20th November 2019

NOAH

That math period had been amazing.

I mean, free marshmallows for easy math problems? If the ISA had motivated me like that, maybe I'd have never slipped into my rebellious ways.

"Does Mr Goldman always hand out marshmallows in a test?" I asked Renee as we walked towards our chemistry lab.

She'd been quiet for the whole duration, looking conflicted about something.

"Huh? No, that's the first time he's done that," She mumbled out, fidgeting on the strap of her backpack.

"Are you okay?" I asked her, slightly concerned.

"Yeah," She replied shortly, avoiding my gaze.

I frowned. For the past few days, I couldn't get a single proper conversation out of Renee, like she was desperate to avoid me. I broke my head over it, wondering if I'd done something to offend her, especially since she didn't know that I was Noah.

"Actually," Renee stopped walking as she turned around to face me. "I'm not okay. I don't understand why you'd want me to teach you if you're already so good at everything?"

Because I want to be with you.

"Oliver, why would you hide something so huge?" She repeated, her blazing gaze piercing through my own. "How long are you going to keep pretending?"

I stared at her, feeling a certain gravity about her gaze that hadn't been there before. It was almost like she was seeing past my facade, beyond the toothy Oliver who lied a lot and inhaled marshmallows like oxygen.

It took a while for me to answer.

"You know, don't you?" I whispered, knowing that there was no other reason for her to be angry. "You've figured out who I am."

"Of course I did!" She whispered back furiously. "You were dropping around very obvious hints after all." She rolled her eyes.

I smirked at the thought of my lame attempts to make her realise who I was. As loyal as Renee had been to Noah, Oliver certainly didn't enjoy seeing his girlfriend evade him like that.

"Want another hint?" I leaned forward, briefly lowering my eyes to her lips. She turned red and stepped back, still angry with me.

"I'm the one with the questions here. And I still haven't got a single answer," She hissed.

"Fine. I thought it would be fun to see you figure it out!" I admitted, sounding defeated.

"Fun?" Ren looked mad. "You did this for fun? You had no idea how conflicted I felt because I was so attracted to you, Oliver, and felt like I was betraying Noah, who is also you?"

Oh wow. Why did my dumb brain not think of this?

"Wait, so, you were attracted to me? This fake human, Oliver Jameson?" I asked her in disbelief.

"Yes," She looked embarrassed. "I didn't know who you really were, and that messed with my brain."

No wonder Renee had spent all her time running away from me.

"Ren, I'm so sorry, okay?" I bent lower to meet her eyes. "I had absolutely no idea because I'm a world-class idiot."

The corner of her mouth lifted, her gaze softening as it met mine.

"Well, are you really Noah Stark?" She stared at me, her lips parted in awe. "I can't believe it! How are you even a human?"

I opened my mouth, but the bell rang sharply at the moment, a reminder that we had to get to our next class. We shared a look, knowing that we couldn't be late for chemistry, or our teacher would go ballistic.

As Ren and I hurried along, I felt her hand slip into mine, her grip small yet strong, as if she never wanted to let go.

I tightened my fingers around her delicate ones, her skin smooth and soft against my rough edges.

Like her, I never wanted to let go either.

*****

The chemistry lab was always an eccentric place. Today, our experiment involved making white smoke appear from our test tubes, something half my classmates were already experts in.

Personally, I was a fan of the white smoke, because it suddenly gave Ren and me more privacy, making us feel like we were in cloudland, rather than the sixth period at school.

"Noah," I looked up, seeing Renee holding the smoking test tube and peering up at me. There was a certain charm to the way she said my name, and I was glad to hear it again.

"Why are you a human?"

Casting a careful glance and noticing that my classmates were completely distracted, I explained my story from scratch, from the Realm of Noah to how I'd made a human body for myself.

I'd omitted Johannes from my story for obvious reasons, knowing that Renee wouldn't take my partnership with him very well. After all, he had murdered her brother Mike.

"Noah, that's so smart," Her eyes gleamed in appreciation. "How on earth did you come up with something like that?"

I swallowed, giving her a sheepish smile and a slight shrug.

As much as I hated lying to her, Renee couldn't know about Johannes. Nothing in the world could explain why I was hanging out with him, without sounding like I was plotting some evil scheme.

"Did Shay rescue you from the Pit?" Renee asked eagerly. "She promised us that the Astrascends would."

I chewed on my lower lip, wondering why all her questions sounded so potentially dangerous.

"Um, no. Shay didn't rescue me," I replied shortly, slowly brushing away the fringes on her forehead. Renee watched me wide-eyed, her cheeks had pink splotches which made her look adorable.

I stared back at her, hoping that I looked good enough to distract her from thundering down the questions. It didn't really work, because Renee had a never-ending supply of curiosity.

"If Shay didn't rescue you, then how are you here?" She inquired, looking sweet and innocent, yet clinging sharply onto the loose ends of my story.

"Renee, I escaped from the Pit all by myself," I revealed, purposely inching closer to her, my breath upon her face. I would've dared to kiss her, that's how much I wanted to stop her questions.

I couldn't tell her about Johannes. Ren would hate me for life.

"How did you escape the Pit? Johannes would've created a ruckus if he saw you leaving, wouldn't he?" She asked, her eyes lifting to mine, after briefly lingering on my lips.

Renee was too sharp.

Something that I never thought would be a problem for me.

"Johannes doesn't know," I lied, staring deep into her diamond-like eyes. "He was too consumed by the Pit to notice me leaving. He's not going to notice, Ren, he's losing his marbles at the moment."

She looked relieved, her shoulders relaxing as she smiled at me.

"Let's finish the experiment," She whispered. "We'll talk during lunch."

I nodded, and exhaled audibly, still in disbelief about how successfully I'd convinced her about Johannes.

Not knowing that I'd soon run out of the lucky streak I'd been soaring on all day.

*****

"What's going on between you two?"

Clover immediately questioned us as we settled down at our table at the cafeteria. Sam gave us a stony look, still mad over the fact that Renee had kissed me a few days ago.

"Nothing, Cloves," Renee gave her a forceful smile.

"It doesn't look like nothing," Clover frowned at me.

"You're right," I told her nonchalantly. "We're dating."

Sam nearly gasped out aloud, and Clover's mouth hung open, watching me with disbelief.

"But what about Noah-" Clover started, faltering as Renee's fingers clasped my hand. She smiled brightly at them, before speaking aloud.

"I know that this is going to shock you, but Oliver is Noah. He's a human now."

"What?" Sam spat out in disbelief.

"No way!" Clover gasped, pulling out her Tarot cards for confirmation and shuffling them furiously. A card fell out, the king of swords, something she had previously claimed that it stood for me.

"Yes way," I pointed to the card, then myself. "I am Noah Stark."

Clover looked like she was going to scream, covering her mouth and double-checking the card that had just fallen out.

"But, isn't Noah Stark invisible or something?" Sam narrowed his eyes, sounding sceptical. "How are you a human?"

"That's a long story," Renee replied, giving me an admiring look that I felt like I didn't deserve.

"It makes sense though," Clover spoke up. "The higher spirits told me that a friend would approach us and I'd been on the lookout for Mike. I didn't think Noah would be out anytime soon."

"See, it all fits!" Renee beamed at her.

"I still don't get it," Sam interjected. "Is Ren the girlfriend your dad didn't want you to see that day?"

And that was the precise moment when things went downhill.

"His... Dad?" Renee stared at Sam, then me.

"Ren, you were there at the store, weren't you?" Sam pointed out. "The man in the green coat, asking me if he could call with a phone and a hundred other strange questions?"

Damn it, Johannes.

"Yeah that is, unfortunately, my dad," I clenched my jaw, wondering why I hadn't seen Ren at the store that day.

"I remember him," Renee blurted out.

She let go of my hand, blinking rapidly at her lunch tray to hide her tears.

"Ren, we need to talk," I whispered immediately.

"Clearly," She sounded sarcastic.

We didn't really eat our lunch after that, I just packed the rest of my sandwich into my bag. I followed Ren out to the football field, standing under a shady clump of trees when she turned towards me.

"Ren, I can explain-"

"Is Johannes your dad?" She asked, but I could see the anger building up underneath the surface.

"Yeah, but he's my fake-"

"Why didn't you tell me, Noah?"

"I didn't want to lie to you on purpose," I pleaded. "The topic never came up!"

She frowned at me.

"I specifically asked you about Johannes, and you said he's losing his marbles!"

"He is losing his marbles-"

"That's not the point! What the hell is he doing with you, here in the Earthly Realm?" Renee threw the questions, each hitting exactly where they were supposed to.

"He's-"

"Tell me the truth," She demanded. "Did you sign some sort of twisted deal with him? Like Mike did?"

"No, this isn't like that-"

"So you did sign a deal," Realisation struck her like lightning. "Oh my gosh, you did it..."

"Ren, please," I swallowed, wringing my hands together. "I was growing mad in the Pit, with Augustus trying to brainwash me and I was even assigned a soulmate... Johannes's deal was the only way I could see you!"

Her lips parted in shock.

"So you signed his deal, all for me?"

"Yes!" I sighed in relief. "It's all for you, Ren!"

Only a second later did I realise how well she masked her rage.

"You're blaming me for your mistake?" Renee looked furious. "It's bad enough that you did it, but claiming that I'm the reason behind this madness-"

"It's not madness! Even you thought it was smart-"

"Noah, you don't get it! I would never, under any circumstance, force you to sign a deal with someone like Johannes!" She breathed out. "Don't you dare say that you did it for me, because I would never ask you to do something like that!"

"Right, got it, Ren," I whispered, nearly terrified of her.

"How could you do something so stupid!" She cried out. "Noah, this isn't like you at all, you're so watchful all the time, reading situations like a pro-"

She gasped, the whites of her eyes visible throughout.

"Are you even Noah Stark?" She forced out, looking terrified. "Or are you some possessed guy here to trap me?"

"Ren, that's ridiculous-"

"It makes sense! No wonder you were so reluctant to reveal who you were, doing your best to charm me into who knows what-"

"Now you're being stupid!" I shouted, exasperated. "Ren, are you even hearing yourself?"

I tried to move closer, but she stepped away like I was carrying a contagious disease.

"Get away from me, Johannes's minion!" She screamed. "I don't want to see you ever again!"

"This is stupid-"

"My Noah would never do something like this!" She let out. "He'd rather remain in the Pit than listen to Johannes-"

"Stop, Ren, please," I tried to grab onto her hand, but she moved away too quickly.

With one last fleeting look, Renee walked away, wiping her river of tears against her salmon pink sweater.

And I stood there, knowing that I'd messed up for a lifetime.

*****

(A/N: Hey guys, I'm back. I'm so glad to see you all again and I hope you're all doing great. :)
I'm really excited to put out this chapter because it only gets better from here. I'm so excited to share it all with you. Thank you all for reading!)