noah, brennan
When Noah had slipped into his English class, he'd been more than surprised to catch Sigmund's scent. For a moment he was puzzled and once he slid into his seat behind Brennan, he knew just where it was coming from. For the rest of class he was confused, trying to place why his friend smelled like his Alpha when he remembered half way through that Bren now worked at the paper. With Sigmund. That had to be it. Still, it was an unusually strong scent, but Noah didn't put a sexual context on it. Bren had a girlfriend, after all. So it just had to be from work, right? By the time class was over, he'd convinced himself that it was just that simple, and he got up to gather his things in his bag. "I was so zoned out," he mumbled to Bren, "Were you paying attention? Maybe I can borrow your notes."
"Yeah totally," Brennan nodded, shoving everything into his bag. "You wanna come over to my place?" His apartment was just across campus. He had no idea that he still smelled like Sigmund or that his apartment did even more. "its not far away and you can totally copy my notes." He put his backpack on and stood up, smiling at Noah. "I wanted to talk to you anyway."
Delilah was busy for the afternoon, so it wasn't as if she needed him around for something. Now that she was pregnant, Noah was a lot more conscious of being around for her. He was doing his best to be a good boyfriend and hopefully that would translate into a good husband, when he eventually popped the question. And he prayed he'd be a good father, too. He wet his lips and nodded his head, "Yeah, sweet, thanks," he smiled as he slung his bag over his shoulder. "What did you wanna talk about?" he asked, figuring it had something to do with Bren's very absent girlfriend. Sometimes Noah felt bad gushing about Delilah so much, knowing that Brennan's relationship was suffering.
"Oh...nothing that important," Brennan said, thankful that his longer hair covered the fading hickey Sigmund had left on his neck. "Just...she was supposed to come up over the weekend and she didn't," he knew Noah knew this was nothing new. "And I ended up having someone over..." he trailed off, pulling on his beanie with the earflaps as they exited the building. "I guess im just trying to figure out what counts as cheating."
Noah held onto the strap of his messanger bag as they exited the classroom and headed down the hallway, just listening to his friend talk. She. Noah knew that was Sarah, and he found it funny how often this conversation came up. Well, the last bit was a surprise. He arched a brow, his expression shifted from confident to confused. "Oh," he said, "Well, Bren. Having someone over isn't cheating," he laughed, then paused as he glanced over at the other boy. "Unless something happened?"
"Well," Brennan said, staring down at the ground. "I didn't mean for something to happen. We were drinking and playing Halo and the other person made the first move," he said quietly. "I was kind of drunk for the beginning of it but I wasn't by the end," he admitted. He didn't think it was wise to lie to Noah. There was no point really.
"Ah," Noah said, lifting a hand up to rub at the back of his neck a little. "Well.. it sounds like there was some cheating, yeah," he said honestly. There was no reason to sugarcoat things. "And I think you all ready know that. Things with you and Sarah are... they haven't been good, you know? Maybe it's time to just.. throw in the towel, and move on?" He paused and dropped his hand to his side as they stepped outside, and he drew in a deep breath of fresh air. "What's the girl's name? The girl from this weekend?"
"Well we didn't have sex," Brennan said, not wanting Noah to think he was a total cheater. As if there were levels of cheating or something. "And...I know, about Sarah. But her family loves me and my parents love her and its just so complicated." He trailed off, staying silent and ignoring the question about the name as they went up the stairs to his apartment. Unlocking the door, he pushed it open. "That's also very complicated," he finally said.
"That's not a good reason to stay with someone," Noah said honestly, finding the idea particularly ludicrous. Then again, he didn't have a family unit quite like Brennan's. Noah's living situation was with a pack, and the dynamics were definitely different. "You should be with someone for yourself. You know?" he added, shaking his head out of his eyes. He wet his lips, his expression twisting into one of confusion at Bren's last statement. "What is?" he asked, not making the connection as he stepped inside his friend's apartment. He was immediately hit with the overwhelming scent of Sigmund and he just froze for a moment. "Oh my... God," he muttered, turning to look at Brennan. "A guy?" Sigmund. It explained everything. But he couldn't let on he knew it was Sigmund exactly, because it wasn't as if he could tell Brennan he could smell his Alpha all over the place.
"How did you know?" Brennan's eyes went wide and he stared at Noah as he shut the door behind him. "And yes, that's what makes it so complicated and random. I only ever kissed one other guy and this guy just totally started making out with me and...I liked it," he said softly, plopping down on the couch. "And then..." he went a little red. "He jerked me off."
"Just a... guess..." Noah stuttered out a little, trying not to go red in the face as Brennan kept on talking. The thought of Sigmund jerking Brennan off made his face flush and he just sort of stared at his friend for a moment before he went over to the couch, shrugging off his messenger bag. "Wow that's, uh..." he paused, glancing at the couch, "It wasn't on here, was it?" he asked as he pointed down on the couch.
"Um...actually," Brennan nodded a little, covering his mouth with a hand as he realized. "But uh, he jerked me off here. I jerked him off there," he pointed to where Noah was sitting, unable to keep from laughing just a little bit at how funny the situation was.
Just as Noah was about to sit down, he changed his mind and moved to drop down in the chair across from the couch. He couldn't help but be curious just how this had happened. Brennan was... younger than him, by a year. And Sigmund was... well, older. It was just so goddamn random. "So, do you like... you know, like him?" he asked, arching a brow.
"I don't know," Brennan moaned flopping over onto the couch, clearly not bothered by what had gone on there. "I mean yeah, I do but what about Sarah?" he sighed, draping himselfoff the couch backwards to look at Noah. "It's this guy from work. He came over so I could teach him to play Halo."
"Halo?" Noah said slowly, arching a brow. The thought of Sigmund playing Halo made him want to giggle, but he held it back and cleared his throat instead. "Okay. Sarah. Bren," he sighed, shaking his head. "You haven't been happy for a while. She never puts any effort into your relationship, she doesn't even meet you halfway. So what the fuck about her?"
"Yeah Halo," Brennan replied before listening to his friend talk. "And I don't know about Sarah. We've been together for like two years," he sighed. "Shouldn't we be able to make it work out?" He reasoned out loud.
Noah simply shrugged. He didn't know why Brennan was holding onto someone who just wasn't there, but it felt sort of like he was talking to a wall and he didn't want to give advice only to be ignored. "You cheated on her, you tell me," he said simply.
Brennan just stared at Noah, still upside down. "I didn't mean to," he said softly. "So I should break up with her then? But I don't even know if the guy really likes me, you know? I mean, he doesn't seem like the type to just mess around for fun but how do I know?"
"I'm saying you should do what you feel is best for you, not for your family and not for Sarah," Noah said after a moment, sighing a little. He chewed on the inside of his lower lip and furrowed his brow. He knew that Sigmund was a good guy, more than good, but when it came to Sigmund's sex life? He knew nothing. "Aside from how this guy feels about you... Are you happy with Sarah? Can you honestly say that you've been happy these past few months? When was the last time you were happy."
"No, I guess not," Brennan said, in response to whether he'd been happy over the past few months. He ran a hand over his head and pulled the beanie off to tug at his curls. It took a little while longer of thinking before he came to a realization. "I guess I was really happy when Sigmund spent the night," he murmured. "We took a shower and then he fell asleep and stayed over."
While Noah had figured out that it was Sigmund, hearing the name officially come from Brennan's lips still was odd to him. He wet his lips and cleared his throat a little. "Sigmund?" he said, trying to act as if he was just piecing everything together. "You said you met him at work?" he smiled a little, "You realize I live with a Sigmund. Who works at the paper. Sigmund is a pretty unique name around here."
"Yeah, at the...paper," Brennan said slowly, righting himself from his upside down position. He rubbed at his forehead as the blood rushed to his head. "Oh shit! My Sigmund is your Sigmund? What the hell?" He looked over at Noah, eyes wide. "How is that possible?"
"Well, he's not my Sigmund," Noah said with a warm laugh, unable to help it. "Not in the way he's been your Sigmund, anyway," he amended as he drummed his slender fingertips against his knee. "Small world, huh?" Really small world. Small world didn't even begin to describe it.
"You know what I mean!" Brennan said. "And yeah, really crazy small. You live with him! That's so insane. When are you going to invite me over?" He grinned, poking at Noah's knee.
"Oh, you find out our Sigmunds are one and the same, and suddenly you want to come over," Noah teased with a smirk. "If you want to see Sigmund, it sounds like you don't need me to invite you over," he grinned, picking up one of the pillows from behind him to toss it over at his friend.
"I thought he wasn't your Sigmund," Brennan replied, sticking his tongue out at Noah. "Now I guess the question is do I tell Sarah or just break up with her and keep it to myself?"
"He's my father figure," Noah replied with a grin, "Which makes the idea of him and you entirely awkward, but whatever," he shrugged his shoulders as he wet his lips. "And as for Sarah... well, I think that's your call, bud."
"Oh God," Brennan sighed. "Now I feel bad. Just remember that I didn't make the first move." He opened his backpack and handed his notebook to Noah before getting up. "You want a beer?" He offered.
"Don't feel bad," Noah chuckled as he reached out and took the notebook. "Sigmund's a good guy. It's just.. you know, you. And him. Kinda weird, that's all." He pulled out his own notebook so that he could start to copy down Brennan's notes. "Nah, no thanks."
"Okay," Brennan nodded, going to grab two bottles of water instead. He came back and gave one to Noah before settling back on the couch. "So enough about me. What's been up with you?"
Noah took one of the bottles of water and twisted open the cap for a sip before he wet his lips and sighed. "Well," he said after a moment, "Delilah's pregnant."
"Oh....wow," Brennan said softly, looking at Noah. "When did you find out? Why were you letting me go on and on about Sigmund? You should have told me," he said.
Noah shrugged his shoulders a little. "Still getting use to it, I guess," he sighed as he bit down on his lower lip. He glanced up at Brennan with a faint smile. "The hard part was telling Sigmund."
"Oh man, yeah...what did he say?" Brennan asked, leaning against the arm of the couch. And then, more importantly, "when is she due?"
"Six months," Noah said with a sigh as he stretched his legs out and then relaxed them. "And Sigmund said, you know. He was cool about it."
