Our Secret [Completed]

Chapter 17

Noah was sat on the edge of the bathtub and I knelt in front of him with a wet flannel and a dry towel resting on my legs. The blood that trickled down his face had now dried onto his skin that would have otherwise been perfect. As I touched the flannel to his face he winced but still allowed me to continue.

A wave of deja-vu flooded over me as I remembered being back at the McKenzie house when Noah banged his toe and it started gushing out blood.

"I've missed you..." Noah spoke softly and leaned in towards my lips.

I held my hand out and pushed it against his chest, "what are you doing here, Noah?"

I walked out of the bathroom to the living room and sat down on the couch. Noah followed behind and took a seat on the opposite end.

He sat with his elbows resting on his knees and his hands intertwined staring at the blank wall in front of him. "The ten months without you have been torture. I know you said it was over but it's not. It's never over between us, we always find our way back to each other one way or another." Noah turned to me, "what's the point in us staying away for each other, huh? Being away from you causes me more pain than you will ever know. It's taken me a while to find the right words...and I still don't know if I've found them but..."

"Stop. Just stop," I felt my eyes welling up, but I held back the tears. I've cried enough over these torturous 10 months, I don't need to show the weakness I've tried so hard to bury. "I can't listen to this again..."

His eyes connected with mine and the pleading look radiating from him made my heart feel heavy in my chest.

"Just once more...that's all I'm asking. Just listen once more," he pleaded. I didn't answer but he continued anyway.

"I came here because it's your 26th birthday and two years ago today all of this started. My journey to falling in love with you-even if I didn't know it at the time- this started two years ago when Brooke came to me with a sketchy plan and blackmail. I'm here because I don't want that to be all our love story is a forbidden romance over a year that ended because of stupid pride and guilt. And I'm here because I think I have a plan where we can have our happy ending..." I had refused to look at Noah at first but the last part caught me off guard.

"How?" I asked. "Happy endings don't happen in reality, you know that. You are trying to fight a battle we will always lose...it's easier if we just try to move on."

"No. I refuse to believe that's what you want." Noah scooted closer to me on the couch.

"It's not what I want. It's what I need...it's what we need." I sighed and spoke calmly, "those two days that we were together were amazing but your sister was shot again and it's our fault."

"What are you talking about? She wasn't shot again why did you think tha- fuck...it's my fault! I never cleared anything up after you ended things." He took in a deep breath. "Someone shot at our family home- into Kelly's room. We were lucky that she had snuck downstairs and slept on the couch with Mason. She wasn't anywhere near her room and as for the blood on that letter you showed me, I have no clue where that came from but she's okay. I don't think Brooke wants to injure anyone, she's just hurting at the moment."

"How can you defend her?" I shook my head in disbelief and looked away from him.

"I'm not defending her."

"Yes, you are."

"I think she might be unwell, Sophia."

"Unwell? How?" I said.

"When we were together I knew she suffered with depression, every morning she took prescription drugs but now I think its a hell of a lot worse. She may be a bitch but she'd never try to kill anyone...you know what...can we talk about something else?"