Page 35 of The Sins of Noelle

Despite the lingering doubts about her brother's intentions, she couldn't help the way nature made her feel—so free and capable of anything she put her mind to. She'd never experienced such a feeling before—as if the world was truly her oyster. Due to the stifling way in which she'd lived so far, she'd never even known this side of the world existed.

Noelle had ever had only one joy in life—playing the piano. The rest of her life was spent caught in between her circumstances, a cat and mouse game she played with the expectations placed on her and the ones she always failed to live up to.

From the moment she woke up until her head hit the pillow at night, her life was a constant stress of never being enough, of always beingwrong. She stepped around people as one would step around a minefield—wondering when the next bomb would go off.

It was no life for a nine-year-old. It was no life foranyone.But to Noelle, it was all she'd ever known.

Noise. In her head. In her surroundings. In people's opinions of her and their everlasting disappointment. She'd only ever known noise.

Yet now she was faced with something completely different.

Quiet. She saw the world as it should be—as it shouldhavebeen. And she longed for it. More than she should have ever had.

And that was how hope was born…Unfortunately.

"Here, let's sit by the river," Cisco motioned to a small patch of grass just by the river.

Noelle nodded, following him and emulating his movements. She carefully removed her shoes as she did and dipped her toes in the cold but fresh water when he did.

She couldn't help the sigh of pleasure that escaped her as she tipped her head up, letting the sun rays streaming through the rich foliage brush against her cheeks in small, warm tendrils.

Yet her enjoyment of it was short-lived as she turned her attention to Cisco, needing to know why he'd gone through so much trouble for her—what was his goal?

"Why did you take me here? Why this?" she asked as she raised the small rifle in her arms. "Why…"

Why are you being nice to me?

"I was once in the same situation as you," Cisco started, a smile on his face. "Not as violent," he stifled a chuckle as he noted her frown. "But I was just like you growing up."

"You didn't go to school," Noelle mentioned. She knew all her brothers had been homeschooled.

"Not initially. I did go for a period. But because things didn't work out, our parents decided to pull me out of school and continue my studies at home," Cisco said. "You're the odd one out in your class now. I was the odd one out then."

Noelle listened attentively as her brother detailed his own difficult years growing up and the fact that he'd been relegated as thefreakmore than once for being different from the rest of his classmates.

"Why are you telling me this?" Noelle asked in a small voice.

"Because I want you to realize there's nothing wrong with you," Cisco told her in a serious tone. "Regardless of what people think, and regardless of what our mother says, there's absolutely nothing wrong with you."

He spoke with such conviction that Noelle couldn't help but be touched by his words—especially since no one had ever said something like that to her.

"Then why…" she swallowed hard. "Why do people hate me so much?"

There was a world of vulnerability in her tone, and Cisco recognized that slowly, she was letting him in—placing her precious trust in him.

"People hate what they do not understand," he pursed his lips. "They hate what doesn't line up with their idea of the world."

"But doesn't that just mean I'm…wrong?"

"There is no right or wrong, Noelle," her brother turned to her, his mismatched eyes emphasized by the angle of the sunlight. "Just like there is no good or bad. There is only our perception of it."

"I don't understand," she frowned, wetting her lips.

Cisco regarded her for a moment, thinking it was ludicrous to discuss something like that with a nine-year-old. But he saw something else in his sister as she regarded him with confusion. He saw something he recognized too well in himself.

He saw the thirst.

She may not understand, but shewantedto.

---