| Around 5:00 the day before Amelia got a text she probably shouldn't have. It wasn't sent my accident or filled with autocorrect typos. It was sent by Noah, and possibly dripped of the boys own particular sense of 'acceptable' (which means it stunk of a socially retarded nature.) I just took a girl home. Sorry I missed your text.
Because Noah's that stupid.
Still, at some point in the night he realized as much, sending a new text to her near the perfectly acceptable hour of 3:50am. Not like that. I made her bleed and took her home.
Yes Amelia. You choose this boyfriend.
Now though, as the clock ticks close to 2:30 on a lazy, spring Saturday afternoon, Noah can be found slumped in a pile on his sofa as he watches the most recent Big Bang Theory marathon. Still in his sleep pants, he at least smells of soap and appears to have made some effort to get ready. It seems to have stopped at the shower and brushing his teeth though, as his shirt rests on the back of a chair and his socks remain rolled up on the coffee table.
Eventually he'll get there.
Amelia isn't the most popular girl in school, but nor is she the type to care, and she might not be the brainiest but she likes to think of herself as being savvy. She also, however, is a wild child and sometimes doesn't react to things maturely. Things like say, a really insulting text message from your boyfriend of six months. When she finally rolls out of bed she forces herself to head over to Noah's apartment.
Damage control; thy nemesis is social media. Dark sunglasses and a baseball cap shield her eyes from the California sun as she leans on Noah's door and knocks at the same time.
Noah climbs to his feet, his attention drifting from the TV toward the door as he heads that way. It isn't until he unlocks it an tugs it open that he spots the incognito English girl, and he looks at her with the same heavy-lidded gaze as usual. In Noah World he did nothing wrong. Then again, Noah World isn't exactly moving at the same speed as the rest of the universe. "S'up chica?" He allows with a small yawn before the door is opened wider to let her in. "Sorry. I'm trying to get dressed..just..can't." Judging by the plate on the table, he couldn't even be bothered to finish his breakfast before he collapsed into a useless heap on the sofa.
Amelia shuffles past him and takes up space on the sofa, but not before she turns the TV down a bit, muttering something about her "Bloody head." Her eyes close behind the sunglasses. "Got any coffee? Maybe asprin?" The questions are posed quietly as if she didn't dare speak up any more than she is.
Noah is slow, but he's not stupid. He notes the quiet questions and the slump onto the sofa. It even plays over his expression as he slowly places pieces together. He doesn't actually solve the mystery..or come even close, but the vague sense that he should walk carefully does occur to him, and he clutches to it. "Yeah..okay." He blinks a few times before he turns and heads for the small kitchen, quickly shuffling through packets and pods until, much to even his own amusement he manages to return moments later with coffee and two aspirin, both of which are offered over to her. "What' wrong? You feel bad?" Yes he is this dense.
Reaching out Amelia takes the asprin and the coffee which she uses to wash the tablets down. Raising a bare forearm to her face she sniffs and then winces. "I am sweating out the stuff." A few more mouthfuls of coffee and she can admit, "I tied one on last night, seriously." But then realising Noah is going to be clueless she Yankifies that, "I went to this party on the beach and got shitfaced after I got your message."
Noah wrinkles his nose. "Well it's not like I killed her." He allows with a frown. I mean, she was a little worse for wear sure...I'm just glad she doesn't have a dad at home. I can't imagine /that/ conversation at all. 'Here's your deaf daughter back sire. Sorry I made things worse by breaking her.' My dad would be scraping pieces of me up all over Mias Street." Which is probably the worst residential street in the city. "But I don't see why you needed to go get crunk over my letting a girl fall off my skateboard. Seems a bit excessive."
Amelia groans quietly, "Your skateboard?" She fumbles about and finally manages to get her phone out of her pocket. After unlocking it she sends him the same first message he sent her. "How does that look? Nothing says some guy tripped over my bike." Having an argument with a boy who doesn't argue is enough of a headache, doing it while hungover is a bajillion times worse in Amelia's estimation. "Fuck's sake, Noah...I thought you..." She doesn't finish just drinks another mouthful of hot coffee.
Noah eyes his phone, though he clearly doesn't see whatever it was that spurred her need to drink. "It says I took someone home." He says simply, almost curiously as he glances toward her and her cup. It takes him a few seconds, but eventually his eyes do widen, "You thought I /what/?" And for once, his tone does raise. "Seriously? You think /I/ am capable of slinking around on you?" Does she know him?!
"Shhhh," murmurs Amelia. "Please," she pleads for him to be quieter. Off comes the baseball cap as she tugs it off her head. "I've had guys do that to me before. It was stupid to go that party. I don't even like the guy who was hosting it." Her head turns towards Noah, "I'm pretty sure somebody did body shots off of me at one point." She sets her mug down and then lies down, putting her head on his lap. "There are photos." Her phone gets pressed into his hand. It's up to Noah to decide if he wants to look or not.
Those little facts she admits to tick off on him like a kitchen timer. He doesn't have any interest in seeing pictures, judging by the way he turns his face away from her and her phone. He merely sits quietly, his jaw set and his eyes narrowed on the TV until, finally he hisses. He also lifts a food to give a sudden and hard shove to it, flipping it over and sending the cup of coffee and the other trinkets atop it flying. The TV is missed by a book at least, but the carpet isn't spared any new stains. But he doesn't speak. He merely returns to looking at the TV.
Noah doesn't argue!
Amelia has never seen Noah angry before. She's seen tired Noah, bored Noah, distracted Noah, sleeping Noah and once briefly on New Year's Eve almost-drunk Noah. The violent reaction when it is released startles her and makes her jump to the otherside of the couch. Carefully she pulls her sunglasses off and she watches him, clearly worried. As the silence between them ticks by she reaches over slowly until her hand is near his but not touching.
Noah remains silent for several more breaths, which he takes in slowly. He also tenses, his hands balling into fists which ultimately pulls it away from her. Still, silence from the normally silent teen. Till he speaks, but even that is low. "So..just to review. I send you a very /normal/ message for me." Okay, HE thinks it's normal. "But instead of asking me to clear it up, you go cheat on me?" Because he's male, his brain goes there right away. "..That about sums it up? Or did I miss something?"
"I didn't cheat. I just got really drunk," says Amelia very quietly. "I kept my pants on. I kept all my clothes on." She squirms a bit, feeling bad for what she did. It's been a while since Amelia has been made to feel guilty about anything. "I went alone. I left alone. I did a stupid drunk thing and thought it would be funny to let them drink off of me." She shrinks a bit, pulling her knees up against her chest. "It wasn't a normal message, Noah. A normal message would be 'Sorry I was busy 'cause this girl tried to use my board and fell over and hurt herself.' A normal message doesn't make it sound like you met some skank and took her home and shagged her."
"At what point in the last six months have I sent a text message /that long/?" He looks baffled. Mad and baffled. "And..shagged? Do I act like the type of person who goes around looking for ass? Seriously?" One time! One time and he's ruined. Stupid drugs. "Nothing you're saying makes any sense at all. You jumped to conclusions and let some asshole put his mouth on shit that's not his." Or Noah's to be fair, but he's mad. And he's loud. Loud enough that a sudden bang on the wall of the apartment tells him that his neighbor is home from her night shift. It at least silences him. "You turned me into an asshole so that you could run off and do something stupid. You should have /asked/."
Amelia just sighs and rubs her face against her jeans. With her head pounding and her heart hurting she can't fight, not really. "I'm sorry," she says earnestly. "It's why I came over. I got your other message when I woke up. What can I do to fix this? I know I fucked up." She doesn't cry but she looks like she could if he shouted again, though that could just be because of the pain in her head.
Noah sighs, lowering his head into his hands before those same hands to slide around and clutch the hair at the back of his head. It allows him a moment of self-inflicted isolation without actually having to move. Even if his knuckles are white and his teeth clinched, he continues to take deep breaths until finally he deflates and simply..gives up. His hands drop and the anger fades from his expression. "Whatever..it's over. Don't worry about it." He stands, moving to use his foot to flip the coffee table back upright before he bends to pick up the mess of magazines and the now broken coffee cup. "I..spilled your cup." He allows as he stands again, looking over the broken mug before heading slowly toward the kitchen where it's dumped into the trash. "Sorry."
Her head jerks up, "It's over?" Amelia is rather hoping this is another example of his brevity of words, but she doesn't seem confident of it. Slowly, because she requires an economy of movement, she rises to her feet and follows Noah. "Please, Noah. I don't want to break up. Tell me what I have to do to fix this. I was stupid and promise nobody else will ever touch my stomach again. I'll stop drinking. Whatever it takes." She rubs her hands up and down her bare arms as she looks pleadingly at him.
Noah blinks..slowly as he turns to watch Amelia with what can only be described as a vacantly confused look. It takes a second to sink in, "Huh? No..It' over. I don't want to break up...I just don't want to talk about it anymore. It makes me mad. Don't like that either." Turning from the sink, Noah's steps stumble slightly as he finds Amelia there. He doesn't comment, merely reaches to move her aside gently before returning to the living room to clean the coffee from the carpet. "Can we not mention to my dad why there's a giant stain in the carpet...I mean, we always get them out," thank you spot bot, "but...I'm not allowed to get mad and have fits."
Amelia sniffs and nods, rubbing her cheeks in turn against each shoulder. "I won't say anything. Do you want me to help?" She walks jerkily after him, still not quite herself and sinks to her knees on to the carpet. The little knick knacks need to be righted and the TV remote fished out from under the chair. As she places it carefully back on the coffee table she says, "I love you, Noah." Which might go a way to explain her ridiculous behaviour, or might not.
Well, he was doing good collecting himself, her small confession however counters any advance into normalcy he may have managed. He blinks and pales as his arm gives out under him, sending him faceplanting into the damp carpet. The result is a slightly damp, coffee scented Noah. "W--Why?!" If he shouts, it's not his fault.
She looks over and watches, wide-eyed as Noah does his faceplant. Amelia crawls towards him and reaches out to help Noah get up again. "What do you mean why? I just do. Being with you makes me happy and the idea of not being with you anymore scares me." Which is about as indepth as a nearly seventeen-year-old can get.
Noah is helped up, and after a moment seems to find his bearings again. "Yeah but..there are way better choices. I mean--I don't..do ANYTHING. Not like a normal boyfriend." He sees other couples. He knows he's weird. "You could do way better." He pauses, "I couldn't..I mean, I wake up and wonder how the hell I ended up with you. I just assumed you woke up with the same question. Ya know, just..in a grayer light."
Amelia takes the bottle of cleaner and the wet sponge and gets to her feet, using the coffee table. She walks into the kitchen and after rinsing out the sponge puts the cleaner away and comes back the living room, sliding down onto the floor to sit close enough to Noah that their sides are touching. "Everybody else I've ever been with has been a jerk. It was about money or prestige or getting in my pants. You aren't like that. Maybe other people think it's weird. Maybe I did too at first, but not now."
Noah nods. "I don't really care about money and prestige..wouldn't know what do with it. I like being middle of the road with everything." As for getting in her pants, he doesn't mention it, but he does chuckle mostly to himself as a hand moves to push his hair from his eyes. "I'm sorry I yelled at you. I'll try and be clearer." He shifts a little before pushing to his feet. He also turns to offer his hand to her to help her up.
"No, I know that. It's one of the things that I like about you. That you are so...down to earth about it all." Amelia leans and briefly touches her forehead to his shoulder. "I am sorry I was a dumbass." She tucks her hair behind her ears and when he holds his hand out to her she takes it and pulls herself up onto her feet.
Amelia licks her lips nervously and looks down at their hands then up at Noah. "Do you want to go to prom with me? I know it will likely be your idea of a special circle of hell, but I'd really like to go. I'd like to dress up for you and dance and get our picture taken."
Amelia licks her lips nervously and looks down at their hands then up at Noah. "Do you want to go to prom with me? I know it will likely be your idea of a special circle of hell, but I'd really like to go. I'd like to dress up for you and dance and get our picture taken."
Noah chuckles, nodding before heading back to the sofa, "I guess. You gonna buy me a flower and take my virginity too?" See, all is good again in Noah World. He even smirks as he slumps back into the cushions. "Na, yeah I'll go." Something about it amuses him. He also reaches to motion her over with an outstretched arm. "You alright?"
She slips off her flipflops and sits on the couch, curling up against Noah's side. "I'll bring you a flower, but I'm not doing the whole limo thing or a tacky hotel room." Amelia snuggles against him. "I've seen those dumb prom movies." And yet she still wants to go. "You don't have to dress super fancy."
Noah nods, allowing her against him. "Those dumb prom movies set ridiculously high standards for girls, but it's cool. Believe it or not, I've dressed up before." He also reaches to tug her closer. "I'm sure you'll look pretty all done up. But I appreciate the no hotel policy, since you have /2/ dads I'm doubly interested in remaining below the radar."
"Noah," laughs Amelia, "my dads aren't scary. Your dad is scary. He has a gun. My dad can't even kill a spider and my step-dad isn't much better." She lays her head on his shoulder. "Do you want to watch more reruns?"
Noah chuckles. "Hey, you'd be amazed at the types of superpowers dads gain when they find out their precious little flower of a daughter is with a guy who has a rap sheet longer than Kelly Blacks." Really, Noah's lucky to be so downplayed. "My dads the only reason I'm just on probation. But, to be fair you're probably the reason I'm almost off probation." He chuckles, "See, you bring out good in me. It's just subdued and quiet good."
She nuzzles his neck and closes her eyes. "You've got that quiet broody thing working for you. It's crazy hot." Amelia's mouth quirks up into a grin. "My dad likes you. I get into less trouble at school, well aside from the truanting. But on balance he'd rather that I was truanting than going to lessons completely bladdered. Maybe we're just good for each other." She leans over and picks up the remote then places it into Noah's hand before laying down and putting her head on his lap. "I need a nap, baby."
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