The next day, I spot Noah near the fence, where he's talking to Kudo. Turning his head, Noah notices me and waves with a smile, "Hey you!" Yep, it still does things to my stomach. Maybe I should just get used to it. It's not unpleasant after all; I can bear it.

I nod in greeting and give Kudo a small piece of dried bread, which he starts to crunch, throwing saliva around.

On the bus, Noah and I sit together, and for some reason, it feels like it's always been like this. Or at least for a very long time. Definitely not just two days, which it is! Maybe I'm going crazy? My mom is unstable; maybe I am too?

Noah takes off his gray beanie, letting his dark wavy hair out, and I catch a subtle aroma. I think it's his shampoo. I glance at Noah's hair again. I bet it must be soft. I have no more than bristle, but it's better this way. You wouldn't want someone to drag you around by your hair in a fight.

I don't think Noah sees things this way, though. Today he seems less fidgety than yesterday; his hands lie calmly on top of his backpack. At some point, he unzips it and takes out a couple of candy bars. He hands me one with a questioning look. I'm not exactly a big fan of sweets, but I take the bar and say, "Thanks."

Sounds like a plan.

To pull myself out of the flow of thoughts, I take out my phone, ignore the messages I have, and open a video app. The first clip that pops up shows a man climbing a rocky peak without any harness. I notice Noah's curious peek and turn the screen a little so he can watch it too. Accepting my mute invitation to join in, Noah leans in, and the fresh scent of his dark hair wafts into my nose.

I avert my eyes and scroll to the second video. It's also about climbing, but this time on a building. My feed is pretty aligned by now. After watching a few more clips, Noah sits back - I think he's gotten bored.

"Do you do that or just like to watch?" he asks suddenly.

I glance at him. "Both."

"You climb?" Noah lights up. "Like, for real? Like David Belle and that Yamakasi thing?"

"I'm pretty sure I'm no David Belle and nowhere near. And... what's Yamakasi?"

Noah smiles, shaking his head. "It's a movie about a group of friends who do parkour. I believe it's French. I was impressed when I saw it and even tried a few moves."

"How did that turn out?" I ask, guessing the answer.

Noah smiles as I thought he would and says, "Not so good."

"What happened?" I press on, getting really curious.

"I tried to jump over a fence and... cracked all my nuts," he chuckles, infecting me with it, and I smile too. "But hey, I was 11 and the fence was pretty high."

"Yeah," I breathe out. "Been there."

"Maybe..." Noah suddenly looks nervous. "You wanna watch a movie sometime?"

I turn to him, and he seems a little lost. "I mean," he starts to mumble, "Yamakasi, or District 13 with David Belle. But you've probably seen it, you know who David Belle is. But we can watch it anyway if you liked it. Or maybe we can watch something else. Anything really. I'm not very picky. I watch all kinds of movies! And I..." He gasps for air after delivering this string of words. He looks even more flushed and embarrassed. "...or maybe not," he manages to squeeze out and sits back, rubbing under his nose awkwardly.

Watching him, it becomes increasingly difficult for me to contain my smile. "Why not?" I say casually. "I'm not picky either," and sit back, shrugging.

"Cool," Noah breathes out rather shakily. I go back to the videos on my phone, and Noah looks out the window wordlessly for the whole trip to school.

Classes are boring as usual, but since I share most of them with Noah, I have something to lay my eyes on. He is easy on the eyes. And not just for me. Other people tend to talk to him, and he smiles at them - I guess he's just like that.

I turn away from Noah talking to Audrey and see Tanner just outside the room, beckoning me. Reluctantly, I get up from my seat and walk up to him.

"Don't you check your messages?" Tanner asks irritably. He wasn't here for the first two periods, but I don't bother asking him where he was.

I shrug in reply. "What's up?"

"Blake got beaten. So we need to meet after school and kick some asses."

The thought of it seems tiresome, but Tanner is unlikely to take no for an answer. So I nod indifferently. Tanner's gaze slides around the classroom and stops at Noah, who is talking with Wendy and Charlotte.

"I see Starboy is getting popular," he says, licking his lips. My body reacts with an unpleasant chill between my shoulder blades, but I pretend to be as indifferent as possible and shrug, "Didn't know you cared."

Tanner's eyes shift back to mine, searching, waiting.

"About Wendy and Charlotte," I clarify.

Tanner frowns, "I don't care about them. It's all about the attitude." Having finished his sentence, Tanner enters the classroom and heads straight to the desk where Noah is sitting. He butts into the conversation, and the girls seem a bit confused - Tanner doesn't have the best reputation at school, but Wendy seems more excited than Charlotte.

"We're just discussing the Winter Formal," Charlotte says.

"Can't share our new guy?" grins Tanner.

Wendy giggles, "No, not at all. We were thinking of going as a group."

"Why?" Tanner is surprised. "I can't believe you don't have a date for the ball."

"What does this have to do with it?" Charlotte frowns. "It's just more fun to go as a group. And you don't have to go as a pair."

"But Noah refuses to go," Wendy giggles again for some reason, glancing at Tanner, whose expression is rapidly changing.

"You think you're too good for this?" Tanner asks Noah, there is poorly veiled hostility in his voice, but Noah doesn't seem to notice it and smiles shyly in response. Naive.

"No," Noah answers simply. "I don't think I can come at all. And I don't want to make promises that I can't keep, that's all."