Re: Holly's place: Holly/ Noah
Holly really did mean what he was saying. He was trying to be selfless here, which was something insanely not-instinctive to him. I mean, yeah, there was jealousy and anger, and he felt so much stuff about this, like so fucking pissed at Noah's mom for everything she'd ever done, like, so sorry that Noah had to go through this shit at all. All of it. And Holly did understand Noah's love or loyalty for his mom; he knew something about shitty parents, if not anywhere near as shitty, right? But from where he was sitting, yeah, this connection? It was amazing, it was, and it practically made him want to crumble into a heap to, like, insist how he was doing. But, the way Holly saw it, someone had to put Noah first for once. He really believed he was doing that.
The guy was crying... Noah, Noah was crying, and all Holly wanted to do was hold him. I mean, really, that's all he wanted to do period. "I know it wasn't me." He repeated it to soothe Noah, and he repeated it because he knew it was true. I mean, it wasn't his fault. It wasn't Noah's fault, either, and Noah was the one who had gone through this head-fucking shit again maybe, and to Holly's mind? The maybe had to be even worse, right? He let Noah pull his, Holly's, hands down. Then, Noah was fumbling and it took Holly a medicated second to realize what was going on. When Noah showed him the screen, Holly just covered Noah's hand, the one on the phone, with his own. He looked at the guy, right? Right into his sad, tear-stained, beautiful fucking face. "Noah," he said, and it was gentle for Holly, the tone, "I haven't ever met your mom, and I know she's going to say yes if you make that call, even if nothing happened, and it's just going to make you feel worse and more twisted around." It was control, right? It was handing a desperate woman, one that didn't want to let go, control; she'd take it.