Chapter 48

Chapter 48
NOAH
Everything was a mess. Everything was a big fucking mess and I hated that I couldn’t do anything to stop it.
“Noah,” Javier called out and I hmmed in response, pulling my hand away from my eyes. “You good?”
“...Yeah,” I muttered and picked my phone up from my chest to check if I had a message or missed call from Dalia even though I would know if I had any of those seeing as the phone wasn’t on silent.
Nothing.
I had been waiting for her to call me since I got home and it was almost midnight now, but she still hadn’t and it made me worried. I mean, there were different possible reasons for why she hadn’t called yet, but I couldn’t stop myself from thinking that she didn’t want to because she realized that getting involved with me had been a bad idea. Of course, I could call her instead and I had thought about doing that several times but didn’t, because if she actually chose to not call me, she probably didn’t want me to call.
…I don’t know. Like I said, everything was a mess, and that included my mind.
“You sure?” he asked and I glanced at him before pushing myself into a sitting position. I already told him what happened today, including me telling dad who Allison was pregnant for, and the reason he was still here at this time was because he was a bit worried about me.
“Yeah.” I heaved a sigh as I leaned forward, resting my arms on my thighs. “My head just aches… I’m going to take an aspirin,” I added, getting to my feet, and moments after I got to the kitchen, my phone began to ring.
I immediately turned my attention to it, thinking it was Dalia, but my hope turned into apprehension when I saw that the call was from mum. We hadn’t spoken much since the day she tried to guilt me into letting Shane come to my birthday dinner, and I could only come up with one reason for why she was calling me now. Dad had told her.
I pressed my lips together and leaned against the counter, watching the phone ring. When I went to see Dad after leaving school and told him that it wasn’t me Allison was pregnant for, he hadn’t reacted like I expected him to. He had been disappointed, but not surprised, and he told me he had been suspecting it for a while before thanking me for telling him.
I hadn’t expected him to tell mum this soon though, and my apprehension stemmed from me knowing how this call would go down. Nevertheless, I was still glad I finally told him because it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.
I took a deep breath and accepted the call. “He-”
“Noah,” the person on the other end started and my brows snapped together because it wasn’t mum. It was Shane. “Noah. What did you do? What the fuck did you do?!”
I scowled and pulled the phone away from my ear before hanging up. Unbelievable.
“Fucking idiot.”
It didn’t take long for the phone to start ringing again and I wondered if mum knew he was using her phone to call me and if Dad had even told her what I told him. The call went unanswered and he called again. And again. And again. When the phone started ringing for the fifth time, I decided to answer it. Not because he was calling incessantly, but because I actually wanted to hear what the fuck he wanted to say.
“Yes?” I said, irritation evident in my voice, after answering it.
“You told dad. You fucking told dad!” He sounded like he couldn’t believe that I had done it. Like I didn’t give him more than enough time to tell dad himself. It was sickening.
“And?”
“And?! Are you fucking with me? Do you hear yourself right now?” He was hysterical and I sort of wanted to know what dad had said to him to make him this way. “You ruined everything!”
“Wow,” I muttered, the corner of my mouth quirking up because of his last statement, and heaved a sigh. He sounded so fucking stupid that I couldn’t even get upset with him blaming me. “Well, if that’s all you have to say -”
“Okay, don’t. Don’t. Don’t give me that attitude. Sounding so fucking smug! I was trying to fix it. I was going to fix it,” he continued and I raised a brow, wondering how he had planned to fix it. “Everything would have been fine if you didn’t fucking tell him. I was going to fix it, Noah!”
“Don’t fucking start with me, Shane. You’re not quite as wise or well-meaning as you think.”
“And you think you are?! You only told him because Allison pissed you off and you wanted to get back at her!” he shot back and I almost laughed before he began to ramble about how ‘my actions’ were going to affect our family.
I had wondered if he and Allison still talked to each other on my way home because if they did, she probably already told him about Dalia. And now, his last statement confirmed that they still talked and she had told him about Dalia. He could run to his friends on the board with the news of me dating a student and they would immediately take action. I couldn’t bring myself to care about that right now though, and as I remembered the things he said to me after I found out that Allison was pregnant, I felt even more disgusted by the things he was saying now.
“You poor deluded creature. Of course, it’s not your fault. It’s never your fault,” I muttered after he finished his spiel, and I heard mum calling his name in the background. “You and that fucking bitch are just the same. You guys deserve each other.” I ended the call and shoved the phone in my pocket before proceeding to take the aspirin I came here for.
My phone rang as I left the kitchen, but I already heard what he had to say, so I ignored it. “I’m going to bed, Javier. Let me know when you’re leaving,” I said after stopping next to him in the living room, and he turned to face me.
“Oh… Okay.”
I then patted his shoulder and headed to my room, plopping down on the bed with a sigh. Several moments later, my phone began to ring again and I clenched my jaw before pulling it out of my pocket to put it on silent, but I quickly sat up when I saw that it was a call from Dalia. The smile she gave me before I left her hours ago came to mind and I smiled, allowing myself to relax a bit as I answered the call. “Hey, love.”