(Feedback always welcome. Enjoy!<3)
Xoxo,
Nightingale
*
"It's only for the weekend." Noah was a bleach blonde scene, that all the girls in college drooled over, with dark brown dyed underneath and almost every piercing you could think of that would fit on his face. Bridge, dimples, angle bites, snake bites, labret, industrial above his cheek and underneath his eyes, eyebrow and let's not forget the nose piercing. He had an athletic body, but not the bulky type, maybe one they would advertise swim trunks for in an add. He was 5'7 with one blue eye and one pale green.
Doctors had said the two colors were from an eye disease he had.
"You do understand that Stephen and I don't get along, right?" Noah said raising his thin eyebrows and watching his mom as she moved from the pantry towards the stove, checking the beef stew and glancing at him.
"He's changed, a lot in fact."
"Mom," Noah said moving towards the edge of the table. "I'm not staying if he comes down here. I'm not sharing my bedroom with him; I'm not going to show him around college campus. How old is he? Almost twenty-four and how old am I? Going on twenty-two and you're asking me to chaperon him around like he's a fucking retard."
"Noah!" He chewed the edge of the inside of his bottom lip, feeling his heart do a summersault as his mom spun around. She raised a finger, pointing it at him and giving him the motherly death look. "One, don't use that word. You KNOW how it makes me feel. Two, watch your language. Three, he's your cousin and I don't give a damn how much you dislike him. You will treat him with respect while he's here and you will keep him company."
"Sure." Noah said turning. He never argued with he mom when she did the one, two, three thing at him. He moved down the hallway towards his bedroom, ignoring her as she continued on in a shout.
"I expect you to eat dinner with us tonight!"
Noah shoved his door shut, kicking a pair of jeans out of his way and letting his body collapse on the bed. He buried his face in his pillow, squeezing the corners and holding in a frustrated growl trying not to let his mind dwell on the person he hated most. Stephen was one of those cousins that always teased and picked on you, embarrassing you in front of your friends and always keeping your face a bright red. Noah didn't even want to think about it. He turned his face, with a frown plastered to it, sliding his fingers up underneath his bangs and pulling them back away from his eyes so he could see the window.
He watched through the bent blind as his dad pulled up into the driveway.
"Noah!" He ignored his mom, jumping up and locking his door. He wasn't about to walk out there and pretend like everything between him and his cousin was fine, because it wasn't. A couple minutes after sitting on his bed he heard his dad knock before speaking through the door. "Noah, get your ass out here and say hello to your cousin." He could hear Stephen's voice in the kitchen, laughing and talking with his mom. "Now." Usually when his dad said now the way he just had, it meant get into gear or I'll whip your ass. So Noah clamped his jaw shut tight, standing up and moving towards his bedroom door. He unlocked it, jerking it open, standing there for a second and looking at his dad who put his arm around his shoulder's, pulling him close and whispering something he could hardly hear.
When they got into the kitchen Noah was unable to escape what he called his dad's death grip. It was one of many. This particular one was the one where he would drape his arm around Noah's shoulders so tight that it would hurt, clamping down on a shoulder and holding him up against his side while he introduced Noah to someone.
Noah hated it.
"So, Noah has decided that his room is yours until you leave Monday." His dad said, releasing him finally and patting him on the back before squeezing his neck. "Right Noah?" "Yeah, sure. Everything is yours for the taking." Noah said shrugging him off and moving around the table. He sat down next to his mom, glancing at Stephen who was already seated, and unfortunately sitting right in front of him. He really had changed. . .
Stephen used to have short brown hair, really short, the kind of short that basketball players wore. But now, he had grown it out into a punk/rock style, shaving the sides and wearing a flat Mohawk that definitely had Noah gawking over. He'd gotten the bottom left corner of his lip pierced and he had hardly realized the fashionable glasses perched on Stephen's attractive nose.
"Noah said he would give you a tour of the college campus, maybe you two can be roomies when a room opens up." His mom said after five minutes of silence.
Noah poked at his salad.
"That's cool." Stephen said over a mouthful of potatoes. Okay, Noah definitely felt awkward. Here was his cousin, ten times more attractive than he had ever been, eating with them at the dinner table and he hadn't seen him for over five or six years.
"I have a paper due in the morning." Noah said shoving his plate back and standing up.
"Noah," His dad started. "Goodnight honey, make sure you get Stephen set up okay?"
"Sure."
Okay, Noah was free for at least twenty or thirty minutes. It wasn't like they missed him or anything because they were laughing and having a jolly ol' time chatting away at the dinner table. But those twenty minutes diminished fast and pretty soon Noah's parents were out the front door for a little bit of gambling and hard drinking. They wouldn't be back until the fallowing morning.
Noah's bed was big enough to fit four, that's how he liked it. In case one of his girlfriends slept over, then he'd have enough room and wouldn't have to sleep in the living room or on the floor for that matter. So Stephen would be sleeping beside him and from passed experiences, Stephen was a bed hog.
"I expected there to be more than one bed." Stephen said breaking his concentration and making him glance up. Stephen stood in the doorway with two bags in his hands glancing around Noah's room, probably admiring it. His walls were black and decorated with various drawings, paintings and crazy quotes from dead authors and movie stars. His curtain drapes were red, his floor was a dark and shiny hardwood floor and ceiling painted in lustful designs and naked woman, all of which he had created himself.
Noah had always been an artist at heart.
"Yeah well," Noah gestured to the bed, looking back down at his half written paper. "this is what I have."
"Awesome." Despite the grudge Noah was holding against his cousin for all the younger years of teasing and embarrassment Noah couldn't help but watch him as he tossed his bag next to the bed.
"I sleep in pajama bottoms, you don't mind do you?" Stephen asked, stripping his shirt off. Noah stared watching as his abs flexed a little while his hand tossed his shirt near the corner. "Noah?"
"Stop talking to me." Noah said looking back down at his paper. He could see Stephen at the corner of his eye grin.
"You're still mad at me aren't you?" He asked. The sound of Stephen's belt jingled distracting Noah even more.
"I'm not mad at you. I'm just a little pissed at the fact that I'm having to share my room with you. I like my privacy." Noah sat up straight, turning his back towards Stephen. DAMN did he have a nice body! Even for as skinny as he was! He had muscle in all the right places, no hair and his voice, god his voice had matured even more than Noah had remembered it last time. Noah had always been attracted to deep vibrant voices and Stephen had just that.
"I wanted a hotel, because I knew this was how you would react." Stephen said. Noah glanced over his shoulder before turning a little and watching Stephen. He had his back turned and had just slipped the waist of his pajama bottoms up over his buttocks. Noah's eyes had worked every inch of Stephen's back admiring the smoothness. Then his eyes ran over the small humming bird tattoo just behind Stephen's right ear.
Humming birds were Noah's favorite.
Noah felt his heart skip a beat when Stephen turned, running a hand over the lower part of his stomach before pushing the covers back, eyeing Noah then climbing up into the bed. They were quiet for a long time before Stephen broke the silence.
"You know I never meant to like. . ." Noah watched his fingers as he let them etch underneath the rim of his pajama bottoms, caressing the smooth skin near his pelvic area. Stephen was comfortable, lying on propped pillows with one hand behind his head. "you know," his dark eyebrows puckered as he stared at up at the ceiling.
"You never meant to what?" Noah asked, closing his notebook.
"You know, I never meant to hurt your feelings if I did." Stephen finally said looking at Noah. "All those years, I was immature and an ass."
"Is this your idea of justification? Because I'm not buying it." Noah said slipping off the bed and moving towards his dresser. He tossed his notebook inside the half open top drawer before pushing it closed and turning to look at Stephen. He was on his elbows now, watching Noah with a strange look in his dark green eyes. "What?"
"I feel the tension, what am I supposed to do to get you to just. . .accept that I'm here?"
Noah wrinkled his nose up, squinting a little before relaxing his face.
"Nothing. Just, stop talking." He left the room leaving Stephen to his thoughts.
[2]
Stephen couldn't figure it out. He cousin had been mad at him for years. He didn't deny the fact that he would shove or tease Noah in the halls when they were in junior high or laugh at his friend's jokes when he passed by in the hall during their high school years. He was a complete ass and he had been only to impress his friends and the cheerleaders. But now that both of them were more mature and creating paths of their own through college courses and homework, his cousin seemed to take it a lot harder than he had back when they were younger.
He'd been staying at his Aunt and Uncle's for two weeks now and they were hardly home. He gathered that Noah pretty much lived in the small two bedroom/two baths alone half the time unless his parents wanted to sleep off hang over's or had to work. And even then they worked irregular shifts with Noah's dad being an officer and his mom being a full time nurse.
Noah had slept half his nights in his parent's bed because of his grudge and Stephen couldn't take the silence any longer. Today was the day he would confront him and figure out why Noah really was still so angry at him. He started off by cutting Noah off in the hallway.
~
Noah raised his eyebrows stopping short in his tracks when Stephen cut him off, putting an arm out and leaning up against the wall on his hand. His mind raced and he was in no mood to deal with whatever Stephen had up his sleeve.
"Can we talk?" Stephen asked.
"Is this how you approach your girlfriends?" Noah asked going to move around him. Stephen cut him off again by backing up into his path, extending his other arm out and resting his hand on the wall.
"Sometimes, when the mood suites me." Stephen answered.
"I have somewhere I need to be." Noah said pulling his phone out.
