Noah & Leah // English fanfic

NOAH

There's a dirt stain on the pants of my baseball uniform. It's brown and has an irregular shape. Mr. Foster smiles from ear to ear as he cuts my hair. He told me he didn't have a client all week and it was already Friday.

 Mr. Foster is approximately 63 years old and enjoys cutting boys' hair. Dad used to bring me to his barber shop when I was a kid because he said Mr. Foster was the best barber in all of Wyoming, I just thought he was the best barber in Riverton.

―Noah, how's your father?

For the first time while sitting watching the scissors pass through my black hair I look straight into his blue eyes. Around these, there are pronounced wrinkles that for me are only marks of a lived life. A dimple appears on his right cheek as he smiled widely showing me his moderately crooked teeth. His hair was as white as clouds. 

I notice how the most smiling old man on the planet takes the hair clippers in his freckled hands and begins to shave the back of my hair. Neither of us talk more, I devote myself to pass the view through his hairdresser's that still has the image of a hairdresser's of the seventies.

When it's over I get up from the chair removing the black cape he gave me to keep the hair from getting inside my clothes. I look at myself and I like the result. My hair is not long and disheveled, now it is short, combed to the side and the back shaved.

―I hope you liked the cut, little N.

A lot of memories came to me when I heard that nickname. Seat nicely.

―I liked it very much, sir.

I take the money out of the front of my uniform pants and hold it out for him. He gets it gladly and smiling even more. Perhaps for many it is annoying that Mr. Foster smiles so much even though he lost his wife a year ago, but for me it is living proof that even though life is often shit you have to smile.

―Good luck with your game tomorrow, Noah.

This time I genuinely smile at him and run out of the place shaking a few small strands of hair that sneaked up to my shoulders. I cursed internally because it's been fifteen minutes since practice started and I was sure Mr. Sherman would kick my ass and then hit it with a bat. I was running fast to get to Covington High School to minimize the coach's beating.

When I get to school I run down the hallways and when I'm turning left to go out onto the playground the girls' bathroom door opens and I crash into it. I fall from my ass and my back hits the cold hallway floor. I drop a curse and see the guilty one.

Leah Lam stands with open eyes of surprise, which then turns into mockery and I see how a smile of superiority appears on her pink lips thanks to the lipstick she wears. Then I notice the squalid figure of Leslie Reece coming out from behind her. Leslie's been Leah's shadow for as long as I can remember. They're always together, but Leah is more popular than Leslie, who's often called Lam's shadow.

Leah and I don't have a very good relationship, she was the captain of the cheerleaders, an intelligent girl who always excels thanks to her grades, is conceited, egocentric, hypocritical, and a total Barbie. Is she cute? Of course, would I go out with her? No, I'm not.

I see how she accommodates her blue folded skirt and places her skinny right hand at her waist.

ꟷ Has baseball left you stupid enough not to see the door being opened Centineo?

I roll my eyes and get up slowly. My back hurts and I'm sure I'll have some bruising.

―And to you the hair dye is leaving you stupid, don't you know that after school is not allowed to be in school on a Friday?