Page 29 of Fall From Grace

Being next to Noah for so long, maybe I slowly tapped into his same fears because I thought briefly that hearing sirens, seeing cop cars, or random strangers pulling into your driveway where all things to be afraid of. His fears were somehow mine now.

I needed to know Noah was safe tonight. One more night.

I ran downstairs, Dad was already out on the porch. The cold air crawled up my bare legs as Mom stepped into the hallway. She watched me skip the last few steps and dash for the door. Dad stepped into the doorway. “What are you doing up?” he asked.

“I heard the ambulance, whose house?”

“Go back to bed.” He wouldn’t let me get by him.

“Whose house!” I snapped.

“Whose house is it, Steven?” Mom asked this time. “It’s not Noah’s, is it?” I felt a small bit of relief knowing that Mom still worried for him.

Dad leaned his head out the door and sighed. “It looks like it’s near the trailers.”

“I have to go check on him. What if it’s Noah?” I panicked.

“You know who it’s gonna—”, Dad sighed, “Let me put on my shoes and I’ll go check.” The moment he bent down, I slipped through the tiny space between him and the door and ran out. “GRACE!”

I was already running down the road, feet burning against the frigid blacktop. I didn’t care that I was in my tank top and shorts. The cold didn’t bother me, knowing that Noah and his parents were okay was all that mattered.

Yelling broke out in the distance. My heart sank. I recognized Noah’s voice and he was angry, he was upset. I could tell he was crying. I saw the ambulance in front of his house and slowed, taking in Noah and his dad next to the porch. Noah pushed his dad, I was close enough now to make out their words. “You killed her!” Noah yelled at him and I stopped, eyes widening.

Killed…?

“I didn’t kill her,” his dad cried out. “She kept begging me, Noah, begging me to give her just one more, one more. I’ve never been able to say no to her!”

Noah reared back and punched his Dad in the face. He staggered back. “You could have gotten her help, but you didn’t, you just fed her the drugs she wanted!”

“What about you?” His dad moved into Noah’s face. “You could have told someone, maybe got someone to help her, but no, you let her just as much as me!”

I covered my mouth. How could he say that to Noah? How was it Noah’s fault?

Noah stepped back, tugging his hair with a face so broken, my feet started moving again. “Because I didn’t want to lose her! But I lost her anyway!” Noah was furious again. “And now you’re dead to me!”

“Grace!” Dad yelled behind me.

Noah and his dad turned to look at me. His eyes were remorseful. He wished I hadn’t witnessed what I did.

Our eyes broke contact when two men carried out his mom on a stretcher. My throat filled with bile when I saw that she was covered completely up. No…

Another man stepped up beside them. “I’m going need you two to come in with me.” Noah looked like his worst fear had come to pass while his dad simply dropped his head and nodded.

I felt Dad’s hand come down over my shoulder. “Come on, let’s go home.”

How could he say those words so easily after what he just saw? After what we knew Noah was going through. Noah wouldn’t even look my way. He started following the guy to the ambulance. “Noah!” I screamed and he finally looked at me. He stopped and I ran to him.

What was even scarier was how Dad didn’t stop me. I should have known that wasn’t a good sign. I already saw where this was heading for Noah, and I was truly afraid that if he got in the back of the ambulance, I might not see him again.

I started shaking my head frantically and he couldn’t look at me again. “It’s going to be okay, Priss. I’ll be seeing you soon,” he lied.

“Noah,” I cried. “Wait!”

But he didn’t and Dad pulled me aside as one of the guys nodded toward us before getting in the front seat and driving away.

Dad led me back to the house where Mom took one look at me and cried herself. I ran upstairs because I knew Dad would tell her what just happened.

Noah’s mom died from an overdose. His dad came home the next day alone. He buried his wife without a funeral. I didn’t know if Noah got to say goodbye or where he was. Our teachers—Mom being one of them—informed us that Noah was transferring out that following Monday. Everyone asked me questions at school like I would know. He didn’t even have our house number because he never had a phone and we were always seeing each there every day so there had been no point.