Lies 1-50

"Are you stalking me now?"

"What?"

"What are you talking about?"

"What?"

"Stop it. NOAH!"

I screamed my boyfriend's name and Damien stood there with a crazed look on his face.

"Who is this?" Noah asked as his footsteps got closer to me.

"Damien."

"Oh."

Noah struck Damien's face with his left fist and Damien fell to the floor.

"Noah!"

"That was for all the shit you ever did to Charlotte," Noah said and kicked him in the side.

"Noah, what did you do that for?"

"Um, Charlotte, this is Damien we're talking about."

"Yes, but... I don't remember telling you about him."

"When you blacked out, you were talking about him..."

"I was?"

"Yeah, that day we found Drake's drugs..."

"Oh... Uh I think we'll need to get his body inside."

"Right."

Noah grabbed Damien's hands and dragged him through the green jello that littered our porch. As he was dragging Damien in I wondered about my dream... About Jesse. I wondered if he heard that too.

"Noah?"

"Yeah babe?" His voice was strained because he was throwing Damien onto the couch.

"Did you hear anything else?"

"Do you mean your dream? Yeah a little. I wasn't listening though, you kind of woke me up."

"Oh." I looked away ashamed, but not exactly sure of what.

"Hey, don't worry about it. I don't care about your past, I just care about our future."

We sat for a few minutes and stared at Damien. I was waiting for him to move, I think Noah was waiting for him to open his eyes. Suddenly he jumped up and said "Don't hit me! Not again!"

"Shut up. Tell me what you're doing here."

"I'm trying to be nice! Honestly! I just wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood."

There was something different about him that I just noticed... He was alll... PANSY-ISH. He looked different too, he looked healthy.

"Damien? Is that really you?"

"Yeah Charlotte, it is."

His hair was shorter too, and it was lighter. I hadn't noticed before, but I did then. His eyes were warmer, his hands looked softer.

"What happened to you?"

I went forward and touched his arm gently. It felt unfamiliar, unlike anything I had ever imagined.

"Charlotte. I meant to get in touch with you... But your mother said you left about seven months ago. I got out of rehab a year ago... I..."

"You did? Wow, I'm glad. What are you here for though?"

"Charlotte, I'm gay. I'm living with my boyfriend now. We found each other there, in rehab."

"Gay? Damien, no you aren't. I mean, we-"

"Yeah I know. I was just trying to hide it, I thought gay people were so weird and dirty, I never wanted to admit I was gay."

"Oh."

"So how are you doing? Better?"

"Yeah, I guess. Damien, I think you should go."

"Yeah, I think so too. Sorry about this."

"No, uh, I'm sorry my boyfriend beat you up."

I had totally forgotten about Noah until that moment. He came up behind me and put his arm around my waist. "Yeah, sorry too." He grumbled his apology.

I let Damien out and spotted Levi and Skinner coming up the road. I wouldn't talk for the rest of the night. They were mad at me for not thanking them and went to bed before I built up enough strength to apologize.

I crawled into bed alone and laid there awake until Noah came in. He stood waiting for me to turn around, but I wouldn't.

"Listen," he began, "I know that was an awful blast from your past, but you don't have to blow us off."

I rolled over to face him finally despite my attitude. "You don't understand. That was hard for me... I did drugs with that guy... I had sex with him... All because he comforted me after Alex. Seeing him made me remember everything he did to me and every little detail about Alex. That was awful for me."

Wouldn't the selfish me ever die? It just never went away, it always took from my life. It made me regret living sometimes.

"I know babe." His voice faded out a bit and he looked down to the foot of our bed. "I meant what I said..."

"What did you say?" I couldn't remember anything out of the ordinary that would stick out.

He kneeled down next to the bed and sighed. He took my hand in his and reached into his pocket with the other hand. "I said I really care about our future."

The words came rushing into my ears when I realized what he was doing.

"Come with me to the aisle," he whispered, "And always be mine. I love you so much."

He pulled out a white gold ring with a small diamond on it and slipped it on my finger. It was so beautiful and it slid onto my finger with ease.

"Noah I don't know what to say. Oh my God I love you too."

"Say yes, please say yes," he whispered.

"Yes." I whispered back with a smile. I sat up and put my arms around his neck. We kissed and I took both of his hands in mine. "We've only known each other for what? 7 or 8 months?" I giggled like a school girl.

"Yeah, so?"

I laughed again. "Do you always rush into these things?"

"Only with people I really love. And I really love you."

I kissed him again.

"You're my slave tonight," I said softly, "And I command you to turn off the lights."

"Your command is my duty," he said with a sly smile on his lips.

The lighs went off, followed by every piece of clothing I had on. I repeated the steps with him and soon we were dancing under covers in the shade of darkness the night threw over us.