So sorry! I was originally gonna have this up by Sunday last week but then my iPod broke! It's fine and still useable cause I'm using it right now. But the screen is cracked really badly. And I had to erase the chapter, so yeah.
And I finally got which song I should use! You Make Me Feel!! I love that song and it would fit perfectly!!! I am so happy!!! :D
IMPORTANT READ THIS: Do you guys want me to have a few chapters and then skip to the competition or do you want me to take it somewhat slow? I really don't know so please tell me. :)
The cover to the side is by PurpleConverse!
Hope you enjoy it! This chapter's a bit more serious, but not overly serious.
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One and Only
Chapter Twenty-Three - Robbers Should Be Quiet
I slammed my finger down on the button to change the radio...again, "Noah! Keep it on this station!"
He slammed his finger against it, too, "I don't want to listen to this song! It's such a chick song!"
I changed if again, "But I want to!"
"This is my car!" he yelled.
"Your point being?" I challenged.
"That I get to listen to whatever song I want!"
"But I'm here, too!" I pointed out.
"And?"
"I get to listen to what I want, too!"
Before he could reply, a third finger came slamming down on it and changed it to a station neither Noah or I wanted to listen to before. "Keep it at this station!" Liam shouted angrily, looking frustrated while Emily was sitting on his side, a knowing smile on her face.
Noah groaned from beside me, "Why are you even here?"
"Because Alex is going to meet Rose's parents and since they are the ones who took us to the beach house, we don't have a way to get home." Emily explained.
"Weren't you listening?" Liam asked, annoyed. That boy always seemed like he was in a bad mood, unless he was talking to Emily.
"No, I was too-" I slapped Noah's arm before he could continue as I glared at him. He had a smirk on his face and a glint of amusement in his eyes as he watched my reaction.
I whispered in a low voice through clenched teeth, "Don't even go there."
His smirk turned into a very devilish grin. He shrugged, "What? I was only gonna say that I was too distracted at the moment to pay much attention to what they were saying.
I narrowed my eyes at him as I openly glared at him. Distracted my butt, he was too busy trailing his fingertips up my exposed legs. Feeling ticklish, I had giggled when there had been no reason to giggle...at all.
I looked through the mirror to see that Liam looked a bit confused as to what Noah meant while Emily raised her eyebrow as her mouth twisted into a half smirk.
Liam's expression changed back into that too-cool-to-be-here look and I rolled my eyes at him. Just cause he's drum major he thinks he's so cool.
I heard Noah chuckle and a quiet giggle from Emily. My eyebrows knit in confusion as Liam glared at me through the mirror. "Did I say that out loud?" I asked.
"Uh-huh." Noah nodded, obviously thinking it was hilarious.
I looked back at Liam and noticed that he was still shooting daggers at me, and I shrugged, "What? It's true."
His glare became more angry seeing how everyone-but him- were laughing loudly, even Emily. But eventually he lost the mean look and laughed with us, I was kind of surprised by his sudden attitude change-maybe Noah wasn't the only one with man-periods-but I welcomed it seeing how it was much better than his normal moody glares at everyone.
Once everyone had calmed down, I looked out the window and watched the green blur of trees whizzing by with the occasional clearing where I'd be able to catch a glimpse of a glittering blue.
As I stared out the window, I remembered what Noah had said last night when I asked him why he wasn't a player anymore. How he'd looked at me in shock, almost disbelief, before shaking his head and calling me stupid. Why had he called me stupid? It wasn't my fault I didn't know why he was a retired player now, or who had made him change his mind. Why would he call me stupid? Unless...no, I shook my head slightly, it couldn't have been cause of me. That was thoroughly preposterous. Impossible, completely impossible.
Maybe there was another girl. A frown made it's way onto my face as I thought of him with another girl. I didn't like it one bit. I looked over at him and noticed that he had a happy expression on his face. What if he was thinking about her right now? He'd tell me if he liked another girl, wouldn't he? After all, he had told me that I was one of his close friends.
I quickly looked back so he wouldn't know that I was staring at him, but from the smug expression on his face, I could tell he already knew. That damn, good-for-nothing idiot didn't even know him liking another girl affected me. But why did I even care? Was it cause...was it cause I liked him? I barely managed to keep the gasp in as I realized that I did like him! No, no, no, no! That's horrible! I-I can't let that happen!
I was just a little short of hyperventilating now.
Calm down, Jade, it's just a little crush. If you don't think about it, it'll go away. I took a deep breath and decided that if I ignored the feelings, they'd go away. Yes, that's exactly how I was going to act. But I had to know if Noah liked another girl or not; I'd ask him about it later.
I was pulled out of my thinking as the song You Make Me Feel by Cobra Starship started playing. I love this song. I love everything about it, from the lyrics to the beat. Maybe we could use this song for the competition.
"Noah!" I exclaimed.
"Hm?" he asked, sparing a glance at me before looking back at the road.
"We should so use this song for the competition!" I declared, excited.
He made a face as if he was thinking about it and then lazily smiled and replied, "Yeah, we should."
Liam spoke from behind us, "You're welcome, guys."
Noah and I rolled our eyes at him.
[*]
I tossed in my bed as I was having a bad dream. Not a nightmare, just...I don't know, it wasn't a pleasant dream. Surprisingly, it wasn't about Noah either.
I felt on the edge of consciousness, yet still not fully out of my dream state. I heard a door open loudly and, after a few seconds, I heard it banging closed.
The weird thing was that were no pictures, only noises. Heavy thumps against wood were heard, thumps that sounded too much like footsteps. Then I heard the creaking of another door opening.
My face scrunched up as I tried to make sense of the lifelike sounds. All of a sudden I heard a loud crash that sent me bolting upright. No, that sound sounded too real to be a dream. It couldn't have been fake. Not at all.
I quietly got up and walked lightly against the floor to the other side of my room. To the side of the room that I kept a flower vase; a big, heavy glass vase. I swiftly took the fake flowers put of it and picked it up and carried it as if it were a baseball bat.
I tiptoed silently to my door where I heard another loud sound that sent my heart reeling. Was mom home this early? She had said a month and it had barely been five days! It couldn't have been her because she never made this much noise.
I opened the door as inaudibly as I could, but it creaked the barest bit. But I doubt the other person in the house heard seeing as they had been causing a ruckus in my house.
There was another noise of something being dropped into something else that I could tell was coming from downstairs. I cautiously crept down the stairs, trying to avoid the stairs that made small creaking noises.
When I reached the bottom I turned my head to the left and noticed the light to the small storage room we had was on. That was where we kept our most valuable stuff, hidden in boxes or stuffed behind old rugs.
I walked to the right, in the opposite direction, towards the kitchen. My plan being to ditch the glass vase seeing as it would cause more damage than I wanted it to. Walking into the kitchen, I went straight to the pantry and I opened it. Taking out the broomstick we kept in there, I couldn't help but feel sad that we didn't own a baseball bat seeing as neither Mom or I play. If I lived through this, I would surely go buy a very hard bat.
I made my way out side the kitchen and towards the storage room. My fingers curled even tighter around the vase as I gradually made my way to the slightly open door.
As I reached the door, I straightened up and looked through the crack between the doorframe and door. I tried to see who was inside, male or female, small or large. And as I narrowed my eyes and crouched a little, I noticed that the frame of the person was that of a man, a very large man.
My heart thumped against my ribcage forcefully, making me breathe air in through my mouth. Taking a deep, lungful of air to calm my jumping nerves, I opened the door as quietly as possible, hoping to go for a sneak attack. But the odds weren't in my favor today because clumsy tripped over one of the many objects strewn across the carpeted floor. My foot made a clamorous sound as it hit against the floor heavily.
The thug turned his head sharply and stared at me stunned and surprised. I couldn't tell what color his eyes were because he was too far away but his hair was a mixture of brown and blonde and his face looked red. He seemed fit with squared shoulders and muscular arms. This made me more scared. How could I, short and not as strong, go against a large man as him. My hand clenched tighter around the broomstick behind my back, in a vice-like grip. "Shit! I thought there weren't any people home!" he cursed, talking to himself.
I glared at him, trying to keep my calm, "Obviously with all that noise you were making."
He narrowed his eyes venomously at me and took a pocket knife out. My eyes widened and my throat closed with fear as I remembered that one night so long ago in the alley with the man who had pressed his cold pocket knife against my neck. My hand went to my neck involuntarily, rubbing it gently as I remembered the feel of the cool steel against it.
The man in front of me held almost the same expression. Only his was infuriated while the other's had been excited in a sick way and lustful.
"I would watch your mouth, girly," he said in a sweet, yet threatening voice.
"I would watch what houses I come sneaking in to rob." I willed my voice to sound strong, to make up for the fear gripping the insides of me. He wouldn't...he wouldn't try anything, would he?
He fixed me with a dark glare, "Look, girl, I'll let you go if you let me do what I came to do."
"And what makes you think I'll let you rob my house?"
"If you don't," he pulled his knife up to his face wearing a sinister smile, "I'm sure I have other ways to persuade you."
I gulped, trying not to waver as I spoke, "Get out my house or else I'll call the cops."
His expression turned to that of a frightened boy for the smallest of seconds before turning back to a loathsome one, "Don't you dare."
"And if I do?"
"This knife will meet your stomach." he replied in a warning voice.
"Don't you have better things to do than threaten to hurt innocent people? Besides, you wouldn't even be able to lay a finger on me, I'd have beat you up before such a thing happened," I said as confidently as I could.
"What could a little girl like you do to a big guy like me?' he laughed, clearly amused.
"Want me to show you just how much I can hurt you and your soon-to-be-sorry butt?" I challenged him, probably out of my mind from the lack of sleep or something.
His face contorted into an a furious expression and he yelled a war cry and lunged at me but I stepped to the right at the very last moment, causing him to crash into the wall behind me. He grunted as he got back up, rubbing his head where it had made contact with the wall. He fixed his eyes on me again and ran towards me for the second time and I dodged again, this time turning around and swiping his feet out from under him with my leg. As he landed right on his back, I walked over to the side his head was on and looked at his upside down face, smiling triumphantly and saying, "Never underestimate a girl, especially this one," before hitting his head with the stick end of my broomstick, hard enough to knock him unconscious.
When I was sure he was down under, I didn't waste a second. I quickly ran out the storage room, never letting my broom go in case he woke up again, and into the living room where the nearest phone was. I dialed 911 and told them my what had happened and they assured me that the police would be down at my house within ten minutes. The next person I called was Noah cause I knew he'd be able to come before police so just in case the robber did wake up, I wouldn't be alone to face him.
His phone ran four times before he finally picked it up and answered sleepily, "Hello? Who is this?"
"Noah! It's me, Jade! Come to my house quickly!"
"Why? What happened?"
"A robber is laying unconscious in my storage room right now after I knocked him out with a broomstick!"
"What?" His voice was void of all sounds of sleep. "I'm coming over right now, and when I come, tell me exactly what happened, okay!" It was more of a demand than a question.
"Okay! Come quick, I'm afraid he's going to wake up soon!"
We both hung up and not two minutes late did the bell ring. I ran over to the door and looked through the peephole just to make sure before I opened it to a very worries Noah.
"Are you okay?" he crushed me into one of his comforting hugs, "I was scared something happened to you!"
I pulled him tighter, wanting to feel his warmth encircle me. "I'm fine, I just sort of freaked."
"Tell me what happened exactly."
And I told him exactly what happened, not leaving any details out. The whole while I was telling him my story, we remained embracing, but I wasn't ready to let go and it didn't seem like he was either.
After a short time, the police arrived. Luckily, the the man hadn't woken up. The police asked me questions that I answered to the best of my ability.
But all the ruckus with the police and all, had woken Jane, Steve, and Charlie up. And they had come into my kitchen where I was seated with Noah, with concern in their eyes. Well Jane and Steve had concern, I don't think Charlie understood exactly what was happening, she looked too tired. I waved to them as I talked to my mom on the phone.
"A robber came into the house?" my mom shrieked from the other side and I held the phone a little from my ear.
I sighed, and answered for the hundredth time, "Yes, mom."
"Oh my gosh, my poor J-star! Are you okay? You aren't hurt are you? I swear if he so much as touched you, he will not be in the position to ever touch anyone else again!"
I smiled a little at my mom's behavior the situation, I had known she'd act just like this, "No, mom, he didn't. I had knocked him out before he had the chance to even touch me."
I could imagine my mom's proud face as she spoke again, "That's my girl! I knew those Tae Kwon Doe lessons would prove useful someday! Aren't you glad I made you sign up for it?"
I frowned a little as I realized that she thought this was the first time they had come handy. I shook my head slightly before smiling again, "Yeah, mom, I am. I'm very glad that you made me take that class."
"Is Jane or Steve there?" my mom asked abruptly.
"Uh, yeah, they're both here. Why?"
"Give it to one of them. I have to ask a huge favor from them."
I frowned slightly as I handed the phone to Jane seeing as she was the closest to me. Jane took it and placed it to her ear quickly. "Hello?" she asked. There was a pause. "Of course!" Another short pause. "No! It's no big deal! In fact, we'd love to!" There was a slightly longer pause. "There's no need to thank me, and I'll give it to her."
Jane smiled warmly at me before giving me the phone again.
"Yeah?" I asked my mom.
"Jade, you're going to stay with the Evers' every time I'm gone, okay?"
"Okay," I said hesitantly, "but are you sure they don't have a problem?"
"Of course we don't have a problem!" Steve exclaimed. I guess Jane just told him.
I smiled warmly at him and said my goodbyes to mom.
Noah looked at me confused and asked, "What was all that about?"
Before I could reply, Jane did, "Jade's going to stay with us every time her mom's gone! Isn't it great?"
Noah looked surprised for a moment or two before regaining his composure and smirking, "This is great."
[*]
Once everything had calmed down and I had packed everything, I was in the Evers' house on my way to the guest room I was supposed to be sleeping in. Noah was walking beside me.
Jane and Steve said that we could skip tomorrow since we had both been up for hours now and it was Friday tomorrow, er today, anyway.
We came across his room and he leaned against the door with his arms crossed over his chest. "You can sleep with me, you know."
I really wanted to, but if he liked another girl I didn't want him to feel obliged to since he thought I was still scared from the robbery, which I was.
I bit my lip and said, "Ummm..."
He grabbed hold of my hand and pulled mw into his room. Then he pushed me onto his bed and I laid down, since I was already in my sleep wear.
He took his shirt and jeans off and I looked away from his perfect body. I felt as the bed dipped when he came to lay down beside me. he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled my face close to his.
"Why are you so tense?" Noah asked. "It's not like this is the first time we've slept together."
"I know, but are you sure that it's okay if I sleep with you?" I asked him, not really sure how I could indirectly ask him if he liked another girl.
"Why would you think it's not?" he inquired.
"Um, well, I thought that since you like another girl you wouldn't want to sleep with me, you know?" I tried to explain without embarrassing myself too much.
He propped himself on his elbow and looked down at me, "Who told you I liked another girl?"
"Well, what you said at the beach house about being a retired player, I just thought it was cause you liked another girl."
He looked down at me as if I was the stupidest person on Earth before he said, "No, I don't like any other girl." He said the sentence with a little bit more of an emphasis on the 'other.'
But I was too overjoyed and exhausted to think about it.
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Yes!! I'm getting this uploaded!!! Woo-hoo!!!!!!!
Okay, so I'm bumping it up:
250 votes and 80 comments!
Last time I checked, I was like 3 away from 5000 votes!! Thanks you guys so much!! I really do appreciate it!!!!
Quote of the Upload:
Families are like fudge - mostly sweet with a few nuts. ~Author Unknown
Song of the Upload:
Far Away by Tyga (and I forgot who else, Chris something?)