Wednesday, Evening

Everything had been calm for a few days after Noah had slept with Santino. The other boy was acting as if nothing was wrong, and his relationship with Karen was fine. Him and Layne were mainly focused on the fact they would learn their game schedule on Wednesday afternoon and guessing who their opponents would be.

Noah remembered all too well how Colin and his teammates had been excited in the exact same way. To all of them, it felt like the start of the season, even though the opening match wouldn’t be for another few weeks. South Cedar, as last years champion, would be playing the first match. But who they would be up against wasn’t decided yet.

Well, until that Wednesday.

So, when Layne arrived at work a few minutes late—he had called to let them know the meeting had run late—Noah instantly dropped plates into the water.

“Well? Fun opponent?”

“No, fucking, clue,” Layne grumbled, shaking his wet hair, dropping his wet coat in the hallway. Apparently, he had been surprised by the predicted downpour, since he wasn’t wearing a coat that seemed waterproof. “Ah, fucking great,” he mumbled, pulling on his soaked blouse.

“Grab an extra, they’re upstairs,” Noah dried his hands and took Noah to their apartment to hand him a spare blouse. “Need pants? I think you could fit mine.”

“Yes, thank you, dude.”

Noah took one of his pants, showed Layne his bedroom, and told him he’d see him downstairs once he was done getting dressed, before he headed back to the kitchen to focus on the growing pile of dishes. Evening hours had been becoming increasingly more busy, but finding someone to do the dishes wasn’t on top of their priority list. The fact Layne was told to serve that evening said more than enough, and for a while, Noah just silently worked his way around the kitchen.

By the time rush hour was done, Layne accompanied him in the kitchen, helping him to get rid of the dishes.

“So, what did you mean, ‘no fucking clue’?” Noah asked curiously as Layne pushed his sleeves up. “I expected you to be all excited.”

“I’m not fucking excited. I’ll leave that to other team members.”

The look Layne was sending him made Noah feel uncomfortable. The tone he used to pronounce his words made Noah even more uncomfortable. And the smirk he eventually flashed, caused his face to heat up.

“Wh-what?”

“Did you… you know?” Layne looked over his shoulder to see what Patrick was doing, before he leaned closer, “have company?”

“What?” Noah chocked on his breath. He nearly dropped a plate to the floor, which was caught by Layne, thankfully. “What are you talking about?”

“Nobody can know?”

“Did you search my fucking room?” Noah hissed, snatching the plate back in annoyance, “Seriously?”

“Dude, the note was on your desk, where I placed my shit to get dressed. I’m sorry.”

“Well, it’s not what you think,” Noah lied, panicking because seriously; nobody was supposed to know. “It’s uh, a game. Online. With hints.”

Noah applauded his ability to steer his panicked word vomit into a direction that actually made sense.

“I didn’t know you and Sonny played videogames together. Why was I not invited?”

“Who said anything about Sonny?”

Noah was in full on panic, but he had to keep up appearance.

“It’s his handwriting. He’s been my best friends since we were eight or whatever. I just wonder, why wasn’t I invited?”

Noah opened his mouth to reply, and snapped it shut when he had no clue on how to react. So, he shrugged.

“What’s that? Shrug?” Layne seemed way too amused about all of it. Noah didn’t find it anywhere near as funny as he did.

“You went home already, remember? We went here after the lake and played some stupid video game. He didn’t want to go home yet, and I had no reason to stay out.”

“Oh, right, that does sound like him.”

Noah’s eyebrows wanted to shoot up, surprised because Layne accepted the explanation that easily. He was a better liar than he thought he was. Or maybe he was because people generally trusted him right off the bat, and he hardly ever gave anyone a reason not to. But then Layne placed a plate in the rack, leaned on the counter while staring at the water, tapping his finger a few times as he seemed to overthink something.

“So…”

Noah frowned. “What?”

“What game?”

“Oh, uh, I don’t remember the name.”

“I love games with hints and secrets and such.”

“I don’t know, dude.” Layne needed to stop about the fucking game. There was no game, and Noah wanted to yell it at the top of his lungs. But then he’d be left without explanation.

“I’ll ask Sonny, maybe he knows.”

Great, Noah thought. Just, fucking great.

Thursday, morning

Noah had warned Santino about Layne’s curiosity about a game they supposedly played while they were actually doing something completely different. He told him he’d google for games that could potentially be used to cover the lie and told Santino to do the same.

He had gotten no response.

He also hadn’t been able to find a game that made it make sense for Santino to write down ‘nobody can know’.

And maybe, just maybe, Layne would’ve forgotten all about it by Thursday, and Noah had spent the entire night for no apparent reason behind his computer.

The next morning, Noah had no opportunity to ask Santino what to do. He was seated on a bench, outside, smoking a cigarette despite the school’s ‘no smoking’ zone, accompanied by Julia, Alan and sadly, Karen.

Noah joined them when he couldn’t immediately find Lori, too curious to find out whether or not Layne had asked him about the game. Layne, who had been pestering him about the game’s name the rest of their shift, and even later through text. Layne, who joined them, putting an arm around his shoulder casually, kicking Santino to wake him up from his thoughts.

“Sonny, Noah said you guys played a game at his place last Friday. With hints and shit?”

Did he really have to ask about it in front of Karen? The girl who wanted to know everything. The girl, who was currently staring back and forth between Noah and her fake boyfriend.

“Hmm?” Santino replied casually, sitting upright, sliding down in his spot, leaning casually against Karen, who smiled warmly in response.

“What’s the name? You know I love those kinda games.”

“It’s Italian. I doubt you understand anything of what it says with your brilliant level of Italian.”

“You speak Italian?” Julia frowned at him, surprised by the news.

“No.”

“See?” Santino gestured an arm at Layne, and Noah couldn’t fight a smirk because of his casual attitude. He had been panicking all night, while Santino had the simplest cover-up ever. “Anyway, it was boring anyway. Way too simple. Everything I translated; Noah immediately unraveled. But next time, we’ll make sure to invite you.”

“Whatever,” Layne mumbled.

Santino was soon distracted by Karen, who whispered things into his ear that caused him to smirk suggestively. Noah felt… jealous, watching it happen in front of him. Julia ended up in a conversation with Alan, telling him about a dance recital that was coming up, and Layne pulled Noah closer as soon as the rest lost attention.

“Whatever pretty stories you guys tell, I’m not an idiot.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Nothing,” Layne whispered amused, patting his shoulder, turning towards Jackson as soon as he joined them, leaving Noah behind with his own thoughts. Thoughts that probably wouldn’t help settle his nerves anytime soon.

He was glad when he could slip into a seat beside Lori, creating some distance between himself and Layne. He needed it, if only for one class. Not that he hated Layne, on the contrary. He really liked hanging out with him, or Julia, or Santino.

He just didn’t trust himself around them in that moment. Internally, he was about to explode, and he really wanted to spill the whole truth to Layne, or Julia for that matter.

He started remembering how exhausting it was to keep his sexuality a secret. And telling Layne his sexuality wasn’t even forbidden. But he had a feeling that Layne would guess what really happened once he knew that Noah was into guys.

And nobody could know.

“Are you okay?” Lori asked with a worried frown on her face, as she grabbed the right school supplies for class. She never stopped looking at him, grabbing the wrong book without even noticing it.

“Yeah, you?”

Lori’s frown increased as she slowly nodded. “You seem… not okay?”

Noah bit his lip, sighing deeply before he shook his had, grabbed his stuff, and glanced over to his new friends as their teacher asked for attention, thankfully. He really was about to burst his bubble. Just, why did he have to sleep with the one guy who had Karen ready to attack anyone who would come too close?

And how unfair was it that he couldn’t even talk to anyone about it?