The clock read 2:04 A.M. when I woke up. I barely remember falling asleep. I looked to my left and Noah was still very much asleep. His arm was lazily draped over my sweatshirt clad torso. I carefully picked his arm up and sat it down, trying not to wake him up. He stirred a little, but didn’t wake.
I was still curious about Noah. Even after almost a year. He has secrets and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know anymore. I also wondered what he was like when I wasn’t around. He uses his arrogance as a defense. Sarcasm too. I imagine him to be how he is when we first met. An ego bigger than he could handle and a knife collection that intimidated me. Well, Noah personally intimidated me.
He spoke about Scott rarely. And never called him his brother. I understand he probably doesn’t want to talk about it and that’s okay. But if something happens and I could have stopped it, I won’t be able to deal with that. I don’t know how I made it nine months without even a word about his wellbeing. If he was alive or not, and if he was, was he happy? Most likely not happy. He definitely wasn’t when I met him at his show.
Not happy to see me. Maybe disappointed.
He seemed more at ease when we were alone. I noticed how tense he gets when Scott’s around. It’s like he completely shuts down and forgets everything but his name. Almost like Scott’s personal little robot he can do whatever he wants with. I wish Scott would leave Noah alone and let him live how he wants. It’s not Noah’s fault. None of this is Noah’s fault. It’s not even Scott’s fault what happened to his mom.
After I took care of what I had to in the bathroom, I made my way back to the bedroom. Noah groaned a little and used the arm closest to him to move the hair that fell over his eyes. “Are you okay?” He breathed and closed his eyes again.
“I was thinking the same thing about you.” I replied softly and sat down on my side of the bed.
Noah slowly opened his eyes that I could only see from the dim bathroom light. “I would be better if you were still in bed. It’s 2 A.M.”
I let out a small laugh, “I couldn’t sleep.”
“Did I wake you up?”
I gently shook my head and sank down beside him. He maneuvered a little until his face was pressed against the side of my neck and his arm was back around my waist, but a bit tighter this time. I ran my fingers through his hair and he let out a long breath. “I’m sorry I came here the way I did.” He muttered, his breath hot against my neck.
“No, I’m glad you came here. I’m sorry you had to do it alone.”
“Things are getting out of control again.” He moved his head back to look up at me. “They’re worse than before. And it’s never going to get better. It’s only going to get worse from here.”
I had to shake my head again. “Don’t think like that.” Even I had to admit things were still getting worse. But that’s obviously not what Noah needed to hear right now.
Noah moved away from me and sat up. I remained in my position and looked up at him. “I should be the one taking care of you.” He let out a nervous laugh.
I smiled up at him, “We take care of each other. That’s how it works.”
He was still barely awake, but he managed to give me a sleepy smile.
I jumped out of the bed, scaring Noah a little. “C’mon, I want to show you something.” I grabbed his hand and pulled. He let out another groan and slowly got up out of bed.
“You do realize what time it is, right?”
I held onto his hand as I dragged him out of the bedroom.
“I haven’t been able to sleep through the night for a while. So this is what I did.”
“Run through the house in my clothes?”
“If that’s what you want to picture.” I muttered.
We reached the landing of the stairs and I continued dragging him through the dark house, only bumping into the wall when I lost my footing.
We managed with no major damage. We stopped in front of the French doors that led to the house gym. I let go of Noah’s hand long enough to open the door and turn some lights on. I turned around and Noah was squinting towards the bright lights. “What are we doing in here?”
I grabbed his hand again and pulled him behind the punching bags and to the large space where we used to practice on occasion. “After you left, I had horrible nightmares. And it wasn’t just every other night, it happened every night.”
His face dropped because of my confession, but it really wasn’t news to him.
“When I’d stay over here, I would wonder into this room. Never picked up one of the daggers for a while, though. I would be shaking too bad. But after about a week, I started practicing again. It became a routine when I couldn’t sleep through the night. It made me feel better and I was definitely tired enough to sleep through the rest of the night.”
He opened his mouth and I already knew he was going to apologize, so I quickly interrupted.
“Don’t.”
He snapped his mouth shut.
“I will say that I’ve gotten quite good at it.” I teased.
I walked to the knife covered wall, plucking off two Chinese ring daggers. “These are my favorite.” I twirled the rings around my fingers smoothly without dropping one. I stopped them quickly with the grip of my hands tight around the handles.
Noah smirked and walked to the wall. He scanned for a few seconds, grabbing one closer to the top. I never bothered with it because it seemed intimidating. It was larger than the ones I’ve worked with, but fit snug into Noah’s hand. “I got this one a few months before coming here.” It had a curved handle and below the handle is ridged and jagged like a saw blade.
“I think I could beat you now.”
Noah raised an eyebrow, “You sure about that?”
I hesitated, but nodded. “How would it feel to be beaten by a girl, Noah?”
I walked towards the two blue dummies in the middle of the room and pushed them to opposite ends to get to the paper targets on the wall. I walked back until I reached the 7 foot mark I made with bright blue tape. Noah walked back to the wall, grabbing a few silver daggers. I stuck with my two ring daggers, seeing I know I can work around them.
“First to get 50 points wins.” Noah stated.
“And if I win?”
“If you win.” He put emphasis on if. “And if I win…well you’ll just have to make it up to me.”
I think my heart stopped beating for a moment. “Prepare to be disappointed.”
I stood directly in front of the target and Noah backed up a few feet behind me. I took a deep breath, twirling the knives around my fingers to get some adrenalin building. I made a quick spin with my body, throwing the first dagger. I didn’t wait, throwing the second one with so much force the room echoed with the sound of the impact.
I let go of the breath I was holding and scanned the target for my daggers. “9 and 8.” I grinned and turned around to face Noah.
He just stared at the target.
“You look a little pale.” I teased, gesturing towards the color loss in his cheeks.
Noah just shrugged his shoulders. “You have no idea what you just walked into.”
Noah stepped up to the line and I took his previous spot behind him. Noah didn’t take the breath I did before throwing my first dagger. He pinched the blade of the dagger between his pointer and thumb, not wasting any time before throwing it forward. It landed on the 9 first, and I already knew I was going to lose.
He threw two more and they both landed on the bulls-eye. 10 points each.
Noah turned around with the biggest grin on his face. “You sure you don’t want to bow out now? Before you make a fool out of yourself?”
I glared at him and walked to the target to pick out my knives. I slammed them down on one of the chairs and grabbed Noah’s from the target. “You had three, that’s not fair.”
“Already being a sore loser.”
“Hey, I haven’t lost yet.”
I focused my attention on the target in front of me and threw the first one. I hit the outer blue 6 and I felt myself sink. This wasn’t completely hopeless. I threw the second one, hitting the inner red ring which was a number 8. I didn’t hesitate to throw the last one which stuck on the outer yellow ring with the number 9 plastered on it.
“29 for you and 40 for me.” I smiled. “Looks like you’re going to be the sore loser.”
Something that started out as a friendly competition, wasn’t going to end friendly.
Noah retracted the daggers and I stood behind him again. I watched his back muscles flex underneath his skin as he threw the first dagger.
9.
Second dagger moves without missing a beat.
9.
And when he threw the last dagger, it landed directly center of the target, making me the loser.
I definitely went into this with too much confidence.
“Huh.”
Noah turned around, his face twisting in curiosity. “I thought you would be a little rusty.”
“You’re not the only one who couldn’t sleep at night.”
The thought made my heart break. “You can have your life back, Noah. Your house, your family and friends. The band…”
“And you?”
I smiled a little, resting my hands on his hips. “I count as a friend, don’t I?”
He tipped my chin up, lightly shaking his head. “Friends don’t do what we just did.”
“I think you’re going to have to be more specific.” I teased and stepped away from him.
He smirked, walking towards me while I backed away. “Don’t get me started.”
I started laughing and opened up the gym doors to exit. “It doesn’t take much.”
We walked out of the gym and Noah was hot on my heels. I turned around and started walking backwards so I could face him. “Are you going to tell me what you won?”
“Nope. I’m saving it.”
Noah caught up to me, wrapping his arm tight around my waist to pull me close. I let out a giggle and he kissed me.
The sound of the front door opening pulled us apart so quickly. I looked up at Noah before turning around. By Noah’s expression, I knew I was in for a surprise.
Leo and Carrie stood there, shock evidently in their expressions. Leo was holding a sleeping Alex in his arms. “Alex is sick, we had to bring him home early. We’ve been driving all night.” Carrie said slowly, her eyes not leaving Noah’s face. Leo hasn’t said a word. He just walked up the stairs, but I knew he would be back.
Carrie ran to Noah, wrapping her arms so tight around him like she would never let go. “I can’t believe it’s you.” She pulled away, gripping Noah’s face between her hands. “I thought I would never see you again. I could barely recognize you.”
Noah hugged his mother again and Carrie left a kiss on his cheek before they spilt. I heard Leo’s thundering footsteps coming down the stairs and he rushed towards Noah, slowly smiling because he hasn’t seen him in months as well. They hugged and exchanged a few words that I couldn’t make out.
When the hugging was over, it got a bit awkward.
I’m half naked and Noah was only wearing a pair of sweatpants. He had tattoos covering small parts of his body I didn’t pay special attention to. His mom noticed the lip ring first. Then noticed the tattoos. She gasped, but the shock faded when she realized who Noah was. Noah was going to do what Noah wanted whether they liked it or not. “I’ve always wondered what you would do with us not around anymore.”
Leo pointed out the anchor on his finger and actually complimented it.
It was still as awkward as ever. They haven’t said a word to me and I already know I’m fired.
Being fired isn’t something I should even be worried about right now.
I slipped behind Noah and walked through the dark family room and into the kitchen. I walked through the kitchen and made my way up the stairs quietly while they talked. I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to actually talk to Carrie. And I don’t want to ruin their reunion. I know Noah didn’t want to see them just yet because he didn’t know if he was staying.
He couldn’t do that to them again.
I got back into bed and stared up at the ceiling. I waited for what felt like hours, hoping maybe he would come back.
But he didn’t.
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This is such a bad chapter but I wanted to post something fluffy before I destroy it all hahahaha.
Next chapter will probably be in Noah's point of view. Honestly I should have done this whole story in his point of view lol.
Don't forget to vote and leave me comments!! I'm gonna try and reply to more of them because you guys are just so sweet and I can't thank you enough, honestly.
ALSO!!! Please check out this story called Children Of The Forest by @uzma2698. I'll add a dedication and I'll add an external link!!
Song: Crash by You Me At Six