✎imperium

elijah couldn’t help but cringe a little when noam started going on about all the attention he had been getting since the dance. as if aubrey ditching him wasn’t already enough, elijah getting into a fight with zeke over the matter surely tipped the situation over the edge, and not in noam’s favor. “yeah, that’s kind of my fault.” he spoke, sincerity in his voice. “i’m sorry.” he apologized to noam. he wasn’t sorry for defending him, but he was sorry for all of the eyes that were now cast on him. when he asked how his day was, eli shrugged, taking another bite. “pretty much the same. everyone staring, all that.” he said. elijah bit his bottom lip in an instance of hesitation before speaking next. “you know that gossip blog called us a couple.” he said, looking down at the table, avoiding noam’s gaze. if he didn’t look at him, he could at least imagine that noam was happy to hear it and didn’t have to think of any other negative outcomes. “the cutest at the dance, in fact.” he chuckled lightly. he made sure to keep his voice low so that only noam could hear him. they didn’t need anyone else in on their business. 

he shook his head. “hey, don’t apologize, what you did for me was really brave, i’m never going to forget it,” he said, his hand starting to reach out across the table to touch elijah’s before it quickly moved back to settle in his sweatshirt’s pocket. he didn’t want elijah to feel like it was his fault that all this shit happened, because it wasn’t. “have i mentioned how much i appreciate you? because i do, i appreciate you a lot.” as elijah kept talking, noam grew even more nervous. “w-w-wait, what?” he asked, his eyes widening and eyebrows raising. “the cutest c-c-couple?” he could feel the red hue return to his cheeks and he stared down at his lap, tapping his right foot out of nerves. “that’s, um, that’s interesting,” he said, unable to stop the small smile from appearing on his face.

since the fight on the night of the dance, elijah felt like all eyes were on him. he could hear the whispers as he walked by students in the halls, he could see what people were saying online. the gag was, elijah didn’t care. he’d done what he’d done and he’d moved on. he just wished everyone else would. he looked over at his usual lunch table and sighed, deciding to not take the stream of questions that his friends no doubt had for him. instead, he chose to sit with his lone friend, noam. “hey.” elijah spoke as he sat down. since their talk the night of the dance, noam and elijah stood on new ground with one another. and elijah was comfortable with that. “how’s your day been?” he asked, taking a bite of the peanut butter sandwich he’d brought to school. 

elijah was the one person noam wanted to see more than anyone else. that wasn’t to say that he didn’t want to see other people. there were definitely a couple people he did not want to see, but as far as wanting to see people went, elijah was at the top of noam’s list. as elijah took his seat, noam couldn’t help but relax a little. elijah was his armor, he didn’t have to worry as much when he was here. “hey,” he responded, a small and halfhearted smile settling on his face. “oh, you know, whispers in the halls, all eyes on me, it’s great, i love the attention,” noam said with a roll of his eyes. “wh-wh-what about you? how’s your day been?” the small talk was killing him, he wanted desperately to talk more about their night at the dance, but he settled for just having elijah there, keeping him company.

rhys: learn? you think too lowly of me. i'm already an ample kicker

rhys: but hey, your words, not mine.

noam: i guess i've just never seen you kick before, we'll have to change that.

noam: hey dude, you're okay, right? i mean like, not okay but like okay enough to keep on keepin on, you feel?

noam: did that make any sense? g-d i hate myself and my inability to communicate things

it was strange but noam hadn’t stayed to talk to him at the lockers this morning and now that he was at the cafeteria, he was just there sitting by himself. parker figured it had something to do with everything going on and even though he was siding with aubrey right now who he was much closer with, he couldn’t help but feel bad for the boy he saw every single day. parker usually moved from table to table, switching where he sat almost every time so he decided to sit next to him this time. “hey, bro…” he said and put his tray down on the table. “is it just me or does this apple looks nasty as fuck?” he made a face and showed it to noam. “anyway, i hope you don’t mind me sitting here. i left a sexual post-it on my teacher’s desk as usual and it turns out she didn’t come today and the substitute read it…it was…a mess.” he chuckled. “he’s trying to sign me up for the lgbt club here at school because he thinks this is my way of coming out of the closet so he’s looking for me. just act like you’re into me if he comes.”

noam looked up, a small look of surprise on his face when his locker neighbor sat across from him at the table. sure, the two of them talked about life and what was pissing them off every now and then, but he didn’t consider them close enough to warrant parker sitting with him at lunch. then again, here he was, sitting across from him, shoving a moldy apple in his face. “oh um yeah that’s um pretty gross,” he said, making a face as parker moved the apple aside. “did you sign your name on the note? that was your first mistake, my friend,” he said, tsking and shaking his head jokingly. “and wouldn’t me being into you kind of just perpetuate the whole teacher thinking you’re gay thing? isn’t that the opposite of what you want?”

“sup nerd.” isaiah tried not to laugh when he saw noam sitting by himself. the more he thought about it, the more life had started to become a cw teen drama. sitting down beside him, he started to munch on his salad before pointing his fork at noam’s food. “you need to up your protein intake noam, it’s bulking season.”

noam rolled his eyes jokingly at isaiah’s ‘friendly’ greeting and took a bit of his mashed potatoes to humor him. “bulking season? for forensics? i think my brain is pretty bulked up enough, thanks for making sure it gets its nutrients though,” he said, returning his fork to its place on his Styrofoam tray. “how’d that pie recipe turn out?”

rhys: sup noam? i was just about to ask you if you wanted to do a kickboxing class with me. learn how to throw a good punch and then, i dunno, test it on me to knock me out real quick. just a thought

noam: only if you learn how to kick effectively and you kick me in the stomach while we're at it.

noam: if i'm coughing up blood, i don't have to be at this shithole of a high school.

jessa had gone through the day as usual. while there was plenty of her own drama going on between her and certain things, it was nothing compared to what the gossip account had in store for some of her classmates. while she’d tried her best to stay out of the drama, it was hard to do when her date and best friend had gotten in a fight at the dance. wherever elijah was concerned, so was she. when she saw noam sitting at a table alone, with eyes all over him, jessa rolled her eyes at the people before making her way towards him and sitting across from him. “mandy gave me an extra chocolate cake today. i guess i looked like i needed it. this woman has been giving me extra food since i moved here. she might be what i miss the most after graduation.” jessa exclaimed, smiling as she pushed a plate of cake towards the boy, wriggling her eyebrows in the process. she had a feeling the last thing he wanted to do was talk about everything that happened, and jessa knew that feeling well. “so, anything exciting happen this weekend?”

for a moment, noam looked up at the girl across the table from him before his eyes shifted to his phone which was making enough noise to call over the attention of the few people in the cafeteria who weren’t already staring at their table. “um, one second,” he said, looking at the notifications on his phone. his vision blurred and the words all ran together, but he could make out one word; jessa. he quickly locked his phone and shoved it in his pocket, his entire body visibly tensing. “oh, um, thank you,” he said, adding the cake to the pile of food that he wasn’t planning on eating. “oh, you know, the usual,” he said, shrugging and picking at the ends of his sweatshirt sleeves. “h-h-how about you? how was your weekend?”

isaiah: the situation is fucked but more importantly it has nothing to do with me so :) we won't talk about it :)

isaiah: just so you know tho you're not a bad person and that's all i say

isaiah: but more importantly do you have any graham crackers bc i need them

noam: http://s.quickmeme.com/img/a8/a89124eeeab9939c26bc22f2b71ead74e628e06a69584b6d231d69e7e58f9b06.jpg

noam: um let me check one sec

Coley: [Game Pidgeon Message: Let's play Word Hunt ]

Coley: [Game Pidgeon Message: Let's play Anagrams ]

Coley: [Game Pidgeon Message: Let's play Chess ]

Coley: ...I wasn't sure which one you'd like the most but I figured one of them would peak your interest...

isaiah: i tend to have that effect on people

isaiah: BOOKS LOVERS EDITION don't play my heart strings like this noam

noam: never leave my side, i need more positivity in my life

@aubreeze: @nononoam you have every right to be mad and i understand that but you're not even giving me a chance to explain.

@aubreeze: @nononoam i was BLACKMAILED, noam. okay, i was threatened to get thrown into jail and lose everything i've worked for and YOU of all people should understand that

@aubreeze: @nononoam ZEKE DOESN'T EVEN FUCKING HAVE FEELIGNS FOR ME! he doesn't want to /be/ with me, nobody fucking does. and my relationship with him is nobody's fucking business.

@aubreeze: @nononoam and it's not my fault that rhys didn't fucking shove his tongue down lyra's throat. so what if we kissed? who fucking cares? how does anyone even fucking know?

@aubreeze: @nononoam you all act like you're so fucking innocent as if this entire school isn't full of fake assholes??? you're all coming for me without letting me explain

@aubreeze: @nononoam go fuck yourself

isaiah: bro

isaiah: want to come over to mine eat some meatballs and play trivial pursuit?

noam: this is the nicest notification i have gotten on my phone in the past two hours