NURA

Chapter 10

Nura

Dec. 2013, New York

"Hi, Nura! It's so good to see you, honey!" Kate said as she pulled her into one of her bone-crushing hugs, and Nura felt all the air leave her lungs as she held on for dear life and prayed for the snuggly torture to be over soon.

"Hi, Mrs. Kate!" she said after the woman finally released her, only to receive a glare for her troubles.

"I told you to stop calling me Mrs. Kate! It makes me feel ancient."

"Oh, don't worry darling, you don't look a day over fifty!" Nura sassed and quickly stepped away as Kate tried to swat her across the head, laughing her way to the cozy kitchen in the back of the house.

"Sometimes I miss the days when you refused to talk, Missy!" she heard Kate exclaim from the living room as she sat beside Jonah, grabbing the apple the boy was about to bite into from his hand, making him pout at her.

"You must have some serious balls, my friend, daring to tell her that she looks older than she is. Scary woman, my mother." Jonah said, pretending to shake in his seat while laughing.

"Nah. I am just a masochist; the fear of the punishment gives me the thrills." Nura said and winked, making the boy next to her gag.

"It's good to see you again, Nura. I was still on a summer break the last time you were here, and I thought you had forgotten about us." Jonah said, making her smirk at him.

"Aw... did the little baby Jonah miss me?" she teased him, expecting Jonah to punch her in the arm or tell her off, but to her surprise, the boy only looked down at his hands and frowned.

"I did," he whispered, making her eyebrows fly to her hairline since the last thing she expected was the angst-ridden boy to admit to having something as plebian as feelings.

Nura remembered the first time they'd met. It was a couple of days after she had arrived in the States, and Ben had offered to take her in until the trials were over instead of sticking her in some motel where she would be alone.

He took Nura to this very house and introduced her to his family. His wife Kate, a lovely petite blond, immediately took her under her wing, trying to get her to eat something before she even had the time to sit down.

Ben also had a son, Jonah, who was the definition of teenage rebellion. He was always dressed in ripped jeans, rock band t-shirts, and boots, his brow and lower lip pierced, and his nails painted in black.

Nura was utterly shocked when she first met him since Ben and Kate were the typical suburban mom and dad, and then there was Jonah with his smoking and cussing like a life-long sailor. He didn't even say hello to her that first day; he just grunted at the sight of her and then proceeded to take the milk out of the fridge and drink it straight from the carton. Nura had shook in her seat at the thought of what her mother would have done to her if she had dared to do something like that while she was still living at home.

It was a couple of weeks before Jonah acknowledged her, but then he slowly started talking to her, and they soon became friends.

He was the one that had persuaded her to pierce her nose and held her hand as she cried like a little baby while Jonah laughed and called her a 'pussy'. So now, hearing him actually admit that he had missed her warmed Nura's heart because she realized that Jonah saw her as a part of his family.

"I missed you too, Jonah boy. I am sorry for not coming back sooner," she told him, throwing her arm around the boy's shoulders. Jonah shook it away quickly, scoffing about sentimental fools and shaking his head all the way out of the room. Nura smiled after him, relieved that he was still the same guy who threw a bucket of cold water over her when she had a panic attack to make her, as he so eloquently put it, "snap out of it."