“So then Raj had this idea that we should try recording the video with him sitting on the couch? I swear it looked like a witness interview from some weird documentary.”

Aiden laughs softly, crackling a little static over the phone line. It's late, and he sounds drowsy.

“Did you tell him that?”

“Yeah, of course,” I answer, digging around in my kitchen drawers for a fork. “So we moved back to the window and tried like, three more times. I guess Raj can pick whichever one he wants to use, but... honestly, I think the one he did with Noah was the best. It was definitely the most natural. Raj gets pretty nervous in front of a camera, considering that he’s an actor.”

“Didn’t you say that he was a stage actor?” Aiden yawns. “And past tense?”

“True, yeah. Well, at least we got one good version.”

“What, Noah wouldn’t be in any of the others?”

“Nope, even though Raj kept trying to make him.” I wedge the phone between my ear and shoulder, lean back against the kitchen counter, and take a bite of cold pasta. “He got a little weird about it, don’t you think?”

“Mmm.”

“No? You know Noah better than I do.”

“I guess...” Aiden thinks it over for a moment. “It could just be that this is all new for him?”

“What do you mean?” I ask, pausing with my fork halfway to my mouth.

“Just - he’s been hanging out pretty much exclusively with Ralph and Grant since high school ended, and even though it’s been that long, Ralph won’t so much as call him a friend. He sees Noah as like a - pawn, and I doubt that he ever trusted him with anything important.”

“Oh…" I answer, realizing as I speak. "Right. Whereas Raj has known Noah for like, less than a month, and already he’s going, Noah, my good friend, please be in this video I’m taking for my unborn baby.”

“Exactly."

“Yeah, that’s - okay, yeah. No wonder he got all flustered.” I plug my headphones in and set my phone down. “Speaking of those guys - isn’t it fucking crazy that we haven’t heard a word from Grant since we got Noah out? Like, I know that he’s siding with Ralph, but Noah was supposedly his friend, too. He doesn’t fucking call one time, not even to see how the guy’s doing? After Ralph bashed his face in? Un-fucking-believable. At the very least, he could have-” I cut off as Aiden lets out a low chuckle. “What? Did I say something weird?”

“No,” he says, and I can hear the smile in his voice. “I just think it’s cute, which things you get mad about.”

“I’m not mad! I’m just saying, that’s really terrible of Grant, and I have half a mind to call him up and-”

“Jamie,” Aiden interrupts. “Do not do that.”

“No, no. I’m not trying to invite Ralph and company back into our lives. I’m just saying.”

“And don’t bring that up with Noah, either. This is the happiest I’ve ever seen him. The less he thinks about Ralph and Grant… probably the better, for him.”

I stop and set down the forkful of pasta I’d been about to eat. A giant grin spreads over my face.

“Well, well, well.”

“Stop it,” Aiden groans.

“Look who cares about Noah’s happiness.”

“You’re so annoying.”

“Maybe, but you like me in a major way. You said so.”

A little silence follows. This is the first reference I’ve made to our earlier conversation, and I wait with my breath held. There’s a faint rustle from Aiden’s end of the line. I picture him turning over in bed, hair all messy.

“Too late for me to take that back?” he asks, startling a laugh out of me.

“Um! Yes, way too late!” I sputter, and he lets out a sleepy little laugh - an unraveled, lazy version of his usual huff. “You sound tired, by the way. Am I keeping you up?”

“Nah,” Aiden yawns. “I just went on a really long run after I left your place, it’s kind of hitting me now.”

“A long run? Who the hell wants to be alone and exercise when they need to think? That sounds like the worst combination of things you could ever ask me to do.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he answers. I can hear the smile in his voice again, but I hesitate, growing serious.

“So... How do you feel, after taking time to be alone and think about everything?”

There’s a silence. My heart flutters anxiously, waiting for an answer.

“I feel like… there are some things I want to do to you.”

Not the answer I was expecting, but okay.

“What things?” I lift my fork to my mouth, then freeze as he starts to answer. By the time he’s done talking, I drop it back into the bowl with a clatter, my cheeks burning. “Aiden!”

“You heard me.”

“And you tell me that I’m a little demon for that audio message?” I fan my face, no longer hungry. Not for food, anyways. “You just reminded me, actually - I have a question for you.”

“Let’s hear it.” His low voice is playful, warm. Up for anything.

“You know how you accidentally put the dream about the Guardian Tree into my head?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you putting all the - um - other dreams in my head, too?”

There’s a pause before he answers.

“Other dreams.”

“Yeah, like - the - the-” I break off, and now I don’t just hear a smile in his voice, I hear a grin.

“Dude. Have you been having sex dreams about me?”

“Okay, so I’m guessing you didn’t do that,” I answer, red-faced. “That was all me. Nevermind.” Aiden laughs, and I groan, pressing my hands to my eyes. “Why did I say anything!”

“I’m so glad you did.”

“I hate myself.”

“Jamie. I told you how long I’ve been wanting you. You must realize I’ve had some about you, too.”

Oh, my fucking god.

“You have?” I set my pasta aside. “What, um. What happens, in them?”

“I’m not telling you.”

“Why not?”

Aiden’s voice drops to a low purr.

“Because I’m gonna show you.”

I don’t even wear my jeans that tight, but suddenly they’re oppressively uncomfortable. I reach down to adjust the fabric, my throat suddenly dry.

“Aiden.”

“Yes?”

“I am really looking forward to the day when I can take your clothes off.”

My comment is rewarded with another one of these sleepy, huffing laughs. He sounds so tired.

“Babe, go to bed.”

“But-”

“We can talk tomorrow, you goon,” I murmur, fighting back a smile.

“Fine, fine. Goodnight. And…” His voice tells me that he’s smirking. “Sweet dreams.”

I stand there for a minute after Aiden hangs up, considering getting into bed and dealing with this - problem, that he left me. I mean. He gave me more than enough to think about.

Before I can move, my phone buzzes again. Noah is calling me.

“Jamie.” He sounds a little out of breath.

“Hey, man.”

“What are you doing?”

“Um. Eating some pasta? What’s going on? You sound weird.”

“I’m fine, I…” Noah fades off, but I don’t say anything. Being with Aiden has taught me when to wait through a silence. “Look, dude, have you heard anything from Grant?”

“No…” I blink in surprise. “Actually, I was just telling Aiden that I think it’s messed up he hasn’t called you.”

Noah breathes out an angry noise on the other end of the line.

“So what, you and Aiden are just fucking talking about me when I’m not there?”

“Hey.” I unplug my headphones and put my phone to my ear. “What’s the matter with you?”

An extended pause.

“Nothing. It’s just that I called Grant, because I thought maybe there was a chance he’d help me get the rest of my stuff back from Ralph’s place. I need a few of my tools, for something I'm working on for Raj.”

“Okay…”

“I didn’t really expect him to pick up, but… it didn’t even ring. It said that the call couldn’t go through. Like the number was out of service, or something.”

There’s a heavy silence.

It’s possible Grant simply got his service shut off or something, but. Ralph is involved, and Noah and I both know that this can’t mean anything good.

“Do you-” Noah’s voice is strained. “You think he’s okay?”

“Gimme two minutes, Noah, I’ll call you back.”

I hang up and dial again.

“Jamie?” Aiden mumbles, a few seconds later. I think he must have been at least half-asleep, based on his voice. “What, you miss me already?”

“Yes, obviously, but that’s not - look, those energy notes, or whatever you want to call them - could you pick out Grant’s?”

“What?” Aiden immediately sounds awake again. “I thought we agreed-”

“No, I’m not going to call him, but... Noah just told me that his number has been disconnected. Grant’s number, I mean.”

I hear the whisper of moving sheets. Aiden sitting up in bed, presumably.

“Okay… well, no, I can’t find his specific note. It doesn’t really work like that. I didn’t even know that it was Ralph, when he was the one in trouble.”

“Oh. I just thought - you know, because you said that you can pick out mine.”

“Yeah, but Jamie, yours… it doesn’t sound like anyone else’s.”

Even with the concern growing in my stomach, this manages to make me smile. But only for a second.

“Could Grant be in trouble?”

“No,” Aiden says firmly. “I would have heard it. He’s definitely fine. He probably just got a new phone number.”

“Yeah, no, I knew that was a possibility, but I wanted to double-check, because Ralph…”

“I get it. It’s okay.” Aiden yawns. “Anything else?”

“Nope. Thank you, magic man. Go back to bed.”

Noah answers on the first ring.

“That was way more than two minutes!” he snaps.

“Good news, dude. Grant is fine.”

Sudden silence from Noah’s end.

“Are you sure?”

“I mean, I don’t know exactly what he’s up to, but I checked with people who would know, and he’s perfectly alright.”

Another, longer silence.

“So I guess-” Noah begins, and then breaks off. “I guess he just... blocked my number, then.”

This is a possibility I hadn’t considered, and I realize instantly that it’s also the most likely. Something about the way Noah says it makes my heart twist.

“Hey, hang on, not necessarily, maybe he just - do you want me to try and call him, or-?”

“Don’t bother.” Noah lets out an abrupt laugh that sounds entirely humorless. “Pretty cool thing for him to do after like, twelve years of being friends, right?”

“Noah-”

“I’ve gotta go.”

“Don’t hang up on me, dude,” I warn, and then wait, expecting a dial tone. Surprisingly enough, it doesn’t come. “Listen, is Raj with you?”

“Busy with his fiancée.”

“Have you called him, though? Because he would probably-”

“I’m going to sleep.”

“Noah.” I press a hand to my temple, trying not to get frustrated. “Do you need someone to-?”

“I don’t fucking need anything.”

“Weren’t you the one who just told me that saying what you really need makes life easier? Don’t let one brush with your old crew make you-”

“I’m fine, Keane,” he says, and hangs up.

~~~~

Raj’s house is dark, but there’s one light on upstairs.

Noah doesn’t answer the door until I literally lean on the bell.

“For fuck’s sake!” he snaps, and then stops, grey eyes blinking. I hold up the pizza box with one hand and two beers with the other.

“Come on, dude,” I tell him. “Don’t make me eat a whole pizza by myself.”

He glares at me, then rolls his eyes and lets the door swing the rest of the way open. I shut it behind myself.

“Should I keep my shoes on? Are there loose nails, or-?”

“Take them off,” Noah says, over his shoulder. “Don’t fuck up the floors, we just finished them.”

I leave my Converse by the door and follow him into the living room. It’s empty, aside from some power tools scattered on the newly glossy hardwood floor.

“Wow, you guys have made some progress, huh?”

“Faster with two people,” Noah answers flatly. He’s wearing a rippy black shirt with the sleeves cut off, and when he flips on the light in the living room, I get my first look at the full scope of the tattoos all over his arms.

It’s an inky, intricate network of bugs and flowers and leaves and animal skulls. A snake, a coin, some Roman numerals. A huge, stylized tiger takes up his entire left shoulder, twisting all the way down to the crook of his elbow. All in black and white, no colors anywhere.

It occurs to me that Ripley would probably find this pretty cool. I wonder if they’d get along.

“So, no furniture still?” I sit down on the floor and lean my back against the wall. Toss one of the beers to Noah, who catches it, still scowling.

“What are you doing here, dude?”

“I was bored and hungry, and I didn’t feel like eating a pizza alone.”

“It’s like 2 AM, and you told me on the phone that you were eating pasta.”

“Well I'm - still fucking hungry, I guess!”

I’m actually stuffed. My plan was to just nibble around the edges of a slice and hope he didn’t notice.

“You could have told me that you were coming over.” Noah glares down at me, arms crossed.

I can't help but laugh.

“Oh, that’s rich coming from you, I don’t think you’ve ever once given me advance warning before coming over. Do you have plates here, or are we doing pizza straight from the box?”

“Man, I don’t want your fucking-”

“Noah!” I snap, officially out of patience. “Shut up, already! You were there for me yesterday, so will you please stop being an asshole and let me be here for you, now?”

Noah stares at me for a moment, fists closing and unclosing, then blows out an irritated sigh. He pads into the kitchen and returns with two paper plates, one of which he begrudgingly hands over.

He drops to sit down across from me. I crack open my beer, and he opens his, and there’s a silence while we both take a bite of pizza. I realize suddenly that I’m not sure what to say to him.

“So - what are you and Raj working on next? You said you needed tools for something?”

He nods.

“I want to check up on the condition of the generator.”

“Is something wrong with it?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Oh. Did Raj ask you to?”

“No. But there have been a few outages in this area, last couple years.” Noah shrugs. “Don’t want to lose power with a baby around, right?”

“Yeah, no. I guess not.” That’s actually really thoughtful, is what I want to say, but I know he won’t like that.

“Raj was telling me about what he’s learning in the baby care classes he’s taking with his girl. It sounds like you have to boil and sterilize stuff, or whatever. They’ve got an electric stove, so they need power for that. And probably for other stuff, too. I don’t know. I don’t know shit about kids.”

“Don’t want your own, eventually?” I ask.

Noah scoffs.

“No. But it’s not - I’m happy for Raj. Really happy for him.”

Noah takes a long sip of his beer. I glance away when he looks up at me, so he doesn’t notice that I was watching him.

“Have you met her?” I ask. “The fiancée?”

“No, but she’s a party planner, and Raj is always coming by with giant platters of leftover food from the events she does, so. I love her already.”

I laugh, and the frown on Noah’s face gets a tiny bit less deep.

“She sounds cool.”

“Well, Raj is fucking crazy about her, so I have to assume so.”

Awkward silence descends over us again. I take another bite of pizza, even though my stomach is full to bursting.

“Look, Noah,” I try, “I’m sorry that Grant-”

“Please, dude,” he groans, dropping his slice back onto the plate.

“I’m just saying-”

“Jamie.”

“I know it’s not easy to lose a friend you’ve had for that long, but there are other people who care about you. And not just Raj, by the way. Aiden was literally just telling me that he’s glad to see you happy. And yes, we were talking about you, but like. Not in a bad way. Seriously.”

Noah opens his mouth and closes it again. He sits still for a moment, then smiles and rolls his eyes.

“Enough, man,” he says. “Shut up and eat your pizza.”