“Fine,” Ken finally said ungraciously. “I’m in, too.”
Noah blinked. What had even just happened there? What exactly had he been volunteered for?
“In for what?”
The voice came from a door, where two very handsome men stood. The one who had spoken was tall, with dark hair going to gray at the temples and in the hairs of his beard. He wore glasses and a suit, which made him look overly fussy when compared to how casual all the rest of them looked.
The other man stayed quiet, standing back, but he seemed to see everything through intense, piercing gray eyes. They could see right into people’s souls, or so it seemed, and Noah felt an immediate affinity for him. He, too, preferred to sit back and stay silent and watch. He sensed that they had that in common.
“My friend Noah is going to be our social media manager,” Darien said, his voice cheerful and bright, but with an undertone to it that most people wouldn’t recognize. But Noah had been with Darien through a lot, and he knew enough to hear the anxiety that was only just barely there in his voice.
“Oh, is he,” the man said, a tone of condescension in his voice that immediately made Noah prickle. “As far as I know, I’m your manager, and I hire people.”
“We all want him, Lester.” To Noah’s surprise, it was Aaron that spoke, facing the older man down, his eyes directly on his face.
“He’s good,” Lance agreed, and Ken stayed silent, but even that was a minor miracle considering how obviously he disliked Noah for existing. “You should at least look.”
Lester shrugged, and with the air of one who was simply doing something to amuse some children, he came over. Darien cleared out of the way so that Lester could sit beside Noah, and Noah felt his skin prickle at the contact of their arms. Something about this man, he didn’t like. Maybe it was just that he was such a corporate stooge, but it felt like more than that.
He’d always had a good sense of people, and something in him was telling him to proceed with caution around this man.
“… Okay,” Lester finally said, after what felt like an hour of him staring at the website. “Okay, fine, kid. You’re hired. What’s your name?”
Noah gave it, and Lester nodded to him. And just like that, it seemed, Noah had a job. He stared in wonder at Darien, but also at the rest of these men, who didn’t even know him and yet were giving him this chance.
It was a chance to make some money. To stop living off of Darien’s charity. He had no idea what a gig like this would pay, but surely it would be enough for him to move out, to get his own place.
“All of you will have to spend some time with Noah. Building websites, or whatever,” Lester said, with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Something that reflects your personalities, but is also uniform enough that it’s clear that you’re the same band. And then a band website.”
Noah nodded, bored with the explanation. He already knew what he was going to do. Everything that Lester was saying were things that he’d already decided to do without his help, but other than a slightly contemptuous look, he didn’t give any indication of that.
“Great,” Ken muttered, so quietly that only Noah could hear. Or maybe Darien, standing on the other side of Noah from Ken, had picked it up, because Noah saw Darien shoot Ken a bit of a confused look.
So it was an incredibly conflicted sort of meeting for Noah, who had walked in there with nothing and walked out with a job that could lead to his independence. Social media manager. Not something he had ever considered doing before, but he was qualified for it.
But then there was Ken, and, to a lesser extent, the rest of Darien’s band. How friendly would they be if they knew that what Noah wanted most in the world was for Darien to walk away from them? How could Noah even ask Darien to leave behind his friends?
The answer was that he couldn’t, and that was very clear to him now. If Darien asked him for his opinion, he would give it, but otherwise … well, what it came down to, Noah realized, in the secrecy of his own mind, was that he loved Darien far too much to want him to do anything but what made him happy.
If that meant staying with the band, then Noah would just have to support that. It was, after all, Darien’s choice. Darien’s life. And no matter what, no matter how frivolous Noah found it, he knew that he would want to be a part of that life, in whatever way Darien would allow.
Love was a crazy thing. Something which he himself had not been touched by, not until now. Noah looked around at the four members, the four Lost Boys, and smiled slightly.
They looked good together. Pop music wasn’t Noah’s thing, but even he had to admit that they sounded good together, too. And Noah had to come face to face with the unwelcome thought that, even if he did push, even if he did try to take Darien away, it wasn’t a fight that he could very likely win.
Noah was hard work, and the Lost Boys were fun. Darien had always been the sort to pick fun, so all Noah could do was not make Darien pick at all. That was the only way he could be involved in his life, and it was worth it.
So it seemed like Aaron, Lance, and even Ken didn’t have much to worry about. Though the way Ken stared at him, the naked hostility in his eyes, it didn’t seem like Ken agreed.
What was going on with Ken and Darien? What had Noah walked into? Should he ask? Questions swirled through his head, turning it into a maelstrom, a cloudy tempest filled with shocks of lightning, making it truly impossible to think about anything with any sort of clarity.
One thing got easier, and a million other things got complicated. Was that just how it was with life?
Darien had put himself out there for Noah, though, not only once, but twice. He’d dropped everything to come pick Noah up from school, and now he’d gotten Noah a job, and a job that he could be good at and take pride in.
Wasn’t it just barely possible that Darien felt something for Noah, too? Something beyond friendship? Why else would he put himself out there so much for him?
So many questions and only time would give him the answers that he so badly, so desperately, wanted.
