Love Me Not

It was valentine's day, about ten o'clock at night, when Noel's door was chapped. He scratched the top of his head, his black hair a mess as he'd been ill and had mostly been sleeping throughout the day. He slowly stumbled out of bed, nearly tripping over the piles of dirty clothes on his floor, and made his way to the door. He opened the door slowly and leaned on the edge of it with his forehead against leaning against his arm. The hallway was lit by orange light bulbs in wall brackets, in front of Noel's door with his red hair highlighted in the orange lighting was Michael, Noel's best friend. He pushed past Noel and into his flat, pulling him gently away from the door and shutting it, leading the way to the bed. Together the boys hopped up onto the king-sized bed and faced each other with their legs crossed.

"How are you doing?" Michael asked softly knowing that Noel's head had been aching. Noel had contracted the flu at the beginning of the week and now, on Friday, he had missed fifteen board meetings, seven important decisions to be made and a lot more at work, and had finally managed to refrain from vomiting for at least three hours.

"I'm alright." Noel shrugged. "Tired, I guess. I thought you'd be out looking for a girl tonight." He responded. His voice was scratchy and he needed to lie down so he rolled down onto his side and pulled the covers up over himself.

"Nah, it wouldn't be the same if I didn't have you with me." Michael smiled, he shuffled around until he was sitting against the headboard next to Noel's head with his legs stretched out in front of him under the covers. He reached out to the bedside table and snatched the TV remote. He turned on the TV and flipped through the channels until he found a football game, turning the volume down and muting the TV. Michael turned to Noel and watched as his friend struggled to get comfortable. "We missed you this week. My mum was expecting me to bring you by Tuesday." Michael hinted to Noel. Noel froze and shuddered, rolling to face Michael with a wince on his face.

"I'm so sorry! I completely forgot to text her." Noel groaned as he rolled onto his back and covered his face with a hand. Michael rolled his eyes, he felt hurt that Noel hadn't realised the real problem yet. Michael had noticed that Noel had been avoiding him for some time, in fact it had started ever since Michael's mother had started including Noel in their family things. At first Michael thought it was just that Noel wasn't used to family stuff, as the majority of his family had died, but then he'd witnessed Noel breaking down and crying when he'd left Tuesday dinner early a couple of weeks back and he knew something else was up.

"Noel, that's not a problem. I told her you were sick, she's not upset. I'm worried about you." Michael spoke quietly looking back to the TV as one of the tiny men running around in colorful shirts scored a goal. He didn't celebrate, he'd no idea who was playing and he wasn't really concentrating on it. He just wanted to know that his friend was okay. "I saw you crying. I can tell mum if the dinner is too much for you. I'll make something up. It's fine." He promised. Michael didn't turn away from the TV as he heard Noel start to sniffle.

"I'm fine, I like going to dinner with your family. It's nice." Noel replied. Michael waited to see if he would add to it. "I've just been getting a little overwhelmed and weighed down recently. They gave me a promotion at my job that I didn't want and now I have more work to do and so many important decisions to make. I guess now when I can't figure out what I want for dinner and have to ask her to ask one of you guys instead I feel like I'm letting someone down. Then y'all were teasing me about it at dinner and I just couldn't handle it." Noel mumbled he sounded embarrased, but what he'd said had made Michael feel so guilty that he almost didn't notice.

"I'm sorry, Noel. You should have said something. We would have understood if you were feeling fragile. I would have understood. I should have known there was a good reason." Michael muttered, he slid down into the bed further with his arms above the covers and Noel pulled his arms out from under the covers too. They rested their elbows against each other, something they'd done everytime they were next to each other since being children and settled in to watch the football, which Michael now turned up before tossing the remote off the bed into a pile of clothes on the floor. If they both ended up ill from this it would be okay, Michael thought. At least they'd made up.

"Hey Michael?" Noel mumbled as he rubbed his eyes his eyes which remained fixated on the football game, though they were now red and puffy due to his tearful moment earlier.

"Yes Noel?" Michael responded just as quietly, his attention also returning to the football game once again.

"Next time we watch football you should bring beer and crisps. I've been craving." Noel grumbled. Michael tossed his head back, his red hair splaying out on the black pillow behind his head, and laughed. Noel noticed that Michael seemed to be a lot more cheerful now and wondered if he'd really worried him that much. He felt bad now, but was much too tired to do anything about it until the next day at least.

"Okay Noel. I'll do that." He chuckled as he moved his arm to hold onto his friend's shoulder as the sick boy began to fall asleep. "I'll do that." He repeated quietly.