Hello? Hi.

22

Aden quickly made sure his parents were asleep before opening up his Skype. He sat patiently in front of the screen, fixing his hair as he waited for Noah's username to pop up. He couldn't lie, he was nervous. What if Noah wasn't actually Noah and really was a 75 year old in a nursing home. Or worse yet, a weird, creepy internet guy ready to kill him?? No, he wasn't actually worried about Noah. Noah would be great. He was finally going to talk to him after what seemed like forever. He was worried about himself, all of a sudden feeling very self-conscious. 

"It's just a silly Skype call," Aden said aloud to himself. It was a little hard to imagine that he became so close to a guy he's never even seen in person and has only been texting for maybe a month now. It sounded as dodgy as it was.

Aden jolted back to reality when the Skype call song began to play. Aden brought his attention to the screen, taking one more breathe in.

The username read NoahReiner and Aden goofily smiled as he opened up the call. He knew he had no reason to worry. It's not like Noah was a mean person, at least it didn't seem so.

It was silent for a second as his laptop connected to the call and Aden instantly recognized the pale boy with the bright blue eyes and crazy fringe that was on the screen.

"Hi," Noah said, speaking up first.

"Hi," Aden replied.

Noah smiled shyly, "I can't believe you convinced me to Skype you."

"I know, I'm a massive stalker." 

And after that, the conversation flowed quite naturally. More naturally than either of them expected, but they did know a bit about each other from Instagram dm's. They talked for hours.

Aden learned about how animal obsessed Noah was. He spoke a lot about his family too and his Labrador back home named Blue.

"Why's he called Blue?" Aden asked.

"He's got abnormally blue eyes- no joke."

"Seems like stunning blue eyes run in the family," Aden said, which made Noah laugh half-heartedly, turning a bit red.

Aden realized that Noah was very bashful. He would either hide his face from the camera with his hands or all together when Aden gave him a cute nickname or complimented him. When Noah nervously laughed back with flushed cheeks, Aden felt butterflies fluttering around his stomach. His heartbeat went a little faster each time. He couldn't help but compliment him again, just for the feeling it gave him. It was too weird a thing for Aden to understand, and he didn't try to.

Aden imagined being in school with Noah. Noah was the kind of person who would sit in the back of the classroom and no one would ever notice, but if you ever did take the time to talk to him, you'd realize how amazing of a person he really was. 

When Aden asked about Noah's dreams, he spoke about becoming a big photographer and opening a gallery one day. Noah loved to watch sitcoms and owned every season of Friends on DVD. Aden learned a bit about Noah's High School life, his school life now, his two best friends, and his hobbies.

When Noah asked about Aden's dreams, Aden just shrugged in response. To Noah, it didn't seem like Aden was very happy when he ever spoke about himself or his life. He pushed off talking about his school experiences, his friends, the girlfriend he recently broke up with, and his family. Noah found it a bit suspicious that Aden also kept pulling up his long sleeve shirt to cover his arms more than they already were, but he figured that was just a nervous quirk. He quickly forgot about it when Aden began speaking of memes, shows, books, and everything they just seemed to have in common. He also didn't want to come across as too nosy since it was only their first Skype call, so he tried to play it cool. He noticed the butterflies that began to flutter in his stomach too.

"Oh my goodness!" Noah said, with a look of shock suddenly and Aden made a face of concern.

"'What?? What happened?" Aden asked.

"It's 3 am! I have classes tomorrow at 7! I mean today!" Noah said. "We've been talking since 8 pm! I'm not even alive enough to know how many hours that is."

"Alright, go to bed! Dm me when you get up."

"I think we should start texting instead, it's much easier. I'll send you my number." 

"Okay," Aden replied, shifting his face to the side to hide the little grin plastered on his face, "I probably won't be awake until noon though, just warning you. I'm quite the sleeper."

"That's alright."

"Goodnight Noah."

"Goodnight Aden." Noah waved goodbye.

The call ended.

"What a spork." Aden said to himself, rolling his eyes and grinning. He closed his laptop and got up to turn off the lights. He didn't want anything to ruin this weirdly perfect moment he was having, as he began to doze off.