It started the day Rivers got back. Jared had mentioned to a friend that he had come home early from chilling with Noah because Rivers was back, and the word spread like wildfire from that very moment. The whole fucking world knew that Rivers was back. Hell, I even had Alyssa pluck up the courage to question me about it.
Then the questions started- Why wasn’t he coming to school? Where had he been all this time? Where was he? Each question got ignored and from then, it’s only gotten worse. Today’s gossip- Tully crying in the hallway with Spencer because the love of her life just walked out on her again.
I don’t know how they already know he’s gone, but fuck me, I’ll be surprised if Tully gets through the day without putting a few bitches in their place.
The day drags by painfully slow, even more so as I sit through math class and find it impossible to concentrate on the numbers before me. Tully had sat through science beside me, staring at her hands and while she’s still in pieces, at least I know where she is.
By the time lunch rolls around, I’m more than eager to get to the cafeteria. I haven’t seen Noah since he stormed out this morning and he hasn’t responded to any of my texts. Surely, he’d be back by now. Well, at least I hope he’s back.
I get my ass to the cafeteria and my eyes instantly shoot towards our table. He’s not here, but then, I did kind of race here. I head over to our table and sit down, watching the world go by around me as I impatiently wait for Noah to show his face.
Spencer comes in first, then Tully, and Aiden, but no Noah.
I pull out my phone and double check that I haven’t missed any texts from him, but it’s clear as day that he hasn’t tried reaching out. I was happy enough to give him the morning to himself, but now I’m just worried.
I hope he’s not getting himself in any kind of trouble. The last time this happened, he showed up covered in cuts and bruises, claiming the other guy was worse. I don’t doubt that, but I still don’t like the idea of someone putting their hands on my man.
I nudge Tully with my elbow and she looks up, making me realize that she’s been crying again. “Have you heard from Noah? I still haven’t seen him.”
She shakes her head before resting it on Spencer’s shoulder. His arm instantly slips around her and a second later, her eyes drop away from mine and back to focusing on the table and the uneaten food in front of her.
Jared walks past our table and I call out to him. “Hey Jared, have you heard from Noah?” I ask as he stops and looks my way.
He presses his lips into a firm line before shaking his head. “Sorry,” he says with a slight cringe, obviously having heard all the gossip going around about him storming out of the school this morning.
With that, he carries on and I let out a heavy sigh. Where the hell could he be?
I think back to everything I know about him when a conversation we shared months ago comes back and hits me like a freight train. He had found my secret stash of money hidden under the floorboards in my bedroom and we were talking about leaving Haven Falls. He had told me that he would never leave, no matter how bad things were here because this is where Lily is and forever will be.
A breath of relief escapes me, and I want to kick myself for being so stupid. How could it have taken me so damn long to figure that out? I push up from the table and look over at Spencer. “Can you drop her home?” I ask, indicating down at Tully.
“Yeah, sure. Where are you going?”
I shake my head. “Nowhere, just make sure she’s safe.”
He nods and I take off, feeling the eyes of the whole room on my back.
No doubt Noah took his Camaro to get to the cemetery so I have no choice but to walk. It’s not such a big deal though. It’s only a twenty minute walk from the school and if Noah’s not there then it doesn’t matter. I can use it as a chance to clear my head.
I slip out the back gates of the school and start heading towards the cemetery. He shouldn’t be alone right now. We’re all hurting and should be banding together, not pulling away.
I take my time, wanting to give him as much time with his baby sister as possible, as clearly, he’s been needing it, but when I walk down the path that leads to the cemetery and pass his Camaro; I never could have expected my heart to break the way it is right now.
Noah sits before a small headstone in the long, unkempt grass with his head in his hands, looking completely devastated. I pick up my pace. Maybe I shouldn’t have taken so long to get here.
My heart breaks watching him like this. Missing his baby sister while missing his best friend. No one should ever have to go through the pain of losing a little sister, but add Rivers leaving again, and it’s all too much.
He must have heard me approaching in the grass as he doesn’t look up from Lily’s grave when he questions me. “How’d you find me?”
I drop down beside him, hoping he doesn’t feel as though I’m intruding as I take his hand. “You once told me that you’d never leave Haven Falls because this is where your sister is. Just makes sense for you to come here when everything else is so fucked up.”
“Damn me and my big mouth.”
I cringe. “Sorry. I can go if you need me to; I just didn’t want you to be alone.”
“No, don’t go,” he tells me, reaching for me and pulling me up onto his lap before resting his forehead on my shoulder. “I’m glad you’re here.”
My fingers curl into the back of his hair as my other hand holds him tightly. “You know it’s alright to miss him.”
Noah lets out a deep sigh. “I just…I feel like I failed him. If I was there for him more or…I don’t know, was a better friend, he might have been comfortable sharing all the bullshit with me and then I could have done something about it. He never would have felt the need to leave.”
“You can’t say that,” I murmur. “He was raised by two criminals. He never stood a chance in hell of coming out of that; but then you showed up and suddenly he had someone in his life who wasn’t interested in using him as a drug mule. You gave him true friendship and I’d bet everything I have that’s exactly what he needed at the time. Without you bringing him into your family and showing him what it means to have love and light in his life, who knows where he would be now.”
“I could have done more.”
“Don’t you see? You’ve already given him the world. Without you, he probably never would have broken free from that life. Your friendship and Tully’s heart is what’s given him the strength to strive for a better life and be a better man, and I don’t think he could ever ask for much more than that.”
“But I didn’t even try,” he shoots back at me. “It’s not like I brought him into my life to figure him out. I did it because he’s my best friend and I wanted him there. He became part of the furniture because mom refused to let him leave most of the time. Every time the topic of his parents or his home came up, he would shut down and we all just sat back and said ‘he’d come around eventually’ and then it never happened and we gave up asking. I should have pushed him on it, fought for more information, or went looking for it like you did.”
“You can’t say that,” I tell him. “You’re thinking too much into it.”
“Am I?” he questions. “I gave up searching and that’s not something a good friend does. I should have had his back, and if I did, he might have been over this bullshit by now. I could have gotten him away from Anton, or at least tried. Hell, we could have converted the garage into another bedroom for him and given him a place to live where he wouldn’t have to be anywhere near the memories of his mom and out of reach of his dad.”
“I’m going to risk sounding like a corny loser here,” I say, making him scoff and roll his eyes, “but I’d dare say for a very long time you were the sunshine in his day.”
He looks at me blankly. “Really? You couldn’t have saved that line for when Tully starts doubting herself? If you’re going to start throwing shit like that at me, at least make it sound a little more butch.”
“Like…I don’t know. Refer to me as a fucking Harley Davidson, not another dude’s sunshine. That makes me sound weak, like a pansy-ass bitch.”
“But you are a pansy-ass bitch. You’re my pansy-ass bitch.”
Noah’s eyes sparkle with mirth. “Call me a pansy-ass bitch one more time and see what happens.”
I lean back in and gently press my lips to his. “You don’t want to play this game with me, Noah Cage,” I warn him. “You know I won’t give up until I’ve won over and over again.”
“You know, all those times you think you’ve won? That’s only happened because I allowed it to.”
I shake my head, not believing him for a second. I mean, I’m a fucking firecracker. I’m top of the game. No one can beat me. “That’s bullshit.”
A grin rips across his face and I see the sparkles dancing across his eyes, inviting me in. “Oh, but it’s true. There’s nothing better in this world than seeing that smile you give me when you think you’ve finally beat me at something, so I make sure that I see it every fucking day.”
“Wait…” I pull back and really study him and realize that while there’s mischief in his eyes, he’s also being as real as he gets. “What? What do you mean you let me win?”
“You know that little bet that ended up with me getting this damn piercing?” he questions, raising his hips so I feel him beneath me.
“How could I forget?”
“I fucked up every little thing on purpose and every fucking time, without fail, you blew me away with that victory smile of yours. Best fucking day of my life if you ask me. You thought you won that day, but you couldn’t have been more wrong.”
“Who’s the one sounding like a corny loser now?” I laugh. “And what’s the deal here? I thought I was the one coming here to cheer you up, not the other way around.”
Noah shrugs his shoulder. “What can I say? I’m a selfish bastard and I think I’m going into withdrawals. I haven’t seen that smile all day and it’s killing me.”
“You’re as cheesy as they come.”
“Damn straight, baby,” he murmurs, pressing his lips to mine. “What do you say we steal Aria from school and take her somewhere special?”
My brows dip down. “Sounds great, but you’re forgetting one thing.”
“And what’s that?”
“She’s in school and my dad will kill us for taking her out of it.”
Noah watches me with a smug, knowing expression. “Really, Spitfire? You think your dad will have the shits with you for taking your sister out of school early and spending quality time with her the day your brother left for God knows how long?”
“Good point,” I tell him. “But I’m not going unless Tully comes along as well. She needs a little bit of that sunshine of yours too.”
“Alright,” Noah tells me, helping me up before getting to his feet. He looks back at Lily’s grave with a fondness settling over his features. He smiles down at her. “Until next time, little sister.”
And with that, he takes my hand and we walk away.
Chapter 17
I look down my reflection in the full length mirror hanging in my closet. My golden hair is pinned back and falls over my shoulder in waves. My makeup is done to perfection and these damn heels. I mean, my God. They’re hot as hell but I’m not sure I’m going to be able to walk in them though.
It’s the dress that gets me. A black, spaghetti strap, silk gown flows down my body, hugging it in all the right places. The hem of the dress flirts with the hardwood floorboards of my bedroom while the back of the dress dips so low my ass is risking being exposed. It’s hot, like no one in this world has the right to look so damn hot.
My bad girl, don’t give a shit attitude is telling me that I should be shrugging off this excitement, but I just don’t give a crap. I’m fucking ecstatic. Tonight is going to be incredible. It’s my senior prom.
At the beginning of senior year, I was dreading this night. Hell if I was asked, I would have sworn that there was no way I was going, but with the way my world has been flipped upside down over the past nine months, I’m absolutely thrilled for this night.
I reach for the earrings dad had bought me as a ‘holy shit, you made it this far’ gift and slide them into place. With the necklace Noah had given me earlier today that sits down low on my chest, I’ve somehow come to the realization that I must be the luckiest girl on the planet.
I have an incredible guy like Noah who loves me, a best friend in Tully, two new siblings, a mother who was kind enough to give me a new life, a dad who buys me things like expensive cars and jewelry, and not to mention, a scholarship to one of the best universities in the area.
I’m fucking winning at life.
I light up the screen of my phone and look down at the time. Three minutes past seven. I’m officially late. Glancing at myself in the mirror once again, I find myself beaming. Yeah, it’s going to be an incredible night.
I grab my phone and look down. Where the hell am I going to put this? Usually, I’d shove it down in my bra or in the back pocket of my jeans but that’s clearly not an option right now.
Oh well, I’m sure Noah will have a pocket.
I make my way towards my bedroom door before stumbling in my heels and giving myself a moment to pull it together. Chicks walk around in these things all the time. If they can do it, then so can I.
Fake it ‘til you make it, right?
I hold my head up high and make my way out of my bedroom and up the hallway, and it’s not until I hear the subtle, “Fuck me,” gasped from across the room that I look up and realize my knight in shining tattoos is already here and gaping at me as though he’s never seen a woman in his life.
I bite down on my lip, taking him in.
He’s pure perfection. I mean, he’s always perfection but in a suit with those green eyes, he’s like per-fec-tion.
I really am the luckiest girl on the planet.
“There will be none of that,” dad says from somewhere in the room. I have to tear my eyes away from Noah as honesty, I hadn’t even realized dad was here, but when I finally take him in, I have to roll my eyes at the way he’s standing with his rifle carelessly thrown over his shoulder.
“Really, daddy? The gun?”
Dad shrugs his shoulders shamelessly. “What can I say? The kid isn’t scared of anything. He needs a little something to remind him to keep his paws off my girl.”
I raise a brow. “Would it make you feel better if you chaperoned our night? Stood next to us with a ruler while we danced to make sure he doesn’t get too close.”
Dad opens his mouth to say something, but it’s Noah’s voice that cuts through the room. “Dancing? No one said anything about dancing.”
Dad gapes at him as though he’s some sort of stranger strutting around his house in the nude. “Have you got your head screwed on, kid? A girl as beautiful as that asks you to dance and you’re going to say no? You’ve got your wires crossed. Beats me how you ever scored yourself a girl in the first place.”
A laugh bubbles out of me as I look at my stunned boyfriend. “Did the big, bad Noah Cage just get shut down by his girlfriend’s daddy?”
“No,” he fires back. “I’m just trying to work out what the fuck to say that won’t offend or piss him off.”
I shake my head. I can only imagine what kind of comeback he would have said and I’m sure as hell it would have been something about not needing to dance with chicks to score because he’s got other ‘tools’ that he’d happily put to good use.
“Right, in that case, we should get the hell out of here before dad shoots you in the ass. I mean, there’s only so many times he’ll threaten to do it before he just gives in and pulls the trigger.”
Dad grins wide. “My baby knows me well.” He drops the gun, which I’m pretty damn sure isn’t loaded, down on the couch before striding towards me and taking me by the shoulders. “You look stunning, Squish,” he
murmurs, holding me at arm’s length so he can take it all in. “Have a wonderful night and call me if you need. I don’t care what time of the night it is, I’ll be there if you’re in trouble.”
“It’s school prom,” I remind him. “Somehow I think I’m going to be absolutely fine.”
“You never know with this stuff,” he warns. “Now, get on out of here before I start blubbering about how grown-up you’ve become and you give me another heart attack.”
“Oh, geez,” I laugh, looking over at Noah. “We better scram.”
“Alright, Spitfire.”
Noah comes and takes my hand and before I know it, he’s leading me out to his Camaro. He even goes as far to open the door for me and the second I get a glimpse into his car I notice the corsage sitting on the passenger’s seat. “What the hell is that?” I question, looking at the thing in horror.
Noah rolls his eyes. “Mom insisted I get you one as it was the ‘gentlemanly thing to do,’ but I had a feeling you’d rather go without.”
“You’d be right about that,” I laugh. I couldn’t think of anything worse than having something like that attached to me all night, though I definitely appreciate the effort. I have to admit, he certainly is a gentleman when he wants to be.
We pull up at the venue fifteen minutes later and it’s absolutely nuts. Tully texted me a few minutes ago letting me know that she and Spencer had arrived and was wondering how much longer we’d be.
I have to say, I wasn’t surprised when Spencer asked her to prom. I could see it coming a mile away; though I was surprised when she said yes. For the past two weeks since Rivers left, she’s been constantly saying that she didn’t want to go as she had always pictured this moment with Rivers by her side, but I guess one day she’s going to have to move past that and learn that she can’t stop living her life because things are changing.
Either way, I’m so damn happy that she’s here. It simply wouldn’t be the same without her.
Undeniable: Haven Falls (Book 5) Page 17
