She wouldn’t stop whispering whatever bullshit into his ear between giggles, pressing her boobs against him. Her hand remained on his thigh all the freaking time when it wasn’t rubbing his abs or his arms. The worst part, judging by the smirk on Kaj’s face, was that he seemed to enjoy it.
It felt like someone punched Noah in the stomach. He didn’t know why. Kaj didn’t belong to him or anything. They were friends. But it sucked so much that it wasn’t them wrestling like monkeys on the ground and talking nonsense until someone told them to shut up.
Later, all these conflicting emotions would make sense. But, at that time, Noah had thought he was jealous because they were taking away his friends.Oh, sweet innocence.
“Yo, that sounds so good!” Theo said, bringing Noah’s attention to him.
“Hm?”
“That—what you’re playing,” he elaborated.
“Oh. Thanks.”
“We should form a band!” Kaj said out of the blue from across the flames, startling everyone. “Now that Dad and Katja finally got me drums, we should do it.”
“You know we’d need more than one guitar and the drums, right?” Noah asked, lifting an eyebrow.
“Yeah, but you’re ridiculously good with the guitar and at singing.”
Noah gave him an incredulous look.
“Don’t act all surprised now. I’ve heard you. And I bet you could teach these two.”
“What?” Val raised his gaze from behind his camera, halfway through taking a shot of the group around the fire—a new hobby since he’d gotten a Nikon Reflex for Christmas.
“Yeah,” Theo said, enthusiasm glowing in his face. “It could be fun! I always wanted to be like Paul Gray.” He strummed some invisible strings.
“He was super talented and all that, but you know he died from an overdose, right?” Noah countered. He hated being so disrespectful toward the former bassist of Slipknot, one of their favorite bands, but he couldn’t help the bitter undertone. He was mad.
“Whatever.”
“That’d be so cool,” Anna purred beside Kaj. “Rockstars are sexy.”
“I’m in!” Theo said without hesitation.
Noah had to fight the urge to roll his eyes. He was okay with their new dynamic most of the time. They’d grown out of building RC cars and mostly spent time talking trash—music, the best guitarist in the world, concerts they wanted to go to, or the things they’d be willing to do for fifty thousand euros, and tits,obviously. There were no more movie nights every Friday either, since Kaj and Val were now dating Anna and Sofia. But that the reason to play music was to impress some girls made him cringe.
“Sounds good to me,” Val said. “And if it’s Noah teaching us, it’ll be awesome.” He smiled at him.
“What do you say?” Kaj asked, pale blue eyes locking onto his, full of hope and dreams.
Noah huffed and smiled. “Fiiiine.”
Ultimately, even if they did it for different reasons, playing music would bring them closer again. Besides, there was no way he could tell Kaj no when he looked at him like that.
But before they could even get together to rehearse, Noah had a revelation that shook him to his core.
Eighth grade had already started, and they were meeting more regularly again so Noah could teach Val and Theo how to play guitar. And although the girls were around almost daily, Noah was fine with it. At least he had his friends back.
“Man, those two are such idiots.”
“Indeed,” Noah said, tossing a gummy bear into his mouth.
It was Halloween. They’d been out, going door to door asking for candy all afternoon—probably the last year anyone would give them anything. They were supposed to stay at Noah’s for the night, just the four of them, without the girls. But Val and Theo had eaten so much candy on their way here that they’d gotten sick, and Trine had to call their parents to come pick them up.
“Seriously? Do you want to end up like them?” Kaj snorted while undressing.
Noah swallowed hard, freezing as he bit down on a piece of red licorice. He didn’t understand why, but he found his friend’s body utterly attractive. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen it—they were practically naked all the time during summer. He was lanky like most teenagers, but with his shoulders and back swept by the nightlight on Noah’s bedside table, he looked…hot.
