𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐃𝐄𝐃

CHAPTER TEN

Ten

    Nora didn't ask where they were going, she never did. At this point, she could trust that Edison wasn't going to take her out into the middle of nowhere and murder her in cold blood. Well, judging by how eerily silent the girl had been all day, Nora couldn't be too sure. People could be surprising.

    "So... what are we gonna talk about?" the blonde asked just aching to break the chilled silence.

    "You're the one who said we needed to talk," Edison sighed, "You were the one with quite the attitude over text this morning, thanks for that, by the way."

    "And you ghosted me, I can play the blame game all day," Nora sighed. She didn't know if she meant for that to be a joke or not, but the way it hung in the air gave her the answer. Clearly, this wasn't going to be a laughing matter. "Sorry, I guess you have your reasons. I'm just really fucking confused."

    Edison nodded understandingly as she drove, "Talk to me about it, let's start there. What's the part of all of this that's confusing you?"

    "I was in love with Mason. Seeing him and that girl at that party was the first time in my life my heart really broke. But at the same time, it didn't consume me like I thought it would if we ever broke up. Instead, I just felt empty. When he was practically fucking groveling in the hallway that one day I felt... nothing. It scares me how quickly my love for him was able to fade the moment he did such an awful thing to me. I thought it was going to hurt so much more and I know why it didn't. I should still be, like, sobbing and binge eating chocolate."

    "Why didn't it?"

    "Because from the moment I dumped him, you were there. You had your hand on my shoulder, offering me a ride home. You listened to me and all my stupid ramblings. Something about having you around makes it impossible to think about what Mason and I had. Mason and I were together for so long I forgot what it felt like to... to crush on someone. It didn't help that you're a girl, which made things ten times more confusing than they should be," Nora rambled as the car slowed to a stop. She recognized where they were; the entrance to the meadow from the night they first became friends.

    Edison didn't say anything as she turned off the car and got out, walking around to open Nora's door and help her out of the car. Nora was nervous waiting for her response, she could feel the clamminess on her hands as they walked.

    After a few minutes of silence, the girl finally spoke. "So, you have a crush on me which helped you get over your cheating ex-boyfriend? Sounds pretty straightforward to me."

    "Yeah, except I have never in my life had considered the possibility of liking girls," Nora sighed, "Not until we kissed."

    "Nora," Edison sounded morose and the girl knew she wasn't going to like what she had to say. "I am... not a good first girl crush to have. I'm messy and terrible and really, really bad at communicating my feelings. You're much better off just... liking someone else. I promise you, you'll have much better options in college. I'm glad I helped you figure something out, but I'm not crush or girlfriend material. You can do so much better than me and I'm not just playing hard to get."

    The blonde stopped as they got to the meadow, letting those words sink in as she laid down in a grassy field surrounded by various flowers just beginning to bloom in the early springtime. She was quiet as Edison laid down next to her, their arms just barely touching. After a beat of silence, she asked, "So, you don't feel the same way?"

    "I didn't say that." The silence following those words hung heavy in the air like the thickness of the air after a rainstorm. It was deafening; suffocating.