FOR THE entire two days that Noel had been at home Ron and Kim were nowhere to be seen, the only indication that stopped Noel from worrying was Cheryl mumbling underneath her breath that her Dad would be home on Wednesday. Yet that did nothing to satiate his curiosity.

Come Monday, Noel had already stumbled his way into school, dressed in a bright blue knitted beanie, a large blue t shirt with words scrawled across in French and faded denim jeans.

"Looking good Noel!" May had bounded over to Noel with a bright smile on her face, her hair was pulled back into a tight bun, highlighting her brown imploring eyes. "It feels like I haven't seen you in forever!"

"You're unusually happy." Noel retorted simply, being back in school, for whatever reason, felt to be a strange and foreign experience, the beauty and mystery of Wood Acre becoming more and more like a forgotten dream, it felt as if he had made it all up. May grabbed onto his arm, leaning her body weight into his.

"I'm not allowed to be happy?"

"What happened?"

"Me and Bethany are friends again!" May then began to giggle uncontrollably, swaying to and fro while using Noel's arm as a stability point.

Just as her name was mentioned, Bethany came stalking down the hallway with Dylan mirroring her large steps. "Hey team!" Dylan was the first to holler loudly, he too had a bright shiny smile adorned on his face. Bethany's however was placid but even Noel couldn't replace the slight quirk to her lips, the shininess to her eyes.

"I'm glad everyone is happy." The contagious positive energy was catching onto Noel and he couldn't help but start to draw his lips into a smile too, his fingers fiddling with the fray from his denim jeans.

"How was your weekend Noel." Bethany had said quietly, while saying this she had removed May's sticky fingers from Noel's arm and had gone to slip her fingers into hers. May only looked at her with a strange glint in her eye before looking at her battered trainers.

"Um-" Noel didn't know where to begin and he didn't know if he wanted to experience all those emotions again. "It was fine-"

"Mine was amazing!" Dylan had broke in, his large shit eating grin growing in intensity. "Me and Alex are now official, we went on our first date and we ate chipotle."

"How is this the first time I'm hearing of this?" Bethany's eyebrows quirked in amusement. "I swear you guys stopped talking months ago."

"We did but then I met her at the skate park with Noel a while ago and we've basically rekindled from then-"

Noel had began to tune out the conversation once he saw Myron walking down the hallway, one strap of his backpack hanging onto his shoulder, just like the curved branches of Wood Acres many trees, his long brown fingers like the support he gave Noel, his eyes reminding him, that he was home. Noel felt the world stop once Myron caught his gaze, as if a bright lightbulb turned on and ignited his body, his steps were quicker, lighter, more concise as he travelled his way towards Noel, and that sick empty hollow feeling Noel had felt once he left Wood Acre was gone, because he was here with him.

"Hey." Myron spoke first, he always spoke first, Noel felt he was always more than him.

"Hi." Myron drank in Noel's appearance, he was dressed super edgy today, his curls slipping out of his woven beanie and into his eyes, he stretched out his tan hands to pull the curl away, he wanted to see the colour in full intensity, it felt like it had been so long. "Better." Yet instead of pulling his hand away he rested his palm on the side of Noel's face, which was getting increasingly hotter the longer he rested his hand there.

"Ahem, Myron you haven't said hi to us." And with Dylan's shockingly blunt tone Myron retracted his hand like wildfire, his senses and morality tumbling back into him at full force. He shot Dylan a forced smile, nodding his head slightly at May and Bethany conjoined at hip and began to stalk away, then Noel's voice cut through.

"Hey Myron! See you at lunch."

Before he could muster out a response the group had began to scuttle away, the bell sounding harshly in Myron's ear.

It sucked to be back.

But it didn't suck as much as he thought it would.

____________

The cafeteria seemed louder than usual, the smell of three day old meatloaf was pungent to Myron's nose, the pointless gossip seeping out of people's mouths sounded vapid and hollow.

Ever since Myron had come back from Wood Acre he felt weird, as if he was mainly floating around in a shell of a body, he wrote down his notes in class and laughed at crude jokes and played football, but it felt like he was on autopilot, running through the motions like a programmed robot. He tried to talk to his parents but they were so mad at Myron for going over to Wood Acre they proceeded to blank him out, staring past him like he wasn't there at all, just like his sisters.

"Hey Myron!" Noel was sitting at a table flanked by his new comradery, he looked so relaxed, his body slumped over casually, his beanie sliding off his curls in final defeat. Noel was half listening to Dylan gabble about a new skateboarding trick he picked up last weekend before he called Myron over, his frame perking up at his presence, yet he could see the glazed look in Myron's eyes, the way his knuckles flinched against the harsh fabric of his backpack.

"Guys, I'll be one minute."

"Where are you going?" May had prosed the question while simultaneously slurping a carton of blackcurrant juice. All Bethany had to do was take one look at Myron to know where Noel was heading off too, she sent him a subtle nod before snatching the juice carton out of May's hand.

"Why'd you do that for!"

"The slurping was annoying me."

"Are you kidding me-"

"Guys-" Dylan broke in sheepishly, he tried not to feel too peeved that nobody was listening to his new elaborate skateboarding trick but nonetheless cleared his throat once Bethany and May garnered there attention towards him. "Noel's gone."

"Er duh, he just said he was leaving." Bethany spewed out matter of factly.

"But he didn't tell me where he was going." May let out a whine, sticking her bottom lip out like a child as she knew it would annoy Bethany.

"Where do you think?" Then Bethany threw the juice carton at May's head.

-----

"What's up?" Noel started off simply, they were standing outside of the school building by the brick wall that was chock full with engraved love notes and messages, Noel scanned the white chalk silently.

TJ + C

J +C

M + E

"I don't know." Myron stared down at the concrete, he wanted to feel something, just like how he felt at Wood Acre, it was tiring carrying around a tired body.

"You can tell me anything, you know that? I won't judge you, just like you didn't judge me." Noel had removed his gaze from the scattered scrawlings and stared Myron heavily in the eyes, his gaze was searching, fiery hot and scorching as he peeled Myron open for answers. His stare elicited a sharp shock through Myron, he wanted more, he wanted to get closer.

He tentatively took a few steps closer, stopping until he was a breath away from Noel. "You won't judge me?"

"No."

Before Myron could even think about his next actions he leant even closer and he began to feel.

He could feel Noel's curls tickling against his own faded dark blue scruff, he could feel the bright Florida sun scorch through his skin, his pounding heart beating in his chest, his fingers trembling awkwardly as he fervently grabbed onto Noel's t-shirt, he could feel Noel's lips against his own, soft, warm, light. It was all so much and so little and was over as quickly as it began.

The shell that had encompassed Myron before had all but gone and evaporated, his hand still held onto Noel's shirt, no longer trembling but still slipping through the material. Noel took a large step back, his expression clouded.

"Lunch is almost over, I have to get to class." Then he practically sprinted away, leaving Myron standing by the tacky brick wall in the sticky hot sun.

As Myron watched his retreating frame, he wondered whether that was the best decision he ever made, or the worst one.