a flight rekindled (when wings touch again)

Chapter 2: Nerdy Naomi, is that you?

.•° ✿ °•.

Dearest reader, have you become acquaintanced with the butterfly effect yet?

They say it's chaos theory; should a butterfly beat its wings in just the right place at just the right time, it may just cause a storm, hundreds of miles away. It rewrites stars, shifts the entire cosmos on its axis, all in the mere space between a pair of trembling wings.

And you're just in time to witness it.

"I know this is far from ideal but it's a roof over my head, and beggars can't be choosers."

Naomi stared at her. "Please tell me you've started looking at other places to stay."

"I have, I'm just saving up. It won't be long now."

"Good, because this..." She shuddered, looking around the room. "I don't even know what to say."

When Naomi had offered to walk Lynn home, she certainly wasn't expecting to be led to the back of a gas station. The swede-coloured walls were stained, peeling and blackened from damp. There was a fridge, a dust-encrusted couch and two upturned boxes as the sole furnishings. Every other moment, a strange clinking sound echoed through the makeshift room. Upon further investigation, she found a steel bucket in the corner, collecting tepid water from a leak in the ceiling.

"I'll be out of here soon. That's what I keep telling myself. In a month's time I should have enough to rent out a proper place in town."

"If you need any help let me know."

"You're gonna be on the other side of the country doing your lawyer things," Lynn remarked. "I'll be fine."

"I'm sure you will."

"Tea?"

"No, thank you," Naomi perched on a stool. "I'm glad you're getting paid decently now."

"Yeah, as much as I hate the Fraziers, they've always been quite good with pay."

"True."

"Naomi, can I ask you something?"

She hummed, locking eyes with Lillian's emerald ones.

"Well, you never told me fully what happened, you know."

"What?"

"The boys."

Naomi was at a loss for words.

"I get it, it was ages ago and you probably don't want to think of it again. Sorry."

"It's okay," She found herself saying.

They both fell into silence.

"You guys were so close." Lynn eventually spoke.

"We were," She agreed, "I think."

"I just can't believe you're not in contact with them or anything, just like that."

"Yeah."

"But at the same time it was ages ago, so everyone's probably moved on." There was a hint of defeat in her tone as her words stumbled over one another. "I miss it though. Even though I wasn't, you know, fully in your group... I don't know. We've all grown up."

"We have," Naomi reaffirmed. "It was a good time and I'm so grateful we can look back on that. I'm so glad I met you and I mean it every time I say I'm so proud of how much you've grown, everything you've achieved.. We're doing okay for ourselves."

"We're doing okay."

"And I can't wait to see you in your new apartment later on too. There's so many more great chapters yet to come."