P.O.V: NOAH (The Next Day)

I slept well that night, surprised to awaken on my accord as opposed to muffled voices outside of my door. It was an odd feeling—not a bad one, don't get me wrong. Just unfamiliar. I glanced at the clock and... 10:30am. I definitely needed that extra sleep. I was hungry, but I could wait until lunch was served.

I threw on a plain shirt and some swim trunks. Without Ezekiel breathing down my neck, maybe I could actually explore the facilities; do something other than self-torture via redneck.

Daily routine aside, I grabbed a towel that was so graciously provided by the resort (thanks Chris) and made my way down the hall. I had recently realized that I was more social in the mornings (not immensely so, but enough where someone could approach me with conversation and I would actually dignify it with a response), but had also picked up on the fact that Eva is not to be disturbed during her morning ritual.

Learn from Homeschool's mistakes.

I opened the back door to the pool portion of the resort. My eyes drifted over the scene and to my avail, I was all by myself. Excellent.

The layout was resemblant of paradise—so much better than the trash pit I expected upon arrival. There was the pool and a hot tub, and in the shallow end of the pool, there were small stools to sit at a submerged bar, which actually just a shaded table in the water. There are children here! What's alcohol?

But I was about to make it my base of operations.

I waded in like a little bitch who can't stand a tiny bit of cold water, (spoiler: it's because that's exactly what I am) and made my perch on one of the cushions, book in hand.

The peaceful atmosphere was to die for. You know that ringing in the back of your head that you can only hear when your ears aren't picking up any sound—the literal sound of nothing? I live for that noise 95% of the time.

...But that wasn't one of those times. Go figure that the one time I actually manage solitude on this stupid game show, I didn't want it. I shrugged to myself. I'd force Eva to talk to me once she made her way outside. She liked to do laps around the pool after her lifting workout.

I heard the creak of a door behind me and couldn't help but perk up. "Perfect timing," I crooned, closing my book. "I was waiting for you to get here."

"Were you really?"

...Wait. No, that definitely not the voice of a female bodybuilder who likely has some sort larynx injury. I turned quickly, and to validate my suspicion, there stood the man I had completely forgotten had arrived last night. Justin had received a boost to his ego and now stood posed just outside of the back door... And I was staring at him like an idiot that lacked self-control. Nice.

I scrambled for the words that just weren't coming to me. "Oh, sorry. Figured Eva was finished being her ridiculous self for the morning. Didn't mean to bother you."

He pouted at me, starting to approach me at the pool. I tried to push a super power out of my eyes to keep him locked in place. Unfortunately, it didn't work. "What, so you're not happy to see me."

"I'd say I'm pretty neutral on the subject." Okay, that was a blatant lie. Keep up the great work.

"Maybe you caught me at a bad angle," he suggested, situating into a new pose on the pool's edge. "This one suit your fancy?'

Yes, it did. I fought a more obvious stare and decided to give him a dry look-over. He didn't need the confidence boost, I mean he look at him... But at that, there was a some sort of shift in his expression that I didn't quite understand. My first instinct was to be sympathetic towards him, but my first reaction was me laughing at him.

I don't have a lot of friends. Have I made that obvious yet?

There was a shift in his stature and expression that made me feel uneasy. It didn't seem very... Him, if that makes any sense.

What, was he offended?

Yeah, right. As if the opinion of one nerdy little Indian boy mattered even the slightest to him.

I'd been silent for too long at that point. I instantly did what I did best: tried to push him away so that I could return to solitude. "Look, I'm just trying to finish this book without any distractions." I flashed him the cover of the book that I had supposedly told him all about a week or so ago.

He shrugged, looking a lot less enthusiastic than how he had started that conversation. "I'm sorry to be the barer of bad news, but it turns out that you're going to have some problems, because I don't plan on leaving anytime soon." A half-decent attempt to keep insisting his self-love onto others with a cherry on top that was the smile he sent along with it.

"Easy on the self-flattery," I grumbled, flipping through the pages of my book passive-aggressively until I found where I had last read. "There's vanity and then there's narcissism. One is far more tolerable than the other, but don't get either of them mistaken for a healthy dosage of confidence, because I can personally assure you that they're not."

He looked at me and blinked a few times.

...Okay, so maybe I overdid it, but in my defense, the last few days had put me in a more hostile mood than usual, especially towards disgustingly attractive strangers for some reason. I completely expected him to snap at me; to look at me and complain at me, all while expertly tossing in reminders of his own beautiful existence to keep his ego high and mighty (like it was some sort of art he had perfected).

But what he actually did surprised me. With a look that showed nothing but his own defeat, Justin turned and went off from the water's edge and back towards a row of chairs.

I blinked. Yes, I was a snarky asshole 95% of the time, but most of my banter was just assumed by those who listened to not be taken seriously—unless my voice raised raised, I never should be! Sarcastic is my default, though I sincerely doubt that needed to be pointed out.

But, I had offended him—someone with a vibe that seemed to be impenetrable by the words of a quippy boy he didn't know.

I put my book down. ...I felt angry.

...Was that even the right word?

This guy had been offended at something that I had rudely told to his face and I was feeling mad at him!... Was that even the right phrasing; the right word? I felt angry-ish... And also an odd combination of that and sick to my stomach... And something else that I didn't know how to word.

...Then it hit me.

Oh dear God, call the news channel: Noah Sterecra felt guilty.

I tilted my head back into what was probably one of the most immature groans that I'd ever managed before. When I noticed that it had captured Justin's attention, I turned back to the table top to avoid eye contact.

Empathy. What the hell, nobody told me I had that shit. I needed to speak to life's manager immediately about that.

...Would that be God?

Unimportant, Noah. I needed to learn to stop getting tangled up in the details of my hypothetical situations I created in my internal monologue. It was beginning to be a major problem.

I gave the situation a few moments before I decided to address it. I glanced over my shoulder as casually as I could manage, and to my rare good fortune, he was laying down in a chair with his eyes closed.

Time to get my thoughts in order.

First things first, Justin was different than I thought he would be. He seemed decent enough to have (and recall) conversation. ...Though he did have one hell of a superiority complex—but then again, who was I to judge anyone on that topic? And apparently he was sensitive to what I had to say, which was completely the opposite of what I expected of him. I expected something closer to how Heather acted. Something like "I don't give a flying f**k what you think about me, I'm the shit." I've been wrong before.

I was thrown for one hell of a loop. Another peak up at him validation his emotion. There was just this nearly tangible force-field of "Don't come near me" that I'd never felt (but always expected) from him.

God, I was so guilty. I needed a distraction.

"Move it, twerp!"

Hello, distraction. At last.

I suppose it made sense that when a mean, bitter person like me asked a godly figure for a favor that something more satanic would arrive, in the form of his daughter. With the audible sound of someone's face against the poolside pavement, Eva and her little whipping boy were on the scene.

"And the iron woman makes her grand entrance," I commented with my usual level of monotone and apathy, loud and proud for all to hear.

"Quiet, string-bean," she snapped back. "I need to finish my cardio."

I rolled my eyes. "Like you need it."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

I threw up my hands defensively, as if they could actually protect me if she decided that she wanted to start throwing punches. "I just don't get why you have to do the same routine every single day. You're already buff, we get it. Leave some motivation for the rest of us, you know?"

She looked at me, completely unamused at that, along with most other things in her life that she was forced to deal with. "Unlike most people, I actually like the feeling of being warn out after a long workout. It's actually fulfilling compared to going to bed, thinking of all the text messages I'd sent while sitting on my ass all day!"

"It was just a comment," I grumbled, rolling my eyes at her. "No need to get so overkill about it."

A sarcastic laugh took me off guard. It only took me a moment to notice that it was Justin from his spot across the way. There was a pang of guilt that slammed me in the chest. God, why did I care!?

...It probably had something to do with the deflated look in his eyes when it had happened. That might just do it.

Eva turned on her heel and started in her ritual of running aimlessly around the pool. Now, I can see how someone who's just seeing this situation and these people for the first time would get confused as to how I could even consider someone like her my friend, I totally do. She liked me!...

Eva really is just... Subtle.

If someone like Ezekiel had been the one sitting in my place, she wouldn't have spoken a word and her headphones would've been jammed into her ears, music blasting. Both of those things weren't true in my case.

See? Friendship, probably.

Okay, and I know that's a pretty bad example seeing as how impossible he is to even tolerate, but that's just the first person that came to mind. Even Justin trying would get the same result—which reminded me that I desperately needed him off of my mind.

"You know, you could use a good regiment." I looked up to catch Eva running just from my view. "You need it."

Ouch. No, that isn't what I needed right about then for both my previous argument or self confidence. Eh, maybe she didn't mean it all that badly. I mean, she'd say that to just about anyone who wasn't ripped with an unnecessary 24-pack.

"Not my forte," I replied simply—an easy go-to response for just about anything you could possibly not want to deal with.

"I doesn't take much to just get off of your ass for a few minutes every day."

I glared at her. I had a medical condition; most athletic things truly were off the table—but of course I didn't expect her to know that. I opened my mouth to rebuttal but another voice beat me to the punch.

"Don't talk to him like that." Justin's voice was airy, but harsh in a way that sent a chill through my bloodstream. His voice was always that way, but never would I have described it as intimidating before then. Either way, it had taken Eva just as off guard as it had me.

"Mind your own damn business," she snarled into a warning growl. "Eavesdropping really gets under my skin."

Justin was sitting up now, sunglasses pushed to perch on the top of his head. "And you picking on someone who doesn't deserve it gets under mine."

Maybe it was the attraction that came with a strong, beautiful man being forceful with her, but her mouth was shut. She jogged along, digging through her pockets until she dug out her MP3 in motion. "Whatever," she hissed, her eyes refusing anywhere in either of our directions.

I didn't know what to think. My eyes shifted back and forth from the book in my hands to who sat across the way. My eyes laid blankly on him, but after a moment of prolonged eye contact (god I hate unnecessary eye contact), he softly smiled at me before returning to his comfortable tanning spot with sunglasses over his face.

...I didn't understand this guy!

The guilt practically buried me in a disgusting pile that I was forced to deal with by then. I had pegged Justin all sorts of wrong. He was... Nicer than I would have ever expected... And god forbid, at times selfless.

Maybe I was just overthinking things—I know, world first.

Another external groan forced upon the outside world and I shoved my nose back into my book. I was better at judging people in books... It was all written out for me, none of this judgment-call assumption bullshit. Being social was hard.

A/N: These beginning chapters are hard to get out due to lack of people. I'll likely put more time between each of them to help with story progression. Thank you for those who review/fav/follow! It makes me very very happy and I really do hope that you're enjoying it!

~I do one-shot requests~