Veronica
More concerned about the fact that Noah could have no way of knowing that Derek carried a gun, Veronica was not about to wait and see if he'd be provoked into using it.
"You gotta go," she said as she rushed into the front room where Derek now sat.
"Why? What happened?"
"I'll explain later, Derek, but right now you have to go." She opened the screen door and held it open for him.
Derek stood up but didn't leave. He stared at Veronica concerned. "What's the matter with you?"
"Nothing!" Her heart beat faster with every second that passed and Derek was still in her house.
He finally took a few steps toward her but obviously didn't share her urgency to leave. "Veronica, look at you. You're a mess. Let me guess. That was Noah and he's on his way home. What? Are you not allowed to have anyone here, or is it just me he doesn't want here?"
Veronica didn't know why he was pretending he hadn't already figured it all out. She was surprised he hadn't pointed out the glow she'd worn all day from her morning with Noah. He was that good at picking up on the tiniest things.
"Derek, if you know already, why do you want trouble?"
"You can't be serious about this. You and that kid?"
"He's not a kid."
"You called him that yourself when you first told me about your new roommate." You wanna tell me what's changed since then?" His eyebrow lifted slowly, he already knew the answer to that one too. "He's still the same age, isn't he?"
Veronica took a deep breath and held her ground. "I think you already know that, and you know what? It's none of your business. You need to leave now, Derek. I'm serious. I don't want any problems."
He didn't move, and her heart nearly gave out when she saw Noah's bike pull into the driveway and Abel's truck pull up behind it. Noah pulled off his helmet and jumped off his bike. Veronica closed the screen door behind her and rushed to meet him at the stairs.
"He still here?" Noah asked, his body language so telling of how pissed he was.
"Yes, but he's leaving."
The guys got out of the truck but stayed near it keeping an eye out.
"Where is he?" Noah demanded.
"I'm right here, Noah." Derek opened the screen door and stepped out onto the porch. "You got something to say to me?"
Veronica held Noah's big arm, and she looked him pleadingly in the eyes. "Just let him leave, Noah, please."
"Don't worry about it, Roni. I'll leave peacefully. But I'd seriously think about what we talked about the other day."
"What was that?" Noah asked to Veronica's disappointment, giving in to Derek's obvious baiting.
"Oh, I just filled her in on a few things I thought she should know," Derek said, walking past them down the stairs.
Noah scoffed, turning around to face Derek now that he'd walked past him. "About me? Like she'd believe your bullshit."
"I don't need to make anything up, Noah. We both know you have a colorful enough past—maybe even present." Derek glanced back at Veronica. "And I'd say she's understandably concerned."
Noah turned back to Veronica. Infuriatingly, it appeared Derek's attempts to rattle Noah had worked. She could see it in his questioning eyes.
"Not concerned," she explained. "Curious."
"About what?"
Now that the guys saw Derek on his way to his car, they remained unmoved near Abel's truck, giving them their privacy. "Let's go inside," she reached out for him.
Noah flinched back. "No, first answer the question. What bullshit lies has he been feeding you? And while you're at it, you wanna explain why you got together several times with your fucking ex this week and didn't mention this to me?"
Abel turned on his truck and waved as he pulled out of the driveway. Veronica barely lifted her hand to wave back. Noah didn't even bother. His eyes were back on Veronica, and they were on fire now.
"I was confused."
"About what?"
"I saw the text from Rita on Sunday, and I didn't know what to think."
His expression softened the tiniest bit. "You should've asked."
"Yeah, well, I didn't, okay? I thought maybe it was time I gave my social life a boost and decided to take him up on his offer."
His eyes shot open. "Really, and what offer would that be?"
"That we have dinner after work."
"And what else?"
"That's it. We had dinner twice, and then Thursday, I wasn't going to meet with him, but he showed up at the park where I told him I'd be taking pictures."
"So what did this guy you claimed you wanted nothing more to do with, tell you about me that has you so concerned?"
She could see he was getting worked up again. "I said curious, not concerned."
He crossed his arms in front of him. "All right, so what is it?"
"He said you dropped out of school and went MIA when you got a girl pregnant." She prayed Derek was wrong about this. She really hoped Noah wouldn't have it in him to do something like that. Holding her breath, she waited for his response, trying desperately to pick up a hint of what he was thinking, but his expression had gone blank.