“Looks like your friend is stoned again,” Noah said, interrupting my thoughts.
Across the room, we watched Selena emerge from the supply closet, moving slowly. A small cloud of smoke and haze followed her. Noah laughed as she had trouble figuring out how to close the door behind her.
“Should we help her?” he asked.
“Nah, let her work it out on her own. I doubt Miss H is going to keep her around much longer, anyway.”
“Ouch, cold.”
I squeezed his hand. “She was a shitty replacement for you, anyway.”
“I know.” He squeezed my hand back.
The night wrapped up after that. The movies ended and the customers slowly filtered out of the theaters, and Noah and I went to work, cleaning up behind them. Unfortunately, Selena hung around the whole time, blabbering on about how movie theaters are like portals into another dimension, or something like that, which meant I couldn’t let Noah fuck me in an empty theater. Still, it felt good to be working with him again, and the conversation moved freely and easily, marking time.
The people at the theater had become more than just my coworkers. Although I hardly ever saw them outside of the theater, for some reason I thought of them as my good friends. I still spent a lot of time talking with Chuck every night, and I had begun to get pretty close with Chelsea. We were a band of misfits, each brought together because of Noah. Even Miss H was only around because of him.
And it felt good and right that he was back. Without him, the theater lacked something, a kind of magic that you couldn’t put into words, exactly. It was a presence that he brought every time he entered a room. He made my life lighter and good, despite the things that threatened to drag him down all the time. It was part of my overwhelming draw toward him. He never let his own demons overwhelm the pain of others, even when things were dark and ready to bear down on him with unbreakable force, he was still there for those he cared about. He made mistakes, he slipped up and acted like a complete fucking asshole from time to time, but when push came to shove, Noah Carterson was a good guy.
I just needed him to see it.
Theater cleaned, registers closed, and all other closing duties performed, we walked out into the night together, Noah and me hand-in-hand, the others scattered around. We parted ways outside, like usual, and Noah and I headed off toward his apartment for another marathon editing session.
“Two weeks,” he said, breaking the silence that had fallen over us.
“We’ll be done by then,” I said.
“I’m not sure I want to be done.”
I looked at him. He was gazing out across campus, his breath fogging slightly in the cool night air. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. This shit means a lot to me.”
“I feel the same way.”
He shook his head. “I mean, because of this movie, we happened.”
“Yeah, that’s true.”
“I just don’t want it to end. That’s all.”
“It doesn’t have to,” I said suddenly.
“We’ll run out of material on Miss H eventually. She’s not that interesting.”
“First of all, yes she is,” I said, nudging him with my shoulder. “And secondly, that’s not what I mean. What if we make another movie after this one?”
“That’s not a bad idea,” he said, looking at me.
“We probably can’t keep my mom’s equipment forever, but we can invest in our own gear.”
He smiled softly. “You’re serious about this?”
“Of course I’m serious!”
He suddenly stopped and faced me. I looked back at him, surprised.
“What?” I asked when I noticed the expression on his face.
He stepped closer to me, pressing his body against mine, releasing my hand and wrapping his arms around my waist. He leaned in and crushed my mouth with his as cars sped by on Broad Street. He kissed me deeply and fiercely, and I returned his kiss with that same hunger which sits in my chest every time I see him.
Finally, he broke away from me.
“What was that for?” I asked.
“I love you, you know that, right?”
I blinked at him, my whole body suddenly flooded with adrenaline. We hadn’t said that yet. We hadn’t even talked about anything too serious in terms of our relationship yet. But it was true: I knew that already, and I loved him too. He didn’t have to say it if he didn’t want to, because everything he did proved to me how he felt. He made mistakes, and he always would, but he’d never leave.
“I know that, idiot,” I said softly. “I love you, too.”
He kissed me again, this time softer and longer, and I melted into his embrace.