Pull Me Under

Chapter Eight- Under

Once we were back in the living room we sat down on the plush black couch. Noah picked up the remote and held it out to me but I shook my head. I was barely in the right headspace to function, the thought of picking a movie felt like the worlds hardest exam.

"You pick." I replied.

Noah put on some weird comedy movie from the 90's and we settled in to watch it. For a couple of hours it was as though nothing had happened. Like we were back at the home that no longer existed. Sure, before Noah had shown up on the doorstep we'd barely spent time together, but this just felt like normal. When the credits rolled for the film, I knew inevitably we were meant to part ways and head to our separate bedrooms. I didn't really want to think about why that thought scared me, let alone decipher it.

"Another?" Noah murmured.

I looked at him and smiled. "You read my mind."

My eyes grew heavy almost as soon as the next movie started. Emotionally and physically exhausted, I wasn't sure I could stay awake.

At one point my eyes closed and didn't open again for some time. When I woke and the room was dark. I was lying down on the couch, facing away from the TV that was no longer on, a cushion under my head. It took me a minute or so to realise I wasn't alone, that the weight on my hip wasn't all blanket. Noah was in front of me, fast asleep, his arm around me. I should have jumped away, I should have put distance between us. But I felt warm and safe and I wanted to feel that way for as long as possible. I closed my eyes again, and fell back to sleep.

I woke again, when it was light, to soft shaking. "Olivia." Noah whispered. He wasn't beside me anymore, he was above me, Standing over me.

"Morning." I stretched and propped myself up. "Sleep well?"

Noah nodded, he shifted nervously. "Yeah, uh. We've got instructions."

I sat bolt upright and focused on Noah. There was a plan, I didn't know whether to feel sad or sick... but it didn't really matter because I felt both anyway.

"Oh okay?"

"We're to head to the compound in New York. Today. We've been booked on a plane to New York that's leaving in three hours."

"Together?" I spoke, my voice shaking.

"Yeah, Vi... together." He smiled and sat down on the couch. "Thing is, the guys that are looking for me... well they know were trying to get back. They know my face, and now yours. So we kind of need to go undercover."

I bit back a smile. "So I do get to be an honorary spy?"

Noah frowned. "If that's how you want to look at it." He said softly. "Anyway, I need to head down to the basement to collect our kits."

"Kits?" I replied. "Our disguises you mean?"

Noah nodded and stood up, he walked out of the room and I leaned back. I knew that letting me into his world was hard for him. He'd been on his own for so long it was probably hard to accept that for once, he wasn't. Then of course there was the whole pesky step sibling thing. Since the moment he'd stepped onto the front yard of my house something had been in the air between us. At first I'd thought it was awkwardness, we barely knew one another and our parents had been married for years...

But then he'd literally been my knight in shining armor at the party and he'd cared enough to try and cheer me up with paintballing.

Then the carefree and almost innocent stuff ended, my world changed and aligned with his, whether or not either of us wanted it too. I closed my eyes, the way he'd kissed me to placate the cop, it was seared into my memory even though I'd pretty much forced myself to forget it ever happened.