𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐃𝐄𝐃

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Eleven

    Nora thought her life following her major breakup was going to feel like her Post Mason era. What she never really expected was for her mind to be living in the Post Edison era. Her relationship with Mason felt like some odd fever dream that had taken up far too much of her time. The only thing reminding her it was real was the heartbroken look in Mason's eyes every time they passed each other in the hallway. It was borderline sickening how often he tried to gain her pity over his own mistakes. Neither of them were drunk enough that night to warrant any excuse for how their relationship had ended. Things with them were dead and buried and Mason would be a fool to think otherwise. It seems a lot of phases of Nora's life were soon to be dead and buried. With barely a month and a half left of her high school career, she just wanted this all to be over.

    "Hey, Nora, have you started your essay for Dotes yet?" Amarie asked as the three of them sat in Diane's Diner on a warm spring day. It had been a while since they had hung out there since Mason and Will seemed to be there every moment of every day which was emotional torture. Nora would be the first to admit she missed Will, but he made it clear who he chose in the wake of things. True colors shone through as he cut off contact with them.

    "Shit, no. I completely forgot about that," Nora groaned as all memories of the impending assignment flooded her brain, "I have no idea what I'm going to write mine on. Do you guys know?"

    Both Kristen and Amarie shook their heads. With a sigh, Kristen simply shrugged. "I completely forgot about it. I told myself I had two months to write it and now that is very quickly turning into one. Maybe I'll do some gay shit about Am and I."

    "No, we can't both write gay shit, that's what I was gonna do," Amarie laughed as she tugged on a strand of her hair and tucked the loose curl behind her ear. Absentmindedly her hand drifted the tuck a stray piece of Kristen's ginger hair back into her ponytail. The gentle touch was sweet and Nora almost felt weird for catching a glance of it. Like she was catching a glimpse of a private moment.

The girl sighed, crossing her arms as she leaned back against the red vinyl booth, picking at what was left of their shared plate of fries. "Guys, I have to tell you something."

This statement garnered the full attention of both girls as they leaned forward to hear what Nora could possibly have to say. After a moment of Nora trying to figure out how to put the words together, she settled on, "The girl I kissed was Edison." She paused so the two of them could react, which they absolutely did.

"Oh, I knew it was gonna be Edison! I totally called that one," Amarie fist pumped with a giggle, "Dude, she's hot. Good job."

Kristen, on the other hand was silent for a moment. She opened her mouth as though she were going to say something, but instead closed it again and motioned for Nora to keep talking as the redhead leaned back and her expression appeared disgruntled.

Trying not to be off put by this odd behavior, Nora kept talking. "Um, then she avoided me for like three days. Then we had a talk, we kissed again, but it was somehow better than the first time, but now she's avoiding me again and I just — ugh! I'm very frustrated and I needed to tell you guys because you guys know everything that's ever wrong with me."

"It's my superpower," Kristen laughed, but the humor behind it was barely there as something about her expression was still vaguely upsetting. "I don't mean to be a bitch, but it's probably for the best that she's avoiding you, Nora. Just trust me on that one, please. I'm glad you're figuring stuff out, but that's all she's good for."

Nora scoffed, utterly surprised by such a statement from her usually cool and careless best friend. "What do you mean by that? What are you trying to say?"

However, there were no real answers as Kristen just shook her head, "I don't wanna get into it. Just let her avoid you, it's for the best. There are plenty of other girls in the world that are better for you."

Although, these weren't exactly the words Nora wanted to hear from her friend, the look on Kristen's face told her everything she needed to know. Kristen had nothing to gain from lying to Nora, everything they did was to protect each other and it had always been that way no matter what. As much as she wanted to, she knew she couldn't take this warning lightly.

"I just don't know how to be alone anymore," Nora sighed, looking down at her twiddling thumbs.

Kristen giggled sharply before grabbing one of Nora's hands from across the table. "You're never alone, though, you're always going to be our third wheel!"

Scoffing, the statement sent Nora into a small burst of laughter, "Oh, gee! I'm so lucky!"

The table fell silent as something caught Amarie's eye and she cleared her throat, nodding her head in the direction of whatever had her attention. The object in focus was none other than Mason walking in. Not only that, he was walking with his arm around a girl. Nora was trying to figure out where she knew the girl from until it hit her like a runaway train. The girl giggling at all of his jokes, intertwining their fingers, and smiling up at him with stars in her eyes was the girl Nora had found Mason laced with the night of the party. The incident that destroyed every good thing the two of them had. Although she had made the status of their (non-existent) relationship clear, it stung like a bitch to see the two of them together. Her friends seemed to notice her quiet fuming because Kristen was seething.

"That bitch has the audacity to walk in here with that girl on his arm as if they aren't the reason that boy threw away the best thing in his life," she buzzed, cracking her knuckles as she spoke with her eyes trained on the blissfully unaware boy. "I should go give him a piece of my mind, I swear to God."

Amarie placed a gentle hand on her girlfriend's arm in an attempt to soothe her, "Hun, no, that's an awful idea. Not so public where you could both get in trouble if things get out of hand."

"Oh, I hope they get out of hand," Kristen simmered, moving to get out of the booth. Amarie tightened her grip on her arm and held her in her spot, but both of them relaxed when they noticed something odd.

Edison, who Nora had just noticed was sitting at the bar alone at the opposite end of the diner, had stood and began walking over to the pair. The three of them watched as the dark-haired girl softly placed a hand on Mason's shoulder. The boy was clearly questioning what the girl was doing speaking to him, especially since their last interaction hadn't exactly gone well in the slightest. Although, Nora had a part in that interaction; this one was completely unprompted.  As if in slow motion, the three of them watched as Edison stood up straight and braced herself. She drew back her arm and formed a fist; a fist that landed right on Mason's nose as his head whipped back with the sheer force of the hit.

"What the fuck?" they heard Mason yell as Edison remained calm as ever while reaching over to grab her stuff from the bar.

She moved to leave, but Mason got in her way while clutching his bleeding nose. Sounding almost bored, she shrugged. "That's what you get you fucking cheater. Now, get the fuck out of my way. I told you, I'm not afraid to fight back. Strange, you didn't follow through on hitting a girl. I'm not surprised, though."

Shoving him into the side of his table, Edison walked past him. For just a moment, her eyes flickered up and met Nora's. Yet as quickly as it was there, the eye contact was gone. The bell above the door rang, announcing Edison's departure.

"Well," Nora sighed, gazing at the door still as if Edison was going to waltz back into the building and whisk her off her feet, "That was... unexpected."