Noah & Navid

Chapter 50- We're on Each Other's Team

-+- Noah's Perspective -+-

"Son," a strange voice said to me and a hand found my shoulder. I blinked up at a police officer with a yawn. I realized what I was looking at and jumped in the car seat. Navid had been the one to touch me, but the officer was looking at me strangely from the driver's side window.

"Everything ok, son?" he asked with a look of concern.

"He is fine, sir, he sleeps," Navid said softly with a deflated tone.

"Yes sir," I nodded and felt my heart racing.

"Ok... well the detour isn't too far out of the way, and it'll put you with a nice view of San Simeon," the officer said, his concern softening.

"Thank you," Navid said and then added, "I am sorry your world is on fire."

"Thank you... you folks enjoy your trip," the officer said and went towards the car behind us. Navid did a turn around and headed back up the small mountain road.

"Were we in trouble? What happened?" I asked and laid my head back against his shoulder.

"We are avoiding trouble with detour... There is wildfires and he makes us on a detour around them. I hope to get soon to the resort. We have much planned," Navid said.

He slid a warm arm around me. It was a cold June afternoon, the kind unique to the California coast. I wasn't sure where we were, but the Pacific Ocean was now to our left to indicate we were headed north.

"Did he make you wake me up? He sounded concerned," I noted.

"It is nothing, sweet Noah. You don't need to know of the ugly things," he said dismissively and turned up his music again.

"But he asked if I was ok. Why did he do that? What was wrong?" I asked, prodding past his admonishment.

I didn't understand what we had done wrong.

Navid sighed. "Nothing was wrong, Noah..."

He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel a few times before continuing, "When they see a strong, Persian man with dark skin, an accent, a nice car, and a well-kept blonde boy passed out in his passenger seat, they think the worst."

"Oh... they thought... Oh that's not right! That's racist! I should report him! Did you get his name? My dad knows highway patrol captains!" I got suddenly angry.

We'd had a few, small incidents before, but never in our safe bubble of Los Angeles. It was those little things that I wouldn't have thought twice about before I met Navid and saw those things for the first time.

"He is your people, sweet one. They do not need to be fair when protecting their own. It is not to feel good... It is passed. Finished. I never want you to know of these things. It is between men... We have beautiful weekend, let us not be upset by this. His world is on fire... in many, many ways," Navid noted.

I saw a plume of smoke off in the distance. It looked like a gray funnel that went up to the ceiling of clouds and then took a sharp left.

I let it go. He was right, we were here to enjoy our weekend. I didn't want to ruin what he had planned for our romantic weekend. I settled into his chest as he took on the winding mountain roads.

I opened his phone to the questions app we liked to use at night when we were together in bed in the dark.

His phone has all the best apps organized into neat folders. He is a very organized and precise businessman.

"Oh! They have questions for lovers! Should we try it?" I asked excitedly.

"Sure, Noah... we are lovers, we can try this," Navid said with one raised eyebrow. I noted the tension had left him.