Harken is completely stunned, barely feeling the phone hit his chest, his eyes focusing on how pissed off Noel is, racking his brain for what he could have possibly done now. His heart leaps out of his chest when tears start to well in her eyes, and he sees she is clutching her phone like a lifeline.Looking down he picks up his own, tapping on the screen to reveal the text message she meant for Nolan."Oh shit," he whispers unintentionally. This is all Noel needs to hear before she turns on her heel and runs off.Fuck, no!"Go, we can do this another day," Abel says and throws Harken his bike keys. He is already walking back inside when Harken jumps on his bike, forgetting his helmet still on the ground and takes off. Noel isn't anywhere to be seen on the downtown strip, making him wonder if she is going to run all the way back to school.Knowing how upset and embarrassed she must be feeling right now, there's no chance she wants to show her face at school. He rips the bac around and

Noel doesn't stop running until she reaches the cottage, breaking through the door and marching straight back to her room. As soon as the door is closed, she stands in the middle of the room and takes a massive breath, as if trying to suck back all the tears gathering in her eyes.She tries to reason with the two opposing sides quarrelling inside her. One side wants to rationalize how Harken treated her and what he said to her, trying to find justification for his hurtful and overbearing actions since this morning, but the other side of her is arguing that there is none.He went overboard went he called her easy. She could ignore the way he was acting before because she could justify it by thinking he is just looking out for her.But all her and Priscilla were doing was standing there, splashing water at each other. If anything, she was worried guys might think they're childish. It wasn't like they were trying to act all cute and sexy while splashing each other like a Bay Watch movie,

Harken is already at the party by the time Noel and Priscilla make their way over, having to follow Nolan and Karl as they walk back and forth to guide people through the dense forest covering the entire private area. He seems to have found a group of slightly older-looking guys and is deep in conversation with them about something Noel can’t quite hear. Deciding not to bother him, she wanders towards the food table and starts loading up a plate, not having much since breakfast this morning and the few pastries earlier. She looks around to see if she can spot Kyle, but he doesn’t seem to be here yet or attending at all. She does notice one guy eyeing her from the corner of her eye but doesn’t get the greatest feeling and decides to ignore him, grabbing a bun to finish off her plate and turning away to find Priscilla. She is sitting with Karl and Nolan on the deck, a few other strange girls sitting around them. Sitting down next to Priscilla, Nolan notices and looks over at her with

“What about something like this?” Priscilla calls out among the racks of clothes. She pulls out a skirt and holds it over the aisles for Noel to see a few rows down.“Have you ever seen me wear a skirt?” she asks, wrinkling her nose.Priscilla groans and shoves it back on the rack. They’ve spent the better parts of the morning looking for a birthday outfit for Noel to wear, despite not even knowing if she plans to do anything for it today.Her dad has been an active presence at home ever since she got back from her trip, making it impossible for her and Harken to get a moment alone. She has stayed up until all hours of the morning the past couple days just so she can see Harken, climbing up to the roof from her bedroom window and spending hours cuddles up together for warmth, talking about whatever comes to mind, or mostly making up for lost time.Being intimate in general in the house is off limits, with Noel never allowed to lock her door at night and her father having the eyes and

“Where do you want me to start?” Harken asks, getting an odd sense of deja-vu.“What was he talking about, you guys were arrested together?”Harken nods. “Yeah, there were quite a few times we were caught together in the past, but the last time I was arrested it was thanks to him. Nate had snuck into the bar down the street, Carnegie Hall, or something like that, and had a few drinks before the manager saw him and asked for ID. When he couldn’t give any, he was kicked out and he turned sour about it, so he plotted to go back and wreck the place afterwards. He told me we were just going to smash a few bottles of alcohol and maybe take one or two.”He pauses and takes a sip of his drink, switching the harsh scotch for the smoother taste of beer. “Well, we weren’t the only ones there when we broke into the place. Turns out the owner of the bar had some troubles of his own, and there were a bunch of thugs waiting for us. We had our buddy Ashton with us to keep look-out, he was the one who