Secondhand Embarrassment

thirty five: the end

lennon || noah

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"when did they even get together to plan this?" lennon wonders as she leans forward, resting her forearms on her knees. she tilts her head to the side and looks out the ovular window at the clear blue sky. from the corner of her eyes, she sees noah watching her. his blue eyes are soft but observant, their sight all too familiar.

"i've stopped trying to keep up with billy does in his free time." noah laughs, feeling his words piece together a circle on the tip of his tongue. he doesn't know how many more colors he'll be able to use without going outside the lines. he's been treading dangerously close to the outline.

lennon looks behind her shoulder, her eyes landing on olivia who is laughing at some joke billy has just said. their voices accompany each other like the bass and treble clefs for eighty-eight black and white keys. "look at them right now. what if they really did this so they could sit next to each other instead?"

"olivia and billy back together? it'd be the biggest plot twist of the twenty-first century."

she drags her tongue lazily along her bottom lip as she turns around in her seat. noah's ocean blue eyes are waiting for her on the other side. they haven't left her face since she sat down. if she looks really closely, she can see all the words he can't bring himself to say swimming around in the golden specks.

her words linger in the air after she says,"i can think of some bigger plot twists."

neither of them know what to say or how to continue the conversation. they're at a dead end and the bomb just sits above them, time on the clock counting down to detonation. it's a death sentence.

before they know it, the pilot and flight attendants are telling the passengers to buckle their seat belts. a soft blanket of chatter covers the plane as the anticipation climbs, breaking the scale. the wheels of the plane roll against the pavement, passengers feeling the vibrations beneath their seat cushions.

lennon sits back in her seat, fastening the seat belt across her lap. next to her, noah kicks his backpack under the seat in front of him and stares out the window, watching the plane glide down the runway. his ears pop as the plane takes off, its wheels leaving the ground. the world below continues to get smaller and smaller, buildings and towns turning into patches of color. he waves goodbye to the blue ocean.

"let's just pretend i didn't say what i said earlier," lennon says, breaking the silence between them. she feels slightly guilty for placing the target on noah's back without a warning.

"no, you were right," he tells her, accepting the truth right in front of his eyes. "we've seen some pretty big plot twists in our own time. our story would've made one hell of a book."

"would readers be hooked though? that's very important."

"that part just depends on the title." after some careful consideration, he asks, "how does secondhand embarrassment sound to you?"

"i don't really like it." lennon purses her lips together, shaking her head in disapproval. "it just sounds like the author just had a hard time coming up with the title. what does secondhand embarrassment even mean?"

"it's means i've thought about how i've reacted to things in the past couple of days. i should've-"

"we don't have to talk about this right, noah," she says, cutting him short. "we both probably didn't get much sleep last night because we had to wake up for this early flight. plus, our internal clocks are probably screwed up because of beach week. maybe we should just let it be."