Noah

March

~~~

Yes, he'd been noticing her lately. And yes, maybe it was a little creepy. But there's no harm in it, none that he intends. He just happens to not hate looking at her every once in a while. Truly, he wants to convince her to be his friend and then eventually, rather sooner than later, have her write him a recommendation letter and then end the friendship right then and thereafter it's done, but that would come in time. He needed to make her trust him, for one.

Noah looked at her when her face lit up in excitement after he scored yet another point during his games, the crowd drowning out as he focused on her. He looked at her as she walked through the courtyard, nose stuck in a book. He looked at her while she talked to her friend, the quirky, wild one who was seemingly the complete opposite of her.

After yet another win, he gathers his stuff in the locker, takes his cleats off and switches them to his normal shoes, and then walks out, ignoring the slaps on the back and the "Good job, man"s by his other teammates which have become normal.

He exits the locker room into the cold air and starts towards the parking lot. He's making a beeline towards his car, when he notices someone not that far ahead of him. It's Dixie. Noah recognizes her easily by the black beanie she was wearing during the game.

He's gathering the courage to say something to her when he sees her slip on the ice patch she was walking towards without even knowing, and with a few steps, reaches her before she can fall completely.

"So clumsy. Can't even stay on her feet for three seconds before falling to her death." Blue mumbles, more to himself than her. He slightly chuckles quietly under his breath at how they're nearly in the same position, him helping her. He's not quite used to this, helping people. But here he is, he's done it twice now with the same girl and he can't figure out why. What makes her any different than any other person who goes to this shitty school?

Once Dixie is back on her feet, she turns to face him. Their eyes lock, and he doesn't look away. He doesn't really want to, she looks so fragile and innocent, the cold making her cheeks and nose turn red.

"Noah," Dixie says. "What are you doing here?

Noah can't help but scoff. It's not like he was in normal clothes and wasn't just at a soccer game that she watched and cheered for. But, because she needed to be his friend in order for him to get into college, he held back some of his sarcasm.

"Well, what does it look like? I just saved you from yet another serious injury. Duh." He runs his hand through his black hair, which looks even darker in the night sky. She kind of perked up a little bit when he smirked, and immediately after as a reflex he stopped. Noah doesn't usually smile, or smirk at people and he doesn't know why he decided to now while talking to this girl who means nothing to him.

A few moments pass of uncomfortable silence, with neither of them really knowing what to do next. They've never really spoken, not even when he accidentally hit her with the door. He knows that he needs to find a way to be friends with her, but he's never really been friends with anyone, give him a break.

"Sorry. I don't really know what to say right now." Dixie says, shakily. Blue wants to laugh at this. How can one person's nervousness be so amusing? He'd never taken more enjoyment in one person before, but everything she said or did seemed... Nervous. And it drove him hysterical.

"Well. Usually a thank you is a good way to start. Since, I did, save you from falling on your ass." Noah says, clearly noting that she's checking him out like she did in the nurse's office. He notices when she shivers and considers asking her about what she thinks about the weather, but he knows that would be too boring. Social interaction outside of teachers and family is strange, foreign, and he often avoids it. People can be so... boring. Cookie-cutter. Plain and dull and unintelligent and he didn't have time for people like that.

Dixie looks away. "Thank you for saving me. Now, I should really be going before another near-death experience strikes again." She starts to walk away from him. Noah doesn't know what to do about this, all he knows is that he has to do SOMETHING about it. Nobody walks away from him. He's usually the one who walks away from people. Nobody walks away from him, and certainly not this small chick who is supposed to write his recommendation letter so he can leave this godforsaken place.

"Hey, Dixie, wait up," Noah says, not really knowing why. All he knows is that he needed to stop her. She was his ticket to college and he could see his opportunity walking away from him, literally. She freezes in her place when he calls out to her, and he stops in front of her, looking down at her green eyes, now dark tree green in the night sky.

He hesitates for a moment, not knowing what to do now that he's stopped her. Why did he stop her again? This was a bad idea. But he guesses that it's too late to stop now. He needs to come up with something, and quick because her beady little eyes are staring at him expectedly.

"Can I have a ride? My car's been having some trouble lately..." He blurts, knowing very well that his newer Audi that he got a couple months ago is sitting in the parking lot, not a scratch on it.

But what can he say?

She was his ticket. And he couldn't let his ticket get away.