02:11AM
Handling alcohol is something Noah has never been good at. He get's drunk way too fast and he never knows when to stop because the drinks he likes are the sweet kinds. The kinds that taste like juice and makes a person keep drinking until they can no longer see or walk straight.
Right now he's finishing what seems like his tenth cup of jungle juice. Trinity had shoved it into his hands after they did three tequila shots in a row. The two of them have been getting drunk together since it's just them who are still single in their group of friends. They were supposed to stay together all night, but Noah lost her a couple of minutes ago. He does remember Trinity telling him about going over to some guy she used to hook up with, but he stopped listening halfway through. One of his favorite songs started playing, he started dancing with two girls he knows from around campus and before he knew Trinity was gone. Not that he minds. He knows Lolani probably told her to stay near him to keep him away from Josiah.
The thought of Josiah makes Noah angry. He managed to forget about the older guy for most of the day and night by keeping himself distracted. He didn't think of Josiah all day because he spent three hours running track and after that he rearranged his entire room. By the time it was time for Anthony's party he was pregaming with the girls and entertaining himself with Adonis by randomly sending half naked pictures of himself. Then, once he arrived at the party, he wished Anthony a happy birthday and went straight to finding Adonis. Not long after Trinity dragged him away so they could get drunk together. But now he's all on his own, drunk with Josiah on his mind and angry. He should go find Adonis or one of his friends again.
It's packed in the frat house the party is being held at and Noah has to push himself through a sea of people. It takes a little longer than he normally would because drunk him feels the need to dance with about just anyone, flirt with some random guy and exchange numbers, do a random shot that gets pushed in his hand and at last dance some more. He makes his way out of the crowd a while later and decides to go to another part of the house.
The first person Noah's eyes land on when he gets there is Adonis who's back is facing him. He goes over to the other guy and wraps his arms around Adonis from behind. Maybe he should just stay with Adonis from now on.
Adonis smiles when he sees it's Noah who's hugging him. "Hey," He greets the shorter guy as he puts an arm around him and presses a kiss against his cheek. Noah greets him back softly and he chuckles lowly. "Look at you. You're drunk as fuck."
"Am not," Noah denies with a drunken giggle only for Adonis o give him a look. "Okay, maybe just a little."
"Just a little, hm." Adonis repeats with a smile. Noah nods at him, making him laugh. He bends down and presses a chaste but lingering kiss on Noah's lips before speaking again. "If you say so."
Noah licks his lips after Adonis kisses him, feeling himself starting to blush. There's something so attractive and charming about Adonis that has him captured since the day they first met. Adonis constantly leaves him wanting more and more from him despite there being zero interest to start dating or anything from his side. It's hard to understand what he feels, but Noah likes it. The feeling is refreshing and helps him forget about Josiah.
"You two are disgusting."
The comment has Noah snapping out of whatever bubble Adonis and him were in. For a split second he completely forgot he had rudely interrupted Adonis' conversation with whoever. Looking around him Noah quickly realizes Adonis isn't talking with just anyone, he's talking to their mutual friends. They did all that in front of their friends — again. Anthony and Lolani, who the comment came from, are standing disgustingly close to each other. Then there are Rayn and Zoie who are standing next to each other despite being together. Gideon and Ray are having a conversation on their own despite standing near them.
Josiah is there too. Their eyes met the moment Adonis and him were snapped out of their shared moment. But Noah purposely avoided acknowledging Josiah's presence not to make things too tense among them. Not that that's working because the tension between Josiah and him is very much there. And it's not just between them, there's obvious tension between Josiah and Adonis too.
Whatever there's going on right now, can only go anywhere but right.
The eight of them fall into a casual conversation despite the tension between some of them. Noah tries to pay Josiah no mind, but he can't help it despite forcing himself to keep his focus on Adonis. His eyes occasionally wander and they tend to linger. And Josiah happens to look his way every time which leads to them locking eyes with each other. Every look they share is different; sometimes it's a glare, at times a soft one and every now and then the other is unreadable.
As quick and subtle the looks and glances are between them, it isn't hard for anyone to notice. Including Adonis. Everybody can tell how more possessive of Noah Adonis becomes by the second.
They're not together, but Adonis can't help it. He wants Noah all to himself and he wants Josiah to know that he has him, because he's not blind. He can see, just like everybody else, that there's something more than just friendship going on between Josiah and Noah. It can be intimidating when trying to persuade one of them. So, Adonis brings Noah closer to him, kisses him more often, whispers sweet but also sexual things in Noah's ear that leaves him blushing. All while purposely looking Josiah's way in the most subtle ways so nobody notices.
Seeing Adonis and Noah like this is making Josiah feel some type of way. It's hurting his ego and he can't deny that he doesn't feel slightly disrespected by Noah. He doesn't have any feelings for Noah and he couldn't care less, but it's about the principle. What those are based on is still unknown to him, but he believes that Noah should know better than to do all this in his face. Especially after everything between them.
"I'm going to get some fresh air." Noah suddenly announces. Adonis' behavior is suffocating him and he needs fresh air because of it. "I'll be right back." He tells Adonis with a small smile.
"Rayn and I are coming with you." Zoie chimes, already pulling her girlfriend along with her. "We should find Trinity, too."
"So y'all are really going— damn, okay, wait up." Lolani gets out of his boyfriend's arms and quickly hurries after his friends, not bothering to tell Anthony bye.
"So we're not going to address the elephant in the room?" Anthony questions as soon as Lolani is out of hearing range. His best friend snorts at him and his little brother pretends like he doesn't know what he's talking about. "There's something going on between Noah with both of you and it's making you both act stupid. Don't even get me started on what tension it brings every time we hang out now."
"I don't got shit going on with nobody." Josiah states.
Adonis snorts. "Sure you don't." He mutters.
Josiah looks at Adonis. "You had something to say, nigga?" His patience is nonexistent tonight.
"Aye, don't start." Anthony warns, getting between his brother and his best friend. "Are you really going to let Noah get between you two? We grew up together, man, come on. We're like brothers to each other."
"Man, whatever, fuck this." Josiah dismisses annoyedly. His patience is already very thin and his temper shorter than usual. One wrong word from anyone will have him explode. "I'm going to get something to drink. I'll see you guys later."
While Josiah walks away from his friends, Noah finds himself standing outside with his own. They ran into Trinity who was looking for them along the way and decided to stick together. The five of them are standing in the front yard, talking about a serious matter. A matter that has been bothering Rayn all day.
"So why exactly did you forgive Anthony?" Rayn asks. "And when did this whole relationship thing even happen? I thought you said you wasn't getting serious with Anthony because all he does is lie, cheat with you on Gabriel and play with your feelings. And what I still can't seem to understand is: isn't Gabriel pregnant?"
"Now hold on," Trinity joins in on Rayn. "Rayn asking some good ass questions. Because why we fucking with Anthony again?"
Lolani looks between his friends. "Y'all are so fake. You were just congratulating me for officially getting with him."
"Fake ass hoe." Noah comments as Zoie cuddles him and tells him to shut up. He's still quite drunk.
"Yeah, but I thought about it and I don't agree with this relationship." Rayn deadpans. "That guy has been putting you through Hell since last year. Making empty promises, barely doing the bare minimum, always—"
"He a hoe!" Trinity shouts.
"Guys," Lolani says. "Stop. Ant and I talked and he promised to be honest and loyal. We're still working on things, but he broke up with Gabriel like a month ago." He explains before going into detail about how they got together.
That's when Noah tunes out and let's his mind wander. He already knows what and how things happened between Lolani and Anthony. After Valentine said that Anthony's boyfriend was expecting, all Hell broke loose. Lolani spent days arguing with Anthony, not wanting to believe that what Valentine said wasn't true. Anthony was nothing but a liar, a player, a deceiver — Lolani wanted nothing to do with him. That is until Anthony provided Lolani with proof that Gabriel really wasn't expecting. All it took was a simple FaceTime call in Lolani's presence that changed everything between them.
They talked, they apologized and they agreed to try again by starting over. This time with Anthony being single and Lolani not having other guys as a backup. Noah knows things are going well between them because Lolani tells him about Anthony and the things they do all the time. It has Noah feeling bittersweet because now he's the only single one between them along with Trinity. He wanted to be single with Lolani and misbehave together. Now it's just him. But he's genuinely happy for his best friend though.
Noah looks over to his friends who are talking and laughing with each other over something Trinity said. He makes eye contact with Zoie and he offers her a small smile before quietly excusing himself and making his way to the porch. There's a seating area of three plastic lawn chairs and a wooden crate as a table. He decides to takes a seat on one of the lawn chairs and leans back before closing his eyes. Being outside and sitting down is helping him sober up he believes.
A while passes and Noah is still sitting on the porch, all on his own. His friends have gone back inside, asking him if he's coming with on their way in, but he declined. He wanted to be alone for a little. Adonis has been texting him and he was texting back until his phone died just a couple of minutes ago. Now he's just sitting on the porch and staring at the road while everybody else is enjoying their night inside, away from the chilliness of the night.
Movement from beside him catches Noah's attention and he turns to see who it is. He rolls his eyes at the sight of Josiah standing near him, but he's not mad or annoyed. In fact, he's kind of happy to see the older guy. Their eyes meet when Noah looks up again, making him a little warm inside. Josiah nods his head to the side as way of silently telling Noah to follow him. Noah is a little hesitant at first, but he eventually follows after the older guy. He didn't want to stay at party anyway.
Neither of them says a word as they walk down the sidewalk, away from the house and leaving the party behind. They fall into step with each other as they walk in silence. The only noise coming from the leaves on the trees occasionally rustling as a soft after summer breeze passes by.
"You good?" Josiah asks after a long silence.
"Yeah," Noah mutters as they walk. "I'm just cold."
Josiah stops walking and takes off the black hoodie he's wearing. Good thing he decided to wear a t-shirt underneath it tonight. "Here," He says, holding the piece of clothing out for Noah to take. The younger guy starts protesting against him and he simply shoves the hoodie in Noah's hands. "Just put it on, don't worry about me. I'm not that cold."
Noah eyes Josiah. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, just put it on. My place is only five minutes away from here, I'll survive."
"Thank you."
"It's cool," Josiah shrugs as they start walking again. "If I had my car with me and hadn't drank too much, I would bring you home but I did drink too much. And my phone is dead so I can't get you an Uber, but.. You can get yourself an Uber and we can wait at mine until it arrives."
Noah laughs a little. "I don't think either of us is getting me an Uber. My phone died too. I think two minutes before you came up to me." He looks over at Josiah who starts laughing. "I guess that's my luck. It's fine, though. I'll just walk home."
Josiah looks down at Noah. "You know I'm not going to let you do that." He says in all seriousness. The younger guy shrugs at him and he sighs. "Just come back to mine, charge your phone and get an Uber. You don't even have to go, you can stay over and I'll bring you home in the morning if you want to."
"So you can call me easy again? No thanks."
"Noah, come on.."
"What? You expected me to forget about the shit you said just because I'm drunk and you gave me your hoodie?"
"Well, no, but—"
"But what, Josiah?"
"But I don't think right now is the time for us to talk about this. That's why I've been trying to get you alone, somewhere calm like my place so I can apologize."
Noah stops walking. "Well, why didn't you fucking say so then?"
Josiah takes Noah's hand and starts pulling him along. All they have to do is cross the road and they're at his. "Because I didn't know where to begin." He stops when Noah stops walking again after they cross the road. "What?"
"What do you mean you don't know where to begin? You knew where to begin when calling me easy after fucking me. How come you don't know where to begin when you want to apologize?"
"Because.."
"Because what?"
"Because I don't know why I said that to begin with. All I know is that I was mad at you. But that doesn't excuse what I said and I'm sorry I did." Josiah apologizes while Noah drunkenly stares up at him. "Will you come up with me now? Because I'm not letting you walk home on your own while still drunk in some way and have a dead phone. I promise to bring you home in the morning."
Noah rolls his eyes at what Josiah says. Going home with the older guy isn't a bad idea — he can charge his phone, eat something since he's hungry, sleep and sober up. "Fine, I'll go up with you, but you're not forgiven. I'm tired and hungry, so I expect food." His demand makes Josiah laugh. "Stop laughing, goofy. I'm serious."
"I know you are, that's why I'm laughing. But," Josiah holds his tag against the lock of the door after taking his keys out and leads Noah inside the building, still not letting go off his hand. He pulls Noah to him and puts his arm around him, kissing the side of Noah's head while intertwining their fingers. "Your wish is very much my command."
Despite not having forgiven Josiah yet, Noah doesn't bother to physically distance himself from the older guy. They make their way to the elevator as they fall into a casual conversation. Like always they end being in each other's space, now with Noah's having his arms around Josiah's waist and Josiah with his nose buried in Noah's hair as they wait for the elevator to come.
It's silent between them when they step into the elevator. Josiah presses the button to the tenth floor before pulling Noah to him again, this time to bring him in for a kiss. Noah simply let's it happen and immediately kisses back without any hesitation. It's a kiss full of lust that has them both touching the other for more. Josiah has Noah up against the wall in seconds, kissing his neck and telling him how bad he wants him. And all Noah can do is moan and wish for the elevator to hurry up because he, too, wants Josiah badly.
They make it to Josiah's room a couple of minutes later and end up having sex for as long as the night lasts. Both their phones are long forgotten along with any type of protection. But that shouldn't matter anymore.
_____
idc if u think Noah's being a dumb bitch for Josiah, we all been there at least once
this is a safe space
🫂
qotc:
- what do u think of the Noah is doing Adonis?
- was Noah too soft on Josiah?