Wanna Kiss Me Back? - NaNoWriMo Entry

Chapter 6

Chapter 6 

Getting up the next Monday, Mitchel felt ready to build his relationships to a more healthy place. Neither his friendship with Noel nor his relationship with Ellie were working for him. Noel was his first priority today, he would deal with Ellie tomorrow; she still was buried in her love for him. He got dressed in his uniform and went out the door, a skip in his step for regaining control. He spoke to his neighbours as he usually did, his serenity increasing with each time he helped someone with their problem, gave advice, or simply listened, their problems distracting him from his own worries. Then he got to his sun beaten brick school and everything that had being troubling him rushed back as the flood came to wreck his life, testing his will to survive.

He entered through the large wooden door and started to make his way to his first class hoping all three of his friends were there. And that they would not mind sharing him between them. When passing the multitude of students slumped against the wall as if they were a collection of wealthy beggars, he spotted his friends breaking the trends. Three people standing tall amongst bodies slumped down in defeat for being caged in this building. Mitchel walked towards them happily, the disconnect between the pair of longtime friends and his newest companion only evident as he approached. Noel had been standing against the wall silently while Jordan and Ellie, both of whom could have easily spoken to him, chattered away oblivious. Mitchel was upset that his friends had not bothered to try to include Noel in their talk. He looked too lonely for Mitchel to allow him to be ignored.

Ellie and Jordan turned to each other, exchanging glances and coded signals that Mitchel could half read as trepidation to speak freely. Then throwing their gaze towards Noel, who shifted uncomfortably under their less than welcoming stare, they replied, “We’ll tell you later. Nothing important.”

“What about you Noel, have anything to say?” Mitchel asked earnestly, hoping to get something out of Noel who looked very awkward in the situation. When he stayed silent, Mitchel tried again. “What did you do over the weekend besides work during our date?” Jordan gave both Ellie and him a look but stayed quiet.

“Well, I worked for the rest of the night but I had Saturday and Sunday night off. So I took a short trip back to Connecticut to go on a date.” Noel said turning away to cover his embarrassed face.

“Oh,” Mitchel said interested and slightly teasingly, “Who with?” It got incredibly still as none of the four moved, breathed, waiting for something to fill the void of dead air between them.

Then, almost as a squeak, Noel answered, “My love from back home. Nothing serious.” The other three stood with the expressions of a bust looking upon their new museum exhibition, expressionless to the new information because they had never seen it before. It had been four days but Mitchel felt he should have known he was in a relationship. They messaged all weekend, mostly about nothing but that should have came up. Mitchel had no time to ask why as their already waiting teacher ushered them inside with a short lecture about their disrespect. Mitchel did not take his normal seat next to Ellie, instead opting to sit in the back next to Noel who was more than happy to leave his crappy, ‘must always answer’ seat at the front. Ellie looked less than impressed and Jordan was just shaking his head at Mitchel who saw, but chose to ignore, his friend’s disapproval of his renewed interest in Noel. He must have thought he was still obsessed with his past but Mitchel never wanted to be that crazy anymore. He wanted to actually be his friend, eventually (hopefully) getting his answer. But he really wanted their friendship to be first.

Their teacher was being stricter than normally this Monday morning, probably because both he and the class were so much slower that he had to do something to make they actually did anything that day. It meant that Mitchel and Noel could only manage to occasionally pass short notes, but they remained subjective to the class work with the occasionally small talk. They walked out the class door both exhausted at the beginning of the day; the stress of being under strict surveillance wore heavily on them. Ellie and Jordan departed before Mitchel who was purposely slow to catch Noel alone.