Chapter 173: Music to watch boys to

Noah’s POV

My playful splashing and kicking stops as I watch the car I just got down from drive away.

Elias is leaving me.

And like water being drained after a fulfilling bubble bath on a stressful day, my happiness disappears. My entire body stays still as I keep staring at the moving vehicle. My eyes follow the way it climbs over a stone, slows down at a turn, and then, completely leaves my sight.

Elias is really leaving me.

"Where is Elias going?" I ask Lucas in a voice that sounds the exact way I feel. It’s unsure, unsteady, and a hundred percent confused.

"There is some kind of business in the family that was announced. It’s a kind of emergency" Lucas calls out as he closes the distance between us with a smile on his face. The fact that he’s smiling should soothe me, but it doesn’t.

"Why didn’t he tell me before leaving? The least he could have done is to tell me" I say.

Elias knows I don’t like when he leaves me.

"I think it was a pretty urgent situation, Noah," Lucas says in a playful, but more sorry tone.

"You think?" I ask and scoff. I guess he didn’t tell Lucas about it too. Again, why is it that every time I find a new reason to fall deeper into Elias, something painful would come up. I hate it.

This cycle sucks.

Forgetting that my shoes are full to the brim with water, I move my feet and groan. They’re already heavy. What was I thinking when I got into the water?

I see Elias Deus and poof, everything in my head goes off.

"Come on, Wigglytuff. You can’t let some hard headed alpha ruin your mojo" Lucas says and I huff. I leave the water with my full shoes.

I sit on the edge of the water and take off the soaked shoes. Once they’re off, I toss them carelessly to the side. Well goodbye, comfy white and blue shoes, it was nice knowing you.

The shuffling noises behind me reminds me that I’m not alone.

"Have you ever been in love, Luke?" I ask the guarding alpha, and he sits down next to me on the sand with his big bag of necessary supplies. He hums and stretches out his legs before turning his head to look at me.

"You’re gonna get burned real bad if you don’t apply sunscreen" he says and passes the bag to me.

"Thanks" I murmur and pull out the sunscreen from the bag.

"As I was saying..." I start talking when I’m done applying it and Lucas holds up a single finger to stop me. "One more thing" he says and pulls out a Bluetooth speaker from the same bag I just pulled the sunscreen from.

"We gotta set the mood" he says and takes a moment to connect his phone to the device. We sit in comfortable silence till Lana Del Rey’s Salvatore starts to play through the speaker and my lips form an O.

"Yeah, that makes a lot of sense" I say as I look at him with an approving nod.

"Ah. One more thing to perfect the mood" he says and pulls out a cigarette pack.

"Uh..." I start to protest, but again, Lucas raises a finger to shush me. I hope he knows clean lungs are important to me.

"This is for the mood, Noah. Watch and learn, Wiggy" he says and pulls out one cigarette shaped thing that doesn’t quite look like an actual cigarette. I’m bothered by the shape of this thing, its shape is suspicious, and the lack of a lighter makes it even more concerning.

I hope it’s not a weapon in disguise, because at this point, everything is a weapon when it comes to the Deus family. It’s scary.

"Lucas, what is that?" I ask.

"Shhh...watch" he whispers. He puts the fake cigarette between his lips, puffs his cheeks, and blows. I blink twice in disbelief as bubbles start to come out of the cigarette’s end.

"Goddess! What is that?!" I start to laugh so hard that I tumble over.

"Do not laugh, Wiggy. We’re in a mood" Lucas says seriously, but I continue to laugh. How can I not laugh? He’s hilarious and he’s trying to make me feel better after Elias’s bullpoop treatment.

Lucas is the big brother that I never got to have.

"Now, what did you say about love?" he asks and I take a deep breath. Right, time to be serious. I breathe out and give in to the comfort of lying on the sand by fully relaxing my body.

"Yeah well...I confessed to Elias that I loved him and that was an accident--"

"It’s about time" Lucas mutters.

"What?"

"I mean, it’s already clear that you’re in love with Elias" Lucas says and I stare blankly at the clear blue sky till my eyes start to water.

"There’s nothing wrong with love" he adds softly, and I keep staring.

"I’m conflicted" I say.

"About what?"

"I’m a kidnapped omega. He had a goal when he kidnapped me...what if he remembers that goal and starts to hate me for it?"

"He kidnapped you because he thought you were his cherry blossom boy. You don’t get it. He had been watching you for years but wasn’t sure if it was you or not. He took you in order to punish Goldsmith and to study you up close...he’s not letting you go, Noah" Lucas says and blows his bubble smoke.

One of the bubbles lands on my forehead and I blink when it pops.

"I really like him, Lucas. I like him so much that it’s starting to worry me" I confess and Lucas joins me in lying on the sand. He passes a second bubble smoke to me and I take it with all seriousness.

"Blow your way to happiness, Wiggy" he says and I blow the bubble smoke.

The bubbles are so pretty that I start to laugh again. This has to be the greatest invention in the world. I never knew how badly I needed one of these. I keep laughing till my laughter slowly turns into deep, painful sobs and I fold myself into a fetal position. My heart is hurting really bad.

My life...is my life bound to be sad? If it is, can death take me right now?

Lucas stays next to me, offering silent comfort as I cry with Lana Del Rey’s Music To Watch Boys to.