The Ranch

Chapter 13: Mason

Noah still felt a little on edge walking down the stairs. "Good morning honey, did you sleep well?" Ellie was busy setting the table. Alex sat, proud as punch with his five dollars, laying each dollar bill out on the table. Noah sat down feeling guilty. Johnny looked at Alex's twenty dollars confused. "Ellie did you give Alex money?" Noah interrupted, "No, I gave him the money."

Ellie was confused, "Noah, you didn't need to do that."
"No I did. I missed so many of his birthdays and I never got him anything." Alex smiled his biggest smile. "Go put it in you room before you lose it." Johnny told Alex. He got up and started running up the stairs, but not before stopping in front of Liam to show him his money. "Oh, that's nice! Are we getting an early Christmas present or something?" Liam looked at his dad. "Don't look at me, ask Noah." Liam looked at Noah then at Emily behind him who looked very guilty.

Liam gave them both a small smile "Morning guys..." "Morning" Noah replied. Everyone sat down at the table ready to eat. "Seeing as Noah is almost going home, I thought we could do something fun for the day, so I arranged for us to be at the lake and maybe watch the sunset." Ellie looked at everyone around the table. "Aunt Ellie, please can we not?" Noah looked at his aunt pleadingly.
"Yes, Noah we have to!" Ellie was serious.

They finished eating and got up to get ready to go to the lake. Johnny stayed helping Ellie cleanup. "I don't know if we should do this." Johnny looked at his wife concerned. "If Noah doesn't face this now, he never will and it will keep haunting him." Ellie put the dishes in the sink.

"Don't you think he needs to make that decision by himself and alone?" Ellie stopped and walked to her husband. "He will be fine. I think you're the one who doesn't want to go." Johnny hugged his wife. "Of course I don't, it was the worst day of my life."

~~~

Everyone except for Emily and Ellie was dreading to go to the lake, well Ellie was still sad but she knew that it would be good for Noah and the rest.

Emily's pov:

I was excited to go to the lake, but Noah looked like he would rather eat shit than go. I didn't really understand why but I knew there had to be a reason and I was determined to find out. I quickly realized I was staring at him when he gave me a small smile, I gave him a smile back.

When we got to the lake we all helped to set up a picknick and I got ready to take a swim. Noah took off his shirt and holy fuck, it sent shivers down my spine every single time. "Come on Noah!" I grabbed his hand pulling him toward the water but he was hesitant "Woah woah woah!" Noah stoped dead in his tracks and turned around to look at his uncle and aunt. He gave the 'do I really have to look' and the both just nodded their heads with sympathetic smiles.

As Noah turned back around he let out a sigh and gave me a sad smile. I just wish he would tell me what's wrong. As soon as we were about knee deep in the water I could see that Noah was really on-edge so I splashed him with water. He turned his head and I could see that a smile was growing on his face. "Your dead" was all he said before playfully takeling me into the water. He quickly got up but I decided to prank him by not coming up and swim underwater so that he doesn't see me. I swam away from him as fast as I could but I couldn't see where I was going.

Noah's pov:

I laughed as I got up after tackling Emily, maybe it was a good thing coming back to the lake. I suddenly realized that Emily hasn't come up yet and and felt my whole body start to panic. I turned around in circles trying to find her. "Emily... Em this isn't funny." I was feeling scared. Not again, this can't happen again. My mind is racing and my heart is filled with worry and concern. "Boo!" Emily yelled as she jumped up out of the water. I quickly turned around and felt my blood start to boil. "What the fuck Em!! You can't do that!" I was furious. She laughed but I just pushed her out of the way and headed back to the house.

Emily's pov:

Noah pushed me out of the way and got out of the lake "Noah! I'm... I'm sorry!" I was so confused as to why he was acting like this, he's usually the playful one but who knew that something like this could piss him off. I walked to Ellie who was busy packing up the picknick "What's going on with him?" Ellie shook her head. "Em..." she wanted to tell me but then just gave put a sigh. "He should be the one to tell you, not me."

We all went home but of course Noah was already there. I softly knocked on his bedroom door and he gave out a frustrated sigh "Come in..." he was definitely not in the mood to talk but I needed to know what is going on with him. As I enter the room I saw him lying down on his bed, his back facing me. I close and lock the door before slowly walking closer to him and sitting down on the bed. "Noah..." I placed my hand on his back making him turn around and sit up against the headboard of the the bed.

I realized that his eyes are read and puffy, he had been crying. Seeing him in pain like that made my heart break and I felt tears starting to weld up in my eyes. "Noah please talk to me..." my voice was raspy. "I'm sorry..." he said as his eyes started getting red agin and then he continued "...I shouldn't have yelled at you like that, It's not your fault." His voice was soft and husky as he tried to keep himself from crying again.

I scooted closer to him and cupped his face in my hand making him look at me and I placed a soft kiss on his lips. "What isn't my fault Noah..." he placed hand on my thigh and gave me a forced smile. I looked deep into his eyes "Noah... you know you can talk to me." He gave out a sigh of defeat and started telling me why he was acting this way.

"Ok...so when I was 12 years old my brother, Mason, and I came to stay with my uncle and aunt for the summer. Mason was only 8. One afternoon we wanted to go to the lake but both Ellie and Johnny were busy and couldn't take us. We asked them if we could go alone but the didn't let us." Noah's voice was shaky. "We decided to go anyway without them knowing. Mason didn't want to go, he was worried we'd get into trouble. Liam and I told him to man up and come with us." Noah struggled to talk.

"There was a wooden pole running into the lake. It was slippery and we decided to see who could stay on the longest. Mason hit his head and fell in the water. He didn't come up and we thought he was joking at first." Noah started to cry. "I tried getting him but he was a dead weight. I wasn't strong enough. Liam ran to get his parents but by the time Johnny got there it was too late." Noah shook in Emily's arms and her heart broke for him. "It's okay, it wasn't your fault." It was the only thing she could think of to say to him.

Noah laid on Emily's chest until he started to calm down. She wished she could take the pain away. Noah felt his eyes staring to get heavy with his arms wrapped around Emily's waist, he felt like a wight has been lifted off his shoulders. Emily gently brushed her fingers through his hair and he hasn't felt this calm in a long time. He looked up at her and gave her a small but lovable kiss.