Noah & Josh

i find out about the truth

Josh's POV

I was not very happy about waking up early on a Saturday, but as agreed it was 9:00 and I was already in front of Noah's house. After everything that happened between us, it's strange coming to his house. I ring the doorbell and Noah's mom opens the door.

"Hi Josh, Noah is in his room. You can go upstairs, it's the first door on the left."

I walk up the stairs and knock on the door to Noah's room. I hear his voice telling me to come in.

"I never thought you would come. You can sit anywhere you want, be my guest. Did you bring your notebooks?"

"uhhh, no"

Noah starts laughing "of course not. No problem, I'll get you one but next time don't forget yours"

"Why are you helping me?" by Noah's reaction I could tell he wasn't expecting such a question

"Because Director Smith told me to" he answers me looking at the notebooks

"It doesn't mean you had to. Especially after what I did to you."

"can we just start studying?"

"sure" I can't expect him to open up to me right away so I let i go.

Noah's POV

Halfway through the study Josh says he has to go to the bathroom and when he gets up his shirt goes up a little and I see a huge bruise.

When he returned to the room I asked him "what happened there?" pointing to where I had seen the bruise.

"What?"

I approach him and without him expecting it I lift up his shirt and point to the bruise "THIS"

"What do you think you are doing?" He pushes me away and pulls his shirt down into place

"Who has been doing that to you?"

"No one. Plus, it's none of your business."

"No one? Don't forget I saw how your face looked. In fact, it still is for sure, it's impossible in two days for bruises like that to simply disappear."

"Why are you asking all this questions??"

"Because I care about you dumbass" I finished speaking and realized what I had said.

"I don't need your concern" Josh gets up "I think that's enough studying for today, I'm leaving"

I don't say anything and he leaves.

After he left my mother came into the room. "Did something happen? Josh looked upset when I saw him leave."

I couldn't help myself, I hugged my mother and started crying like a baby.

"Mom I'm worried about him. I think something is going on at his house. He is covered with bruises all over his body."

My mother looked into my eyes, she seemed to want to tell me something

"Noah... I have an idea about what's going on in that house"

I was surprised by what she was telling me and listened carefully to the whole story.

"Josh and his mother suffer from domestic violence. His father is an alcoholic. Over the years I have tried to help but Charlotte always asks me not to report it.

I stayed and talked with my mother a little longer and eventually we went to lunch.

It was Monday and as usual I was waiting for Any to leave for school. When she arrived I updated her on what had happened over the weekend.

"How can you be so damn stupid? After all you've been through, you're still going to help him?"

Any was right, indeed. But after what I saw it was impossible not to worry about him.

"NOAH!" I see Bailey coming towards me "Is it true that you have to tutor Josh?"

"Yeah, it's true. The principal asked me"

"And you said yes after all he's done to you?"

"The fact that I agreed to help him does not mean that I have forgiven him"

A week went by and today was Saturday. Josh was supposed to come to my house at 9 a.m. but it was already 10 a.m. and he still hadn't shown up. After what happened last week, I was already expecting him not to show up. Nevertheless, I had a feeling that there was something going on.

So I decided to go to his house. When I got there, I knocked on the door but no one answered. I could hear noise coming from inside, so someone was home. I kept knocking on the door

"Josh, I know you're in there. Open the door please" I didn't stop knocking until he got fed up and opened the door for me

"What are you doing in here? You can leave I'm not going to study" He was even worse than the first time I came here
He noticed that I was looking at his face and immediately tried to close the door but I stopped him with my foot.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

"I know who has been hitting you" Without me counting, Josh puled me into the house

"My father is coming, go up the stairs and hide in the last door on the right. I'll be right there." I realize that he is genuinely concerned so I do as he says

Josh's POV

My dad doesn't want me to talk to anyone, so if he saw Noah outside it would be bad. So when I saw his car in the distance I immediately pulled Noah inside and had him hide in my room. When I saw him come in I realized immediately that he was already drunk.

"Give me a beer, you piece of shit" I do as he says and go get the beer.

I stand in the middle of the room and he looks at me."What are you still doing here? Get out of my way!" He throws the TV remote and hits me in the arm "GET OUT OF HERE"

I get out of there quickly and go to my room. I find Noah looking through my childhood pictures.

"What are you doing?" I take the album from his hand.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to pry. Are you ok? I heard him screaming."

"You had no business coming here. If I didn't show up, it's because I didn't want to be with you"

"You didn't want to go or your father won't let you leave the house?"

"Stay out of my personal affairs"

"You really are an idiot...don't you understand that if you don't let anyone help you, you are going to live like this forever"

"No one can help me right now" Noah approaches me reluctantly.

"please let me help you"