I'm sitting on a chair in the middle of Miss Renee's office. Noah and Cory are both sitting by my sides in silence. I'm currently shivering from the cold; my hair is sticky and my clothes are dripping wet. The two boys by my sides aren't looking very good either. A dark bruise is forming at Noah's cheekbone, with a small cut on his lips, his clothes damp. Cory's lower lips is fully swollen, and let me not forget to mention the black eye.
You may be wondering, 'how the fuck did we end up like this?'
Alright, let me enlighten you a bit.
35 minutes earlier.
"I'm so not giving him mouth to mouth," Cory says, kneeling with me beside an unconscious Noah laying on the floor. "Let's just hide his dead body."
My chest rises up and down in a fast panting pace as I try to catch my breath, managing to throw Cory a glare. Swimming deep underwater is one thing, but dragging a full grown human being that might be 5ft taller than you while struggling to get you both out of the water without drowning is another thing entirely.
I push my hair out of my face with shaky hands, placing an ear to his chest to check if he's breathing. His heartbeat is a bit faint that I can hardly hear it, but then he stirs a little under my touch.
"He's alive. So we're not going to jail for murder," Cory breathes down a sigh of relief.
"We? I wasn't the one who pushed him in. If anyone is going to jail here, it's you."
Noah looks like he's trying to breathe, but something's blocking his throat. Without hesitation, I press down right into the space just beneath his ribcage. All at once, he coughs up water like a fountain, then gasps in a deep breath of air.
His eyes fly open, facing the sky.
It looks like he's afraid to move, or even look around his surroundings.
"Noah?" Cory calls out.
He stiffens the more. "God?"
I slap a hand to my forehead. "No. You're not dead. We're still in Hawaii."
Noah sits up, his eyes surveying the surroundings to check if he was still in the pool area. Then they land on me. "Really?"
"Why are you working in a pool when you can't even swim?!" I ask the obvious. What's wrong with this guy?
"The same reason your friends are working in the kitchen but can't cook."
"YOU FOOL!" I'm surprised by my own outburst. "It's dangerous. You would've died!"
For the first time, he looks away from me to Cory who hasn't said anything since he woke up. I see his stare turn icy, remembering who pushed him in the first place.
"You pushed me in," He lowly growls. "You fucker."
"I can explain..." but he doesn't let Cory explain. Dragging him by the shirt with a hand, Noah rams a fist into his face and I hear a crack.
A gasp leaves my mouth, even if I saw that coming. But I don't expect Cory's going to react, because he's not the type, which comes as a surprise to me when he grips a baton from the floor and swings it at Noah's face. He misses.
"You got to do better than that," Noah says. "Just lower your back more," He demonstrates. "Put your arms a little bit forward..."
He ends with an oomph as Cory swings the baton again, reaching his face this time. "You're a fast learner."
All hell breaks loose when Noah's fist makes contact with Cory's face again.
It feels like I'm watching a live action WWE match, the only difference is that there's no cheering them on. I yell at them to stop, but I'm sure the only thing they can hear right now are the sounds of their grunts and cracking of bones. Cory topples over Noah, his fists repeatedly driving into Noah's face. He clamps his hands together to block the punches and I fear he might go unconscious again with the rate Cory's going.
I thought I'd be able to withstand watching Noah being beat up, but as I hold myself back not to cry, my eyes feels 'nah, let's go Niagara Falls on this bitch'
It might have been the sound of my cries, or their grunts— Whatever it is— I'm glad it's able to attract Miss Renee's attention as I hear those familiar heels stomp towards us. Even the clicking of her heels sounds angry.
"Simpson, Gallagher, Brooke; in my office, NOW!" She points a slender finger to the direction of her office. Cory slams Noah back on the floor, walking grumpily along with me to the direction her finger points.
Present...
That's how we ended up here, in Miss Renee's office, sitting on a very little children's plastic chair that we have to slump all the way down for our butts to finally touch the seat. She made us sit here because we acted like children and needed to be treated like what we are... Children.
"Would someone please explain to me what that tumultuous activity was all about?" Miss Renee sits behind her desk, arms folded across her chest, looking down at us where we're seated. Noah raises his hand to speak. "Yes?"
"Can I get a bigger chair?"
"No one is getting a bigger chair," she says through gritted teeth. "Now I want to know why you guys almost cost me my job. Twice. It's going to be an entirely different story if it was the CEO seeing you three turn his hotel into a wrestling ground."
"It's my fault," I hear myself say. "I woke up in an ugly mood this morning and took it out on Noah. All these wouldn't have happened if I hadn't caused trouble in the first place. Let them go, I'll face the consequences."
"Shut the fuck up. It's not your fault. I threw the first punch and started the whole fight. Let them go, I'll face the consequences." Noah tells her.
"No, it's my fault," Cory speaks. "I pushed him into the water and it almost cost his life. Let them go, I'll face the consequences."
The bickering between the three of us starts, trying to prove a point why we should face the punishment and let the other two go. We're all yelling at ourselves at the same time, Noah doing a mocking imitation of me as I talk which gets me more riled up.
"ENOUGH!" We stop our yelling match as Miss Renee slams a hand on her desk. "Lovely how three of you are willing to face responsibilities for your actions. How about I call your parents?" She brings out a phonebook from a cupboard, which has all numbers of parents with children in this hotel.
They made us put down our parents phone number and house address incase of any unforeseen occurrences. Or just Incase any of us got in trouble. Like now.
"Cory, I'm sure your Father's going to be overjoyed with the news of his son becoming an upcoming John Cena." She says, and he tenses. I know his Dad, and I know he's not going to be anything near overjoyed if he knows what happened with his son today. His family background is what I'd call strict. His two older brothers got their asses hauled to Military school back in Asia.
Cory's mother being American, begged to have her last son back in her country to finish senior year and also maybe attend College here if he's of good behavior. Any tiny bit of complain about him, and he's joining his brothers in Military school.
He's really been a well-behaved kid from what I've seen, until now.
"And Noah," Miss Renee continues. "How happy would your mom be if she knows what her second child is up to. Remember what happened with your brother? Don't you think it's too much for her?"
What happened with his brother? And how does she know?
I look over at Noah. He's not scowling, he's not frowning, he's not doing anything but staring into space like he's out of the world. It frightens me more seeing him like this than when he's frowning. He just looks so... empty.
"You two may leave," Miss Renee tells Cory and I. "I have a little something to discuss with Noah."
I stare at him one last time and get up on my feet, walking lazily to the door and closing it behind me. Cory follows suit.
We both stand in silence outside her office, our backs pressed to the wall.
"I don't want to go to Military school," his voice breaks. "I don't want to go back home. I made so many memories here. So many friends. I was happy for the first time in my life, even if it was just a short while. Then there was you. You were awkward at first, but in a good way. And there's that thing you do when you talk nonstop, makes me want to hug you till you shut up."
He breathes down. I still don't say anything.
"Maybe I don't know what my future looks like, but I pray to God you'll still be in it." All the while he talks, he doesn't spare me a glance and I'm glad because I didn't want him to see how glossy and watery my eyes already are.
Cory pushes himself off the wall as he walks off tiredly. Minutes later, the office door pushes open and Noah walks out from it.
He stares down at me with that same look he had on before I left the office, but now, he looks even more pale. What had they discussed? And what happened with his brother?
The questions are at the tip of my tongue.
"Can you do me a favor?" He asks quietly and I nod vigorously. I'd do anything to make up for the tantrum I threw this morning.
"Do you remember the first thing I said to you on the plane to Hawaii?" Noah barely said anything to me that day, which makes it easier to remember the only thing he told me on the plane:
'Please stop talking to me'
I nod slowly this time, scared of what's going to come next.
"I want you to apply that sentence for the rest of the summer. You've been nothing but trouble ever since I bumped into you at the airport. You accuse me of stealing your neck-chain, which I already forgave you by the way. You punch me in the face in front of everyone. And now, I try to seduce you? What's next? Sexual harassment? Molestation? Rape?" He's not yelling, like he's too angry to do that.
"Friends? Enemies? Frenemies? I don't know what we are, but I sure as hell want it to stop. I don't want you talking to me, I don't even want you anywhere near me. I'm done here."
"Noah, I-"
"Please. Don't."
We elapse in a silence that goes on forever.
"Okay," I say in a voice quiet enough that at first I don't think Noah hears it. But he nods a bit, and it kills me a little that he doesn't look me in the eye before turning on his heels.
I ruined everything. The thought hurts more in that spot in my chest where it feels like my heart's being squeezed. I don't think about how my mum's going to lecture me later on when she calls regarding good behavior, or how dad's going to threaten me to go back to Florida which isn't a problem because I'm not going to pick up his calls.
All I know is that Noah doesn't even look back at me once. And a part of me wishes he did.