Paralysed By Choices ✔️

Chapter thirty one: Look Who Finally Decided To Show Up.

Alexis.

I knew Norrie like I knew myself. Whether she has betrayed me or not, I would still know her. I would know her whether she liked it or not because the truth hurt and we were friends for years before all of this. It didn't change; the fact that I knew her was good to my advantage because I could get to her weak spot.

I had been waiting for something like this, to have a talk with her because when I go deep, she would crack. Even when she tried to act like the bad guy, I knew the Norrie that I was once friends with.

I leaned back in my chair, trying to get comfortable. It was very hard to sit still with your hands tied and it was very boring to stare at an empty room. The door unlocked and it slowly creaked open, I prepared myself as I watched her slowly walk in. She tried to act cool, to act like she was one of them but I knew that she was not.

"Well," I glared, "look who finally decided to show up." My voice felt dark and considering the pain that I had endured, I didn't blame myself for that. The betrayal and hurt I felt towards Norrie would never go away and my anger set in when she turned to stare back at me.

She closed the door and locked it with a key. She strolled over to the table that stood in the far corner, she jumped up and sat in it like she was waiting for something good. She swung her legs back and forward and continued to stare.

I stared back, my hands began to get numb and I tried to make them as comfortable as possible. "You have to understand that this is justice for my sister," Norrie began, "she didn't deserve to die."

I frowned, my anger settling in. "It wasn't my fault she died, Norrie! She got stabbed by a mugger who wanted our wallets, there was nothing I could have done."

She slammed the palm of her hand down on the table forcefully and got up from the table; I could see the fury in her eyes and her lips were vigilant. I watched her eyes as she placed both hands on the arm rest of my chair and she slowly knelt down. I never lost eye contact with her; somewhere inside those dark eyes of hers I could see the light. She breathed through her nose heavily and she looked proficient at this job when really, she wasn't.

"You see, Alexis, there was something you could have done." She tapped her right fingers on the chair, it was slow and irritating. "Instead of being a stuttering freak you could have called the ambulance quicker or used your fucking instincts and used your fucking t-shirt to stop the bleeding!"

Spit from her mouth flew onto my face and there was nothing I could do to wipe Norrie away. I wanted to tell her so many things but where do I begin? The fact that I tried everything I could and I was afraid that the mugger was going to get me too, anyone would have done what I did in that moment. "You weren't there, Norrie. Maybe if you picked up your fucking cell phone to come and pick us up or not taken her fucking car then Jess wouldn't be dead."

And as the last word popped out of my mouth like a bubble, a hard and a probably well deserved slap hit my cheek and my face flung to the side. I felt my face already burning up from the hit to my face and when my eyes kept Norrie's again, she smirked. "Maybe if you decided to stay at the party instead of being a pussy about your curfew then you wouldn't be in this situation, would you?"

Talking about Jess again was bringing back the choices I made that night. The fact that I went to the party instead of studying like I always used was the first mistake. The second mistake was drinking. The third? Leaving too early because of my curfew that my parents set. "You're right," I admitted for once, "if I hadn't left the party early then Jess probably would still be alive or even if I screamed at her no then she would have stayed with Spencer instead of insisting to walk me home or if you picked up your phone and left the car. But that's the kind of person Jess was, she was kind and caring and she wanted me home safely. There was nothing I could do, she was stubborn and we didn't have a car to drive."