Six Feet Under The Sun (Mia)

[Noah Washington]

Noah had spent a lot of time in the morning down at the lake. He had been swimming laps, because he felt it was important to keep up with his training despite being on the retreat-type vacation. Afterwards he'd gone back to his cabin briefly to change his clothes, but since it was only just now becoming midday, his hair was still wet. Inspiration was really hitting him though, so this time he'd brought his guitar along.

It was strapped around his neck, new strings worn in and all. The sun was out, so it was warm enough for him to just wear shorts and a singlet instead of jeans. He found a decent place to sit on a worn down tree stump that was almost as tall as he was. It had been an effort to climb up but it was worth it; from where he was sitting he could see people walking along the paths. To go along with it, he started playing random music as if articulating the background music to certain people's movements. No specific songs. Nothing had struck him in that kind of way.

Yet.

[Mia Bell]

Mia walked out of the girl’s cabin; she had been hanging out with a few people. She met a few new people also; this trip wasn’t as exciting as she had first thought it would be but at least it was a change of scenery. She also wanted to travel the world so school camping trips were a good start to do that.

Mia walked out toward the trails; the trials have been where she spent most of her time. She refused to do any of the activities that involved the large body of water known as the lake. She was content on being alone rather than in the water or on top of it. She was trying her best to stay clear of it; one fear after another taking hold of her life. She wondered if it would ever end; but she figured that’s why she said yes to Cameron, to face at least one of her fears. She just couldn’t help but wonder if the ending to this story would make her fear worse or better.

Mia heard the guitar and started following it, wondering if it was Noah or Cameron. She grinned when she saw Noah, yeah she felt a little awkward knowing he was with Ravyn but Mia and Noah were just friends, she just had to make an effort not to flirt with Noah. She waved to the blonde and walked up to him. “Hey! I was starting to think I wouldn’t bump into you.”

[Noah Washington]

The occasional strum of the guitar had turned into something much more stereotypically Jazz. Similar to the kind of thing he had been playing when they first met. Eventually he looked up to see a familiar person walking towards him. He was armed with the knowledge that she was probably seeing that guy, but that was alright. There was nothing overly exclusive about that phrase, and he was a single guy.

A song instantly made it's way into his head, but he refrained from singing it as best he could. He would save it until she answered him.

"Well Mia, I've been sitting here at the same time just waiting for you." Noah joked, adding in generous touch of his flirtatious charm that she seemed to enjoy and reciprocate whenever they talked. "Let me guess, you've been doing the same thing down the trail. Am I right?"

[Mia Bell]

Mia grinned and blushed a bit, she knew he was only joking with her “Ah, I feel so special.” But if it was flirting than why would he do it if he was with Ravyn. Guys, they didn’t make any sense… She was really starting to wonder if she should turn lesbian. It was so hard not to flirt with him. Why did he have to make it so easy; she did feel a bit bad about Cameron just a little, but that was a complete different story. She didn’t even really know what their relationship was right now.

But his last statement threw her off. “Have you been stalking me? That’s so creepierish..” Was creepierish a word? Probably not. She rubbed her arms a little weirded out. “But yeah I have…” Which made it all the weirder.

[Noah Washington]

Noah raised an eyebrow when she asked if he was stalking him. Just as he had been gearing up to sing the lines that she had reminded him of, he stopped again, allowing the build up of a melody to fade into something softer. String plucking as opposed to hard strumming. "That's weird. I was joking." He replied, realising that she was acting a little weird herself. Normally he figured she would have gotten that he was joking.

Actually, her response had thrown him for another reason. She had just proven an inward point he had been thinking about. Something to keep in mind... "Thanks for calling me creepy, Mia." He said sarcastically, a little hurt but instead his face turned into something a little more serious. "Are you alright?" Maybe something was upsetting her, and that's why she was suddenly reacting so strangely to him.

[Mia Bell]

Mia now felt a little more awkward. “Oh.. My bad…” She looked around hoping someone familiar would come along and join the two talking to make it less weird. But she knew with her luck that was never going to happen. She should have known he was just joking, or flirting? One of the two. She was too caught up in her thoughts and the night at the dance; seeing him and Ravyn together like they were a couple. She kept wondering if she was ever going to meet a guy that didn’t know Ravyn. Was she always going to be second best to the girl when it came to guys? Or did Mia really have that much bad luck?

Mia shifted her weight from one foot to the other. She bit her bottom lip and winced a little. She felt like she was being an ass and she probably was being one. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that… I mean like you’re not creepy, just the idea of you stalking me is creepy.. But you know you aren’t stalking me so it’s all good? Maybe, maybe not? I’m sorry.” She was rambling; she did that when she was nervous. She looked up at the sky “I’m fine.” She sighed “It was nice seeing you. I’m sorry I disturbed you playing.” She turned on her heel and started walking the trails again. She felt so stupid and felt like she was going to cry. She cried when she was under a lot of stress emotionally and physically that and she also started to cut herself when stressed but because she couldn’t do the latter she had to stick with the former but right now wasn’t a good time to cry.

[Noah Washington]

How had they gone from just talking to being knee deep in awkwardness? Noah looked down at his hands; not because he needed to, but because he wanted somewhere else to look. Maybe he had said something wrong?

"Stalking in general is pretty cree-" He paused, looking up to find her walking away. "Woah. Woah, hey! Wait!" Noah called out after her. He lifted his guitar off his lap and hopped off the stump, swinging it around to his back with the strap and walking after her. He made sure to hold onto the neck of his guitar so it wouldn't get dropped or something like that. He knew it would only be a matter of time before he would catch her; track and all that training would kick in if he needed it to. But he didn't want to pressure her or anything.

Noah turned on a lighter tone to his voice as he followed, trying to think of whatever he could say that might help; "Talk to me, alright? I'm not mad. What's going on?"

[Mia Bell]

That sometimes happened with Mia, especially if you brought up a sore subject. She hadn’t meant for it to turn awkward it had just happened. He hadn’t done anything wrong, it was just her.

Mia stopped when she heard Noah calling out to her. Why must every blonde guy chase after her? Or come running back, they couldn’t just leave her alone. She guessed she had to be grateful for that, she would be one lonely girl if they didn’t. Mia closed her eyes and tried to recompose herself before turning around to face Noah. “There’s nothing to talk about, there’s nothing going on.” She lied; she wasn’t the type of person to openly talk about her emotions, what she was feeling or about other people’s business. Besides that she really didn’t know what was going on. “Walk with me?” She tilted her head a little to the side as she bit her lip, why not walk together. Even if it was going to be awkward, maybe they could start over…

[Noah Washington]

It wasn't a thing about blonde guys chasing after her, or being unable to leave her alone. Had she mentioned any comparison between the two things would have gone very differently; everyone seemed to be making that leap as if Noah wasn't his own person. She was lucky she didn't actually say anything about it. When she stopped and turned to him, Noah watched her curiously. He knew that something was going on, how could he not? That reaction to his joke was strange. But if she felt the need to lie, he didn't want to push the matter.

"Okay." Noah replied, unable to stop himself from smiling when she bit her lip. It was like the first time they met, but he worried that if he said anything about how cute it was, she wouldn't react like last time. "Have you been busy on the retreat so far? I've been dragging an instrument everywhere; this place is so... Inspiring. I really like the outdoors, I guess."

[Mia Bell]

It wasn’t like she was comparing them, Noah was his own person just like she was hers. But she couldn’t help but see the similarities between Cameron and Noah. However, she would never compare the two, at least not intentionally she wouldn’t. She didn’t even like being compared to other people; though if he called her out on it she wouldn’t mind she would have deserved to be yelled at for doing that. She was only human after all. She was thankful that he hadn’t pushed the subject. She didn’t really want to talk about it so openly.

“I’m sorry for my.. well for whatever it was back there..” She really wasn’t feeling herself and when she felt like this she usually just stayed in her room, she had her off days. Sometimes she got tired of people thinking she was perfect, she wasn’t and it was a little tiring but she also didn’t want people to know that. She was full of contradictions. “Yeah, I’ve made a new friend and have been spending time with other friends. How about you? Been keeping busy with Ravyn?” Vague yes, but it was a start. “Oh write anything new lately?” She smiled a little.

[Noah Washington]

"Don't worry about it. I'm not stressing." Noah replied with a bright smile. He didn't want her to think he was still irked by being inadvertently called a stalker. He looked up to the sky, almost cloudless as it allowed the sunlight to shine through the leaves of the tall trees on either side.

He nodded when she spoke. He'd met a few new people while on the retreat as well. It was interesting how confining everyone in a smaller space made them all interact more frequently. But he nodded when she mentioned Ravyn. "I've been hanging out a lot at the lake. Swimming laps and all that. But Ravyn's been cool; she seemed a little sad at the dance though. But I know that singing and dancing like a dork cheers her up." He explained, running a hand through his slow drying hair. The sun was helping out with that. "We work together at the restaurant I was telling you about, so we became friends pretty easily." He was glad he'd been able to help her out that night, anyway.

"Haven't been writing anything new. Something about being here just reminds me of all these other songs, and then I can't help but bust out with a little of those songs." He replied, laughing a little at his own words. "I haven't forgotten your song, though. It's constantly in the works."

[Mia Bell]

Mia nodded and gave him one of her award winning warm smiles. She was thankful that he decided to just forget about it and move on. She knew some people could hold a grudge and was glad he wasn’t like that.

Mia bit her lip and she looked down at the ground as they walked. She listened, her heart ached a little at the mention of Ravyn being sad at the dance. She saw it, and she felt really bad; but Cameron and her were only dancing as friends, at least some part of that she really wasn’t sure what the rest of the dance meant. Dark clouds started to roll in and she was grateful that Noah didn’t know what her power was, she wondered if she could get away with saying it was probably someone else. “Are you trying to make me feel bad about that?” She hadn’t said it harshly, she just said it curiously. “You two make a cute couple.” She really did think they were a cute couple.

Mia grinned at the mention of the song he wrote for her. “Really? To tell you the truth I really hadn’t expected you to keep working on it..” Not that she minded it; it made her blush a little.

[Noah Washington]

Noah looked up as the sun started to be blanketed by slow forming dark clouds. His face was coloured confused, as moments ago he had looked up to allow the bright sun to warm his features from a cloudless sky. Weird, but the weather was pretty unpredictable he supposed. "What?" He asked, surprised by her question. "No, you have no reason to feel bad about it." He was being honest; Ravyn's reasoning for being upset was her own thing, and it in the end had nothing to do with anyone else.

"You think we'd make a cute couple? Nah. She's dating some guy; he was actually a roommate of mine before he graduated." Noah explained; he wasn't totally open with the information, just in case she didn't want other people to know who the guy was.

He looked over at her and smiled. "I told you I would keep it. I try not to break promises; big or small." He wondered then if she remembered the idea of hanging out with him and watching a movie. He thought about bringing it up, but he'd wait until the moment was right.

[Mia Bell]

Mia looked up at the sky and then at Noah, thankful he didn’t say anything about it, she could actually get away with it this time. “strange weather huh?” That didn’t mean she couldn’t comment on it. “What do you mean? I saw her looking at me and Cameron at the dance… I saw both of you… Wait do you even know—“ Was she babbling on about this when Noah didn’t even know about Cameron and Ravyn? Was seeing the sad look Ravyn had something else than what she thought it was? Now that she had thought about it she really should have taken Ravyn into consideration but she had completely forgotten about everything else in that moment when Cam asked her out. It was a stupid thing for her to do; but she planned on making it right, she needed to talk to Ravyn.

Mia blinked “but… You two.. the dance.. Dancing? Wait she’s dating a college student?” Ravyn must be just that great, it made Mia feel more insecure about herself. She didn’t know why, she guessed she was just jealous, to have had Cameron, and now a college student? Maybe Mia really wasn’t that big of a deal as people led on, or used to lead on. It felt strange. “So you two aren’t together?” Had she really been completely awkward for nothing?

Mia smiled “nice to know. Thank you.” That did make her day; he had no idea how much that meant to her. As for the movie, she hadn’t forgotten about it but kind of figured he had.

[Noah Washington]

Noah looked up at the sky again, watching the clouds for a little longer. "Yeah, I hope it doesn't completely block out the sun." He replied, frowning a little about it.

"If she's upset about the two of you guys, she should talk to you about it." Noah said, his words echoing his thoughts entirely. But he wasn't sure how much else he should say. He knew that Ravyn wouldn't really mind him talking about it, but he had forgotten that Mia didn't know how involved in it he had been on the sidelines.

"I think so, yeah. It just started recently, but she seemed excited about it." Which was also true. He remembered the brief talk they had about it while on break at work, and she really did seem happy about the newfound relationship possibility. "We aren't together, we're just friends." He added, laughing again at a thought; "I don't think she'd tell me about her dates and ex-boyfriends if she was into me."

He looked over at her again, "I just have to spend a little more time with you. Get to know you a little better, and the words should just flow. You remind me of so many awesome songs." Noah explained, grinning as the words came back into his head.