stars

thirteen

Brooke

I sat in second-period math, not paying attention. I just stared at Noah. He would occasionally look back at me and smile, leaving my face hot. When the bell rang, Noah grabbed me and kept me from walking to my next class. "Hey Brooke, I was wondering if you'd sit with me and my group of friends at lunch again. I have something to ask you then." I shrugged. His grip on my arm got a bit tighter.

"I'll ask Phoebe," I said. I don't know his friends, so I'd probably be uncomfortable around them.

"Phoebe doesn't control your life, Brooke." He rolled his eyes. "Sit with me. Please?" He held my arm even tighter. I nodded.

"Okay." I smiled. My legs started hurting from not being in the water for long, but I didn't care. I rubbed my arm and walked to art class. 

*

Today was a free day, meaning we got to draw whatever we wanted. I, of course, had no idea what to draw. Two months ago, I didn't even know drawing was a thing. I looked over at Phoebe's paper, which has a bunch of weird thin lines and bold lines and colorful lines. I didn't know what it was. "What are you drawing Phoebe?" 

Without stopping, she spoke, "I'm trying to do abstract art, but I think I might just scrap this idea and start over and do a watercolor painting instead. What do you think?" She stared at her paper. I looked at her canvas. It was full of multiple shades of blue, green, and white. 

"It reminds me of the ocean," I said. 

She turned her head, looking at it. "Yeah, I can see that a bit. I don't know. What are you working on?" Phoebe looked at my blank sheet. "Oh. You haven't done anything yet. Still searching for ideas?" I nodded. "Paint the sky. You love that." She smiled and turned back to her painting. 

I turned to my paper, starting to draw some clouds on it. It didn't look good. I erased it and scribbled a bunch of colors onto the page, attempting to draw and color a sunset. I ended up not doing anything but a red and yellow blob. "So, I'm sitting with Noah at lunch again." I tried not to look at Phoebe. 

I knew she was frowning, and I felt bad. "You haven't sat with us for a week," Phoebe mumbled. "Can't you sit with him next week? Or never. That'd be nice too." I frowned. 

"Sorry. He just wants me to sit with him, and I can't say no." 

"But you can say no to the rest of your friends? Look, I know you like him, but can't you just sit with us at least for today?" I didn't respond. I just looked down at my bad art.  Phoebe sighed. "Okay, but next week, you gotta sit with Oli, Alex, and me, okay?"

"Okay."

*

"Hey, Brooke!" Noah yelled as I walked into the cafeteria. "Over here!" I looked over at Phoebe's table. Oliver was looking at me and Alex was talking to Phoebe. I hesitated before walking to Noah's table. Noah's friends looked at me, then whispered something to Noah as I approached their table. Noah laughed, then smiled at me. "Hey, Brooke." I waved and sat down. 

"So you said you wanted to ask me something? What was it?" 

"Oh, right, wanna go on a date after school today? The place is a surprise so I'll walk you there when the last bell rings." I smiled, nodding. 

"I'll have to tell Phoebe that I won-"

Noah interrupted me. "Ugh," He rolled his eyes. "Every time I ask you something, you have to ask for Phoebe's permission. She isn't your mother. Do whatever you want. Don't tell her." 

"Well, I live with her and I don't want her to worry, so-" 

"She'll only try to stop you. Didn't she try to stop you from sitting with us at lunch today?" I nodded slowly. "Phoebe doesn't like me, and she doesn't even have a reason. She just hates me, and I've never done anything to her or anyone, honestly. She's biased against me, Brooke, I swear." 

I frowned. He did seem to be telling the truth. Phoebe always made a rude comment about him when I spoke about him. Phoebe didn't seem to be the person who would hate someone without a reason, but Noah might be right. "I believe you," I said, looking over at Phoebe. I thought I saw him smirk from the corner of my eye, but I dismissed it. 

*

The bell rang and before I could try to talk to Phoebe, Noah ran in front of me. "Hey, Brooke, ready to go now? You can leave your bag inside your locker. You won't need it." I shrugged. 

"I'll keep it with me.I'm walking back to Phoebe's house afterward." He looked away, then looked back at me, smiling. 

"That's fine too!" He said. "Come on, let's go now." He held my hand as we walked. I felt my face warm up. He led where we walked, and I ran into things multiple times. I asked him if we were almost there. He didn't respond, so I took it as a no. After a while of walking, my legs hurt even more from not being in the ocean for weeks. My feet hurt too, but only cause we were walking too much. 

We stopped. I looked down at where we were. It was a dark place between two buildings. I looked at the buildings. One was a sandwich shop, which Phoebe has taken me to. The other was a nail salon. I don't even know what that is. There were green bins and excess trash scattered on the ground. Noah let go of my hand and took a step behind me. I looked around, confused. "Why did you..." I turned around. Noah was really close to me and he wrapped his arms around my waist. I tried to pull away, but he was too strong. I managed to push him away, but he kept trying to grab me. 

"Noah, stop," I told him.  I tripped over a rock and he used this to his advantage to grab my arms and keep me pinned to the ground. I was scared. He kept getting closer to me, and I was yelling at him to stop. He wouldn't. A burst of magic shot out of me, knocking Noah off of me. He yelled as he flew back, landing on his back. I got up, grabbed my backpack, and ran as fast as I could. He yelled cuss words at me as I ran out of fear. I bumped into people, who asked me if I was okay. I didn't respond. I kept running. I kept trying to get to the beach. When I got there, I dropped my backpack and didn't even bother taking off my clothes before jumping into the water. 

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(...Yeah. Um, that's something that happened. Fun, right? Haha. This was about 1174 words, but I should've written more. Bye, have a good day, and make sure there aren't any Noah's in your life. <3)