The Haunting

Chapter 14

The police came again later that day. They bombarded through the Sorority House in their cameras and forensics and they unrolled the yellow caution tape that hugged the premises.

Noelle watched as they searched Meredith's room.

She somehow felt responsible for this whole mess, as if keeping Meredith safe was her job. Her friend's absence drained out all her confidence... all her security.. all her happiness.

The other girls were there too, outside the House, waiting anxiously for news about their friend.

Noelle nervously bit her lip as a policeman and an investigator walked up to them.

“Good afternoon, ladies,” he said gruffly.

“Good afternoon, Officer Maclean,” Noelle mumbled half-heartedly.

The officer cleared his throat and nodded at the investigator next to him, who handed him a purple scarf in a plastic bag.

“That's Meredith's,” Analyse said sadly. “I made that for her. It was her Christmas present.”

“We found this in the woods,” he said, and he looked down at the floor as if to say “You're not making my job any easier.”

Noelle felt the cold wind blow through her hair. She found it both annoying and comforting, and she didn't know why.

“Well,” Kayla piped in hopefully, “That's a good thing, right? You... you found that.. so that means Meredith isn't far from here...... right?”

Her voice was straining, as if she was just trying to convince herself that Meredith's alright.

Officer Maclean blew out a puff of air that froze in the air and kicked the dirt on the ground with his shoe.

“We also found... a numerous amount of blood. It was too great an amount to even... to even speculate the thought that she's..... okay. Your friend is... she's not-”

“-STOP!” Noelle screamed. She didn't know what got into her, but something made her want to yell.

The policeman looked at her.

“STOP!” she continued. “DON'T SAY IT! DON'T SAY ANYTHING!”

Vanessa walked up to Noelle and embraced her, partly for solace and partly for having an excuse to muffle the yelling.

“Sssh,” she comforted her friend. “It's... it's gonna be okay.”

But Noelle knew very well that that was a lie.

…................................................................................

Noelle sat in her room alone. She looked through a shoe box with letters and pictures inside. Some might call it trash, but she called it treasure.

She fished through the memories from freshman year. There was that card Vanessa and Kayla gave her on her 15th birthday. And that drawing of a penis Elizabeth drew in P.E.

Noelle laughed to herself.

She shuffled through the papers again until a yellow neon post-it caught her eye. She looked at it and her heart nearly broke in two. It was a letter from Meredith.

Noelle :) I like your name. You are so pretty. You are so kind. Stay the same through these next 4 years.

-Meredith :D

Noelle choked on the tears she tried to keep in and held the note close to her heart. She cried and cried. She didn't care. No one was here to watch her. To laugh at her. None of the other girls would dare laugh anyway, especially with what just happened.

She felt stupid holding a post-it, but right now it was okay to be stupid. Anything to avoid the pain.

Suddenly, the latch on her window flipped open. Noelle turned around and gasped.

“Bradley!” she cried.

There he was, in her bedroom, smiling casually in his navy blue cardigan and ripped jeans.

His dark brown hair flipped up like always.

Noelle was too shocked to say anything. She couldn't believe a boy was in her room. The principal-HER PARENTS- would kill her if they even found out about this encounter with Bradley.

“Hiya,” he waved, smiling. His dimples killed Noelle every time.

She still stood there in silence, unsure of what to do. She stared wide-eyed at him. Not that her eyes got pretty wide anyway.

“My dad told my you were... you were upset about your friend. He was here earlier.”

“You're... you're dad?”

Bradley smiled. “He saw you crying. Officer Clark Maclean. I'm sure you've heard of him.”

“You're dad's Officer Maclean?” Noelle asked, her voice trying to fight the tears.

“Sure is. Anyway, he told me you were pretty shaken about the news and I just wanted to see if you were okay-”

That was enough for Noelle to run up to him and burrow into his cologne-scented cardigan. He wound his arms around her. Noelle cried into him and she couldn't help it. She stood their shaking.

He ushered her onto her bed and she sobbed uncontrollably.

“Why would you come here?” she asked. “Why would you risk everything... to be with me?”

Bradley smirked. “It's alright. What are they gonna do, expel me or something? I don't care. As long as you're okay, I'm okay and that's all that matters-”

Noelle turned her head quickly and kissed him.

Something told her to do it. A part of her wanted to wait, but a part of her just wanted to do it.

She kissed him passionately and he kissed her back. She put her arms around his neck and he put his fingers in her straight black hair.

They kissed on her bed. Noelle kind of wished now that she wore something more glamorous than an oversized T-shirt and shorts, something like those silk Victoria's Secret intimates Amelia gave her.

Something in his warm kiss... something in his strong arms..... something about the sweet scent in his cardigan...and something obvious about him being in her room at 11 pm, risking his school reputation... something about that... told her that he loved her. And it didn't really matter because she knew she loved him too.