Re: [Outside the Rec Center.]
Noah's jealousy was probably mostly anxiety. He was easily calmed, dude. Last night, he'd wanted Holly to tell him that he didn't want the dude offering the free drink. Holly'd opted, instead, to take issue with an assumed implication of prostitution or... slut-shaming? When, really, Noah had just wanted to be told Holly wasn't, like, looking for that. It was the same with Jamie. He wanted to insist once or twice that it might happen and he wanted to be told, no, it wouldn't, and then he could pretty much go back to just being himself. The cam stuff was trickier. He'd spent time wondering how he felt—how he would feel, if he was "dating someone who did cam work," and he hadn't come up with any real answer. But, no, it was true that he hadn't minded taking part, but there was a limit. He knew there was. Even knowing Holly was talking to dudes like they'd initially talked, even if it was just about milking cash, was enough to annoy him. But, right, no claim, and so he just tried not to think about it—or, if he did, he convinced himself it was different with him. Because he did know—sorry, Holly—that this was more than just a fuck. Even if Holly really didn't want it to be.
Snippets of weekend mornings, flooded in early light, came to Noah then, and it was the imagining of himself in bed that tipped him off to the idea that the genesis wasn't in his head. He smiled and it was another one too soft with intimacy, even if it was imagined. He grinned at Holly when the other dude joked about the 20 bucks—or maybe he was serious. It didn't matter. "Nah. Keep it for the coffee maker." Noah laughed, a sleepy, sleep-deprived sound, even with the blue flash of stained tongue. "I could drop the Jeep off, you know, in the morning, if you'll drop me off at the school." Which was a resurrection of the argument that had just died, but Noah didn't see it as an argument. There was nothing inherently weird about two dudes sharing a car. Now. Would people notice it if it stayed overnight downtown on a regular basis? Probably. But, whatever. Holly's stomach was another cocoon-burst of butterflies, and Noah was just glad he did that.
He would've informed Holly again that he wasn't going to lose his job, but Holly's tone took on something that he knew was a lecture precedent, and Noah smiled, prepared for it. It was obviously bullshit that people could be fired for being gay, but it wasn't surprising or anything. "Do you want to go sit in my car then?" It was a little more private. Noah figured Holly would say no, but hey. But, then it stopped mattering, because Holly was sort of freaking out, and Noah looked at the phone as Holly closed his eyes. Gramps, AKA Daniel W, was saying he was a vampire. Noah could feel Holly practically begging him to say it was a joke. It confused him, because it made him feel compelled to lie, and he gritted his teeth a little in a sympathetic grimace as he looked back at the dude. "Yeah, I knew something was weird about him." He folded his fingers into his palms. "Look, Repose is really weird."