Starting Over Anderson || ✔

Twenty-six: Backstory

I hear voices. Distinct and muffled at first, but as I strain to focus on them, I realize that I can pick them out and put faces behind the voices.

"Save it, Kingsley. I know you're hiding something." It's Chris.

"I'm not. It's the truth, take it or leave it." Noah.

I try opening my eyes to check, but they wouldn't budge. I couldn't even move a muscle. That's it then, I guess I'll have to rely on my ears, for now.

"Fine. Tell me something." Chris. I'm surprised that his tone isn't hostile, only holding curiosity.

I don't hear Noah speak so I assume he's nodding in response.

"I'm sure you've met many other girls out there, but why Jenna?"

My stomach lurches. He's asking about me. I can't wait to hear this.

"I could ask you the same."

"But I asked first."

I picture Noah shrugging, because it's a very Noah thing to do in this scenario. "If you insist."

I'm not entirely sure, but out of a hundred percent, there's a ninety-nine point ninety-nine percent chance that I'm dreaming. Or dead, either way. Because for one, I was shot and fell out of a tree. Secondly, what I'm overhearing is a civil conversation between Noah and Chris, of all people. At least as civil as they can ever be. And they're talking about me.

"She's different," Noah continues in a low voice. "She's like me."

"As in you're also part of the Hood?"

"She told you that?" I imagine Noah frowning in disbelief. Chris probably nods. "Not exactly though. I'm a Kingsley, we're sworn enemies with the Hood. She's like me in terms of what we do for a living. She's special, not like any other girls I've met. And she makes me feel."

If I could move, I'd gush at how romantic Noah sounds.

"Did you know her before coming to Anderson?"

"No, I've only seen pictures of her on the daily 7pm news, offering a hundred thousand cash as a reward in exchange for valuable information on her whereabouts." I smile, or at least I think I did, hearing how I'm worth a hundred thousand. "It's my father's work, of course. He's doing all he can to flush Hood out."

"Why is that?"

"Age-old feud," Noah explains simply.

"I don't see how that makes you feel."

"Don't mock me, Anderson," Noah warns.

"No offense," Chris adds hastily, urging Noah to continue.

"Some taken." I snort. Typical Noah. "As I was saying, I've been seeing a lot of her picture on the 7pm news and she intrigues me. I wondered about the things she could have possibly done to earn my father's wrath. I didn't know, back then, my father's real motive, of course. So I went to the archive to find out more about her. And then when I knew, that she's a Hood, I forced myself to stop thinking about her but -"

"But you couldn't," Chris cuts in. "Yeah, she has that effect on people."

I imagine Noah throwing Chris a dirty look for cutting him short. "Yes , it's this feeling that I can't ever shake off. I'm so desperate to see her in real life, to hold her, to see her smile in flesh. I thought I was going crazy. Reeve told me it's a sign that I've fallen, but I doubted that at first. How can you fall for someone you've never seen them in person? It doesn't help that the video footage I find shows her to be extremely nice and kind even though she's a kind of a thug."