HIDDEN CREEK KISS: a hidden creek high novel, page 18
She looked at me. “Why? Why did she do this?”
“I don’t know, babe. I don’t fucking know. But look at me, Nova. You’re never going back there. That’s not your home anymore.”
“Yeah? You think so, Elijah? What am I going to do then? Be like Noelle and just live in Cherry’s house?”
“Why not?” I asked. “It’s not like you have to go back there. Or we can find something together. Get our own place somewhere.”
“Stop.”
“I’m serious, Nova. I have… I mean, I’m okay. With things.”
“Money?”
“Yeah,” I said. “We can find something. Just us. Nobody can hurt us. Nobody can let us down. Ever.”
“Elijah…”
“Okay,” I said. I showed my hands. “I don’t know what else to say or do here, babe. What can I do? Tell me what I can do.”
Nova stared forward.
She didn’t speak for a long time.
I managed to touch her shoulder without her freaking out. My fingers gently worked their way to her hair and played with it the way she always liked me to do. She blinked and a stray tear slid down her cheek.
She sucked in shaky breaths and let them out the same.
And then her head turned.
Her blue eyes shined brighter from the tears.
“You want to do something for me?” she asked.
“Anything,” I said. “I swear on my life. Anything.”
“Take me.”
“Take you…”
“Take me home,” she said. “Take me to the house. I want to see it. I want to see her. I want to see him. I want to see them. Together.”
She was shaking again.
“Nova…”
“Fucking take me there,” she said. “Or I’ll walk. Or I’ll call for a ride.”
I felt my heart slamming inside my chest. A mix of anger and pain. The desire to protect Nova in a way that would probably only end up hurting all of us.
I touched her cheek and wiped a tear away.
“It’s not your home, babe,” I said. “Don’t ever call it that again. Okay?”
Nova nodded. “Okay.”
I swallowed hard. “And, yeah, I’ll take you there right now.”
* * *
I pulled up to the mansion and reached for Nova’s hand.
She looked at me and nodded.
“You know I’m coming with you, right?” I asked.
“That’s why I’m nodding, Elijah.”
We walked to the house hand in hand.
The fear coming off of Nova as we walked to the front door pissed me off even more. I thought for a second she was going to knock, which would have just done me in for good. Instead, she reached for the security keypad and entered a code that unlocked the door.
When she opened the door, her mother was on the second step of the grand staircase with a bag at her feet.
She looked right at Nova and her eyes filled with tears.
Then she looked at me.
She shook her head.
“Where is he?” I asked.
“Not here right now,” Nova’s mother said. “He went to get some wine. And dinner.”
“Candlelight?” Nova asked. “To set the mood?”
“No private chef to cook for you?” I asked.
“You don’t understand it,” Nova’s mother said.
Nova pulled away from me and I had to let her go.
I stood in the marble foyer and watched Nova grab her mother’s bag and throw it down to the floor.
“What are you thinking right now?” Nova screamed at her mother. “How? Why?”
“I can’t live at Cherry’s forever,” her mother said. “It’s not feasible. You know that, Novalee. It was good to get distance. And time. That helped.”
“Helped what?” Nova asked.
Her mother touched the corners of her eyes. “I know you won’t understand this, but it showed your father the truth.”
I folded my arms and gritted my teeth to keep from exploding. This wasn’t my family and it wasn’t my situation. Even though I cared a lot about Nova.
“What truth?” Nova asked.
“He realized what it was like to lose me. To lose us.”
“Oh, no way,” Nova said. “Don’t drag me into this. I’m not coming back here.”
“Yes, you are,” her mother said.
I stepped forward and chewed on my tongue some more.
“I am not coming back to this place,” Nova said. “Ever again. What do you think he’s going to do? Get you your favorite dinner, right? The penne from Antorio’s. Right? And your favorite wine.” Nova touched her right temple. “I know all of this. I watched it for years. He gets you your favorite dinner and wine. You get tipsy. So you can forget. He works his charm and then you are right back where you started.”
“Don’t speak to me like that,” Nova’s mother yelled. “You don’t know a thing, Novalee. You’re a kid.”
“I’m an adult,” Nova said. “Like you. Why don’t you act like one?”
Her mother swung a hand but missed Nova’s cheek.
That’s when I finally got involved.
I had no choice.
I put an arm between them and looked at Nova’s mother.
“Really?” I asked. “After everything that’s happened? Your first reaction is to slap her?”
Her mother’s chin quivered and her eyes widened with… fear? Guilt? Doubt? Pain?
“I’m so sorry,” her mother said. “Elijah. You did a lot for me. I appreciate that. Thank you. You saved me. You saved me when I couldn’t save myself. And I’ll always be thankful for that. But I have to… I have to be here.”
“No, you don’t,” I said.
“You don’t know what was said,” Nova’s mother said.
“Yes, I do,” Nova said. “I heard it all before. I can say it word for word.”
“I’m sorry, Novalee, but I have to go get showered and changed,” her mother said. “I want to make sure everything is perfect when he gets back.”
Her mother started to walk up the stairs.
I looked at Nova and then jumped up two steps at a time.
I blocked her mother’s way. “You can figure this out. It doesn’t have to be like this. He’s going to hurt you again. And if he hurts you, he hurts Nova. I saw you at Cherry’s. The way you acted. That was you. The real you. Not this version of you.”
Her mother stared into my eyes. “Elijah. I’m sorry but you’re not welcome here anymore. I don’t need you to show up and cause any more trouble than you already have. Now if you don’t leave right now, I’m going to have to call the police.”
Nova’s mother walked around me and was gone.
I looked down the stairs at Nova and wasn’t sure what was going to happen next.
I walked down the fancy steps and slid my hands to Nova’s face.
“What do I do, Elijah?” she whispered.
“Leave,” I said. “We leave. Together. You’ve done nothing wrong, Nova. You’ve done everything you can.”
“I’m not going to help her again,” Nova said. “I’m not going to find her in a closet, bleeding and confused, and help her.”
“Nobody said you had to,” I said. “You’ve done your part. Now you need to leave this house for good before it swallows you up too.”
We left the house and got into my car.
I made it halfway down the wide driveway when a car appeared, coming our way.
It was Nova’s father.
I slowed and looked at her.
“Just keep going,” she said. “I’m done here.”
I stayed at the same slow speed and made damn sure to look right at her father as he looked at me. He had a surprised look on his face and then sped up to get home.
“He’s probably calling the police,” Nova said. “Just to have someone watch the house tonight. Doesn’t trust me. Or us.”
“He shouldn’t,” I said.
“Elijah… I have to say something to you.”
I got out of the driveway and drove away fast.
“Talk to me, babe,” I said to Nova.
She put her hand on mine. “Please… please don’t hurt me ever again.”
* * *
Nova’s words played through my mind all night and all day the next day.
The hours were nothing but a blur as I couldn’t do a thing but think. Just sit and think. Walk and think. Drive and think. Smoke and think.
To make matters worse, Nova texted me to pick her up at Cherry’s just after dark. That she had something she needed help with.
She wouldn’t tell me what it was.
And, of course, I would do anything for her.
My time spent alone, I thought about those BC guys. They had clearly wanted to send me a message. One telling the other to break my jaw to keep my mouth shut. They didn’t want me talking and I had no reason to talk. I didn’t know a thing they were doing or what Ryland had wanted them to do. I just wanted my name cleared off their list of people they wanted to hurt.
I didn’t want to hurt anyone either.
I didn’t want to fight.
I just want… Nova.
The entire thing revolved around her.
Whether that meant staying in Hidden or finding some other little beach town to call home for a while, I just wanted her.
The fight between Wes and I was just pent up frustration and nothing more. A few punches here and there and we called it a day and went our separate ways. The friendship between Nova and Aira meant far more than the bullshit hate that lingered between myself and Wes. Especially since most of that bullshit hate stemmed from Ryland.
I pulled up to Cherry’s just after dark and waited for Nova.
She came running down the stone path sidewalk with a bag thrown over her shoulder. She was jumpy and smiling as she did so. Her surfer blonde hair dancing all over the place. There wasn’t a time I ever saw her cleaned up and dressed nice and I hoped I would never see that time, ever. She was so perfect the way she was.
When she got into my car, she tossed her bag to the backseat.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Nothing,” she said.
“What?”
“Just drive, Elijah.”
“Are you running away from Cherry’s?” I asked. “I mean, I’m completely fine with that. I actually wanted to talk to you about something…”
“Just fucking drive, dude!” she yelled.
I reached for her face and made her look at me. “You’re drunk.”
She lifted her left hand and put a small space between her thumb and pointer fingers. “Little bit.”
“What did you do?” I asked.
“Nothing,” she said, smiling. “Just drive.”
“Can I tell you my plan?” I asked.
“Later.”
I pulled her close and kissed her nose.
Because kissing her lips and the way they smelled like booze, I would have ended up drunk.
As I drove, Nova gave directions.
Each time she told me to turn or do something else, she giggled to herself.
I glanced back at the bag a few times and couldn’t make sense of anything.
Other than it was fun to see her relaxed and laughing.
When she told me to take a right turn and I realized we were now on the street where her house was, I looked at her and started to slow down.
She laughed harder than ever.
“Nova. What is this?”
“Fun,” she said. “Okay?”
“What kind of fun?”
“The kind you like, Elijah.”
“You could have just said we were going to your parent’s house.”
“What’s the fun in that?”
I stopped trying to get information out of her and just finished the drive.
There were no cops waiting at the house, which was good.
I drove up the driveway and she reached across and grabbed the steering wheel.
“Stop!” she yelled.
I stopped. “What?”
“Right there,” she said.
She pointed to a massive, pearl white SUV that sat right out front of the house.
“Is that yours?” I asked.
She snorted. “No. I mean, it could have been. My father wants to buy me one. Buy me a vehicle, Elijah. He wants to buy my silence. He wants to go on a trip somewhere. Just the three of us. Hell, he even said you could come. You believe that? That piece of shit.”
“Okay,” I said. “What are we doing here then?”
“He bought that for my mother,” she said. “He’ll buy her anything now to keep her mouth shut. He won’t hurt her. He’s too smart. He’ll wait. She’ll fall right back into the trap.”
“Nova… look at me, babe…”
She turned but ignored me and went for the bag.
I watched as she struggled with the bag.
When I grabbed it out of her hand, I realized it had some weight.
“What is in here?” I asked.
Nova smiled big. “Rocks.”
She snorted and giggled again.
“Rocks…”
“Yeah,” she said. “Rocks. We’re going to fuck up that SUV.”
Before I could even process what the hell Nova was talking about, she was out of the car, throwing the bag of rocks over her shoulder.
“Shit,” I growled as I got out of the car and went after her.
She dropped the bag to the ground and unzipped it.
When she pulled out a large rock, I ran a hand through my hair.
She stood up and looked at me, grinning ear to ear.
“You’re serious?” I asked her.
“Yeah,” she said. “What are they going to do? Call the cops on me? I’ll tell the cops everything I know about them. And their fake fucking life. Fuckers.”
“Hold on, babe,” I said. “You bust a window and the alarm is going to go off. Let me-”
Nova held up a key fob and giggled again. “Got the copy from the house earlier.”
She pressed the button and the doors unlocked and the lights flashed.
“Holy shit, Nova,” I said. “I think I’m falling in love with you even more right now.”
“Good,” she said. “Now back the fuck up so I can trash this fucking thing.”
I put my hands up and stepped back.
Nova wound up and threw the rock.
It hit the door of the SUV with a thud and fell to the ground.
“Get closer,” I told her. “Nobody is judging you.”
Nova retrieved the same rock and put a small distance between herself and the driver’s side window.
She threw the rock over her head this time and screamed when she did so.
The rock hit the window and shattered it.
Nova turned and looked at me, smiling.
“Are you good now?” I asked her.
“No,” she said. “We have a bag full of rocks to throw!”
I looked down at the bag.
Then back to Nova.
She was happy.
We were breaking the law.
Life was perfect.
* * *
I put my head back and looked up to the stars, grinning with a cigarette in my mouth and my right hand holding Nova’s left hand. We were in the sand, our feet near the water, listening to the ocean.
Nova had her head on my shoulder and I thought more than a few times that she was asleep.
But she wasn’t.
She looked content.
At peace.
But inside her, there was still a lot of pain.
What we had done tonight was just add to all the pain. For everyone in her family. Her parents would find the SUV trashed and know who did it. They’d simply just get a new one. Never talk about what had happened. Her father would probably convince her mother that it was just Nova blowing off steam. It was obvious the man was good with words when it came to Nova’s mother.
I finished my cigarette and could have stayed right there all damn night.
The air temperature was perfect.
The soundtrack of the ocean seemed different for some reason.
And I had Nova next to me.
My eyes refused to shut though, thinking about those pricks that came after me on the beach. There were too many sides of the story colliding together at once. But in an ironic way, at least we were on the beach. A place where everything could be washed away. If you made a sandcastle at noon, by the next morning the tide would have come and washed it away. Erasing everything. Starting over.
I looked down at Nova.
Kind of like us, babe.
She looked up at me and smiled. Then she jumped away from me.
“Hey,” she yelled.
“Hey,” I said.
“You had a plan for something. Crap. I screwed it up.”
“You didn’t screw anything up, babe.”
“What’s your plan? What else are we doing tonight?”
I laughed. “Slow down, Nova. Tonight has been fun. I was thinking about what I said before to you. About having a place together.”
“Oh?”
“I know,” I said. “Maybe not yet. But… let’s just bolt out of here, babe. For one night. Just you and me. I found a place and I rented it.”
“A place?”
“It’s a cabin. It’s in the woods. I know it sounds stupid. Like dumb hippie, tree hugging shit. It’s only an hour away from here. I was thinking we’d just go. Hang out and relax. Cuddle on the couch under a blanket. A fire in the fireplace. Forget about everything. Nobody can find us or get to us, Nova. We don’t think about your parents. We don’t think about my parents. We don’t think about Ryland. Or BC. Or BFH. Or HCH. Or any other stupid fucking letters that seem to mess up our lives.”
Nova swallowed hard and nodded. “Okay.”
“Okay? That’s all I get?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Okay. Let’s go. Let’s do it. Why not?”
“Thought you’d be more excited than that, babe,” I said.
“What do you want me to do? Take my shirt off and jump into the ocean?”
“That would be a good start,” I said.
“Fine,” Nova said.
She jumped to her feet and reached for her shirt.
Before I could get to my feet, Nova had her shirt off. She threw it at me and then kicked off her shoes, dug her phone out of her pocket and ran toward the ocean. Wearing nothing but jean shorts and a bra.
