The Middle | ✔️

Chapter 54 (Noah)

Noah

I’m standing on the top level of the Grill, next to the island bar, wondering why the hell I agreed to come to the Open Mic night. I was here last night with Zoe and Zara, I could have gave tonight a miss. I could be in my dorm catching up on homework. I could be out for a run. I could be at the library studying. I could be anywhere besides here. I don’t know why I agreed to this.

“You okay?” John asks me with concern. He can see the discomfort on my face, he’s so perceptive.

“I’m fine. Thanks John.” He nods his head at me, before turning to Aubrey. He rests a hand on the small of her back and leads her down the steps to the lower levels of the Grill. Of course, they’ll wanna get closer to the stage. I don’t.

“You coming?” Zach asks me. I notice Kim following behind Aubrey and John, so of course, Zach wants to go too.

“I’m staying up here.” I tell him, looking over at Will and Madison talking by the bar. Zoe and Zara will be here soon, this is fine.

“Suit yourself.” Zach shrugs his shoulders at me before walking down the steps after Kim.

“You know, for someone who apparently hates him, you sure do spend a lot of time with him.” I say to Madison, as I approach her and Will. She rolls her purple eyes at me.

“Noah, I can’t help it if your roommate won’t leave me alone.” She throws her hands on to her hips and pouts at Will. He smiles at her. It’s shockingly obvious that he is practically in love with this girl. I don’t see why he won’t just admit it and get together with her. Well… he must have his reasons, I guess.

“Where’s Zoe and Zara?” I ask Madison.

“Zoe’s talking to someone by the entrance, Zara’s not coming tonight.” Madison informs me. I’m surprised by this. Zara was so cool when I hung out with her and Zoe last night. She opened up to me more and more as the night went on, and she told me she would see me at the Open Mic tonight. I wonder what made her change her mind.

“Hey, dude.” I turn to see Zoe standing behind me. She’s wearing a tie-dyed dress. She looks a little bummed.

“No Zara?” I ask, and she shakes her head.

“She was summoned over to her dad’s house.” Zoe sighs. “I reminded her that she’s an adult now and doesn’t need to drop everything to please her dad. But she doesn’t wanna let him down or whatever.”

I don’t pry into this any further. Instead, I buy Zoe a drink and talk to her about school and sports and general shit. I ignore the bewildered looks I get from the girls around me, I’m aware that Zoe and I probably look like a couple to people that don’t know us, but I don’t care about that at all. And we must look like an odd couple. I’m so plain, dark jeans, black shirt. She’s wearing a tie-dyed dress, her hair is pink today, and she’s painted each of her finger nails a different colour. Zoe does look odd, but plenty of other people around North Bridge are quirky too. She doesn’t look out of place, I guess she just looks out of place standing talking to me. But, I don’t care. I like her. She’s probably my favourite person I’ve met here so far.

“Looks like your girl isn’t playing tonight.” Zoe comments after a break in our conversation. She’s picked up a set list some guys beside us at the bar had been looking at a minute ago. And I told her a little bit about what happened with Jamie the other night. No great details, it was very minimal. She asked me about girls, and I had to tell her something, so I told her about Jamie.

“What?” I ask as she hands me the set list. My eyes skim down the list of bands and artists. The Middle isn’t on it. “That’s weird, right?”