Recap: Nolan and Helen returned from New York. Their parents found out about their lie. They don't want both of them to see each other anymore.

Chapter 11: Don't You Remember Our Special Night Together?

My parents took away my cell phone. No more contact with Nolan. Little did they know, I was grateful for that. I attempted to maintain my focus on the midterm exams, but that was hard to do.

We were responsible for the death of Hanna. And her unborn child. As much as I wanted to forget about the Manhattan incident, I couldn't. The guilt was building inside me, gnawing me, eating me up alive. Every time I tried to read something, Hanna's bloody face would flash in my mind. If not Hanna, then Chase. Those two occupants refused to leave my thoughts. If I hadn't been selfish and dealt with the consequences of vandalism, Hanna might still have been alive.

I was so damn stupid.

Now, I was going to suffer from bad exam scores.

"Mom!" I finally screamed, slapping my book shut in frustration.

"What?" she yelled from downstairs.

What did I want? "Can I go out for a walk? I need a break from physics."

"Be back by seven."

I dressed warm: shirt, hoodie, coat, jeans, winter hat, gloves, and boots. It has been freezing outside.

As I walked down the street, I heard a "psst!" I didn't turn rather began walking back home. It could be a kidnapper for god's sake. "Helen, wait!" I groaned, realizing who had said it.

"Nolan, go to hell."

My wrist was suddenly caught and pulled, forcing me to turn back to face Nolan. "I will. After the next two breakups."

We were exchanging words after four days. Nolan wore jeans and a jacket over top. His hair was getting messed up from the chilly wind. I didn't know why, but Nolan was out of breath. He maybe ran like ten feet and was panting after that? His heart really was "sensitive."

"You're insane and I'm on the verge of becoming insane," I said, breaking free of his grip. "I'm done with your breakup schemes."

He narrowed his eyes at me. "Remember, Postulet, you're eighteen. You'll be sitting in jail for the vandalism and the break-in in my house." I clenched my fists, wanting to give him a good punch to the face. "Your family's reputation will go down the drain. Not to forget, no good college will accept you. Princeton's way out of the question." He slightly cooled down. "I didn't mean for what happened to Hanna. It was completely unexpected." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm sorry about that breakup."

"Nolan, we are responsible for two deaths," I whisper-yelled. "Sorry doesn't help."

"It's not our fault she got in an accident!"

"But it is our fault for getting into her life."

"I don't want to talk about it," Nolan said. Finally, I saw his guilt. He was running away from everything messed up he did. "Are you helping me with the last two breakups?" I shook my head. "So, you're fine with going to jail?" I closed my eyes for a moment. Why did he want to ruin my future?

It was just two more.

I was ruining people's lives to save mine.

"Of course, I'll help. It's not like I have another option," I said. "You're making me become as horrendous as you."

"Cool."

I stared as he pulled out his breakup notebook. The joy. He opened to a page with a photo of a red-haired girl. She had green eyes and a dimpled smile. Nolan had lit a cigarette and put it in his mouth. I slapped his face, making the nasty thing drop. He scowled and brought his hand to his cheek.

"What happened to quitting smoking after we began 'dating?'"

"I lied."

"Well, don't kill me with your second-hand smoking."

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever. The second-to-last girlfriend is Ruth Fisher. She said I didn't fit her 'ideal' boyfriend a week after we were official," he replied. "Then she broke up with me."

"Shocker."

"Says someone who's never had a boyfriend."

"After meeting you, I don't want one." I gave him a sour look. "What's the plan for her? What school does she attend? How much stalking have you done on her?"

"Nice to know you don't bother being nice to me," he said. For a moment, I genuinely gave his words a thought. Then, I realized he was a psycho lover who didn't deserve nice treatment. "Anyways, all I know is that she has a boyfriend. I met her once after the breakup and that was a month ago. Her Rumspringa was about to end or had ended."

"Rum what?"

"Rumspringa. The Amish time period where they let their teenagers decide whether they want to leave the Amish life or not," explained Nolan. "I thought you were smart." I had heard of it, just not the title itself.

"Smart doesn't mean you know everything," I said, offended.

"Sure. Ruth is either back to her home or in the outside world," Nolan said. "We'll have to go and check the Amish village. That's where I met her." I gave him a look. Did he expect us to be able to leave our houses? "I'll convince the parents, don't you worry." Who was worrying? I knew he couldn't convince them. I checked the time on my watch.

Five minutes till seven.

"Whatever you say. I better head home," I told him. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

"Nolan?"

"Please don't let another Hanna happen."

He nodded and we parted our ways. I wasn't exactly thrilled upon meeting Nolan. He couldn't convince my parents or his with any method, I was sure. This breakup wasn't going to happen.

Dinner was ready by the time I entered my house. Mom and dad asked about school and exams. I told them it was going alright. I didn't tell them how much last weekend had affected me, though I was sure they knew something was up. Mom even suggested us going shopping this weekend, but I shot it down. I needed the weekend for sleep.

The next day was again a half day due to midterms. I had the Physics and English exams. We had to write an essay in English, but Physics was horrible. I knew I had gotten six questions wrong. Goddamn. It was awful when my Physics teacher told me to stay after school. Did he grade the exams already?

"Am I in trouble?" I asked as I stood on the other side of my teacher's desk. He sat behind his computer.

"Yes, very much," he deadpanned. Normally, he was always joking or laughing. I was genuinely afraid. "I heard you did a Physics experiment without including me in it." My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. What experiment was he talking about? "Kay Pal told me about your air vents venture. What did you discover?"

Maybe I was in trouble.

I tried to think back to what Nolan and I told our principal.

"We just checked the air flow," I said slowly. "There was a lot of heat passing through. The filters needed changing." I was making up things.

"They actually finally changed the filters after your little trip," he said with a smile. "Just wanted to tell you that you and Milesblue actually attained something out of it." I forced a smile. "I don't have him this year for AP, so tell him for me that I said hi and you two did a great job. But don't do something like again, okay?"

I nodded. "Yup and thanks."

I got out of there soon enough. Tomorrow was exams make-up day. There was no school for me. Relieved just by the thought, I walked home fast. When I stepped inside my house, I wanted to cry. Nolan, Ashlyn, and Nate sat in the living room couch. Ashlyn was the fortune teller break-up. I had felt really bad for her. Nate had beaten Nolan when he found him cheating on his girlfriend during astronomy club night.

Why the hell were they here?

"Helen, you're home," Mom said.

Unfortunately, I was.

I sighed and sat down next to her. "Hi," I said to the people. They either waved or returned the greeting.

"Your friends just came here five minutes ago," said Mom. Friends? She said "your friends?" I was going to murder Nolan. These people would kill me if they knew what I had done to them. He wasn't even meeting my eyes. "You didn't mention about your plans for tomorrow."

"What plans?" I asked.

Everyone looked at Nolan. Served him right. "Remember I said we should all check out the Amish village? Exam relief and an outing? All of our friends need to get reconnected."

"I don't recall you mentioning that," I partially lied. Nolan stared at me.

"Maybe you forgot. Like you forgot about the pho--"

"Oh yeah, now, I remember," I interrupted. Nolan didn't need to bring up the photos. "Amish village yeah." I turned to my mother. "I was going to ask you today."

Mom looked at my friends. "How many people are going?"

"Us three," Nolan pointed to him, Ashlyn, and Nate, "plus Helen. And maybe three more from our AP English class. It's just for half a day, Mrs. Postulet."

"Can I trust you children?" Mom asked, mainly she was pointedly looking at me and Nolan. I shook my head, whereas the others nodded. Why couldn't Mom say no? Was it that complicated? Nolan glared and I started nodding as well. "Okay." Nolan and his friends grinned. I couldn't even fake a smile anymore. As soon as they left, Mom turned to me. "Helen, why do you look so miserable? I said yes."

"Nothing."

"You know you can trust me."

I leaned back on the couch. "I know. I just feel bad about last weekend. Mom, Nolan's friend--" I paused and took a deep breath, "--she really died. She was pregnant. And you should've seen her boyfriend." I rubbed my face and told myself not to cry. "I know you were upset about us lying. I'm sorry. But Hanna and her unborn kid really passed away." I needed to tell someone about this. Mom should hopefully understand. I covered my face with my hands.

Mom put her arm around me. "Who's Hanna?"

"A friend."

"Why did you two lie about grandmother dying then?"

"Nolan's idea," I said. "He thought you wouldn't let us go before exams if it was just a friend." That was half-true.

"Not true, Helen. I would've let you go if I had known the truth." If only she knew Hanna was still alive before we went to New York and ruined her future. "You two didn't do anything stupid there, did you?"

Anything stupid? Like what? Go to a bar?

"Of course not. I don't even l--" I stopped. Mom thought I was dating Nolan at the time. "You know this was my first relationship. Very short." Also, very fake.

"All right," she said. "I talked to your dad last night. We have seen your changed behavior and were going to tell that it's fine if you and Nolan see each other. As long as you two don't lie about anything." She gave me a stern look. I was ready to jump off a cliff. Did Nolan know about this? "I already told Nolan today." My innocent mother. She ruined my life.

"Thanks."

She nodded and told me to go clean up. I took a shower and ate dinner. After that, I went straight to bed. Nolan, Ashlyn, Nate, and some girl named Lou came and picked me up. I didn't know how Nolan convinced Ashlyn or Nate to come. Ashlyn was his ex, for god's sake. I sat quietly while everyone else listened to Taylor Swift and sang along.

"One more 'I knew you were trouble' will make me throw up. No joke," I warned.

Nolan shut everyone up after that. I sat in the back with Lou and Ashlyn. Nolan drove and Nate called shotgun.

We reached our destination fairly quickly. I had always liked the countryside so it was a nice change of scenery. All of us got out of the car and saw that there was some celebration or festival going on. There were many tourists. We could distinguish them from the Amish people since the Amish wore their traditional attire.

"Oh my god, look, there are baby chicks over there!" Lou said excitedly.

We all headed the way she pointed but Nolan and I fell behind.

"We don't have much time. Let's start looking for Ruth," said Nolan.

I groaned. He wasn't giving me a break from work. Nonetheless, I went around asking people if they knew Ruth Fisher. No positive responses. I was getting happier and happier when the Amish people said they didn't know her. Nolan had no luck either. Our "friends" wanted to go on the open buggy ride.

I sat up front with the guide and Nolan. The beautiful environment caught my attention immediately.

"Someone knows how to smile."

I looked at Nolan, who was grinning at me. I hadn't realized I was smiling.

"Your presence often takes away the happiness in my life," I said.

His face turned rigid and he ignored me further. Did the truth hurt? I asked the guide about different things. For some reason, something about him seemed familiar. He also gave me amused looks and many glances as if he was waiting for me to say something. He said we had fifteen more minutes on the ride to enjoy.

"Do I know?" I finally asked him.

Nolan frowned staring between the guide and me.

"What? Don't you remember our special night together?" the guide grinned. My eyes widened. What the hell was he saying?

"Didn't know you were into hookups, Postulet," commented Nolan. I smacked his arm.

"You have me confused with someone else," I said to the guide.

"No, no. You just don't remember," he said, his dark blue eyes sparkling. He gestured me to come closer to him. Nolan shook his head slightly for me to not get near the guy. Just to defy Nolan, I edged closer to the guide. He leaned next to my ear and whispered, "A fellow thief, eh?" My eyes almost popped out of my head. He gave me a wink and pulled away from me. It was him. The thief that night at Nolan's house. He was my partner-in-crime. "Remember the night, now?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

It was hard to control my laughter, but I managed.

"I don't think I can ever forget it."

¤》¤《¤

How was the chapter?

Nolan is a dumbo or nah?

The thief is back! Excited?

I have been to the Amish village once. It was a super cool experience. Have you guys ever been there or know about the Amish? I would love some first hand experiences.

Thank you very much for your support so far!!

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