When Norma woke up, although she'd slept all the way through the night, she still felt exhausted. It was most probably because of the events of last night. She was still upset over it, and it was at the point now where she didn't even know what she was upset at. Despite the anger she'd shown towards him, after she'd had a while to calm down she felt sympathetic towards Alex. What happened wasn't his fault, and besides she barely even gave the man a chance to speak.
She got changed and applied her makeup, making her way downstairs into the kitchen. When she got downstairs, she was expecting to find everyone sitting and eating breakfast. But the only person at the table was Norman. She frowned, looking at him. "Norman honey, where are Dylan and Emma?"
Norman pointed over into the living room, taking a bite of his toast.
"Uhh...right, okay.." Norma said with a frown, finding his silence slightly strange. Then again, everything with that boy was strange at the moment. She walked into the living room, and heard muttering. There was Dylan, Emma and...who were they talking to? When the two of them become aware of her presence, they looked over at her and stepped out of the way of the person they had been talking to. Alex was here.
"Hey, Norma....listen, i'm really sor-"
Norma walked over, hugging him tightly without hesitation. The events of last night had been on her mind, and she felt guilty for the way she acted towards him.
Alex frowned, his arms staying held out for a moment as he stood there in shock. After a short moment, he placed his hands on her back and pulled her in close.
"Oookay we're just going to go." Emma pointed towards the door and nodded awkwardly, starting to walk out. She raised her eyebrows when Dylan didn't follow, clearing her throat to get his attention.
Dylan watched them as they hugged, narrowing his eyes slightly before walking out. He still wasn't sure he trusted Alex just yet.
"What was that for?" Alex said, pulling away after a moment as he felt a bit awkward.
"I don't even know..." Norma shook her head and laughed nervously. "I guess, it was to say sorry. I yelled at you when it wasn't really your fault.." she frowned, rubbing her forehead. "It just hurt me, you know? You strolled into the office straight up yelling at me without even giving me chance to explain myself, you were too busy being Sheriff Ass Face to listen." she mumbled, crossing her arms.
"Sheriff Ass Face, really? Is that what you're going with now?" Alex raised an eyebrow.
"Yup." Norma said, an amused smile on her face.
"Hm." Alex said, nodding. "I'll have to come up with one for you. I'll get back to you on that one."
"Well you've got my three names to choose from. See I had the advantage, using sheriff at the beginning of a nickname works every time. You could go from my first name, or my middle name...hey, do you have a middle name?" Norma went on and on about nicknames, beginning to babble.
Alex held his hand out as if to tell her to stop. "Seriously, shut up.." he said, shaking his head. "I think I'm just going to call you Babbling Bates." He turned away with a grin on his face like he was about to burst out laughing.
Norma looked at him, starting to laugh. "Oh my god.." she put her hand on her chest. "You're actually..." She continued laughing, holding onto her chest as if she was in pain. What she was trying to say is that he was actually smiling for once, but she couldn't stop laughing.
Trying to conceal his laughter, Alex turned to her with straight face. But that soon washed away once he saw her laughing, and he burst out into a fit of laughter.
Seeing Alex laugh only made Norma even more amused, and her laugh got louder. "S...top.." she waved her hand free hand, the other one still clutching her chest.
Norman walked in, his lips curving into a smile. "What are you guys laughing at?" he said, almost as if he wanted to join in on the joke.
When Norman walked in, the two of them tried to calm down. Norma cleared her throat, looking over at him. She put a mental brick wall between her and Alex, because if she looked at him right now she'd be gone again. "Hey, Norman...uhh, just...something that Alex said that's all."
Alex had tried to stop laughing, but when he noticed something about Norman he found it more amusing than it would be if they hadn't just been in a laughing fit. "Norman I think you, I think you have some uh...some butter on your chin..." he said, bursting into laughter again half way through his sentence.
Well that really was the last straw then. Norma practically screamed with laughter, cackling like some kind of witch. She stumbled, falling into Alex. You'd swear the two of them had eaten one of Gunner's pot cupcakes.
Norman tensed up, staring at Alex. "You're like children, the both of you." he said before storming off.
The look Norman gave Alex creeped him out more than anything, which caused his laughter to fade slightly. He watched as Norma practically fell into him, holding her up. "Okay Babbling Bates, calm yourself down."
Norma managed to steady herself, with the help of Alex. "Phew!" she ran her hand through her hair, taking a deep breath. "Okay, I'm good."
Alex was still stood there with his arms holding her, just standing there looking at her for a moment. His drunk self might say some stupid things, but he was certainly right about her being beautiful.
Norma looked up at him, opening her mouth to say something but ending up forgetting what she was going to say.
Right in that moment, Emma and Dylan walked in. Emma felt slightly awkward when she saw the way they were looking at each other when they walked in. Were they interrupting something?
The sound of Emma's oxygen tank clanking against the ground broke the silence in the room and they both looked over at Dylan and Emma.
Emma bit her lip, scrunching her nose up. "Sorry....I didn't mean to intrude. We just, uhh...we heard you laughing and got the impression you've made up, so that's...great."
"Yes, yes we have." Norma nodded at Emma, turning to look at Alex with a smile before looking back at Emma. She mouthed a 'thank you' to her for calling him up. She hadn't really known her for very long and it seemed Emma could read her like a book.
Emma simply nodded at Norma in response to her thank you, smiling sweetly. "Anyway, we went back into the office and someone had put a flyer up. There's some kind of carnival thing on in town tonight. Dylan and I are going and we just wanted to now if you guys wanted to go too?" she asked hopefully.
Alex pulled a face, shrugging. "I....I'm not really a fan of that kind of thing. I think I'll pass." he nodded.
"Hey!" Norma looked at him, pulling a sad face. "Come onnn, don't be a spoilsport. It'll be fun! Come with us, please?"
Alex groaned like a stroppy teenager being dragged somewhere by his parents. This really wasn't his thing, at all. But the look on Norma's face, that puppy dog expression with her baby blue eyes. He couldn't say no. "Fine."
Emma clapped her hands together, grinning excitedly. "Good good. It's going to be great, right Dylan?" she looked towards him.
"I just can't contain my excitement." Dylan said with a smile, before looking over at Alex and shaking his head. Both of them were wondering when the hell they signed up for this.
