13. Safe and Good Decisions
N oble’s hands instinctively went out to steady the person who had rammed right into his side. He realized it was Ollie, just as the man started to scream and thrash in his hold.
Even with sweat still on his brow, the little librarian would have looked adorable in his beige puffy sleeved dress shirt, with its green plant designs near the cuffs, paired with the green overalls that were covered in purple flowers, plants, and yellow bees, if he wasn’t in fact paler than he’d ever seen him, and clearly terrified.
His eyes were shut tight, and tears trailed down Ollie's face as he screamed. There was dirt smudged over his right cheek, and one of the little potted plant earrings dangling from his ears appeared to be holding on by a thread, while his messy bun was more mess than bun.
“Ollie?!”
The little librarian’s eyes snapped open on hearing his name, the scream instantly cutting off.
As more tears filled the blue-gray eyes that were now staring into his, the man’s shaking began to worsen.
“I-I—” Ollie let out a sob. “I—Noble…I-I…ah—No, I-I…” The man glanced around frantically as more tears spilled over. “I-I sa-saw… I mean, I-I… I co-couldn’t have. But I-I did! But I?—”
“Woah!” Noble gasped, tightening his hold. One of his arms slipped down around the man’s waist when Ollie swayed, looking as if he was about to pass out. “Did someone attack you?”
He looked back, frowning when he didn’t see anyone in the alleyway, or on the streets, beyond the random people who were now staring at them with concern.
His gaze flicking back down to Ollie, Noble scanned the man for any injuries. “Are you hurt?”
Ollie shook his head, but it quickly became obvious that it had been more to clear it instead of answering him when the man let out a whimper, and returned to his desperate searching while letting out a stream of words that were truly…incoherent.
Hesitantly, Noble cupped the librarian’s face with one hand, stopping his frantic searching for who knows what. “Ollie, are you hurt?” he repeated gently.
The babbling cut off, and Ollie’s bottom lip wobbled as he stared up at him. The man let out another soft whimper as even more tears trailed down his face.
“Hey.” He wiped a few away with his thumb. “You’re safe, Ollie.”
Ollie gave him a little nod while he sobbed.
Noble pulled the man against his side and guided him towards his Ram Pickup. “Come on, let’s get you in my truck, and then you can tell me what happened, okay?”
Ollie nodded against his side.
Quickly unlocking it, he ushered the man in before running around to the driver seat. Once he’d made sure Ollie was buckled in, Noble pulled out of his spot and started heading towards the library, before having the realization that it would probably be better to ask the man where he wanted to go.
“Back to the library?—”
“NO!” Ollie cried. The man’s trembling that had slowed slightly on sitting down, ramped right back up.
His eyes widened in concern at that, as he glanced over. “No…?”
“Please…I… I just… I-I…please…” The man trailed off on a helpless whimper, before just sagging.
His gaze constantly flicked over to Ollie while he continued to drive. He hesitated, Noble had come out to get away from…well, the current problem that was still sitting in the cellar of his house.
Mainly, as he still had no fucking clue what in the hell he was going to do. Which meant Noble knew that even having a single thought about taking Ollie home with him was a stupidly HORRIBLE idea.
But…where else could he take him? It wasn’t like whatever had happened seemed to be a conversation that Ollie wanted to have with an audience, or at his own home.
Ahh, fuck!
He took a right, and started driving in the direction of his house.
This was a really…really bad idea. But—he glanced over again—Ollie looked so…shell-shocked, and just scared…defeated… He couldn’t just…
“Are you…comfortable going to my house?”
Ollie looked over at him. “I…” The man nodded with his eyes closed, more tears dripping down his freckled face. “Please…”
Noble cleared his throat. “Then…that is where we will go.”
What’s…a few more bad decisions in a long line of them?
Ollie was… Well, he must be…losing his mind. That had to be it, right? Hallucinations?
Maybe…they ran in his family? But then how would he even know, when he was all that was left? Was it…early onset Alzheimer’s? But that wouldn’t make sense, because hallucinations were more dementia and he hadn’t even had any signs of Alzheimer’s?! At least, he didn’t think he had…
Either way, one didn’t just jump right to hallucinations. Was it…schizophrenia? Was that it?
Rubbing at his eyes, his tears having slowed to a stop about fifteen minutes ago, Ollie slowly looked over at Noble as he pulled his barely hanging on hair tie out and slipped it into his pocket. The touch of metal against his skin feeling too overwhelming at the moment, he removed his piercings as well.
What…was he even doing? Going home with a man he barely knew…to do what? Tell him something that no one would ever actually believe?
He blinked, looking around on realizing they were surrounded by woods. Yeah, this…seemed like a really safe and good decision. His brow rose as the trees cleared and a house appeared.
“This is…nice.” He winced at how awkwardly that had sounded. It was nice though.
It was very white picket fence like, house-wise, not that there appeared to be a white picket fence. The probably private road led up to what looked to be a two-floor house, with beach roses planted around the sides. A large, two-door detached garage sat nearby. And while the framing used for the front deck, windows, and doors were white, the horizontal siding of the house was a dark robin-blue color, and the roof brown.
“Ah, thank you,” Noble said with a tense smile after he pulled to a stop near the two-door garage.
Then again, why wouldn’t he be tense? Ollie had probably scared the shit out of him. No doubt the man had wanted to get rid of him as quickly as possible, based on him trying to take him back to the library.
Dammit—well, this crush was coming to a nice fiery end. Noble would no doubt avoid the library like the plague from now on.
Ollie supposed it didn’t really matter. Dating wasn’t exactly a good idea right now, since he was apparently losing his mind, or…maybe he had a brain tumor…
Either way, neither would be optimal when it came to dating, especially when they hadn’t made it past the flirting stage. Well, he had been flirting, Noble usually just kindly responded.
Smiling hesitantly as the man in question came around and opened his door for him, Ollie unbuckled his belt and hopped down out of the truck, following him silently inside.
Looking around, he followed the man into his kitchen. The floors were burnt terracotta there, while the front hall was wooden, and the place had some pretty, exposed wooden beam ceilings. And though he had only seen the front hall, and now the kitchen, he could say that Noble’s house was nice…yes…
Do not repeat the word nice out loud, Ollie , he thought desperately as he felt the word on his lips.
Mmm, he really wanted to say it! Why though?! It wasn’t even a good compliment!? At least, not the way he had said it before. Ugh, why did he have to be so awkward?! He knew plenty of other words than nice!
Keeping his mouth shut, Ollie slowly took a seat at the wooden kitchen table as Noble opened the fridge.
When the man turned back around, there was a bottle of water in his hand. Water that he sat in front of Ollie once he took the chair next to his.
“Ollie…will you tell me what happened? Did someone attack you? Do you…” Noble hesitated. “Do you need me to take you to the police station to file a report or…? What do you need from me?”
If the man had asked him the last question at any time before the last two days, it would have likely led to his mind wildly going to mush as he died of romantic overload. But as it was being asked after a spectacular meltdown, in reaction to seeing ghosts, he was really just hoping to get out of this without Noble staring at him like he was a freak.
Swallowing hard, Ollie went to grab the bottle, but winced when the palm of his hand touched it. He looked down at them both and grimaced on spotting the scrapes and dirt. He hadn’t really felt anything when he’d fallen, but it must have happened then.
No, maybe it would be more accurate to say he’d felt too much when he’d fallen, to the point that he’d been numb to most of it, beyond the terror and that freezing…cold…touch.
A shudder ran through him.
“You did get hurt,” Noble stated grimly as the man opened the bottle for him.
“I fell...” he said softly, ignoring the slight sting he felt when he picked up the water and took several deep sips.
After drinking half of it, he screwed the lid back on and wiped his mouth with his sleeve as he set it down.
“I...” He dropped his hands into his lap and nervously twisted them together, not caring about the pain. “You…you aren’t going…to believe me.” Even saying the words had the tears flooding back.
He sniffled. While there was nothing between them…and likely never would have been…he really didn’t want to end things before he even got a chance to try. Ollie really liked Noble.
Well, he thought he did. So, Ollie maybe didn’t really know him. He supposed he didn’t even know what his job was…or how old he was… Though he was pretty sure the man was in his late thirties.
“Ollie, whatever it is, I’ll believe you,” Noble assured him, sounding clearly worried.
Which was sweet…but…
He wrinkled his nose. “I’m not so sure about that.”
“Try me.”
“I…keep seeing…” Ollie hesitated.
“Yes?”
He took a shuddered breath. “Ghosts.”
Noble stiffened, but remained quiet. The worry from before had disappeared, and his expression was now unreadable.