Nothing Less

Chapter Twenty-Six.

Songs for this chapter are:

Chainsaw- Nick Jonas

All I Ask- Adele

It's you- Zayn

...

When I find Nora in the kitchen, she's scooping diced potatoes into a plastic bag. Stausey is sitting at a small round table in the corner of the room. Her feet are swollen and I can practically hear them screaming to be let free of her strappy heels.

"Nora, can I talk to you for a minute?" I ask her. I stand straight up and stare at her, ignoring Stausey. I don't need either of these two to try to get me off track here. I need to talk to Nora and she needs to explain what the hell I just walked into.

"Yeah, just give me a few minutes," she briefly looks at me and continues to put the dinner away.

I should nod and walk away. I should be polite and not cause a scene. The words repeat in my head, "papers", "accident", "before the baby comes".

I stand still in the entryway of the kitchen. My cheeks are hot and my legs want to run away, but I can't back away now. I need to know what the hell is going on.

"It's important." I press for her to come with me.

Nora's eyes raise to mine and I can see her assessing me. A flash of understanding makes its way over her face and she nods, dropping the bag onto the counter. She tells Stausey that she'll be back and tells me that we should go to the roof to talk. There's privacy out there, she says.

"What's going on?" Nora asks when we reach the rooftop. It's not a shared rooftop, but we are the only ones using it. Good. Nora saunters over to couch next to the largest table and I follow her. She sits down and I sit down in a chair across from her. I don't want to get too close to her, or I know how this will go. I'm sure that she will be pulling out all the stops the moment I begin to press for an explanation.

"You tell me what's going on." I look at her and wait.

The view up here is incredible. I can see the Empire State Building from here and if I wasn't so mad at Nora, I would be able to enjoy this New York moment. I haven't had many since I got here, I spend most of my time working and walking around campus between classes. The lights are bright, the city is loud and alive and this would be so much more enjoyable under different circumstances.

Nora lays back against the back of the couch. "Do you want to explain to me what happened, or should I guess?" she asks, her voice steady, cold even.

"That's a good question," I begin. "That's a really good question, Nora. Todd seems to think that I can get you to sign some sort of paper and informed me that you and your sister weren't speaking recently."

Nora's face is hidden under the shadow of the night so I can't her expression. She doesn't move her body, not one centimeter. "He what?" If I didn't know her better, I would think she was genuinely surprised.

"Don't play coy about it. Just tell me, Nora. You brought me into this apartment knowing that I didn't know a thing about your relationship with your sister. There's obviously some big thing here that I know nothing about. So either tell me, or don't. But I can't play these games with you. You either want me to be a part of your life, or you don't."

Nora gapes at me. She looks genuinely shocked and I can't believe her nerve, or mine. I scoot to the end of my chair and don't look away from her hard stare.

"Obviously I want you to be a part of my life," she says. And that's it. She doesn't say anything else. Is she kidding? I don't remember the last time I was this angry. I feel like a puppet on strings and I'm tired of playing this back and forth with her. If she doesn't want to open up to me, I'm done trying.

"If that's true, then act like it. Because so far, all I've gotten from you is mixed signal after mixed signal and I'm sick of trying to figure out what's true and what's not."

Nora leans up and reaches for my hands. I pull them away. "Talk to me." I tell her. "If you want to touch me, talk to me."

"What did Todd tell you? What is it that you want to know?" She asks, still not giving me anything.

Frustration propels me to my feet. "Seriously? Even now you're trying to evade my questions."

"You haven't asked any questions," Nora replies.

I throw my hands into the air. "Don't play semetics with me. Just tell me what the fuck is going on. Why weren't you and Stausey talking? I was more than willing to give you time to trust me, to open up to me. But this is too much. Todd's in there acting like you're hiding a freaking atomic bomb under your shirt."

Nora stays seated on the couch. "I wouldn't go that far. Look, I don't want to drag you into the middle of my family drama. It's a mess and has been for a while. My parents will barely speak to me, and my sister chose their side. She didn't want anyone to think that she could think for herself, so she chose them and that's her fucking choice. She's wrong and that's the end of it. Todd shouldn't be in there feeding his bullshit to you. He's the better one, for sure, but don't trust him. He mastered the craft of walking the line between his parents and mine."

Her explanation only makes things more cloudy. My phone rings in my pocket, for the third time in the last hour. I pull it out, notice Dakota's name on the screen and ignore the call.

"Would you just answer it, for fuck's sake?" Nora snaps at me.

"No. Now tell me about this accident. Who was in an accident? You?" I ask her. I take a few steps away from her so I can get some fresh air. I put my hands on the rail and look down to the street below. These streets are way busier than my neighborhood. The taxi honks are louder and there's music coming from every direction.

"Madison Square Garden is right there," Nora point to the circular building with lights shooting from the top. "Halsey is playing there tonight."

"Why didn't you go?" I ask her, knowing she's a fan.

"Because I'm here." Nora stands up and walks over to me. "Now, stop fighting with me and let me touch you." She reaches for me and her fingertips run down my covered arm. "Landon," she says my name so softly, I can't help but let her wrap her arms around my waist and bury her head in my chest.