The way she straightened her back, the dragon shifted, and the color flared in her cheeks all let Noah know that he had gone too far. He leaned away some, scooting back to where he had been sitting before. The two jars clanged together and fell into the sand before him. He sputtered some, shaking his head and lifting his hands, palms up. "I'm sorry." He felt so awkward in this moment. Like he was a teenager again, in the presence of the girls he had crushed on. He had done so mostly from afar, because whenever he tried to be suave or flirt, he had failed.
He was thankful for the sunburn, so that Phoebe would not notice the deep red of his cheeks and ears. It would be easy to feel his body temperature rise, however, if she did not surge away from him.
"I'm not, uh, good at making friends?" He shifted some, still uncomfortable. He was wrong in this moment, and Noah did not like being wrong. He liked being able to predict what might happen--that is why it took him so long to leave Halo once the portal had been opened. "I didn't mean to offend you." He lifted a hand and ran it through his shaggy, blond hair. "You just....you're easy to talk to, I guess."
