The First Noelle
Disclaimer: Private is Kate Brian's not mine!
Told in Noelle Lange's POV:
Chapter 1 Over for Good
For Easton Academy, this particular Friday night was eerily silent. If it weren't for the frigid and biting snowstorm outside I wouldn't have thought much about it. The only sound I could hear was a faint whimper coming from somewhere in Billings. My home. At first I thought it was the other Billings Girls along with Kiran Hayes, the Calvin Klein billboard girl, and Taylor Bell, the brilliant girl whose work for the year was done and turned in already, downstairs gossiping and drinking around the hearth of the orange-yellow glowing fireplace. But, as I heard the familiar scream of 'bloody murder", I knew in an instant what was going on. I grabbed my iPhone off my desk, now cluttered with notes for history with Mr. Barber, and walked quickly up to the roof. My eyes met Ariana Osgood's then Reed Brennan's and I knew what my best friend was up to. I saw the silver flash of a knife blade against Reed's skin and Ariana pressing in further and further in. Thoughts of the night when Ariana had killed Thomas Pearson, the love of her life, came flooding into my mind. I tried to shake the morbid memory away, but they just kept coming faster and uncontrollably. No I told myself. Noelle Lange does not think like that. Ever. I walked over to Ariana quietly and stood there seeing the venom in her eyes as she spat out: "I should have killed you in the first place. If I had just killed you, then Thomas and I would be together now. Together. Like we were supposed to be." I sighed deeply and put my hand on her shoulder knowing that Reed would be gone for good in two minutes if I didn't do something. I couldn't bring myself to do anything. It was like I wanted and needed her dead. After all the drama she created here at Easton. She just needed to go. I wanted to spend senior year with Ariana and Dash McCaftrey living it up. Getting rid of my little glass-licker would be the only way for that to happen. Everything happens for a reason Noelle remember. I looked up into Reed's Croton-ass Pennsylvanian face as she whisper begged me to do something to save her. Fuck. Now she wanted my help. I breathed out exasperatedly, "Reed Billings was never meant for you. I know I pressed to get you into this place, but obviously that was a big fucking mistake. You've caused nothing but shit for me to deal with this year and I am way beyond done covering your ass. I thought that you would change and be different after Thomas was out of your life, but no you just sat around waiting for something that would never come to come. I'm just done with you Brennan. I really am." I turned to Ariana seeing that look she got that night with Thomas and smirked. Reed faintly wailed "Noelle please. Come on Billings girls stick together. It's what you're always telling us. I…I…I am sorry just let me prove to you that I can be different." I had to laugh at that one. "Uh Reed it's a tad late for apologies. I can't stop Ariana because we'd both end up dead. So just shut the hell up and deal with it like I've had to deal with you." I really wanted this to be over. If my dad or Headmaster Cromwell ever found out I was involved with something like this I'd be as dead as Thomas Pearson tied to a pole. I looked away and heard Reed scream, fall to the floor, and gasp. I heard the force behind Ariana's shove and the final piercing scream leaving Reed's throat. I whipped my head around and saw her body laying there motionless like she was asleep. Only I knew that she would never wake up. I saw the blood all over her and gulped. "Finally the damn bitch is dead. Now we can live without all the crap she brought here!" Ariana said haphazardly. I nodded and flashed a wicked grin earning a satisfying look from Ariana. Ariana picked Reed up limpness and all and carried her to my black BMW and tossed her in the backseat. "I'll be right back Noelle just go have fun with the other girls." I smiled. "Of course I will Osgood a little death never stopped me before." I tossed her my keys and went back inside and grabbed a cup of hot chocolate off the coffee table and sat next to Taylor. "Hey, Noelle where have you been? We were looking all over for you." I blushed for effect. "Just out with Dash as always!" Dash. The über delicious lacrosse player who just happened to be my boyfriend. The one who every girl on campus would love to just talk to. That statement earned ooh's and ahw's from Kiran who obviously had spiked her drink with vodka or something equally as alcoholic. I rolled my eyes and sighed thinking about everything that just had happened. Whatever Ariana was doing I knew was going to be good. Girl had that last name for a reason. The conversations drown on and on about boys, the newest agency that wanted Kiran, Tiffany's dad's photo shoot downtown the next day, and the Legacy which was coming up in two and a half months. All I wanted to do was sleep. But that could come later after the news of Reed's "suicide" dwindled down. Reed. I thought of her and realized how much I had loathed the idea of expelling Leanne to get her in here. Premberly would have sufficed for her. I guess Ariana had wanted her in Billings as a "keep your enemies closer" thing. Everyone deserves the truth at some point, but sometimes it hurts and I guess that Reed dug too deep and wasn't able to get herself out. She was over. Gone. And my life had just gotten ten times better.