Out Of The Park (Noah Schnapp, Gay)

The Next Day

I woke up pretty late, for me anyway, it was close enough to noon. Noah and I made plans to meet up at one and then go to my house, I kinda forgot to tell my mom that, however. I got up and got dressed and headed downstairs.

"Hey mom", I greeted her as I entered the kitchen.

"Mornin' Elliot, whatcha want for breakfast?"

"Just some cereal, please. I have a friend coming around later if that's ok"

"Sure, who's coming?"

"Well you haven't met him before, his name is Noah", at this point she looked sorta suspicious, my mom knows I'm gay and whenever I get a new friend she immediately assumes I have a crush on them. Usually, she's wrong, usually.

"When's he coming?"

"Around one-ish"

"Well I'm heading out in a few minutes, I trust you won't burn down the house," she said with that smirk she gives when she teases me.

"No promises"

I finished my cereal and headed upstairs to brush my teeth extra thoroughly (I even flossed!), can never be too careful when the love of your life will be on your doorstep in half an hour. As I was exiting the bathroom mom called up the stairs that she was leaving and told me to have fun, don't worry, I plan to.

I threw on some random documentary on the and vegged out while I waited for Noah. Halfway through a show about Quokkas I heard the doorbell ring. God, I spent all day with him yesterday but my heart is still pounding in my chest. I checked myself in the mirror in the hall before answering the door. Ok Eli, c'mon you can do this.

I opened the door with the warmest smile I could muster, which in retrospect probably looked a tad bit creepy. Noah immediately smiled back and pulled me into another tight hug, this time I was prepared, however. I hugged him back just as tight and may have taken a whiff of his hair (don't look at me like that).

"Hey Eli," he said as he pulled away from the hug.

"Sup man," I replied as I moved aside to let him in.

I spent a good portion of last night and this morning thinking about what Noah said yesterday at the beach. He was following me? For how long? Why would he even do that in the first place?

"Hey Noah," I said as we plopped ourselves down on the couch, " y'know how you said you were following me?"

He seemed to tense up at that and his face went kinda red, "uh yeah..".

"Well like, how long has that been going on for?"

I could see he was getting a bit panicked now.

"... about a year," he barely whispered.

"Shit, really?"

He just kinda looked off and muttered, "Mhm".

"So, how did it start?"

He swallowed deep, "W-well I was just scrolling through the comments of one of my posts and I saw your profile and you looked pretty.. uh... cool?"

I smirked at him, "I look cool, huh?", I hit him with a cheesy eyebrow wiggle.

"'Looked', Eli, past tense", he smirked back.

"Yeah, right, no denying it now"

"Well what about you then? You were stalking me too"

"You play a main character on my favourite shows, of course I follow you"

"Oh, yeah," he looked down at the floor kind of dejected.

"Although I guess I don't follow any of the other Stranger Things actors, though..."

Still looking at the floor I could see his slight frown form into a smirk, Jesus I keep falling deeper. Gotta change the subject before he realises my not-too-innocent stare.

"So, Noah, how about som-"

"What do you mean by that?", he cut me off.

Now it was my turn to get flustered.

"Oh, n-nothing really. Just that you look pretty cool too, I guess..."

"You know what? Fuck this coy shit, man. I like you, I mean like like you. I was hoping that you felt the same way and I still do but if you don't then I'd like to still be your friend if you want to."

I was completely fucking shellshocked. Did... did he really just say that? Jesus Christ, I gotta be dreaming. My stomach did a 180 when that thought occurred to me, I've had too many dream scenarios ruined by my alarm clock and there was no reason to assume this time was any fucking different. Why must god tease me so?!

Fuck it. If this is a dream then I'm gonna milk it dry.

And with that, I leaned in a planted my lips on his. It took him a second but my dream boy reciprocated. I've never kissed anyone before, real-life or otherwise, so it took a little getting used to and after what felt like a minute I pulled back. God that felt so real. Noah was just sitting there with a beautiful stupid grin on his face.

"God, I wish this was really happening", I let slip.

It took him a moment to snap out of his daze but he caught what I said.

"Whatcha mean?", he tilted his head like a puppy, how can he really be that cute?!

"My alarm's about to wake me any second now", I said with a slight frown.

He started manically giggling which made my frown quite disappear. When he calmed down he said "You are seriously too cute" and pulled me by the head into another kiss. This one didn't last as long but when he was pulling away he pinched me on the back of the neck. "That real enough for ya?"

I started rubbing my sore neck, "Holy shit this is real!".

"Uh huh, Eli".