Noah

March 27th 2014

"An art gallery?" I said skeptically, looking at the leaflet.

"It's much more interesting than it sounds." Jodie said, smiling a little.

"Oh, I'm sure." I sighed. "Why are we going to an art gallery?"

"Because you need to get out of the flat." Jodie said. "You can't spend your whole life reading comics and hunting down terrorists."

I was appalled at the sudden realisation that I'd completely forgotten about GC. To begin with, when I was staying at Jodie's place, I'd fooled myself into believing that I'd only stopped briefly until I recovered. However, over the last few days I'd been too busy to spare the radicals a thought. And the realisation terrified me.

What if I forgot about it all together? I owed it to Craig to remember both him and them.

Jodie noticed my hesitation. "I'm not saying give up, I'm saying you can go on crazy terrorist hunts and still have a normal life."

"Really?" I raised my eyebrows.

"Yes, I do it all the time." Jodie said with a small smile. "Come on, it'll be fun. I promise."

I looked around at the dark and dreary flat. "Alright." I said finally. "But I really should get back to it soon. I'm getting too lazy."

"Yeah, right." Jodie rolled her eyes. "Come on, it's a half hour drive as long as we get going before rush hour. That's when everything goes to shit."

I hunted around for five minutes for a matching pair of trainers and pulled them on lazily without untying the laces.

"Do you know how to tie your laces?" Jodie asked me curiously.

"Yes!" I said, slightly offended. "I may be mostly illiterate, but I have hands!"

"Well, most people are taught to tie laces by their parents. It's quite impressive that you know how to actually."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're shit at giving compliments?"

"Grab a jumper, it's cold out there."

"Yes, mum," I said sarcastically, as I'd seen several angsty teenagers do in TV shows. Except it didn't really come out quite as sarcastic as I'd hoped and for a moment there was an awkward silence.

Despite my attempts to halt the process, I realised I was getting close to Jodie, which was unnerving. Ever since she'd brought me back to my place, it seemed as though I had a strange need to talk to her, to tell her everything. I'd even told her little snippets about my dad, which I had never told anyone except Craig.

I put it down simply to spending so long alone. I just wasn't used to human company- it would wear off. The magic of having a friend wouldn't last forever, and when that happened, I would realise that this whole 'friend' thing was all in my head and I could go back to normal. At least, that's what I was going to keep telling myself.

I cleared my throat loudly. "Come on, let's get going. Don't want to get caught in hurry hour traffic."

"Rush hour." Jodie corrected, quickly looking away and grabbing her keys.

"Whatever." I said quickly. "Let's just go." I grabbed my (Craig's) coat off the hook by the door, pulling it on. I hadn't grown an awful lot since he'd given it to me when we'd first met nearly six years ago, so it fit pretty well. It had been too big to start with. Now, the sleeves settled a little high on my wrist, but I wasn't about to go out and get another coat.

I followed Jodie downstairs and out to the car, shivering slightly as I was caught in rain briefly.

As soon as we got in the car, Jodie put the heating on and turned the radio up quite loud. Once the wind-screen wipers had made away with the freckles of rainwater, she started to back out of the parking space.