Coffee Cups and Onion Rings || Brad Simpson (The Vamps) Fanfiction

prologue

Your actions weren't right, but your heart is in the right place.

× × × × × ×

After one final spray, she's finally done with her masterpiece.

Noah stepped backwards, admiring her artwork in the process, and became amazed by how her art was going to be on display almost everyday, that is, if they don't think of erasing her cartoonized interpretation of society that's painted on the side of a public train.

Now on what used to be a plain gray commuter train is a mural of a tree that was crying while being surrounded by people with selfish ideas on what they're going to do with its wood. Next to those selfish people, however, are those who benefit from the tree and how they're defending the tree. Below the mural are the words, "THE ONLY GOOD THING LEFT IN THIS SHITTY CITY," with an arrow pointing to the tree.

She was proud. She never felt so happy about any of her other artworks before.

But before she could take a picture of the graffiti on her phone, a beam of light comes out of nowhere, and she mistakenly turned her head towards its direction.

"Hey! You're under arrest!" Someone yelled in the distance, and Noah quickly grabbed her spray paint cans and threw them in her overused gym bag before sprinting off to where she parked her mother's car. After sitting down, she threw the bag to the passenger's seat and turned the engine on, pulling off as quickly as she can. She sped down the road, only to be followed by a police car and its piercing siren.

She aggressively turned the wheel to the right to enter a desolate road with the hope that the police car won't notice. When they didn't follow her, she immediately punched the wheel in glee, laughing at how lucky she was to escape. It wasn't long, however, until more police cars followed her.

"Shit," she said to herself, staring at the cars behind her through her mirrors, and when she turned her attention back to the road, there was a giant dog right in front of her. She immediately stomped on the brake, the tires screeching and burning to a stop so that she won't hit the poor animal she just spotted, which was frozen in its tracks.

The car stopped right before it can hit anything, and Noah was relieved as she watched the dog flee from the scene. Her panting never stopped, however, as a police officer with a gun approached her and knocked on her window.

With a heavy sigh, she turned the engine off and climbed out, allowing the police officer to cuff her down, then she was taken downtown for some mugshots and made to call her mom, who she knew will not be impressed by her actions.

For her, staying in a detention cell was better than having to face her parents, who would ask her what she was doing in the middle of the night. However, when they bailed her out, she really didn't have a choice.

"Noah, honey," her stepdad, Anthony, said as he reached out for a hug, but she ignored him and went straight to the backseat of his car. It took a few minutes before both of her parents joined her in the car, then they all went back home quietly, the only words spoken between the two people at the front was how they were planning to get the car she used the next day.

When they arrived home, her stepdad's kids were all up, watching the three adults as they wiped their shoes on the rug.

"Come on, kids. Time to go to sleep," her stepdad told his children, then they went to their beds. On the other hand, Noah immediately went upstairs to her bedroom, where she locked the door and hid under her quilt.

"Fine. Ignore me for the rest of the night, but please remember to pack your bags soon. You're staying with your grandfather this summer. We've given up with your childish ways. Maybe he can straighten you up," her mom said through the door after knocking three straight times, then Noah sighed. It wasn't the first time that her mom threatened her the exact same thing, and she knew that, when she will rise up from her bed in the morning, do chores, and do a grand gesture of apology, she'll be a free woman once again.

The fact that their house has thin walls didn't help, however. She kept on hearing voices from her parents' bedroom. Seeing as she can't sleep because of the remaining adrenaline in her veins, she decided to listen to what her parents have to say.

"I'm tired, Anthony. I don't know what to do," her mom cried out, then she could hear her stepdad consoling her.

"Look, I'll talk to her. For now, you can think about your decision of shipping her off to her grandfather. Maybe she did what she did tonight because wants her voice to be heard? I mean, she painted a beautiful mural on the side of the train," Anthony suggested.

"She doesn't want to be heard; she craves for attention. What she did is illegal. You don't have any idea on how much I've been through with that child. I tried to stay strong for the two of us, but she drifted away ever since. I taught her all the good things she can do, but she never bothered doing any of those. I worked so hard for us not to reach rock bottom, but our relationship went there, anyway."

"Maybe it's not too late, Deborah. She's 21. She's still a growing adult. Shipping her off to another place will just make her drift further from our family."

"Then what do you suggest I do? Like you said, she's an adult, she can straighten herself up, but she refuses to do so. I'm worried about her future, Anthony, and if that isn't enough to convince you of how much she needs to spend her summer with her grandfather, I don't know anymore," her mom said, her words breaking at the last part of her sentence, then she could hear her mother sobbing.

"If only her father was still around..." her mom ranted, then Noah stepped away from the door. She no longer wanted to hear what her mom had to say.