A Boy Called Noah

Chapter Seventeen

Amalthea Galanos

Thea sighs and rubs her eyes in irritation for what feels like the hundredth time. A few tiny hairs stick to her glue covered fingers. "Thea! Don't rub your eyes with glue fingers!" Noah scolds and grabs her hands that were reaching for her face again. "Come on, Noah. This project is stupid!" He doesn't acknowledge her whining tone. He starts gently pulling pieces of dried glue from her soft hands. She lightly flinches on a sensitive spot and he quickly apologizes.

Thea softly gazes at the beautiful boy gently probing her hands. He slightly lifts his head, "What?" She smiles and shakes her head. He tilts his head in confusion but doesn't further question her odd behavior.

An unfamiliar girl walks over and Noah quickly drops Thea's hands. The girl flirtatiously smiles at Noah and drags a chair closer, "Hey, Noah." Thea's mood promptly turns sad for a reason unknown to her. She slowly pulls her hands back to her own lap and they settle on nervously fiddling with a loose thread on her dress.

Noah and the girl- who has yet to acknowledge Thea's existence- start quietly whispering to each other. She rises to her feet and neither of them seem to notice her departure, 'Sure, bye. I'll see ya when I'm worth your time again.' Unfortunately Thea is too well raised to voice her sarcastic remark out loud. She wonders around the room, aimlessly staring at the other projects. Lekia eventually captures her gaze and gives her a questioning look. Thea nods her head in their general direction and Lekia's eyes briefly turn to them. Her gaze returns to Thea's with a sympathetic edge to it. Thea shrugs, as if to say, 'What can you do?'

The teacher calls the class to order again (with a lot of effort) and dismisses all the detention students. His shoulders sag, as if in relief after he settles behind his desk again. 

Thea watches in disappointment as Noah and the girl leave together. Her heart drops to the bottom of her soles and she drags her feet out of the door.  A gentle hand softly grips her shoulder before she can leave the school's main doors. "I'm sorry, Thea. I don't know why he gets like that... He really isn't a bad guy, he just doesn't always understand himself and so he turns to the one thing he does understand..." Thea's hand covers the comforting one in appreciation, "Thanks, Lekia. I-I don't know why I care..." Lekia gently pulls her into a warm embrace. "It's okay. Come on, let's go over to your place and we'll stop for a few tubs ice cream on the way." Thea nods her head and follows Lekia out the door and toward an old looking Sedan. "It's not much but it runs great." Thea nods her head again and slides the tips of her fingers over the hood, "My older brother's one friend has one. Granted his looks terrible and smells horrible, so you've got a pretty low bar to beat." Lekia breathes out a laugh, "Great, he looks bad but he's squeaky clean inside."

After reaching Thea's house and each settling with a tub of ice cream the girls start playfully bickering bout whose ice cream flavor is better. 

"Okay, okay. You win, cookie dough is best." Lekia triumphantly fist bumps the air and does a little victory dance. Thea giggles and Lekia settles back on her previous spot. "Okay, all jokes aside. Thea, you know Noah doesn't mean to hurt you, right? He doesn't understand what he's feeli-" "He doesn't feel anything, Kia. And neither do I. I-I've just had a rough day, that's all." Lekia sadly smiles at Thea, "Oh, honey..."