Keeping His Secret

Broken Trust.

The sun opened up like a flower bud blooming in the spring. It brought the promise of a new day and there wasn't a day as sweet as this one, waking up in the middle of nature lying under Noah's arms. I poked his face gently and he twitched his nose but when I poked him for a second time he smiled sweetly.

"We are naked in the park." I whispered. He wrapped his arm around me tighter but kept his eyes closed.

"The human anatomy is educational." He muttered sleepily.

"Do you have any regrets?" I asked, not wanting to hear his answer. My heart pounded inside of my chest and automatically I crossed my fingers under the blanket of his hoodie.

"No, do you?" He opened his eyes wide and looked a little startled. I reassured him with a smile.

"No." I admitted. I picked up his hoodie and put it on, rising the cuffs to my nose and inhaling his heavenly scent of peppermint and vanilla. It reminded me of what Emily said his parents smelt like and I wondered if he only used that scent to try and feel closer to them.

"Oh, we're dressing now." He said disappointingly, he pulled on his T-shirt and jeans.

His phone vibrated in the pocket of his hoodie and I pulled it out and glanced at the screen. My heart stopped beating and my stomach fell nauseous. I would recognize that number anywhere.

"Noah?" He looked up with one leg in his jeans and the other one out. I held the phone out to face him. "Why is my dad calling your phone?" He dropped his jeans and his jaw fell open. He tried to walk towards me but tripped a little on the denim that hung around his ankles. I stood up, confused about everything. I could feel tears gathering behind my eyes, I didn't understand this and Noah was making no efforts to explain.

"Answer me!" I shouted.

"Mia..." he just stood staring at me and I threw the phone down onto the floor, slipped on my panties and shoes, gathered up the rest of my clothes and ran.

"Shit." I heard him curse behind me but I didn't stop or look back, I just kept running.

My dad was so controlling, did he send Noah here just so that he could have updates on every detail of my life? Was any of it real? My brain hurt and my eyes stung. I needed to scream at the top of my lungs.

"Mia, hold on!" Noah called after me but I kept running. "Mia" he grabbed me, halting my footsteps.

"Was any of it real?" I shrieked, he coiled up inside himself, removing his eyes from mine. "So all of that last night, taking me here... it was just to get into my pants?" I pulled away from him harshly and took a few steps back. I wanted his hands off me, I wanted him away from me.

"Fuck, I'm so stupid! I bet you take all the girls there." I exclaimed.

"Mia please listen, let me explain." He started, I could feel a whole dam gathering behind my eyes and if I let one tear fall then there would be no going back.

No wonder I was the only one he spoke to out of the whole school. My dad must've paid him to befriend me. I'm so dumb!

"You said he went with a sixteen year old, the age of consent here is eighteen. What he did was illegal and wrong." I closed my eyes and almost instantly I felt the warmth of my salty tear roll down my cheek.

"She wasn't taken advantage of Noah, you don't know what she's like. She wanted that as much as him." I was shouting my words aggressively, how could he go behind my back like this?

"She kind of was Mia. She's sixteen and he's way too old for her. He took advantage of her naivety." I pushed him away and he stumbled backwards.

"So what? You reported him? Found the girl and made her come forward? How could you betray me like this?" My tears were rolling fast now and I knew my face would be grossly blotchy. My cry was ugly but my heart was breaking and I didn't know how to keep these emotions from pouring out.

"No, I blackmailed him." He ran his fingers through his hair, tussling it up.

"What?" His confession surprised me, it wasn't what I expected at all. I was getting an emotional migraine and I couldn't understand what he was saying.

"That night in the hotel after you told me about your dad I went through your phone and took his number. I met up with him and told him I knew what he had done and I threatened to expose him if he didn't sign one of his real estates over to me and set me up with ten thousand in cash. Mia I—"

"Stop!" I put my hands over my ears. I couldn't hear this, I didn't want to hear this. He went through my phone. The whole of my chest was constricting around my lungs. I couldn't breathe. I trusted him, I  never spoken about my dad to anyone.

"Mia, You need to understand I did it for Emily. I seen a way out and I took it." He reached out to touch me but I knocked his hand away and backed up.

"You lied to me. You invaded my privacy. You misplaced my trust. I told you about my dad in confidence but you used it against me. I would never do that to you, NEVER. If you care about someone you don't take advantage of them."

I wiped my face dry with the sleeves of his hoodie and took a deep settling breath. My sinuses were clogged with thick mucus caused by the uncontrollable crying and I just needed to get away from him. My whole body hurt physically and my whole heart hurt mentally. I was crumbling into small fragments and seeing his face right now was only making things so much worse.

"Tell Emily I've loved getting to know her these past few weeks and that I'm really going to miss her. Tell her I'm sorry that you and I just couldn't make our friendship work. But I will think of her every time I make cookies in my kitchen or brush my dolls hair and of course every time I watch The Greatest Showman." I sobbed through my words, my whole body wrenching and spluttering in the most unattractive way.

"Mia..." he said sadly.

"Who would have guessed that out of the two of us you would turn out to be the princess. Putting money and estate before your morals, before your friends, before... me."

I wondered if he planned this from the second I told him. If the moment I confided in him a light bulb went off inside his head. He took hold of my hand and invited me back with him, I became swept up in that small gesture that I didn't even think about anything manipulative going on.

Or maybe his plan started before that. He knew I came from a rich family, he saw me at East Side. For the past year he didn't speak to anyone yet he spoke to me instantly. Was I his plan all along? To get close to me and see what he could get from me.

I wiped away the falling tears again. This hurt so much it was soul destroying.

"My dads condos are really nice Noah, you'll be happy there... all alone." I muttered quietly in a barely audible voice.

I walked away, counting the steps that put distance between us, knowing each one was severing the thin threads that connected us to one another. We were too frayed now, there was no going back from this.