Friday, late evening

In all chaos of school, Noah hadn’t been able to reply to Colin until later. In that moment, he felt like he needed to be a friend to Julia, who really was worried sick over her best friend. Worry, which only grew the more time passed and he didn’t reply to Layne’s texts. Karen had been sending him weird looks all day, especially whenever Julia was by his side, and he was trying to comfort her.

As if Karen didn’t really like his newfound friendship with Julia.

But according to Layne, Karen was probably just annoyed because Santino wasn’t there to give her any personal attention.

Much to his demise, Karen had joined them after work to go out again, even though Noah hoped she would’ve just stayed home, or in the least go out with her own friends instead.

By the time Layne appeared at work, he seemed to have completely forgotten about the whole ordeal with his best friend, joking around like he usually would. Noah was glad he did, since he was unfocused himself, but Layne formed a great distraction, enabling him to text Colin whenever the boy would reply. Which was almost instantly every time.

Noah discovered that Colin had tried to date another guy for about a month but stopped because it just wasn’t the same and it made him realize he missed Noah more than he was willing to admit. It set Noah on fire to have Colin openly admit it, but it still hadn’t made him confess to the fact he missed Colin as well.

Colin, surprisingly, was showing a lot of interest in his new life, and his new friends. He asked tons of questions about his parents, the restaurant and how Noah felt now that he had settled down a little. He genuinely seemed interested in every little detail, which was new. The old Colin showed interest, but only superficially.

Maybe the other boy had truly realized what he had done when he broke up.

Noah was still every so often texting him once they were inside the club, but told Colin he was out, and that he probably wouldn’t reply much while being there. He expected Colin to disapprove of him going out and drinking, but instead, Colin hinted that he wouldn’t mind if he’d been there in that moment.

Noah swallowed, unsure on how to reply to Colin’s flirting inuendo, when an arm was wrapped around his shoulder, and he didn’t know how fast to lock his screen.

“Sonny!” Julia called out, jumping the boy around his neck as soon as he let go of Noah, inviting her in a hug with a charming smirk on his face.

And a black eye indeed.

“Where the hell have you been?” Layne asked, still laughing over something. Probably the fact that Santino was there with them after worrying everybody for a full day.

“Home,” was his reply, with a simple shrug and a croaked smile. “Can’t even stay in bed for a day…”

“You were seen in Perton,” Julia deadpanned, waving a finger in his face, “the same night people fought and got arrested.”

“Ralph lives in Perton, remember?”

“Then why didn’t you just ask me to drop you off? Because you didn’t want me to help you in a fight?”

“I didn’t fight.”

“Yet, you have a black eye.”

“Kitchen cabinet,” Santino shrugged again. Noah immediately understood what his friends had meant when they said Santino would act as if nothing happened. Still, Santino was visibly getting uncomfortable from all the questions.

“Right…” Julia frowned, sending Layne a look.

“Kitchen cabinet?” Noah snorted, shaking his head, “no lion or pigeon?” he sent Santino a look, telling him to just go with it. Accept the joke.

Santino stared at him for a few good seconds before he laughed and shook his head. “No wild stories this time, sorry to disappoint.”

“It is disappointing indeed,” Noah agreed, ignoring the annoyed looks from Julia and Layne that he had ended their cross-questioning. But they were out, in a club, and Santino obviously was fine. No need to interrogate him on his whereabouts right in that moment. “I was writing them down for inspiration.”

“Inspiration for what?” Santino asked amused, accepting a beer from Alan, who was curiously looking at him as soon as he had spotted Santino.

“On how to live life,” Noah replied with a shrug, not expecting Santino to move Layne away from his side so that he could stand next to him. “I do consider them lessons as well, you know. How to not break my arm, for instance.”

“If you want to live life a little, join us on our drunk adventures. Seeing the fact that you’re here, you already took the first step.”

Noah smirked at him and made eye contact. Aside from the bruising on the side of his face, Santino was still drop-dead gorgeous. It wasn’t the best idea to stare into his eyes from that close. Noah felt as if he was being sucked in by them, and he would drown if he stayed there for too long. Noah didn’t know why he wouldn’t just turn around and face the others. Why couldn’t he just stop staring at Santino like he could stop staring at anyone?

Noah had two saviors at once; Karen, who jumped Santino, dragging him out of his line of sight by her movement, and Colin, who caused his phone to buzz in his pocket in the exact same time.

“I saw that,” Julia muttered into his ear as she passed him, causing him to swirl around on his feet to stare after her. She shortly stopped to send him a look, wiggling her eyebrows at him before she continued her way towards the bar.

He hurried after her, wanting to tell her there was nothing to see. But she didn’t buy it for a single second.

“Dude,” she said, pushing him against his shoulder gently, “you’re not the first one to fall for him on the spot. That’s just it with Santino; he’s charming. I fell for him too, remember? Though it took a while for I actually realized I liked him.”

“I’m not falling for him.”

“True, you’re not actively falling for him, because you already did.”

“No, I did not. He’s nice to look at. That’s all there is to it. I’m actually in contact with Colin again, to be honest. It’s quite fresh and I don’t know if it’s going anywhere but he’s flirting with me, and I like it. Santino is just eye candy.”

“He’s also coming this way,” Julia said, cutting him short as she pointed over his shoulder. “He’s also, you know…”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“What, Julia?”

“Yeah, Jules? What?” Santino mimicked him, sending him a goofy smile that made his stomach flip.

Damn it.