The Elusive Heart of Nova Hart ✔

48// commitment

COMMITMENT

    "I've got to get going too," Addy dragged herself out of the couch, stretching her arms above her head.

    "It's only half past eight," Declan muttered, his eyes on his watch.

    "The girls and I've got cheer practice tomorrow," she replied seriously.

    "Its a Sunday," Declan observed wearily, but his exhaustion showed as a yawn left his mouth.

     "We've got a cheerleading competition coming up in a few months' time, we're taking all the practice we can get."

    "I should probably get going too," Nova spoke up, her eyes scanning her phone for any messages from her sister and coming up empty.

    "You do?" Graham asked, looking at her. He seemed somewhat... disappointed about it.

    "Don't worry," she laughed, "I'll help with the cleaning up and then I'll leave."

    Tyler and Piper had left first, and since Declan had come with Tyler, he had no ride and had to go back with Addy now.

    Half an hour later, once Addy had left along with Declan, it was just Nova and Graham and surprisingly, it wasn't awkward. But that didn't mean the air hanging over them wasn't thick with a palpable buzz of energy.

    "Where are your parents, by the way?" Nova inquired curiously as Graham washed the last of the ice cream bowls before handing it to her to dry it.

    "Separated," he answered, sounding tired for some reason as he wiped his hands on a paper towel. "Going through the divorce procedures to finalise things, I guess."

    "So that's why you disappeared the last few months of junior year," Nova thought out loud.

    "Yeah..." He trailed off for a moment. "Dad needed a break from this place and I decided to join him."

    "Must have been hard," she said softly, making sure her voice carried empathy and not pity.

    He didn't say anything for a long while and Nova thought he wasn't going to respond at all when he suddenly began speaking. "Yeah... I mean, I'm eighteen today... And that was seventeen years of growing up under one roof with both my parents." He sighed, leaning his back against the pantry cupboards. "Its just weird... And will take some time to get used to, that's all."

    Nova nodded, opened her mouth to ask something that had suddenly occurred to her, then thought the better of it and snapped her mouth shut.

    "Yeah?" Graham lifted his chin, "go on, ask it." His lips were tilted upwards into a slanting smile, his eyes boring into hers in the dimly-lit kitchen. 

    "Well..." She fidgeted with her fingers, alarmed when she'd almost reflexively reached out to smoothen a crease on his tee. It was a habit of hers when she was anxious, but she'd fortunately drawn back her hand before she did anything stupid. "Is that why you don't want to get into a relationship yet?"

    Why was she asking this? This was delicate territory. She was testing rather dangerous waters now.

    Graham tilted his head, green eyes burning into hers, as if they saw past the nonchalance she usually wore and were peeling away the Nova Hart the girls at school knew and idolised.

    "No," he told her in a quiet voice, serious. "I'm not insecure of my ability to commit to a girl just because my mother turned out to be a lying, cheating... Ugh, I don't even know what to call her," he ran a hand down his face frustratedly. "But I'm not so petty as to generalise the entire female population as untrustworthy, you know."

    "So you aren't afraid of commitment, then?" Nova asked in that same quiet tone he'd used, both their voices a mere whisper in the silent house as they just stood there in his kitchen, undisturbed and shielded from the outside world.

    "Course not," he smiled, his eyes crinkling at the edges as he did so. Oh god, those eyes. His eyes, his eyes, his eyes.

     Nova could get lost in those eyes. And Nova might not even want to find her way back once she did so.

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This chapter is a parallel to Chapter 34 (Sunday Breakfasts)
Some of you thought there'd be more to the scene where Caroline leaves and its just Graham and Nova in the kitchen... But they weren't at a point where i could have prolonged that scene
However, its kind of obvious there's been progress between them, which allows for an extension of such a scene :)
Basically, this makes up for what Chapter 34 lacked

Thank you for reading till this far xx