Secondhand Embarrassment

bonus: the key to my heart

lennon || noah

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in which noah accidentally gets himself arrested and lennon has to clean up his mess

the clock on lennon's wall reads 8:45 at night when she receives a phone call from the local sheriff's station. she sprints from from her bathroom into the bedroom, her feet still wet. on her study, the phone continues to vibrate until she picks it up.

"hello?" she answers, securing the phone between her ear and shoulder as she finishes drying her hair.

"good evening. this is the local sheriff's station calling," a woman with a sweet but thick southern accent says, her voice latching onto the line.

"excuse me?" lennon responds, not quite sure if she heard her right. "did you just say the sheriff's station?"

"yes m'am."

before lennon says anything else, she resorts to digging her mind for misplaced speeding tickets, traffic camera incidences, basically anything that could've prompted such a call. when she comes up with nothing, she anxiously tells the woman, "i think you have the wrong number."

a question mark somehow weaves its way in there.

"this is the number he gave me," she replies. "we're calling about an incident regarding noah lyons. you're his girlfriend, right?"

"yes, i'm his girlfriend. what happened? what did noah do?" lennon clutches the edge of her work desk and leans forward, wondering the hell he could've gotten himself into this time.

"he's been charged with breaking and entering earlier today. the judge has already posted bail, so you can come pick him up whenever."

"i'll be there as soon as i can. it'll probably be fifteen minutes."

after the call ends, lennon races back into the bathroom and hangs up her towel. she runs a brush sloppily through her tangled brown hair, slips a jacket over her t-shirt, and grabs her bag from the hook in her closet. in a way, she feels like she's racing against the clock --similar to one of those tv shows where contestants race to checkpoints.

the elevator in her apartment always takes ten minutes to travel between floors and pick up passengers, so she opts for the abandoned staircase in the back. even though she's descending the stairs, she greatly regrets picking an apartment on the fifth level in that moment. she fishes her keys out from the front compartment as she makes her way to her car. she's parked on the far side of the parking lot.

she manages to hit every red light possible on the way to the sheriff's station, all odds against her. but maybe it's better that way because her foot is trembling against the gas pedal, the vibrations shaking the car. on top of her frantic demeanor, the road she's traveling on is also bumpy, littered with potholes.

the hands on the clock read 9:14 when she pulls up in front of the sheriff's station, parking in between two undercover police cars. a bell chimes as she pulls the door open and lets herself in. there are only a couple people manning the station at this time of night.

a woman with dark auburn hair sits behind the front desk, probably the woman lennon spoke to only minutes ago. lennon starts to walk up to the front desk, but the woman barely notices her over the episode of the flash playing on her laptop screen. it's only when lennon clears her throats the she looks up and pauses the video.

"who are you here for?" the woman characterized by her red hair asks. the thick southern accent lingering in the air confirms lennon's suspicions.

"i-i'm here for noah lyons."

she nods slowly, pulling a pair of keys out of her drawer. "very well. follow me now, dear."

she leads lennon past the double doors to the back of the station where the air is cooler and the walls are whiter. they pass a couple of police officers coming back from their shifts, sharing stories over a couple of boxes of chinese takeout. the officers greet them with curt nods as they pass through. after a couple more turns down narrow hallways, they reach the cells that hold arrests or overnighters.

"i thought you were going to leave me here to rot and die." noah lets out a sigh of relief when he sees lennon coming through the doors. he stands up from the bench and wraps both of his hands around the metal bars.

"now isn't the time to be melodramatic, noah," lennon says under her breath as the red haired woman unlocks the jail cell.

"you're free to go, mr. lyons. you'll receive some information about court in the following days."

lennon thanks the woman on her way out of the station, offering a small smile to show her gratitude. noah does the same, trailing behind lennon until they reach her car. he walks around to the passenger and climbs into the vehicle, slumping into his seat.

the engine of lennon's car roars to life and they both sit there in silence for a couple of beats before she asks, "do i even want to know what happened? or is telling me going to hurt you at your trial."

noah laughs. "it's actually kind of a funny story, lennon. i mean, except for the part where i have to get a lawyer and deal with court. but it's not every day you get charged with breaking into your own house."

"you forgot your key again?" she glances at him at the next stoplight, but all she sees is a silhouette. "what happened to the spare key?"

noah bites down on his bottom lip and sucks a deep breath through his teeth. "i forgot to put it back under the mat."

"noah lyons, what am i supposed to do with you?"

"you're supposed to write me love letters if i go to jail," he tells her once they arrive in front of his apartment building with a boyish grin on his face.

unlike lennon's apartment complex, the elevator in noah's is completely functional. they both hop off the elevator when it stops on the third floor, walking to the end of the hallway to the door with a mat outside.

noah fishes for his keys in his pocket and lets them both in. lennon sits down on his couch while noah runs off to his bedroom, telling her he'll be right back.

when he comes back, he sits right next to her on the couch. his knees lightly brush against hers as he scoots closer. out of nowhere, he places a cold object in the palm of her hand.

"what is this?" lennon asks, glancing down at her hand to see a silver key marked with her initials.

"i think this is safer with you."

"why?"

"we've been seeing each other for a while now, lennon," he says. "i've been thinking it's time that i give you a key to my place."

"is this your way of telling me i leave too many things at your place?"

"it's my way of telling you that you'll be the first person i call the next time i forget my keys."

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that officially wraps up secondhand embarrassment! i hope you all join me for my next story, the king effect. there are already ten chapters up!

also remember to follow me for updates on my next short story, [i wrote this] for you. it'll be posted in approximately three weeks.

lastly, thank you so much for experiencing lennon and noah's adventure with me. (: