Thirty-Eight Days (2 page)

“Sure, Dad!” Noel said as he quickly turned around and made his way to the steps of the deck. He jumped off the final step and ran past a group of younger children on his way to the gate.

“Can I play, too?” he heard a small girl’s voice ask.

“No! Go away. We don’t like you!” he heard another little girl shout. Noel turned around to see his best friend’s little sister’s face sadden. The other little girl laughed as she ran away with the other children. Clara’s curly ponytail swayed as she turned around and ran to her father. Noel watched to see James Lawrence frown before he lifted his daughter and placed her on his lap.

A smile returned to Clara’s face as those golden-brown eyes shimmered. Noel smiled at the sight. He had always secretly looked out for Clara when Alex couldn't. Once, when Alex and the other boys played football, Noel held Clara by the hand and took her out to the local ice cream truck. He liked to see her smile ever since he could remember.

Noel noticed her father whisper in Clara’s ear before she jumped off his lap and ran towards the end of the garden. James got off his seat and walked into the house. Noel could see her run towards the edge of the garden before she fell over. Without even thinking or alerting Clara’s father, Noel ran to her.

Her small cries filled the air as he reached her. Dirt covered her dress and blood smeared her knee.

“Clara, are you okay?” he asked sweetly as he sat on the ground with her.

“Go away, Nolan! I want Alex!”

Noel reached out for her small hands, but Clara pulled away.

“No! I hate you!” she shouted, and Noel let out a laugh.

“No, you don’t,” Noel corrected. He took her hands and brushed off the dirt. Noel scooted forward, wiped his hand on his shorts before brushing Clara’s tears away. Clara stopped crying, and he smiled at her.

Noel’s hand reached up his right arm and started to unroll his sleeves. He looked down at Clara’s scraped knee. “It’s going to sting a little bit, Clara,” Noel warned before wiping away the blood from her knee with his sleeve. Clara let out a small cry before her tears returned. He didn’t like to see her in pain. He wanted to distract her so he could help her back to their parents.

Looking around he noticed his mother’s purple tulips. He remembered the times when Clara was over and always walked to the flowerbeds.

Mum's tulips will do.

Not caring about getting in trouble, Noel pulled out a purple tulip. He shook off the dirt and broke the roots. He faced Clara to see her smile return. His own smile developed at the sight of hers.

“Don’t cry, Clara. I like your smile,” Noel said as he held out the flower to her. Clara’s smile grew as her golden-brown eyes twinkled.

Clara took the purple tulip in her small hand and said, “Thank you, Nolan.”

Noel smiled and then shrugged at Clara. “It’s just a tulip. No big deal.” He watched Clara twirl it between her fingers as that smile of hers stayed.

Mum is going to kill me, but I don’t care. Not like it’s anything important. It’s just a flower. She won’t notice it missing anyway.

"
N
olan, hey, did I wake you?" Alex’s hazy voice asked over the phone. Noel rubbed his eyes to see that it was ten past seven in the morning. He groaned at the sight of the time and the sun hidden behind clouded skies.

"Nah, what's up?" Noel replied as he climbed out of bed and opened the window to the smell of Boston in the morning. As he looked out at the view of the city, he could hear his best friend sounding frustrated over the phone. Noel shook his head in an effort to properly wake up before making his way out of his bedroom and into the living room.

Noel and Alex had been best friends since they were babies. They both had the same dreams and went after their own pursuit of happiness. They worked hard at school and grew up in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. When Noel and Alex were accepted to Stanford University, they were the talk of the town, two Melbourne boys off to the States. Noel owed everything to Alex. If it weren’t for him, Noel would have never survived Stanford or received the promotion in Boston, which Alex deserved instead of him.

But Noel knew that Alex wouldn't call him at such an hour if it wasn’t important. Even at seven in the morning, Noel knew the importance of Alex’s early call from the New York office. They both worked for G&MC, one of the leading accounting firms in the country. Although New York was lucrative, Noel held one of Boston's head office positions, practically Alex's boss.

"Mate, you know the Owens account?" Alex asked as the clatter of papers and erratic typing sounded.

"Yeah."

"IRS is looking into it, claiming fraud. G&MC is in trouble, Noel. I could be fired. I handled the account, remember?" Alex said, reminding him.

"Shit! That could be our asses on the line. What the hell happened?" Noel asked, utterly shocked at the circumstances his best friend was in. Having once worked for the New York office, by association, Noel would also get looked at.

"Fraud’s gone back long before we picked up the account, but it doesn't look good, even for us. This account could ruin the company's reputation."

"Anything I can do?"

"Nah, I don't want to put this kind of pressure on you. You have your own problems in Boston, but listen, I do have one favour to ask," Noel heard as he walked over to the kitchen counter.

Anything.

For all the times Alex came through for Noel, this was the time to be
the
best friend.

"Go back to Melbourne without me. Get your ass home without me. I know we were meant to meet up in L.A. together, but I'm going to have to stay here in New York till this gets sorted. But can you please take care of Clara? I even booked flights that land back home a day earlier than she expects just to surprise her. She’s going to be disappointed that I'm not there for her birthday." He could hear the desperation and pleading in Alex's voice.

"You want me to babysit your sister?" Noel blurted out. He hadn't seen her since he and Alex left for Stanford, almost five years back. She was fourteen when he left Australia, and after he was gone, he never really thought much of her.

"Please, Noel, you know our folks are cruising all around the world, and she needs company right now."

"Doesn't she have a boyfriend or something?" Noel asked, hoping he could offload Clara to anyone else.

"Don't get me started on that little shit. Wait till I get my hands on that son of a bitch!" Alex was never angry, not even when Tori, his ex-girlfriend, told him it was over. She was tired of Alex's dedication to his job rather than to her.

"What's Little Shit done for you to be angry?" Noel laughed as he settled into the bar stool next to the counter. He watched as rain started to pour down onto the streets below. Tomorrow he’d be on a plane back home to Melbourne.

"He cheated on Clara, that's what he did! He’s been sleeping around with another girl for months. If this Owens auditing hadn't come up, I'd be on that plane back to Melbourne and straight to his door to rip his balls right off!" Alex fumed.

"Shit. Sorry to hear that. Poor Clara, is she okay?" Noel hadn’t even recognised the concern in his voice for her.

"She's okay. That's why I don't want to leave her alone. With her birthday coming up, she's going to be dragged through hell once she finds out I won't be there. So, what do you say, stop by and look after Clara?"

Noel heard the sound of Alex's name being called and knew this was important to Alex. He sighed, knowing he would do this for his best friend.

"Fine. I'll stay at Clara's until you get back. Just make sure this Owens account gets sorted quickly." Noel breathed out heavily.

"Thanks, man, I owe you big time! I swear it'll be a week tops, only seven days with my sister," Alex replied as the sounds in the background started to pick up. "Got to go. The meeting with Mercer is about to start. Thanks again for helping out Clara."

"No worries,” Noel replied before he hung up his phone. He wasn't helping the heartbroken Clara. In reality, he was helping his best friend.

The rain started to pick up and Boston was up for a day of what looked like a torrential downpour. Noel had eight weeks off work and was meant to spend that time with Alex in Australia. Picking up the remote on the kitchen counter, he turned on the TV. He watched as the Owens case and G&MC were all over
Good Morning America
. Noel knew once he saw the case being covered by the media that he wouldn’t be seeing Alex for a long time. It would be weeks, not days, until he’d see Alex Lawrence back in Melbourne.

"
Y
ou have five minutes left of your examination," Clara’s sixty-year-old examiner said. She looked up to check the clock and took sight of the examiner. She didn't look very old. She had bright pink lips like most seniors did. Her recently permed hair looked more like a bouncy afro and her arms, hands, and neck were covered in gold jewellery. How she was able to carry that kind of weight in gold was beyond Clara.

Her mind started to linger and she realised she only had a few minutes left to finish her employment relations exam. She took a deep breath, held her pen tighter, and started to write.

After what looked like a paragraph of decent information, she placed her pen down. Clara sighed in relief. She had finally finished her last exam for the year. She was thankful that she could just leave this year of university behind her. There were times where she wanted to drop out, but she couldn't do that to her brother. The potential disappointment always stopped her.

When the examiner took her paper from her table, Clara stood up and grabbed her bag from under her seat. Exiting the doors, she went down the stairs of the building, thankful that she spent her time focusing on her exams rather than her actual breakup. But now, Clara had no distractions, and the thought of it started to creep up into her chest, and the familiar tightening returned.

She heard the whispers throughout campus. She also heard the praises Darren got for having kept such an affair a secret for so long. Only a handful had sympathised with her. Those who knew her brother felt sorry for her, siding with Clara purely because of their loyalty to Alex.

But their support only did Clara so much. She didn't have a true friend she could really lean on. She only had Alex, but he was on the other side of the world, and she couldn't go and tell him about Darren. Alex had enough on his plate, and she didn't want to tarnish his visit with news that would no doubt anger him.

So Clara just kept it to herself. But she knew Alex would find out; he always had a way of finding out. One of his friends would no doubt tell him. Clara knew it would only be a matter of time until he would confront her and make her confess what the dirt bag
did to his little sister.

Alex had always enlisted the help of his friends and their brothers to help take care of Clara. Her brother wouldn't let Clara go through high school without any kind of protection. Alex and his best friend, Noel, had ruled their high school. All the girls loved them and all the boys wanted to be associated with them.