Nathan Marsh's State of Being

Chapter Eleven

dumbfounded

It was midterms, the sky seemed to be permanently grey outside, and the leaves were falling off the trees like I'd never seen before.

I had just finished my geography exam, and I was busy thinking about the look Theo had given me when he dropped his paper on the finished pile and stalked past my desk on his way out the door.

I'd almost been late, so I was stuck in the front row. On a normal day, I would have been annoyed, but since it wasn't a lecture and just a testing day, I wasn't too bothered.

Not the way I was about the flirtatious wink Theo had given me. We'd texted a few times over the last two weeks, but ultimately hadn't gotten around to hanging out. He worked a lot and between our class schedules and that, we never made concrete plans. I was wondering how I could change that when I unlocked my room door.

Seeing Noel, shirtless and leaning over a familiar figure in his bed, had me stopped dead in my tracks. All thoughts of Theo flew right out of my head to make room for Noel.

I tried to search my mind for any evidence that he'd told me not to come back to the room. I didn't remember him saying anything when we'd talked in the hallway this morning and I knew he hadn't texted me.

I immediately went to back out of the room when Noel looked over. Nina, the first girl I'd caught him with, propped herself up on her elbows. The button of her loose jeans was undone, Noel's broad hand spanning over the skin of her bare stomach. She was in a lacy bra that was somewhat see through.

I tried not to stare and cut my gaze to the floor. I had my hand on the door knob and took a step back. "I'm sorry, I had no idea..."

I shot Noel a very small look of annoyance--because if he'd warned me like we'd agreed I could have avoided this embarrassment--but his face was a blank slate. Nina leaned up and whispered something in his ear and for some reason, the action made me stay, where normally I'd have been out of there like the Flash.

"You sure?" Noel asked quietly, his words drifting over to me.

I was just confused at first. But when Nina nodded and Noel looked over at me with a smirk, I felt like nothing made sense at all anymore. He beckoned me over with a hand and my brain went to mush at that moment.

He was calling me over. My heart raced and I looked between the two of them across the room as if this was some sort of joke. Nina giggled and pushed at Noel's shoulder until he slid off the bed and came over to stand in front of me. His movements were as fluid as ever, like a modern dance in the negative space of the room.

Noel's hand touched the door knob as well, fingers touching mine before knocking them off of it. I didn't say anything. I just breathed, feeling my chest rise as I did so. His voice was lower than ever when he spoke and I doubted even Nina could hear him.

"You wanna?"

My mouth gaped and I blinked at him. There was no way that this was really happening. My bag suddenly slipped off my shoulder and I jumped to grab it before it fell on my foot. Noel did too, both of our hands holding onto it between us. I looked at how his fingers were mere millimeters away from mine over the black canvas.

"Nat?" he asked, voice sweet, careful.

"What?" I felt like I was losing my mind. My throat was dry, and over Noel's shoulder I saw Nina grinning wolfishly.

Noel smiled. He used one hand to push our door closed and flipped the lock. His eyes looked a little glazed and that's when I realized I knew he was high. I was sure Nina was as well otherwise this wouldn't be happening.