𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐃𝐄𝐃

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Sixteen

    Waking up the next morning felt surreal, as though Nora awoke to another dream. She didn't remember what time her and Edison had ended up coming home that night, but what she did remember was how painfully undefined things still were. She went out for answers, but with her luck she only came back with more questions. Just her luck. This thing with Edison only got more and more perplexing as it continued on.

    She was zombified as she got ready for school that morning, but as she left her room in her morning daze, which was becoming a usual thing, she was stopped by Eloise.

    "Where did you go last night?" she questioned, her position preventing her sister from heading downstairs.

    "What are you talking about?"   

    "You came home at like four in the morning, I heard you, where were you? Were you with a boy? Was it Mason? Are you being safe? What's been going on with you lately?" Eloise questioned and Nora began to feel like she was a suspect being cross-examined in a courtroom.

    Nora gave up on denying it, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to carefully avoid the truth. "I was with a friend, no, no, and safe from what? The boogeyman? In that case, yes. I wasn't out hooking up with anyone and certainly not with my ex who I spent half of yesterday crying over. Can I go to school now?"

    "Who were you with?"

    "Why do you care?"

    "Because you're my baby sister and I want to make sure you're hanging around with good people, not people that make you sneak out at weird hours of the night," Eloise crossed her arms as she attempted to sound stern.

    Nora didn't know why those words made her so angry. Maybe it was a combination of everything that had been happening lately on top of the exhaustion. Either way, she was about to burst. So, she did, "Why the hell do you choose to care about me now? You left for two years. I was lucky to see you over the summer when you weren't traveling the world with all your college friends. You don't get to pick and choose when to be in my life, so if you're just gonna leave again, do what's best for both of us and just stay the fuck out."

    With that, she stormed down the stairs and grabbed her keys. She ignored her mother's questions as to what the ruckus had been and slammed the front door shut. As soon as those words left her mouth, she felt awful about them. Nora couldn't remember the last time she had snapped and gotten so angry at someone she cared about. The closest thing was the day after the breakup when Mason was groveling at her locker, but that barely compared to the fire she felt in this moment. She knew every word she said her brain had specifically crafted to hurt her sister and she had no idea where it came from. All she knew was she regretted it. Still, she was not one to hang her head. Instead of walking back in there and apologizing, she slammed on the gas and drove to school angry.

    When she got there, the feeling was still warm in her heart and her breathing was labored as she turned the key and sat in the car. She hadn't heard a word from Edison since their conversation last night and she kept waiting for her phone to buzz like some sort of psychopath. Nora wondered if this was what it's like to go crazy. She was being dramatic.

    There's that word again: Dramatic.

    "I am not being dramatic," she spat to herself as she rested her head against the steering wheel. In a burst of energy, she shot up and inhaled deeply. Popping her door open, she stepped out of her car with what could only be described as a very fired up pep in her step. She was exhausted and angry, but she was not being fucking dramatic. She was being perfectly reasonable for someone who was probably on her way to a nervous breakdown.

    When she stepped into the halls of her school, she walked through them with a purpose. Nora was looking for someone. Someone she was tired of playing games with.

    Her skin became electric when she found the person she was searching for. Edison was at her locker, having just slammed it shut when Nora gently grabbed her wrist and turned her towards her. In that moment, Nora wanted to kiss her, but it was far too early to justify making out with someone in the middle of the hallway. Not to mention, no one in the entire school save for three people knew about Nora's recent discovery. Hell, she was still discovering it. All she knew was that Edison made her feel like she had been lit aflame and brought to life like a Phoenix. She made her feel alive in the best ways possible.

    "Nora," Edison spoke softly, unsure of what the girl was going to do next. Nora probably looked psycho, but she didn't care very much about that right now. "What's up? What are you doing?"

    "Go to prom with me," Nora asked, although it wasn't much of a question. She didn't know where those words came from nor did she plan on them leaving her mouth, but they did and now Edison was staring at her with wide eyes. She repeated the words except this time she tried to be a bit more confident in them, "Go to prom with me. Please?"

    Edison was silent for much longer than Nora would have liked her to be. The eye contact between them was startling and Nora was wondering who was going to be the first to break. Time stood still in between them; her fingertips on Edison's skin were burning alive as neither girl made a move to let go. Nothing else mattered besides whatever they shared connecting in that moment. Everything left unsaid and undefined somehow held more meaning behind it in this frozen beat of time. Something told Nora this was never going to be something she forgot. Edison's eyes tended to have that sort of affect on her. She was mesmerizing.

    In a breathless whisper that took Nora by absolute surprise, Edison nodded and said, "Okay. Yeah, let's..." a gentle smile formed on her face "... let's go to prom."