Chapter 14

5' 8"-5' 9"

Noah was flourishing this morning. This lovesickness completely turned his brain, and it was growing exponentially. It was threatening to grow into something, starting with the letter 'L'. Morgan was aware of what kind of trouble he might get into. But this long-forgotten feeling made him look at these problems from another, less alarming point of view. It was pushing Morgan into a lovely world of dreams and fantasies, covering him like a soft duvet, making everything look nice and bright. Yes, if Noah got rejected, the same feeling would destroy all the bright colors, dooming Morgan to soul-searching, which, considering his character, was to last several months. He would definitely feel horrible. He would one hundred percent be hurt. There wasn't a single doubt that he would regret meeting Ethan, and he would regret letting himself fall in love with him. 

Noah didn't plan to refuse any of that, even under these conditions. Amorousness gave him strength to move forward, breathe deeper, and not get into everyday life problems that much. He was diving into this feeling, like into deep, dark water, on the bottom of which he could find either treasure or death. 

The morning conversation between him and his mom got partly erased since, while she was talking about her friend participating in New York Fashion Week, Noah was thinking about Ethan. While she was talking about the great deal she got for red beans, Noah was thinking about Ethan. And only after his mom mentioned Ethan... Noah finally concentrated on the conversation. 

"How is that boy you talked about last time doing?" she asked and smiled, "Have you been out on a date yet?" 

"No, it wasn't a date," Noah said, shaking his head. 

"What was it, then?" 

Morgan didn't like hiding things from his mother. Considering how many secrets there still were about him despite that, he decided to be honest about Ethan. Though he regretted it almost immediately, after mentioning the retirement home, their conversation switched again to the topic of him moving to New York. 

"We live in the 21st century! You could work on your relationship with Ethan online!" 

…and not a single word about his grandmother. 

Their conversation ended with a small fight, so Noah decided to escape from the further discussion and go to the university. However, his mood was still great despite that. Even his university suddenly didn't feel that bad, even though he was already used to thinking of it as an emotional jail. Besides, Noah was dying to tell his friends about his meeting with Ethan. They didn't text Noah on Saturday because they probably gathered together at Scott's after the gig and drank beer till morning, which meant they were supposed to have a terrible hangover the next day. Andrea had mentioned before that they celebrated all of their performances that way. Noah had never been invited to such parties because it was their band thing, and he wasn't a part of that band. That was for the best. Noah didn't think it was a healthy situation to drink with Steve. 

Morgan would've loved to tell his friends about Ethan on Sunday, but it didn't work out either. Scott raised the topic of Ethan himself in their group chat of three people and stated that Ethan was a terrible bargee. Andrea, the one who would always object to her friend's opinion, supported him awkwardly this time, calling him a 'negative guy'. 

"He's a troublemaker," she said. "He's definitely a toxic abuser!" 

Noah decided not to participate in that conversation, thinking that he would rather tell them everything in person. He was sure that Andrea and Scott would change their minds with Noah's help—maybe not entirely, but partly for sure. 

Ethan wasn't an abuser of any kind! Toxic? Noah couldn't entirely understand the meaning of that characteristic. Anyway, Noah didn't think it was fair to concentrate only on his questionable character traits. Ethan was nice. Straightforward, but fair. Unpredictable, but interesting. Noah didn't know what to expect from him the next moment, and he liked that as well. Morgan believed that Andrea and Scott would be able to appreciate Ethan's discreet charm; they just needed a bit more time to do that. No, Ethan wasn't showering people with compliments. He didn't try to hug everyone or ask what the person's favorite drink was. Though he gave the impression of a person you could trust and rely on, Ethan seemed trustworthy; wasn't that the most important thing? 

Unfortunately, Noah didn't share the same classes with Andrea and Scott today, so Morgan had to wait to meet his friends until lunchtime. He was even glad about it because Noah was able to use the time he usually spent talking with Scott and Andrea during class to dive into sweet fantasies about Ethan. Here Thomson broke into the classroom riding a white horse and asked Noah to be his boyfriend. Or here Ethan, after noticing that someone would start picking on Noah again, came to save him without skipping a beat. Here he decided to stand on one knee in front of him and gave him a little black box. And there was a ring inside. And Noah, just like in some YouTube or TikTok video, would cover his face and start crying because of happiness. Behind them, there would be doves flying. Or rose-leaves. Or balloons of different colors. Noah thought over every situation and liked each and every one of them.

He loved dreaming about it, but then the voice of reason stepped in. As soon as the naked truth broke into his fantasies, the beautiful picture immediately started breaking apart. Questions that were constantly swirling around Thomson would immediately start ruining everything. Ethan didn't like being touched; did it mean that there was no hope for kisses or even sex? Did he even want to build a relationship without physical touch? If yes, was he into the guys? If so, who was his type? Did Noah have a chance? Ethan was hot-tempered and rude, but why was he always so patient and almost soft with Noah? Ethan was always tense. He was always ready for an attack. Was it somehow connected with his weird perception of rain? With kidnapping? With his relationship between him and his sister? 

Questions were undeceiving Noah, not letting him dive too deep into his fantasies and start mistaking the wish for reality. One thing was to dream about dating Ethan. Another is to actually start dating him. No, it was impossible to build a relationship with Ethan easily. Ethan loved challenges. He was making them himself. Noah, on the contrary, tried his best to escape any challenges possible. From that point of view, Morgan and Thomson didn't make a good fit. Ethan should've probably been bored around Noah. And Noah should've been scared around Ethan. He should've, but... 

Morgan shook his head, trying to get rid of those thoughts. Today, after he would tell his friends about the weekend with Ethan and persuade them that Thomson's a great guy, he needed to get ready for another challenge. That challenge was Andrea, who would immediately predict their upcoming wedding. So then Noah would have to get himself together and try to be skeptical instead of approving everything Andrea would say. Even despite the fact that he had already managed to think through the whole wedding in every single detail and chosen several outfits online. 

Noah felt that it was impossible to ruin his good mood today, but, however, he had counted on his emotional state more than he should've. As soon as he heard an unfamiliar woman's voice, he flinched, and his heart started beating faster. Throughout the half of the school day, he hadn't run into any kind of rudeness, and, apparently, someone decided to ruin it as soon as possible. 

"Hey, you!" The girl addressing Noah was a blond freshman. Because of her long extensions, her eyes seemed as big as a doll's eyes. "We're opening a new coffee place nearby. You probably know that coffee in a cafeteria tastes awful, and from the coffee machine, it's too expensive, right? And our coffee's price and quality create a perfect union together!" she started rattling enthusiastically, "Do you mind if I take a picture of you holding a cup from our coffee place? I'm taking pictures of all the cute guys around the campus!" she assured Noah. 

"I don't think I can be a good candidate for any kind of commercial," Noah said with doubt. Was she really clueless about who he was? It couldn't be true. 

"Why not?" the girl was surprised, "You're quite handsome! And you suit us just fine!" the freshman girl assured Noah. He got confused after that unexpected compliment. Morgan was still trying to resist when the girl made him hold an empty paper cup and, not letting him recollect himself, postured him to take a picture. Now Noah was holding a cup in his right hand, a couple of inches away from his face. He tried to look up the name of the coffee place written on it, but the girl said not to move. 

"Look in the camera and smile!" she said, setting her phone. Noah did try to smile. One single sound of a camera shot, and the girl, after she grabbed the paper cup from Noah's hand, ran across the cafeteria, probably trying to find a new victim for her photoshoot. 

Noah thought that the situation was a bit weird but decided not to pay too much attention. The day was too good to worry too much. 

Scott and Andrea had already been waiting for him in the cafeteria. They weren't alone. Nicole decided to join them today. Noah couldn't call her a close friend. She was more of a close acquaintance who could appear in their lives once every several months. Apparently, Nicole was Noah's school friend's sister. His name was Nicolas. They were quite close back in high school. And then Noah got into Caltech, while Nicolas got into MIT. He was always interested in astronomy, and MIT was considered to be one of the best universities in that field of study. Despite the charm of online communication, Noah and Nicolas didn't manage to keep in touch; however, they became closer with his twin sister Nicole. Words couldn't express how happy and surprised Noah was to run into a familiar face the second week after the beginning of the semester. 

Nicole chose a different department, but her building was relatively close to the art department. She was a nice girl, but she seemed to Morgan to be a bit out of this world. She seemed to be only partly focused on the person she was talking to, leaving the rest of her mind thinking about other stuff that was not understandable for others. 

Andrea was sipping her smoothie, Scott was picking at spaghetti on his plate, and Nicole was, as was common for her, hypnotizing the pile with her notes, sipping coffee. Though, as soon as Noah came to their table, she glanced at him with her dark-brown, expressive eyes. Her look also seemed unusual to Noah. It wasn't empty, no, but it seemed to be focused on something different from Noah, Andrea, and Scott. 

"Hi!" she eagerly greeted Noah first. 

"Hi," Morgan nodded and sat down at the table, "It's been a while, Nicole!"

"That's right!" she agreed, "Studies are killing me!" she stated. 

"You've been complaining about it for three years now. If it's really killing you, then it's happening sadistically slowly," Morgan laughed. 

"That's true! The university is pure sadism. They're torturing us, and we're paying them for it!" Nicole made a helpless gesture, and it just looked so funny, "I shouldn't have gone to Caltech! I overestimated myself!"

"You've been saying this same thing for three years, too," Noah noticed, "And yet you've been passing all of your exams."

"Barely," Nicole sighed and pressed her forehead against her notes, "Just kill me already; I can't handle it anymore!" she said dramatically. In response, Noah put his hand on the back of her head and patted her gently, trying to show some support. Andrea and Scott were silent. They didn't pay any attention to Nicole, both giving Noah a gimlet gaze instead. He did try to ignore friends' weird behavior, but he couldn't last even a couple of minutes. 

"What?" he finally asked. 

"What?" Nicole asked, not understanding what was going on. 

"I'm listening," Andrea said strictly, crossing her arms. She looked like a mean teacher who wasn't satisfied with the test result and demanded to explain why the result was so bad. 

"About what?" Noah frowned, opening one of the buns that he'd bought. 

"About what's going on between you and Ethan?" she narrowed her eyes, "And why do I know nothing about it?" she sounded offended. 

"Maybe because there's nothing going on between us?" Noah suggested with a smile. He wasn't even lying. There was nothing going on, indeed. He just introduced Ethan to his grandmother, which he had done neither with Andrea, nor with Scott, nor even with his ex. He let Ethan see his flat, though Noah had never invited people he didn't know well, because he was worried about the paintings. He also gave Ethan one of the paintings as a present, which seemed almost unreal. And then, after it turned out that they couldn't go to the exhibition, they stopped by one of the nice little romantic coffee places, and they stayed there almost until their closing time. And, apparently, Noah couldn't understand where the time went, considering that Ethan wasn't a talkative person and loved to answer the questions simply. Noah, though, felt extremely embarrassed, so he remained silent most of the time. However, the silence wasn't giving any pressure. Noah liked it. He would happily do it again. 

"You can't fool me," Andrea wasn't impressed by Noah's answer, "If there was nothing, why would you spend the whole Saturday together?" 

"Why do you think we were together?" Noah was shocked. 

"Because I found Ethan's Instagram account," Andrea stated, tossing her head. 

"What?" Noah couldn't believe his ears. Ethan and Instagram—two words that he wasn't ready to hear in the same sentence. "What are you trying to say?" he asked, alarmed. Andrea looked at him suspiciously, trying to figure out whether he was really shocked. Probably Noah's lost look convinced her enough to believe him. 

"So he didn't tell you that he was taking pictures of you? I'm not even sure whether it's cute or creepy," she mumbled and started looking something up on her phone. Noah was still trying to process information that Ethan had an Instagram account, and, what was even more shocking, that he was posting something in it. Thomson seemed against any kind of social media platform. 

"Here, look," Andrea handed her phone over to Noah with the opened account. There were seventy-three followers and more than a thousand posts. The last seven were definitely posted after meeting Noah, even though he was only vaguely in the pictures.

All the pictures looked hazy, but they were somehow charming. There was a picture of a glass in the bar, in the reflection of which you could see a silhouette of Morgan approaching. Then there was a picture of a sign of 'I want you deadly', and in the corner of that picture was Noah's shoulder. There was a picture in the car where you could see Noah's knee in the corner. Another picture with a paper cup that Noah was holding in his hands. A picture of emerald green grass in the retirement home with Noah's feet wearing sneakers. The pictures might've been taken accidentally if they weren't all the same. How did he even have time to take all of those pictures? When and why? Noah's back, a pavilion in the background, where his grandmother was painting. Here Fluffy was looking into the camera suspiciously. It did look weird. Though it looked rather confusing. It seemed that Ethan was looking at Noah more than he had thought. More often and with a lot more attention. 

Noah scrolled down his profile to look through the other Thomson's posts. Ethan preferred taking pictures of things or animals. There were no people in his profile, as you would usually see them. There were only those hazy pictures, rarely. A similar picture that could slightly tell there was another person besides the photographer appeared only a year ago. If somebody followed Ethan's social media, they would definitely spot the difference. 

Noah repeated Ethan's nickname several times in his head so that he could look it up at home, and then he gave Andrea her phone back. He could ask his friend to send him a link, but he didn't want to excite her curiosity even more.

"So was it a date?" Andrea didn't even think of changing the subject. Noah answered stiffly with no details and told about his weekend together with Ethan. He would've told her that information anyway, but the feeling that he was obliged to tell her made him mad. His rushed story didn't impress his friends. Each minute, Andrea was frowning even more. 

"You like him, don't you?" she asked with a dark voice. 

"Like? He's in love!" Nicole screamed and clapped her hands, "Oh my God, Noah, I'm so happy for you!" she said that and grabbed Morgan's hand. Her eyes remained calm, though. Probably at that exact moment, half of Nicole's brain was trying to solve some puzzle. Or maybe it was thinking about a project. Or maybe it was dreaming of finally getting enough sleep. Dark circles under her eyes were clearly showing how sleep-deprived she actually was. Despite that, she looked really happy for her friend Noah. However, Andrea and Scott didn't look so cheerful. 

"Ah-h-h, Uhm-m-m…" Noah got embarrassed under his friend's stare, and this was better than any possible answer. 

"Oh my God!" Andrea groaned and covered her face. Considering her reaction, Noah was, at least, a person who had hit the cat-father of the whole breeding of kittens with his truck the other day. Or a baby deer. Or like he had cooked soup with human meat. Anyway, it was something so horrible that only Hannibal Lecter and Hitler would have given him a hi-five. 

"But it was you who told me I should meet someone," Noah mentioned carefully. Ethan was a bit rude in 'I want you deadly', but not as rude to immediately get into the persona non grata list. 

"But not Ethan!" Andrea cried out desperately. 

"What do you mean, not Ethan, if you said exactly the opposite?" Noah frowned, "After all, you asked me to invite him to your gig. And you were right. There were more people than usual. You got what you wanted. Did you really hope that Ethan would bow and scrape before you? On what grounds? You were perfectly aware that he wasn't the sweetest guy. It was obvious he wouldn't just shower you with compliments."

"But…" Andrea got confused, "I didn't think at that time that he was so... negative," she mumbled. 

"He's not negative. He's straightforward," Noah protested, "and I see nothing bad about it." 

"He's a bargee and a scrapper," Scott shared his point of view. 

"Who are you talking about?" Nicole was looking from one to another, absentmindedly.

"About Ethan Thomson," Andrea sighed.

"Oh, that guy from the law department who always wears a mask and gloves?" Apparently, Ethan was a household name, "People say he's so-o-o-o-o-o cute! Just a super-cutie-pie!" 

Noah tried to picture the look on Ethan's face if he heard that super-cutie-pie. He didn't succeed. One thing Morgan couldn't doubt was that there would be a lot of blood. 

"Do people say that he's fucking nuts?" Scott grunted. 

"He's not nuts," Noah suddenly sounded angry, "What's your problem with him? Why are you trash-talking right now?"

"Isn't it obvious? He's said so much shit about our band!" Scott threw his hands up.

"Really? Wasn't he right, though? Are you aware that you're not Imagine Dragons?" Noah hissed, and only afterwards did he understand what he had just said. Scott hated Imagine Dragons, so Morgan's comparison was similar to saying something like, 'You're a million times worse than someone you don't like.'

Scott's face fell, and Noah felt embarrassed and ashamed. 

"I'm so sorry," he said in a different tone, "I don't know what came over me. I was unfair. I'm sorry." 

"That's okay," Scott sounded tense, "You're right, we play bad. But Thomson could've said it more carefully. Or he could've kept his valuable opinion to himself. We can handle our shit on our own," Scott admitted, "What about you and your behavior, you're just confirming our worst expectations."

"What expectations?" Noah didn't get it. 

"That Thomson's going to be a bad influence for you. He is already," Andrea said quietly, "Noah, you're not yourself. We're worried about you." 

Morgan tried his best to subdue the new surge of anger and said, under breath, 

"Don't worry. I'm fine. Nobody influences me."

"The same thing happened last time," Andrea said reproachfully.

"What do you mean by 'the same'?" Noah darkened. 

"When you had a crush on Matthew, you were lost in your feelings for him so much that you almost stopped talking to us. Even though Scott and I had been warning you that he was a sketchy guy." 

Andrea was right. They did warn him. But Noah suddenly had the urge to say, 'Ethan's different.' The words remained unspoken, and Noah exhaled to recollect himself. 

"This time, I won't make the same mistake," he promised. 

"Wait a second, I don't get it," Nicole mumbled and yawned, "Who's into Thomson after all? You're talking about Noah, but the person who invited him in the first place was Andrea. And Andrea was the one to find his Instagram account. I'm confused," she said, shaking her head. 

"Hm…" Scott looked at his friend, "Seriously, though. Why were you trying to find his Instagram account? How did you manage to do it, since Thomson doesn't have a single picture of himself in his profile? It couldn't just pop up in your feed." 

"Well, he's… Ugh…" it was Andrea's turn to feel embarrassed now. 

"And usually I'm the one to grumble like an old man, while you're always on Noah's side," Scott continued his line of reasoning, "Even about Matt, I was basically trying to warn Noah alone," Noah frowned, recalling those times. He was right. Scott was bitching, while Andrea was trying to remain neutral, "You also liked Thomson, didn't you?" 

Andrea gaped her eyes and opened her mouth to object, but words stuck in her throat. Then she looked frightened at Noah. 

"That's not true!" she assured Morgan. 

"Are you sure?' Scott asked ironically, "Everything's just as usual."

"He's not my type. I like tall and muscular guys," Andrea said in a heartbreaking manner. 

"And you also like distant guys. And Thomson is one of the most distant guys possible," Scott pressed his point, "That's why she asked you to invite Ethan to the gig," he nodded at Noah, "She wanted to get to know him better. It's a pity he turned out to be gay," Scott didn't even try to hide his triumph. 

"Not necessarily…" Noah mumbled, trying to process what was happening. Him and Andrea liking the same guy? It was his worst nightmare!

"Not necessarily? Are there any other reasons why he preferred you over Andrea?" Scott sounded truly surprised. 

Noah froze for a moment. 

"Excuse me?" he forced out the question, feeling anger grow and his hands shaking. Scott got embarrassed after he understood the nonsense he had said. Andrea shook up, "I'm not worse than any of you," Morgan said coldly, "It's not necessary to be gay and sexually objectify me in order to talk to me."

"Noah, we know that. We're your friends!" Andrea exclaimed, "God, what are we doing? We shouldn't have fought over some guy!"

"I'm not fighting with you. You, on the other hand, grabbed Ethan like a vice," Noah muttered. 

"We're afraid he's going to hurt you," Andrea said, sounding tired. 

"Nobody's going to hurt me," Noah insisted. 

"Sure. Tell Matthew about it. Did you forget that when you broke up, you were sitting at home for almost a month? And the only thing you did at that time was cry on our hands," Scott reminded. Morgan felt dizzy. There was a lump in his throat. 

"I didn't leave my house, not because of a breakup but because of those damn rumors!" he exhaled. 

"Yes. And you shouldn't forget that Andrea and I were the only people to support you at that time." 

"H-h-e-ey," Nicole protested to show that everybody forgot about her. However, she was so busy at the university at that time that she found out about the whole situation only several months later. 

"So?" Noah was looking back and forth at Scott and Andrea, not noticing Nicole trying to be a part of a conversation, "Did you do me a favor by believing in the truth?" 

"Don't exaggerate it," Andrea asked.

"We were always on your side and didn't step aside even when those swirling rumors started affecting us," Scott grunted. 

It was a boiling point. Noah stood up and stuffed all of the buns in his backpack. 

"Noah, stop throwing a temper tantrum!" Andrea demanded. 

"I'm not throwing a tantrum. Apparently, I'm releasing you from the biggest problem of your life."

"It's not like that!" Andrea shook her head. 

"Stop being a drama queen," Scott advised. 

'Devil's Eye' was scanning friends' faces and saw nothing. However, Noah knew their weak spots perfectly well. There was so much offensive stuff he wanted to say to ruin their relationships completely. 

'You'll regret it,' the inner voice reminded him, sobering Morgan up. He casually swallowed the insult, understanding that they were, at least partly, right. They were right that Noah got them into a lot of trouble. They were right that Noah was supposed to appreciate that they didn't turn their backs on him. 

Appreciate it, but not make religion of it. 

Noah took his backpack and rushed through the cafeteria towards the exit. Andrea and Scott didn't follow him. However, Nicole caught him outside the door. 

"I… I've no idea what just happened," she made a helpless gesture, confused, "But I feel that it's my fault. I shouldn't have…"

"It's not your fault at all," Noah said. 

"But I…" Nicole stuttered, "I was the one to ask that stupid question. God, I'm so dumb, Noah! I'm so dumb!" 

"Nicole, calm down. Our fight with Scott and Andrea doesn't have anything to do with you," he assured, "I'm sorry, but I gotta go. My next class starts soon."

It was a lie. He had forty more minutes that he decided to spare on a bench near a little pond on campus. Halfway there, his phone buzzed, showing there was a new message. Noah looked at the screen and somehow wasn't surprised at all after seeing a new post with him in the main role in the anonymous chat. 

'Oh, so that's why...' he thought, turned around, and headed to his flat, not the pond. The pond was nice, but Noah preferred crying peacefully at home. 

5' 3"

"Don't hang up," Ethan asked instead of a greeting. 

"Will you ever stop calling me from the unknown numbers?" he heard the annoyed voice say, "That's not okay."

"If I called from my phone, you wouldn't pick up," Ethan noticed while trying to recall whether he had ever done it before. He hadn't. It was the first time. 

"Of course," a metallic voice answered. 

"Audrey, please…"

"What do you want from me?" his sister decided to show mercy. 

"Do you remember the anniversary is on Friday?"

"Who do you think I am?" Audrey flushed with anger, "Of course, I remember," she added more quietly. 

"Let's go there together." 

"No." 

"Please."

"I have nothing to do there with you. I'd rather go alone." 

"Audrey." 

"I said what I said." 

"Audrey, please…" 

"And tell Duncan that if he tells you my number one more time, I'll cut the connections with him, too. I swear, I'll find a way to disappear!" 

Ethan didn't have time to excuse the bodyguard since he heard her hang up before he could open his mouth. If Audrey hadn't hung up, she would've found out that Duncan was innocent and knew nothing about this call. His only mistake was that he trusted Noah too much and couldn't imagine him getting into his phone in order to get his sister's number. However, Ethan did that. The anniversary was too important for him. 

Still, he didn't succeed. 

"Stubborn, as usual?" his father tried to smile at Ethan, though his eyes looked deeply sad. 

"Yes," Thomson nodded and put away a disposable phone he bought on the way home. "It was a hard day today. I should go," Ethan said and stood up from the table, leaving his dinner untouched, "I lost appetite. I'll eat something later," he said, feeling he wouldn't be able to eat a single bite. His father nodded understandably and didn't try to make his son stay any longer. 

Only after he locked the door did Ethan let himself take the mask and the gloves off. He threw them on the table, fell flat on his pillow, and laid still for some time. Thomson was trying to get rid of depressing thoughts, but Audrey wouldn't get off his head. After he understood it was impossible to deal with his depressed mood on his own, Ethan took his phone out and opened TalkPanik. After he returned from the meeting with Morgan, the first thing he did was subscribe to the university's anonymous chat. He felt he needed to know all the new rumors that were starting around him and swirling around Morgan. There was a new notification in the chat. Ethan opened it and frowned. A new post about Morgan appeared earlier that day. There was a picture and a caption. Morgan was holding a paper cup and smiling openly in the picture. Ethan recognized the paper cup. It was taken from one of the university's coffee places. Originally, it was saying 'Really Good Coffee', but with the help of a white and a black marker, the name was corrected, so it turned out to be 'Anally Good'. There was a white arrow underneath, pointing at Morgan. The caption said,

'The King of Anal Sex is back in business. Don't forget to make your appointment! There isn't much time available!'

And then there was Morgan's phone number. 

The real phone number. 

Well, that sucked. 

Ethan immediately tried calling Noah, but the phone was busy. He waited for a minute and tried calling again. It was busy again. There was no doubt Morgan's phone had been ringing off the hook for the last couple of hours. Only God knew how it could end up. 

Ethan tried to reach Noah for the third time. Still pointless. 

"Call me as soon as you can," Ethan sent Morgan a voicemail and waited. Ten minutes later, he saw the incoming call.

"Hey, did something happen?" Morgan exhaled on the phone. Right, he probably thought that Ethan didn't follow the chat, so he didn't know what was going on. 

Thomson noticed both Noah's wooly voice and a slightly thick tongue. 

"Yes," Ethan said, "There's another nasty post about you." 

"God, did you follow that stupid chat? Why?" 

"To know when I need to call you," Ethan replied. Morgan suddenly became silent. They both listened to the silence for a couple of seconds. Ethan broke it. 

"You were crying," Thomson acknowledged.

"A little," Noah didn't even try to refuse. 

"And drinking." 

"To stop crying." 

"I'm coming over," Ethan said, getting up from the bed. 

"W…why?" Morgan stuttered. Ethan heard tension in his voice and could easily picture the suspicions torturing Noah at that moment. He really wanted to trust Ethan, but, thanks to the circumstances, he wasn't always capable of that. 

"You feel bad—that's why," Thomson replied, putting his mask and gloves back on. 

"I don't want you to deal with my problems. You don't need to come over," Noah wasn't joking and wasn't trying to build himself up. He was serious. Ethan bit his lip nervously. He didn't want to confess, but there was no other way Noah would let him into his house. 

"I also feel…shitty," he said quietly, "I don't want to sit at home thinking over my problems. I'd rather talk shit about your haters." 

"Are you crazy? They'll start hating both of us." 

"Let them risk it if they wish." 

"We're those who're risking," he heard the husky voice. 

Ethan tasted blood. He should've stopped biting his lip. 

"Trust me," he asked. 

"I trust you. But all these people around... You don't know what to expect." 

"That's right. But you're missing one thing. They don't know what to expect from us, either." 

There was a nervous chuckle. 

"I've already drowned in this, though; you shouldn't get yourself dirty. Don't make your life more complicated," Noah advised. 

"The only person who's making my life more complicated right now is you." 

"How do I make it more complicated?" Morgan tried to sound exasperated. Even then, he was still trying to joke. 

"Because you don't let me come over."

"Can someone really not let you do something?" Noah chuckled. 

"Yes. You can." 

"It seems like you gave me permission not to give you permission," he heard after a short pause. 

"That's exactly what I did," Ethan agreed, and he heard a ringing laugh. 

"Okay. If you want to watch me cry into my cat's fur, you can come over," Morgan finally showed mercy, "It's not to everyone's taste, though, but what if you liked it?"

"I only like positive tears."

"Like, because of happiness?" 

"Like because of an orgasm," Ethan said, going downstairs and coming up against his father, who froze in the middle of a hallway with his coffee mug half-way to his mouth. "I'm leaving," Ethan said, not noticing how dark the silence on the other end of the line was, "And, please, don't make Duncan follow me," Ethan asked more quietly, covering his phone. 

"When are you coming back?"

"I don't know." 

"So, you're going to that 'friend'," his father mentioned matter-of-factly. 

"Don't start that," Ethan frowned and took his hand off the phone, coming back to Noah. 

"I'm sorry, my father distracted me. Where were we?" 

"Uhm… When… When are you gonna be here?"

"I'm already at my car," Ethan said, holding his keys. 

"Wow, you're fast." 

"Only in things where it's necessary." 

Noah seemed to start coughing. Or choking. What was he doing? 

"May I ask you about something then?" a husky voice said. 

"Yes, you may." 

"Can you stop by Baskin-Robbins?" 

"Are you one of those people who are stress-eating ice cream?"

"Guilty." 

"What flavor?" 

"Hm… What flavor do you like?" 

"I don't eat sweets; did you forget?" 

"At all?" 

"I could steal a couple of spoons from yours," Ethan gave up. 

"Then get some praline's ice cream. Or some baseball nut."

Ethan smiled unintentionally. 

"I'll get both."