Love & Carnage✗Noah Foster [2]

Chapter Ten// Crush.

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"Well, boys are not iPhones. I wish they were."

--Brooke Maddox

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Audrey and Noah came by the house early. I didn't say goodbye to my parents, I just ran out. "Wait, why is Arielle coming with us?" Noah asked. "Because I wanted her to come." Audrey told him. Noah shrugged and went back to driving. "Plus, there is no Virgin and Bi-Curious without their Ginger sidekick-sidekick... If that makes sense?" I tried. "We'll work on the name." Noah smiled at me in the rearview mirror.

When we got there... to the storage units, Noah began to interrogate Audrey. "So, who were you on the phone with basically at dawn?"

"Hey, fun story. None of your business." Audrey said. "Always so mysterious." Noah turned the corner, nearing the same storage unit Audrey and I were at last night. She looked at me with fear in her eyes. "Do something." She whispered to me. "What am I supposed to do?" I looked at her incredulously. "Uhm, I don't know. You're his girlfriend." Audrey scoffed. I rolled my eyes, as we ran to catch up with Noah. "Look, maybe we should go get breakfast instead of breaking and entering?" I suggested to Noah. "I--I'll spring for pancakes." Audrey added. "No pancakes. Ooh, wait!" Noah whipped around to face us. "Hey, frame me up. Maybe use, like, a dutch angle so it's creepier." Noah put his hands in the air, and I noticed the tool in his hand. Audrey sighed. "I got it." She pointed the camera at him. We began walking again, and Audrey couldn't have looked more scared. "Oh, look. Here it is." Noah stopped at a unit. "Oh, what? The unit was already unlocked?" Noah grabbed the unlocked lock on the unit. "Crescent Palms guy was hazing you." Audrey said quickly. "We'll see." Noah sighed, walking to open the unit. "You recording?"

"Yup." Audrey answered quickly. I grasped Audrey's arm, and she looked at me, nodding. She didn't reassure me. So my grip on her arm became tighter. Noah pulled the storage unit's door open fully. I looked inside, and suddenly my fear went away. There was literally nothing in here. Jake was gone, the car fresheners were gone. I released my grip on Audrey. Noah walked into the unit. "Ugh, this is such a lame disappointment. All this hype and then nothing." Noah lifted a sheet, revealing a rusty old sign that said, Crescent Palms Motel.

"It's like everyone saying, 'Go see The Blair Witch Project,' right?" Noah scoffed. "We should tell him." I whispered to Audrey, but she just shook her head. "Hey! You guys listening?" Noah looked our way. "What'd you expect, Noah? Some giant neon sign flashing "Piper was... here"?" Audrey grabbed my arm this time. I followed her gaze up to the side of the unit's wall. An obvious camera was there. We're screwed. I thought to myself. "Uh... hey, um... Let's jet, okay? Before someone else shows." Audrey urged Noah. "Someone else? You're a genius!" Noah walked towards us. "That's why the lock was broken. 'Cause someone else got here first, right? Someone who didn't want anyone to find whatever was in here. So that means there is definitely something to find." Noah turned away from us, looking every which way, before his eyes settled on the camera. "Oh! What do we have here?" Noah stepped onto an old, rusty chair, grabbing the camera. "Hey, hey! You can't just take that!" I told him. "It might be there... for--for, uh--"

"For security." Audrey finished for me. "First, this is new." Noah told us, now holding the camera. "Second, that thing over there is for security." He pointed outside towards a white camera that hung between two units across from where we were. "Someone's been keeping an eye on this place." Noah hopped down from the chair "Maybe Eddie--"

"Who's Eddie?" I questioned. "Ugh, the Crescent Palms guy." Noah walked past us. "Come on, we have time before school to see what's on this." He called back to us. Audrey and I stayed put. "Do you think--"

"He moved the body? Yeah, I do." Audrey nodded. "Come on, we have to stop Noah." Audrey said. "Oh, shit. I have to be at school right now. I totally forgot." I stomped my foot. Audrey turned back to me. "What?"

"I got in last night, and my parents caught me. They weren't mad, but they told me that I needed something to keep my mind off of everything else..." I trailed off. "And? And, what happened, Arielle?" Audrey asked. "Turns out, my mom and sister signed me up for the Ms. Lady of the Lake contest." I whispered, looking at the ground. "Oh." Audrey snickered. "It's not funny!" I said, though I began laughing also. "You're gonna be Lady of the Lake?" Audrey laughed. "I'm not going to win, it's just.. I'm doing it to keep my mom off of my back." I said. "Hey, what are you guys doin'? Come on!" Noah waved us out of the unit. "Noah, did you hear? Your girlfriend's going to be Ms. Lady of the Lake." Audrey burst out laughing. Noah watched carefully. "Arielle--"

"Don't worry, I'm not going to actually win." I waved them off, walking past them both. "Ooh, I honestly hope you do." Audrey laughed. I turned around and shot her the finger. "We have to drop Princess Arielle off at school, Noah." Audrey told him. I rolled my eyes, and continued walking.

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"--That's good. And, as you're introduced, you'll step up." I ran into the auditorium just in time as the teacher who was running the Lady of the Lake contest. I didn't know her name at the moment... I rushed up to the stage, walking towards Brooke, who seemed troubled. Like... she had been crying. "Brooke?" I whispered. "Hey, Arielle." She smiled suddenly. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah...Jake still hasn't texted me back, and I'm about one more unanswered text from killing him." Brooke raged. Jake... I blanched and Brooke saw my expression immediately. "What?" She asked. "Nothing, nothing. What's happening... here?" I gestured to the line-up of girls. "Mrs. Lazar is teaching us poise." Brooke rolled her eyes. "What are you doing here?" She asked me. "Oh, my parents signed me up last minute." I shrugged. "Sucks. I'm being forced into this." Brooke smiled. "Hey." I turned my head to see Zoë walking towards us. I turned back to Brooke to roll my eyes. It was no secret that I hated Zoë .

"Hi." Brooke sighed. "I don't know you guys very well, but this Lady of the Lake pageant does not seem like your thing." She said. I turned back and plastered a smile on my face. "My dad's making me. Maddox pride." Brooke did jazz-hands.

"So, then, he'll be your escort?" Zoë asked. "Oh, I haven't even thought about that. Um, no. Who had their dad as their escort?" Brooke scoffed. Zoë chuckled. "Uh, I do." She raised her hand. "And I avoid all high school guy drama. Win-win." Zoë pointed her finger at us. Brooke laughed. "Oh, please. Everybody knows you have a crush on Noah." She blurted. I balled my fists up. Do not punch her in the throat, Arielle. I told myself. Zoë looked uncomfortable, as I was standing right there. But I just smiled at her. "You practically give him eye baths in psych class." Brook went on. "Okay, no, I do not do that."

"A little bit." I nodded. "Okay, well, maybe there's a world where I think Noah is kind of cool--" I turned my head to her.

"There's also a world where his girlfriend decides to punch you in the face for getting too close to him."

I stepped closer to her and smiled. Brooke remained silent, as did Zoë . I turned around and began to walk off the stage. That's when I noticed Stavo. "Okay, ladies. Grab a worksheet." I heard Mrs. Lazar say to the girls. I walked towards Stavo. He smiled up at me. "Not a spectator event." I laughed, sitting beside him. "Came early to get in some laps and accidentally discovered this circus." Stavo told me, twirling his pen to his tablet around. "It's a traditional scholarship program with a charity component." I told him, quoting the paper I had seen in my mother's hands.

"Yeah." Stavo laughed. "Arielle, come on." Brooke walked towards me and Stavo, pulling me up. I groaned. "Ever track down your missing boyfriend?" Stavo asked Brooke. My heart pounded against my chest. Brooke scoffed and pulled me with her towards the stage. "I'll take that as a 'no'." Stavo called after us.