Chapter Two
Spencer
I heard the sound of someone walking around on the top floor, and I grinned to myself as I finished refilling the kettle. Tea, bacon sandwiches, and orange juice were always the best way to cure a hangover, no matter how deep it had sunk its claws in.
And given what Noah had been like last night, I guessed his head was going to be really sore this morning.
I flicked the kettle on and began pulling things out of the fridge to set on the island in the middle of the kitchen, resisting the temptation to put music on like I usually did in the morning. I didn’t think Noah’s head would appreciate drum and bass with a hangover.
Noah’s footsteps were tentative on the stairs, and I wondered if he felt dizzy at all.
I grabbed a glass out of the cupboard and filled it with cold water from the fridge, setting it on the island so he’d be able to see it when he came in.
I heard him reach the ground floor and hoped the noise would tell him where he needed to go since I didn’t think Noah had been here before.
“Morning,” he said as he trudged into the kitchen.
I stopped, a pack of bacon still in my hands, to give him a smile and a once-over.
He looked pale with dark circles around his eyes, and his brown hair was stuck up at odd angles.
I cursed because I should have left him a hairbrush and a towel for the shower.
He wasn’t swaying, though, and he didn’t look two seconds from throwing up, so that was a good start.
He’d found my clothes, and I liked the way the dark green t-shirt looked on him.
It definitely suited him more than me. It was a bit more fitted than some of the shirts Noah usually wore, but I thought it looked great.
Noah always looked good to me, but there was something about seeing him in my clothes that made me extra happy. I didn’t know why.
It was probably a protective instinct or something. I’d known Noah for years, ever since my little brother Alex had sat next to him at primary school, and I’d always looked out for him. Even if he didn’t need it because Alex was like a sharp, scrappy terrier and always ready to pick a fight.
Noah had always been a sweet guy, though, and I didn’t want him to get hurt.
“Hey,” I said, giving Noah my brightest smile. “You’re awake. How’re you feeling?”
“Er, I think we’ll go with alive,” he said with a dark chuckle.
I pointed at the water, then swapped the pack of bacon in my hands for a carton of orange juice. “Drink that, and I’ll get you some juice. I’m going to make you some breakfast too.”
“Oh, you don’t have to do that.”
“It’s fine,” I said with a wave of my hand. “You’ve gotta eat something. Especially after last night.”
Noah groaned and his face tinted, giving it the first flush of colour I’d seen. “I’m sorry. I have no idea what happened last night, and I’m so sorry for whatever I said or did.”
I frowned. Had I missed something? “What do you mean?”
“Er, I just thought… well, considering I was so drunk, I must have said something inappropriate,” Noah said, fumbling over the words before reaching for the glass of water and downing it.
I thought back to the previous evening, racking my brain to see if I could think of anything.
“No, you didn’t. You had two of Laurie’s daiquiris, which he put, like, two bottles of rum into, and you were getting pretty drunk, so Alex got you some water and food.
Then you felt sick, so I took you to the toilet.
” I decided to leave out the part where I’d carried him, bridal style, to the downstairs toilet.
Noah seemed embarrassed enough, and I didn’t want to make him feel worse.
“I remember the drinks,” Noah said quietly, taking the glass of orange juice I handed him. I took the water glass in return and refilled it. Noah was going to need to stay hydrated today. “And a little bit of the food. I think you were talking to me at one point too.”
“See? It wasn’t so bad.”
“Weren’t you…” Noah grimaced and shook his head. “Were you supposed to be working today? I vaguely remember something about you having to open this morning.”
Now it was my turn to be embarrassed. Luckily, Noah was too busy looking down at his glass of juice to notice.
Noah was right. Technically, I was supposed to have been helping open Novel Tea, the book-themed coffee shop I ran with Alex, this morning.
It was why I’d left Lane and Oliver’s early last night.
But with Noah being wasted, I hadn’t wanted to leave him alone.
Alex had also been hammered, so I couldn’t ask him to look after Noah or take the early shift, even though I knew he’d have done both with no hesitation.
He’d just have grumbled constantly about it for months, but that was nothing new.
I loved my brother, but he really needed to look on the bright side of life sometimes.
“Er, yeah,” I said. “But it’s fine. You weren’t well, and I didn’t want to leave you to wake up somewhere strange, so I got Mina to cover for me. I mean, technically she was going to be in anyway, but she said she’d be fine on her own until Cleo started at ten.”
“Oh God. I’m so sorry. You could have just taken me back to mine and left me there. Or I could have stayed at Lane’s.”
I shook my head and pulled a frying pan off the hanging rack above the oven. “Nah, man, it’s fine. Seriously.”
Noah scrubbed his face with his hands. “It’s really not.”
“Yeah, seriously, it is.” I grinned at him. “What are friends for if you can’t come and crash at their place when you’re wasted?”
Noah hummed. “I suppose. But you didn’t have to let me have your bed or give me your clothes.”
“What else was I meant to do? Leave you on the sofa?” I stared at him.
I supposed I could have done, but then I’d have spent the whole night worrying he was uncomfortable.
At least in my bed, he could sleep off the alcohol in comfort with a bathroom nearby, and giving him clean clothes was just a basic decency thing.
My parents would have been horrified if I’d just dumped Noah. Both of them had raised me to be a good person, and I tried to always do my best.
“That’s what most people would have done,” Noah said, then he smiled again and took a sip of his orange juice.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t be picking at you. It was really nice of you to take care of me.
I really appreciate it. I’m just horribly embarrassed.
I can’t remember the last time I was that drunk. ”
“Don’t sweat it.” I put the frying pan on the hob and flicked on the burner, digging a pair of tongs out of a nearby drawer.
“And you were very easy to deal with. Mostly just like sleepy and telling me random chemistry facts. Like, er…” I searched around in my brain and tried to remember one.
Science had never been my strong point, and I was worried that I’d get whatever I was about to say wrong.
“Something about the only letter not on the periodic table is J?”
“Jesus Christ,” Noah said. “I was chemistry drunk. That’s new.”
I chuckled. “It was fun. You sang a little song too.”
Noah was bright red now, but he was smiling, and I hoped he wasn’t that upset by me telling him what had happened. “Okay,” he said. “I am absolutely swearing you to secrecy about the singing. I can’t believe I did that.”
“It was cute.” I began humming the tune to the element song Noah had been singing. I decided I wouldn’t tell him that he’d tried to teach me or that he’d kept stopping and frowning and saying he’d gone wrong before going back to the beginning and starting again.
It had been nice seeing that side to Noah because he was usually so quiet and serious. I wanted to see him let loose more often, just without Laurie’s daiquiris.
“I’m not sure I believe that,” Noah said. “But I’m not going to argue with you.” He took another sip of his orange juice while I put bacon into the pan.
“You okay with bacon sandwiches?” I asked. “You’ve gotta line your stomach. I’ve got some, like, brie or some avocado if you want those too.”
“Just bacon is fine, thanks.”
“Sure?” Now I’d thought about it, adding avocado and brie sounded lush. I was totally doing that to mine. Usually, I’d have had breakfast hours ago, but I’d wanted to wait for Noah so all I’d had was some fruit and a yoghurt.
Noah thought about it for a second. “Actually… the brie does sound good.”
“Nice!” I walked over to the fridge to dig out the cheese. “Do you want avocado too?”
“If you’re offering, then yes, please.”
“Wouldn’t tell you it was an option if you couldn’t have it,” I said, slightly confused by Noah’s line of thinking.
He’d always been very polite, so maybe it was just part of that.
I grabbed an avocado out of the little wire basket on my windowsill and began to slice it open while keeping an eye on the bacon.
Noah and I lapsed into comfortable silence for a few minutes before he said, “I don’t think I’ve been to your house before.”
“I don’t think you have either. Usually, we just hang out at the pub or yours. I should have everyone over at some point. I don’t know why I haven’t.”
Maybe it was because despite the fact that I hung out with Alex, Noah, and their friends every week, I still sometimes felt like an outsider. Noah, Alex, Lane, and his boyfriend Oliver had known each other for donkey’s years, and I’d always just been Alex’s big brother to them.
The other members of our group were newer additions, and although I’d known Will at school and through playing football together as teenagers, he was better friends with Lane than me.
Laurie and Theo were really fun to hang out with, but it had always felt like they came as a pair and never really wanted anyone else, even though they always hung out with us.
I’d been to their flat a couple of times to chill and game with Theo, but I still wouldn’t have called them my best mates.
I didn’t really know if I had anyone who fit that category these days.
I was just the one on the edge of everyone else’s friendships.
“You don’t have to,” Noah said. “I didn’t mean for that to sound like I’m trying to score an invitation.
Besides, we’re not exactly a quiet bunch, and there are a lot of us these days, and you probably don’t want us disturbing your peace.
” He grinned at me, then looked around the kitchen again.
“I like how bright your house is. It’s fun. ”
I chuckled. “Alex says it looks like a kid’s funhouse.”
I’d always loved bright, bold colours, but I’d never been allowed anything more than blue or cream on my walls as a kid.
When I’d moved back to Heather Bay after my professional footballing career had ended prematurely, I’d bought my house and decided to make it somewhere I’d be happy.
I’d been in a major funk at the time, and decorating the house had become a form of therapy.
My bedroom was a warm yellow that made me think of the sun.
My bathroom was jungle themed with plenty of plants and zebra print along with a flamingo shower curtain.
My living room was orange, white, and blue.
And my kitchen was pink with teal accents that my mum had ungraciously described as looking like something out of Barbie’s dreamhouse.
I loved that comparison, though, and had gone out and bought a metallic, raspberry-pink stand mixer just to spite her. I loved my mum, but she could be pretty set in her ways sometimes.
“Well, luckily, Alex doesn’t have to live here,” Noah said. “It’s your house, and I like it.”
“Even the pink kitchen?” I asked, unsure why I suddenly wanted to know what he thought.
“Especially the pink kitchen.” He smiled at me. It was a sincere gesture, and for some reason, it made my stomach flip.
“Thanks.”
There was another pause, and I didn’t know what to say, which surprised me because I’d never had that happen before. I kept slicing the avocado and hoped something would come to me, but it was like my brain was still loading and stuck on that spinning wheel.
“Can I give you a hand with anything?” Noah asked.
“Maybe grab some plates out of that cupboard? We’re nearly there. I’ve just gotta butter the bread.”
“I can do that,” Noah said as he retrieved some teal-and-white plates. “Where are your knives? And the bread. Hmm, I’m really not being that helpful, am I?”
I chuckled, the sound filling the room. I’d never had a morning like this before, but it felt like there was sunshine inside my kitchen.
I didn’t know if it was because I had someone here with me or if it was because that someone was Noah, but either way, it was a feeling I wouldn’t forget in a hurry.