Riptide - An Outer Banks Fanfiction

Chapter 33

'He's more myself

than I am.

Whatever our

souls are made of,

his and mine

are the same.'

- Emily Bronte

. . .

By the time Riptide and Noah had cleaned up and left Gloria's for the Chateaux, night was beginning to fall.

     When they had made it to Gloria's and entered into the living room where the woman was doing some cleaning, Gloria had taken one look at Noah's tear stained cheeks and Rip's burst knuckles and headed for her first aid kit without so much of a word. She cleaned up Rip's hands and asked if Noah had been hurt before sending him into the kitchen to get something to eat. The pair of them ate their fill, had baths, scrubbing away the dirt and the hurts of the days that had come to pass, and changed into a fresh set of clothes.

     Rip had wandered into Noah and Finn's room, her heart aching in her chest as she spied the colourful crayon drawings that Finn had done. She had always believed that he would grow up to be an artist one day, she had always made sure to keep his crayon collection stocked for him. Now she wouldn't have to.

     Pushing aside those thoughts she headed over to the bed that her brothers once shared and stuck her hand under the mattress so she could pull out the money that she'd stored underneath.

     For how much she had worked there wasn't a lot, but there was enough to cover the last bit of the cost of the restitution.

     Burying it in her bag she'd left the room, softly closing the door behind her, and when she reached the bottom of the steps, she saw that Noah was sat by the door. Gloria had sent them a worried glance, but Rip didn't try and make Noah stay, she told him she wouldn't leave him and she wasn't going to slack in her promise. So instead, she gathered him up and with a thankful smile to Gloria they headed out to meet JJ at the Chateaux.

     Rip barely had to think about the route to the Chateaux from Gloria's. Her legs knew the way of their own accord. But in the silence of the falling night she took the opportunity to talk to Noah about their brother. He was young but Noah knew that Finn wasn't coming back and though he was feeling something he wasn't yet old enough to fully understand what it was.

     If Rip could guess, he was feeling an awful lot like she was. Amongst all of her guilt, Finn had become a missing piece in her life. A missing piece that would never be filled, no matter how hard she tried. But Noah had never known life without his brother. He had never lived a life without Finn and as much as Rip could try to be there for him, compared to before, Noah was now facing life alone.