Trials {Editing}

Chapter 27

Harper's POV

"You were fourteen when you were last here," Jeffrey started. "Your parents and the Sisson's decided to take a trip together to celebrate you and Noah going into high school. Since my mom was going, of course, I had to go to. You, Noah, and Landon had a blast most of the time, though Landon was being a reckless teenager as usual, and it was made worse by Mrs. Sisson's recent remarriage. You kept on trying to include me whenever you all were playing and trying to get me to talk, but I wouldn't budge. So I just watched you all from afar or did my own thing.

"One day, Connie asks me to tag along and watch over you and Noah because you wanted to come down and see the riverbed. So I did, but I sat a distance away from you two. I was close enough to hear you and Noah talking about how scared you were about swimming ever since you had an accident of some sort. Then Landon came over..."

As Jeffrey tells the story, everything just starts to become clear as day. The ache in my head grew exponentially, but I could remember everything that Jeffrey was telling me now, as he was telling it. I remembered wishing I knew why Jeffrey came if he wasn't going to play with us, and I remember that conversation with Noah, as well as what happened next.

~Flashback~

"Heeey, guys!"

I had stopped in my conversation with Noah and turned my head towards the odd voice, perplexed by the draw. There stood Landon, keeping himself upright by leaning on a tree. I knew that sometimes he acts stupid even for a sixteen-year-old and gets drunk. However, I had never seen him this bad. I looked to Noah, and we both rolled our eyes in annoyance. Neither of us wanted to sober him up again, so instead, we just continued talking about the water and skipping rocks on the riverbed.

"Are you still afraid of the water, Harps?" Jeffrey asked, his words slurring. I had turned around and just raised my eyebrow at him. He had a huge toothy smile plastered to his face like he was in on some big joke. I did not find it funny at all. I just wanted him gone.

"I can help you get over it!" Landon yelled at the top of his lungs excitedly. Before I could react, he swept me off of my feet and slung me over his shoulder. "Landon! Let me down now!" I yelled as I began hitting his back as hard as I could. Landon was unfazed, however. He was in his own reverie as he waded into the water. Noah stood there uselessly, not entirely sure of what to do. I couldn't blame him; this was really odd behavior even for Landon, but I thought he should at least TRY to help me.

"Swim, fishie, swim!" Landon shouted as he miraculously threw me off his shoulder and into the water like a ragdoll. When I rose back up to the surface, I was too angry to even process the panic waiting at the back of my mind. I just swam out of the water and got ready to put Landon in his place.

However, Noah beat me to it. Noah started to yell at Landon from the top of his lungs. He was scolding Landon for always being drunk and saying that he will never amount to anything in his life. This began to make Landon angry as well. He started shouting back, but I could not remember what he was saying. They were both in each others' faces. I knew that this would end badly, so I ran in between them and began pushing them away from each other.

"Noah, he's drunk!" I yelled at the one able to see the logic. "What's the point in picking a fight with him when he'll beat you senseless and not even remember why in the morning?"

Noah gritted his teeth and rolled his eyes. "There's nothing you can do, Harper. He's had this coming for a while. So for once in your life, just get out of the way!"

Noah pushed me out of the way with such force that I twisted and lost my footing. I watched the ground and that rock comes closer and closer until finally, everything was black.

~End Flashback~

"After that," Landon continued the story from where my memory had ended; "Landon got so angry that his face matched the color of a tomato. He attacked Noah, beating him senselessly. Noah defended himself as best as he could, but he was no match for Landon in his drunk fury. Landon even pushed Noah's head into the river and held it underneath. I was able to get there and pull Landon off before he could kill Noah, but then immediately our focus was set on you.

"Since Noah was dazed and Landon was drunk, I carried you back to the cabin, where all the adults piled us into the car and took you to the hospital. When you woke up, you had a concussion. You couldn't remember anything about that day. The doctor feared it might be too much for you to know exactly what happened at the time, so you were only told that you hit your head.

"Landon was in serious trouble after that, though I'm not sure what Mr. and Mrs. Sisson did to him. Noah was angry and blamed everything on Landon. When it was the time that he could tell you what really happened, he made sure that everyone kept it a secret. I don't know why; maybe he didn't want you to know that he caused you to get hurt or something. Anyways, that's also why Connie doesn't like you going anywhere secluded without someone she trusts."

The throbbing in my head had subsided once again to only a dull ache, and my mind cleared as I soaked in all this new information. I was conflicted; I did not have the slightest clue how I should feel about this new information.

I skimmed my hand over the spot on my head where I remembered hitting the rock and took in a sharp breath. I could feel the pain as if it were yesterday.

So this is why Noah hates Landon so much. I took in another breath, lowering to sit down on the cold snowy floor. If Noah was willing to hide something so big from me for so many years, what else could he be hiding? How can I ever trust him again?

I felt a wave of exhaustion hit me, and I felt my head sway to the side. "Woah," I heard Jeffrey say as he put his hands on my shoulders, keeping me straight. "Harper, are you okay?"

I struggled to stand up, and when I did, I leaned all my weight onto Jeffrey. "Just take me home," I said, my voice squeaky and barely above a whisper. Jeffrey did just so, all the while not a word being exchanged in between us. All I wanted was to go to bed and cry myself to sleep. This was just too much, all too much. Noah has hidden such big things from me... what am I going to do? How can I trust him if he hides things from me? How will our relationship ever be a success if he hides everything from me?

In reality, there was only one simple answer to that final question, and that made it even harder to bear.

It won't.