Re: The Capital: Holly W & Noah N
The bus ride was probably a good thing. It went way slow, and the chilled scenery was the kinda repetitive that didn't do anything to keep Holly's thoughts from drifting, and that was, as previously stated, probably a good thing. He had a lot of stuff in his head, and it was better to exorcise it all before he got to Noah. Like, he wanted to be way calm once he got there, so it seemed like nothing about the Dietre encounter, about Adrian, about any of it bothered him. He wasn't bothered by anything, right? Nothing blindsided him, and that wasn't panic rearing its ugly head right in the middle of his guts. He wasn't white-knuckling the seat at the sides of his thighs, and he wasn't thinking about, like, how Noah had seen him in all kinds of intimate ways. That vulnerability wasn't following a crooked-tainted path along which it had all been a joke, or Noah was playing him, or maybe he was still doing the cottaging thing, or maybe he was with Dietre, or Adrian, or, you know, maybe, maybe, maybe...
So, you know, it was probably better that his thoughts followed all those twisty paths, considered them all, and tried to discount them, because it meant he wasn't likely to crumple at Noah's feet. God, how terrible would that be? And there was that flicker of hope-light in his belly, and that flicker said this was all nothing, and that Noah meant everything he said, and that flicker was warming enough that it'd convinced him to give Noah this hour, right? Maybe two.
He'd maybe tried a little too hard when he got dressed, and he smoothed his soft gray pants as he hopped down from the bus. He wore a long-sleeved, white tee under the sweater, so he was warm enough without a jacket, and, look, he wasn't an insecure guy, but Dietre's bullshit had made some kind of invisible dent. So, right, he'd washed his hair, and the sweater was soft, and he felt okay. Sure, his gut was currently hosting an entire colony of butterflies, but they were frequent renters at this point. He was kinda considering giving them rewards points.
The record store was big, with listening booths in the back, and Holly walked in, his stride deliberately casual, and he tucked a strand of soft-washed hair behind his ear. He noticed Noah, like, right away, because the guy was some crazy magnet or something. He swallowed nervously, not feeling any of the chill that he managed to project on his face, and he walked up to Noah. "Bob Seger, huh?" he asked, giving the records a quick glance through lowered lashes. His voice, he thought, was impressively chill, and he managed not to stare. Instead, he reached for old Seger, and he perused the album cover.