Westminster Academy (Part One)

forty-two

"Henry's here."

I stopped walking abruptly.

Wait. Wait, wait, wait.

"What?" I turned to Noah.

He shrugged. "He's back two days early, his last interview was canceled."

I was so frozen that I couldn't even blink.

"Please tell me you're joking." My voice sounded hollow, not like it belonged to me.

"Nope, not joking." Noah frowned. His eyes wandered over my face, scanning my every move. Noah had a special way of looking at people. It seemed like nothing could ever escape his attention, and right now it made me anxious.

"I get that you're surprised, but there's no need to be...traumatised."

Oh, there's every need.

The realisation finally sunk in and a cold wave of panic shot through me.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Henry was here somewhere. And I had just come out of the worst lesson ever, with fresh cane marks on my skin, and my eyes were red and swollen. There was no way I would be able to hide this from him.

"Azalea?" Noah's voice barely reached my ears. "Are you okay?"

I forced my focus back on him. "Listen, Noah, I can't see him now."

He looked completely confused. "I have no idea what you're talking about. What happened?"

"I can't explain it to you, I just..." I hid my face in my hands as the desperation crawled into me. "I can't talk to him right now."

I flinched when he put a hand on my back, but when I realised he just wanted to calm me down, rather than push me forward, I relaxed. Noah hadn't touched me once over the last few days, and I appreciated how respectful he had been.

"Hey" he said, gently. "You're okay. Whatever happened, you'll just explain it to him and he'll know how to deal with it."

I took my hands off my face and looked him in the eye. "You don't understand, it's...complicated."

Noah's eyes were full of concern, but he seemed to run out of patience. "You're right, I don't understand and it's none of my business. All I know is that Henry came back, asked where you are, and when I sent him to your room he didn't find you there."

I immediately felt guilty just for imagining Henry finding an empty room when he had just wanted to kiss me and tell me about his interviews.

"I'm sorry..." I murmured.

"I don't know where you've been while I thought you were in your room, like you said" Noah went on, unimpressed. "But Henry came back, told me that he can't find his girl, and believe me, he wasn't amused. So now he's still here somewhere, looking for you, and I'm not going to be your therapist while he's worried that something might have happened to you."

He's right.

I swallowed nervously, the red lines on my skin were still burning. I didn't know what to say. I just couldn't think of a way out of this, no excuse would work.

"Come on, little girl. I'll take you to him." Noah said, a bit more gentle.

I could see in his eyes that he felt for me, and he didn't seem triumphant for knowing that I was provably in a lot of trouble. He was my friend, after all, and he was intelligent enough to know that this was serious. But his loyalty was with Henry, and I didn't blame him.