Noah and Jordan - 2. Chapter Two

*** NOAH ***

I love Fridays. I don't have any big plans for the weekend; I rarely do! But having an excuse to sleep in is all I need. Tonight, though I am off to the movies with Jenn. She usually picks the movie and I just tag along. All I need to do is get through my English class and then freedom.

I’m perhaps a bit too eager for the weekend to start. I’m the first one to arrive. I’m still having trouble sleeping so I decide it is best to sit at the back. This way if I fall asleep the professor has a lower chance of finding out. Not that I plan on falling asleep. Just in case.

I think I’ve figured out a part of what is bugging me, at least the part I care to admit. Even though I still have two years left here at university, I don’t know what I’m doing with my life. When I went back home over the summer my father gave me the same lecture, the one I’ve heard countless times, the one where he questions what I can do with a history degree. To be honest - and I hate to admit this - he is right. What can I do with a degree in history? I can always do my masters and then go into teaching, but say if I don't do that, can I still get a decent job that will, as he puts it, support my family? In his view I should have done something more ‘practical’ as in become a lawyer, engineer or doctor, because those are the only ‘real’ careers. Even though I’ve heard this all before numerous times, this time it had a greater impact on me. Now I find myself constantly questioning what I should do with my life … not that I haven’t been questioning my life for years as is, but that’s another matter.

As my internal monologue goes on in my head, the room starts to fill up. I see Jordan walk in, or rather, limp in. He notices me and gives me a slight nod. He makes his to the back and drops his bag onto the floor beside me.

“Hey man,” he says sitting down with a warm smile.

“Hey, how's your foot?”

“Fine. Just a bit sore, but nothing to worry about. I've bashed my foot several times before. It always heals in a day or two. Thanks for helping me out at the gym.”

“It was nothing. Why do you keep bashing your foot?”

“Oh, I play volleyball. I’m on the school team. I’ve managed to land on my foot a few times in an awkward position. It hurts for a bit but after a few days it goes away.”

“So, you're an athletic guy?” I ask. Figures, he kind of looks like an athletic guy.

“Yeah, a bit. I play volleyball, I used to swim, played soccer in high school …” He looks over at me with a bit of a puzzled look. “Can I ask you something?”

I know it's probably nothing but all of a sudden I feel a bit nervous. “Um, sure.”

"Why did you yell out my name when I was making my way to the change rooms?”

“So you remember that …” Crap. I was hoping he didn't remember! “I actually couldn’t remember your name.”

He gives me a smug look. He’s amused by this. “Really?”

“But,” I add quickly, “I remember it now. It was just bugging me at that moment. You know how when something is just on the tip of your tongue, but you’re not fully sure. Then all of a sudden it came back to me and I kind of, accidentally, perhaps a bit too loudly, blurted it out.”

“You more than blurted it out, you kind of yelled,” he says with a chuckle and a smile on his face. “Well I know it's a really hard name to remember, so just as a reminder it's Jooorrrrdaaaaan.” He stretches out his name and says it very slowly. I can hear the sarcasm in his voice. “Just like the country.”

“Oh, like the country. See, that helps. Now I’ll remember,” I say with a smile.

I manage to stay awake throughout the entire class, but it goes by in a blur. I have no idea what the professor was talking about; I didn’t even write down a single note. Instead I kept talking to Jordan. He’s a really funny guy. We cracked jokes about the pretentious kid; Jordan also thought he was a bit much. He tried to correct the prof today and got burned, but that still didn’t stop him! It was so hard muffling my laughs. I have a feeling Jordan was doing it on purpose! But we managed to keep quiet.

“Alright man,” Jordan says getting up when class is done, “I will see you next week. We should get together sometime soon to figure out our presentation on ‘Mrs. Dalloway’. We still have a month, but we should probably at least start thinking of a topic.”

“Yeah, for sure,” I say as I start to pack my bag.

“Alright, dude,” he extends his hands forward in a fist. A fist? Oh, right, a fist bump. “I'll see you around.”

“For sure, take care and have a good weekend.”

“You too.” He turns around to walk away. “Sssss.”

“You okay?” I ask.

“Yeah, just my foot. But it’s nothing.”

“It doesn’t seem like nothing. Maybe you should sit down.”

He reluctantly agrees. “It’ll pass in a second.”

“Your foot looks swollen. Take off your shoe.”

“Trust me I'm fine,” he says.

“Take off your shoe.” Wow, look at me being so firm. What’s gotten into me? I’m never this assertive.

“Fine.” He slowly takes off his shoe.

“Holy shit, Jordan! It looks like you’re growing another ankle. It's really swollen!”

“It's not that bad,” he says in his defence.

“Did you show a doctor yet?"

"No, I thought it would just go away in a day or two."

"Jordan, you might have broken something. You need to go see a doctor, get an x-ray done.”

He looks hesitant for a few minutes. "I think the campus medical centre closes early on Fridays.”

“I think you’re right. Well, then I’ll take you to the nearest emergency room." Why did I just say I’ll take you?

Again he looks hesitant. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

————— 

The hospital is not far. Probably a five-minute walk. It takes us half an hour. With his arm over my shoulder, I slowly walk as he hops along on one foot. During this whole time neither of us says anything to each other.

When we get to the hospital I take him to the triage area. The nurse gives him a stack of papers to fill in and warns us the wait is long.

“Hey, I’ll just be back in a minute,” I say to Jordan.

He nods as he starts writing down his life story. I walk outside of the emergency room and take out my cell phone. I call Jenn to tell her I need to cancel.

“What! Why? I've been waiting all week to see this movie,” she says in protest.

“I know, I'm sorry but I had to come to the hospital —”

She doesn't even let me finish my sentence. Her tone changes immediately from being annoyed to worried as she fires off questions. "Are you okay? What happened? What hospital?”

“Yes, yes, I’m fine. Don't worry. One of my classmates, the guy in my English class, he hurt his foot, so I brought him to the hospital.”

Only after I thoroughly explain how Jordan hurt his foot, and I promise to call her back when I’m home, am I allowed to hang up.

*** JORDAN ***

I know I acted like an idiot. I should have gone to see a doctor right away. In my defence, I really did think it would heal on its own. It always heals on its own. But this time it feels different. Noah's right, I should get it checked to make sure it’s not broken. I'll need a healthy foot if I want to continue playing volleyball.

“Hey, sorry I just had to make a phone call,” Noah says as he sits down beside me. “Are you done with the forms?”

“Yep, almost done.”

“Hey, did you drop your health card on the floor?” Noah asks while bending down. “Your middle name is …”

I grab the card from him. “That stays just between the two of us,” I say to him in a stern voice. “Not even my closest friends know my middle name.”

“But it’s cute.”

“Yeah, and that’s why they don’t know, and I intend to keep it that way.”

“Okay. Clearly a sensitive topic. Secret is safe with me,” he says.

“Alright, I'm done. Do you mind passing these back to the nurse?”

“Of course.”

I'm glad Noah came with me. It was really nice of him to help. I know I could have called one of my friends and they would have been more than willing to help. But then they would ask questions about what happened, and then maybe about Kate … and I don’t need any of that right now. Besides, Noah already knows how I hurt my foot, so he doesn’t need to ask. There is just something about him that I find calming. I don’t know what it is.

“Thanks for your help, Noah,” I say to him when he comes back. “I should be okay from here. Just going to sit here and wait now. Besides, it's Friday night and I'm sure you have plans, so if you want to take off that's cool.”

“Honestly I don't mind staying,” he says. “I had plans, but I postponed them, so I'm okay.”

“You didn’t have to do that for me.” Now I feel bad!

“It's fine. It was nothing special. I was going to go see a movie with a friend, but I can go another time. And knowing her it was probably a chick-flick, so you may have just saved two hours of my life.”

“You’re a good guy, Noah.”

“So I’ve been told,” he says with a smile.

We spend the next hour talking about where we grew up, our parents, siblings. Turns out he is also not from this city. He moved here for school. So did I. He’s the baby of the family. He has an older brother and sister, both of whom are married with children. I tell him that I’m an only child, and that my parents split up when I was pretty young. We then talk about school and what we are studying.

“So, wait, you want to be a doctor?” Noah asks surprised.

“Yeah … why is that so surprising?”

“Because of your foot! You’re studying life sciences, taking pre-med courses, and yet you’re the one who thought your foot would just magically heal on its own.”

“Well not magically …”

Noah just rolls his eyes. “What would you say to a patient who came to you with a foot like that?”

“I would say you need to get an x-ray.” I muffle my words at the end so that he can’t hear.

“Sorry, a bit louder, I didn’t hear you. What would you say?”

“I would tell them to get an x-ray,” I say again.

Noah just looks at me with a smile as he shakes his head. “I thought so.”

From there we talk about friends, hobbies. He’s really into cycling, reading, travelling. I tell him about volleyball, the team, and other activities I’ve been involved with over the years. We then shift to girlfriends. He tells me he dated this one girl, but that they broke up a while back. I fill him in on my relationship with Kate.

“Are you okay with how things ended?" Noah asks.

“To be honest, a part of me saw it coming. Our relationship wasn't the same since we came back to school. What gets me is all the time I wasted, you know? For two months I thought I had a girlfriend, when in reality I didn’t.”

“I get why you’re angry. She should have told you sooner.”

“Exactly. And she only told me because she got caught. Who knows when or if she would have ever mentioned anything. Maybe on their wedding day.”

“I don’t know, wedding days are kind of busy. Maybe after the honeymoon. You have to be a bit reasonable now,” he says trying to make a joke.

“You’re right,” I say with a smile. It was a lame joke, but at least he is trying.

“I know it sucks, but people like her, they aren’t faithful to anyone. You dodged a bullet.”

“I think so.”

“Jordan Young,” a nurse calls out. Finally! After three hours we’re called inside. We follow her into one of the examination rooms. “Alright, just wait here for a bit, the doctor will see you in a few moments.”

“Thanks,” I say as she closes the door. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, how come you haven’t jumped back in the game? You seem like a sane person, or well, sane enough,” I say with a laugh.

“Borderline sane. Ah, honestly, I don’t know. I’ve been busy with school and … it just hasn’t been a priority. I also haven't found the right person to be with yet.”

“That makes sense. Sorry, I’m not trying to be intrusive.” I usually would never ask such a question, but Noah seems easy going, so I went for it.

A few minutes later the doctor arrives. Noah excuses himself, saying he’ll wait outside. For the next five minutes I tell the doctor what happened, how I hurt my foot, as he examines the damage.

“Well, your friend was right. You should have gone to the doctor! It’s definitely swollen. It might be a sprain, or a fracture. I’m going to send you for an x-ray, and then we will take it from there. A nurse will come with a wheelchair and take you down in a bit.”

When the doctor leaves Noah comes back inside.

“Well, you’ll be happy to know the doctor agreed with you that I should have gone to see a medical professional.”

“And what did he say about your foot?”

“It could be either a sprain or a fracture. Going for an x-ray to find out.”

The next few hours are a waiting game. I have to wait an hour for the x-ray. When I go inside, Noah goes out and buys some food. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I started eating. After that we are sent back upstairs to see the doctor again. I tell Noah he can leave, but he insists on staying. I’m glad he does. By the time we see the doctor again it is close to nine o’clock at night. The doctor confirms I sprained my ankle, but he says it is not too bad. Still, I’ll need to wear a brace and use crutches for a couple of weeks.

By the time we wrap up and leave the hospital it is midnight. Even though Noah lives off campus, in the other part of town, he insists on helping me back home. He hails a cab, and pays the fare too! Honestly, I have to find a way to properly thank this guy. I tell him I can manage when I get out of the cab, but turns out, I can’t. I almost fall. He helps me all the way to my dorm room.

“Thank you so much for tonight, Noah. Staying with me, getting food, listening to me rant and rave like a lunatic. Helping me to my room. I really appreciate it. Do you want to come in? Can I get you something?”

“I’m okay,” Noah says. “As I said before, it's nothing. I'm sure you would have done the same. Do you have the instructions the doctor gave you?”

“Yep, I do.”

“Okay. If you need anything over the weekend don’t hesitate to call. I mean it.”

“I know you do. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Good night, Jordan.”

“Night.”

*** NOAH ***

It’s been a long day. I throw my keys onto the table, kick the door shut behind me, and flop down onto the couch. I’m exhausted. It’s not like I did much, we just sat around waiting at the hospital. But even just sitting all day can be exhausting.

The one positive side of tonight is that I got to know more about Jordan. He may give off that athlete, jock vibe at times, but he is more than just a sports guy. He is smart, funny, the way he smiles …

Shit, it’s late, I should get up and change. I force myself off of the couch. I wonder if Jenn ended up going to the movies without me? Oh shit. Jenn. I forgot to call her! I send her a quick message to see if she is up, since it is well past midnight. Yep, she’s up.

“Now you call me!” she says.

“Well, hello to you too. Sorry, Jenn. I just got home five minutes ago.” I fill her in on what happened at the hospital.

“Well, that was really nice of you to help. Looks like you made a new friend.” She adds an extra emphasis on the word ‘new’. She's not the jealous type or anything, she's just bugging me. She knows I don't make friends easily. I wouldn't say I'm shy, but I'm not really a social person either. I have to get to know someone very well before I start to open up to them. I'm the kind of guy who has a few, and when I say few I mean few, really good friends. Well, really just Jenn. Other people are more acquaintances I see here and there.

I reply: “Hey there, no need to be jealous. I haven't forgotten you .... at least not yet. Not that there is much to remember about you, well, except your loud and nagging voice.”

“Oh, you're so funny. Excuse me while I laugh. I’m surprised you stayed the entire night with him.”

“I just figured I have to work with this guy for the next few weeks, so might as well get off on a GOOD foot. Get it, good foot."

“Yeah I got it and that's really lame,” she says.

“Whatever, it's past midnight, I can make lame jokes.”

“Then you can laugh at them yourself too.”

There's little love lost between the two of us. Most of the time we make fun of each other. Both of us are quite sarcastic - or at least we think we are.

“So, this new friend, is he single?” Jenn asks. “And if so, is he hot? I haven’t been on a proper date in months!”

That’s the question I’ve been trying to avoid. But it’s not easy. The way his lips curl when he smiles, the way his soft blue eyes shine when he laughs, or just the simple way he brushes his hair off his forehead when it falls over his brow … Of course I already know the answer.

“Earth to Noah …”

“Yeah, sorry.” I didn’t realize I had gone silent. “Um, I don’t know, Jenn. He’s not your type.” I don’t know why I say that. He’s a good looking, athletic guy. He probably would be Jenn’s type.

“Whatever, I'll be the judge of that! Clearly, you're not a good judge of character. Look at the people you've chosen as friends!”

“You do make a valid point. You are a freak. Okay, as much as I would love to continue this mind blowing, inspirational and life changing conversation, I'm exhausted and I'm going to bed. Good night.”

“Alright, I’ll let you be. But, I still want to go the movies this weekend.”

“Pick a date and time and let me know. I’ll be there.”

“Good, and as punishment for ditching me ... we're going to see a girly movie!”

“Whatever you say, Jenn. Night.” I honestly have no strength to argue with her right now. But girly movie, yeah, that’s not happening.

*** JORDAN ***

I wake up to the sound of birds chirping. But my temporary moment of bliss is shattered the moment I move my legs. Ouch! Crap! I forgot about my foot. It still hurts, a lot.

I have no idea how long I was sleeping. I can’t seem to find my clock. It’s probably buried under a mountain of clothes. I’m not the tidiest person in the world. Instead I look for my cell phone. It should be on the nightstand. I’m too lazy to look up, instead I just move my hand around, knocking things as I go. I’ll pick it all up later (no I won’t). Ah, here it is!

When I turn my phone back on (I shut it off on Wednesday after talking to John) I get a wave of notifications. Several missed calls, some text messages. I’ll look at those later. But, holy crap! It’s three in the afternoon! I really slept in today.

Alright, so those missed calls and messages: John, Caleb. They wanted to know if I wanted to hang out last night. Well, too late for that. I also have a missed call from Kate. She even left me a message. She wanted to apologize for the way things ended. Again, too late for that.

Even though I spent most of yesterday with him, I’m a bit disappointed I don’t have a missed call, or a message, from Noah. He’s probably glad to be rid of me! Though, that’s not fair of me to say, he was genuinely helpful. It was so easy to talk to him. There is just something about him that I find relaxes me. I don’t know why or what it is. I should call him and thank him properly. Of course, his number is in my bag, which is on the other side of the room. Alright, I have to get up.

My first attempt ends in failure. This is a lot harder than it looks! But I eventually manage to get up and hop over to my bag. I grab it and hop back to my bed. I add his number into my phone. Noah Watson. And then I just sit there. He’s probably busy, I tell myself. I’ll call him later.

For the most part, I spend the day in bed. I can’t do much, so I might as well read. I have several books to go through for English class. I pick up ‘Mrs. Dalloway’, the book I will be presenting with Noah.

I’m barely a few pages in when my phone rings. For a second I’m excited it might be Noah. It’s not. It’s John. But why was I excited? Clearly these drugs are messing with my head.

“Hey man, what's up?” I ask.

“Where the hell have you been! I've been trying to call and text you for days now.”

“Oh, yeah … I kind of turned my phone off and forgot to turn it back on.”

“Dude, you have the worst memory ever. I just wanted to see how you’re doing?”

“I’m actually doing really well.”

“That’s good to hear. You seemed really angry on Wednesday night.”

“I was, but you know what, I’m not anymore. It’s all in the past. Time to move on.”

“I’m glad to hear that. So, no better time to move on then now. Want to go out tonight?” John asks.

“Ah, not tonight. I think I’m going to stay in.”

"What! You want to stay in on a Saturday night? You never stay home on a Saturday night. I thought you said you were feeling better?”

“I am, I really am. It’s just that … I kind of hurt my foot.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was at the gym and I sprained my ankle.”

“Oh, that sucks! How did you manage that?”

“I was just being an idiot.” I don’t want to tell him I fell off a treadmill, I’m still embarrassed!

“Why didn’t you call me?”

“I was being stupid. I thought it was nothing. But I went to the hospital yesterday. They gave me a brace and crutches, and told me to rest this weekend.”

“Have you eaten anything today? I can grab Caleb and some food and head over.”

“That’s very kind of you, but I’m okay.”

“You need to eat, Jordan. I can drop something off.”

“Thank you, John. I had some leftovers that I just ate. I’m probably going to take some meds and go back to bed soon.” I actually would rather be alone today. I usually love company, but I’m not in the mood right now.

“Okay, if you need anything just give me a call.”

“Absolutely,” I say. “How about we grab lunch tomorrow.”

“Sounds like a plan. Rest up.”

“Thanks, John.”

John is a nice guy. We’ve been friends for a while, and I know he cares, but it’s not the same with him, like it is with Noah. Fuck, that makes no sense! I’ve known John for years, and Noah for like a week. What’s wrong with me? Whatever, I just need to continue reading.

But I only manage to read a paragraph when my phone rings again. I look at the display: Noah.

“Hey …”

“Hey, Jordan. It’s me, Noah.”

As if I didn't know.