Love & Carnage✗Noah Foster [2]

Chapter Eight// M.I.A

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"Chicks before Dicks."

--Audrey Jensen

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"Eli, drive faster!" I told him. I sat up in my seat as he complied. "You realize that there's a speed limit, Arielle!" He rolled his eyes. "Well, we need to hurry!" I whimpered. "Maybe it wasn't the greatest idea to punch a girl in the face." Eli shrugged. "It was totally badass." I whispered to myself. Eli smiled over at me. "Okay, maybe it was."

"Ooh, we're here!" I jumped up in my seat. I opened the car door before Eli had time to stop. "Arielle!" He called. I rolled my eyes, but waited as he parked the car. I got out of the car quickly, shutting the car door behind me. I raced towards the front entrance of the police station. "Arielle, wait!" I turned my head as Eli ran towards me. "What?" I asked. "Y--Didn't Audrey say that Alexis hit you first?"

"She didn't--"

"Yes, I know that, but... she covered for you. You're off the hook, but your face looks pretty normal. Not at all like you were hit." Eli pointed out. I sighed. "Maybe, she kicked me?" I sighed. "Arielle--"

"Well, what do you want me to do? Do you want to hit me in the face?" I raged. "Yeah, uh, that's not going to happen. Maybe... maybe you could, like, hit yourself in the face?" Eli suggested. "Yeah, I'm just gonna wing it." I nodded. "Good. Good idea." Eli whispered. "So... are you coming in?" I asked him. "No, no. I have a history with the police..." Eli trailed off. "History?" I whispered, raising an eyebrow. "Maybe I'll tell you the story next time." Eli slowly moved backwards, smiling at me. "When's next time?!" I called to him. He shrugged. "Whenever you want!" He called back, before turning around and jogging back to his car. I watched him for a second, before turning around.

It was only five o'clock, they couldn't be that worried...

I walked into the station. The foyer was empty. I walked farther into the police station. There were wall-to-wall cops at the police station and I just knew this was my doing. There usually wasn't this many cops here. It wasn't usually this hectic. "You'd better find my daughter, or--" My mother was cut off as she caught eye of me. I stopped where I was. Everyone in the police station turned to look at me. Brooke, Emma, Noah, Audrey, and Kieran were there. Sitting in the waiting chairs. My mother, father and Kat stood with Acosta by his door. I walked in and looked at everyone. "Arielle!" My mother broke the silence, rushing towards me. I hugged her back. "Mom, what's going on?" I asked. She pulled away. "Arielle, I--we all thought you were missing! I got a call from Audrey, telling me that you had a fight with some girl and then you ran away! You weren't answering my calls, not to mention, my texts!" My mom practically screamed. "Okay, uh, Kass, maybe not here." My father was at my mother's side in an instant. She nodded. "We will talk about this at home." My mother pointed at me. I rolled my eyes, walking past her to my friends. My parents followed me, though they walked towards Sheriff Acosta. My friends all stood up at the same time. "Hey..." I whispered to my friends. "Oh, thank God, you're alright!" Brooke embraced me quickly. "Who said I wasn't?" I laughed, patting her back. "You weren't replying to our texts and... we thought you were hurt, or something." Kieran piped up. I looked at the boy in a funny way. Listening to Eli talk about him...kind of changed my perspective. Maybe Kieran wasn't the guy I thought he was. "Audrey, you said Alexis covered for me?" I pulled away from Brooke. "Yeah, she did. Her exact words to me were, 'I'm not a snitch. Arielle will get what's coming to her'." Audrey told me, laughing a little. "Wow, okay... I have that to look forward to." I nodded. "Anyways, thank you all for being here, and for worrying about me. But I'm perfectly fine, as you can see." I gestured to myself. "Okay, well. We're gonna get going." Brooke patted my shoulder. I nodded. "Glad you're okay." Brooke said again, walking past me. Emma and Kieran followed after her, with Emma stopping to hug me quickly. "Bye." She whispered, before leaving with Kieran and Brooke. I looked back to Audrey and Noah and smiled nervously. Noah hadn't said a thing. "Are you mad...?" I whispered. "Okay." Audrey clapped her hands together, filling the awkward silence of Noah and I. "I'm gonna go wait in the car, while you two talk." Audrey hugged me quickly, not giving me a chance to hug her back. She then raced towards the exit, probably not wanting to hear the drama that was me and Noah. Once she was gone, I turned to Noah. "Will you please say something?" I begged. "Where did you go?" He asked quickly. "I went to clear my head--"

"That's not what I asked." Noah whispered. "Okay, well, I drove far away. Trust me when I say this, I don't even know where I went." I said. Noah nodded. "Why'd you hit her?"

"She was talking about Nina." I said defensively. "Everybody talks about Nina, Arielle."

"Okay... well this particular person got on my nerves." I crossed my arms. "Are you okay?" He stepped closer to me. I nodded. "Though, at the moment, I feel like you shouldn't be the one interrogating me." I said. "I'm sorry, I was worried about you. You left school so abruptly... and--and--"

"Okay, I'm sorry, Noah. I shouldn't have turned my phone off." I replied. "Yo--you turned your phone off?" He asked suddenly. "You never do that."

"Well, I did it, Noah. It's not a big deal." I shrugged. "It is a big deal, what if you went missing? Remember last time? Your leg?" He said. I looked down at it, thanking God that it was covered by my pants. "That was a long time ago, Noah. We're good now." I nodded at him, opening my arms to hug him. He instantly hugged me back. "I was worried." He whispered. "Audrey's waiting, you should go." I told him. "Are you sure you don't want me to stay? I cou--"

"Noah, trust me, my mom and I are totally gonna get into it, and I don't want you here for that." I laughed. "Okay, well... I'm glad you're okay." He pulled away, but not before kissing me on the forehead. "Thank you." I whispered, smiling a little. "You'll be at school tomorrow, right?" He asked. "Yes, I promise." I nodded. "Good, you missed out on a good Psych class today." I looked at him as if he were joking, but he wasn't. "I'm sure Zoe enjoyed it." I scoffed. "Huh?"

"Nothing, nothing. Go. Audrey's waiting." I pushed him gently towards the exit. "Bye." He turned and waved at me. "Bye." He turned back around, only to hit his thigh off of a desk. I cupped my mouth to keep from laughing. "Sorry, sorry!" He told the officers who looked at him. I sighed as he walked out, unharmed. I turned towards Acosta and my family, who were still by his door. I walked closer to them caustiously. "Arielle, how nice of you to show up." Acosta crossed his arms. "Yeah, well..." I shrugged. "Seems like this whole thing was a misunderstanding, huh? Alexis hit you first and you defended yourself?" My dad spoke. I opened my mouth, but I didn't want to lie, so I just shut up and nodded. "Alexis' parents aren't pressing charges, because... well, they really shouldn't. And your mother decided not to." Acosta gestured towards Mom. "What I think you should do now is makeup with this Alexis girl tomorrow at school and just forget this whole ordeal." He nodded at me. I nodded back. "Yeah. I think that would be appropriate."

Acosta watched my face a moment. He knew! He totally freaking knew! He knew that I was lying. I was hoping he was going to be cool and not say a word, and that's exactly what he did. He stayed cool. "So, we can go now?" Katherine said. I could tell she was bored. "Yeah, uh, you guys can leave now." Acosta smiled at all of us.