Friday
12:48AM
Loud knocking followed by the doorbell ringing unnecessarily long startles Noah from the unexpected nap he was taking. He looks around, trying to become aware of his surroundings. The entire apartment is dark and the show he was watching on Netflix is asking him if he's still watching. Clearly he isn't. Noah huffs and sits up as he starts feeling around him to locate his phone. In the midst of his movements he hears a loud thud — there it is. He picks up the device and presses the home button to check the time.
"What the fuck,"
Eighteen missed calls from Josiah and a bunch of text messages from him as well. Noah quickly unlocks his phone and goes to his iMessage. The knocking on the door begins again and this time Noah actually pays attention to it.
"Noah open this fucking door!"
Josiah.
Noah quickly gets on his feet and scuffles to the front door while checking his phone. What is going on? Could something possibly have happened to his mom? His little sister? He really has to stop leaving his phone on do not disturb. Especially with Amelia being as sick as she is. He reads the text message he received from Lolani telling him that he's out for drinks with some guy he met a while ago and that he won't be home tonight. That being the only message Lolani sent him immediately puts Noah at ease. This means nothing has happened to his loved ones because if that was the case, his mom or Alicia would have texted his best friend.
So far, so good. But if nothing is going on with his family and Lolani is fine, then why is Josiah banging on his front door like he's gone insane? Why is Josiah at his front door in the first place? They haven't spoken since Princeton came to visit him. Noah texted him after Princeton left but all his texts were left on read. What makes Josiah want to see him now? If it's for sex, he'll have to draw a line because they agreed to stop doing that. Not really, but sort of. Friends don't have sex.
Noah opens the front door, just to be met with Josiah. His friend looks angry. "Hey—" Josiah pushes him inside the apartment in the middle of his sentence. "What the fuck? You can't just—"
"Why the fuck did you feel the need to tell Valentine I got you pregnant?" Josiah asks in a raised voice, not caring about the time of the day and the neighbors. He slams the door behind before turning to Noah. Nobody has to hear about their business. "Well?"
Noah crosses his arms over his chest, getting slightly defensive. Of course Valentine would go to Josiah about this. But he's not going to let his friend yell at him like he's some child. "I don't know, you tell me." He retorts with some attitude. "Why did you tell him I'm pregnant in the first place?"
Josiah sucks his teeth out of annoyance. One wrong word from the Noah and he'll explode. "Don't fucking start with me." He tells the younger guy with quite some aggression in his voice. "I don't know what the fuck has gotten into you lately, but that attitude of yours has been pissing me off. And don't even get me started on your behavior. Ever since we first hooked up you've been acting like anything but yourself. You changed, Noah. Valentine and you are constantly arguing about every damn thing and I seem to always be in the middle of it. For what? Why are you constantly arguing with my fucking ex-boyfriend about me? You don't even have feelings for me!" He voices full of frustration. Noah looks away from him, staying quiet. That makes Josiah sigh. "Unless you do.."
"I don't." Noah answers softly, ignoring all else Josiah just said. Arguing with the older guy is pointless. Josiah wouldn't understand why he's acting the way he is. He, himself, doesn't even understand why he's acting the way he is.
"Of course you don't." Josiah comments bitterly. Coming over to Noah's is a waste of his time. "I'm gonna go, this is a waste of time. I'll see you around."
"It doesn't have to be." Noah quickly says when Josiah turns around to open the door. "A waste of time.. This.. Uhm.. You could stay?"
"Stay and do what?"
"We're still friends, Josiah.."
"So?"
Noah sighs. "Can we hang out?" He asks, dropping his cold act. Josiah doesn't bother to turn around to face him and stays quiet instead. For some reason Josiah's behavior has him becoming sad — he's already tearing up. He watches Josiah inhale deeply before exhaling deeply as if he takes his question into consideration. "Please?" The word leaves his mouth the moment Josiah opens the front door. There is some slight distress in Noah's voice. "I miss you, Josie."
Josiah turns around to face Noah again. "You can't do this, Noah. And stop calling me that shit." He tells the younger guy. "You can't fucking ignore me for a couple of days because Princeton is around and then act like nothing happened. If we're fucking friends then treat me like one. Friends don't treat each other like shit."
"You're right and I'm sorry for that." Noah apologizes with a quivering bottom lip. A tear rolls down his cheek and he quickly wipes it away as he sniffs. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to cry. But my hormones are all over the damned place and I've been feeling like shit because I don't know how to feel about Princeton anymore since he visited. He was so sweet. Then there's Valentine who was being a fucking ass to me earlier. And now you're mad and yelling at me because of him."
"Man," Josiah laughs a little, pulling Noah to him. "You're such a fucking crybaby. Princeton a bitch and you're a different kind of stupid if you even consider taking him back. And I'm sorry for yelling at you, I'm not mad at you. I guess I'm mad at myself and I'm blaming you. I just didn't want Valentine to know about this."
"Neither did I," Noah's words come out slightly muffled due to the way Josiah and him are hugging. His face is pressed against the older guy's chest and their arms are wrapped around each other. He'll never get over the comfort and warmth being held by Josiah brings him. "Yet you told him."
"I know, but—"
"But you didn't think he'd figure out that it's yours. I figured... Did you know he knew about, you know.. Us."
"Yeah," Josiah sighs. "He told me a while ago."
Noah rolls his eyes. "Of course he did." He comments sarcastically. "Can we talk about something else? I'm tired of talking about Valentine. In fact, I'm not even friends with him anymore."
Josiah raises his eyebrows and pulls back from their embrace so he can look down at Noah. That's unexpected. "You're not? Why?" He wonders, being genuinely surprised.
"Josie, please," Noah gives Josiah a look that makes him laugh. "We were never best friends, it was obvious he disliked me, and after today I made an enemy out of him. You can not be surprised about this."
"I thought you two had this frenemy friendship going on. It was kind of hot. I liked seeing you get all worked over something Valentine would say — your cheeks become all red, you start frowning and mean mugging him." Josiah laughs. "It's really cute, actually."
"Shut up," Noah mutters as he feels himself starting to blush. He hates it when Josiah compliments him. "Do you want to watch a movie?" He suggests, letting go off Josiah and turning around. His cheeks are burning hot.
Josiah takes his shoes off before following after Noah who heads to his bedroom. "It's late." He says, sounding a little doubtful.
"So?" Noah laughs as he gets on his bed. "You can stay over. Lani won't be home tonight and it's not like he'd mind. He knows we're.. You know, messing around."
"I don't know, I'm not entirely convinced yet." Josiah teases, taking off the hoodie he's wearing followed by his sweats. It leaves him in his boxers and he smirks a little when he catches Noah checking him out. "Like what you see, baby?"
Noah turns his head from Josiah and picks up his laptop after turning his night lamp on. "Please shut up and turn off the lights." The older guy mocks him by putting on a comical voice, but still does as he asks, making him smile. He thanks Josiah when the light turns off and goes to open his laptop but is stopped. "Hey.."
Josiah takes the laptop from Noah and puts it aside. "I'm tired," He smiles at Noah who's staring up at him with big eyes. The younger guy looks so adorable to him; sparkling green eyes, a soft shade of pink on his cheeks, his hair falling in front of his eyes and the small smile on his lips. Noah is everything and more to him and Josiah hates everything he feels for his friend. No one should be making him feel this way, not now when he's 21 and in his senior year. Yet, here he is, head over heels for Noah Miller. "Let's talk until we fall asleep instead."
"Okay.." Noah says in a soft voice. He's tired as well and his stomach has been cramping in a strange way anyway.
"Come here."
Soft lips are pressed against Noah's and he immediately melts in the kiss. Josiah tastes sweet, after strawberry bubblegum. It's his favorite flavor, Noah remembers, and the older guy always keeps a pack of it in the glove compartment of his car. He smells good too, Noah notices, but that's something Josiah always does. Even after track practice or the gym.
The kiss is gentle and sweet, nothing too sexual. Josiah carefully pushes Noah down and gets in bed next to him. The younger guy immediately gets on top of him and straddles him, not once breaking their kiss. Josiah deepens the kiss and Noah's body responds so naturally.
Both their hands start to roam over each other's bodies and soon enough Josiah's lips aren't on Noah's anymore. Soft moans are coming from Noah as Josiah kisses his neck and touches him just how he likes it. His own hands find their way on Josiah's body and from the noises the older guy is making it only means he's touching him just right.
04:28AM
It's hours later when Josiah finds himself staring into the darkness of Noah's room. The younger guy is soundlessly asleep on his chest and he's gently caressing his smooth back. His mind is full of thoughts — specifically about Valentine. He really hopes his ex-boyfriend will keep his mouth shut about Noah's pregnancy, but something tells him that he won't. Of course Valentine won't. His ex-boyfriend would do anything to ruin whatever bond he has with anyone if it means he'll lose him.
Josiah kisses the top of Noah's head and exhales deeply before taking his phone from the nightstand. This thing between Noah and him has to stop. They have to stop hooking up with each other and claim to just be friends. It's getting harder for him because his feelings for the younger guy are becoming more intense as days go by and it's making him act out of character. Noah is bringing up a side of him that he thought he would never see again. There's only one person who can do that, but it's nothing compared to what Noah can. It's scary and bound to ruin their friendship, especially with Valentine around. He knows this because it happened before.
There are a bunch of missed calls, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat notifications filling his screen. Josiah unlocks his phone and goes to his iMessage, seeing that he has 472 unread messages. Most of the messages are from the group chat with his friends, some are from Valentine cussing him out and a couple are from guys he talks to or hooked up with once but never texted back. But there's one specific name that stands out from all the unread messages in his iMessage. The name alone has him sweating and his heart beating faster. They haven't seen or spoken to each other in a very long time. There was that one time they saw each other, it was about a year ago, but they barely spoke. That night is still a blur to Josiah, but the sex was insane. He woke up to an empty bed the next day; every call went unanswered and every text message was left on read. Shortly after Noah came into his life and he soon forgot about his past. But clearly his past didn't forget about him and something tells him it's coming back to haunt him. He knows one hundred percent sure word already got around.
iMessage
Kairo
Today 01:10AM
a little birdie told me something..
Today 04:31AM
This is how you text me after a year?
my bad
hey baby, I missed you 💕
you're up late
Don't call me baby
And I could be saying the same about you
I have a 2 months old baby
what about you?
I got some shit on my mind
I see...
so is what I heard true?
What?
I've been told you're having a baby
You've been talking to Valentine?
occasionally
you didn't answer my question though
is it true?
Its none of your business
Goodnight Kairo
bet.
congrats.
Read 04:40AM
———
kinda feel like making things very messy and problematic
and I might
qotc:
- what do you think of Kairo? 🥰