Never Let Me Go (Camren/Norminah)

Chapter 11: Heart Open, Testify

"I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them."

- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Grey

***

"Through the process of living life, we as humans build a web of connections. Emotions. They're central to nearly every aspect of our lives, and motivate us away from the bad and towards the good. We can talk about psychological factors, the nonverbal reactions, cognitive expression and all the science to back it up, but in the end it's what we feel, and our actions we take that changes the web."

"It's the people we surround ourselves with. The morality behind our final decisions, our leaders, our role models. To feel something as simple as compassion, empathy, understanding. That's where the line to healing begins, and—"

"HEY!"

Normani looked up from a start, the paper in her hand crumpling it inadvertently. "What?"

"You stole that from me, the thing you said about empathy." Lauren pouted, sitting across the tiny living room in her old armchair and crossing her legs pointedly. "I told you that the night we all couldn't sleep and decided to have a joint slumber party on the living room floor."

"She's right." Camila had come fresh from a run and was sitting on the hardwood in a feeble stretching position. "I remember that."

"I'll put you in the bibliography." Normani gritted, going back to the words before her. "Now where was I... oh, the line to healing begins and allows us to chart a single strand to the web."

"I'm home!" The front door swung open, and Dinah paraded inside with a large white bag crammed with smaller ones cradled against her inner arm. "They didn't have any more of the good fortune cookies, so they gave me the off brand kind. It sucks, but I guess we just can't have nice things."

"Ooh, yes please." Lauren jumped off the chair and nearly trampled clean over Camila to get to the bag. She had already torn well into a container of chow mein before returning to her seat with a set of chopsticks and a smile. Normani watched in discontent as Camila rose from the floor and snuggled in her lap with a happy purr, stealing the chopsticks to snag a floret of broccoli.

"Guys, we just went from listening to my kick-ass paper to eating noodles." The girl muttered, her tone deflated. "Really?"

"Your kick-ass plagiarized paper." Lauren spoke as she chewed. "I'm just saying."

"I hate you." Normani crumpled the page up and tossed it at the chair, turning around and stalking towards the food.


"Aw Mani no!" Camila quickly grabbed the paper, frantically smoothing out the unpleasant wrinkles. "Remember when I read one of your essays back in freshman year? Your writing has gotten so much better since then, I'm sure it's really good!"

With an uninterested huff, Normani turned around and grabbed a container, fishing a fork from the family's cutlery drawer. Dinah had finished unloading the rest of the food, setting everything neatly on the counter and de-lidding each one until it all looked very southern family style. "You looked ticked." The blonde commented, not looking over from where she was hauling two more plates down from an upper cupboard. "What did they do this time?"

"Don't wanna talk about it." Normani stabbed a piece of tofu.


"We have chopsticks." Dinah added, holding out a paper-wrapped set of wooden sticks.

"I'm from Texas, we don't know how to use those things unless we shape them into weapons and use them to keep trouble away from our boyfriends." The girl replied. "Maybe you can listen to me read my paper out tonight..." She glanced at Camila and Lauren speaking to each other in hushed tones with the occasional quiet giggle. "Rather than Peggy and Hank over there."