Afterwards

Everything was totally normal for a while. Sunday, for high schoolers, is always that day where you buckle down and do all the work you’ve skipped the past two days. So everyone slipped out of Noah’s house relatively early. Emma disappeared before anyone else, didn’t even stay for breakfast.
They didn't see her at school either.
They got a little bit worried by that.
Brooke called her, and then her mom. Turns out she’d stayed home, gone to see a therapist.
Mixed feelings of guilt and relief flooded over Brooke when she heard that.
She spent the rest of the day trying to work out plans for her party.
On Tuesday Noah convinced his new boss to let him play Until Dawn in the store.
Well, it was more like Audrey convinced him.
A pretty girl leaning on the counter and batting her eyelashes at him seemed to be all the incentive he needed to hand over a copy of the game.
When Noah expressed his surprise at her willingness to use her feminine wiles to get things she just shrugged and pointed out that since neither of them had the console, this was the only way to actually play the game. Noah admitted she had a point. He’d been dying to play the game.
It made him uncomfortable though. Not her doing it, just the way his boss looked at her. But this was his boss, and Audrey could handle herself, so who was he to say anything.
Noah did his best to keep all their team alive, but it wasn’t going so well at the day. He was convinced Audrey was attempting to sabotage his decision-making. When he asked her, she just laughed and innocently asked him why she would do that.
It made him smile, so he supposed he was fine with it.
He could always get a better ending in the game later.
When they came to continue the game the next day, his boss was everywhere.
Every time Audrey left the couch, he was there.
Audrey ended up settling down with her head in his lap for rest of the time so she wouldn’t rip his head off. Noah wasn’t complaining.
It’s not like his boss was a bad guy. Andrew was a fairly funny guy, and of course, was a huge nerd. He didn’t really look like one though. He looked like a typical rich frat guy, which, given the stories Noah had heard him tell, he actually was.
Needless to say, he thought he was the shit. It made Audrey laugh whenever he was out of earshot.
Until later that day, when she forced herself to get up off the couch for the sake of her legs, which had fallen asleep.
Because it was then that he decided it was a totally good idea to ask her out.
She laughed in his face this time.
Noah gave her props for at least having the decency to apologize afterwards.
He asked her why not.
She told him straight up that he wasn’t her type.
He asked her if she already had a boyfriend.
She narrowed her eyes, and asked him if he knew who she was.
He looked at her like she was insane.
That actually made Audrey smile. “Thank God someone here doesn’t.”
He asked her why he should.
She just said that she was a bit of a local celebrity.
Somehow he didn’t put it together.
He said he was really new to town.
Audrey nodded, and said not to worry about it.
She turned, and tried to make her way back to Noah.
He asked her again if she had a boyfriend.
Audre rolled her eyes.
They landed on Noah.
An unspoken conversation was had.
His shoulders shrugged the smallest bit.
She turned back to Andrew. “What do you think?”
He laughed, smiled like he’d won something, and said that if she spent so much time here, she must be single.
Audrey raised her eyebrows, and asked him if he was really that stupid.
He shrugged and said that the only other guy here was Noah, and there was no way a girl like her would want a nerd boy like him.
Noah took that as his cue to snicker just loud enough for Andrew to hear.
Andrew stared at him, and then Audrey.
Audrey assumed that was the end of that, and headed back over to the couch.
She’d made the wrong assumption.
“No offense Noah, you’re a good kid and everything, but why the heck are you going out with him Audrey? What’s there to like about a nerd like him?”
Audrey shrugged. “I like him well enough.”
Noah gave her a glance of mocking accusation. “’Well enough?’”
“What can I say, I’m difficult to please,” she laughed.
“I bet I could show you a better time than him,” Andrew put in.
Audrey just glared at him. “Are you actually that scummy?”
“I’m just saying.”
“Trust me, we have plenty of fun.”
“I even let you make out with a girl in front of me,” Noah said, grinning to himself.
“Oh please, she wanted to make out with you, not me.”
“Yeah…”
“You’re lucky you could use getting dosed at that party as an excuse for that one.”
“I’m not the one who used it.”
Suddenly things were way too real for both of them.
Andrew looked uncomfortable.
Audrey threw him a look, and then another sneaky grin took over her face.
“Though, I bet you wouldn't pull any of that Fantasia 2 shit though.”
Noah’s face went bright red. “I should definitely not have told you that.”
He thought for a second. “Wait, I didn’t tell you that!”
She shrugged, still smiling deviously. “I heard it from Brooke.”
Noah’s brain made the connections relatively quickly.
“You girls and your gossip chain.”
Audrey laughed.
“Seriously Noah, how did you get this girl in bed with you?”
“Generally horror movies work.”
Not technically a lie.
“There’s gotta be more to the secret than that. If it can get you this caliber of girl, think about the kind of girls I could get.”
Audrey settled her head on Noah’s shoulder.
“I don’t think our relationship is something you can just copy. We’ve been through a lot with each other. She’s always been special to me, and a lot of shit’s gone down that makes her even more precious.”
Audrey smiled to herself.
Andrew looked like he was thinking about something. Trying to make a connection. He pulled out his phone and googled something.
“What kind of shit?”
“That’s really not your business,” Audrey snapped.
Andrew had a lightbulb moment looking at his phone.
“You guys were part of the Murderville stuff that happened recently.”
Audre sighed.
“You’re right, that’s not exactly something I can manufacture to get chicks.”
He clicked on another link.
“It says here your girlfriend died in the killings.”
“Which one of us are you talking to?” Audrey asked roughly.
“Noah, but I’m guessing you lost one too?”
“Yeah, nice deduction genius.”
Noah sighed. “Me and Zoe were amazing, but short-lived. I was kind of awful to her. Too many feelings, too much death. She was convinced I was cheating on her with Audrey, at least emotionally.” He paused. “She wasn’t exactly wrong. But nothing happened with me and Audrey until after she was…gone.”
“Well-“
Noah shot Audrey a look, and she shut her mouth.
“That one doesn’t count.”
“Yeah, really didn’t.”
“Wow, um, way too much truth bomb here guys. I feel like I walked into a really uncomfortable cut scene.”
Noah cracked a smile.
They both lost it at right about the same time.
“We really have no filter sometimes, sorry,” Audrey said eventually. “It happens, when, you know, shit like that goes down.”
Noah nodded. “Hey, can you do us a huge favor and don’t tell people what we just told you?”
“Sure dude, sure. I’ll keep it to myself. And let you guys get back to your game.”
He stopped. “And sorry Audrey, I was being way more of a douche than I thought I was.”
She laughed. “If only all douchebags were as considerate. You’re forgiven. I did use you to play Until Dawn.”
“Which we should actually probably get back to,” Noah added. “We kinda left Emily hanging, literally.”
Audrey’s eyes lit up. “Right! We should totally drop the bitch!”
“She’s not that bad.”
“She really is.”
“…fair.”
They decided to save Matt instead.
They laughed about the whole thing on the way home.
They don’t mention any of the uncomfortable truths.
Well, except one.
“We make a pretty good fake couple,” Noah laughed.
“Andrew was totally believing it by the end of the day. I heard him muttering about how he should have noticed it sooner.”
“I guess that means we can just act as normal around him and he’ll still believe it.”
“Yep. No fake breakup necessary here.”
“Good. Fake breakups are so messy.”
“I know right?”
“Totally not worth it.”
“Definitely.”