The Grey- Noah Sebastian

five

*Sutton's POV*

I whipped into the parking lot for work at 9:15. I'm late, but at least the hour gap is just for me to go to the bank with plenty of time. I didn't manage to go to sleep until 4 am, my head just stayed spinning to no avail. I ended up finding him on Instagram, following him, and creeping through all of his posts, as though I'm some teenage girl with a crush! I mean, I'm an adult with a crush, but there's a point that you have to chill out.

He always looks so stoic and serious, but he's actually really funny. In the pictures that the band has together, they're all so serious, but the only one that I could say is actually that serious is Jolly and Vince. The Nics and Noah are the goofiest and sweetest guys ever.

I got back to the store and put the change away before filling out my daily planner that tracked sale stats and what everyone worked today, and I was thankful when I saw that Dillon worked today. We didn't meet until she started working as my assistant manager, but we became close quickly and even hang out a lot outside of work. I cannot wait to tell her about the ridiculous day I had, but luckily I have 3 hours before she gets here to be productive.

I let my associate in at 10 am when we opened and got to work on the stockroom, listening to Paramore while doing so. I popped on and off the sales floor to help them with customers and restocking items, but I mostly just wanted to stay moving and busy to distract my mind.

Dillon got to work at 1 and immediately came into the stockroom to put her stuff away. "Hey! How was Warped Tour?" she asked as soon as she saw me. I met her with wide eyes, trying to signify that we were going to need a minute. "Hold up, let me clock in." She sprinted up front and was back in 30 seconds. "What happened?"

I let out a big sigh. "What didn't happen?" I started, and then gave her a brief rundown of the entire day: the fall, the shirt, the Bad Omens set, the Our Last Night set, the Movements set, going back to the bus, Ticket to Ride, talking under the stars, the kiss. She stood there with wide eyes the whole time, emoting at times to show she was listening, but never interrupting. "So yeah... I'm running off of 4 hours of sleep and large amounts of anxiety."

"I...." she started, at loss of words. "It sounds like a romance book! And that actually happens in real life?!" I laughed a little at that. "So when is this date?"

"At the earliest, the 19th, but I don't expect it to be that soon. I don't even know the level of contact that he wants with me, but he did seem really interested in pursuing this." I really, really hope I was reading this correctly. "I mean, he was so fucking quiet after we kissed, what if I just read the wrong signals and kissed this poor guy without him wanting it? He seemed into it, but what if he says the same sweet things to all girls and moves on?"

"Did it seem like they have girls around a lot?"

"Honestly, no, Nic looked shell-shocked that a girl even existed when I came by to change my shirt the first time."

"Then I think you're probably in the clear," she said with an assuring smile. "Has he reached out today?" I honestly haven't even thought about my phone today at all, so I checked it. At 10:25 he sent "Good morning :) did you get any sleep?" I showed her the text with an undeniable grin on my face. "See? I think you're fine." She's got a point, and it was something that he must have genuinely thought about since he knew I was worried about getting here on time. I left the poor guy on delivered for 3 hours now. I was about to type a response when my associate popped in to let me know we have a return to do. Dillon and I both went to the front and I decided to think of a good response on my lunch.

*Noah's POV*

I know it's probably selfish, but I'm nervous that she hasn't responded. She said she had to be at work at 9 so I waited a while for her to get settled in to send her a text, but now it's 1:30 and I still haven't heard anything. I don't feel like we've established enough to justify a double text. I was at the side of the stage since our set starts at 1:40; we only get a 20 minute set today. I let out a disappointed sigh and put the phone in my pocket.