𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐃𝐄𝐃

CHAPTER NINE

Nine

    By Monday morning, Nora was utterly in shambles. Kristen and Amarie ended up staying the night because God, Nora just needed some love these days. The things no one tells you about breakups is how much one misses the feeling of being in love and being loved. She wondered if it was normal not to miss the person, but to miss every time they kissed you or held you or called you beautiful. Mason had been there for Nora so many times and now there was just this hole in her heart where he was supposed to be. She knew she was better off, she was just waiting for it to start feeling like it. Not to mention the sudden, unexpected void Edison left in her was tearing her apart slowly but surely. It was remarkable how quickly Edison had dug her place in Nora's life and settled there before she was just... gone.

    "Honey, why aren't you at school?" her mother, who was surprisingly home for once, leaned in her daughter's doorway as the clock reached ten in the morning. "Day off?"

    "Mental health day, please," Nora groaned as she wrapped herself up in the covers with Kristen and Amarie still cuddled up next to her. They all collectively decided at two in the morning that they needed this, but really they all just wanted to sleep in. "I'm having a crisis."

    "At eighteen, who isn't?" her mother laughed, "I'll call the school and have them excuse you. Do you need me to text their parents?"

Nora shook her head, "Nah, they can handle that when they wake up."

"All right," the woman went to leave, but she stopped and turned back for just a moment, "How's Mason?"

The question shook her. She hadn't even realized how out of touch her mom was with things since the party. She had disappeared for the week and flew in last night, but she had no idea of her daughter's recent relationship status change. She didn't even bother to ask how she was since she got back. It wasn't that her mother was absent or didn't care, she simply had other things to worry about.

"Uh," Nora had no idea what to say, so she settled on the most blunt possible answer, "We broke up. He's a douchebag."

"He was so nice?" she questioned, looking upset now.

Sighing, all Nora could muster was, "Until he wasn't."

She looked unsure, but her mother refrained from saying anything. "I'm heading into the office, will you girls be okay?"

She nodded, "Yes, thanks for checking in."

With that, her mother left and she was alone again with the two sleeping girls. Of course, being the only conscious one in the room, it was hard not to overthink. Her mind began to wander to dark places about how detached she actually was from her family. She can't remember the last time she talked to her older sister, Eloise. It had to have been months at this point, but she would be home for spring break soon enough. Well, she hoped. That was her fear; that she would get a taste of independence once she reached college and never want to return home again. She liked her sleepy town, but it wasn't meant for her and she knew that. That didn't mean she wished to completely abandon it like Eloise did.

"Stop thinking and go back to sleep dumbass," she heard Kristen mutter as her friend, with her eyes still closed, wrapped her arm around Nora and pulled her back into a lying position. Nora giggled softly as she now lay in front of a three-way spoon. Just as she was about to close her eyes and let herself fall back asleep, she heard her phone vibrate on the nightstand.

Reaching for it, she saw that for the first time in three days she had a text from Edison.

Where are you today?

Sighing, Nora struggled. Should she be mad at the girl for not talking to her? Or should she be happy the girl was concerned about her? Ugh, she was sick of this.