Love & Carnage✗Noah Foster [2]

Chapter One// "It was a joke."

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"You already know, you are not over me."

--Jake Fitzgerald

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"Noah, Noah--" I giggled. "Don't we have to go soon--" I fumbled for the right words as Noah latched his lips onto my neck again. "Or...we could just blow it off." I whispered, smiling. I sat on top of him, my knees on either side of his legs, straddling him, while he sat on his computer chair. "No, we have to go." Noah pulled his face away from my neck. I stuck my bottom lip out at him. "Emma's back tonight." He reminded me. "I know... but she's back for good, right? Which means... we can see her any other day." I told him, leaning over to kiss his lips. "Can I say something?" Noah whispered against my lips. "Hmm, maybe later." I laughed, pressing my lips harder into his. "Arielle, I'm being serious." He grabbed my shoulders and pushed me away. I huffed and sat back down against him. "Okay, what is it?" I crossed my arms. "I... I think I love you." Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no. I was not ready for this. Totally not ready. He stared at me with his pale-green eyes. "Arielle, will you please say something, because if you don't, I will freak out." I stared back at him. Okay, it's not like I didn't love him... I just wasn't ready for this. I always thought I'd be the one to say it first. Not him. "Uh... we should call Audrey, yeah? Maybe we could carpool with her?" I reached into my cardigan pocket and grabbed my phone. I quickly jumped off of his lap and turned away from him, unlocking my phone. "Arielle, I am so sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfort--"

But I had already pressed Audrey's number. It rang twice before she answered. "Hey, Arielle, are you with Noah? Did either of you just send me some creepy texts?" Audrey answered. "Uh, I wouldn't put it past a creepy girl like me, who has a crazy obsession with Rag-doll kitties, but no. What were they?" I turned back to Noah and saw his sad face and instantly felt terrible. I walked back over to him, and put Audrey on speaker. "Some sleazoid texted me. He was trying to scare me." Audrey's voice seemed to snap Noah out of his little daydream he seemed to be having. "That's weird." I told her. "Hey," Noah grabbed my phone. "We were actually about to head out to Emma's welcome home party, and I figured, maybe we could swing by and we could caravan together." Noah stood up from the chair, and walked over to his closet, opening it. "Sounds like a plan." I heard Audrey's voice. I huffed and sat down in Noah's computer chair. "Is it a bad idea to ask Emma to interview for the podcast tonight? The welcome home party would make the perfect sound bed." I listened as Noah and Audrey spoke, leaving me to my own thoughts. He probably hates me--well, no. He can't hate me if he just admitted out loud that he loves me... God, I'm a douche-bag. I'm a terrible girlfriend. What if he breaks up with me? BECAUSE I'M SUCH A TERRIBLE GIRLFRIEND! I thought. I seriously doubted that. Noah was a lot of things... but he wasn't petty. "--I'm on my way." Noah ended his conversation with Audrey, and I stood up from the chair. He quietly passed me my phone and put his jacket on, nodding at his bedroom door. I sighed and followed him as he exited his bedroom.

"Noah, can we please talk about this?! You ignoring me isn't gonna do a thing!" I rushed after my boyfriend, as he fast-walked towards the movie theater. "Noah!" I called. "I'm wearing heels, I can't keep up with you!" I yelled. "You don't wear heels, Arielle." Noah scoffed, turning his head to glance at me briefly. I stopped in my tracks. I looked down at my feet. I wore a pair of Michael Antonio's. Noah turned back to me fully now. "What?" He said. "Br--Brooke gave them to me." I whispered. "You don't wear heels, Arielle." Noah repeated and turned back around, continuing to the theater. I bit my lower lip to keep from crying. God, I was such a crybaby. Noah wasn't usually mean to me. I heard a loud thud suddenly, and I jumped. "What was that?" I hurried in front of Noah, where I could finally see inside the theater. Audrey was running. And... there was--the killer? I felt my heart pound in my chest. He rushed after her, knife in hand. Behind him was a girl. A girl I recognized. Her name was Haley. She sat dead against the wall. "Audrey!" Noah pounded against the glass door. "HEY, AUDREY!" I joined the screaming. Audrey gasped and looked our way. Ignoring us, she grabbed the fire extinguisher, and pulled the pin at the top of it, discharging it right at the killer. He had the mask... And the outfit... I never wanted to see that mask again. The killer was taken aback and stumbled backwards. "AUDREY!" I screamed at her, grabbing my phone, and dialing 911. "911, what is your emergency?" The friendly lady asked me. "Hi, I need a--I need police, like, right now to Zenith Theater!" I screamed at her. "Can you tell me the nature of your emergency?" She asked. Nature? What the fuck! "Uh-uh, it's--my friend is being attacked! Could you please hurry?!" I hung up fast, and continued to bang on the door with Noah.

Once Audrey had distracted him for a brief second, she took that as an opportunity to smash in the glass that held movie relics in with the extinguisher. She grabbed something that looked like a screwdriver, and turned around and shoved it into the killer's stomach. Noah and I stopped. The killer looked down and seemed surprised. He pulled his mask off, revealing his face. He did not look familiar... He said some words, that from out here, I could not hear. Suddenly, Haley, who was apparently not dead, got up fast and rushed over to them. She was yelling at Audrey, just as her friend dropped to the ground. "What the hell?!" I screamed. Haley hovered over him, just I heard the sirens and the saw the flickering lights from the police cars approaching. I turned my head to look at the cops and then back to Audrey, who stared back at us.

xxx

I had an arm around Audrey as she told the story to the new sheriff. I'd met him when I was working the other day. Maggie had told me that he was an old friend. His name was Miguel Acosta. He had a son that was going to be going to our school. His name was...Steve? Nope, uh...Gerard? Nope, that's not it either. Ugh, whatever. "Is he gonna be okay, though?" Audrey wondered. "Him?" Sheriff Acosta looked at Audrey incredulously. "He's got a small puncture wound. The strappy thing holding his camera deflected the blade just enough. He's gonna be fine. And... you seem fine, too. So, I think we're just about done here." Sheriff Acosta nodded at us, turning to leave, before Haley spoke. "What? She gets a license to kill 'cause she shot Piper? I know you're new here, officer, and from a big city or whatever--"

"Actually, I'm from Lakewood originally." Acosta informed her. I tightened my grip on Audrey, rubbing her shoulder. God, she was probably so afraid right now. Noah had his arm around her also, on her right. "Then you should know, around here, someone gets stabbed, someone gets arrested." Haley said in a hurried voice. "Uh, that's not true." I said, glaring at her. "Plus, you two attacked me." Audrey chimed. "It was a joke!" Haley defended. "Less of a crime, more of a Tosh.0 clip." Noah said. "Right. So, goofball assault," Acosta gestured to Haley and then to Audrey, "versus desperate act of self-defense. Desperate act of self-defense wins. And you were live streaming, so she's got evidence to win a civil suit. My advice... walk away." Acosta whispered the last two words to Haley. Haley crossed her arms, and walked away from us. "I'm sorry for the really rude call I made..." I trailed off. "What?" Acosta laughed. "I'd kind of yelled at her... and I just want her to know I am really sorry for yelling. It was clearly unnecessary." I whispered. "Look, don't even worry about it. You were worried about your friend." He nodded at all of us. "Have a good night, kids." With that, he walked back to the other officers. "Okay, now that that's all done... can we please go now?" I begged them.