Devil's Eye

Chapter 12

5' 8"-5' 9"

Noah always experienced a mix of anxiety and anticipation the day before the trip to his grandmother. Love interspersed with fear. On the one hand, he really wanted to see her, chit-chat about stuff, hold her hand, and, if he got lucky, hear her laugh. On the other hand, what if she got worse? Or, once she'd see Noah and not recognize him, she'd freak out and kick him out of her room? That had happened before-not even once. What if his grandma mistook him for another person and started to ask him about things he had never heard of? Though she'd usually take Morgan for a nice stranger who wouldn't mind listening about her wonderful daughter and a grandchild. That option always seemed to Noah to be the least painful one, even though it wasn't less depressing.

It just happened that grandma's health began to sink just when Noah entered his puberty stage, which made him grow up for at least 4 inches and lose weight rapidly, all in just several months. At school, people called Noah 'fat pig', but then, surprisingly, he became 'thin rail'. Morgan liked neither of those nicknames. But what he liked even less was that all the changes in his appearance confused his grandmother's struggling brain, so she stopped recognizing her favorite grandchild in Noah. It feels odd and eerie when one of the closest people in the entire world doesn't see the same in you anymore.

This time, Noah was worried even more than usual. Not because of his granny, no. Because of Ethan. What was Morgan even thinking when he agreed to take Ethan with him? If you like a guy (which Noah had to admit he had a big crush on Ethan), it's quite weird to take him to a retirement home on the first date.

It wasn't a date, of course. To begin with, Noah had no idea about Ethan's preferences. Even though, after Thomson's question, 'Do I look like a person who can't do a blowjob?' it was possible that he was, at least, a bi. However... Noah had the impression that Ethan's position in a question was not because of his preferences but because of his aching pride. Something like, 'If others can, why can't I?' If these moments remain unnoticed, then Noah doubted that Ethan could be into anyone. Regardless of gender, Morgan didn't have enough imagination to picture a person suitable for Thomson. Ethan just seemed to be a complicated and closed person. Like he had his own agenda. Let's take the evening in 'I want you deadly' into account. The majority of the time, Ethan looked absent. Like his mind was on the other side of the planet, or even the universe. The concert didn't raise any interest. Probably, the small talk with Noah was also boring. It looked like the only thing that could make Ethan present was conflicts. No matter which and with whom he could blend into fights, negative confrontations, and wrangles so easily, as if it was his cup of tea. The only comfortable position. On the contrary, peace and calm could cause apathy in Ethan.

Noah was thinking about Thomson until late at night; that's why he managed to catch only a couple of hours of sleep before his alarm made him jump out of bed. Morgan always set up not one but ten alarms that were going off one after the other with a five-minute break. He could never wake up earlier than the 8th alarm. Only today did Noah jump out of bed with the first signal. Too many thoughts were swirling in his head to let him lay in bed peacefully. After taking a shower, Morgan spent almost an hour fixing his hair, which didn't show any difference at the end. When he searched through almost all of his wardrobe and tried on at least half of his clothes, Noah chose a pair of dark-blue jeans, a white t-shirt, and a short kimono shirt. There was a red sea dragon on the back of the shirt. Noah's usual looks didn't change after all. No matter how Noah tried to look better, he looked in the mirror and understood that Ethan would see him to be the regular Noah Morgan, not the wow-so-handsome-Noah-Morgan that I would-definitely-hook-up-with-him.

Maybe it was for the best? Noah didn't know how Ethan would react if he noticed that Morgan liked him. What if Thomson got disgusted? Or embarrassed? Or what if he decided that Noah's feelings were a problem that he wouldn't want to solve?