Wanna Kiss Me Back? - NaNoWriMo Entry

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

They exited the theatre to the crisp assault of cold air at their faces and undone jackets that forced Mitchel to zip up his less than helpful jacket while Noel only shivered. The cold passed as they made their way down the steps of the entrance and started to walk slowly in silence. Mitchel watched Noel kick his legs out as he took a step, head bowed down looking at the sidewalk, and hands shoved into the pocket of his pants. He was waiting for the mute boy to begin the story he had asked to talk about but he knew Noel probably did not know where to begin, how to begin, and why he had to now.

“So...” Mitchel stated openly, not addressing either of them but the awkwardness between the two. Noel looked up to the sky.

“So...” he replied just as bored as Mitchel was. “I guess I should tell you something huh?”

“Probably. You did ask to talk.” Mitchel stated blankly, not really wanting to force the information out because he did not want to hear it. He was still trying to understand why none of this made him feel weird or suspicious of Noel, wondering whether he loved him or not. The prospect did not matter and that numbness bothered him.

“Suppose the story starts when I was about twelve.” Noel said monotone, his head up to the sky as if studying the stars was the most interesting thing alive. Mitchel walked slower beside Noel, who would almost stop every now and then as he stared, Mitchel assumed it was to collect his thoughts and his story. They walked in silence a few more steps down the winding street that curved and branched onto many more side streets that Mitchel had to make sure to pay attention to the  road ever now and again to stay on the right path to his home.

“When I was twelve,” Noel continued, the hesitation evident in his voice as he continued almost against his own will, “I had a friend who supposedly had a crush on me. Her friends decided to tell me that this girl, Tea, liked me and to ask her out. Since every boy my age had started  to notice and talk about girls more, I thought this was the natural development of that. That my friends would be impressed that I had a girl to date while they just drooled over them. Tea was pretty, sweet, funny and a really nice person who just happened to be my friend, so there would be no awkward ‘I-don’t-know-anything-about-you’ feelings between us. So following the orders of the group of girls and the advice I had gotten from the other guys when I told them Tea liked me, I went to talk to her to see if she wanted to go to a movie with me. She said yes.”

Mitchel looked over the his friend, who had paused in his story to kick a small pebble along the road until he kicked it to hard and watched it skip into the middle of the street. Noel sighed, his defeated posture straightening and flexing, the edge of his shirt raising to reveal his lower abdomen and bellybutton. Mitchel watched the lines rearrange themselves as Noel moved, lengthening, thinning, disappearing, shortening and thickening.

Well,” Noel started again, “we had gone there by ourselves that night to see some silly cartoon movie that Tea had really wanted to see. I dressed a bit better than regularly but nothing special cause I thought of her as just a friend I was now hanging out with alone, I did not understand at the time what dating meant. So when she arrived in a cute little sundress, I was speechless at how good she made herself look for me. It made me nervous and awkward, I did not like it. She and I talked about random, useless thing  I can’t even remember now then went into a movie to sit still beside each other for about a half-hour. Tea then decided to make a move since I had made it obvious I did not know what to do, putting her hand  in mine and moving over to lean on my shoulder. I had felt so odd that I froze for the rest of the movie. We got out of the theatre, with her hand still in mine and strange feeling in my gut that something was not right. It did not feel as great as it was supposed to feel. I left that night feeling just plain weird.