Friday, late evening

In a very desperate attempt to distract himself from the knot in his stomach that twisted whenever Santino looked at him, or whenever Colin sent him a suggestive and flirty text, Noah had turned to the bottle, and started drinking in the hopes of killing the exact braincells responsible for his horny state.

It wasn’t helping, Noah knew that even before he started binge drinking. Still, it did help distract him from everything else; including the reason behind a crying Karen in the bathroom with two friends trying to comfort her, the reason a drunk Julia was crying in Layne’s arms and the whereabouts of everyone else.

He had only gone to the bathroom for five minutes, and everything had turned into sheer, teenager chaos.

Since he didn’t give a single flying fuck about Karen, and he had no idea how to locate anyone else, he decided Julia needed him, and he could be there for her. But before he could reach her, Karen was up in his face, with a tear-stained face, waving a finger in his face as if she was telling him off.

“You! You show up and all goes to hell! Who do you think you are?”

“What?” Noah frowned, swearing on his mother’s life he hadn’t done anything to make everything go to hell. He had just… been present.

“What do you want from them? Huh? You’re just like the rest of them. Obsessed with my friends, my boyfriend. I don’t trust you and I will personally find out what the fuck your deal is, you hear me?”

“Are you done?” Noah dryly replied, not at all impressed for the simple reason that she was drunk out of her mind, and clearly had no idea what she was saying.

Karen opened her mouth to reply, but in that moment, Noah felt hands close around his wrist, pulling him away from her.

“Back off, Karen,” Santino drawled annoyed, stepping in between them. “Why are you bothering him? Why not Layne? Why not Julia? Why not Alan? In fact, seriously, why Noah? The only one who hasn’t said shit about you since I met him.”

“He shows up and you act all different, and now you break up with me? What did he say about me?”

“Pay some attention, Karen. I just told you, he didn’t say shit about you. I told you, we’re done, I can’t deal with the clinginess anymore. That’s it. Your fault, not anyone else’s.” Santino turned around, pushed him away from Karen, steering him out of the club and into the refreshingly cool night.

“You broke up with her?” Noah asked, surprised while he turned around. But when he did, Santino waved him off, went back inside and returned with Julia in his arms and Layne by his side.

“Mercury’s lake?” Layne suggested, and Santino nodded in reply, pushing Julia’s chin up. “Let’s sit by the water and call him, okay? I’m sorry I wasn’t there. Karen attacked Noah.”

And much to Noah’s surprise, Julia looked up at him, and instead of seeking comfort in Santino’s arms, she wiggled herself out of his hold and placed her arms around his waist and her head against his chest.

“What happened? I went to the bathroom and… well…”

“Sonny decided now would be the best time to add more fuel to the fire and break up with Karen, and Julia spoke to her dad and learned that her brother is prolonging his trip through Asia. She hasn’t seen him in months,” Layne explained.

“He was supposed to come home next week,” she managed to tell him in between her sobbing.

“Let’s walk, it’s not that far,” Santino suggested, gesturing for Noah to walk, which was kind of hard since Julia was clinging onto his arm. But eventually they found a pace and a way to walk together, and he silently followed Layne and Santino, who led him to a lake about half an hour away from the club.

As soon as they sat down, Noah noticed it was nearing curfew, and instead of bailing on his friends and rushing back home, he texted both his parents where he was, with who, and why. He promised them to not come home by himself.

Julia tried calling her brother, but his phone kept jumping straight to voicemail, so she eventually gave up and sighed in defeat.

Layne informed his parents Julia needed him and for what reason, and Santino was contemplating on going for a swim, noticeably not worrying over his father’s response of staying out again. Noah knew Layne had done everything he could that week to get permission to go out, but it wasn’t a surprise when his father called him and told him to be home by two anyway, and to take Julia home as well because hanging out at a lake wasn’t going to bring her brother back home sooner either.

“So, are you going as well?” Noah asked Santino when Julia and Layne had gotten back up to go home like Layne’s father suggested. There was no point in staying if they all had to go home anyway. At least the walk had sobered them up a little, and Julia had calmed down.

“Are you?”

“Well, my parents know I’m here. But I’m not allowed to go home by myself. Layne’s gonna drop me off.”

“I’ll drop you off,” Santino said gesturing for him to come closer. “Let’s live a little, okay?”

Julia snorted behind Noah, and gave him a small push. “Go on, we’ll be fine. You need some adventures. Seagulls, remember?”

Layne, Santino and Noah laughed simultaneously, and Noah nodded at her. She was right, Santino was right. If he wasn’t going, then he didn’t have to either.

“Let’s go for a swim. Maybe penguins will attack us and you’ll have a story.”

Noah laughed again, his stomach hurting by the time he recovered. They said their goodbyes to Layne and Julia, before they sat down by the lake, staring over the water. The reflection of the moon gave it a silver glow.

“Julia really likes you, you know?” Santino eventually said, again playing with a twig like he had done the week before. “The fact she wanted you to comfort her? That was… weird. Not in a bad way, it just surprised me. Did I miss something?”

Noah shook his head but voiced a no when he noticed Santino wasn’t watching him. “We just had a good conversation on Thursday, I guess. But I’m not into her, and she isn’t into me.”

“I didn’t really mean, miss something in that department. I meant more like, friends. But good to know there’s no romance between you two.”

“Why, do you like her?”

Santino snorted, shaking his head. “Don’t get me wrong, she’s hot. But I’m just not into her like that. I do care a great deal about her because she doesn’t judge me for anything. She just rolls with it.”

“Then why is it good to know we’re not romantically involved?”

Santino silenced, and after a few seconds he pushed himself up, and pulled his shirt over his head. “How about that swim?”