Alright! As always thanks again to all of you for your continued support as always! :) And to show my appreciation… I'll just shut up and let you guys get to reading instead of listening to me gush in appreciation like the bleeding heart I am. Lol. XD This chapter picks up almost immediately after the last chapter with Noah going to meet and talk to Cody after their last awkward discussion. Enjoy!

(Noah's POV)

Am I seriously doing this?

Even though I looked up at the sign on the breakfast place… I realized that was probably the most superfluously stupid question I've ever asked, even to just myself.

But… whatever? My life is already so damn weird.

I walked in and saw Cody eating what was left of an omelet and looking at his phone as I let out a sigh, well until he looked up and saw me.

Yup, no turning back now.

He gave me the most painfully awkward look and smile ever with an equally awkward wave. Even when I finally got to the table, you could practically slice through the awkwardness with a butter knife at this point. And dude, honestly… I don't even know how the hell I'm feeling right now about this?

"Hey." He finally cut in, right as I sat down.

I still had no idea what to say as I just quirked up an eyebrow and responded equally as awkwardly as I sat down, "Uh… hi?"

We both just kept sitting there in awkward silence until a server just came over and started pouring coffee into my cup before walking off.

Hey, weirdass situation or not… I never turn down coffee.

After continuing to sit there in silence as I took a sip, I decided to just rip off the awkward as all get out band aid as I said, "So… what exactly are we doing here?"

Sure it was blatantly obvious why after our last discussion… but still.

I had no idea why he really asked me to come here or what the heck he even wanted to talk to me about that required meeting up again?

But, luckily it seemed like he wanted to just get this awkward-ass situation out of the way as he said, "Honestly, I just wanted to make sure we were still… cool, I guess? Look Noah, I don't want to be 'this guy' but… dude, you're my best friend. Honestly you and Owen are practically the closest things I have to brothers and I just don't want this thing that's going on between me and Sierra ruin all that."

I held up my hand as I started, "Dude, it's not like we weren't 'cool'. Whatever you do is your own thing."

His face lit up as he started, "Really? I thought you'd still be calling me completely insane because I'm with Sierra now?"

"Oh no, I still think you're insane. After season 3 and a bunch of other weirdass stuff… I still don't get it." All he did was let out a sigh in response to what I said at first until he responded, "Yeah… saw that coming. But look, I get it and even to me it's still hard to explain. But, it all just kinda… happened."

I shrugged and crossed my arms before responding, "Just saying, and this is coming from a guy who had to deal with Owen going back and forth toward the end when he was with Izzy. I mean yeah, all things considered, Izzy and I were pretty cool with each other. But that chick's still battier than my grandma's attic coated with copious amounts of agent orange. I just thought I was done with all that crap when her and Owen finally broke up. And then when you told me about what's going with you and Sierra… dude, I just needed to think."

I quickly cut in, wanting to make sure I was making myself very clear.

Even though I had to hold back on the part that now Owen had to involve me in his whole thing with Kitty and… dude, now I understand why my dad has a beer almost every night after dinner.

Ugh… Life is totally insane.

I was snapped out of it when I heard him sigh again as he said, "I get that and even I still think it's crazy sometimes, but… I don't know? She used to completely terrify me, but ever since we slowed things down and I got to know her and making compromises with her… things got better. Sure there's still the gitch situation and we're still working on that, but… it's progress! And things have been going oddly really well since we started dating. We just haven't completely gone public with everything and Sierra respected that with me which I almost couldn't believe. But, we just have slowly gotten better at compromising. I even met her mom Trish a few months ago… and it was then I learned to never go into the spare bedroom. Don't get me wrong, Trish was a nice lady, but… her obsession with Chris made Sierra's with me look normal. Also, after the whole plane incident, Sierra even told me she's even tired of her mom's crush on Chris. Anyway… Again, I'm still really sorry about the whole thing with you and Emma."

I tried to wave it off as I started, "Don't worry about it. Besides, you forget I'm pretty much dating an 'almost lawyer' at this point. Emma sounded like she got the whole thing handled so we should be in the clear from now on." I smirked, still thinking back to that stroke of genius… until I heard Cody start up again, "Yeah, he-he… about that."

I quirked up an eyebrow as I responded with guarded skepticism, "What?"

Cody rubbed the back of his neck as he started, "Uh… yeah, I guess a little before I took you and Emma to Sierra's place, Sierra was at the airport waiting for a client and she saw you sitting near the baggage claim and… okay, long story short, this happened."

He pulled something up on his phone and I was wondering what he was even talking about… until I saw it.

It was a screenshot from the official Total Drama fan site, my page on the fansite.

I saw a picture of me from when I was on the race and then there was a picture of me sitting near the baggage claim, waiting for my stuff when I still didn't have a chance to get a working razor to shave since all I wanted to do was get the heck outta that zoo so I could see Emma.

And right above the pictures was a prompt that said:

"Hot or Not: Noah Mathai with or without a beard?" It looked like it was apart of some stupid interactive voting poll that people could comment on as I felt like I was about to have an aneurysm.

What… the hell?...

"Well, look on the bright side? Chicks seem to dig you with the beard, huh? He-he…" He cut in nervously.

I didn't even pay attention to the results and felt 10 times more creeped out about this whole thing once I did when I saw 24% under my picture without the beard, 47% under the picture with the beard, and then the remaining 29% for both.

And then I really felt the regret in full force when I looked down at the comments… and immediately felt regret as to why the hell I thought it was even a remotely good idea.

Yeah, I needed 'creepy online fangirl fuel' to get me through the day like I needed a hole in my head, so… sure. Why not?

Eventually I couldn't help it as I finally slipped out from my inner monologue, "Okay, that isn't going to be nightmare fuel for me for a while."

"Hey man, I know this is a weird situation, but I don't know why you keep shaving off your beard? I mean, I'd kill to be able to grow a beard like yours instead of only being able to grow out nothing but weird patches like my dad. Anything to make me look older..." He said, still not getting why I keep shaving.

But, I might deal with having my face feeling like it's being bitten by those fire ants in that glove we had to reach into in South America during the race someday since Emma said she liked the beard on me.

Even after seeing that weird-ass, creepy post that Cody showed me… yeah, I'd still totally do it for Emma at some point if she's still 'into it'.

I shrugged and said, "What can I say? It's not my thing and I don't feel like going full on stereotypical 'Canadian mountain man' like my dad and most of my brothers right now. But who knows? Emma said she likes it, so… maybe someday?"

It was quiet for a second until Cody smirked and crossed his arms as he leaned back and said, "And you said you didn't know who I was anymore when it comes to getting a girlfriend? I mean, hope you don't mind me saying, but Emma's... yeah. Good for you dude."

I was trying to hold it in as I just smirked and said, "Wow… thanks. What's that supposed to mean about me?"

I scoffed out a laugh with a smirk as Cody laughed before things settled out again. It stayed quiet until I saw Cody hold his hand out to me as he asked, sounding hesitant, "So… does this mean we're still good?"

Sure, I still think he's crazy for dating 'little miss stalkerlicious', but…

Eventually I smirked as I started, knowing this was the least awkward way to get out of this situation, "Yeah, we're good."

We clapped hands for a second before letting go. Since the server still didn't come by and I still wasn't hungry anyway, I just got up and led on, "Well, I think I'm gonna cut out and see if I can get on a plane.''

I was about to walk off until I heard, "Noah?"

After stopping short, I looked over my shoulder as I saw Cody slowly start to grin and get a look as he asked, "How did it feel to say that to Chris?''

It was almost like I couldn't help myself when I got his drift as I said, "Probably about as good as it felt when you punched Duncan in the face… and then multiply that by a million. Honestly, I wish I would have said it sooner."

He just smirked and said, "Still on for the Dragon Assassin raid on Wednesday with the guys now that you're back?"

I just smirked back as I said, "I don't know? Is the Pope Catholic?"

We both just snorted out laughs and we clapped hands one more time before exchanging smirks as I finally walked out.

Honestly, for a weird-ass situation… that could have gone worse.

But Cody was the least of my problems for now, can't wait to hear what dad's going to say to me this time once I get home after getting booted again.

Okay, I know the plot didn't really go anywhere, but I just wanted to highlight some more 'friendship' interactions between Noah and Cody. And while Noah still thinks Cody is insane for dating Sierra… they're still cool! After all with them having the embarrassing accidental 'spooning incident' captured on TV as teenagers when they first started becoming friends, saying Cody and Noah are good at handling weird and awkward situations at this point in their friendship would be an understatement. But, this is when I'll be delving more into friendship, family, and of course romantic relationship dynamics. As you could probably tell from the final line and the hints I dropped in previous chapters, Noah isn't really close with his family or his parents, especially he and his dad butt heads quite a bit {to be seen later on. ;)}. Thank you all so much for taking the time out of your day to read and constructive feedback is always appreciated.

Stay Classy!

Dexter1995