Noah (5 page)

I watched her kiss him on the cheek and walk back toward me. “We need to go to the main house and help out. I covered for our asshole cousins this time.”

“I was thinkin’ he was going to bend you over his knee and whip your ass.”

She rolled her eyes and giggled. “Fat chance. He’s never beat me before. I’m his princess.”

I put my arm around her. “You really take advantage of that, Bells. It’s kind of pathetic.”

“Hater!”

“He won’t be walkin’ away smilin’ when you tell him you’re movin’ to Kentucky.”

She stopped walking and looked down at the ground. Instantly her mood had changed. “I know.”

“We should tell them our plans together. I know you’re goin’ to say it’s a bad idea, but I think if we’re all together as a family it would be safer, for at least a little while.”

“Hell no! I’m not makin’ a family announcement like that. You’re crazy.”

“Fine, I’ll tell them first and then I’ll add your news.”

“Don’t!”

“We’ll be fine. Trust me.”

I could tell from the look on her face that trusting me was going to be impossible. Maybe it was the marijuana making me feel brave, or maybe it was just having her by my side to do it. Whatever it was, I was determined that I wasn’t going to keep her promise and wait until the party was over. My dad needed to know that I wanted something more with my life. He needed to understand that I was serious this time. I wasn’t going to live this way anymore.

                
Noah

Chaos.

That’s what happened
when the family got everyone together in one place. Although the kids were now at least teens, it was still loud and unpredictable. While everyone waited for my mom and dad to show up at my grandmother’s house, I silently thought about how I was going to approach my dad. This was a long time coming and I was positive that if I did it while everyone was around, I’d at least have a few people on my side, supporting my decision.

Bells was going to be pissed.

The room became silent when my aunt Amy announced that they’d pulled up. Everyone hid in the kitchen and waited for them to appear. Slowly but surely, they walked in, talking to each other the whole time, having no clue that this was actually a surprise for them. Since their anniversary wasn’t anywhere near this particular date, they had no inkling.

My dad approached me first. He put his hand on my shoulder and pulled me in for a hug. “This was real nice, Noah. I know you had to help with it.”

I nodded as he pulled away. “It was nothin’. I just did what everyone told me.”

“Well I appreciate it and everything you do, for that matter.” Great, he was making me feel guilty already.

I clenched my jaw and said nothing as he walked away. Of all the times for him to thank me it had to be when I was preparing to tell him that I didn’t want this life anymore. I just couldn’t bring myself to understand why I was feeling so guilty.

It took a while for my mother to make her way over to where I was standing. She’d been thanking everyone and chatting, while making eye contact with me
the whole time. It was weird of her to be so attentive toward me, especially since the whole family was around.

Don’t get me wrong, she was a great mother, the best I could have ever asked for. I knew she didn’t give birth to me, but that meant nothing, not after everything we’d been through.

After the accident and hospital stay, which I don’t really remember, the police took me to this building where a woman from Social Services came and sat with me. I was  scared and cried for my birth mother, Krista, over and over again. I was almost four and didn’t understand that my birth mother wasn’t coming back. I was too young to perceive the concept of death.

All they could tell me was that my mother was in a better place.

There were days when I wished that I couldn’t remember; times in my life that I wished I’d forgotten forever. That was definitely one of those times.

I owed Savanna my life, and although I was very young, I remember the day that I met her for the first time, when Social Services brought me to the door of my dad’s house. It wasn’t his fault that he never knew about me, and I’m sure the adjustment was hard on both of them, my mom especially. She’d been through a terrible ordeal after being abducted, and losing a baby. Yet she still welcomed me with open arms. When I was younger she used to tell me I saved her too. I’ll never forget that, or her smile on that first day.

Even though most of it was a blur, meeting my dad and his wife were vivid. I remembered the way her eyes narrowed in on me when I came into her view. I could still recall the way she bent down to be on my level and spoke to me with her angelic voice, giving me so much hope when I felt completely alone and afraid.

We’d had our share of disagreements, but at the end of the day I knew she was meant to raise me and be my mother. It was hard to explain, maybe because I’d been so young. I didn’t have memories of my birth mother, so I had
nothing to compare Savanna to. All I knew was that she’d been there for me, and I loved her more than I would ever be able to express. I was blood to her, the same as both of my sisters. She never treated me like I didn’t belong to her.

Her arms wrapped around me and her words vibrated against my cheek. “I can’t believe you kept this from us.”

I pulled away and smiled. “You made it hard at times, Mom.”

“I had no idea. This was a complete surprise.” We both looked around the room at how many of their friends and family had shown up to celebrate their big milestone. “It still feels like I just met your father. I can’t believe it’s been twenty years.” She looked directly at me. “It’s still hard to accept that you’re a grown man. I still remember when you were that little boy with his father’s eyes.”

“I was just thinkin’ about that, and about the impact that you’ve had on my life.” For some reason just standing there with my mother reminiscing was getting to me. “I’m real glad I’ve got you in my life, Mom. Thanks for puttin’ up with Dad for so long.”

We both laughed.

“He’s not hard to deal with.” I looked over at her wondering why she’d take up for him. Then I noticed her winking and giggle. “Okay, maybe he has his moments. He’s still a good man, though. I wouldn’t trade a single day with him, or with you for that matter. We are so blessed. I know you don’t always see eye to eye, but your dad loves you, Noah. He loves all of you kids.”

I looked over at my father, who was laughing about
something with my two uncles, Ty and Conner. He’d always lightened up when they were together it seemed. It also could have been that he just wasn’t on my back about things while they were around.

I turned to give my attention to my mother, who was watching my aunt Miranda approach. She wrapped her arms around me and I leaned down to let her kiss me on the cheek. “I thought boys were supposed to stop growin’ once they reached eighteen.”

Her comment was overused, but I still managed to smile and act like it was some kind of compliment, for my mother’s sake. “It must be from all Mom’s cookin’.”

I caught her smile and winked back at my mother. “If you ladies will excuse me, I need to go talk to Bells.”

I found my cousin sitting on the couch looking down at her phone. She was texting that asshole again, I just knew it. “We’re supposed to be havin’ a good time.”

She looked over at me. “If I’m really goin’ to consider movin’ in here, I need to tell him. He deserves to know that I’m done with him.”

I sat down next to her and looked around the room. My cousins were standing in their regular clicks. Christian was by herself, while Josh, Cammie, Callie, Cassie and my sister Addy were all together. Jake and Jax were approaching my sister and I noticed that they were doing it so she wouldn’t notice them coming. Before I could realize what was about to happen, I watched a cupcake full of icing smashing into my sister’s face. I stood up immediately. “Those little fuckers.”

Bells followed behind me as I started hustling toward them. “Noah, hold up. They’re just playin’ around.”

Jake wasn’t as close as his brother Jax. I was able to grab him by the shirt and pulled him back towards me. “You think you’re funny?”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a white haired lady coming at me. She grabbed my hand and removed it from my younger cousin. “I’ll take care of them, Noah. You go back over there and sit down.”

“Gram, they need to apologize to Christian.” When I pointed to my sister I noticed she was steady wiping the icing off of her face.

Red and blue icing had already smeared all over her light yellow dress. “It’s ruined. They ruined my favorite dress. Assholes!” The look on her face let me know that she wasn’t going to be satisfied with any kind of punishment our sweet grandmother could make. They needed to learn a  lesson and I was going to teach it to them.

I looked right at my sister. “You want me to take care of them, sis?”

She wiped her dress with a napkin, making the stain worse. “Kick their ass, Noah. Brake their damn legs if you want. I hate them so much.”

I kissed my sister on the top of her head. “I got this.”

I grabbed Bells and pulled her out on the front porch of my grandmother’s house. “What now?”

“Your little prick brothers are about to get their asses beat.”

“Seriously, Noah, that ain’t goin’ to stop them. You can’t have a repeat of last time. You promised me.” She may have been right, but I wasn’t about to deal with her arguing with me. I was sick of them bullying my sister. Of all the people in our family, she was the least to deserve their antics.

“They need to learn a lesson. You’re either goin’ to help me, or keep quiet about it. Before you decide you need to know that I can’t promise this will be easy for you to watch.”

She put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow. “Noah, you can’t just stand there and tell me you’re goin’ to hurt my brothers and expect me to be cool with it. They may be little dickheads, but I’m their sister. We’re supposed to be
settin’ a good example.”

“So you’re in?” I taunted her. “Come on, Bells. I need ya.”

A smile formed in the corner of her lips on one side. “Fine. What do you want me to do?”

I chuckled as I explained the plan to her while we drove a golf cart to my place. I needed something from the kitchen drawer and I didn’t want to have to hunt for it at my grandmother’s house.

Bells reconsidered being a part of my plan several times. Finally I had to stop to calm her down. “Jesus, Bells. You were a lot more fun when we were kids. Stop actin’ like a mom. It ain’t like we’re hurtin’ anybody.”

“I know. I still have a bad feelin’ about it, though.”

I look at her the same way I always did. She knew me too well to be able to bullshit her. “Would you chill out? It’s fine.”

Armed with what we needed, we pulled back up at my grandmother’s house and went inside to find everyone lined up for dessert. Very carefully, while Bells went over and distracted them, I pulled out the super-glue and spread it across two forks. I grabbed two more and held them in one hand, while holding the spokes of the other two. One at time I handed them to the boys, who’d forgotten to grab one.

My aunt stood up and started giving a speech to my parents. The best part about it was that everyone stood still while she spoke, giving the glue ample time to dry.

It took a couple seconds after that for them to sit down and notice that the forks had adhered to the skin on their hands. One before the other, they began to yell about their dilemma. I leaned down in between them, catching their attention temporarily. “That’s what you get for fuckin’ with my sister, you little shits.”

“Who you calling little?” Jax asked.

Okay, so they were my size, but I was still stronger.

Bells grabbed me by the arm and walked me out of the room, while her mother walked over to attend to her sons. 

Once outside, we burst into laughter.

A couple things happened a few moments later.

A car pulled up, and out walked Bella’s asshole boyfriend.

My father and uncle Ty came flying out of the front door pissed, with my cousins coming out behind them. Jake had a paper towel in hands that was soaked with blood, while Jax still had the plastic fork attached to his skin.

My father came up and shoved me against the siding on the house. “I would think that after all of the work put into this party for me and your mother, that you would at least have the decency to set a good example for your younger cousins. You need to go home and cool off.”

I could hear a commotion approaching the door near where we stood. My mother appeared, as well as my aunts and my grandmother.

Jake came at me, bloody hands and all. “YOU PIECE OF SHIT! I’VE GOT PRACTICE NEXT WEEK!”

I could tell he was pissed, except it didn’t make me want to care. I’d done something that they’d probably done themselves. So what if his hands were bleeding? They deserved it.

I shoved my cousin away. “Get the fuck off of me.”

Then all hell broke loose.

He came back at me swinging and I took him down easily, but before I could throw one punch I was being grabbed by two different people and pulled off of my cousin.

“Boy, what is wrong with you?” My father had this look on his face that I recognized right away. “I said cool
it.”

I held up my hands. “He deserved it. That’s all I’m sayin’.”

Out of the corner of my eyes I could see my mother covering her face. For the most part our family get-togethers didn’t involve fist fights, however trips to the Emergency Room were common. We’d all rolled around in the dirt before, so it wasn’t like it was a big shocker.