and she ends up coming home with injuries.
Just before Noah can get lost in her thoughts, Sergio jumps up next to her on the sofa. The teen turns to look at him and smiles, gently petting his head. He gets comfortable on her lap as Noah finds herself subconsciously fiddling with the red heart pendant on her necklace. Penelope comes into the living room, watching her goddaughter rub the heart from Emily in-between her fingers.
"Hey, kiddo, you alright?" The blonde coos as she sits beside Noah.
"Yeah, sorry."
"She always comes back in one piece."
"Barely," Noah tuts. "Do you ever worry that one of them won't come back?"
"Worry? I run myself thin just thinking about it," Penelope assures the teen that she is not alone. "They're family. There's nothing else we can do other than worry. But knock on wood—" She adds as she knocks on the coffee table. "We haven't lost anyone. Because they're good at their jobs and they look out for each other out there."
"Will you tell me about something happy?" Noah pleads.
"Let's see," Penelope thinks for a moment. "Oh! We're doing Romeo and Juliet at the theater soon, you should come to see it! We've been doing rehearsals and it's really good!"
"Who're you playing?"
"Juliet's nurse," Penelope answers.
"That's a pretty big part, P!" Noah exclaims, "That's so cool!"
"It opens next weekend, you have to come!"
"Of course!" Noah chimes and peers over at Sergio as he rubs against her hand. "I think he wants to come too."
"Don't worry, Serg," Penelope giggles. "We can sneak you in."
"I'll hide him in my shirt," Noah chuckles.
"And maybe you can bring along the girl," Penelope teases.
"The girl?" Noah asks.
"I wanna meet her," Penelope beams.
"You're gonna make her nervous," Noah giggles. "She's always telling me about how nervous she is to meet any of you."
"Why's she nervous?"
"I think it's because she wants to impress you," Noah says. "She wants you guys to like her."
"Well, I already love her, so I think I'm the perfect first person to meet from the team!" Penelope says excitedly. "So you'll bring her?"
"I'll see if she's free—"
"Yay!" Penelope exclaims and hugs the teen.
The two sit back on the sofa and flip through the TV channels. They cannot seem to find anything interesting, so Noah wastes time by grasping her necklace, thinking of Emily, but reassuring herself that she is safe.
"What now?" Penelope asks as she gets to the last channel.
"There is actually something you can help me with..."
—
𝕒 𝕗𝕖𝕨 𝕕𝕒𝕪𝕤 𝕝𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕣
"C'mon!" Liv shouts, looking behind at Noah standing outside Emily's car with the door still open.
"I'm going to lunch with Penelope and JJ, text me when you're ready, okay?" Emily asks her daughter.
"Okay," Noah agrees. "And then dinner and game night?"
"Yep!" Emily chimes.
"Bye, Em," Noah says and leans over the seat to receive a kiss on the cheek from her mother.
"Bye, honey."
"Are you ready?" Noah asks as she rushes to catch up with Liv and Jess.
"You two are way too excited about this," Liv says as she rolls her eyes.
"I know exactly where we should go," Jess chimes and pulls the redhead's arm through the mall. Noah staggers behind, just trying to keep up with Jess' excited steps.
Eventually, they find themselves in a good store and Jess immediately starts looking. Noah finds it miraculous how Jess has barely stepped foot in the store and already is finding good options. Noah and Liv joke around until the blonde comes up to them, holding five dresses she likes.
"You're here to do the heavy lifting, okay?" Jess asks Noah with a sweet smile.
"That's fine by me," Noah agrees and holds out her arm. The blonde drapes the first dress over Noah's arm and keeps looking.
Liv is nervous at first but warms up the more she looks through the racks. Before they realize it, Liv and Jess have gone through almost the entire store. Noah follows behind them, being there for moral support with a few nods and shakes of her head and different expressions to all the dresses the other two hold up.
"I think we've got them all," Noah says as she holds up her arms, which are lifting as many dresses as they can hold. "And they're getting really heavy."
"I think we're good to try on," Jess says.
"You think?" Noah asks as she feels her arms giving out.
Liv and Jess walk to the dressing room, picking one and letting Noah put the pile of dresses down. Jess and Noah give the redhead privacy and chat outside the room. Liv calls for Jess to help her zip, so Noah stands outside by herself.
Before she is about to give up and go shopping for herself, Jess comes out of the dressing room, shaking her head, "She didn't like them."
"Any of them?" Noah asks with wide eyes.
"They looked great, she just didn't like them for whatever reason."
"You know I can hear you, right?" Liv asks from the other side of the door.
"C'mon," Jess says with a smile. "I think she would like something neutral but colors look good on her. You know, redheads are really lucky that they have so much natural color just in their hair. And her eyes are blue, so something to go along with that would be cute," She adds and looks behind her to find Noah just standing there listening. "Can you help, babe?"
"I'm not the right person to ask about a dress."
"Yeah, but you know fashion, so you can still help," The blonde giggles, turning to the racks and pointing to where Noah should look.
"How about this?" Noah asks as she jokingly holds up a lacy lingerie set.
Jess laughs as she takes in the set, "As if Liv would ever wear that."
"I was actually suggesting it for you," Noah says and laughs as Jess playfully hits her arm.
"Stop flirting and keep looking," Jess says, hiding her smile.
Jess turns back to the rack and keeps searching for a new dress. Noah stands beside her and bumps the blonde's hip with her own. Noah giggles as Jess tries her best to hold it together, but eventually cracks a smile.
"Okay, seriously, what about this one?" Noah asks as she holds up another hanger.
"Noah!" Jess exclaims as she finds herself looking at another lingerie set, this one being more revealing. "Why're you looking in the lingerie rack?!"
"What?" Noah says with a smirk. "Oh, sorry," She jokes and holds up another hanger. "I meant this one."
Jess expects to see another set but sees a dark green suede dress with thin straps. It has little sparkles around it, making it shine in the light.
"That's perfect!" Jess squeals and grabs the dress, running to the dressing room. "Liv, Noah found the perfect one!" She exclaims and tosses it over the door.
Noah and Jess stand outside the door, waiting for the redhead. It does not take long for Liv to step out with a hesitant expression. Jess happily gasps while Noah stands in shock.
"You sure it's not too tight?" Liv asks.
"No, it looks good," Jess reassures her.
"And the color doesn't look bad?" Liv questions.
"The green matches your hair and eyes—just like Jess said," Noah points out.
The couple watches as Liv looks at the mirror at the end of the small hallway of doors. She smoothes the dress down and twists to see it from all the angles she can see. She slowly turns around to look at her friends and they watch as her stoic expression turns into a wide smile.
"I like it!"
"She likes it!" Jess chimes as she jumps up.
"Alright, not too much," Liv chuckles. "Now, I can only take so much of it, so I have to take it off," She adds as she walks back into the dressing room.
"I picked a dress," Noah says proudly as she puts her arm around the blonde's neck.
"Good job, gorgeous," Jess beams and kisses Noah's cheek.
—
𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘴' 𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵
"Ha!" Noah boasts. "46 points, please."
"What?" Emily asks as she looks at the board.
"Equalize," Noah says. "1-11-12-13-14-15-25-26. Double space on Q and Z means add 20 to get 46."
"Ugh, why are you so good at this?" Emily sulks as she writes Noah's points on their score sheet.
"You should be asking why I'm beating the FBI agent at this," The teen chuckles.
"You've been looking up words," Emily jokes.
Noah peers down at the board and thinks to herself about Emily's comment. The words turn from what you would find in the pages of a dictionary to juvenile words from school textbooks. And when she looks up, it is not Emily she sees, it is Max.
"You win again," Max groans and falls back on the floor.
"C'mon, you're getting better," Noah says with a giggle.
"You've been looking up new words to use against me," Max chuckles and sits up.
"What else am I supposed to do when we're not hanging out?" Noah says. A silence falls between them shortly after.
"Can we talk about it?" Max questions as he stares at his friend from across the coffee table.
"There's nothing to talk about."
"Noah," Max huffs as he pleads for her to talk. All he has been able to look at all day is the bruise under her eye. And all he can think about is the hissing sound she makes every time she accidentally touches it and the pain that sits behind every smile she has shown him all day.
"I fell," Noah mumbles as she distracts herself with the scrabble pieces.
"You can tell me the truth," Max says.
"No, I can't," Noah replies. "If she finds out I said anything, she'll kill me. And I'm scared that it's not a figure of speech—she may actually kill me."
"Let me help you," Max offers. "I can tell my mom—"
"No," Noah asserts. "Your mom will call the police and my mom will find a way out of it. She lies to everyone. She tells the doctor I'm clumsy, other parents that I get bullied at school, and teachers that it's not her, it's me and my brother fighting."
"There has to be a way to get you out," Max says with a frown.
"I'll be fine," Noah reassures her friend. "I've taken it this long, I can take it for a little while longer."
"I'm here for you," Max vows as he goes to sit next to the girl, putting his arm around her. "I'm not going anywhere."
Noah smiles wide before looking down at the Scrabble board again. The letter rearrange once again and she can feel the air in the room change. A familiar sting comes to her eye, making Noah blink the pain away.
"Noah?"
The teen peers up and finds her mother's brown eyes. Yet another good moment turned into a reminder that everyone she ever loves leaves in the end. It may sound terrible, but out of everyone she has ever known, she hopes Emily is the one who stays.