Night Train || cth

t h i r t y - t h r e e

Sometimes when things get tough, all you need to do is take sometime away - just a little time to yourself can be a soothing cure to whatever is troubling you. For me, I would highly consider driving straight for the train tracks, but I can't face it alone now. It's too difficult to go there without Calum by my side, and I don't want to damage my heart anymore than it already is.

"Remind me why we're taking a trip to the beach in November?" Noah asked impatiently from the passenger seat.

"You jumped at the chance to come. Remember?" I reminded him as I took a quick glance at him before focusing back on the road.

Since I didn't want to go to my usual safe haven, I decided to go outside the box and venture to the beach. I attempted to sneak out of the house without any questioning, but of course Noah managed to catch me in the hallway. He pestered me about where I was going so early in the morning on a Saturday, and all of my lying was no match for him and his blackmail. Just like any little brother would do, he threatened to tell my parents that I went without their permission. So, when the two of us were about to walk out the door, we told our curious parents that we were going to the mall with Claire and Michael.

I thanked my lucky stars that they believed us, so here we are traveling down the highway on the way to the beach. I'm hoping that since it is the middle of November there won't be many people out there. My main priority was to be completely alone, and since I now have to deal with Noah's presence, I don't want many other people around me at this time.

"Only because I had nothing else to do, but you never said why exactly...," He trailed off. I could see from the corner of my eye that he was tracing circles into his jeans. This was one of his nervous habits. Somehow we both managed to get our habits from other people. I'm under the impression that mine was the result of spending so much time around Luke, and Noah's was a result of spending so much time around our dad - he had a knack for tracing circles into things when he got nervous.

"I just need sometime away from my stressful life. Is that okay with you?"

"What's so stress-"

"Noah," I groaned cutting him off, and luckily shutting him up for now. He huffed in annoyance, but didn't say another word. I turned up the radio to drown out the dead silence surrounding us.

From our house it only takes about forty five minutes to an hour to arrive at the nearest beach. Once we pull up to the entrance, I notice that there are four cars parked in the parking lot. They're all scattered throughout and I pull into a spot next to a red minivan sporting fifty bumper stickers. As I get out of the car I take a moment to look through as many of them as I can.

"Taylor, come on," Noah rushed me from looking at the rest of the decorative stickers. I heaved my purse onto my shoulder as I followed him down the boardwalk leading to the sand.

I slipped off my shoes to feel the cool sand in between my toes and wiggled them in satisfaction. It might not be summer, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to fully enjoy the beach.

Noah and I walk for about ten minutes before we pick a spot to sit down and relax. I brought two towels and I strategically laid them down so that we could sit on them instead of the sand. It took a bit for me to get them settled due to the slight breeze interrupting my progress, but I eventually got them to stay down.

Noah sat down immediately while I laid down on my back and looked up into the bright, sunny sky. There were only a handful of clouds surrounding the sun, but none of them were blocking the intensity of it. After I slipped on my sunglasses I looked over to Noah to see him staring out into the ocean.

"Deep in thought?" I wondered out loud causing him to snap his attention towards me. I raised my eyebrow above the lens of my sunglasses as I waited for his reply.