𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐃𝐄𝐃

CHAPTER TWO

Two

    Two months. Nora had two months to write this essay. Of course, her being her, she had to start the day after it was assigned. She was an overachiever and her grades paid off because of it, but this assignment already had her stuck. Something she learned in her freshman year? Not much. She learned she was small enough to be a flyer, but not good enough to make varsity. What else? Not to mention relating it to her rather uneventful and hardly life changing senior year was going to be a whole challenge in and of itself. Sighing, she slammed her laptop shut. Maybe this could wait two months. She had never struggled with an assignment, but her freshman year was a blur. Her high school experience hadn't been like the movies where everything meant something and no moment was ever the same. High school had been uneventful at best.

    With perfect timing as always, her cell phone lit up with a call from Mason. Smiling, she pressed the phone to her ear, "Hey, baby, what's up?"

    "Okay, hear me out completely before you say no," he started, which she already knew was a bad sign, "We've got a total of five months before college and two months before high school is over. How would you feel about going to your first and knowing you, last, high school house party?"

    "I'd say I have work tomorrow."

    "At three! Plenty of time to nurse the hangover you're smart enough to not get," Mason reasoned and she had to admit he kind of had a point. With how stressed she was, the idea of winding down at a party with likely shitty beer sounded almost like fun. She never got to have an experience like that, but what was the point of starting now? This wasn't a cheesy teen movie, Nora wasn't a partier and she didn't have to be. They only spurred trouble, nothing else. "If you're gonna say something, it better be yes because I'm on my way to your house right now so get ready."

    "You're crazy," Nora laughed into the phone, feeling reckless for the first time in a while. Something in her knew this was a terrible idea, but she couldn't find herself saying no to Mason. Something about how excited he sounded made her feel like she would be kicking a puppy if she said no. "Fine, fine, but you totally owe me for this."

    "Nora? Saying yes to something? Oh my god, call the presses!" Mason cackled at his own joke, something he did often, before saying, "Talk to you in five minutes, change fast!"

    Giggling to herself, she said goodbye and hung up her phone, walking over to her closet. She sighed frustratedly as soon as she laid eyes on how pitiful it was; she had absolutely no suitable party clothes. Granted, she had never needed them before. A solution came to her as she marched into her sister's, who conveniently happened to be away in college and couldn't murder her for borrowing her clothes, room and into her closet. There was this pit in her stomach, but looking at these clothes, she knew what it meant. Nora didn't want to be herself tonight. So, she wasn't going to be.

    As she got into her boyfriend's car, he looked her up and over before announcing, "Ladies and gents it seems the body-snatchers have gotten to my girlfriend! You look really good, Nor, Eloise's clothes?"

    "Who else would own a black satin bra masquerading as a top?" Nora asked with a charming laugh as she pulled down the visor and applied lipstick in the mirror. "I don't know, I felt like going out on a limb tonight. Speaking of limbs, my mom will chop mine off if I'm not home by 12, got it?'

    "Okay, okay, that gives us..." gazing at the clock on the dashboard he hesitates, "roughly four and a half hours of fun! I'll take it!"

    "So, tell me, what made you want to go to a party? Out of the two of us, I always thought I was gonna end up being a bad influence."