Chasing the Future

Noah was, if anything, a fantastic story teller. There was just something about the way that whenever he’d tell me these stories, and they could be about anything, that I felt myself gripping onto his every word. The way that his eyes glimmered with enchantment and his entire face lit up, as if he were reliving the entire moment over and over again. I couldn’t even bare to move my eyes for even a second, almost fearing that I’d miss something, every instant counted.

He could tell the dullest story and I would be captivated by his every word.

While sitting across from him on the bus, I watched with an interested delight as he retold another adventure of his, a bus ride when an insane woman sat next to him who was much less than sober and quite possibly psychotic.

I noticed that a lot of his crazy stories took place on the bus. I was surprised by how much he took it, while most people were cruising down the roads in their parent's cars, he never did. Even though it was terribly inconvenient, as I’d learned.

Even after I offered to drive my grandpa’s car Noah still insisted on taking the bus. I found it a little bit curious, cocking an eyebrow, but let it go nevertheless. He’d offered to pay my fare anyways.

He wasn't that bad, I thought to myself.

Nora had finally, albeit resentfully at first, surrendered whatever grudge she held between them, or at least swallowed it for the time being. Within a few minutes she was more excited than I was when I told her about whatever we were doing. The girl apparently thought it to be much more of a milestone than I did, finding it an outright blasphemy I hadn’t told her until an hour before.

She even slapped me. On the shoulder and lightly, of course, telling me that if I ever withheld anything like that before she’d bomb my entire house. I promised I wouldn’t and secretly was ecstatic she wasn’t sticking to her disapproving mood on the boy. It slowly nipped at my ankles though, every so often, whenever I thought about what had gone on between them.

“And I swear to you, swear to God, that her hands were wandering towards my dick, I am not lying. She was completely coming on to me, even though she was pretty much triple my age. I almost threw up and even though I was ten minutes from my house, I got off,” he said while shivering, a broad grin stretching across his face when he looked over to me.

I laughed, shaking my head and allowing my gaze to drift out the window, watching the buildings falling fast before me.

“Your life must be so hard when everyone wants you.”

He laughed. I turned my eyes towards him and smiled.

“It’s tough but somehow I make it through,” he spoke with a modest nonchalance, leaning back into his seat and resting his palms on the nape of his neck with a grin.

“How admirable,” I drawled, mimicking his expression with a sarcastic edge to my voice.

Our stop came and we climbed off, another ten minute walk to the cinema ahead of us, or so he said. I didn’t mind much, the sun peaking every so often through the abundance of fluffy clouds and just the right amount of breeze in the air made it enjoyable. I liked talking to Noah, too. He was an easy person to talk to.

“I really-” he began.

At that moment I stopped dead in my tracks, snapping my gaze to my side and tugging on his wrist. He made the abrupt stop too, casting me a look of confusion when he took a step back, eyebrow raised.

“You okay?” he asked, concern painted across his face.

“Hold your breath, okay?” I asked, flashing him a reassuring smile.

I didn’t think he’d be able to look any more bewildered by my demand, cocking his head to the side. Nevertheless, he took a large gulp of air, puffing up his cheeks to rival any blowfish and glanced my way for further instruction.

Taking a deep breath of my own, I grabbed his wrist and made a break for it down the sidewalk, dragging him along with me. For a moment he lagged, almost tripping over his feet and barely missing a rather nasty face-plant, but soon caught up and was sprinting along side me with ease.

We almost crashed into an unsuspecting teenage boy who swore under his breath when Noah whipped past him. He trembled slightly with confined laughter and shook his head. The boy scowled and flipped his middle finger at us, which only seemed to make Noah laugh even more.

Finally I allowed the breath to push past my lips, panting as I slowed down and feeling as my chest heaved with each much needed breath. Noticing I’d stopped, Noah slowed his pace too, his face no longer resembling that of a chipmunk.

He laughed, a little out of breath.

“Do you normally just break out into random runs?” he asked, eyes glimmering with amusement.

I could feel my cheeks flush slightly, finally realizing how it was incredibly odd for me to do that, and mentally scolded myself for not thinking of that sooner.

“Ah, it’s… it’s really stupid,” I murmured, averting my eyes onto the sidewalk and still trying to get my breath under control.

“Aw, come on,” he encouraged me with a little bump of the hip, flashing a grin in my direction. “I bet it’s not stupid.”

“How would you know?”

“Because I’m all-knowing, obviously.”

I scoffed with a smile. “Obviously,” I drawled, rolling my eyes and playing along.

“Come on, tell me?” he asked with a hopeful undertone to his words, eyes wide and staring into mine.

I sighed, my surrender. “Did you not notice the giant graveyard we ran by?”

It suddenly dawned on him, his expression morphing from confusion to realization in a matter of moments and then another smile etched across his face.

I liked the way he smiled, even though he did it so much, it was still special every time. They were infectious the way that he would bare those teeth, his eyes dancing with amusement. I could hardly repress my own when he did, but I didn’t want to either.

“You’re the superstitious type, yeah?” he asked, but his words seemed concrete.

“Yeah,” I murmured, biting the inside of my cheek.

I lifted my gaze to meet this, my breath hitching in my throat when I did as his dark eyes bore into mine. The edges of his lips quirked upwards, a chuckle off his lips as he shook his head.

“You’re sort of weird, you know that Anastasia? But I like it; it’s a nice sort of weird. It’s different.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled under my breath, stuffing my hands into the pockets of my sweater and feeling my face flare with the embarrassment.

Facing the rather large cinema, apparently it was brand new with flashing advertisements and posters plastered across for the movies coming soon, I finally let my thoughts run wild. Our arms bumped against each other. I felt my stomach churn, my hands beginning to get clammy as we stepped closer.

Was this a date? Nora’s words drifted through my mind, causing for more questions than I’d like to appear. He hadn’t come off as romantic, we hadn’t flirted and he did nothing suggesting it to be a date, other than asking me to go to the movies with only us two.

I paid for myself and we didn’t hold hands, he never complimented my outfit or slid his arm around my shoulders.

He made me laugh though. I didn’t know what the criteria of dates were, what were the key points that needed to be checked off. I wasn’t experienced or knowledgeable to social norms, I only knew how to blend in, which was enough until then. A part of me said to ask, simple as that, but I wanted to avoid any awkward silences and so kept my mouth shut, albeit a tad reluctantly.

Did he do this often? Maybe he took girls to the movies all the time, really, I didn’t know much about him at all.

Did I even want it to be a date?

It didn’t matter, I told myself. All I knew in that moment was that he made me laugh and that was enough for me.
.
.
.
.
“Slave, I demand you to pass me that glass of water!”

I groaned, chuckling softly to myself afterward as I passed her the mug. She sent me a cheeky grin and I rolled my eyes, falling onto my back and getting myself comfortable.

Nora had apparently caught a bug of some sort; she reasoned it was probably some bad food she ate and she’d probably rid of it with a good sleep. Either way she was throwing up a lung or two it seemed and refused to get out of bed, instead ordering me around to her every whim and demanding every single detail about my maybe-date.

She wiggled in her spot under the covers, getting herself comfortable and beaming at me while she took a sip. Her chestnut hair was pulled into a somewhat bun on top of her head, her face bare of any make-up.

“So,” she prompted. “Did he pay for you?”

I sighed. “Nope.”

“Ah, you guys went Dutch. Not very much of a gentleman, is he?” The tone of her words implied that she hadn’t fully swallowed her distaste. I wasn’t that surprised.

“Why would he pay for me? It wasn’t a date,” I reminded her.

“Ugh, stop with that shit. If a boy and a girl see a movie together it’s a date, it’s an unwritten rule or something like that.”

I did have to admit that Nora possessed a lot more knowledge in that sort of thing than I did. While she wasn’t easy, she did have quite the track record, not that it was much of a shock. She wasn't someone content with loneliness.

Even back home, I wasn’t the type to put myself out there much. And my brother was the cliché overprotective type, felt that it was his duty to scare away as many prospects as he could to help him sleep at night. I knew he only did it in my best interest, though.

I didn’t think Noah would be one to be easily scared off, not that he’d put up a fight, he just didn’t seem to care all that much what people thought. It was something I admired about him.

“I bet Austin would have paid for you,” she murmured offhandedly, gaze falling out into the window as she clutched onto her bright purple mug.

I laughed, reading another inspirational quote off the ceiling. I hadn’t thought about Austin in a while. We held casual conversation in our classes, and he’d clap my shoulder whenever we passed in the halls, but that was it. He was nice, incredibly so, but I often felt almost like a third-wheel when it came to Melissa and him, idly listening to their conversation and rarely adding my own input.

“Speaking of Austin, I thought you hated Melissa and they hang out a lot,” I brought up, happy to have gotten the question out there that had been burning on my tongue for so long.

Nora heaved a sigh, what appeared to be annoyance flashing across her face and making a lemon pout at the girl's name. “Austin’s allowed to have some faults.”

“And Noah can’t?” I turned my head and grinned at her, watching her scramble for some sort of witty response.

“There’s a different between some faults and being a giant douche-bag,” she said coolly after a few moments had past.

I rolled my eyes with a chuckle, feeling that this was a losing battle that I’d try for another day.

“And anyways, on the topic of Melissa, I swear to god she’s in love with me or something. I saw her talking to Logan today, it’s like she adores my sloppy seconds I swear, she just wants to get with me,” she scoffed, grinning at me when I cast her a deadpan stare.

“Ego much?”

“I can’t help it if she’s in love with me.” She shrugged nonchalantly, dissolving into laughter afterwards

As the time drawled on, night had devoured the sky and the stars began to make their appearance, the light of street lamps beginning to pour onto the road. Goodbyes were said and soon I found myself once again crossing the completely empty street, not another soul in sight. Houses were lit up and shadows danced before the windows, the only sign of life on Copper Bridge.

When I pushed the front door open, peering inside, I found most of the house to be veiled in shadows. Unlike I had expected, Thunder didn’t come rushing up to me as always, not even a speck of the dog in sight.

I wasn’t sure why, but I tip-toed down the hallway, keeping my breath as quiet as I possibly could. Finally I saw a stream of light when I turned, coming from the living room and tumbling into the otherwise pitch black corridor.

As I had thought, I found my grandpa seated comfortably on his favourite leather lounge chair, watching Discovery Channel. Thunder was spread across his lap, panting delightedly as he absently ran his hand across the dog’s body.

“Hey grandpa,” I greeted him softly, stealing a spot on the couch and hugging one of the decorative pillows to my chest.

On the channel, a program about penguins played, their black and white bodies splitting gracefully through the water. I was never much of a swimmer.

“How’s your day?” he asked, a grin pushing onto his lips and accentuating his laugh lines.

“Good, good,” I reassured him.

There were pictures of her everywhere, I’d noticed. On the walls, on the end tables, her face seemed to be staring back at me wherever I rounded a corner or entered a new room. Sometimes I wondered how he did it, seeing her everyday, dealing with it.

I guessed not everyone ran from their problems like I did.