Disclaimer: I don't own Private, Kate Brian does.
Made my decision. I am thinking three or four more chapters in this book. I hope you enjoy
Noelle POV
I walked in my room. Reed hadn't done much since Kiran was in the hospital. It had been three weeks. We had raised all the money we needed for the Billings house. People had felt pity for Kiran and made donations. We had a carnival and the color me beautiful party. Billings's reconstruction had already started and things should be perfect for us but they weren't.
This was all my fault. I had come back that night to our room. Reed said a few simple words to me. Your secret is safe. I had told her it was ok, she could tell Josh and that I trusted him. She responded that no, he needed to trust her. I felt guilty and I knew Reed felt like shit because Josh was being an ass hole. He was being a flirty guy, going on random dates. He had gone on a date with Missy, she wanted to piss Reed off and she successfully did, but he didn't call back.
How could he live with himself knowing what Reed was going through? She didn't cheat on him. Worse than for Reed was for Mark. He had come back to school and things weren't the same. He had gotten back together with Kiran. Josh had really hated him and he made it known. Everyone tried to help Josh, but nothing worked.
"Reed let's go get some lunch." I said. It was Saturday morning and I was going to get her out of bed this weekend. She groaned.
"No, Noelle, I am not going outside to see Josh with some new random girl." She whined.
"Come on Reed, Kiran is back and coming for lunch today. Taylor is coming over and I think that you need to get out of bed and make Josh jealous. Look it is finally and it's gorgeous outside." I tried to reason with her but she wouldn't have it.
"I don't feel good. Tell them I said hi." She said. With that she stormed out of our room to who knows where. I heavily sighed. I knew how to fix this.
I applied a final coat of lip gloss. If I was going to cry I was going to look good while I cried. I was coming clean to Josh, about what happened. I looked down at my outfit. I was wearing some black shorts and a big loose white shirt with a black butterfly printed across it. I looked good. I put my new sandals on and went outside looking for Josh.
He should be in the art hall drawing something for someone. There were only a few weeks left of school and we would be graduating soon. I needed to fix things for them. I walked into the art hall hoping to find Josh. To my dismay he wasn't there.
I checked all around campus hoping to find him. When I finally found him on the quad flirting with a group of girls who were trying way to hard.
"Hollis come here before I beat the shit out of you." I said through my teeth. He looked at me and his smile faded.
"Noelle go away, don't try and tell me Reed wasn't lying, she was cheating on my plain and simple." Josh said.
"Leave now or the rest of you high school career will be miserable." I said flashing my famous Noelle Lange smile around to the group of girls.
"Noelle what the hell?" Josh yelled at me once they all left. I took the opportunity to slap him across the face.
"Josh she wasn't cheating on you, she was protecting someone." I said. I didn't want to tell him everything. I didn't even want Reed to know everything.
"You know what, if she wants to tell me what is going on she can get her lazy ass up and tell me herself." Josh said starting to walk away.
"No she can't. Don't you get it? She promised someone she would keep their secret because she is a great friend and is doing anything to help them. She isn't lying to you Josh." I said. He stopped and turned towards me.
"Noelle tell me what is going on. I can help." He said. I stayed silent for a moment too long. My lip was quivering but I doubted he could tell. "That is what I thought. You and Reed are exactly the same. You are bitches who cheat and lie and nothing bad happens to you. Get this in your head and relay the message to Reed. I am done with you, you disgust me." Josh said. He walked away and I shut my eyes. He would not win this battle. I was ready to break down, but I couldn't yet.
I stormed back up to my dorm room to find Reed gone. I sighed, nothing was going my way today. Soon enough my best friend would hate me, and probably soon enough my life would be over anyway. If James got what he wanted then I wouldn't be around for much longer.
My phone went off, it was Taylor texting me that she was at the gates. I met her out there, Kiran and Mark went with me.
"Hey how is Reed doing?" Mark asked. Kiran looked guilty and I knew Mark felt guilty. I shook my head and Kiran looked down. Taylor ran out from the car she was in and over to us.
"Hey Tay," I said giving her a light hug. She gave Kiran a big hug.
"How is she?" Taylor asked, she had been filled in on what happened.
"Not good, she still won't leave her room. I tried talking to him but he won't have it." I said. They looked at each other and frowned.
"I don't understand why she can't just tell Josh who is being stalked and why. I don't understand why she is keeping it a secret." Taylor said. I nodded in pretend agreement. Deep down I wanted to tell them but I couldn't, not yet.
"She said she had promised her friend from back home she wouldn't. I guess it has something to do with her home." I lied. That was what Reed and I were telling people. It's not like anyone would check the facts.
"I don't get it, you would think a true friend would tell her it was ok." Kiran said. I looked down at my feet. She was right; I should have told Reed it was ok earlier. I had to make things right.
"I am going to check something out, senior project." I said blowing it off. I walked away with my head d her down.
I intended on going back to the dorm to check if Reed was there yet. I should have told her it was ok right away. I shouldn't have made her lose the love of her life. I was the worst best friend ever.
By the time I had reached the dorm Reed was there. She was dressed and she looked like she might be going out.
"Hey, do you want to go say hi to Taylor, she just got here." Reed looked at me pain in her eyes. She was feeling bad.
"Noelle listen, I know you don't really want me to tell Josh and I am not going to. I don't want you to stand here and feel guilty about it though. If you would just open up things would be ok but I can't stay here like this. I can't pretend I am doing even a little bit ok. Noelle I am leaving Easton for the weekend, I don't know when I will be back. Don't contact me because I don't really want to talk to you right now. I will keep your secret but because I have I lost Josh. Listen I love you and all but I can't be near you right now." Reed said. My mouth fell open and it felt like my heart had been ripped out. She looked sorry for what she had said.
She moved past me in one motion as I stayed motionless. I had to fix things. I was the worst friend ever. I let things go too far.
"Reed, I was going to tell him." I shouted following her down the hall. She turned her bag in her hands.
"Noelle I don't want you to feel bad about this, but no. I just can't be around this right now and maybe it's your fault but it isn't your fault that bad things happened to you. I am leaving because I can't be around him." Reed said. She looked at her feet. I knew she wanted to add or you on the end but she was to nice to do that.
I felt a tear roll down my eyes. She walked out of the building and into her father's old beat up car. Reed Brennan had left campus and it was all my fault. I was the reason that the great Reed Brennan left.
I was determined to make things better, I had to make things better. Things had to get better. I stormed into Ketlar to find Josh throwing a ball against his dorm room wall. Outside his window you could see Billings being built.
"She was protecting me you ass hole." I said entering his room. He stopped what he was doing and looked at me.
"What are you talking about Noelle?" He asked. As if he didn't know.
"Congratulations, you helped drive Reed Brennan away. She just left and doesn't know when she is coming back so congratulations. She wouldn't tell you who was being stalked because I asked her not to but it doesn't matter anymore. You couldn't handle her trying to protect someone. So you drove her away by seeing all those girls, by trying to get back at her." I said. I was out of breath from my rant. He looked at me with anger in his eyes.
"She's gone?" He asked. I was about to say something but he stopped me. "Did you ever think it was your fault too Noelle? You are the one who swore her to secrecy, probably because you did something illegal. She would do anything for you and you couldn't do one simple thing for her. You are selfish plain and simple selfish. It is your fault because one small imperfection in your life Reed covered up for you. " Josh shouted.
"Fine then it was both of our faults, are you happy. Why don't you call her and make up? Make her come back Josh because I know you love her. Tell her you were wrong." I begged. I felt tears starting to come.
"It wasn't both of our faults Noelle, it is your fault. What did you do wrong, steal something for fun. If you hadn't made her protect you this wouldn't have happened. What was the weak little Noelle Lange scared of. Her daddy cutting her off?" Josh said. Tears were rolling down my eyes now. He acted victorious but I wouldn't let him feel like he won.
"Someone killed my sister and tried to kill me. Are you happy now, you know the one thing about me only Dash and Reed know. There you go there is the weak Noelle Lange you wanted but guess what it wasn't something petty. Someone is trying to kill me again and someone sabotaged Reed. Congrats Josh now you know my secret." I said. I was crying hard now. His face fell as he realized what happened. I ran away as fast as my feet would take me. I needed to hide.
I needed to be away from everyone. I walked behind campus to the woods. No one would be there, it was enough on campus to not be dangerous but people didn't come out here unless they were partying.
I found an open field where I let it all out. I cried for Reed, I wished she would come back. I should have told Josh right away but I was afraid to admit that I was scared.
"I'm sorry Hailey, I let you down." I cried. I wanted her to know. I had made a promise that I would stay strong but instead I became completely fake. The exact opposite of what Hailey wanted.
"I'm so sorry," I cried quieter this time. I dug my hands in the mud. No one seemed to care for me. Reed left, not wanting me to feel bad. I knew she didn't want me to feel bad. I knew Josh didn't mean those things about me. I knew people really cared. But it seemed so much like they couldn't care less.
I let some tears fall silently from my eyes before I collapsed to the ground. I was tired and couldn't bring myself to move. Someone would go looking for me tomorrow, tonight I could stay here, I would be fine.
I was sitting holding my knees up to my chest. I heard I crack and turned. Another crack from the other direction cause me to turn the other way. Suddenly something grabbed me from behind and covered my mouth. I tried to fight but my body wouldn't let me. I felt something poke me before I was thrown down to the ground. James climbed on top of me and ripped his pants of as well as mine.
He raped me, three times to be exact. He left the knife at my throat and had cut my arm more than once, I was too weak to move.
"I should let you die Elle," He said. I cried because he should, no one cared about me anymore. "But that wouldn't be any fun." He said.
He tied my hands up and hit me over the head with a club. My vision blurred and before I knew it I was out cold. My vision went black and the only thought left running through my mind 'someone will find me, someone will care'. I wished it to be true.
Sorry for the short chapter, I wanted it to be longer but it worked better this way. So when I started this I had completely different intentions for it. I skipped a lot of time, but it would have been unimportant. I wanted to emphasize how alone Noelle had felt.
Will someone find her?
Will James get arrested?
Will Reed come back?
What will happen to Reed and Josh?
Just a few chapters left so please review!