other half

take me home

Lydia threw herself cheerfully into the drivers seat as Noah changed upstairs in the bedroom. from the truck you could see straight into the room. Noah's room. she smirked playfully as he looked down at her expecting her to look away and blush. He found himself slightly impressed by the change in the girl, it seemed that the longer they were together she had become more and more comfortable, not only with him but with herself. like he had opened the door to self acceptance whereas before she was being forced to be someone she wasn't by the people around her, with him she felt safe, safe enough to be herself. the real her.

the truck was growing increasingly hot from the rising heat outside the sweating glass. she tied her hair up into a messy bun before cracking the door open. Noah's figure had disappeared from the window further into the house. hopefully, she pleaded silently, he was on his way down. the front door opened and out came Noah. his shirt completely unbuttoned, his hair still slightly wet from his quick shower, the strands messily fell to the side, though a few stray clumps would break the trend in direction. His head shook from side to side as he spotted Lydia holding the keys on her forefinger, teasing him.

her eyes sparked with such life as he opened the door beside her and tried to remove her from the drivers side.

"i'm not moving" she mimicked his thick accent, his eyes igniting with a mischievous flame. she had finally gotten it right, it sounded so smooth and natural. had she been practicing? he wondered.

"can you drive?"

"i can try"

"not in this car you cant" he laughed as she finally gave in, a frown playing on her lips. He stepped up into the drivers seat and tried his hardest to ignore her pouting. the scowl bringing a sort of amusement to him. She tried desperately to keep up appearances but failed to do so as her favourite song played on the radio. with the windows rolled down she stuck her head out of the one beside her, as they drove down the dirt road leading up to Jims house. the town was coming into sight and so she stuck her head back in. she flahsed a playful grin at him as he rolled the window back up.

"you've lost your damn mind" he chuckled turning onto the main road. she laughed, her gazesticking to him. she found it strange how someone who she thought at first was hard to read and she couldn't really see herself getting along with, was now the easiest person for her to be around. she didn't need to dress up just to walk down the road, she didn't need to speak properly and she wasn't scolded for just being free. she felt like with Noah she was free, she felt safe and wild.

She felt like for once she had found her home, not in a place but in a person. her sanctuary, her safe place.

"i'm driving tomorrow" she teased as Noah drove through the town to her family estate. shaking her head as he parked behind one of the hedges so that they were just out of sight. he laughed shaking his head at the girl as she slid across the seat to him. placing her lips against his she smiled.

Her heartbreaking slightly as she knew how hard it would be to say goodbye to him in the coming weeks. she tried to push the thought from her head as she pulled away. biting down on her lower lip she slid back towards the door, grabbing her bag from the footwell and got out of the truck. she winked at him before running around the hedge preparing herself for the run and jump up onto the low hanging roof and into her bedroom window. the front door opened stopping her dead in her tracks. her mother stood with a scowl plastered across her face, her arms crossed over her chest. Lydia could barely see the tears in her eyes but she knew they were there.

She was dressed in one of her formal dresses, a black party dress Lydia's father had bought for her a few months prior to the holiday in longebrooke. she watched her mother closely as she walked back inside the house leaving the door open for Lydia to walk in.

Lydia ran up the porch and into the house to try and figure out what was going on.  Her father sat across from a stranger in the lounge. a glass of whiskey in his hands. she stared intensely at the man. A man Lydia could only describe as creepy, his smile over powered her parents foul expressions. he was odd in every way, his entire demeanor screamed strange.

"dad? what's going on?"

"this is michael, he's offering you a full ride on a musical scholarship to stanford on one condition" out the corner of her eye lydia could see the womans frown fade as she stood tall. realising in an instant what was really going on she scoffed before her father could continue she removed herself from the room.

"lydia!" the man bellowed but she ignored him and made her way upstairs. of course her parents had tried to bribe her with a full ride, something she had been praying for, especially considering she was more than interested in promoting her own and others music. she always had been. Her mother had chased her up the stairs but she wasnt fast enough to keep up with the girl. she was met with a door being slammed in her face as Lydia shut herself away in her room.

"Open this door right now!"

"why?! so you can just ship me off to some school so that i'll leave Noah? so that i wont mess up all of your plans!"

"it's your life i'm looking out for Lydia-"

"you're right it's my life! mine! not yours! not daddys! mine! i am my own person and it's time you allowed me to act like it!" she spat on the other side on the door. knowing that as the silence grew, so did the hole she was digging herself. she tried her hardest tohold back the fire in her words but it was breaking the surface. ready to burst through and explode.

she swung the door open. "i never asked for this! i love him! and i wont be bribed like this so that i'll leave him!"

"we want what's best for you!"

"then why are you trying to split me up from the best thing that has happened to me in years! dad noticed the difference he told me he had never seen me this happy! if he can see it why can't you! i love Noah! despite everything and i always will! no one could ever change that! stop trying to control me! stop telling me who i can and cant spend my time with stop trying to make me into you!" she screamed, her hand covering her mouth as she uttered the last few words. the thing that hurt her mother the most was that she knew she meant them. and she was right to. because that is exactly what she had done. she had tried to make Lydia in her own image instead of accepting who she was.

Watching her only little girl drift from her was one of the hardest things she had had to do. she missed the days where she would watch her run around in her pigtails and pinafore dresses. she would kiss her scrapes and bruises, but as she got older, she became more independant, she became less like her friends' daughters and was stronger more wild and free. she didnt care what anyone thought about what she did or who she was friends with, it drove the woman insane as she envied her. instead she became more and more forceful and strict on how Lydia should have behaved.

she was wrong. love and jealousy are a powerful thing, that she had experienced first hand. but forcing her daughter into the same uncomfortable lifestyle, that was possibly the worst thing she had done.

the woman watched the world in slow motion as the girl ran past her and down stairs, most likely to tell her father the same thing. tears brimming in her eyes as memories flooded her mind, memories of the young girl who would run to her when the world turned foul instead of running away. yet there she went, no longer in pigtails, pinafore dress or dollie shoes. she was almost a woman now. maybe now was the time to accept that.