—Make sure you read chapter 4 as well! It wasn't a new upload, but Tapas was glitchy srry—

Monday, morning

To make up for worrying his parents, Noah had stayed home for the rest of the weekend to help around at the restaurant. His parents had been really cool, repeatedly telling them they all made mistakes in life and that they hoped he learned from it. But Noah knew his parents were quite fair when it came to rules and punishments. They mainly focused on guiding him and Adrian through life by teaching them the consequences of their actions.

By Monday morning, however, he learned that he was right about the only one who had such parents.

Layne was grounded, Santino was grounded, and Julia had been forced to do choirs around the house all weekend for staying out late.

“What about you?” Layne asked as they walked to class.

“Well, since they never gave me curfew they just, you know… gave me curfew. I didn’t break the rules. They just wished I would’ve called them to let them know where I was.”

“Seriously?” Julia looked at him with wide, tired eyes, “your parents are so cool.”

“They really are,” Layne agreed, nodding his head, “but I already knew. But hey, good to hear you didn’t get yourself in any trouble because of us.”

Noah smirked, glancing at Santino, who silently followed them while he seemed more asleep than awake. He hadn’t said much. Really, all he said was ‘I’m grounded for life’ and that was it. He was a bit grumpy, but Noah had already learned he wasn’t really a morning person, so it didn’t come as a surprise.

What did come as a surprise, was Karen, who stopped him from walking into class with an angry scowl on her face.

“Where were you, yesterday? You said you’d come for dinner.”

Layne pulled Noah further into the classroom, dragging him towards the corner where they usually sat, and thus away from Lori, who frowned as she watched him being dragged away by Layne; confused.

“She wasn’t exactly pleased when she saw the pictures we took at Cedar Rock,” Julia explained as she sat down next to Noah. “She bugged him about not being invited all weekend. Said it was stupid we invited Noah, and not her.”

Layne snorted, shaking his head but refraining from commenting when Santino slipped in his seat and soon thereafter Mrs. Lavender asked for their attention.

Noah couldn’t stop himself from smiling down towards his hands when Julia mentioned the pictures. She had uploaded them to Instagram on Saturday, and even though Noah didn’t know she knew his handle, she tagged him in the post. Not only did they all then added him as a friend, but the pictures also got tons of likes, even from his old friends in Pine Hill; including Colin. It was just a like on a single photo of him and Julia on Cedar Rock, minutes before sunrise, where she had pulled him against her side to pose for a selfie.

It wasn’t anything meaningful, yet it meant the world to Noah that Colin had sort of broke the silence between them by pressing a single button nobody forced him to press. The sole reason Noah was so obsessed with the like, was because he had stalked Colin’s social media ever since they left, even though Colin hardly ever posted anything. Not that Noah posted anything; there were exactly three posts on his Instagram, and they all had been to promote a charity event Colin and his friends had organized. But this very like told him that despite Colin’s dramatic ending to their relationship—by blocking all Noah’s ways of contacting him—he was loosening up.

Noah wasn’t just following his silent online presence; Colin was obviously following him as well.

Maybe the break-up wasn’t as definitive as Colin had stated. Maybe it was, and Colin just liked to see him move on and make new friends.

But then why would he solely like the picture with him and Julia; not those with the guys? If it really was all about Noah showing the fact that he moved on from Pine Hill, wouldn’t Colin have liked the post in general?

Noah had been thinking about Colin’s motives ever since he noticed the tag and the like the day before to a degree that made him feel obsessed. But he simple wasn’t over the other boy, and this gave him hope. Even if it was small and insignificant.

Noah tried focusing on class as much as he could, but both Colin’s reappearance and Santino’s snarky attitude were distracting him. Julia and Layne were mainly ignoring Santino throughout the day, stating they were used to his mood swings and it would be over the next day. Noah had a harder time to ignore the look in his eyes whenever he did allow eye contact. It was kind of cold and made him uncomfortable. Even Karen was avoiding them and she had been practically glued by his side all of last week.

To make matters worse, Lori did not like the fact he suddenly sat with them during class and lunch, and out of guilt for leaving her by herself, he decided to sit with her during his final class; even though Julia had already gestured towards the seat next to her.

“So, are you Mr. popular now?” Lori wondered as she grabbed her stuff from her backpack, glaring curiously at Noah’s new friends. “Or was I right, and is Sonny’s ever so attractive presence causing you to think with your dick instead?”

Noah snorted in reply, shaking his head as he relaxed by her side. “Nah, we went out on Friday. Layne invited me at work and I joined and—”

“—you hung out with the infamous trio at Cedar Rock,” Lori finished his story for him, “we all saw the pictures, babe.”

“Well, something good came out of it. And since I’ve been mainly obsessing over that detail, I can reassure you that Santino is fun to look at, but that’s right about it in that department. They are fun to hang out, though.”

“What detail?”

“Colin liked a picture. He broke radio silence.”

“With a like.”

“Yeah, but still Baby steps.”

“He’s a dick,” Lori bluntly stated, leaning her head on his shoulder to enable them to whisper, preventing others from overhearing their conversation. “I get that it was hard to be dumped, and he was an idiot for doing so. But there’re some nice guys out here, including your new friends, who’d all make a better boyfriend than he would ever be.”

“There’s two issues with that,” Noah grumbled, rolling his eyes even though she couldn’t see. “For starters, feelings don’t have an on- and off button. Secondly, they’re not into guys.”

“You really aren’t used to gossip, or following the rumor train, huh?” Lori chuckled, sitting up straight, still leaning in close enough. “Rumor has it neither Sonny nor their friend Alan are—”

“Rumor also had it Karen tried to stab a girl’s eye out, and that Sonny’s scar on his arm came from a bear attack. Rumor also states Julia is a terrible person, Layne is a suck up and you have a feud with them because you and Karen can’t stand the sight of each other.”

“At least one of those rumors is 100% true.”

“You hate Karen.”

“And she hates me.”

“and it still doesn’t mean the other rumors are true. In fact, the bear attack is 100% false, and so are all rumors about Sonny’s absence, and the fact Layne is a suck up.”

“Okay, okay, I get your point. Don’t believe everything you hear. People sure do love to make shit up for a bit of attention.”

“Ain’t that the truth.”