Not completely edited. *

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Although Paige and Callum met with each other more than Noah and I did, they only got as much as the project done as Noah and I did.

And Noah and I did absolutely no work on our project yet.

“Please tell me you’re joking,” Paige responded. “Te odio.”

“Oh, sweetheart, I’m not joking,” Callum mocked. “I love burgers. We should learn how to make burgers and give it to the class. For sure they’d pay attention to us.”

“We aren’t making burgers.”

Callum smirked, obviously trying to get under Paige’s skin. “Why not?”

“What do you find so funny about me being a vegetarian?”

“I think it’s funny how a woman as aggressive as you can’t hurt an animal. Why can’t you be that nice to human beings?”

As the two continued to bicker, I sighed and nibbled on a cookie. The Pit was surprisingly empty for a Friday night. It was the perfect ambiance to work on our project. However, that was hard to do when you needed your partner around, but he didn’t show up.

I wasn’t all that surprised when Noah didn’t show up with Callum. After what happened in Nick’s bedroom, Noah has been avoiding me like I carried the Bubonic Plague.

“I can’t believe he constantly leaves you hanging,” Leon said, shaking his head.

“I’m starting to get used to it,” I admitted, setting my cookie down on my plate. “I don’t know how I’m going to do this project. I cannot fail Lauren’s class.”

“Why don’t you tell Lauren?”

“Because she’s going to think I’m not trying hard enough and she said that we either work with our partners or fail her class.”

Leon’s lips twisted as he thought. “What if you just make up stuff about him?”

I shook my head. “That isn’t going to work out. Our essays won’t match and we have to learn something the other person enjoys. What if I say that he enjoys baking but he can’t even crack an egg properly?”

“That sucks. I’m sorry you’re stuck with him.”

“Gosh, please don’t remind me that I have no choice but to be around him,” I scoffed. “I swear God’s punishing me by making him my employer’s son.”

“Did he do anything to you?” Leon asked in alert.

Ever since our freshman year, Leon has been like an older brother to me. When I had to interview one of the new football players for my Journalism class, I was assigned to Leon Palmer. Leon became me and Paige’s best friend after we played a game of risky dares and found out that we were an amazing trio of friends.

Although most people would think that having an overprotective friend would be annoying, I loved how Leon was overprotective over Paige and I. However, he wasn’t the hovering type. He was like a brother to us and he has done so much for the both of us.

“No,” I replied with a roll of my eyes. “He’s not dangerous. He just has the worst attitude in the history of worst attitudes. His sister is the tinier female version of him. You’re lucky she likes you because she would give you hell if she didn’t.”

“If you don’t like your job, Ems, you shouldn’t work there,” Leon reasoned. “You shouldn’t drag your life down like that.”

“I can’t. I need to help Evan,” I said, biting my bottom lip.

“What if I split my paycheck with you?” Leon asked.

Here was a prime example of what Leon does for Paige and I. He does too much that I feel like a crappy best friend around him because I haven’t done as much as he did.

Leon works at the local ice cream parlor. He makes a decent amount of money and helps his mother pay for his little brother’s tuition for a Fine Arts school. There was no way I was going to let him split his paycheck with me.

I shook my head quickly. “No, Leon. Absolutely not.”

“Why?” Leon shrugged like it was no big deal. “If I split my paycheck with you, I’d still have enough money to pay half of my brother’s tuition and be able to buy me two fresh kicks every payday.”

“No, Leon. That’s too much. I need to do my own thing. We’re always going to be around people we can’t stand anyways. Noah’s just one person.”

Leon snorted. “Yeah and he’s a major asshole who thinks the world revolves around him and brings people down with him over his own consequences. I think he deserves what’s happening to him.”

“Palmer!” Callum interrupted with a clipped tone. He glared at Leon, but tried to hide it with the lethal smirk on his face.  “If you’re going to talk about my best friend like that, I suggest you don’t do it when you’re sitting next to me.”

“I can say whatever the hell I want, Campbell. Have you ever heard of ‘freedom of speech’?” Leon retorted.

“Of course I’ve heard it. I’m the top seventh student in our graduating class after all. Aren’t you number fifty something?”

Callum Campbell was one of those students you’d least expect to have brains. Despite his arrogance, popularity, and athletic title, Callum held a high ranking spot in our graduating class. His intelligence shocked many people. It was as if a computer database was stored in his brain.

“Wow, Campbell, your rank is threatening,” Leon responded, sarcasm lacing his tone.

“Palmer, you don’t know Noah,” Callum said enigmatically. “So fuck yours and everyone else’s judgment towards the poor guy. He’s been through a lot of crap and he doesn’t need this bullshit.”

“Noah’s an ass to everyone. Why can’t he taste his own medicine?”

“He’s only an ass because society made him that way,” Callum defended with finality.

Our table was quiet after Callum’s last statement. Paige glanced at me before writing something in her notepad. I cleared my throat, searching for a distraction from this awkward situation. Leon shook his head while Callum grabbed a cookie and devoured it as if nothing happened.

My phone rang, slicing the tense silence like a knife. I rummaged through my purse, thankful for a distraction. However, when I saw the contact number on the screen of my cell, I wanted to flush it down the toilet and never see it again.

“Well? Are you going to answer it?” Callum asked when I simply stared at my phone like it came from an alien nation.

After a couple more seconds, I finally decided to answer the call.  

“Hello?” I asked in what I hoped was a strong voice.

“Pick me up,” Noah grumbled in a husky voice. “The corner of Westbrook and Greensboro.”

“Excuse me?” I scoffed, my eyebrows hitched upwards although he couldn’t see me. “Why can’t Callum pick you up?”

Callum’s eyes snapped towards mine at the mention of his name. He seemed to know exactly who I was talking to.

Callum answered, “Well, I made another bet with Paigey wagey and I can’t leave until our essay is done.”

“Because your infuriating best friend has Callum on a freaking leash,” Noah said from the other end. I rolled my eyes. “Hurry up. Just get over here.”

“What happened to your car?” I snapped.

“You don’t need to know.”

“Well, I feel like it’s my business because I’m picking you up with my car.”

“Just get your ass over here and stop asking so many questions.”

“No,” I snapped. “You leave me hanging, I’ll leave you hanging. Have fun walking home.”

Noah groaned. “Do you want the project done or not?”

I snorted. “You almost had me laughing there, Noah. That’s a really funny joke considering you haven’t showed up to our project meetings when I asked you to do so. Tell me why I should believe whatever you’re saying now.”

“Just come pick me up,” Noah said, but I didn’t miss the groan that came after. “The corner of Westbrook and Greensboro.”

Noah hung up and the sound of the dial tone rang in my ears. I shouldn’t be doing him favors or even having the mere thought of helping him out, especially after the way he talked to me. However, I didn’t miss the way his groan sounded like he was in pain.

I was really contemplating whether or not I should pick up Noah. What if he was severely hurt? What if he needed medical attention? What if whatever happened to him was fatal? What if he were in trouble? What if he were in danger?

I knew I had to pick him up when I realized I couldn’t forgive myself if something really bad happened to him when I could’ve helped him.

“I have to go,” I sighed, sliding out of the booth and stuffing my belongings into my purse.

“Where are you going?” Leon asked with a slight frown.

“Is everything all right?” Paige asked in alert, her eyes bulging out of their sockets.

“Yeah, I just have to pick up Noah. I think he’s in trouble,” I replied.

“What?” Leon asked in disbelief. “You’re helping out that bastard after everything he’s done to you?”

“Believe it or not, yes I am, Leon.”

“You are loco,” Paige cried, shaking her head. “You need to stop, Ems. He’s clearly taking advantage of you.”

“Is he okay?” Callum asked in concern, grabbing his keys from the table. “Maybe I’ll just go and pick him up.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s okay. I’ve got this. Go ahead. You and Paige are almost done. I’ll just call you after I find him.”

“No, I could – “ He insisted.

“It’s fine. He asked me to pick him up. I promise I’ll take good care of him,” I assured Callum who was clearly freaking out over the safety of his best friend.

“Thanks, Emma. Don’t get the wrong idea. You may think Noah hates you, but he really doesn’t,” Callum informed me. His announcement caused my eyebrows to hitch upwards in surprise. “Ever since Nick died, he’s been having trust issues. You’ll find out someday. Just … not today.”

After I bid my goodbyes to my two reluctant and skeptical best friends and a thankful Callum, I left The Pit and drove my black Nissan to where Noah instructed me to meet him.

I found Noah sitting on an iron bench underneath the streetlight. The maroon hood on his jacket was up, obscuring his face from my view. He plopped down in the passenger seat of my car, not sparing me a glance, and kept his head hung low.

“Noah?” I asked cautiously after a few minutes of silence went by.

“Yeah?” He responded without a fight.

“Are you okay?”

Noah didn’t say anything. I took his silence as a cue that he didn’t want to talk about it and he was just going to ignore me like he usually did. However, before I could put my car on drive and drop him home as quickly as possible, he muttered a single word that took me by surprise.

“No.”

It wasn’t everyday that Noah responded to me without malice. Hell, I think this was the first time that we weren’t arguing when we were in the presence of the other. This was also the first time he was being honest with me.

I didn’t know what made me want to comfort him and take all the pain away from him. It was either the exhausted way he answered my questions, the mere fact that he openly admitted that he wasn’t okay, or the nasty bruise forming on his cheek and the blood dripping from his nose that was revealed to me when I mustered up the courage to remove his hood.

Noah didn’t look at me. Instead, he looked down at his lap with his eyebrows knitted together. He didn’t say a single thing, but flinched when my fingers lightly traced the bruise on his cheek.

Without asking him the millions of questions that I desperately wanted to ask, I tended to him. I handed him tissues for his bloody nose. His jacket and shirt were drenched in alcohol so I handed him one of Evan’s old shirts from the extras he kept in here when he used to own this car. I looked away when Noah changed his tops, flushing in embarrassment that I almost saw him shirtless.

 Knowing he didn’t want to converse about what happened with me, I started the car and headed towards his house.

“These two idiots threw their beer at me and decided to jump me because I was a murderer,” Noah finally said when I drove onto the main road, but I could hear the rigidness in his tone. He obviously didn’t want to talk about it, but felt like he owed it to me.  

I shook my head and kept my eyes trained on the road. “You don’t have to tell me.”

The rest of the car ride was silent.