Inked [oney x oc]

11 - Noelle Makes Dinner Plans

I opened the door of the apartment to find Zach hard at work, aka playing Playstation games with someone online. He glanced up at me and waved.

I shut the door gently, locking it behind me and waved back. Zach had a headset on, talking with someone.

"Yeah, it's Noelle," Zach spoke into his mic before glancing over at me. "Chris and Tomar and Lyle said hi."

"Oh, hi," I smiled, setting my things down on the counter.

"She says hi back," Zach relayed before pausing and laughing at something someone said. "That's so fucking stupid, but okay. Hey, Noelle, Lyle says double hi, and Chris says triple hi."

I snorted. I had never met Lyle in person, but he was always nice to me on Twitter. I hadn't met most of Zach's friends in person, I realized. Most of them lived further out around California or in other states, so they didn't get to come near Burbank or Los Angeles very often. Lyle lived very close though, and I had just never seen him around. Maybe someday our paths would cross.

Zach went back to his game, making little comments and laughing out loud. I couldn't tell what he was playing from where I was standing in the kitchen, but it was some kind of FPS game based on the sound effects. I dug through my purse to grab some stuff and I grabbed some water from the kitchen before walking over to the couch.

I could see the TV now. He and the boys were playing Left 4 Dead. I wasn't particularly a fan of FPS games myself, but I liked zombie stuff like that just fine. I set all my things down, including a brand new iPhone box, on the coffee table. Zach glanced over at me.

"How was your day?" He asked, noticing my stuff. "Woah, did you buy a new phone?"

"It's a work phone. My job gave it to me. It's for beta-testing apps and work emails and stuff."

"Oh, that's pretty cool," Zach nodded. "Is it an iPhone X? What kind is it?"

"Yeah, I think? It's one of the newer ones," I shrugged, flipping the box over to read. "Yeah. Hey, are you recording? This is shitty content if you are."

Zach laughed. "No, no, it's just for fun. I would be in my room if we were recording. Or I'd be at Chris's actual house."

"Oh, I guess that's true," I chuckled, turning on my new phone to set it up.

"Guys, Noelle got a new phone," Zach relayed to his squad.

"I guarantee they do not care," I snorted.

"I'm making them care," Zach responded. "Guys, isn't that cool? Everyone tell Noelle how cool it is that she got a new phone."

I laughed when I could hear the muffled sounds of the guys talking to 'me' through the headset. "I can't hear them, Zach."

"Oh, right," he said, breaking into laughter. "I'm an idiot," he wheezed.

I chuckled and got up to plug my phone in, realizing it needed to be charged up before I did much. As I walked around doing that, I listened in on Zach's conversation. It wasn't anything particularly riveting, but it was funny to overhear.

"Hey, Noelle?" Zach called at one point.

"Hm?" I asked, standing in the kitchen. I was digging through my backpack for my work laptop.

"Tomar asked if you and Chris wanted to go out to dinner this week with him and Jaxxy."

"Me and Chris? Sure, yeah, I guess so," I nodded, setting my laptop down on the countertop.

Me and Chris? That was a weird choice. Tomar and Jaxxy were married, but me and Chris were hardly friends. We were like good acquaintances, although I knew a lot more about him than he knew about me because I watched his videos. I wasn't gonna turn down a nice dinner with friends though. It was odd that it wasn't me and Zach though.