Desolation

thirty four

This is one of the chapters that is near and dear to my heart. I absolutely loved writing it because I feel like it addresses a lot of serious issues that we usually don't pay any mind to plus you get to know a lot about Noelle. I really took my time with this one. I hope you enjoy reading it x

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Stephen's POV

I followed her to her room, walking past the kitchen and into the hallway on it's left side. There were 4 huge shelves in the hallway and a single door at the end, in the middle. She had some books and other miscellaneous items on all the 4 shelves, it was kinda weird but looked cool nonetheless.

She walked into the room at the end of the hallway and I followed her. She went and immediately sat on her bed and I did the same, taking the time to look around her room. It was huge and spacious. It was particularly clean and tidy other than the fact that there were a lot of chargers everywhere. She had a TV in front of her bed with a huge stack of CD's and DVD's. I looked closely and realized they were all mostly Xbox games. She had lamps on her bedside table and small potted plants on her desk by the side along with scattered papers on it.

The walls were painted a lighter color, making the room look bigger and she had some paintings hung up. Her room reminded me of the term minimalism, in fact her whole house did. She didn't have a lot of fancy things around but it made her place look elegant. I found it kinda soothing somehow.

There were 2 doors in her room and I figured it was the bathroom and a closet. I suddenly realized that she didn't have any pictures hung up on the wall, neither of any friends nor family. There were no pictures at all in her entire house. The realization made me kinda sad, she deserved so much better.

"What did you wanna talk about?" my gaze snapped back to her and she looked really tired.

"Were you sleeping?" I furrowed my eyebrows. I'd hate to know that she'd managed to go to sleep somehow just for me to come and wake her up like this. I felt kinda guilty.

"Not that lucky. I can't sleep," she mumbled and I nodded my head. I didn't wake her up.

"Who was that lady?" I asked remembering the interaction between her and Rose. I could tell Rose didn't like her at all. Ever since we ran into her, Rose had become distracted and just seemed out of it. She didn't look all too happy to see that lady.

"Aunt Brittney," she shrugged.

"Rose, I know that. Who is she and what was she talking about?" I inquired. She said a lot of shit to Rose and I didn't entirely understand what that all was about. It had to be something serious because Rose looked lost and upset the whole time. Blake, Kathy and Caspian didn't even leave her side tonight.

"She's a bitch and it was nothing. She's related to Kenneth and thinks she's the goddamn queen of somewhere. Everybody in the family hates her, even Kenneth. I don't even know what she was doing there, fucking bitch. I gave her the perfect name, Aunt Bitch," she snorted and shook her head.

"Rose," I said calmly. She was trying to steer away from the main thing here, I could tell.

"I don't wanna talk about it Stephen, it's really bad," she rubbed her eyes and sighed.

"Why not? What's bothering you? Tell me," I spoke softly and grabbed her hand, rubbing my thumb on her knuckles.

"It's fucked up and I was a pathetic little girl back then. It wasn't the best time of my life and I don't want you to think any differently," she spoke with honesty.

My heart melted inside my chest and all I wanted to do was reach over and hug her so that's exactly what I did, I held her tightly against me, breathing in her scent. She always smelled like vanilla and cinnamon.