Re: [Outside the Rec Center.]
The bar guy hadn't done anything to indicate desire to Holly, and Holly had been monetizing people's desire since he was fifteen. It was kinda like a language that he spoke fluently, and he didn't need to be able to read someone's thoughts to know if they wanted to fuck him. Jack wanted something, but it wasn't sex, and it would therefore take some extra time for Holly to get to the bottom of it. But, right, he didn't remember his comment about 'seeing' Noah, but it wouldn't surprise him to learn he'd said it. Noah wanted to be seen, right? He'd said it a bunch of times, and it was kinda Holly's way of acknowledging that he saw him, this Noah, and not the one back home. Which, okay, didn't possess the mega-depth Noah had assumed, but it was a really big deal for someone who'd seen that Noah in his nightmares for years, right?
The aspirin was fantastic, and the conversation about Gramps reminded Holly to check the phone, where he'd been having the conversation with Gramps that Noah was referencing. He leaned forward and unzipped his backpack, and he pulled the phone out and began swiping. But, you know, the thing about the car distracted him, and he momentarily balanced the phone on his kneecap. "It's just a car. Guys don't lend other guys their cars, unless they're roommates or something, or fucking," he said truthfully, but the offer of the fridge made Holly smile one of his small, genuine smiles. "Yeah? Okay. You can bring it by later." Because Gramps hadn't said Noah couldn't come over, right? So... yeah. They'd..., um, behave.
Behave, which wasn't what was happening with Noah's arm and hand, and Holly really desperately wanted to just stay there. He wanted to lean and stay and nap, and he kinda wanted to just follow his current thought path about how nice it would be to use Noah's chest as a pillow, because he kinda suspected Noah ran hot all. the. time., right? But, yeah, he pulled Noah's arm down, and he regarded that frown with a logical expression. "You're going to lose your job," he countered calmly, but the hand thing? He couldn't deny Noah the hand thing. His willpower wasn't quite that strong today. So, he tugged Noah's hand down, wedged between them like before, and he twined his fingers with Noah's. And then he started absently typing at Jack and Gramps, and the latter kinda made panic spike like a really bad lie detector test, you know, without hardly any of that showing on his face. He was maybe squeezing Noah's fingers way tight.