Noah's Guide to Catching a Cat ✓

05| custos

05| custos

keeper, guard

Noah's father did come back. At three in the morning. Noah woke up, hearing the noise then relaxed when he realised his father was sneaking in the house.

His father didn't come back winning anything if his grumbling is to be believed. Like everyone else, he doesn't tell Noah or his relentless mother what occurred in the fortress.

Noah gives up fairly quickly, but his mother doesn't. The whole Sunday morning, she's badgering him while all three of them were in the garden. His mum was trimming the bushes with his father while Noah and Clay were cutting the grass. 

"Why can't you trust us?" Noah hears his mother say. 

"It's not that I don't trust you, I really can't."

Noah's mother huffs. She snips the bush a little more angrily. 

"Honey, come on, nothing happened!"

"Nothing I know about," his mother roars. 

Noah wants to laugh, because he knows it's his mothers curiousity, it's why his father hadn't been dragged home by her the minute he even tried. She, like him, was very curious about what's going on at Nadine's house.

"Son, help me out here." his father pleads, noticing Noah and Clay coming up.

Noah raises his eyebrows. 

His dad's eyes are still pleading. 

Fine, Noah thinks, "The NDA could be iron tight mom, for all we know dad has a wire on him to prevent him from telling anyone till the end of the competition."

Noah's fathers eyes widened.

"You have a wire on you!" My mother shrieks, "so everything I say is being monitored?"

"Honey-"

"No, you had to go. You had to try."

"Please -"

Noah is surprised, so his dad is being monitored, what could be so secretive that they would need to monitor his dad? Noah couldn't help but wonder, what exactly is that fortress hiding.  

The urge to go and try builds in his chest, but he shakes his head. He doesn't want to be the guy who wins a girlfriend. He wants a more organic story, no complications. Just a girl and boy who love each other. 

Clay wags his tail. 

His parents still bicker behind him. 

And Noah's just wondering if he'll ever find someone he likes as much as he likes Nadine when they were children. Because, as much as he watched her, trying to understand why, he'd somehow ended up with feelings stronger than a childhood crush for a girl he'd shared his ham sandwich with.