‘We’re gonna get you out of Canyon for a while. Take you someplace else.’
‘What do you mean?’
AJ looks to the floor. ‘Means you can’t go home to Mom, Noah.’
I see Noah’s expression crumple. ‘Then where am I going?’
‘You’re going to live with Aunt Rita for a little while. Hollie and I are gonna take you there. It’s for the best.’
The tears come then. My heart goes out to him. ‘What if I don’t wanna go to Rita’s?’
‘You don’t get a choice in the matter. If you stay here, cops’ll arrest you soon enough.’
Noah makes a muffled cry, like he’s trying to stop the flow of tears, but fails. He gets to his feet and starts pacing, furiously wiping his cheeks. ‘No,’ he says. ‘I’m not going!’
AJ looks to me then, as though pleading for my help.
I step forward and reach out to him. ‘Noah,’ I whisper, just before his body is wracked with sobs.
‘I wanna go home,’ he cries. ‘I want Mom.’
I take another step and wrap my arms around him. His shoulders tremble against my chest. I shush him and stroke his hair. Over his shoulder, I look at his brother.
The look AJ gives me tells me he’s grateful.
Chapter Nine
AJ
Thank fuck for Hollie Palmer.
She took charge of a situation I couldn’t control. I never expected Noah to freak out that much about going to Rita’s. I don’t think I’d really thought about it from his point of view.
He’s just a kid. And, yeah, he can be a rowdy fucker at times, but still, he doesn’t wanna be taken away from the only life he’s ever known. But Hollie persuaded him. She made him see that without Rita, he’d be headed straight for juvie.
I look at Hollie on the couch, Noah’s head resting in her lap. She stroked his hair and let him cry until he passed out. I’ve never met a girl with that amount of patience, and I’m blown away by the kindness she’s shown my brother. Not everybody would take the trouble, especially not for some disadvantaged kid from Rapture. She’s shown warmth toward him, but toward me… she’s a little cooler.
‘How come you came back?’ I ask, sitting across from her.
She looks down at Noah and checks he ain’t stirring. ‘What do you mean?’
‘To Canyon. To this place.’
She gives a shrug. ‘I guess I didn’t know what to do with my life. My dad lives here. My mum lives with her partner in Paris. London can be lonely and expensive. I didn’t plan to stay here for a whole year. It just… happened.’
I’m curious, I guess, so I ask the question. ‘You didn’t have a boyfriend over there?’
She pulls at the neckline of her top and clears her throat. It’s cute how nervous she gets. ‘I had a boyfriend in my third year of college. He works in sales in London now, but it didn’t really work out.’
I keep thinking about that damn closet. I should just ask her what she knows about that night. ‘Oh yeah, why not?’
I’ve embarrassed her again. ‘Um. I… I guess… he liked me more than I liked him?’
‘You still talk to him?’
‘He writes me emails. Wants me to go back to England.’
‘Doyouwanna go back to England?’
