The Ranch

Chapter 7: Almost caught

Noah sat at the table wondering if it would be weird to tell Emily he'd seen her before. He didn't want her to think he was some creepy stalker. "When do you plan on going back to college?" Johnny asked his son. "What makes you think I'm going back?" Liam loved teasing his dad. "You better be going back, my money's not paying for laziness." Ellie smacked her husbands arm. "He's barely here and you already want him gone again. Don't you chase my baby away!" Liam smirked at his dad. "That's your baby." Johnny pointed to Alex "He stopped being your baby 10 years ago." Ellie scowled at him.Johnny pulled his fingers through his sons hair. "He knows I'm joking."

"I love having the whole family together again. Well most of us..." Ellie started collecting the plates on the table. "Why don't we do something together tomorrow?" She suggested. Emily's face lit up,"I know, how about we go to the lake and have a nice picnic. There's a huge tree and we can swim too." Emily was very excited and proud of her idea. Everyone went quite. Noah looked down at his hands. Feeling that awful feeling again.

"What? Are we not allowed down there or...?" Emily was very confused. "I think we'll do it somewhere else, honey." Ellie stood behind Emily rubbing her shoulder. "Why that place is perfect!" She insisted. Johnny looked at Noah. "Let it go Em." He said serious. Everybody was quite for a while longer. "Well I think I'm going to take a shower." Noah got up and left the table. He hated thinking about that day. It made him angry. Angry at himself. Angry at the world.

~~~
"Come on Noah get up." Liam was standing over him shaking him. "What?... What time is it?" He was confused. It was still dark, he couldn't even see his hand in front of his face. "Don't ask questions. Just get dressed and meet us down stairs." Noah looked at his phone. It was 1 in the morning.

He decided to get dressed and see what this was all about. Downstairs he found both Liam and Emily. "What are we doing?" Noah was still tired. "Can you keep it down?" Liam said tossing Noah something. "What's this?"
Emily grabbed his hand dragging him to the door. "You'll see." She winked at him.
They got into Liams truck and started driving. Noah noticed there was al lot more of what Liam handed him.

"Are these fireworks?" Noah asked holding it in his hand. "Sure is!" Liam was very proud of himself. "Are you crazy? We're surrounded by farms full of animals. Do you want to get arrested?" Liam chuckled "That's why we're going into town to the nearest park. We've done it before." Noah was still confused "People will complain. It sounds like gunshots going off." Emily giggled "That's why it's so fun. Hope you can run fast by the way!" Noah looked at her with a smirk "Duh... I'm a football player..."

The park was dark enough to not blow their cover. Liam had everything set up. Noah could see Emily shivering next to him. He gave her his hoodie. "No, now you'll be cold." Noah smiled at her. "I'll be fine." He loved seeing her this excited about something. He realized that his life now is just one big rush. He doesn't have time to do things like this.

"Are you ready? We have like 10 seconds to start running back to the truck before it starts shooting and we'll just sit and watch the show from there." The truck was parked behind the park. As Liam set fire to the fireworks, a guard appeared behind them screaming to them. "Shit, run!" Liam shouted. Noah didn't know where to run to seeing as the guard blocked his way to the truck and he didn't know the park well. He decided to follow Emily. She jumped in behind a bush and Noah had no choice but to fall on top of her.

She started giggling hysterically. Noah put his hands on her mouth trying to stop her from laughing. The fireworks went of above them. He saw her eyes in the light of the fire. His body felt numb. He realized he was to late to catch himself from falling for her. He was long gone.

EMILYS POV:
Noah felt heavy on top of me and the worried look in his eyes wanted to make me laugh harder. I felt butterflies in my stomach having him this close to me. I wanted to kiss him so badly when he took away his hand. No Emily stop. He's going to leave sometime. It won't work. My heart ached with longing for his lips on mine, his embrace. A longing to know I'm his everything, the only girl he thinks about, the one he can't wait to see.

"Do you think he's gone?" Noah said turning his head away from her trying to see over the hedge. "Probably." Emily wanted them to stay here but before she could finish her thought Noah got up, helping her up. "Do you think he caught Liam?" Emily looked concerned. "I don't know. Maybe we should go back to the truck."

Liam was nowhere to be seen. The truck was locked so Noah and Emily decided to sit on the back. "What do we do if he doesn't come back?" Noah chuckled at the thought of being stranded on the back of the truck for the night. "He'll be back." Emily was sure of herself. "You seem confident in yourself."
"I know him well enough to know he's faster than that guard." Emily shivered again. Noah hesitantly put his arm around her. Her body went stiff at first before she relaxed into his chest.

Liam arrived a little while later out of breath. He laughed resting his arms on the truck. Noah and Emily got up. "That was a close one!" Liam laughed. "You guys are insane!" Noah felt different. He felt like a kid again like he had a life outside football.

They got back to the house and snuck in as quietly as possible. Emily went to her room falling on her bed. She remembered she was wearing Noah's hoodie. She couldn't help herself and smelled it. It smelled like him. She decided to sleep in it feeling like a squeamish school girl.