Super Special Ep: Brothers (Part III)
This episode is part of a larger story, Soft Touch. If you haven’t yet, you can go back and read it from the beginning right here.
Aiden sits motionless on the bleachers in the school’s gym. His elbows on his knees, his eyes looking straight ahead. Staring at nothing.
The swirl of activity around him seems very distant. Students are climbing up the bleachers, calling out to their friends, arguing about saving seats. The teachers spread across the gym floor are getting everything ready for the assembly, struggling with the projector, herding students into separate areas based on their grade.
None of this reaches Aiden. He closes his eyes, sinking even deeper into himself.
Ralph is by his side, lounging back against the bleachers. His legs are kicked out before him, taking up way too much space in the crowded gym, but no one is about to tell him to move. He’s with Aiden, so. No one would dare.
Ralph doesn’t say anything about the stormy silence Aiden has been in all morning. It’s actually been going on for a few days, now, with very intermittent breaks. But Ralph knows that Aiden gets like this sometimes. He just doesn’t know why, because Aiden can’t tell him.
Aiden gets this way every time he fails to rescue a soul who called out for his help. Like he did this past weekend.
It was a horrible one. Bloody. The image is burned on Aiden’s eyes, probably forever. He threw up while walking home afterwards, and he’s gotten less than a couple of hours of sleep every night since. The nightmares have been relentless.
Aiden is sick of feeling like this. He just wants to feel better.
He finally got some decent sleep last night. He saved some of the bottle of Wild Turkey that he and Ralph had been drinking at their place in the park, brought it home with him. Took a big gulp of it right before he got into bed, let it knock him out.
The solid sleep has Aiden looking more like himself, and it cleared up his clouded, exhaustion-addled thoughts. But other than that - he really doesn’t feel any better.
At least Ralph is putting up with it without complaining, like he always does. He’s definitely used to this kind of thing, by now.
Aiden opens his eyes and tries to bring himself into the present. It’s a struggle, and he’s not sure why he’s even bothering. He and Ralph will probably end up skipping the assembly, anyways. It’s an end-of-day one, and on a Friday, no less. No reason to stick around for this shit, not that Aiden can see.
“Aiden?” comes a warm, gentle voice. “Hey.”
Aiden looks up and freezes, suddenly all the way back in the present.
The girl standing before him smiles, tucking a strand of her short, shiny brown hair behind her ear.
They haven’t talked before, but Aiden knows exactly who she is.
He first spotted her at the soccer game against Greenrock High. After Aiden scored the last goal of the game, he went on a victorious sprint back towards his thrilled teammates on the other end of the field. His eyes had briefly darted to the bleachers as he ran.
Everyone was getting up to cheer, but she didn’t, so the crowd parted around her like magic. And there she was, sitting alone. While everybody else was clapping and shouting, she just looked at Aiden, and smiled.
Her eyes caught his from all the way across the distance, and their gazes locked together for a few breathless seconds that made Aiden’s heart pound faster than scoring the winning goal.
Aiden has had an eye on her ever since.
It happened before the whole thing with the picture, so she fell outside of the category of people who only started paying attention to Aiden when it was posted. And when he went home after the game, cast his mind through his memory - there she was, at every soccer game they had played so far.
She was wearing a pretty little babydoll dress at the Greenrock game. It was red, Aiden’s favorite color. It struck him as a sign, like she was important somehow, even if he wasn’t quite sure how she fits into the picture.
And she’s wearing a red top right now, as she smiles down at Aiden.
She points to the spot next to him on the bleachers. “Can I sit with you, for a sec?”
The exact same question that Lauren had asked him, but Aiden has a different answer for this girl.
“Yeah.” He moves over to make room for her, a burst of nervous shyness exploding in his chest. “Sure.”
She sits down next to him, sets her backpack aside, and pushes her shiny hair out of her face. A whiff of some sweet, fruit-flavored shampoo reaches Aiden’s nose.
He quickly looks away from her, his heart pounding hard and fast, his cheeks burning. She looks at him, then gently pins her lip between her teeth, pokes his knee.
Aiden turns to her again, a flutter of nerves making his heartbeat stumble.
“I’m Melanie,” she says.
“I know,” Aiden answers, then instantly realizes he made a mistake.
That’s not how to respond when people introduce themselves to you. She’s going to know that he’s been paying attention. He blushes, struggling for a qualifier, an explanation.
But Melanie breaks into a smile, a faint blush blossoming in her cheeks, too.
She leans closer, so he can hear her over all the assembly noise. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you.”
“Okay,” Aiden says, his heart stumbling over another few beats.
“I’m on the student council, and I just wanted to say that I’m so sorry about that whole thing with the picture. The one of you at the game against Greenrock. I heard that you asked for it to be taken down, and I realized that we definitely should have asked you before we posted it.”
Aiden stares at Melanie, caught by surprise. “That - was a while ago.”
“I know, but it’s been bugging me ever since.”
Aiden draws back, a sinking sense of betrayal making his heart ice over. “You - you’re the one who posted it?”
“Oh - no, not me.” Melanie shakes her head earnestly. “I do the event planning for the student council, so I don’t really handle the social media stuff. But I felt like one of us should actually apologize to you. I felt so bad, I even deleted the copy of it I had on my phone.”
Aiden blinks as the cold feeling that was climbing up through his chest suddenly goes warm. Really warm.
And that warmth feels so good, after the week he’s had. He looks at Melanie gratefully. She looks back at him, that sweet pink blush deepening in her cheeks.
“Thanks,” Aiden says, and means it.
God, he needed this. He could almost kiss her.
He could almost kiss her…
He turns away hastily, looking out over the crowded gym, his heart hammering. She hurries to look away, too, then lifts her slender fingers and starts working a fast little braid into her hair.
Aiden turns to Ralph, who’s looking down at his phone, setting up some kind of deal for later.
“Dude,” Aiden murmurs, very quietly. “Melanie is sitting with me.”
Ralph looks up, glances past Aiden at Melanie, and gives Aiden’s arm a nudge with his elbow. They both grin a tiny bit at each other.
Ralph looks a little relieved to see Aiden smile again, and Aiden gets that. It’s been a long few days.
“Ask her out, man,” Ralphs murmurs, keeping his volume soft. “Be a good look for us, anyways.”
Aiden pauses, frowning at him. “Not everything is about strategy, dude-”
Ralph looks back down at his phone. “Isn’t it, though? Survival of the tough.”
“-and what are you even talking about, it would be a good look for us?”
“Well. For you, really.” Ralph is busy typing, doesn’t look up at Aiden. “Having a girlfriend is always a good look, man. And you don’t want people to think you’re gay, do you?”
Aiden freezes, an immense spike of color going to his cheeks in the span of seconds.
“What - why would anybody think that?” His hushed words are coming out fast and defensive and forceful, all of a sudden. “I’m not.”
Ralph stops typing and looks up, caught off-guard by the change in Aiden’s voice.
“Relax, A.” He swats Aiden’s arm with the back of his hand. “Nobody thinks you are. I was joking, obviously. It’s just that you turned down Lauren, and she’s basically Malibu Barbie. You could take your pick of any girl at this school, and you haven’t.”
Aiden jerks his head in Melanie’s direction. “Yes, I have!”
“Right. Great.” Ralph stares at Aiden like he’s being stupid. “So, man up and ask her out.”
Aiden turns away from Ralph, gripping the bleachers tightly, his whole body tensed up.
Goddamnit. Ralph makes him so mad, sometimes. Aiden doesn’t know where he gets this shit. He’s no expert with girls, himself, but he knows better than to ask Melanie out right now, one minute before the assembly is about to start and she’ll be trapped there sitting with him. Even if she says yes, it would be a weird, pressure-filled situation to put her in. They’ve only even talked one time.
And that other shit Ralph said is getting to Aiden in a bad way. So bad, actually. Aiden doesn’t even know why, but he feels ashamed and stressed out, and now he’s thinking about how he caught himself kind of staring at one of the boys in their P.E. class as they all stretched out after the mile-lap - but that didn’t mean anything, he was pretty sure that didn’t mean anything - couldn’t mean anything, because…
Aiden looks over at Melanie again, and she smiles at him, her pretty face catching the afternoon sunlight. Another burst of nerves moves through his chest, along with a big wave of heat that makes him feel restless to his core.
He turns away and stares out across the gym, feeling helpless, his face on fire.
Everything is just so fucking confusing, sometimes.
Aiden has had enough, right now. Enough of feeling miserable. He desperately wants to feel happy for longer than a few seconds. Desperately needs a reason for a big, real smile. A real laugh.
Something. Anything.
“Okay, let’s get started,” the principal says into the mic. “Everybody please stand up.”
Everybody does, with a resentful grumble.
Part of the assembly procedure is for all the students in attendance to stand up and collectively sing the school song. It’s awkward and boring, everyone slogging their way through the words, which make the school sound far grander than it is.
The words appear on the projector screen, and the song starts. Aiden and Ralph stand there silently as everyone begins to drag their way through it.
And then the entire gym jolts awake as, out of the sea of muted, monotone mumbling, one very loud voice emerges.
Someone is singing a top-volume, screeching version of the song with lyrics that have been slightly adjusted. They still rhyme, and they’re still about the school, but now they’re obscene enough to draw a gasp of outrage from the teachers in the crowd.
Everyone stops singing and dissolves into giggles. Only the one loud voice continues, and all the students in the bleachers swivel towards the place where it’s coming from, instantly revealing the person responsible.
It’s a guy that Aiden is pretty sure is in his grade. A scrawny kid in black jeans and black combat boots, with soot-black hair to match. One metal stud piercing in each ear.
Several teachers charge for him at once.
He continues his squawking, absurd song for a second or two, and then - when he seems to abruptly realize that he’s already been identified as the source - attempts to flee. He sprints down the bleachers and leads the teachers on nearly a full lap of the gym before he gets himself trapped in a corner.
The laughter in the gym swells as, with no way to escape, the guy goes with what was apparently his next best idea for getting out of this without getting into trouble. He pretends to pass out, swooning right back into the P.E. coach’s arms.
Fooling absolutely no one, of course, but he’s impressively committed to sticking to his act. The laughter rises and rises as the kid is quite literally dragged out of the gym by the coach, still pretending to be unconscious, his boots leaving two thick black stripes on the polished gym floor.
Melanie is in a fit of stunned giggles beside Aiden, but he can’t even be jealous that another guy is making her laugh. He’s laughing, himself, his hands pressed over his mouth.
He glances at Ralph and sees that he’s laughing, too, his sage green eyes wide with disbelief.
And finally, for the first time in days, Aiden really, honestly feels better.
~~~~
Aiden lays on his back on the grass, staring up at the twilight sky. His knees are bent over the curve of the rock ledge. He’s slowly working on a cigarette, waiting for Ralph to get out of detention. He mouthed off to a teacher as they left the assembly, a surefire way to get in trouble.
Dumb thing to do, Aiden thinks to himself. He’s usually too smart to pull shit like that.
Grant is out of town, which means Aiden is waiting alone. He and Ralph still haven’t found a fourth member for their crew yet. It’s not that they’re lacking options. They have a ton of options. Basically the whole school. Grant signed on in a heartbeat, went looking for information, and confirmed that pretty much anyone would want to run with them.
“Take your pick,” he told Aiden and Ralph.
But nobody has caught their attention, stood out amongst the rest. They decided that they’d wait for someone who feels right.
Aiden gazes up at the sky, letting the sips of whiskey he’s taken settle in and start to soothe some of the noise. The tip of his cigarette glows tangerine in the soft purple light.
For a long moment, the only exterior noise is the rustling of the breeze in the trees. And then approaching footsteps disturb the quiet of the park.
Aiden sits up and looks down. Before him, slightly down the slope of the hill, is Ralph. But he’s not alone. He’s got someone with him.
The kid from the assembly.
Aiden blinks in surprise, then takes a closer look at him. His inky black hair sticks up at messy angles, like it’s growing out from a buzzcut. He’s out of dress code, in jeans with a bunch of rips all over them. He has unusual, dove-grey eyes.
Aiden thought he’d recognized him from the classes they share, and now he’s certain that he does. The guy is usually in the back, fucking around or dozing off, so Aiden didn’t know his name. But after what happened at the assembly, pretty much everyone does.
“Noah, right?” Aiden asks, and Noah gives him a friendly nod.
“What’s good, Aiden?” he says, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
Aiden glances back and forth between Ralph and Noah, one eyebrow arched. The energy between the two of them has caught him by surprise.
Ralph is standing beside Noah with a kind of warmth and easiness that he usually reserves exclusively for Aiden. And Noah seems happy to be there with Ralph, too. They’re standing nearly shoulder to shoulder below the rock ledge.
Aiden’s eyes flit to Ralph. Now he understands why he got himself in trouble. He went to detention on purpose, and got exactly what he wanted from it.
“Hey, A,” Ralph snickers, then puts his hand on the back of Noah’s head and gives him a shove towards Aiden. “I like this crazy fuck. What do you think? Should we keep him?”
Noah laughs, shaking out his short black hair where Ralph messed it up. Then he looks tentatively up at Aiden, fidgeting with one of the studs in his ear.
Aiden can tell that Noah is nervous, and he gets why.
Now that Aiden can place Noah in his memory, he’s realizing that he only ever sees the guy all alone. He definitely makes people laugh, but Aiden has never actually seen him walking around with friends.
Noah is from the bottom of the pack, just like Aiden and Ralph were before the whole thing with the picture skyrocketed them to the top. He’s clearly surprised to be here. He clearly didn’t expect to catch Ralph’s attention, and therefore Aiden’s, too.
He looks up at Aiden with hopeful, eager, nervous grey eyes.
Aiden looks down at him, taking a slow drag of his cigarette. He’s usually got nothing more than a cold stare for anyone at this school, and that’s what he has leveled on Noah right now. But, at the same time…
Aiden secretly feels grateful to Noah. He laughed today, because of him. He needed that more badly than Noah could possibly realize.
I owe you one, Aiden says silently, looking into those warm grey eyes. Won’t forget it.
He feels some of the iciness melt away from his gaze. Noah senses it, and hesitates. He seems to take it as an invitation to say something.
“Don’t see how I’m crazy.” Noah makes a face at Ralph. “What’d I do?”
Aiden and Ralph stare at him, then at each other, then both let out a startled laugh.
“What did you do?” Aiden stares at Noah, wide-eyed. “Are you serious, man?”
Ralph reaches up to snag the cigarette from Aiden, letting out a snicker of laughter.
“That was one hell of a display of pointless, unhinged lawlessness at the assembly,” he tells Noah, and then, as Noah opens his mouth to protest - “Nice work.”
“Oh.” Noah blinks at Ralph, then breaks into a grin. “Thanks.”
“Was there a point?” Aiden asks.
“Ugh,” Noah groans, tipping his head back. “Not really, but I mean, can you blame me, bro? I was bored as shit. I’ve been so bored-”
“Yeah, we can tell,” Aiden says, shaking his head in disbelief.
“That’s why we thought you should roll with us tonight,” Ralph says, slapping Noah’s shoulder.
That’s actually something Ralph thought of on his own, but Aiden has no objections. He’s actually pleasantly surprised about how this is going. He and Ralph don’t normally laugh this much, don’t normally get along so easily with people.
Noah appears to be an exception to the rule, somehow. Aiden feels warm to him already, and he can tell that Ralph does, too. That’s seriously unusual, for them.
How Noah feels remains to be seen, but -
“Yo, I’d roll with you guys full time,” Noah tells Ralph eagerly, then hastily adds - “If you want.”
“Mmm. Not so fast.” Ralph hands Noah the cigarette, narrows his eyes at him. “We don’t want just anybody, do we, A?”
Noah looks at him nervously, then glances at Aiden as he takes the cigarette from Ralph. “Okay?”
“We need someone loyal,” Ralph tells him. “Can’t take anyone who’ll punk out at the first sign of trouble.”
“Oh,” Noah says instantly and earnestly, “That’s not me, bro. Trust me. I can hang.”
“And you’ve gotta bring something to the group, obviously.”
Aiden can tell that Ralph is joking about this last part, but that goes right over Noah’s head.
“Bring something?” he asks uncertainly, then takes a drag on the cigarette. “Alright, I can do that. I - I got skills.”
“Yeah?” Ralph asks, rolling with it. “Prove it, then. Let’s see something impressive.”
Noah blows out a long stream of smoke, hands Aiden the cigarette, and casts his eyes around at the slowly-darkening park, looking for inspiration. Aiden knows that he could put a stop to this, point out that Ralph is joking - but he’s kind of curious about what Noah will do.
Noah’s eyes land on the playground, which is nestled beneath the hill with the rock ledge.
“Okay.” Noah brightens up as a plan occurs to him. “I’m gonna run down the hill, take a flying leap, catch myself on the monkey bars, and do a sick backflip off of them.”
There’s a brief, incredulous silence.
“Um.” The Guardian in Aiden instantly sits up in alarm. “Is that - something you can do, Noah?”
Noah is already backing up on the hill, grey eyes honed in on the monkey bars, but now he glances at Aiden, baffled.
“Well - how am I supposed to know? I’ve never tried any of that stuff before.” He drops to a runner’s crouch, looking at the playground again. “Sometimes you’ve just gotta try things, dude.”
“Oh, shit,” Ralph laughs, clasping his hands over his mouth.
“No,” Aiden says warningly, his eyes widening. “Noah - no!”
Noah springs forward, fully prepared to launch himself and run pell-mell down the hill. Ralph and Aiden move at the same time. Ralph darts forward and throws his hands up, catching Noah by the chest, slowing him down enough for Aiden to bend down from the rock ledge and get an arm around Noah’s waist.
“Jesus Christ, man,” Ralph laughs, as Aiden hauls Noah up onto the rock ledge and sits him down on it. “You were seriously gonna do it? What the fuck?”
“Yeah?” Noah catches his breath, taken aback. “Prove my-”
“You don’t need to prove shit,” Aiden tells him firmly. “Ralph was joking, man. You can hang with us tonight ‘cause we want you to.”
Noah looks at Aiden, a warm, surprised smile spreading across his face. “Oh.”
“Just don’t try that again,” Aiden warns him, pointing a threatening finger at the monkey bars, then at his chest.
Noah looks down at the playground. “You sure? I bet I can do it.”
He says it so sincerely that Ralph and Aiden look at each other, then both dissolve into laughter again. Aiden gives Noah’s shoulder a shove, and Noah grins at him.
Ralph abruptly stops, staring at Aiden and Noah as they laugh together. He suddenly looks uncertain and uneasy, glancing back and forth between the two of them. He twists his fingers together, blinking hard, then breaks into a serious scowl.
“Hey,” he snaps suddenly, staring daggers at Noah. “You don’t get to sit there.”
Aiden and Noah both stop laughing and freeze, staring back at Ralph. Aiden glances down, wondering what the fuck Ralph is talking about - and realizes that Noah has accidentally taken Ralph’s place. He’s sitting exactly where Ralph usually does on the rock ledge.
But Noah doesn’t know that. He’s understandably alarmed, more than a little taken aback. He gets hastily to his feet, brushing bits of grass off of his ripped-up jeans. “I’m sorry, man - I didn’t-”
“You’re fine,” Aiden tells him quickly, then casts Ralph a dark look. “Here, Noah, sit here.”
Aiden moves down, lets Noah sit in his own usual place on the ledge. Then he beckons with a nod of his head to Ralph.
Ralph sullenly pushes a hand through his blonde hair, then starts back up the hill towards them. Noah watches him, his grey eyes blinking unhappily.
“Hey.” Aiden nudges Noah’s shoulder with his own, drops his volume. “Chin up, yeah? Ralph gets like that. Don’t take it to heart.”
Noah looks relieved, if still a little hurt and bewildered. “Okay.”
“Don’t take it, either,” Aiden warns him. “You can say something.”
“No, it’s fine,” Noah answers hastily. “Don’t even - it’s totally fine.”
Ralph drops down to sit on Noah’s other side, back in his usual place on the ledge. Aiden reaches around Noah and gets a handful of Ralph’s hair. Pulls his head back, so that Ralph has to look at him. Makes an exasperated face at him. Come on, man.
Ralph’s sulky expression falls away. He gives Aiden a guilty look, and Aiden, sensing the storm has passed, lets him go. He gives Ralph an affectionate little shove before he takes his hand away.
Ralph frustrates Aiden to no end sometimes, but the bond beneath it all never wavers.
Aiden just has to hope that Noah wasn’t put off by that. This is the exact kind of thing that made all of Aiden’s soccer friends decide that it’s not worth hanging out with Ralph, and Aiden wouldn’t be surprised at all if Noah just changed his mind about this.
Aiden hesitates, trying to think of what to say, but Noah speaks first.
“Hey.” He twists to face Ralph, a thread of desperation in his voice. “You know what I can bring to the group? I can drive, man. I’ve been in France all summer with my dad, and he lives out in the country. Endless roads. My step-brother showed me how to do all kinds of sick shit with a car. I’m like, this close to being able to pull off a three-sixty curl. Forreal.”
“Nah, man.” Ralph gives Noah’s shoulder a shove, not looking at him. “Seriously, I was joking. You don’t gotta bring anything. Just yourself.”
Noah looks at Ralph, some of the residual anxiety going out from his eyes. He breaks back into a smile, which Ralph sees and matches.
They both look relieved, and so is Aiden.
Noah got through the storm. He’s one of the few who could, or would.
“You’re gonna have to show us that three-sixty shit, though,” Ralph tells Noah, who laughs.
“Cool. I’ll see if I can sneakily borrow my sister’s car.”
“You said you have your license, Noah?” Aiden asks, pretty sure none of them are old enough for that.
“No, I said I can drive. Like, I know how.” Noah’s eyebrows draw up in confusion. “Why? Do I need it for something? I’m gonna get it when they let me, but I don’t really see why I should let that slow me down now.”
“Oh, boy,” Aiden mutters, and Ralph laughs, gives Noah a slap on the back.
He tucks a joint into his mouth and sparks it up, grey-green eyes warm even before they fill with the glow of the lighter.
“Think you’re gonna do just fine with us, Noah,” he says, and Aiden, in spite of himself, couldn’t agree more.
~~~~
The night grows late, bars of moonlight falling over the three of them as they sit on the rock ledge together.
They’re all very drunk and stoned, Noah the most out of all of them. He said he’d done some drinking over the summer in France, but the whiskey they’re sharing must be stronger than whatever he was having there.
Aiden smiles to himself, leaning back on his hands. This has turned out to be a really good night. He, Ralph, and Noah all ventured down the hill together, got sandwiches at the usual place. Noah broke away while they were walking back, made a mad dash for the monkey bars. Ralph and Aiden had to laughingly drag him away again.
They also crossed paths with two elderly people walking through the park, and had to try to navigate around them in the darkness without revealing that they were drunk.
“Be inconspicuous,” Ralph hissed in Noah’s ear, to which Noah loudly answered, “Okay! What’s that, though?”
There’s just been a lot of laughter, tonight.
Ralph has only gotten mad once since the initial outburst. Noah mentioned that he likes to surf, and Aiden told him that he does, too. But Ralph doesn’t surf, and after a minute or two of them talking about hitting the waves sometime, he got pissed off. Snapped at them that they were being boring.
But Noah rolled with it like a champ, just like he did last time.
Trooper, Aiden thinks, looking at Noah, surprised to feel a small burst of affection in his heart.
There aren’t a lot of people who can put up with this kind of thing. Grant kind of does it because he has to, but something tells Aiden that Noah has different reasons. He isn’t just doing it because he’s new to the group and eager to please, either.
He’s doing it because he actually likes Ralph, actually wants to be his friend. Aiden can tell.
Aiden can tell that Ralph likes Noah, too. He keeps catching Aiden’s eye over the top of Noah’s head and grinning at him. And Aiden rarely sees Ralph laugh this much.
“Hey,” Noah says, in a slow voice, words thick with alcohol. “Ralph.”
“What?”
“How’d you know - know that I’d have fun with you guys?”
Ralph blinks at him, then breaks into a small smile. Noah pushes a hand through his short black hair and looks at him. Ralph quickly drops the smile, gives him a casual shrug.
“What can I say? I’m omniscient. Omnipotent, too.”
Noah’s eyebrows fly up. He stares at Ralph, his eyes wide.
“Omnipotent? Oh, shit. That’s when it doesn’t work, right?”
Ralph narrows his eyes at Noah, confused. “When what doesn’t work?”
“You know.” Noah nods down at the zipper on his own jeans, then makes a deeply sympathetic face at Ralph. “I’m sorry, man. Heavy shit. You close it in a door, or something? I almost did that, once. Long story.”
“What-?” Ralph stares at Noah, baffled, then suddenly understands. He lets out a burst of startled laughter. “I said omnipotent, dude, not impotent.”
Noah hesitates, and Aiden can almost see the sweat breaking out on his forehead as he tries to follow. “Right, yeah. And those are - different. The two you said.”
Ralph lifts his wide eyes to Aiden, who is barely suppressing a laugh of his own.
“Omnipotent means like, all-powerful,” Ralph tells Noah. “And omniscient means all-knowing.”
“Oh. Oh!” Noah’s expression clears up immediately. He turns to Aiden, points at Ralph with what remains of the joint they’ve been smoking. “Yeah, all-knowing is fuckin’ right. My guy’s like, cerebral. You hearing all these words he knows?”
Ralph lets out a sputter of soft laughter, and Aiden grins at Noah.
Then he stops, abruptly breaks his gaze away.
No, he thinks, his heart sinking. Don’t do it. You know better.
Every damn time. Every damn time, Aiden thinks he’s got his head around the fact that he shouldn’t make room for anyone else in the warm places of his heart. It’s not safe.
But now Aiden suddenly feels like Noah has already carved out his own room, and moved in. In one night. Before Aiden could stop him. Before Aiden realized that he needed to stop him.
Aiden shifts uncomfortably on the rock ledge. Maybe it would be a terrible idea to bring Noah into the group, after all. Aiden can easily see himself getting attached to him, and that’s definitely bad. Maybe one night of fun is just what Aiden needed right now, and it can stop right there, before -
“Well, point is,” Noah goes on, dragging the back of his hand over his mouth, “Even if you guys don’t wanna hang tomorrow, or whatever - this was a great fuckin’ night. So, thanks for that. Seriously.”
Aiden closes his eyes. Don’t. Don’t don’t don’t. Don’t let this happen.
“Think it’s so cool how tight you two are with each other,” Noah tells Aiden, then turns to Ralph. “I see you guys goin’ like, everywhere together.”
Aiden casts a small, affectionate look at Ralph, who reaches around Noah to slap Aiden’s shoulder.
“We’re brothers,” he tells Noah.
“Shit, really?” Noah glances back and forth between them, startled. “You two don’t look alike.”
“By choice,” Aiden clarifies.
Noah lapses into drunken silence for a moment, absorbing this.
“Brothers,” he repeats. “I like that.”
Aiden and Ralph smile at him, then stop still as Noah keeps talking.
“Because you never know what your friends are gonna do, but your brothers - your brothers wouldn’t like, go off and make new friends and basically forget all about you just because you weren’t here for one fucking summer. Right? They wouldn’t do that.”
Aiden and Ralph stare at Noah, then look up at each other, the smiles gone from their faces.
They both heard the hurt in Noah’s voice, and they both see the way he’s picking at the laces of his combat boots, hiding the expression on his face.
Ralph and Aiden catch eyes over Noah’s bowed head. They have a silent conversation.
“Hey, Noah,” Aiden says, nudging his arm. “You should hang with us again, tomorrow. Full time, like you said.”
Noah lifts his head sharply, then fixes Aiden with a huge, surprised smile. “Really, dude?”
“Mhm.” Ralph throws an arm around his shoulders. “Swear allegiance, new guy.”
“Okay!” Noah says eagerly.
He sits up more and gives himself a shake, like he’s trying to pull it together.
“Are you too fucked up to do it?” Aiden asks.
He’s pretty fucked up, himself, and Noah’s tolerance is probably nowhere near his.
Noah shakes his head, determined. “Fuck no, man, I can do it!”
“Okay, repeat after me, yeah?” Ralph says, and puts a hand on his chest. “I, Noah.”
“I, Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnoosh.”
Aiden and Ralph both stop, startled, then burst out laughing again. Ralph lets Noah go and rubs his sage green eyes, trying to pull himself together.
“Christ, dude,” he wheezes. “It’s your own name, and I literally just said it.”
“Did I do it wrong?” Noah asks hazily, and Ralph drops his face into his hands, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter.
Aiden glows a little inside. He rarely sees Ralph happy around anyone but himself.
Noah looks back and forth between them, smiling happily, but clearly confused about why they’re laughing.
“Alright, that’s enough,” Aiden snickers, reaching out to mess up Noah’s hair. “Welcome to the crew, Noosh.”
Noah beams at him, and Aiden’s stupid goddamn fucking heart accepts what it’s already too late to stop.
Turns out he had room for one more brother, after all.
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