Forever Love (18 page)

She's right, she is never wrong. Whether Noah is my forever love remains to be seen, I can only hope so.

Chapter 20

Noah

I'm ready to blow my own brains out, I've never been so fucking bored in my life. You'd think we were tourists in Europe with the way my Moms carrying on. Hell, we only live four fucking hours away, yet she's had us traipsing round museums all day like we're on a fucking school field trip. She couldn’t drag us to any half decent museums either, no we're not looking at some giant ass dinosaur skeleton or some shit, no we're in a fucking museum dedicated to a damn writer. Yeah, apparently people who don’t have a damn life and spent all their time on a typewriter or quill or whatever the hell they used back then, they're fricking celebrated. I've had to listen to my Mom ooohing and aaahhing for the past half hour. The huge essay I had to write last year took me near on three weeks to do, if anyone deserves a museum for writing, it's me.

To top it all off I haven't heard from Liv since she left to go to the hospital with her Dad, that was hours ago. I thought they were doing a quick in and out and then they'd be back. My Mom hasn’t heard from Phil either so that gives me a little comfort. Actually, she's pretty antsy when she's not entranced by some piece of memorabilia. I've noticed her check her phone throughout the day, much the same as what I've been doing.

Chase is dragging his feet behind me, this is basically his worst nightmare, anywhere that doesn’t have a WiFi connection. His brains are probably fried now, the guy lives and breathes video games. I've never seen the attraction myself, I actually have a life. At this rate my little brothers gonna be one of those forty year old virgins living in their Mothers basement.

We walk down the stairs towards the entrance. Thank fuck its nearly over, that’s two hours I'm never gonna get back. I can almost see the change come over my Mom in front of me when her phone beeps with an incoming call and she walks a little away to answer. Her shoulders relax and a bright smile takes over her face as she talks to who I suspect is Phil on the other end. She's been all nervous all day, maybe she was nervous about Phil being around his ex, they were married for like fifteen years after all. I don’t think id be too jazzed about Liv being around one of her exes. Better put that thought away, don’t wanna be punching holes in the walls of an old country house that's some type of national treasure, I'm pretty sure I could get in some deep shit for that.

"That Phil?" I ask as nonchatenly as I can.

I wanna know why the fuck I havent heard from Liv but I can hardly ask my Mom that, don’t wanna be raising suspicions. Truth be told, I'm sick of hiding this shit now. I don’t see why we need to sneak around, parents be damned. I'm in love with my girl, I plan to spend the rest of my life with her. Some people may say we're too young, that its just a faze, that it’s a case of wanting what you can't have but I don’t give two flying fucks. I know how I feel, I know this is the real deal and instead of panic that I'm gonna be tied down for the rest of life, that I'm only ever gonna be with one woman, I'm excited for the future.

"Yes, he's gonna meet us outside, he should be here in ten minutes. He was at the hotel so it's not far."

"Wait a minute, at the hotel? Why'd they go back there?"

"I don’t know sweetie but Livs not with him. You'll need to ask him when he gets here, he only said he was waiting back at the hotel to see if Liv would show up and that he was going to meet us here."

What the hell? I'm pretty sure I told Liv to text me as soon as she finishes up at the hospital. I pull my phone out of the back pocket of my jeans and scroll down to Livs name. I could call her but I don’t want my Mom hearing or nosy ass Chase. I decide to shoot off a quick text to her.

Where r u?

There and no kiss at the end either. Man, I sound like a complete fucking pussy. I need to pull myself together, this girl is turning me into a damn chick. I stare at the screen on my phone, willing it to beep or chime or something. I stand on the sidewalk in front of this bigass three storey building waiting for that little vibration in my hand to signal she's wrote back. When it does, I jam my fingers into the touch screen, as if that’s gonna make it go any quicker.

At Trina's, Sry 4got 2 call u wen I got out. Come pick me up?

Well now I just feel like a paranoid dick. I dunno what I was worrying about, I guess I've just had a bad feeling all day. Like a pit in my stomach telling me to keep an eye on Liv. I shake my head and let out a small chuckle that I just nearly lost my shit all because she forgot to text me. Fuck knows what I'm gonna do when she's at college, actually we haven't really spoken about her whole college situation. I've already told her about my plans to join the police department, she never really went into what she wanted to do. Fuck knows how I'm gonna handle it if she decides on going to college at the other side of the country or some shit. Id never stop her from following her dream if that’s what she wants to do, I sure wouldn’t like it though. Me and my girl are solid though, doesn’t matter how long we've been together or how long we've known each other, time is just a number.

I ask her to send me Trina's address since I'm not from round these parts and I don’t have a clue where it is. I'm itching to go to her but I don’t feel comfortable leaving my Mom and Chase here alone to wait for Phil. I don’t care that it’s a public place or whatever, this is still a strange city to us and I won't make that dick move. I can't travel with them anyway since we came in my car, I figure Phil'll just take them. I'll just tell him I'm going to pick Liv up, there nothing suspect about that.

Saying I'm not gonna leave my Mom and Chase and actually being ok with it is another deal altogether. After what happened between me and Liv last night, I just wanna get to her and Phil taking his sweet time is not helping me do that. I feel like falling to my knees and thanking the Gods above when his white Rover pulls up to the sidewalk in front of us. Instead of his usual chipper and doofus self, he seems totally stressed. If Livs Mom is even half the dragon I suspect, I don’t blame him. The things I've heard about that bitch make me wanna drop kick her, woman or not. The fact she can do that shit to her own daughter though, well that’s just fucked up. I don’t pretend to understand Livs plight, I have an amazing Mom who worships me and Chase, always has, probably always will. My Dad was the same, so I don’t understand how someone could act like their own kid was some kind of inconvenience to them. I also don’t get how Phil can be blind to that shit, that’s on him. Luckily for him, I see the way he loves Liv, I heard him go on and on about her before she arrived, he was so excited to have his baby girl, as he calls her, living with him again.

"How was the hospital?" My Mom asks, to which Phil gives her a look that just about says it all.

"That bad huh?" She says, rubbing his arm up and down soothingly.

"Bad? Bad doesn’t even cover it. Liv bailed."

"Wait, what do you mean Liv bailed?" I ask, involving myself in the conversation.

She didn’t mention anything to me, though we did only have a short text back and forth.

"Oh yes, I went to ask the nurses about when Dana would be release and whatnot, come back to hear Liv telling her Mother to eat shit and die and then she hightails it out of the room. I must have searched that hospital top to bottom for two hours looking for her until the lady at the main reception mentioned seeing her leave. That girl is gonna find herself grounded for a month, hell for the rest of the year when I see her." He runs his hands through his hair.

I don’t even know what to say, does he know that she's at Trina's? Should I mention it? Somehow I don’t think him grounding Liv is gonna go over too well. I decide to stay quiet about hearing from Liv as my Mom and Chase pile into the car. At least knucklehead doesn’t wanna ride with me,

"Drive safe sweetie, we'll meet you back at the hotel." My Mom shouts before slamming her car door.

Phil gives me a nod seconding that and I am more than happy seeing the back of that car, now I can concentrate getting to my girl and hearing the full story. I take a brisk walk towards the parking lot at the side of the building before climbing into my Mustang. It smells of Liv, nobody else would notice that shit but I'm so used to that sweet scent of hers I would know it anywhere. It definitely calms me smelling her here, in my space. I like the thought of her taking over my things, I wanna be able to smell her everywhere, I wanna see her girly shit in my bathroom and her clothes in my closet. I've definitely gotta work on this whole secrecy thing, I want everyone to know that Liv is mine.

***

I pull up to the light yellow house with the white wraparound porch. It’s a good old southern home that I know Liv loves from the conversations we've had, I can see why. It's definitely got charm with the wind chimes hanging by the front door and the rocking chair sitting on the porch under the window, I walk up to the door and press the bell before turning around to take a look at the street. Its kinda weird being somewhere that I know Liv has spent a lot of time. I know that she spent more time here than at her Moms and she's really close to Trina and her family. Its kinda like me and Brady, his parents are some hot shot business people who travel a lot so Brady spent most of his time at our house. I hear the door unlatch behind me and spin around to come face to face with who I suspect is Trina. Shes got some bigass afro, I have a little hair envy at this chick, its way cool. Her eyebrow is quirked as she looks me from head to toe. I feel a little like a science project with all the deep staring, she's definitely giving me the once over. Looks like she's as protective of Liv as I am.

"So you’re the dumb jock huh?" She says with her Southern twang before giving a nod and turning into the house. "Come on in."

I follow her through the living room which couldn’t be any more different to the outside, all bright throw cushions and modern touches everywhere. The huge ass fireplace keeps some of that homely feeling though, another thing I know Liv loves. I follow her through to the kitchen where I see my girl sitting at the island sipping what I'm sure is coffee, damn girls addicted to the stuff. She looks towards me, a bright smile lighting up her face, making my heart miss a bit. Happens. Every. Fucking. Time.

I notice the red puffiness of her eyes as if she been crying and the smudging of mascara at the corners. I clench my fists to try and keep my temper in check. I have to remember that I'm in somebody else's house and to be respectful but damn if the sight of her like that doesn’t have me wanting to break a few necks. Instead I take a deep breath before heading towards her and taking her face in my hands and kissing the fuck outta her. I take her mouth in a hard lip smashing, teeth clattering, tongue fighting kiss. I pull away, looking deep into her eyes, making sure I don't see any sadness left, rub her cheek with my thumb and step away.

I turn to the rest of the room which consists of Trina and who I'm guessing is her Mom, basically just an image of what I'm sure Trina will look like in twenty years.

"Damn, got me all swooning over that." Trina says, her eyebrows quirked and smirk pulling at the corner of her lips.

"Shut it Trina." My girl comes to my rescue and formally introduces me to Trina and her Mom, Ada.

I put the charm to full effect during the introductions, after all I wanna make a good impression on two people my girl thinks so highly of.

I don’t mention to Liv about the hospital or anything because one, I don’t want her upset and two, I wanna be alone when we talk about what went down. Of course, while I'm willing to be patient and bide my time before questioning Liv, it seems Trina is not.

"So whats the bitch do now?" She asks, folding her arms and tapping her foot.

I look around the room and notice Ada's disappeared, I didn’t see her leave. I stay quiet, just observing the scene in front of me and seeing if I can pick up any pointers from Trina on how to get my hard headed girl to open up. Although what I've heard about Dana Preston is fucked up, I know Livs not been completely open about it and although I promised to give her more time, give her a chance to tell me herself, that times slowly running out. I know she's hiding something, something that hurt her, what it is I don’t know but I need to. I can't help her if I'm in the dark and I plan on being with Liv for the next seventy years at least so I wanna get ahead of this thing now. I already made a vow to make sure her life is nothing but roses with me but you can't fight the dragon if you don’t know who the fuck it is.

"The usual." Liv shrugs.

"You know my Mama would love to go round there and kick her ass, she's been itching for years, just say the word."

"Maybe for my birthday." Liv gives a cheeky smirk that’s hot as hell.

"What is the usual?" I ask, it's not like I'm getting any answers the other way since everyone seems to know more than fucking me.

If I wasn’t so attuned to Liv, if I wasn’t so aware and my attention solely on her, I probably wouldn’t have noticed the subtle hardening of her eyes in Trina's direction. A look that basically screams "Keep your mouth shut." Trina isn't even looking at Liv though, her attention was on me, I'd say she's purposely avoiding Livs eyes.

"You met Dana, Noah?"

I give a shake of my head, seems me and Trina are joining forces against our common enemy, Livs demons.

"Well you don’t wanna, she's a nasty piece of work, pure evil. You wouldn’t believe some of the shit that bitch has pulled over the years, woman should be fucking sterilized, shouldn’t be allowed to have kids."