First Day
Noel pulled out his phone while walking to the building his first class was in. He scrolled to his class list and triple checked the classroom number and building just in case. Once he got there, it didn't take long to find the room. It was a huge lecture hall that was honestly a bit overwhelming for his brain to wrap around. Despite this, he plopped down in a spot in the back row and played some cheap mobile game on his phone and took the occasional sip of coffee while he waited for his lecture to start. He tended to be very early to stuff, so it wasn't a surprise he was waiting for about 10 minutes for the lecture to begin.
Noel's first class was arguably one of his favorites on his class list this semester. It was a class all about the history of Theatre, and all of its different and distinct eras. He loved learning about the eras of Theatre and Musicals, especially the 70's and 80's, which included musicals like Cabaret, Chicago, Pippin, and so on. He enjoyed the tragedy and promiscuity of the plots; they were enjoyable and fun to follow as you watched the story unfold.
This train of thought was abruptly derailed by a female voice coming from the floor of the lecture hall. Noel looked up from his phone to see a woman, assumingly in her late 20's, early 30's with dark hair trickled with hues of red at the ends, caramel colored skin, and soft hazel eyes. She was wearing a navy-colored suit and had some kind of device corresponding to the huge smartboard behind her.
"Alright, let's begin." She stated. She began the lecture by flipping through a PowerPoint slide of some type of syllabus. Noel wasn't paying all that much attention though.
"In this class, we will be studying the different eras of Theatre and Musicals throughout the decades, as you know. We will be doing this through watching clips of these Musicals and performances and studying the different elements that stick out from these eras. To keep it interesting, sometimes we will be writing our own scripts for a musical in that specific era and performing them with a group of people. These are by far some of my favorite elements of the class, and I hope you guys will enjoy it too." Noel thought through the last part of her speech with curiosity. Would he actually have to act out a musical with some group of people he barely even knew in front of everyone? The thought of that made him squeamish. Being the center of attention was tough for him when he knows he's being judged for every single thing he does. It makes his skin crawl just conjuring that scene up in his mind.
Noel leaned his head on his hand and glanced around the room at the other people in the room. He noticed this one boy particularly; he was sitting about 4 rows in front of Noel. Even though Noel could only see the back of his head, he could tell this boy was attractive, although probably not his type admittedly. He tried to let it go and listen to Ms. Whatever her name was. Noel honestly forgot.
Alas, 10 minutes later, he was drawn to this boy again. Noel cursed himself for not being able to control himself, still confused why he was so drawn to him. His messy, but still groomed hair was a fluffy chestnut color, and he was wearing a black t-shirt with some presumable string of white letters on it. He was leaned onto the desk in front of him, with his head resting on his arms. He seemed to be interested in the lecture, yet comfortable. Noel analyzed every movement he made, in some form of entranced curiosity.
Before he knew it, the lecture had ended, and he had to go on to his next lecture, to his demise. He could've watched that boy for hours and not have gotten bored. Noel wondered if he would ever get to befriend the chestnut-haired boy, or would he just be another guy in his fantasies? He pondered this throughout most of his second lecture. After that, he had a break to go grab some lunch for himself, so that's what he did.
Noel walked around the campus to find something; anything to eat. He was practically desperate. Noel found some sandwich booth on campus and grabbed a sub and a drink for himself. He headed to the library after that, since it was typically a pretty quiet area and he had been pretty overwhelmed from the first half of the day.
Noel sat down at a table in the library and took a look around, taking in the surroundings of the tall book-covered shelves encircling him. He grabbed his sandwich and took the first bite, looking down at his phone in the process. He looked up for a split second to put his food down and noticed someone sitting alone at the table in front of him. It was the boy from his first class. Noel immediately looked down as they made eye contact from across the library.
He ate the rest of his food and played on his phone for a bit, when he looked up for a split second to see the boy staring back at him. he was presumably zoning out, since Noel doubted that he was staring at him for any other reason. Noel was never really seen as attractive. He was usually seen as a toy to be used by straight dudes, to "experiment their sexuality" with.
There were no other openly queer men in his small town anyways, so he was the only one. All of his relationships were brief experiments with straight dudes who thought they were gay or thought it was funny to pretend to be attracted to him, or they would be too ashamed to be perceived as a couple openly. And while these relationships were obviously not ideal for Noel, he was getting the tragedy he so desired... right?
But maybe, just maybe, he wanted to be in a relationship without the tragedy for once. Even though that's all he'd ever known, maybe he wanted a change in his love life. Maybe he wanted someone he could depend on and someone who would love him no matter what. Even though the tragedy was a huge part of who he is, he couldn't help but think about how it would be if he was capable of being loved.
Noel wasn't even sure that was true, considering his past experiences. Those guys wouldn't have thrown him to the curb right after trying to be with him if that was the case. Even if he got someone who loved him unconditionally and was a wonderful guy, Noel would probably mess it up for himself. Like he always did. He always messed everything up. No wonder nobody loved him.
He was so encased in these thoughts that at first, he didn't even notice the tears starting to form in his eyes. He quickly wiped them away and looked up. The boy was still looking at him. But with a bit more... emotion in his eyes. Like they were trying to communicate something. Maybe concern? Empathy? He wasn't sure. He doubted either of them though. The boy was probably looking down on him, like the pathetic excuse for a human Noel was.
Noel looked back at him, and noticed his eyes didn't waver. He looked at the boy for a considerably long time. He had that recognizable fluffy-but not frizzy-dark brown hair, and piercing hazel eyes. Small, barely noticeable freckles splattered the boy's face. They were barely visible, but he still could see them from about 15 feet away.
His fashion choice, however, could use some work. He was wearing a black t-shirt that said, "Fuck bitches, get money" in big white letters with green dollar signs around it. Those types of shirts are utterly repulsive in Noel's opinion. He was also wearing jeans that looked about a size too big for him, with a plain grey hoodie wrapped around his waist. Despite all this, he pulled it off pretty well. In a kind of dorky way, it seemed to fit him.
He watched as the boy stood up and walked over to the librarian, assumingly to ask her about something. Noel watched as he pointed out something on his phone to the lady. The librarian led the boy to a bookshelf out of sight, to Noel's demise. He went back to playing some random game on his phone out of sheer boredom.
A few minutes later, the librarian and the boy returned. This time, the librarian led him to a bookshelf directly to Noel's left. Noel pretended not to be interested but listened in to their conversation. He listened to the boys' voice, and it was absolutely beautiful. He had some type of heavier accent-Russian? No. Polish? Not that either. Something Slavic though-which sounded like music to Noel's ears.
His voice sounded like perfectly harmonized symphonies. It was practically one of the most enchanting things about the dude. Noel could go on and on about his voice. The way his accent sounds, the way his voice sounded so gorgeous, he couldn't get enough of it. He couldn't hold himself from looking to his left side to see the fluffy-haired boy grabbing a book from the bookshelf.
As the boy turned around, Noel tried to hide his face as quickly as possible, but not quick enough to see the boy flash a smile at him. His smile was practically blinding, it was so beautiful. He had a noticeable, but not all that big, tooth gap between his two front teeth. It added so much charm to the boy and made his heart beat a multitude of times faster.
Noel watched as the boy went and sat back down at the table he was sitting at originally. The boy was staring at him again. Although this time, he discreetly covered his face with the book when Noel made eye contact with him. Was he really that unattractive that he hid away from Noel like that? He guesses he will never know, since the boy will probably just stay in his dreams anyways.
Noel sat on his phone for a while due to boredom, since there's not much to do in a library. when he checked the time on his phone, he realized that he was almost late for his next lecture. So he grabbed the sandwich wrapper, now empty water bottle, and phone. He got up from his chair and threw away his trash. Then, checking his phone one last time, Noel ran out of the doors of the library.