noah

Rebecca was nothing close to what I wanted, but the girl I wanted wasn't here.

She was somewhere in this world, glad that she'd returned my gift, glad that she had severed our relationship.

For a moment Rebecca's eyes were an intelligent, sparkling emerald green. Then they faded to watery blue.

I brought my mouth to hers with a savageness I wasn't in control of.

*

Dawn

Words could not describe the billion bombs going off in my head in that moment.

How could he- how dare he!- casually kiss another girl just days after we'd basically split, though it wasn't official? Did he not ever feel anything for me?

His shirt was off and he was kissing her neck with an emotion that seemed rather closer to anger than lust. His room was in utter chaos.

My actions weren't frozen in time however, unlike my brain, so my fist found no command to stop moving and rapped on the window and then immediately pulled back, horrified.

Noah broke his attack on her neck and looked up, the girl following his eyes to the window.

My blood boiled at the sight of her face.

How dare she.

My whole face prickled red. Red with anger, embarrassment, hurt, a tinge of possessiveness over Noah even though he clearly wasn't mine anymore-

Noah's mouth fell open and he staggered back, letting go of the cafe girl, pushing her away roughly. He ran a hand through his hair.

"Dawn?" He mouthed, confused. The girl tugged on his arm and tried to kiss him again, tried to make me jealous.

He pushed her off him again.

I smiled grimly through the glass. In that moment, I felt like we were on completely opposite sides of the universe, struggling to find a way back to each other through the vast emptiness of stars and planets and solar systems and galaxies and the unknown depths of space humans would never understand.

Though in reality, it was just a few metres of air and an annoying glass pane that is known to humans as a window.

This particular glass window was the only thing stopping me from leaping right into there and punching the cafe girl in the face and kicking Noah right there.  

But that was sadly impossible. 

So I crumpled the letter in my fist, feeling the sharp paper cutting into my flesh, until I could feel a small drop of blood slide down my wrist. Until I could feel the sting.

I threw him one last, long look, then climbed down slowly from the ladder, my heart dropping with each rung. When I reached the ground, Kat hefted the ladder under one arm (she was strong) and dumped it into our car parked on the street. I followed her, took Kat's offered hand, started the car, and together we drove away. 

I was done with Noah.

Done with guys I didn't understand.

Done with this word people called 'love'.

"At least we know that you're lucky that you didn't end up marrying him," Kat whispered into the silence of the car. 

I wiped the blood off my hand onto my jeans. Something jingled on my wrist.

I blinked and looked down at my arm.

Noah's bracelet chimed as I shook my wrist a little.

The one that he'd bought for me at the fair.

I'd loved it before.

Now I hated the sight of it.

"Let's head to the lake in the park so you can celebrate by throwing it in!" Kat said excitedly.

I tore it off my wrist. "Let's go."

*

The lake rippled and sparkled before me. Welcoming. The bridge spanning across it cut it in half like two sides of a circle- it was a smack bang straight line through the middle.

As I turned to face it, I stared at the bracelet for one last time. The black and clear stones gleamed, the diamonds sparkled, and the gold chain glittered.

Good riddance, I thought.

I raised it up into the deep blue sky dramatically and the sun caught its beautiful and intricate designs in a flash of golden light.

Then I threw it as far as I could across the lake, with all my strength and anger and hurt.

I didn't even hear it hit the water.

Beside me, Kat cheered me on. I could almost see Aria and Jason standing beside her, both laughing, but they weren't here. My heart sunk a little. Was Aria even a faithful friend anymore?

"You seriously didn't think we'd miss Dramatic Dawn and the Drowning of the Offensive Bracelet, did you?" A familiar voice crowed and Aria stumbled out of a bush with Jason right on her heels, both laughing themselves silly. Kat muttered to me, "I had to call them so we could all witness this."

I felt my face break into a triumphant grin. I turned back to the rippling water.

"Here's to single girls!" I yelled across the wide blue lake, my voice echoing over and over again. Kat took up the chant. Aria smirked as she mouthed, "Doesn't apply to me!" Jason smiled down at her.

The wind tossed my hair up and I felt Kat, Aria and Jason come up behind me and suddenly I felt at home.

I didn't need Noah.

*

It was back to old times. Well, almost. 

Aria played with the tablecloth and Kat flipped through the menu of the chocolate cafe where Aria and Jason had had their first date. 

I felt absolutely free. Like I was floating. I hadn't realised just how weighed down my life was with boys until now. 

No one to judge or care about what you looked like or what you wore. Just my friends and I. Even Jason had been ditched today, the excuse being we needed to catch up on some 'girl time.'

"So... I have a lot to catch up on," Aria smirked, her glance flickering from Kat to me and back again. "Who's idiotic plan was it to climb into Noah's bedroom?"

"Kat's," I replied, offended. "What, did you seriously think I would be that dumb?"

"You did listen to her," Aria pointed out. 

"You still owe me popcorn," Kat muttered to the menu.

"I do not," Aria sniffed. 

"What about Jason?" Kat crossed her arms, putting the menu aside. "What have you two been up to?"

Aria shrugged, blushing a little now. "Nothing of your concern."

"On the contrary, it is most definitely our concern. We're your friends."

Aria ignored her, picked up the menu, flicked through it, and called over a waiter. 

"Kat was thinking you two were having-" I began, leaving the sentence hanging to tease her. 

Aria's head whipped towards me so fast her neck could've snapped.

"How dare you-" 

"Do you have your order ready?" We all glanced up at the waiter, who looked suddenly nervous at the subject of one angry pair of eyes (Aria) and two other evil ones (Kat and I). 

Aria coughed and her voice instantly changed from deadly to sweet. "Oh um, could we please have a minute?" 

The waiter nodded and moved off to another table. 

The next thing I knew, my legs, and Kat's legs too, were being bruised as Aria's high-heeled boots attacked them. 

"Don't you." Kick. "Ever." Kick "Say." Kick. "That." Kick. "Again."

"Say what?" Kat grinned. It seemed like her legs weren't affected by heels at all. I winced and rubbed mine. 

"You damn well know what I'm talking about," Aria snarled. 

"Do I?" 

I snorted, and earned another kick in return. 

"Are you girls ready to order now?" The waiter was back, this time the tiniest bit annoyed that we hadn't made a decision. 

"Alright, we'll order," I said, taking control. Grabbing the discarded menu, I ordered three of the first thing they had to offer- plain old water. 

*

"Water for you three," the waiter reappeared beside our table and placed three tall glasses of clear liquid in front of us. 

As soon as he walked off, Aria and Kat glared at me. 

"What?" I protested. "It's your fault you were too busy arguing to order anything, so I ordered the first thing on the menu- water. Tough luck."

They turned their angry glares to their glasses. 

I picked mine up and sipped at it, sighing inwardly at the bland taste. Then cringing at the iciness. 

"See? Perfectly harmless." 

"Your lips are turning blue." Aria raised an eyebrow. 

"That's because it's c-c-cold." 

"Your teeth are chattering," Kat commented, like I was an experiment they were testing on.

"I am p-perfectly aware of what my own teeth are doing at the m-m-moment."

Kat took a cautious sip and made a face. "While I agree we cannot live without water, this is really bland." 

Aria didn't touch her glass and instead called over another waiter to order us something better. 'Better' being hot chocolate.  

I took another sip of water. 

"Hot chocolate," Aria grinned at us. "We all need lots of hot chocolate today, don't you think?"

We couldn't argue with that. 

*

Kat snuggled underneath the blankets on the couch as Aria brought in popcorn from my kitchen. 

"My debt to you has been paid in full amount," Aria said, handing Kat a huge bowl of popcorn. 

She placed another bowl down onto the low-lying table and settled into her sleeping bag in front of my TV.

Yes, we were having a sleepover. It had been easy to convince both Aria and Kat's parents. They both knew about my mum's current situation and as soon as Aria and Kat had both said, 'helping Dawn', boom, they'd been allowed to go. 

We weren't even holding the sleepover in my bedroom. We were holding it in my living room so we could watch movies without moving an inch. 

Soft music played from Kat's phone as I turned the TV on. It was about nine in the evening, after they'd eaten a light dinner at my place. Their parents had left three hours ago, after double checking we would be extra safe. Aria lived pretty close to me anyways. 

"Okay," I said, restraining myself from jumping around and turning into a mad puppy. It was just that we'd never had a sleepover before with us three.  

Half the popcorn was gone before I'd even selected a movie to watch. 

I decided to blame Aria. After all, Kat had her own full bowl. 

That was until I realised it was already empty and she was sneakily stealing more. 

"Stop that." I slapped her hand away. 

"Come on. One more piece," she wheedled. 

I selected the smallest piece of popcorn I could find and handed it to her. "Enjoy."

She shot me a glare and we all settled down to enjoy the night together. 

*

"I'm hungry."

The movie had ended a couple of hours ago. It was one in the morning and we were casually chatting, or at least, had been chatting, until Kat had started to complain.

"Dude, you just ate like three bowls of popcorn." 

"Only one and a half," she muttered. 

It was dark except for the single lamp that was switched on in the living room, so I couldn't see her accusing glare directed at me even if I tried.

"Only one and a half," Aria complained, shifting on her blankets. "So, d'you normally eat ten bowls or something?"

"No."

"Liar," both Aria and I said at once. 

"Okay, maybe five bowls," she relented.

We both looked at her like she was insane. (She always had been though, so no surprise there.)

"Stop staring at me," she growled, grabbing my pillow and hitting me firmly over the head with it.

"Ow!" I complained, rubbing the spot which hurt the most.

"Pillow fight!" Aria yelled excitedly.

You have to admit, no sleepover is complete without a pillow fight.

Short chapter today guys! But I find it rather nice that it's back to just Dawn, Kat and Aria for this chapter. I've noticed that boys tend to split them apart more. Do you agree?

Okay, so you may be a bit angry at me for killing off Dawn and Noah's relationship. *nervously smiles*

Well, I can promise you that this book has a good ending. I think.

Love you all! I love your comments even though you all hate me at the moment. Keep them cominggggg!

Xxx,
HalloPhoenix