"THE WEDDING is this Saturday."

"Ahhhhhhhhhh can I come!" May was grinning at Noel while downing a carton of orange juice. Bethany sat next to her, twirling her braids through her long fingers.

"Sure everyone can come." Although Noel was still conflicted on the topic of his mom getting married, nothing could dampen his mood.

"Is Myron coming?" Dylan piped up with a grin, his buzzcut had now grown out into swathes of thick brown hair covering his ears, Noel had a feeling he was going to shave it all off again.

"I haven't seen him today." All Noel could think about was Myron, Myron's hair, Myron's eyes, Myron's lips.

"Incoming! Myron at two o'clock!" May burst out into a fit of giggles, her orange juice splaying out of her mouth and onto Bethany.

"Can you not."

"I didn't mean it Bethany, it was by accident-"

"Hey guys." Myron's speech halted May's apologetic spew. She shot a bright smile at him, Bethany nodded her head at him in mild interest and Dylan proceeded to wrap his large arm around Myron's neck. "Sit down you goof."

Myron sat across from Noel, he quirked his lips into a slight smile, his long legs stretching out and pressing against Noel's. "What's going on?"

"My mom and Ron are getting married on Saturday. Do you want to come?"

"Of course." Then Myron leaned closer to Noel, his lips curving up into a flirtatious smile. "I can't wait."

Bethany and May were too busy arguing over thin air, however Dylan had noticed their subtle interaction, he turned his gaze towards them assessing their positions next to each other.

"What's going on with you two?"

Noel abruptly moved his face from Myron's, he began to cough loudly, breaking Bethany and May's argument as they both turned to look at him.

"What- I, see- the thing is-I don't...what...are-" Breaking Noel's stutter came a cheerleader, with brown hair curled up to her shoulders and a nervous expression. She approached their lunch table tentatively, wringing her fingers round and round again.

"Hey Kiana! What's up." May acknowledged her brightly, this then followed a series of uninterested murmurs throughout the table. "What did you need?"

"I wanted to talk to Noel."

"I'm right here." Noel only glanced at Kiana before taking in Myron's appearance again, it was like he couldn't get enough of him, he wanted to wrap his hands around Myron's, stroke his fingers in his hair, hug him so tight that they're menial problems would dissipate into the stained cafeteria floor.

"Wouldyougoonadatewithme?"

"Wha-"

"Sorry I didn't phrase that correctly. Would you wanna, like, maybe...maybe...um, er, like..." Kiana took a deep breath, tucking her curls behind her ears and looking Noel straight in the eyes. "Do you want to go on a date with me?"

"I'm kind of seeing someone at the moment" Noel took an apprehensive tone, he bit at the bottom of his lip as he spoke apologetically. "I'm sorry."

"No, no, that's..." But the words never left her lips as she scuttled away as silently as she came, nothing but the crushed memory of her curls and her recently marred heart left in her wake.

"Your seeing someone? Since when!" Of course May was the first to speak, she clambered over the table, grabbing Noel's cheeks and forcing his squashed face to peer at her angered expression. "Who. What. When. Where. Why. How."

"I-"I-you see... it's-" Noel didn't know how to correctly phrase his answer. Him and Myron's relationship hadn't been confirmed with concrete words, to Noel he knew their relationship, but to their friends, their family, society, it seemed to bore no clear label.

Myron, however, was smirking lazily at Noel, watching May's exaggerated reaction with a disgruntled snort. "May, chill."

"No! I will not chill! Anybody Noel is going to date has to go through rigorous testing, this ultimately being to find out if they're a suitable companion-"

"Wait a minute." Bethany halted May's discombobulated spew, she quirked one eyebrow up, diverting her gaze onto Noel's increasingly sweaty one. "Who could you possibly be seeing? We are literally the only people you talk too." The lunch table went silent for a moment, before Dylan opened his large mouth with a haughty expression.

"That would mean it's someone on this table."

As if simultaneously, all their gazes landed on Myron's increasing grin, to which he spluttered "What, you think it's me?"

"It can't be Bethany and May since they're always joined at hip-" Dylan began stating matter of factly, "and it can't be me since I'm already dating Alex, so that only leaves-"

"Me." Myron began to laugh, his eyes twinkling in the murky cafeteria hall, he got up from his seat from across Noel and sat next to him, breathing in the scent of his strawberry shampoo and extending his arm around Noel's. "Meet my soulmate."

"Soulmate?!" Dylan spluttered. "Dude, do you know the definition of a soulmate-"

"I do!" May piped up. "Two people ideally suited to one another."

"Do you guys even have anything in common with each other or what?" Dylan pointedly ignored May, still staring at Myron in disbelief.

"It's not about having things in common with someone, it's about a connection with someone, like...they just understand you and you understand them...like when I first started talking to Noel, it was like coming home, there was always this energy I could feel, it was like whenever I would finish talking to him I would feel weightless...plus my grandma said so."

Noel watched Myron as he talked, Myron eventually turning his head to meet Noel's gaze, they merely stared at each other for a moment, blue-green eyes meeting dark brown eyes and Noel knew nothing had to be said, he took hold of Myron's hand and squeezed it in his own, intertwining their fingers over the table.

"Do you get it Dylan?" This time Noel spoke with conviction, Dylan only replied with an incomprehensible noise, he shoved his backpack over his shoulder and fled the lunch table quickly, his combat boots thundered against the squeaky linoleum as he left.

May looked over her shoulder with a conflicted expression, she opened her mouth to speak, but Bethany beat her to it.

"I think you should talk to him Myron." Myron only nodded, he rose from the table, sparing a fervid glance at Noel before swanning out of the cafeteria doors.

"Congrats for you both though. I'm really happy for you two." May spoke sweetly, yet her words came out too stocky, too awkward. Noel unintentionally ignored May, he was wringing his fingers together nervously, biting at his lip in frustration.

"Why is Dylan upset? Is it because of me?"

"That's between Dylan and Myron, not you." Bethany stated bluntly, yet her eyes were kind, she tried giving Noel a smile but it came out watery and warped.

"Oh...right." Noel told himself not to worry about it, the table once again fell into a relaxed conversation about putting milk before the cereal and how that was the right way (May) and in contrast the cereal before the milk (Bethany), the argument had started getting heated as May had began to shout, her face turning a snickering beetroot red. Bethany only countered back just as fiercely, leading to them both pushing and shoving each other of their chairs.

All Noel could think about was how he doesn't eat cereal.

----

"Hey! Dylan wait up!" Myron had followed Dylan outside, the sky had started turning dark and grey, despite the fact that it was raining sunshine a few minutes ago.

Dylan halted in his steps, he rose his face to the sky, his dark eyes looking at the blackening rainclouds. "What is it." Dylan's tone was blunt and cold, he reached his hand up to scratch at the skull tattoo on his neck.

"I just wanted to see if-"

"If I'm okay? How about if you're okay?"

"I don't-"

"Myron. What are you doing?"

"I'm sorry if I-"

Dylan whipped around harshly, he faced Myron squarely, searching his face slowly. "You know what you're problem is, you're too nice."

"How is that a problem?"

"Because you can't have too much of a good thing."

"Dylan. You're not making sense-"

Dylan laughed dryly, the first spatter of rain came travelling down the sky in a light burst, it's drops dusting his hair in wet bubbles. "You spend so much time trying to please everyone. Everyone but yourself."

"That's not true."

"Oh really? What about Cheryl? What was that? Or you hanging out with those horrible football guys, or you never addressing your sister's death-"

"Dylan."

"-To your parents, or you latching onto Noel-"

"Dylan!" Myron's voice erupted in an ear splitting cry that was met with a manic grin from Dylan.

"You know Noel was teased for his acne, so in an effort of being too nice you befriended him to mask your own-"

"Stop." Myron's voice became shrill, he balled his hands up into fists, shoving them into his pockets. "You don't know how much Noel means to me."

"Does he know everything about you-"

"I took him to Wood Acre."

Dylan began to laugh again, shaking his head in a fervid attempt to keep his tears at bay. "You told him... or he found out?"

"It was...I..."

"How much does Noel even know about you, huh? I bet you know all about him-"

"That's not what matters!"

"Well it does if your claiming to be his soulmate." Dylan halted his voice for a moment, his throat felt dry from talking. He raked his hands across his face, the rain began to pick up in speed. "You can't rely on Noel to make you happy. You have to do that yourself."

"What am I supposed to do then? Break up with him?"

Dylan began to turn away, hoisting his backpack up into shoulders into a fixed position, he was planning on skipping the last two periods to see Alex at the skate park, he almost felt his expression brighten at the thought of her before being starkly reminded of the situation at hand, Myron, wet and confused and too fucking nice for his own good.

"Be your own soulmate."

Then Dylan left and Myron could feel the rain seep into his shoes and cloud his vision. Any semblance of sanity having vanished from his very being. He was nothing but a dead tree, curled branches that once boasted of colour and vibrancy years ago, but harsh human nature, chemicals and the bitter world had stripped him dry, stole his leaves, left him in the midst with the other trees, trees so bright and good and beautiful, he had to rely on them, he had to rely on their leaves and oxygen and other people's pleasure, to breathe, to keep himself afloat, to keep himself alive.

There was only one question floating through Myron's brain, was this fair to Noel?