He was in the middle of searching for his lighter —why did he always lose his?— when he heard Daniel down the hall. How could he tell he wasn’t unpacking? “Uh, I might be,” He called back. Where was his damn lighter? His stomach growled at the mention of garlic. He sighed placing the blunt behind his ear as he walked out of his bedroom.
“Oh, really? Sumo told you that,” he teased coming down the hall to sit on the arm of the armchair next to the couch. “Too bad he isn’t getting any. Not since last time.” Noah made a disgusted face thinking of the night of the never ending throw up. Who knew giving a dog some garlic would not settle with their tummy? The dog just looked at Noah slightly wagging his tail. “Look, he remembers! He loves to remind us who the real boss of this house is.”
Sumo looked innocently at Noah, who laughed pulling the blunt from behind his ear rolling it between his fingers. “I’m fine with pasta, by the way. Anything sounds great as long as I don’t have to cook it or clean it.” He looked sheepishly up at Daniel. “You got a light, babe? I can’t seem to find mine. I’ll share,” he offered.
Daniel seemed to complete Noah in that way. When he was lacking, Daniel made up for it. It wasn’t even just lighters, it was everything they had. When Noah didn’t have a home, Daniel offered his. When Noah struggles to make some ends meet, Daniel meets them. Noah normally didn’t compare the two of them like this, but after spending over a week, back to back, with each of their parents, Noah couldn’t help, but feel like a loser. He needed a smoke.
“But also, we should order soon because I will be ravenous after this and if I recall, we have nothing in our kitchen.”
“Might be?” Daniel said incredulously, grimacing as he settled back comfortably on the couch. “Whatever! You’re weird,” he called back, toeing his shoes off as he continued scrolling through the pasta options on the menu. Noah joined him soon after, Daniel snickering as he remembered the incident. “Look, he just wanted a little taste. How was he to know garlic rolls wouldn’t agree with him?” And they really shouldn’t have gotten so fucked up and left so much food within Sumo’s reach, but that was a whole other thing.
Daniel acknowledged him with a hum, having already selected several options off the menu. He rattled off the order: two pasta dishes, and three orders of garlic rolls— some for now, some for later. “We really should get groceries at some point though,” he mused, finalizing the order. “We won’t survive on leftovers forever.” He reached into his back pocket without a second thought, reaching for the lighter he always carried. But this one? This one was new, and Daniel didn’t remember that fact until he got it out of his pocket. “Check it out, I got it at the gas station on the way back from the airport,” he said with a laugh, sitting up as he handed the lighter over. It was pink and purple with a cat wearing shades. “It’s my new favorite until it gets lost,” Daniel said, patting the spot next to him for Noah to join him— but Sumo took it as an invitation, and hopped on the couch instead.
“Sumo!” Daniel laughed, throwing an arm around the giant of a dog. He held up his other arm, waving for Noah to come over. “I already did! It’ll be here in thirty-four minutes— and you’re wrong. We definitely have frosted mini wheats, and at least three slices of Kraft singles.”
