Noel hated his job at Taco Bell.

Well, maybe hated is a bit strong...

No, he despised it. Everyone liked to complain about the tiniest little thing! "Oh, it has sour cream on it! I don't like sour cream!" "It has too much cheese!" "The meat tastes bad!" He was sick of it! The only thing keeping Noel from walking out right now was the boy in line, looking around the restaurant with a bored expression on his face.

Mischa Bachinski, a Ukrainian boy who was in the choir with Noel. Noel didn't know him very well, the two hardly talked or hung out outside of school, and hell, even during school, the two hardly talked. All Noel knew was that Mischa was from Ukraine, he was tall, and that he tended to dress like a "gangster". They weren't exactly Noel's tastes, but hey, at least Mischa was nice to look at.

"Hi, welcome to Taco Bell, how may I help you?" Noel said with as much enthusiasm as he could muster once Mischa was up.

Mischa hummed. "Give me, uh, burrito."

Noel blinked. "Like, a regular bean burrito? Or something more specific?"

"Just a bean burrito," Mischa said. Then, after a moment, he added "With cheese."

Noel nodded. "Bean and cheese burrito. Got it." He said as he rang up the order. "Do you want a drink or anything else?"

"No, just the burrito," Mischa said.

Noel nodded. "Alright, that'll be a dollar twenty-nine."

The teen nodded as he pulled out two dollars, handing them to Noel. "Oh, uh, what time you get off work?"

Noel paused for a moment before checking the clock. "In about 3 hours, why?"

"Well, I was wondering if you would like to hang out with me tonight," Mischa said as Noel handed him his change. "The Wonderville Traveling Fairground is having an uh...couple's thing going for Valentine's Day. I would take my sweet sweet Talia, but she's studying in Ukraine."

Noel felt his face flush. "So...why are you taking me? We hardly know each other."

Mischa shrugged. "I don't like Ocean, and I never find other two outside of choir. And new girl creeps me out." He said with a shudder. "Besides, you seem cool."

Noel blushed. "You think I'm cool?"

Mischa nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, bro! I've never seen any guy dance around the park in heels! You seem dope as hell!"

"I-"

"Excuse me!?" Some customer complained. "Are you two done chit-chatting now!?"

Noel groaned while giving Mischa an apologetic smile.

This was going to be a long three hours.

~<•>~

As Noel was walking to his car, he spotted Mischa, not even trying to hide the fact that he was drinking straight out of a vodka bottle. He wore a black sweatshirt, black ripped jeans, and a black baseball cap that was turned to the side.

Wow, he's really trying to sell the whole "gangsta" look, huh?

For some reason, Mischa was leaning against Noel's car. Whether or not Mischa knew whose car it was didn't matter right now, because fucking Mischa Bachinski was leaning on his car, looking hot as fuck.

Noel jogged to his car, panting as he neared it. "H-hey...I didn't...expect you to...still be...hanging around..."

Mischa shrugged noncommittally. "Better than going home."

Noel didn't ask what he meant by that. "Well, are you aware that you're leaning on my car?" It was actually his mom's car, but he didn't want to mention it.

Mischa hummed in confirmation as he took another swig. "Yep."

Noel paused. "So...you knew that this is my car?"

Mischa hummed again. "Yeah? I see you drive it to school."

Noel felt his face flush. He never realized just how observant Mischa was, and it was kind of unsettling. "Well, may I ask why you're leaning on my car?"

"Well, you never gave me an answer," Mischa said, shrugging.

Noel blushed. "Oh, um, y-yeah, I can hang out with you. I do kind of want to go home and change first if that's okay."

Mischa nodded. "Okay, I'll go with you."

"WHAT!?" Noel screeched before regaining his composure. "Ahem, sorry, what?"

"Well, we are going to same place anyway." Mischa pointed out. "Why not ride together?"

"I, uh, guess you're right..." Noel muttered as he pulled out his keys.

Mischa watched as Noel unlocked the car and got on the driver's side. Mischa wordlessly walked over to the passenger side, getting in.

This was going to be one hell of a day, huh?

~<•>~

711 words

Here's a short story that I wrote on ao3 and transferring over here bc frankly, we need more Ride The Cyclone content

Also, this short story takes place in the '80s. Doesn't make a major impact on the story, it just explains the clothes and why they aren't using phones lol.