Nochelle - Our Stories

S I C K ?

~Season 6~ ignore Noaquie

"Why have you been acting so weird these past few days?" Richelle asked, catching up to Noah in the locker room.

It was a Thursday, and her duet partner had been acting a little... off(?) since the beginning of the week. She had no clue what exactly had set him off. Well, maybe she did, but she didn't know why it had set him off. He might have dropped her in a lift earlier in the week. Richelle had almost landed on her hip again, but she didn't. Sure, it bothered her, but she definitely wasn't letting on. She didn't care that she was almost hurt. She had been tricking since before she could ride a bike, but after that incident, Noah began looking at her funny.

Not a ha-ha funny, but a weird funny with a look that she didn't have a word for. She wondered if something else had happened, but he brushed her off every time she asked about it. She realized that he was hiding something from her, and that's when she really began to worry, Noah never hid things from her. Every single interaction with him, there was something in his eyes. He was almost cautious with her, and it was freaking her out. This wasn't the Noah she knew, something had to be very wrong.

He tried to walk past her after she asked her question, but Richelle blocked the doorway to the best of her abilities. He was all packed up and ready to go, just stopping to refill his water bottle for the ride home, so she took him by surprise. In the end he realized that his efforts were futile and he had no way out of her trap, so he just sighed.

"I haven't been acting weird."

"Don't deny it. You've been hiding something." She said. Then her tone softened a bit "Seriously, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I just... realized some things," he answered, trying to keep things as vague as possible. He was still watching her cautiously, making steady eye contact. It was slightly unnerving.

"Like what?" Richelle probed, folding her hands over her chest and cocking her eyebrow, letting him know that she would stand there all night if she had to. She could tell he was considering his options, telling her or not telling her whatever he was thinking, and when he opened his mouth she hoped it was the former.

"Things."

Richelle frowned, clearly displeased. Noah ran a hand through his hair and began again.

"I just... don't want you getting hurt. More than usual. More than I should just being your friend. I like you, Richelle. I really, really like you. I just... didn't realize how much."

She was frozen to the spot as Noah approached her. He kissed her for all of two seconds, not even giving her a chance to respond. He took one look at her shocked face and pulled back.

"Goodnight, Richie." he said, and she let him brush past her shoulder with no further trouble.

"Night," she whispered.

~~~

Richelle laid awake that night running through everything in her head. Noah liked her. He was her Best Friend, how could she not have noticed. He always joked about liking girls, and when his comments were focused on her, she always thought he was just teasing. Sometimes she pretended that he wasn't joking when he made those comments, but she just discounted it as a stupid fantasy. She still didn't half believe it, but that day was the most serious she had ever seen him in a long time. She hated that she had just let him leave. He did kinda spring it on her all of the sudden, but she was Richelle, she was supposed to be able to think on her feet. But she could never think normally when it came to Noah. Nothing was ever normal when it came to Noah.

She resolved the next morning that she would tell him exactly how she felt.

~~~

Richelle arrived at dance even earlier than usual that Friday morning. She was a nervous wreck waiting for Noah to show up and all she could do was stretch. The day before when he confessed to her there was almost no one at the Studio that late. But since it would be morning when he came in, the whole place was abuzz. They wouldn't have much privacy, definitely not enough for her to say what she needed to say. She mapped out all of the places she could take him to in her mind, the Costume Closet, Studio B, Lost and Found, the Music Room, anywhere she could think of to get the two of them alone.