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“It’s still early,” he said. “Sometimes it takes a few days for all the symptoms to kick in.”
Franky stepped forward then, startling Noon. “He’ll be coming home with me.”
After getting over his shock, and Franky’s audacity, Noon turned his questioning stare on me. “Who the hell is this?”
“I’m Franklin Kincaid,” Franky answered tersely, obviously not appreciating being dismissed by Noon.
Noon’s chest puffed out as he faced Franky head-on. I jumped in before things could get out of hand. “Noon, this is Franky. A-ah friend. Franky, this is Noon.”
“An, a-ah friend?” Noon asked, invisible quotation marks coating his words as he stared Franky down. “Must be something different than a regular friend, because I’m the only one of those you’ve got.”
Franky glowered at him, and I narrowed my gaze at the back of my best friend’s head.
“Stop being an ass, Noon.”
“No, I’m just a protective friend defending you from some stranger who thinks you’re leaving here with him.”
“If you were such a great friend, instead of a neglectful one,” Franky said, tone dripping with contempt, “you’d have known he’s been living with me for weeks.”
The testosterone levels rose, pushing at the ceiling, and although Noon had a few inches and more than a few pounds of muscle on Franky—which said a lot—Franky didn’t fumble under the weight of Noon’s formidability. If anything, he seemed ready to prove that size didn’t matter.
“I’ve actually been trying to reach you for weeks now,” Noon said, turning his guilt-ridden eyes on me. “You haven’t returned my texts or voicemail messages. I even stopped by the apartment this morning.”
“Weeks?”Franky asked. “Did you scour the city from top to bottom for him? Did you report him missing? Was an APB put out for him?” Franky asked, challenging Noon’s sudden concern. His tone went darker with each rhetorical question. “I’m terrified for him if you’re all he’s got. I haven’t known him for a fraction of the time you have, but I’d rain hell down on this city if even a day went by without hearing from him.”
I couldn’t deny that Franky had a point, even if I wasn’t clear on what drove it. I’d actually been the one trying to reach Noon, and not the other way around, but my texts and voicemail messages had gone unanswered. I’d checked in with Stacey, so I knew he was alive and well.“We’ve just been busy,”she’d said. He’d only just gotten back to me yesterday, but with being sick, I hadn’t gotten the chance to return his missed call.
“Franky,” I said. “Can you give us a few minutes?”
He nodded, reining in whatever it was he’d unleashed. “I’ll see about your discharge papers.”
Left alone with my best friend, I inched over so he could sit next to me. He snorted, pulling up a chair instead. No way could he have fit on the narrow gurney with me. The gesture was meant to be an olive branch.
“Why’d you lie?” I asked.
“I couldn’t give that asshole the pleasure of knowing he was right,” he said, gazing back at the door Franky exited through. “I’m sorry. I’ve been a shitty friend. I’ve just been—”
“Busy,” I cut in with. “I get it. You’ve always had big dreams, and I’ve always wanted to play it safe. We were bound to outgrow each other.” I smiled weakly. I’d tried to follow his lead after high school, even enrolling into community college alongside him. Didn’t last long. I would’ve eventually flunked out, if I hadn’t been kicked out first for fraternizing with the faculty.
“That isn’t what’s happening, Leland.”
“Isn’t it? I overheard you and Stacey talking a few nights before you moved out. I know about the big job offer she got in New York. She decided to accept it, didn’t she? And you’ve decided you’re going with her, right?”
Noon took my hand, looking ridiculous squeezed into the tiny hospital chair at my bedside. It groaned under his bulk. “That’s what I was calling to tell you. We’ve been getting things in order for the move. I would’ve told you sooner, but time got away from me.”
“You’re a bad liar,” I said.
“Alright, maybe I feel guilty about leaving, knowing you don’t have anyone else, but…”
“But you’ve gotta go,” I said, when he couldn’t.
“Yeah, I’ve gotta go.” He squeezed my hand tighter.
Noon glanced over at the closed door again, as if only just remembering about Franky. His eyes came back to mine with a million questions lingering behind them. I couldn’t hold his stare.
“Am I wrong about you not having anyone else? Who is he?” he asked, and I blew a raspberry, dropping my head back on the pillow. I told him as little as I could but enough to satisfy his curiosity, ending things with Franky hiring me to paint a mural. I left out the part about him being one of the wealthiest businessmen alive. Those details meant nothing to me, so I opted out of mentioning it.
“You’re into him,” he accused afterward.
