43. Trouble in paradise

Chapter 43: Trouble in paradise

Kelsey's POV

*****

The day after my birthday, I woke up early to make them all breakfast. I felt like they deserved that after everything they had done for me the previous day, and I knew that if I were to wake up slightly later, Ethan would have beaten me to it. For once I wanted him to wake up and find food ready, and not feel like he had to cook it himself for everybody else.

It wasn't long before Noah strolled in the kitchen, rubbing the sleep from his eyes before sneaking a glance into the pan, wondering what I was cooking. His eyes shone as he caught a glimpse of the peanut butter, banana smoothie in the blender beside me, and I could swear to have seen his mouth water as he realised that I was making them an egg, bacon, sausage muffin.

"You are the absolute greatest," he said, stealing a bacon from the pan and earning a glare from me.

"And that bacon you just stole means one less in your bread," I replied, pointing the tongs at his chest as he let out a chuckle, removing a strand of hair from in front of his face before walking up to the cupboards and taking out the plates and utensils.

A glimpse towards Noah reminded me that there was an interesting conversation he and I needed to have, regarding his new relationship status with the person whom I considered as my own younger sister.

"The party was great yesterday, huh?" I asked, wanting to ease him into the conversation.

He looked at me with a smile, his eyes sparkling as he nodded in agreement. I smiled as I noticed how happy he looked, the gorgeous smile that reached his eyes, crinkling their sides. He hadn't worn that smile for days, certainly not when Zack was around, but there was also a new glow in him one which he hadn't possessed before, and which I was certain had to do with a certain brown haired girl.

"Let's cut to the chase here," I said before turning off the hob and turning around to look at him, my back leaning against the counter. "I believe you owe me a sweet little story," I said with a grin as his face turned red, his gaze shifting to the ground.

He looked at me again, an embarrassed smile on his lips before he bit his bottom lip. "Okay, how about, you take me for an ice-cream, and I tell you everything you need to know," he smirked making me roll my eyes at his bribe.

"Deal," I said right as Ethan walked into the kitchen, looking between Noah and I suspiciously before walking towards me for a kiss.

"Hmm, what are you two up to?" Ethan asked, raising his eyebrows, the left side of his mouth twitching upwards.

"Oh, you know, just me and your girlfriend going out for ice-cream together," Noah teased, sticking his tongue out at his brother who had just let out an overly dramatic gasp, his hand flying up to where his heart was.

"Are you cheating on me with my own brother?" He joked, pretending to be offended.

I rolled my eyes at him, before telling him what Noah and I were up to. Wanting to hang out with me, Ethan begged to come with us, an offer which I had to refuse, knowing that someone had to stay with Ellie and Lara while the two of us were gone. After all, Ethan already knew what had happened between Noah and May. The only one who was still in the dark was me.

That was why after breakfast, Noah helped me with the chores, and the two of us set off walking to an ice-cream parlour nearby. I was excited about the fact that I was going to get to know what happened between Noah and May. I loved hearing cute stories like that, especially when it involved two people I cared about so dearly.

After ordering two ice-cream cones at the cute, pastel themed parlour, we walked towards a quiet table and sat down. I looked at Noah expectantly, waiting for him to tell me what I wanted to know. He looked at me right before taking a bite of his ice-cream, my nose scrunching up in disgust.

"Did you just bite your ice-cream?" I judgingly asked. "Everyone knows that you're supposed to lick an ice-cream and not bite it. How do you not have a brain freeze after that?"

Noah laughed at me, his eyes crinkling as his chest vibrated up and down. I, on the other hand, looked at him in confusion, wondering what on earth was so funny with what I had just told him. It was a known thing that ice-creams weren't meant to be bitten. Not only does it hurt your teeth, but it also removes from the pleasure of savouring it.

"Who made you the ice cream police?" He chuckled, making me roll my eyes at him.

"Shut up," I mumbled, making him laugh at my reaction before getting serious.

"Okay, so," he started off, making my ears perk up as soon as I realised that he was going to tell me the Moah story. "May and I were decorating for your part,y and Ethan told us to go buy snacks. So we went to the grocery store and this old lady was all like 'Aww you guys are such a cute couple' and neither of us said anything, we just smiled to the lady. After paying for the stuff I told her how crazy it was for people to think we were a couple and she just nodded," he said, making me roll my eyes at the fact that he was just blabbering at that moment.

He stopped and let out a nervous laugh as he noticed my reaction, before taking a deep breath and continuing his story, quickly getting to the point. "When we got back to the house I went up next to the guys to write you the song, and May came with. The guys started talking about a song we had written in camp together about girls we sort of liked, and, well, my part of the song was about May and Ethan asked to hear it, and as I was singing it, May realised that it was for her and she asked me about it, so then I told her that I liked her, and yeah." His face had turned as red as a tomato, as I grinned from ear to ear at the cuteness of the story.

"Aww, Noah that's so sweet!" I cooed, messing up his hair slightly, earning me a groan from him.

"I know I am," he grinned, his answer making me laugh.

He and I spent the rest of our time eating the ice-cream and talking about lots of things, starting with him and May, and ending with Ethan and I. He asked me about all the details of how we actually got together, and about our date the previous day. I could see how proud he was of his brother every time I mentioned him, and I found myself wishing that I could have a sibling like Noah, who would always be willing to have my back and who would be proud of me. I did, however, have Meg, who was always there for me, and Noah, who always went out of his way to help me, even when I did not deserve it.

We got back to the house soon after, our laughter never dying down until we opened the door, finding Ethan there waiting for us with a serious and worried look on his face.

"E, what's wrong?" I asked, walking up to him as I noticed his red eyes becoming glossy.

"Can we talk alone?" He asked me before looking at Noah, who simply nodded and walked upstairs, leaving Ethan and I alone.

It was evident from his tone of voice that what he needed to talk about was something serious, and I couldn't help but feel scared of what it was going to be. I could feel my heart beating loudly as I sat down next to him, taking his hand into mine reassuringly as he looked at me with that broken look of his.

"Zack got what he wanted. He told my mom you slept with Noah, they're coming home early," he said before getting up from the couch, his hands flying up to his hair as he sighed.

I froze in place, unable to believe what he was telling me. Zack told the Walkers that I slept with Noah, and they were coming early because of that. My mind instantly ran to the worst possible scenarios, all of which ended up with me getting in a lot of trouble, and my credibility flying right out the window. The Walkers were important enough to ruin my life and career if any of that got out, and I felt hot tears starting to stream down from my eyes at the thought.

Ethan looked at me, his eyes softening as he took in the miserable state I was in before sitting back down next to me and engulfing me in a hug, his strong arms around me unable to make me feel any better for the first time ever.

"He probably got mad to know that he didn't hurt me. This is all my fault," he said, burying his head in the crook of my neck.

"But how does he know?" I asked, unable to comprehend. In Zack's point of view, Ethan caught us nearly kissing and got mad at me, not wanting to have anything to do with me ever again. I couldn't understand how he could have possibly gotten to know about our relationship, or even the fact that Ethan had forgiven me for what happened.

"Zack always finds out everything," he said with a sigh. "Kelsey, I'm so sorry," he said, hugging me once again. "You'll lose your job, you won't get paid, Noah will get in trouble, and my parents will for sure talk about this to other people. This is all my fault," he continued, his words stressing me out even more.

I sighed as I backed up away from him slightly, placing one of my hands on his shoulders, and the other one on his cheek gently. He had to calm down-we both did. We weren't going to be getting anywhere by blaming ourselves.

"Look, we have to do something to prove my innocence and show them that Zack is a huge liar. It will all be okay," I said, wanting to convince both him and myself.

"What are we going to tell Noah?" Ethan asked, worry flooding his eyes at the thought of the fact that his little brother was involved in the situation.

I hated the fact that out of all people, Zack had chosen Noah to mess with. My relationship with Noah was one of my favourites, and thinking that it could all be broken because of Zack's vengeful actions only made my blood boil.

"Tell me what?" Noah asked as he walked downstairs.

Ethan and I both glanced at each other, knowing that we had no other choice. He had to know, especially since his parents were going to be arriving back at any second. That was why I gently asked him to sit down next to us on the couch before trying to explain everything to him in the gentlest way possible.

"What?" He angrily spat as he stood up from the sofa, his eyes suddenly turning dark after he took in everything that we had just told him. "Ethan, I told you that Zack was trouble! Why didn't you guys tell me?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to get you in to trouble, I didn't want you to stress. I thought that by kissing him, he would let it all go, but I guess he didn't," I guiltily said, hating the fact that I had put Noah in that situation.

Noah looked at me, his eyes softening slightly as he sat back down and took a deep breath to try and calm himself.

"I'm not angry at you Kelsey. You're the one who has the most to lose from this," he said with pitying eyes before hugging me tightly.

"We need to figure something out before mom and dad come home tomorrow. She wanted Kelsey gone before she gets here," Ethan said, making me snap my head at him at this new information.

My whole world felt as if it were crashing down around me. I had never felt as happy as I was surrounded by the people in that household, and I couldn't believe that because of one lie, that was all threatened. Sometimes I felt as if the universe was against me, not allowing me to have one single moment in peace without having something bad happen. It seemed to me as if there was always going to be something bad that needed to happen whenever things were going good, and I couldn't stand that.

"Kelsey's leaving? I don't want her to go," Lara said, making us all look towards the direction of her voice, finding Ellie and Lara eavesdropping in the staircase.

"How much have you heard?" Noah asked, waving them over before they came up to us and sat on both sides of me.

"Everything," Ellie said, tilting her head upwards at me, her hazel orbs meeting mine.

"And we want to help," Lara said, taking my hand in hers. "Kelsey is the best thing that has ever happened to us!" She continued before hugging me.

"Gee thanks girls," Noah and Ethan sarcastically said in unison, trying to lighten the mood slightly.

"Oh suck it up Ethan, before Kelsey got here you barely knew we existed," Lara said with a roll of her eyes.

"Kelsey was the one who thought me how to swim without any help!" Ellie said. "Mommy can't kick her out," she cried.

I looked at the two girls next to me, and felt my heart tighten with affection for them. They cared about me as much as I cared about them, and I knew that there was no way I could live without them in my life. I could not let their parents forbid me from seeing them because of something which I hadn't even done-there had to be something that could be done.

"Don't worry guys, we'll figure something out. And I have the perfect plan," I said as a brilliant plan made its way to my head.

I couldn't believe that Zack could ever do something like that. I did everything he had asked me to do, and then still went on to hurt Noah and I like we were some puppets in his silly little game. No one had the right to be so cruel, and that was why he needed to be brought down. If my plan worked, I knew that the Walkers would finally be able to get rid of him.

A/N: Heyy guyss! Sorry for another short chapter but I didn't have much to write for this one, the next one is going to be long I promise, mostly because I have a lot of ideas for it. Though I have a lot of things to do on Wednesday both morning and evening so if I don't update on Wednesday I'll update on Thursday but I'll start writing the chapter tomorrow so maybe I'll get the chance to publish it.

Also I need to tell you guys something important. I know a lot of people may be going through hard times and so I want to tell you're perfect and amazing in every single way. If anyone ever tells you that you're ugly because you're different or anything like that don't listen to them because everyone is beautiful in every single way. If they say you're weird then take it as a compliment..Normal's boring anyways. Most importantly, never listen to a person who tells you to go kill yourself and that no one will miss you because that's not true. That's the worst thing someone could tell you and if you ever think about saying it to someone then just don't because you don't know what that might do to a person. If a person ever says it to you just don't listen to them because you guys have so many people who love you, friends, family even if it's a small family it's still a family and I care about you too like so much.

So yeah, I just wanted to say that maybe it could help some of you because whenever I was feeling upset I needed someone to say those things to me but no one did, I didn't want you guys to go through the same thing. I'll always be here to make you guys happy okay?!

I SAID OKAY?

You: Okay, okay

Me: *grins* Great!

Okay so I left you guys waiting enough so I'll stop writing to just publish the chapter already, I'm so cruel :P Also sorry if I made any spelling mistakes I didn't do a read through, feel free to point them out if you want

Anywhooo, Stay perfect as always,

Love,

~M