𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐃𝐄𝐃

CHAPTER SEVEN

Seven

    That night, they gazed at the stars. Edison had taken her to some part so far from the city and civilization that, even just laying on the hood of Edison's car, they could see every star in the night sky.

    "Is it weird for me to like going to all these places?" Nora muttered more to the world than to the girl next to her. The question drifted off into space, many moments passed before she received something resembling an answer from Edison.

    The dark-haired girl shrugged. "If you're weird for it, than I'm ten times worse so I'd sa we're better off not questioning it."

    Nora fell silent after this, her brain racing a million miles an hour. Except for it kept settling back on those words Edison spoke in the car hours ago. They stuck in her mind over and over and she was completely unable to knock them loose.

    "Why now?" Edison turned to her, brow furrowed and confusion written on her features. Sighing, Nora explained, "Why did you wait until now to be friends with me?"

    The girl hesitated, looking away from the blonde as her gaze landed on the stars above them. After a steady silence, she found her words. "I... don't know. You never seemed like you needed someone like me in your life. You've got Kristen, Amarie, you had Mason. There wasn't room for me. Not to mention you terrified me... still do."

    Nora scoffed before she realized she was being serious, "Why do I terrify you?"

    "You are you, Nora. You take what you want when you want it, you stand up for yourself, you don't care what people think about you. You simply exist the way you want to be in this world and that is something I can never honestly do. It scares me."

    Nora wanted to think about her words. In moments like these, that was always best. She was strategic, she never thought with her heart but her head. Yet, under these stars she spoke the solemn words that slipped past her tongue before she could stop them.

    Sighing, she mumbled, "I'm not the person you think I am, Edison. I-I would hate to disappoint you. You've got some idea of me but that's, that's not me. That will never be me. I'm just the girl everyone thinks I am. What can I say? I'm a people pleaser."

    "Well, then I guess we're not as different as I thought we were," Edison reassured with a shrug. This was the outcome Nora had expected the least. Worst case scenario was an incredibly awkward drive home. Instead, Edison was simply giggling next to her with a smile on her face. Rolling onto her side, she propped her head up with her hand as she looked at Nora. "Don't sell yourself short, okay?"

    So simple, yet it left her speechless. Nora didn't even know how to respond to Edison's words. Something in Edison's words rang deeper than she expected them to. She already knew her mind was going far wilder than it should. It was five words. Just five. To Edison, those words could have a flicker of a meaning. Yet to Nora, they were everything.

    "Stop thinking so hard. I swear, I gotta tell you that like every five minutes," Edison said with a breathless laugh as she turned and laid back against the hood of the car like she had been before. There was something in the ghost of a smile on her face that was telling Nora that her mind wasn't the only one running rampant under these sparkling stars that held so many secrets beneath them.

    "You confuse me endlessly," Nora huffed as she brushed a loose strand out of her face. Edison's gaze was stuck on the stars, but Nora's eyes couldn't leave the figure next to her. She was under a spell, in a trance, whatever it was meant to be called. Either way, she felt like she was laying in a dream and at any moment her alarm clock would wake her to another dull day.

    Still with her eyes on the stars and head in the clouds, Edison laughed like a song. A ballad breezing through the speakers of an old radio that wasn't supposed to work anymore. Her laugh was art in audio form, Nora recognized. She was lucky to hear it. "How do I confuse you?"

    Despite her being the one who brought it up, Nora didn't have any sort of answer. All she felt around Edison was something she was pretty sure she had only felt once. Butterflies. That was the easiest way to describe it. However, that meant so much more than it was supposed to. Nora welcomed the feeling, something she hadn't known in far too long, but she feared everything that came along with it.

    "I haven't known you long enough to be this fucked up," Nora sighed. The girl turned and their eyes met and everything left unsaid was understood. Let the moon bear witness to the beginning of something Nora barely knew but was willing to throw herself into in a heartbeat. Speaking of beating hearts, Nora's was missing a few beats as their eyes were locked. It was more than just her gaze that Nora was stuck on. It was the dark bangs falling ever so slightly in front of the hazel. It was the small, faint freckles dotting her nose Nora had never noticed before. It was the slight eye bags that came with being a high school senior.

    A steady, daunting silence passed. Nora found the words she was too afraid to say and forced them from her throat, "I want... I want to try something, but I don't want to use you."

    The corner of Edison's lips quirked up, a smirk; the ghost of one. She noticed the dark-haired girl's gaze flickering from her eyes to her lips and up. Again they flickered. Everything left unsaid.

    Reaching a hand out, Edison tucked all loose strands of light blonde hair behind her ear before she moved to cup her cheek. Her hand was soft against Nora's cheek, but Edison's lips against hers were even softer.

    Kissing Edison wasn't what Nora imagined it would be. Then again, she didn't imagine herself kissing girls too often. She was soft; the first thing Nora noticed. Her touch was as gentle as her kiss, her skin burned underneath her fingertips as her cheeks were red as roses. Faint hints of the strawberry chapstick they shared were noted and Nora wanted to smile to herself thinking about the moment in the car when it had been offered and a simple joke about cooties made them giggle endlessly.

    As the universe stared down, they pulled apart. Nora didn't want it to end, but she knew it had to. As soon as they pulled apart, however, Edison sat up and turned away with her legs hanging off the edge of the car. The silence was ruthless and deafening. Dread hung in the air and the stars above didn't waste their breath.

    "I shouldn't have done that," Edison's wear voice infiltrated the quiet night, breaking the silence like shattering glass. "You literally just broke up with your boyfriend and are nowhere near emotionally okay for me to do that to you."

    "You don't know what I'm feeling," Nora comforted, but she knew Edison was right. She wasn't ready to throw herself into someone new. She was still licking the wounds Mason left.

    At the same time, though at this moment under the stars, she wanted nothing more than for Edison's lips on hers once again.

    Edison just shook her head at Nora's words, sighing before saying, "I should take you home. It's getting late."

    It wasn't worth it to argue, Nora decided, but she was going to get one thing out of this. As Edison began to slip off the hood of the car, the blonde reached out and grabbed her by the wrist causing her to turn around and meet her eyes.

    "Why Edison? Why not..." Nora stopped herself from mentioning the girl's first name, not wanting to push any more boundaries than she probably already had.

    The girl hesitated, looking anywhere but at Nora. Finally, her breath faltered but she found her words. "I'm never gonna be that girl, Nora. That's all. C'mon, let's get you home."

    This time, Nora didn't stop her.