Chapter Text
The car is silent. Thirty minutes back, Noel and Ocean were at each other's throats over which radio station to put on. Noel had ultimately decided to just turn the radio off, reasoning that the silence wouldn't be as awkward for him because he was driving, so he could just focus all his energy on the road. Ocean, who appears to have nothing with her except her cell phone, which probably houses zero fun games or anything that works with the no connection they get in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere, would have no choice but to sit in the silence and twiddle her thumbs. She may even get so bored she apologizes, though Noel knows she would rather have this car be flattened in a ditch and die before she apologizes about anything.
So they've been sitting in silence for thirty minutes. The pair have passed one car in the full hour they've been on this escapade. Noel's surprised with even that, considering it's now 3 AM on a Monday and they're passing through rural Canada. Ocean has been giving him directions, they have been driving on this interstate for a while, and Noel's glad he had already downed four cups of coffee in preparation for pulling an all-nighter studying anyway, or he's sure he would've fallen asleep at the wheel by now.
He really wants to ask where Ocean is leading him, but that would mean he breaks the silence and Ocean wins. So he keeps his thoughts to himself and focuses on the stretch of asphalt in front of him, not even bothering to look in the mirrors because who the fuck would be on a rural expressway at 3 AM on a Monday other than them. Fortunately for Noel, it isn't long before Ocean does have to speak up to give directions. She's obviously reluctant with it, and Noel is certain that if this wasn't a "time-sensitive mission", as Ocean had put it, she would've kept her mouth shut a bit longer and then told him he has to turn around, because she's evil. A big, dramatic sigh breaks through the silence and Ocean instructs, "Turn right up here, onto Hadley Street."
As Noel switches lanes and gets off the expressway onto a smaller road, he voices the thoughts he's been chewing on for the last hour. "Ocean, where the fuck exactly are we going?"
"Language!" she slaps his arm. "And if you must know-"
"I do 'must know', you dragged me out of my house at 2 AM and we're using my car-"
"Oh hush this is your mom's car, and you were already up, and we're going to an airport."
Noel raises an eyebrow at the last bit. He scans around the car again, and confirms that no, Ocean hasn't brought any of her belongings with her. No suitcase or anything. It's pretty clear her intentions aren't to board a plane, but Noel can't help poking at her a bit. He puts on his happiest, most energetic voice. "Oh my god, you're finally leaving! Well you should've just said that, I would've gone faster, we could've been here an hour ago! I would've brought my wallet to buy myself a celebratory breakfast for being the one to boot Ocean O'Connell-Rosenburg the Not-That-Great out of Uranium!"
Ocean just rolls her eyes and slaps his arm again. "Shut up. We both know I would never let you be the last face I see before I leave Uranium. We're picking someone up. My cousin." The last two sentences trail off a bit, and Noel has to glance at Ocean because she's always so confident, her sentences never trail off. He's never seen her look so sincerely sad and sympathetic before. Noel has been the only person Ocean reveals any of her serious emotional states to, and vice versa. He's sure this time is no different. He scans the surroundings, the road, and doesn't see anything out of the ordinary. There goes the theory of Ocean seeing some poor animal hit by a car, or really anything else environmental, leaving Noel with the causation that will definitely be more difficult to deal with - something is up with said cousin. Noel waits a bit for her to start talking on her own, which works 101% of the time, because Ocean loves to hear herself talk.
"He's coming from Ukraine. His mother is very sick. Yeah. So he's staying with us." Noel's seen Ocean get choked up a lot, usually in the comfort of one of the twos' bedrooms, and usually over frustrations with schoolwork or her parents or just life getting too much in general. This is different, because this is about a woman, her aunt, who she definitely believes is going to die soon, even if she didn't explicitly say that. About the boy, who they're on the way to pick up right now, that Ocean is confident is going to lose his mother. The air in the car feels thicker, and Noel rests a hand on Ocean's shoulder because he doesn't know what words to use. This seems to be the correct response, because Ocean doesn't bite his hand off, and after a few minutes he turns the radio back on, to the station Ocean had wanted, and he sees her smile at him out of the corner of his eye. They sit in the sounds of upbeat (too upbeat for Noel's liking) pop music that intermingles with static every once in a while because they're far from the radio towers that carry the signal, until Ocean tells Noel to turn left, then right, then they're parked at the airport.
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"Darn it!" Ocean scares the shit out of Noel, who had been drifting off on the couch in the pickup/waiting area or whatever that the two had set up camp in. The couch is far from comfortable, but it's just something about airport couches he guesses.
"What?" it probably comes out meaner than he meant it, but luckily for him Ocean is used to his sass and isn't at all effected by the harsh tone.
"I forgot the sign I made. How is he going to feel welcome now?!" Ocean buries her face in her hands like this is the biggest tragedy in the whole world. Like if she doesn't have this sign ready, her cousin is going to flip her off and board to next plane back to Ukraine and never speak to her again. As much as Noel wants to make a sarcastic comment, he knows Ocean has only just composed herself from earlier on the outside. Internally, she's probably still back in the car, thinking about her aunt, so Noel decides to go the nicer route, or as nice as he can be with the caffeine high starting to wear off.
"Hey," he starts, patting her shoulder lightly, "its... we can probably make one? There's gotta be a store here that sells stuff, and his plane hasn't even landed. Yeah?"
So begins operation Make a Sign for This Dude.
It was a lot harder to find materials than Noel originally thought. In the end he had presented a yard sign souvenir to write on the back of, and Ocean had managed to find some glittery gel pens to write with. The couch they had originally staked claim to was taken by the time they got back to the waiting area (Noel had suggested they kick them off the seat, but Ocean held him back and reasoned that the plane would be arriving in a bit, so it isn't really worth it. Noel did what he's best at and groveled.) so they now find themselves sitting on the floor. Noel is sitting up against the wall, head leaned back and eyes closed, nursing some cheap airport coffee meant to get him through the drive home, Ocean sitting next to him, busy at work on the sign. After an announcement that the plane has landed, Noel opens his eyes and looks down at the sign as Ocean begins picking up the gel pens and putting them back in their box.
"Mis-cha?" Noel raises an eyebrow. "That's your cousin's name?"
"No, it's Mischa. Mee-sha. You know, it's very insensitive to make fun of names from other cultures," Ocean drones while she finished packing up the gel pens. Noel rolls his eyes and stands up, offering Ocean a hand. She just stares at him for a bit, because this is uncharacteristic, and Noel's a bit shocked at the action himself. He decides to chalk it up to sleep deprivation.
After a few more seconds of staring Noel's hand dips slightly. "You gonna take it or not?"
This seems to shake Ocean out of whatever she was thinking (probably that this was a trick, and once she reached out Noel would pull his hand back and laugh, something more in character for him to do, to be honest) and she takes Noel's hand while grabbing the box of pens and sign with the other. Once she's on her feet, Ocean starts moving to the small crowd of people waiting to pick up their plane passenger. The box of gel pens are shoved into Noel's hands as Ocean grips the stakes meant to be poked into the ground and holds the sign way above her head.
There's three separate boys within the crowd of passengers, from ages 8ish to 15ish, that Noel guesses could be Ocean's cousin. As the passengers find their families, Noel finds that all three of his guesses are wrong. In fact, he doesn't even clock Ocean's actual cousin as an option, and thinks he's a stranger passing by until he stops right in front of Ocean. He looks nothing like her, he doesn't even look related to her. He towers a little over half a foot over her, not as tall as Noel but still pretty tall considering Noel just assumed everyone in Ocean's family would be below-average heighted redheads just like her. This boy's hair is dark, and curly, and pretty all over the place, probably because he just got off a plane. And damn, Noel can't help but think, he's kind of hot. Of course, this immediately leads to him punching himself internally because this guy is related to Ocean, which is weird. He can't find someone who shares DNA with Ocean attractive, it's against his moral code.
"Hey, you found us!" Ocean's arms have dropped to her sides, one hand still clutching the sign.
"Hard to not with shiny sign," Mischa deadpans. His voice is way different from Ocean's too. It's deep, and silky, and is heavily accented because, you know, Ukrainian.
Ocean ignores the comment and starts practically interrogating him, right in the middle of the airport. "How was the flight? Or, I guess, how were the multiple flights? Did you use that neck pillow I got you? You know sleeping on a plane without it could cause a bunch of neck problems, there's no chiropractor in Uranium. You didn't smuggle anything on, right? The fact you do any of that stuff is already bad enough, drugs kill, and if you snuck anything over the flight I'm not letting you drag me down-"
"Who is friend?" Mischa cuts in, tipping his head in Noel's direction. Before Noel can even attempt to introduce himself, Ocean cuts in, because of course she does.
"That's Noel. He's our ride back to Uranium." Mischa looks Noel up and down, and Noel is suddenly very aware that a thick hoodie is all that's covering his pajamas, and the only thing he could throw on on such short notice was a pair of his mom's slippers. Both boys shuffle towards each other and extend their hands in a handshake. As the two release and their arms drop to their sides Mischa, in a super not at all subtle or quiet whisper, still looking at Noel, says "The same Noel that you say has IQ of 3 and sings flat?"
Noel gasps loudly and a hand flies up to his chest dramatically as he whips around to face Ocean. "Ocean, my closest friend, such slander, how dare you?" Upon seeing Mischa's obviously phony apologetic look in response to Ocean's betrayed one, Noel can't help but drop the facade and laugh at her. Nice to know that even Ocean's own blood would help him team up against her. After each boy recieved a slap on the arm with no real power to it, they were dragged through the airport to baggage claim by a now very annoyed Ocean.
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"Yes!" Mischa chimes from the back seat. While Mischa doesn't seem shy, he doesn't say much either (in English, at least. Occasionally he'll mumble to himself in Ukrainian), and this is the first time he's spoken since they packed up the car and left the airport.
Ocean whips around at the same time Noel peeks up into the rearview mirror to catch a glimpse of Mischa, blunt in mouth, lighter in hand, and Noel realizes that he's probably been so quiet because he's been focused on rolling said blunt. A sharp intake of breath can be heard from the girl in the passenger's seat, and Noel braces himself for the explosion he knows is coming.
"Mischa! No! Put that down!" she swats around the backseat as best as she can, trying to grab the blunt or at least knock it out of Mischa's hand, but she has short arms and the position is awkward and Mischa just leans further toward the driver's side of the car away from her. She quickly tires out and retreats back to a more comfortable position in her seat, still glaring daggers at Mischa. "I thought you said you didn't smuggle anything in!"
"Actually," Mischa talks around the blunt and begins to try lighting it. "I never got to answer question because you run mouth so much." His eyes light up a bit and he drops his hands and puts the lighter back in his pocket, clearly successfully lighting it. As the smell of weed fills the car Ocean rolls down her window, and Noel does the same. Somehow seeing this as a moment of solidarity between her and Noel, she turns back around and, with her "demeaning and belittling" voice on, says "Mischa, you didn't even ask Noel-"
"Oh, shit, yeah," Mischa sits up a bit straighter and takes the blunt out of his mouth, holding it in front of himself. "Where are manners? You want a hit?" Noel hasn't smiled wider ever, because he knows that's not what Ocean meant, and he knows she's about to waste energy lecturing Mischa about some "don't smoke" shit and Noel knows that the second she finishes the lecture he will in fact say he wants a hit.
"No! Mischa! Mischa weed stinks. Like, literally! This is Noel's mom's car, I'm sure she doesn't want people smoking in it! And getting others involved in your harmful behavior is even worse than just doing it yourself! Drugs kill, all drugs, even weed! Do you want to end up living in a cardboard box, or in a prison cell, or dead?" Mischa doesn't seem to be listening. Noel's sure he's had lots of practice tuning Ocean out, considering he has to be related to her. Ocean appears to be done with her speech around the same time they hit a red light, which means they're close to humanity, which means they're close to Uranium. Noel knows he probably shouldn't be driving high, but he doesn't think his body will physically let him drive back into Uranium if he isn't at least a little buzzed.
"Sure," Noel reaches his hand back for the blunt, but Mischa doesn't hand it over. Instead, he leans forward until his shoulders are shoved between the two front seats, and then holds the joint up to Noel's mouth for him. Noel only allows himself to romanticize the gesture for a few seconds before he determines that Mischa was probably worried he wouldn't get it back if he passed the blunt to Noel, either by Ocean wrestling it away or Noel himself throwing it out the window or something. The light turns green and Mischa slinks back into the backseat as the car starts rolling forward again.
"Mother takes smoke breaks in her car." Noel feels a bit guilty now about accepting Mischa's offer, because he knows how much Ocean hates that stuff, how she's forced to live in second-hand smoke every day. But Noel's too tired to actually make an attempt at cheering anyone up, and his head's getting fuzzy, so he just talks to fill the silence that Ocean's voice would normally occupy. "It's cigarettes, though, not weed. She'll notice but she's not going to, like, call the cops or anything if I tell her. She doesn't, uh, really encourage me doing that stuff though, because she knows how addiction sucks, and because both my parents have been addicts to something or other I'm like, genetically more prone to it or something. I mean I haven't gotten addicted to anything yet, and if I do get addicted to something I would hope it's alcohol, not something you smoke. I've seen those pictures of black lungs and stuff, just because sometimes I say I have a cold, black heart doesn't mean I literally want my internal organs to be black. And stuff."
He doesn't have the same endurance as Ocean, he can only talk for so long before he runs out of steam, and especially at 4:45 AM with his brain running on cheap coffee and weed and zero sleep, that short tangent is about all he can muster. There's no response from either passenger, even though a quick glance in the review mirror shows that Mischa is looking up at Noel, or at least the back of his head, and maybe had been paying attention to the rant even if he's probably too high to really comprehend the words. A quick glance to his left turned double-take shows that Ocean had also been paying attention, and was now staring him down, arms crossed, face red. "What?" Noel stupidly, foolishly asks. He knows exactly "what", but hopefully this will get Ocean talking, and talking for as long as it takes to get to her house, which a quick scan of his surroundings tells him will be within 10 minutes.
"You know what, Noel. Don't encourage him."
"I'm sorry, did you not hear the whole black lungs part?"
"Yeah, but you're not actively telling him not to smoke."
"Because I saw your attempt, and I know how addicts work, and you do too, and we both know just telling them to stop doesn't work."
Ocean falls into an angry silence, which scares Noel more than an angry rant. It's normal when Ocean lectures, Noel knows how to deal with an angry ranting Ocean. When she falls quiet, retreats into her own head, Noel doesn't know what to do. He doesn't know where to go from here, and he's just tired and buzzed enough to be a little apathetic towards everything, so in this moment he just turns up the radio louder as they make their way further into the guts of Uranium.
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When Noel calls this part of town, the part him and Ocean both reside in, the "guts of Uranium", he means literally, if Uranium was a person, this part of town would be the intestinal tract. Uranium in itself is already pretty small, and even the "richest" families in town are upper middle class at best. The "guts of Uranium", according to pessimistic Noel, holds the "shit of Uranium".
Which he knows, logically isn't fair, because most of the families who live there are like his. Single parent, or those struggling to climb up the ranks and get out of the low class they were born into (nearly an impossible feat in such a small town), just trying their best, working multiple jobs, stuff like that. Or they're like Ocean's parents, who don't believe in the worth of "material items", that "the earth is our shelter, no matter the small wooden boxes we call 'houses'" or some shit like that, struggling with addiction, so high in the clouds their kids are paying for electricity bills they don't even know exist. Noel has learned to somewhat embrace the shit hand his family's been dealt, or at least he's not actively trying to hide it.
Ocean, on the other hand, will not breathe until she is seen as completely perfect by everyone around her. Grades-wise, she's got it down, personality, Noel thinks she needs a lot of improvement in this department, maybe even a whole transplant, and isn't afraid to tell her as much, but her home life is, well, shit. No one could ever know what happens in Ocean's life outside of school, least of all her best friend Constance Blackwood, who lives in a two-story apartment above her family-owned, pretty successful bakery. Constance has a very loving family, two great parents that aren't addicted to weed and actually talk to her, and a younger brother.
Because it just so happens that Noel is the only other person she knows who lives in the "guts of Uranium" and has an addict parent, he's unfortunate enough to be the one she goes to for support. As if he wasn't already having a hard enough time.
That's why Noel's door was the one she knocked on at 1 o'clock this morning, asking for a ride. Her family doesn't own a car - emissions, air pollution or something. Knocking on Constance's door at 1 AM asking for a ride would've meant having to explain such to her, and Ocean wouldn't dare put her reputation on the line for that.
When she first moved into the house next to his Noel was genuinely annoyed, she would always come over uninvited asking for stuff like flour or eggs or trash bags. Then one night she came over with a box of food, asking if she could keep it in the Grubers' fridge because power had been cut at her house, and she was still "working on paying the bill". Since then Noel's mother started sending a portion of her paychecks to Ocean, and Noel had looked at Ocean's constant intrusions into their home differently. She wasn't there to bother him, she was there to escape whatever was bothering her in her own home.
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The O'Connell-Rosenburg's driveway looks more like an overgrown field of weeds than a driveway. Dandelions sprout through every crack in the pavement, the tall, long unmowed grass of the yard droops over the edges of the driveway, and moss has grown to cover much of the rest of the pavement.
So it's a good thing Noel passes Ocean's house and parks in his own driveway, parking and taking the keys out of his mother's car. "Need help carrying stuff in?" Noel asks Ocean, even though Mischa is the one with the luggage. Ocean doesn't like being around people who are high, so bringing a high Mischa into her house to meet her high parents and be sitting in a house full of high people is probably not something she particularly wants to do. Noel only had one hit, and it's already worn off, so maybe having someone (basically) sober would help her.
He knows she knows this as she nods instead of pointing out that Mischa only has a small suitcase and a duffle bag. Noel is hefting the duffle bag strap up his left shoulder as Mischa exits the car, holding the blunt down at his side, and looks up at Noel's house.
"Looks different," he says as Ocean walks around the front of the car and takes his arm, the one not connected to the hand holding the blunt.
"This is Noel's house, he just lives right next door," she starts leading Mischa around the back of the car to get his suitcase. Once it is on the ground, handle in Mischa's hand, the trio start walking slowly down the ten foot stretch of sidewalk that acts as the bridge between Noel and Ocean's driveways. Noel isn't sure if they're walking slowly because Mischa's high and clearly out of it, Ocean still gripping his arm, steps unsteady, or if it's because Ocean herself doesn't really want to enter her own house. Probably a bit of both.
They pause once they reach the bottom of Ocean's driveway, and Mischa is the first one to start up it towards the front door, muttering "yeah, this is how it looks," and flicking the joint into the overgrowth as Noel and Ocean trail behind him. No one bothers to pull out a house key because the house has no locks. Ocean's parents don't "believe in them", whatever the fuck that means, and they would definitely lose the keys and end up locked outside, which is the main reason Ocean has seriously considered installing locks to the house.
It smells like weed, because of course it does, and the sound of Bob Marley weaves through the house, and Noel can't quite pinpoint what room the smell or music are coming from. It's 5:05 AM, something Noel has to discover by looking at his phone, because there are no clocks in the general living areas of Ocean's house, because "time is a construct". Mischa is just standing awkwardly in the middle of the living room, and Ocean rushes over to him and grabs his arm again. "I set up a guest room upstairs."
The upstairs only consists of a single hallway that stretches off to the right. The door at the top of the stairway leads into a bathroom, and there are three other rooms farther down the hallway. The one on the left wall at very end is Ocean's, and the other two are empty, as far as Noel knew. Ocean once told him her parents don't sleep in a bedroom upstairs - they're either out on the screened-in porch, or, once it gets colder, sleeping on the pullout couch. She's not really sure why, but she's just grateful that she gets the entire upstairs to herself.
The three walk down the hallway, Ocean first, then Mischa, then Noel taking up the rear (the hallway isn't really wide enough for three people to walk side-by-side in), Ocean stopping in front of the door on the right wall at the end of the hallway, right across from hers, and opens it.
Noel stands in the doorway as Ocean gives Mischa a "tour" of the room. A twin bed is pushed up against the left wall, under the window. There's a small bedside table, and a standing lamp next to that. Taking up most of the right wall is a closet with sliding doors. Up against the wall, on the right of the door is a desk and a rolling chair. Noel's pretty sure Mischa isn't even listening to Ocean, as he abandons his suitcase in the middle of the room, shuffles over to the bed, and ungracefully flops down onto his back and closes his eyes right as Ocean gets to the desk and starts a lecture about the importance of homework.
"Uh," Noel, still standing in the doorway, interrupts whatever Ocean was blabbering about. "Should I just leave this next to the suitcase...?" He shifts the duffle bag from his shoulder to his hand. Ocean looks at him, then to Mischa out cold on the bed, then to the suitcase in the middle of the room and sighs.
"Yeah, here," she steps forward and takes it out of Noel's hand, placing it next to the suitcase. "Thank you. I can pay you back for the gas-"
"Don't worry about it."
"Okay."
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As Noel is slipping out the front door, a woman's voice rings from the other end of the living room. "Mischa?"
Noel is more surprised that Ocean's mother remembered that Mischa was coming today and that she remembers her nephew's name than he is nervous about being spotted. "No," Noel replies, opening the door. "Noel."
"Noel?" Ocean's mom clearly doesn't remember Noel, but also doesn't seem to worried about getting this stranger out of her house.
"Yeah, I live next door. I know Ocean." Noel will never say he considers he and Ocean friends out loud, even to her high mother who will probably forget about this whole interaction once he walks out the front door.
"Oh, that's nice, you have a blessed day," her words slur together a bit as she saunters into the next room over, out of sight of Noel, and Noel books it back home. After all, he has school in three hours, and he still has to get his mother's car back in the garage and finish studying.