Inked [oney x oc]

8 - Chris Is Mildly Concerned

Chris's POV

A few minutes into watching some dumb Adult Swim pilots, the door opened. Noelle came in carrying the pizza.

"UberEats for Chris O'Neill," she joked, but she sounded like she'd been crying.

I looked at her as she walked over to put the boxes down on the coffee table and realized her face was super red and puffy. She definitely had been crying.

"Noelle, what's wrong?" Zach asked, concerned. "You sound... like, sick."

"Huh? Oh, allergies," she said, waving her hand. "Someone was mowing their lawn out there, I think. Um, here's your notepad back, Chris. And your pen," she said, setting them down on the coffee table beside the pizza.

"Oh, thanks," I nodded, moving to stand. "Um... I'll go get plates."

"Oh, I can get them," Noelle interjected. "I'm already up."

I blinked and flopped back down on the couch, sinking in beside Tomar. "Uh, okay, sure. Just grab whatever, they're in the right side of the cabinet."

Noelle disappeared into the kitchen and Tomar and I turned to Zach.

"Is she actually okay?" Tomar whispered. "She was crying, right?"

"I think so, but I have no fucking idea what's going on," Zach whispered back, slightly aggressively.

"Maybe you should talk to her Zach," I pointed out. "She'll talk to you. If something's up, she shouldn't feel obligated to stay."

"Yeah, I guess I'll go do that," Zach said, realizing his opportunity with Noelle alone in the kitchen.

He disappeared too, and it was just me and Tomar. I didn't know what to talk about, so I picked up the remote to change the channel. Tomar gestured to my arm.

"Hey, Chris, it looks like your soulmate wrote you back," he pointed out.

I flipped my arm up. He was right.

"Huh. That's new. They must've just written me back a little while ago," I said, feeling a smile creep onto my face, which I tried to hide from Tomar. Instead, I stuck my arm out so he could read it.

He glanced over it and beamed. "What are you gonna tell them?"

"Not the truth," I chuckled, grabbing the pen that had been on the coffee table. I was about to craft my witty response when Zach and Noelle came back in the room carrying plates.

I quickly tossed the pen back onto the table so Zach didn't get suspicious and glanced up at him to see if he found anything out. Based on his half-shrug, I figured Noelle hadn't talked about it. Maybe she'd tell him something later when they got home. The room was silent for a moment.

"Should we... watch a movie or something?" Tomar spoke up.

"Sure. What movie?" Zach asked, opening the pizza box to dig through it.

"I dunno, there's a million movies," I shrugged. "Anyone got suggestions? Nothing too long, we have to record after this."

".... have you guys seen Shark Night 3D?" Noelle suggested.

"What's Shark Night 3D?" Zach laughed. "That doesn't sound real."