Ethan Edwards & Noah Rogers ~ Family Affairs. By Carter P, Monacur

Chapter ~ 7# ~ Secrets

Chapter ~ 7# ~ Secrets

Ethan ~ POV

Sitting across from Noah, I could tell I messed up badly dragging him into this without telling him before. Now I could only hope to get back the friendship I betrayed. Noah and I sat in silence for a few minutes before the bell ending lunch rang. I grabbed the food I had barely touched and stood up from the table.

"Talk after school," I whispered to him.

Noah nodded in understanding what I meant. I dumped the food I had been eating and went to class. The night of my visit still played in my head. It was just after Noah left me and rode off in his dad's car. I honestly couldn't blame him for being angry with me. I would too, if a friend dragged me into the middle of a police investigation. After Noah got pissed off at me, I couldn't help but send him a text; I didn't know what else to write other than 'something happened to Nathaniel.' I didn't get an answer back, which I wasn't expecting.

I ended up dropping by Nathaniel's home; it was a small house; I noticed Mr. Davis's car was still parked in the carport off to the side. I pulled my bike up and stopped at the small fence; I saw the lights were off. Not just the ones inside the house but the porch lights too. I parked my bike and leaned it against the fence. As I took my first step, the lights came on, not just the porch lights but also the living room light. I managed to make it to the porch when I heard Mr. Davis yell out to me from the doorbell. Mr. Davis was always into those fancy, high-tech doorbell cameras.

"Mr. Davis... it's me, Ethan...." I called out into the doorbell camera.

"Ethan... how can I help you?" He asked.

"I wanted to see if Nathaniel was home... Emily and the others...." I began to say but got interrupted by Mr. Davis.

"Nathaniel's not feeling well, so he's in his room. I'm staying home to take care of him." He said quickly.

I was caught off guard by that, honestly. I've spoken to him a few times through the doorbell camera, but this time, even through the speaker, I could tell something was off.

"Oh... ok. Well, I have some homework too...." I began to say but got interrupted again.

"You can just leave it under the welcome mat."

"But,"

"Ethan, it's getting late. Shouldn't you be getting home?" I could tell I had overstayed my welcome and left.

After getting home, I decided to call the police and tell them about my suspicions. Ben answered the phone, the deputy that had interviewed me at the park. He sounded happy when he heard my voice; I smiled as I spoke with him. He's one of the local officers that offer gun safety courses at the shooting range.

"Well, Ethan didn't think I'd be hearing from you again," Ben said with a cheerful voice.

"Hey, Ben... I'm calling because I wanted to report something." I said as I sat in my bedroom, feeling a little anxious.

"What's up?" He asked as I heard the old sheriff's station doors creaking in the background.

"I think something might have happened to Mr. Davis and Nathaniel... I'm calling because they didn't answer the door when I stopped by earlier to talk. It might just be me, but... Mr. Davis sounded...." I got interrupted by Ben.

"Ethan... don't worry about them. I'm sure they're just being careful... everyone's a little on edge with this whole creeper running around... heck, you mentioned she had a knife." He said, which made me stop.