Chapter Nine

"And she looked like she was about to pass out! Can you believe that? She's worried more about what people will think than what makes me happy!"

Violet's finger circled the rim of the coffee cup. Her eyes were cast downward; her brows were furrowed in concentration.

"Have you--"

Noah threw his hands in the air, shaking his head. "--I just didn't think a one-night-stand would have such a large impact on my life. I'm making all these rash, life-changing decisions because of my shitload of guilt."

Violet pursed her lips. "And you didn't--"

"I just can't believe we're all of a sudden having all these issues!"

The small blonde internally groaned. This was not how she wanted to spend her night. After driving around a bunch of prepubescent brats for a birthday party, she longed for a long soak in the tub, story time with her cats, and a date with her favorite detective on SVU. 

That all changed when her phone buzzed as she stepped through her--actually, Tyler's--door. She couldn't believe her eyes when her phone alerted her that she had a text from the one and only, Noah Anderson.

For some reason, she pitied him. Maybe, she had decided, that she knew what it felt like to be pushed down and abandoned when she was already at her lowest point, and she didn't want to do that to Noah, despite her history with him.

Maybe, she liked him in a you're-my-one-night-stand-guy-but-as-my-future-brother kind of way.

She, however, regretted her decision to invite Noah over when he barged open her door, half-naked (he had a tank top on, but Violet felt uncomfortable with males in tight clothing) and began vomiting words and anecdotes all over the place. He just couldn't stop talking, leaving Violet sitting on the couch, bored with a cup of coffee.

This is why I hate rich people. They think the world revolves around them. Well, my world revolves around my cats and SVU, which I'm missing right now!

"And she just kept going and going and going--"

"--like you've been doing for the past two hours!"  she snapped, shaking so violently that her coffee cup went crashing to the floor.

Splat.

Noah peered up the girl beside him, drenched in coffee and broken porcelain. 

"Woah, if I knew I'd be a problem, I wouldn't have come..." His voice trailed off at the end, as he bent over to clean up some of Violet's mess.

Was he a problem? Yes. Should she kick him out? Yes! But did Violet have the confidence to do that?

No!

"I'm sorry," Violet said, while pulling a handful of tissues from the box beside her. Her fingers danced around the shards of glass in order to wipe up the coffee before stains set in. "Have you tried telling her about how you feel?"

He rolled his eyes. "If something isn't going right, Shannon would rather ignore it."

Violet paused.

She was thrown back into high school years, when her dying grandfather was lying on a cot in a puke-green hospital room. He had had a sudden heartache, which had shocked her as her grandfather was fit as a fiddle. He ran every morning and afternoon and swore off any food that had not been grown by himself. Yet, his heart still gave out.

"Shannon, where are you?" Violet hissed into the phone, attempting to be as quiet as possible. Her mother was a mess, and she would have been destroyed if she knew her favorite daughter had not come to comfort her.

"Vi, it's prom tonight," Shannon plead enthusiastically.

Or fake enthustiastically.

"Did I not just mention that our grandfather is laying on the bed, dying? The doctors say that he's brain-dead. He'll never wake up. Come pay your respects before we let him go peacefully."

Violet heard a large sigh at the end of the phone. "Well, those doctors are stupid. He was fine when I was talking to him yesterday. He'll be fine after prom."

"You were the closest to him! I barely talked to him, and I'm not going to--"

Click.

"Violet?"

Her face shot up.

The beautiful blonde man before her was gingerly holding a ball of tissues around her right pointer finger. He knelt on the coffee-drenched ground, staring at her with his deep blue eyes.

"Yeah?" she quivered. His eyes are amazing...

"You zoned out while I went to throw out some of the shards," he breathed. "When I came back, you were playing with a shard of porcelein and were bleeding all over the place."

Violet paused. "Oh," she whispered faintly, "yeah. Thank you. I've had a lot of things on my mind lately."

He chuckled. "It's fine. When my dad had cancer, he lost his ability to think rationally and often cut himself on things. So, simple cuts are no issue for me, especially because I was training to be a doctor before all this lawyer shit happened."

She smiled weakly and offered Noah another tissue to wrap around her finger. He took it and gently enclosed her cut around it.

"You know...I'm sorry about before. About yelling at you. If you want to stay here while you're dealing with stuff, you can. I'm sure Tyler won't mind it! However, I would appreciate it if you let Shannon know you're not staying at home."

Noah smirked and nodded. "Good deal. I'll stay as long as you let me know what's been bothering you lately."

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"Thanks Noah," Shannon whispered to herself as she peered down at her phone. She had received one text from him, and it did not contain the apology that she had expected:

Shannon, I'm staying with a friend tonight. It'll be good for us to be apart for a night to clear our minds. Noah.

Great! She had to stay here, batting away all her parents' questions about Noah and the wedding, and he went to 'stay with a friend.' Who was this 'friend'? She had texted all the people she knew who associated with Noah associated, and they all replied with the exact same answer: Noah isn't here.

"Shannon, darling, did you pick your bridesmaids' dresses?" Her mother purred, leaning over the lace table cloth.

Does it matter? If  I don't sort out my issues with Noah, there probably won't be a wedding!

Shannon plastered a false smile on her face. "No, Mom, the magazine's been keeping me busy."

More like Noah's been keeping me busy.

Charlie shook her head playfully. "You're always doing work! You need time to relax, honey. I was just asking because I assume you're asking Violet to be a bridesmaid. Just make sure you don't put her in yellow. She looks sickly in yellow."

Shannon bit her tongue. While she never had a close relationship with her sister, it annoyed her that her mom saw Violet in a bad light. She wondered whether Charlie even loved Violet...

"Will do, Mom," Shannon replied. "Thank you for the advice."

Ding. Dong. Ding.

Shannon perked up with the thought that Noah might've showed up to her rescue. Maybe the old Noah was back. Maybe he wanted to patch things up with her and sweep her off her feet. Maybe their relationship was stronger than she expected...

And when her butler opened the door, a handsome man, dressed impeccably in a gray suit and white button-down walked in. His air was swept back, and he was smiling ear-to-ear.

Aaron.