Charred Promises

9 : Someone else's life.. Someone else's story..

Staying at the house was never an option for Noah. He still hated the place and hadn't it been for Juno and his sister he would have never stepped his foot in that house again. And here he was breaking his own promises, acting out of his character, worrying how to mend his ties with his niece. He went through the vast collection of books Beatrice owned and remembered how much of an avid reader he had been when he was little, that was his only escape from the messy life he had. He would become one of the detectives and try and solve the mystery, he would imagine himself as being a part of the adventure. He would read happy stories and pretend as he was a part of them. And that was how he had created a perfect family in his mind. And seeing all that was taking him back to the life he had left behind. Even that day when he had gone to pick up Juno he wanted to escape from the house.

To say Noah was frustrated would be an understatement. What had happened between him and Juno was still troubling his mind. He liked how things were in his life, less of drama, less of complications, less of dealing with kids. Now that felt like someone else's life, someone else's story. He thought he was doing a good thing, he was a little worried for Juno, that morning she had skipped the subject of school and after his online counselling he didn't have anything much to do. He went and picked up a few things from the grocery store and then instead of going back to the haunting house he thought it would be a sweet gesture to go and pick up his niece from her school, turns out that pre-teens and concern uncles don't think alike. Noah had read the name of the school when the bus came to pick her up that morning.

When he reached the school he knew Juno would get into the bus if she hadn't seen him and so he got out of his jeep and stood waiting for her. But what happened next frustrated Noah, he saw that a boy had held her arm and stood in front of her, she moved away from his hold and stood with folded hands. Noah didn't want to get in between the conversation and make a fool out of himself and so he waited for the scene to unfold. Juno looked away from the boy and her eyes fell on Noah. She was furious, she wasn't even listening to the boy anymore, she pushed his hand away when he tried to stop her again and marched towards Noah.

"What the heck Noah! What are you doing here?" Juno asked in frustration.

"I was about to ask you the same Juno, why are you letting the boy talk to you if you don't want to?" Noah fired back. He didn't want to think that his niece was easily pleased.

"It's none of your damn business Noah!" Juno snapped back.

"You are my business Juno, what you do is my business! I cant believe you're frustrated because I interrupted the conversation you were having with your boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend! And besides no one is going to blame you if I screw up in my life, no one cares Noah. Not even you, you think you do, but you really don't. so stop pretending like you care, because you and me both know that you would have been on the first flight if you had a chance."
"You are forgetting, I did have a chance, but I came back. I came back for you, you ungrateful child!"

"I hate you so much right now Noah!" Juno said tears filling her eyes. He looked around, thankfully no one noticed their little banter so he opened the door of his jeep and she threw her back pack in and sat inside, Noah closed the door and got into his seat and drove home.

Eight days had passed, not that he was counting, since he and Juno argued and they still avoided each other gracefully, Juno came and went in the school bus, she got up and ate cereal every single morning, she hated it, but she was in no mood to cook. Despite the fact that she was totally ignoring Noah, she still couldn't cook breakfast only for herself and leave nothing for Noah. The dinner was always from some restaurant or the diner near by. He would knock her door and say "Dinner's ready" and Juno would mumble "Keep mine aside." Every day for the last seven days this would happen and Noah was starting to lose his patience.