Page 93 of It Was Always You

I knocked on Easton's door, even though I was still really mad at him for what he'd said.

"Have you heard from Noah since Friday?" I asked.

"No." He looked up from his Physics book. "But doesn't he talk to you more these days, anyway?"

I rolled my eyes. "Stop being such a drama queen, Easton."

"Well, instead of asking to sleep in his best friend's room while he was homeless, he snuck into my sister's closet. I'd say that warrants a little drama."

I wanted to kick him. He was so moody these days.

"Can you text him and see if he's okay? I just want to make sure he didn't get in a car accident or something."

Easton sighed in annoyance, like I was asking him to re-arrange the planets or something. "Fine. I'll text him."

"Thank you."

34

NOAH

"Canyou please pass the rolls, Noah?" Tracey, my stepmom, asked Sunday evening as we all sat around the big dining room table. Dad, Tracey, Mom, Mason, Paige, Brielle, and me. It was one of the weirdest family dynamics you could probably get, but strangely, over the past two days, I'd never felt more at home.

It had taken me a lot of humility to show up at my dad's house late Friday night, and I'd been ninety percent sure that he'd send me away. Instead, he'd welcomed me into his home with open arms and we had one of the best conversations we'd ever had in years.

I wasn't going to pretend like things were perfect between us, but we had finally broken down the wall of miscommunication and promised to try harder to have a better relationship. And the fact that he and Tracey hadopened their house to my mom, Brielle, and me wasn't hurting my feelings toward them, either.

"Is it okay if I sleep in Paige's room tonight, Mom?" Brielle asked with her mouth full of roast beef.

My mom looked briefly to Tracey as if to ask whether that was okay. Tracey gave her a nod of approval and my mom turned back to Brielle. "I think that sounds like fun. But make sure you don't stay awake all night because you still have school tomorrow."

Brielle groaned. "Can't I stay home?"

My mom gave her a small smile. "I think it will be good to get things back to normal."

Brielle pouted in her seat, but she said, "Okay." It only took her a few seconds, though, to start chatting excitedly to Paige about all the fun things they were going to do for their "sleepover" tonight, and it was fun to see Brielle happy amidst all the crazy that was happening in our family.

The police had found Paul when he'd gone home early Saturday morning and he was now in their custody. I had no idea what the law would be able to do with him, but my mom was finally pressing charges and realizing she deserved to be treated with respect and love. And though I hated that she had to come to the realization this way, I was just glad we were finally going to be able to put the pain and abuse in the past. My mom's body still had a lot of healing to do, but the doctors had a positive outlookfor her and doubted there'd be any residual effects from Friday night.

After dinner, I went up to the room that I currently called my own and finally turned on my phone. I had decided to take a break from the rest of the world over the past couple of days, needing to focus on my family. But if Brielle was going to school tomorrow, it probably meant my mom would expect me to go there as well. And it would be good to find out if Mr. Stevens was going to get a restraining order put on me before I tried to approach either of his children again.

I hated the thought of not being able to spend time with Lexi or Easton again, but after seeing how mad their dad had been on Friday night, I wouldn't put it past him to take away their college funding if they ever came within ten feet of me.

My phone powered up, and after a few seconds, it started chiming like crazy. By the time it had finished loading all my missed phone calls and text messages, it showed that I'd missed three phone calls from Lexi and twelve text messages from her.

I opened my text folder and read what she'd written me.

Lexi:Was everything okay with your sister?

Lexi:My dad is so stupid. Don't listen to any of those horrible things he said to you.

Lexi:I'm going to call you.

Lexi:Why aren't you answering?

Lexi:Did I do something wrong?

Lexi:I'm really sorry, Noah.

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