EVER SINCE the bathroom debacle, Noel noted on how his home wasn't a home anymore, but was now a house.

Ron didn't even acknowledge Noel's existence, he only talked and interacted with Kim and Cheryl but he never spoke to Noel. Normally, Noel wouldn't have minded too much but for some reason it made him feel abnormally unsettled. Ron never said a word to Noel, but his cold silences and sly murderous glances was enough to make Noel break out into a sweat.

Cheryl wasn't much better, she was always blasting ear splitting pop music every day, all day, and never passed up on the chance to say something rude to Noel, just because she could.

His mom was the only one that spoke to Noel normally, but even Noel could tell it was halting and slightly awkward, almost as if she didn't really know what to say. Noel hated how he had pulled his mom down from cloud nine, but he wasn't entirely how to get her back up there, the only thing Noel could do was let time run its course.

On one particular Thursday, Ron came bounding down the stairs with a bundle of tickets laced in his fingers. "Kim! Cheryl!"

They both turned to look at Ron who's face was leaking with excitement. "At work, I was lucky enough to get three tickets to the ballet and have dinner at 'Al Frezo's' for all of us!"

Cheryl screeched excitedly, her hands immediately reaching for her phone. "What am I going to wear?"

Noel watched Ron hesitantly from the sofa, wringing his hands together, he gave his mom a look, to which his mom nodded silently and addressed Ron. "How many tickets did you get?"

"Three, so for you, me and Cheryl."

"What about Noel?"

"He never wants to come to any outings, I didn't want to end up wasting a ticket."

Ron then turned to Noel, a fake smile stretched against his non-existent lips. "I'm sorry about this Noel."

Noel only nodded, wringing his hands together tightly, his fingernails scraping his skin, creating tiny white marks, so tight till it bled.

________________

Noel's mom and Ron were on a 'Friday date night' leaving Noel at home with Cheryl.

Noel had decided to lock himself in his room and binge watch Gravity Falls because he wasn't in the mood to deal with Cheryl. What Noel hadn't anticipated was that he would need to leave the room to pee and precisely at that moment he saw Cheryl bringing a large ominous figure into the house.

"What are you doing?"

Cheryl chose to ignore Noel, but the figure turned to look at Noel, his hair in that familiar dark blue.

"Noel? What are you doing here?"

"I live here." Noel replied bluntly. He wasn't too shocked to see Cheryl wrapping her long fingers around Myron's face, her expression simpering and fake.

Myron, however, was glancing between Cheryl and Noel with confusion etched across his face. They didn't look alike, like at all. Yet this didn't stop him asking a stupid question.

"Are you guys siblings?"

Cheryl chose to cut in, flipping her auburn hair behind her back. "No, he just lives here."

Cheryl then proceeded to grab Myron's wrist and haul him up the stairs, presumably to take him to her room. "Don't bother us Noel."

"Why don't we all hang out together!" Myron added, stupidly. He unlatched his hand from Cheryl's tight grip and walked over to Noel with a smile, his arm curling around Noel's shoulders.

Myron couldn't help but notice Noel smelt really good, he couldn't put a finger on what type of scent it was-like lotion? He smelt better than Cheryl that was for sure. Cheryl smelt like she dumped the entire bottle of Victoria Secret down her head.

"We can watch a movie, or somethin'"

Cheryl's face curdled into a scowl. She'd intended to lure Myron in with the promise of completing their school project, but it was no secret that Myron was her next victim. What she didn't expect was for him to even converse with Pizzaface. I mean, she found it difficult looking at him for too long.

Noel could feel Myron's large arm curl around his shoulders, the hairs on his neck standing up at an awkward angle at his touch. It'd been long since he'd had physical contact with anyone. Adding to the fact Myron was stroking the back of Noel's neck tentatively, his fingers like a spirit's kiss dancing across his back.

"Oh, no, it's okay, you guys carry on with whatever it is you want to do. I'm just going to go back to watching TV." Noel's voice came out strangely high pitched, his voice a mirror of when he first started puberty. He really wanted Myron to remove his arm from his shoulders as he felt his chest was about to break.

"What were you watching?" Myron carried on chatting in that oblivious dumb-boy-everything's okay kind of way.

"Steven Universe."

"What's that?"

"A cartoon."

Noel could feel the anger practically seeping out of Cheryl's features, he could tell she was devising a plan – she did that a lot.

"Remember Myron! Our project, that's what we're here for. Not for you to canoodle with Pizzaface." Myron's face dropped at the use of the cruel nickname, but he still followed Cheryl up the stairs, Cheryl's long witchy fingers circling around his waist.

Noel watched them walk up the stairs, but he caught Myron looking back, a small smile grazing his lips before he carried on walking.

Noel found himself smiling to the floor, before he run his fingers through his black locks.

What was he going to do again?

Oh right – Steven Universe.

__________________

Today was the day Noel foolishly agreed to meet with May and her mismatch of offensive friends to eat frozen yoghurt. Today was also the day of the ballet, where Ron was going to collect Kim and Cheryl, watch a ballet and then eat at the infamous Al Frezo's.

Noel watched them leave the house, his mom passing him a sweet smile, Ron ignoring him pointedly and Cheryl swanning out of the doors, looking like she was going to a Russian ball rather than being a random blob in the crowd.

Noel didn't know how to feel in the emptiness of the house, the gentle hum of the refrigerator taunted him, the gentle whir of the washing machine heightened his dangerous thoughts.

He was up and ready on bailing on May, but something spurred him to having a shower, changing into some new clothes, tying on his shoelaces, brushing his hair for the first time in three weeks.

And that was the very fact that Noel didn't want to be alone.

________________

The first person Noel spotted was Bethany, her face in its usual judgmental scowl. She was sitting by a large poster of a yoghurt face taking a selfie, and was idly tapping on her phone, a large untouched milkshake sitting beside her.

Noel adjusted his dark blue hoodie before making his way over to her table, he tried to pass her a wan smile, but he was certain that she couldn't even identify he who was.

"Oh, you actually came." Was her dry reply, she carried on typing on her phone carelessly, her dark braids falling over her face before she whipped them back violently.

May then burst into the shop, a large smile on her face as Thomas and Dylan followed in tow. They circled around the table like vultures picking for their prey.

"Hi Noel!" May said excitedly, pushing her chair closer to Noel's so that their knees were touching. Noel was still deciding whether this bothered him or not.

Dylan shot Noel a slight nod, while Thomas threw him a sheepish grin. Noel nodded a both of them but he couldn't help but feel awkward.

Like, really awkward.

"Sooooooo, what fro-yos are you guys ordering?" May started, her fingers wrapping around her lanky brown hair.

"Strawberry and banana." Dylan piped up childishly.

"Mango-it's the best one!" Thomas chided in. His face looked ready to begin another pointless argument with Dylan. He lived for those.

"None. I don't like fro-yo." Bethany stated matter-of-factly, she then proceeded to taking a large slurp out of her ominous looking milkshake.

May ignored her idiotic friends and glanced at Noel. "What about you?"

See Noel tried to avoid dairy products because, acne.

Whether or not it was true was beyond Noel but it couldn't hurt to try. Noel simply gave May a shrug, opting out of an explanation. He really didn't want his acne to be a subject topic again.

"Guess I'm the same as Bethany. Fro-yo isn't my thing."

Noel then could feel Dylan peering at him closely, well at his hoodie.

"Myron said you were chill."

"Wait, Myron Akil?" Bethany broke in randomly. She set her phone down, one of her painted eyebrows rising up.

"Who else would I be talking about. There's only one Myron."

Bethany then turned to Noel, her face surprisingly one of interest. "You and Myron are friends?"

Noel shook his head. "No, not really."

Dylan broke in, his face puzzled. "That's funny he won't stop talking about you."

"Why would he be talking about someone like Noel?" Thomas added untactfully.

Noel decided he didn't like Thomas.

"Shut up Thomas." Dylan said tartly. He then shot a smile at Noel. "A friend of Myron's is a friend of mine."

Noel tried at a smile towards Dylan, but he couldn't shake the glare that he received from Thomas, his ruddy brown eyes squinting unattractively. Bethany then shoved Thomas hard from the side, her face mocking and amused. "Relax Thomas, Noel isn't gonna steal your man."

Thomas made an incomprehensible noise and stood up. "I'm going to the counter. Who's coming with me?" Dylan followed after Thomas while grunting.

May suddenly grabbed Noel's hand. "Let's go, I want to tell you something." Noel almost jumped back at the sudden contact of May's tiny fingers gripping into his own. It wasn't unpleasant. It was just weird.

Bethany looked at May's scheming face. "I'm coming too."

Bethany was well aware of May's angry face, but Bethany wasn't stupid, she didn't know what May was going to do, but she knew she had to be there.

May sighed loudly, but unlatched her fingers from Noel, subtlety ushering them outside the fro-yo store.

"Let's go to the park!"

Noel followed them silently, trailing behind them. May and Bethany were walking together with latched arms, but were clearly having a quiet argument as Bethany pushed May unto the floor a couple of times before they finally reached the park.

"So...What did you want to say to me?" Surprisingly Noel spoke first. He trained his gaze to the leaf covered floor, shoving his hands into the pockets of his hoodie. May looked straight at Noel defiantly, an unreadable expression on her face.

"I want to help you."

"I knew it was about your hero-complex." Bethany drawled out, rolling her eyes as she did so.

"Can you let me finish talking Beth!"

"Okay."

May looked at Bethany in surprise but her face gave nothing away. May then simply shrugged before continuing. "So, as you know I used to have acne-"

"Omg! It was one pimple in eighth grade! Why are you still talking about this?!" Bethany cut in again, her face exasperated. What was May playing at?

"Shut up Beth! Let me finish."

May flashed an apologetic smile at Noel who looked like he wanted to run from the park as fast as possible.

"Anyways, so I had acne and I tried every product ever and none worked. In fact I think it made my face worse. So then I decided to create my own unique blend of products and come freshman year at high school my skin was like a baby's butt."

Noel looked at May quizzically, he didn't understand how her life story correlated with why he was standing in this park.

"I want to give you the product Noel. An experiment if you will. If your acne clears up I'll know it works and then I can mass produce it and become a millionaire!"

Bethany had never wanted to slap May's face as she did now. Forget about hero complex, Bethany was sure May had a villain complex. She was almost expecting Noel to hightail it out of the park, but what he did next shocked her.

"What's it called?"

"Mama May's Miracle Treatment."

Bethany had to stop herself from choking. "MAMA MAY? BITCH YOU'RE SEVENTEEN!"

May regarded Bethany with a glare for the seventeenth time that day. Before passing a smile at Noel. "So what do you say?"

Noel shrugged. "Why not?"

May then proceeded to bursting out with an incredibly elaborate dance routine, her lanky limbs flying everywhere. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!" Before grabbing onto Noel's waist and hugging him tightly. "You have no idea what this means to me."

"No problem."

"Let's meet here tomorrow to discuss phase 2 of my plans."

"Phase 2?"

Bethany regarded Noel with a smirk, her hands on her hips. "Noel, you have no idea what you've just signed yourself up to, but it's okay because I'll be here to keep May in check and to keep you sane."

Noel didn't know what to make of Bethany's parting statement, but before he even had any time to comment Bethany started to haul May out of the park.

Bethany held May by the waist, May letting out a slur of gambled words. Bethany didn't know what exactly was going to happen next but she knew everything was going to change for Noel.

She just hoped it was for the better.

She really did.