“Heeeeyyyyy you,” Noah says, sitting as close as possible to me at the table. Jayde raises an eyebrow and Syd tries to cover her smirk behind her shitty little plastic dining hall cup. To her benefit, she’s drinking Coke, so we can’t see her face. Jax just snorts, the little shit. As if he even knows what this is about. Noah, to his himbo-like credit, just keeps his innocent smile trained on me. “How was class?”
He pokes me in the shoulder, and I raise an eyebrow at him, taking another big bite from my shitty little basically plastic dining hall burger. The cheese is rubbery and I frown. I can feel the others’ eyes on me, expecting an answer, so I try to chew my food as quickly as possible to answer, but then I end up getting a piece down my throat and I start hacking to get it up. Syd practically spits out her drink laughing, Jax grins, and Jayde just rolls her eyes. Noah starts rubbing my back, and it’s nice, but also… makes me flinch and want to move away from him. He's never this kind of affectionate, at least not in front of other people. Jayde pushes a cup of water towards me.
I keep coughing but nod my thanks to her as I gulp some of it down. Noah has still got his hand on my back and I sort of wish he’d move it. Syd and Jax are now in a total fit of giggles, especially as Mel comes to sit down, then Ali.
“Is… everything okay?” Mel asks. I nod, but I’m still coughing.
“Yeah, he just decided that Noah’s dick wasn’t the only thing he wanted to choke on today,” Jax mutters. Mel pretends not to hear him, but Syd makes her own choking sort of noise and leans back in her chair, taking her drink with her.
“I literally cannot handle y’all,” Jayde replies.
“Liam, do you need me to grab you some water?” Ali asks, her voice as soft and polite as ever. I shake the glass up at her, and finally, mercifully, my coughing begins to subside.
“No, no, I’m good,” I croak out. Noah has finally removed his hand from my back. I guess me shrugging it off finally made sure he got the message. I rub the water from my eyes and take another drink from the cup Jayde gave me.
“So… What’s so funny?” Ali casts a glance around the others. Jayde’s got her head in her hand, Jax and Syd won’t stop casting glances back and forth and giggling just a little bit harder, and I can see Noah blushing in my peripheral. He scoots away from me, but not before resting his palm on my knee and giving me a comforting smile. As if he’s not the reason… You know what? Never mind.
“Nothing, these two dumbasses will laugh at anything,” Jayde replies. Ali nods and sits down next to me. Noah almost glares at her. For some reason. Is he being… Territorial? Is that what this is?
“Yeah, I got that.”
“Hey! We’re not dumbasses!” Syd insists, leaning forward and hitting the table. Her hair looks really nice today: a bun pulled up and leaving her undercut visible. “We just--”
“Yeah, it’s not our fault that Noah wants to--” Jax starts. Jayde hits him and he shuts up after rubbing his arm. Jayde is notorious for being a good hitter. “Ow?”
“Um, it’s not like that, you know. It’s not like that. Lee and I are just… Um, you know…” Noah stutters, then gives up and blushes, looking at his chicken tenders.
I pull my hand down my face and groan.
“Just… please stop talking,” I mutter. He looks over at me, a frown on his face, then looks back at his food and pokes at the broccoli a few times before taking a bite. My throat is still a bit scratchy from all of the hacking I was doing a minute ago.
“Well, even if there is something going on here, it’s none of our business,” Jayde says, and I flip her a smile. She winks back and takes a drink, then looks at Syd and Jax, daring them to say anything to contradict her. Ali, bless her heart, still looks absolutely confused.
Her expression gets even more confused when Dyl and Terrence come to our table and sit on the other side of Noah like this is normal. Like this has ever happened before this exact moment. Ali and Jayde meet eyes, and Syd folds her sweatshirt up above her mouth to avoid laughing hard again. Something wicked springs to Jax’s eyes, but then he winces when Jayde kicks him under the table.
“Hey, Noah,” Dyl says.
“‘Sup, Noah,” Terrence adds.
Neither of them acknowledge us at all. Noah scoots marginally closer to me. I don’t think anyone else notices.
“Hey, guys,” Noah starts, raising an eyebrow at them. “What’s up?”
“Nothing much. Just grabbing dinner,” Dyl replies. Syd is nearly on the floor with silent, heaving laughter, and Jax has left the table, currently filling up a cup with Sprite, and I’d be lying if I said I didn't think that was as suspicious as hell. He hates Sprite.
“Um, weren’t the guys in the other half of the hall?” Noah asks, chicken tender on the end of his fork, hesitating to eat it. Dyl shrugs.
“Nah, didn’t see ‘em. Why? Something wrong?” It’s a challenge, and I can kinda feel my blood boiling on Noah’s behalf. Jayde is watching them carefully. I fucking love Jayde.
“It’s just… You don’t really know these people.”
“Can’t I make new friends?”
“Well, yeah but--”
“Then what’s the problem?” Dyl leans forward to the table, his arms outstretched and only slightly threatening. “Hello everyone, my name is Dylan Afsa, I’m from Arizona, so happy to be here in this cold shitshow of a state, my major is, uh, business, and I’m in the same frat as Noah. Beta Kappa Tau, woot woot!” He beats his chest a little bit, and Noah looks like he wants to melt into his chair then and there.
“Beta Kappa Tau, woot woot!” Terrence barks back. He also beats his chest, though with much less vigor. He looks a lot less annoying than Dylan. I’ve met Dylan before, and he’s every single bad frat boy stereotype there is. Sometimes I wonder if he just looks up how to be an asshole every morning. He’s the antithesis of Noah, the soft, thoughtful, sort of annoying cutie he is. Dylan is just… Kinda ugly, to be honest (not the kind that I wouldn’t sleep with once and hold it over his head forever, though), and a general gigantic prick who thinks he knows everything and hasn’t been sober since the day before he set foot into college.
Terrence doesn’t give me the same vibe, though I’ve never actually met Terrence before to judge him. I’ve met some of Noah’s other frat boys, too, at a few of his volleyball games. And every single time I wonder why they bother to hang around Dylan.
“Hey, yeah, I don’t think any of us need that kind of attention over here,” Jayde tells him. Dyl gets a nasty look on his face.
“Sorry. Just trying to be friendly.”
Jaxon looms behind him now, Sprite in hand and malice in his eyes. Jayde shoots him a look that gives me chills, and I wasn’t even the recipient. He frowns and takes his seat next to her, begrudgingly sipping the Sprite, then frowning.
After a few more moments of awkward, food-munching silence, Jayde stands up and leaves without saying goodbye. Which is unusual for her. Dylan and Terrence keep muttering to each other, and then Jaxon looks up from his phone and leaves, too. Then Ali heads out with a wave, and Syd pats my neck before leaving, too.
I wonder if they even finished their dinners.
Now, it’s just me and Noah and the other two at the table, and I get up to go, too.
They look over at me, and I toss my garbage, then come back for my backpack. Noah stands up abruptly, despite the chicken still heaping on his plate.
“Hey, let me walk you back to the room,” he says, going to toss his food, too.
“Uh, don’t you have practice?”
“Yeah, he does,” Dyl chips in. Noah shakes his head.
“No, that’s tomorrow, Dylan. And Friday. Usually tonight I’d go swing by the house,” He turns to me. “But I’m thinking I’ll just hang with you tonight. That cool, Lee?”
“Well… I guess so, yeah. But I thought--”
“Cool! Gimme a sec to toss this, I’ll be right back.”
He walks towards the garbage cans and scrapes his plate off, then puts the dish into the return receptacle. While he’s away, he’s far enough to be out of earshot.
“Dude, are you his boyfriend or something?” Dylan asks. I try not to blush.
“No, he’s just my roommate. I, uh, I haven’t been feeling well lately, so he’s been trying to take care of me. That’s all.” Dylan nods, but doesn’t look convinced.
“Doesn’t matter either way, does it?” Terrence asks quietly.
“No, no it doesn’t, but I’m just asking. I’d like to know if one of my boys is a big fat homo, you know what I’m saying?”
I’d rather not do this right now, so I bite my lip. Physically.
“Yeah, he’s just nice. That’s all.”
“Yeah, he’s a good dude,” Dyl says, then turns away from me to mutter to Terrence.
Terrence gives me an apologetic glance, and I walk towards Noah instead of bothering to stay around them. He grabs his jacket and backpack from the table, then we walk out of the dining hall and towards the escalators towards our rooms. We pass the little shops on the way, the bustling bathrooms, the bulletin boards. Through the study lounges, around the center of the tower’s staircases, towards the area office where we check in. Noah doesn’t say much until after we swipe our cards to enter the actual dorm part of the building and we’re out of earshot from most people.
“Are you okay?” he asks, his voice soft. I nod.
“Yeah, just wasn’t expecting those two to come sit with us, you know?”
“Yeah, me neither. I’m sorry if they bothered you. Did Dylan say anything shitty when I walked away?”
“No,” I lie.
“Well then what’s got your face all grumpy?” He takes a step closer to bump my shoulder with his. I can’t help but let a little grin onto my face. I also roll my eyes.
“Nothing. Just have a lot of homework.”
I lean over and bump him back, but I bump him harder than he bumped me. He flashes me a very vibrant smile, and I go tingly in my toes and wonder for a second why he isn’t already my boyfriend. Then I remember.
“I’ll try not to be too distracting. Guess I should change into my pajamas in the bathroom. And, hey! Since I’m not gonna go to the house today, I was wondering if you wanted to watch a movie or something? I’ll make popcorn. We don’t have to cuddle. I mean like, we can if you want to. But we can just be bros. You know? Watch a bro movie together. I’ll get M&Ms, too. I know you like M&Ms and popcorn. Um. If you want, we can invite Syd or somebody over? So it isn’t awkward. I’m not asking you on a date or anything, I just--”
“Noah. We can hang out without it being awkward.”
“Right, right. I know that. Sorry. I guess I just don’t wanna make you uncomfortable.”
I roll my eyes and we keep walking back to our room.
We end up inviting Syd over, and watch a dumb movie. I eat all of the popcorn, so Syd steals another one of my bags to make another batch, but Noah insists on getting up and doing it for us (although he says, “For Liam,”) and Syd raises an eyebrow at me, but doesn’t say anything else about it for the rest of the night. I’m fairly sure she also manages to ignore him the whole time, unless she said something to him while I was in the bathroom. I appreciate her saying nothing else for the rest of the night, because I assume she would threaten to rip his balls off, and I do not want to deal with that conversation right now.
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