laying it out

Really, Elliot never hung out with Noah, anymore. Possibly, it was because Noah was under house arrest. Something like that. Noah had never explained it to him fully, but at least they could meet at the library so Elliot could pass on some notes from an English class to him.

"So what do you do all day?" Elliot wondered. Noah looked at least a bit blissful. No red eyes, but his hair was still starched as ever in his dark emo slant.

"I hang out with my daughter," he shrugged sucking on his lip ring a bit.

"Your daughter? But you don't have a daughter." Elliot looked at him kind of funny.

"Yeah, I know, she's my girlfriend's daughter, but she might as well be mine. I mean, you know, what the fuck. She's only nine."

"Are you sure you should be calling her that?" Elliot thought of the circumstances. Noah had been in jail for having sex with a fifteen year old when he and Crystal were on a break. Luckily, Crystal had taken him back. Elliot supposed it was great for Noah, but Crystal was going on thirty and was a bar maid at one of the bars that Noah wasn't even old enough to get in to.

"Its working out." Noah had an itch near his ankle bracelet.

"Good. Good for you." Elliot nodded. He couldn't take his eyes off the ankle bracelet. Noah couldn't exactly take it off. The cops were keeping tabs on him.

They sat there in the chairs near the computer lab, chilling.

"Remember when we used to get shit faced hoping anybody would take us home at those mixers?" Noah smiled as if he remembered something Elliot didn't.

"You must be thinking of somebody else, not me." Elliot was serious.

"Maybe."

Elliot looked into Noah's eyes, dark and fierce. Elliot pretty much knew he didn't really want to hang around Noah, ever.

"So you seeing anyone special?" Noah sounded as if he had some phone numbers to pass on to him.

"Actually, I am." Elliot nodded. He couldn't help but smile about it. "I think this is the one."

"Really. As in what?"

"The girl I'm going to marry." Elliot told him.

"You can't be serious. Who in the fuck gets married in times like these?" Noah's smile spread across his lean face as if he might become the Joker.

"It'll be awhile. Probably a long engagement." Elliot nodded. "She's just sixteen."

"Shit, you better get out of this one while you can, dude." Noah told him.

"Not happening, Noah." Elliot nodded. "I'm in for the long haul. I've made up my mind. There is just something I get when I'm around her, and I can't say that about anybody else I've ever met. I just see so much potential in her, and its like she gives it right back to me, you know. And its not something I can exactly put my finger on. I think she makes me a better person. I don't drink anymore."

"That sounds really boring, dude." Noah sighed. "Are you going Amish on me?"

Elliot just cracked up then. He just hoped Ellie knew how much she meant to him.