Boy Next Door (ON HOLD)

-Why? Did you miss me?-

♢Chloe's POV♢

Taking a deep breath I turn around and make to walk towards my house when I stop dead in my tracks.

My brother is staying on the porch, his arms crossed in front of his chest, looking at me angry.

Someone help me.

I walk over to him slowly preparing myself for a lection and probably yelling.

"Where were you?" He almost yells at me.

"Out for a coffee." I answer as I walk past him and into the house. If he is going to yell at me it's better if he does it in the house where we are not putting a show for the neighbors.

"With who?" He follows me inside. "It doesn't seem to be with your girl buddies."

"I was with a friend."

"Friend with benefits is it?" He snaps. "When did you become like this?"

"What? Are you kidding me? Of course not friend with benefits." I say shocked that my brother who knows me so well would think something like that about me. "What is wrong with you?" I snap back.

I don't know where this sudden strength came from, but I liked this Chloe.

"Chloe, I'm warning you to stay away from him before I end up in jail for murder." He says pointing at me. "I know guys like him."

"How are guys like him? I don’t see a problem with having guy friends.”

"Chloe don't test my patience right now." He screamed and slammed his fists into the table scaring me. That's it, confident Chloe is gone. "Just do what I say."

"You're making me panicky." My voice barely hearable. I hated people screaming. It made me feel so small and miserable.

"I'm just trying to keep you from getting hurt. That's all." He runs a hand through his hair frustrated.

"I'm not a little girl anymore. I can take care of myself." I can't believe he is getting so angry over something so stupid. "Besides, Noah is a nice guy if you get to know him."

"As I've said I don't trust him."

"You don't even know him." I walk past him once again and walk out into the front yard.

"Where are you going?" He yells following me.

"Harper's." I say as I hear a voice from the house next door.

"This is not over Madison. They are my kids too, damn it." A middle-aged man yelled as he walked outside of Noah's house and towards the car that was parked in his front yard.

"Stay the fuck away from us." Noah screams at the man, angry as hell, while his mom is standing behind him, tears rolling down her face.

Elijah steps closer to me. "Is this your nice guy?" He says dragging me inside as my eyes are glued on Noah who was glaring at the car.

"Go to your room Chloe." My brother says calmly as we get inside.

I turn around without hesitating and run up the stairs, slamming the door as I get inside my room.

I plop down on the bed and stare at the ceiling for what seemed like ages until mom brings me back to reality.

She enters my room with a tray full or fruits and a sandwich. After she kisses my forehead she leaves the room letting me go back to my ceiling gazing.

●●●

I wake up super tired the next day since I didn't sleep properly last night. I just couldn't.

Elijah drives me to school because apparently he can't trust me to even go to school. Perfect.

I didn't see Noah around all day and I'm a little worried. He was so angry yesterday that he could have done something stupid. Was the man his dad? He must have been.

I decide to take a walk back home instead of my brother driving me. I needed to walk. I put my earphones on and start walking.

As I walk home I notice that there is a car behind me. I immediately get panicky. Oh no.

I start walking faster and the car mirrors my movement. I slow back down and the car does the same thing. In a moment of panic I turn around to see who is following me.

When I see Noah in the drivers seat I sigh in relief as he steps out of the car.

"You scared me." I lightly punch his chest when he gets near to me. "Why are you following me?"

"I'm not following you. I saw you walking alone so I thought you might need a ride. You couldn't hear me though. You know you should never walk alone with loud music blasting from you earphones? It's dangerous."

"Yeah cause you could meet creeps like you." I joke and he places his hand over his heart in mock hurt.

"That hurt."

"You'll get over it." I laugh.

"Come on. Let me take you home." I didn't have the strength to argue right now so I get inside the car.

"Where were you all day?" I ask as he starts driving.

"Why? Did you miss me?" Well he is in a mood today.

"You wish. I was just wondering."

"Driving around. Didn't really feel like going to school." He says not taking his eyes off the road.

His phone rings and he picks it up, answering the call.

"What?" I hear Noah say a bit to loud.

He looks very angry. What is going on?

"I'm coming." He hangs up the phone and puts it back into his pocket.

"Who was that? What's wrong?" I ask but he ignores my questions and starts driving super fast.

All that goes through my mind is we are going to crash and die. My breath gets shorter and I can't breathe properly.

"Noah. Stop. We are going to crash. Slow down." I yell scared.

He keeps ignoring me. Oh my god.

Tears are rolling down my face as I try to control my breathing.

"Slow down. You are going to kill us." I keep yelling trying to get him to slow down. "Noah." I scream so loud and finally he slams the breaks. My scream seemed to have brought him back to reality.

I stay frozen in shock trying not to panic right now.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Repeat.

"What the hell are you doing?" I snap at Noah after I've collected myself. "Were you trying to throw us in a ditch?"

"You wouldn't understand." He says with a low voice.

"Make me understand then." I say still speaking loudly. I don't know what got into him but that could have ended up very badly.

"I need to get home fast." He says as he starts driving again, this time not that fast.

"Well try to do it in one piece." I say lowering my voice.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." Considering I almost died two minutes ago I'm fine.

He keeps diving in complete silence but his hands are gripping the steering wheel so tight and his eyes are full of anger.

When we get home I see the same car from yesterday in his driveway. Is this what the call was about and why he had to come home quickly?

Noah gets out of the car and slams the door closed with all his might making me jump.

I get out as well, following Noah thinking he might need me.

"Noah what is going on?" I ask as I walk or rather run after him but he just ignores me.

I follow him inside the house. What am I thinking? Invasion of privacy much?

"Welcome home son." The same man says as soon as we get inside. "And you brought a girl home."

Noah turns around finally realizing I'm behind him.

"What are you doing here?" He asks through gritted teeth, his fists clenched.

"I-I thought you might need my help." I say in half a voice looking at him scared.

His facial expression softens towards me as he shakes his head.

"Take my sister upstairs." He says pointing at Annie standing a few feet away from us, looking quite scared.

I nod, grabbing her hand and walking up the wooden stairs.

We enter the first door in the left which is probably her room. It has a flowery wallpaper covering the walls and a bed covered in teddy bears in the middle of the room. This little girl must really love teddies.

"You have a cool room." I tell her. I don't know what is happening in their family but it seems very bad and I want to take her mind out of it.

"Thanks." She replies taking one of her teddy bears and hugging it close to her chest.

"What's his name?" I ask pointing at the teddy bear she is holding.

"Teddy. He is my favorite but don't tell the others." She says placing her index finger in front of her lips. I laugh at the gesture.

"I'll keep a secret." I say winking and smiling which she returns.

"Are you my brother’s girlfriend now?"

"Oh no, I'm not. I'm his friend." I smile at her, a faint blush coloring my cheeks.

We hear a crashing sound coming from downstairs and we both turn our head to the door. What is going on down there?

"Noah is always so angry at dad but he is right to be." She says her eyes scared once again.

As I was about to ask why her mom enters the room we are staying. Her blonde hair in pulled back into a bun and her brown eyes look so sad and scared at the same time.

"Thank you." She says hugging me.

"No need thanking me." I smile at her as I walk out of the door waving goodbye at Annie.

At the top of the stair I see Noah who is still very angry. He stops when he sees me and just looks at me not saying anything.

"I need to go." I say as I make to walk back to my house but he stops me, grabbing my arm.

"Stay for a while?" He says more in a pleading tone. I nod and he pulls me into the room on the other side Annie's.

The room is the total opposite of Annie's in terms of decor. It has posters of famous bands all over the walls and the walls are painted a plain white color. The bed has dark blue sheets covering it.

"Well don't just stand there." Noah says as he sits down in the bed.

"What happened?" I ask him sitting down on the bed as well. He puts his head between his hands and stays like that for a while.

"Are you okay?" I ask unsure of what to do.

He gets up and punches the drywall making me jump a bit since I didn't expect it.

I don't know what to say.

"C-Can you tell me what happened?" I ask.

"I can't." He mops around the room.

"You can trust me. I'm your friend." He finally looks at me and sits down on the bed again, facing me.

"That was my dad." He sighs. So I was right. "He was my role model for most of my life until a few months after my sister was born. He started drinking and spent all his money on alcohol. He came home late and had become aggressive even when he wasn't drunk. He slept around with women when he had a family waiting for him back home. Last year he started abusing mom and I had it with him. I could see her bruises on her arm but she always told me she tripped and hurt herself even though I didn't believe it. One time I saw my dad slapping mom so I gave him a taste of his own medicine.

"This happened around the time that I found out about Abby so it was the worst time of my entire life. We decided to come here and leave everything behind but as you have witnessed our past followed us. He came here because he wants custody of us claiming that he is 'sober' now. I don't trust him and he'll never win the custody but it annoys me so much that he comes here and bothers us." He tells me the story in one breath and my heart hurts for him. They have gone through so much. "She didn't say or do anything just because she was scared she wouldn't be able to raise us financially. Now my mom has to work her butt off to pay the bills and our school."

"I-I'm sorry you had to go through that alone. I hate Abby even more for not being there for you when you needed someone." I say touching his hand gently.

"You'll be there for me right?" He says as he grabs my hand.

"Yeah." I nod giving him a smile.

Suddenly he pulls me close for a hug. He buries his face on the crock of my neck and his warm breath that hits my skin sends shivers down my spine.

We stay like that for a while assuming that he needed a hug and to be honest I needed a hug too.

After a while we pull apart. "I have to go before my brother sends a search party for me."

"I'll see you tomorrow." He accompanied me to the door.

I wave at him as walk towards my house.

I got inside my house prepared for the million questions from my brother about where I was.

************************************

A/N:
Thank you for the support you have given me in this book. It means so much to me that people like my work.

Let me know if you liked this chapter by leaving a comment. I always love reading them.

See ya on the next one. Peace.

XOXO