Satellite-Sequel to God Save My King (Steve Jones FanFic)

Kimmy-No Future

The pink silk of Noelle's robe fluttered gracefully behind her as she flounced about the kitchen, grabbing all of the various dishes and ingredients that it was going to take to make us tea. I sat patiently on a stool at the marble slab that was the island in the middle of the kitchen, staring after her intently.

I couldn't believe just how much she resembled her mother in this moment. It brought me back to the nights when I would sleep over at the Lefevre's house, waking in the morning to see Mrs. Lefevre cooking breakfast, painting on a canvas, or-once Johnny and Noelle finally established a relationship-joking and talking to her future son-in-law over a cup of tea. Now, here we were, miles and years away from that life and yet, from my spot at the marble countertop, nothing appeared to have changed. And still, everything had changed.

It had been a struggle convincing Noelle and Lydon to break apart, but I had finally managed to drag Noelle down to the kitchen for some privacy after much begging and pleading on my part. As elated as I was that they were back together again, more than anything, I was mostly curious as to why and how it had happened.

It was almost impressive how quickly they had bounced back from the hostility that I had witnessed before they had left. From shouting matches to pillow fights, and from leaving the country to cuddling all over one another. I couldn't just ignore such a hugely obvious change. There was also the fact that Noelle was my best friend, and I was genuinely concerned about what awful thing might have happened to her to have made her act so strangely ever since I'd shown up in California.

"Any sugar?" Noelle offered, placing my cup down in front of me before pushing a bowl of sugar cubes over as well.

"Noelle..." I groaned, annoyed that she seemed to be dragging this out as painfully long as possible.

"Sugar?" She pressed.

I heaved a sigh, and hurriedly threw two cubes of sugar into my cup. I didn't even use the spoon to scoop them, I simply dug my hands around in the bowl-partially to be quick about putting sugar in my cup, but mainly to annoy Noelle the way that she was annoying me right now.

Enjoy those dirty sugar cubes, I thought to myself. I noticed the way that she wrinkled her nose at my action, but made no effort to stop me or to even object to the motion.

"There, I've got my sugar. Now, please," I heaved a deep sigh as I reached across the countertop and took ahold of her hands for reassurance. "Please, just...tell me everything."

She forced a smile, though I could see it in her eyes that what she was about to say brought her a lot of pain to even think about. I tried to hold her hands, to help her through it, but she pulled away from me. She opted to place her hands on her lap where she clutched at her knees for comfort instead. That was just like Noelle, always sinking into herself. It reminded me of Steve.

"God, Kimmy. I...I don't even know where to begin," Noelle admitted, a shaky laugh leaving her mouth as tears formed in her eyes.

Seeing her cry was hard on me. Noelle only cried maybe once or twice the entire time I'd known her, but she seemed to be doing it a lot lately. I hoped that that was a good thing rather than a bad thing. Maybe all of those years of pent up sorrows were finally coming out, unburdening her from all of the pain from her past.

"Start wherever you'd like," I replied softly. "There's no rush."

She clamped her eyes shut, and nodded, but I could tell that she was still struggling. I tried to lend a hand.

"May I...I could just ask you what I want to know. Would that make it easier for you?" I suggested.

She paused for a moment, mulling over my offer before nodding carefully.