𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐃𝐄𝐃

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

Twenty-One

    Did everything go okay with your mom? Was the text waiting for Nora when she finally stopped feeling like she was glued to her bed. She smiled at the text, feeling much better about things with Edison than she had before. Of course, raging hormones weren't the answer to everything, but they sure as hell made as girl feel good. She would take that feeling a million times over compared to the confusion and stress she had been feeling over Edison in the past few weeks.

    Still with a smile and flushed cheeks, she responded, definitely as good as they could have gone. I'd like to finish our chat though (the actual chat not the other part...)

    Well, she would certainly like to finish some other parts, but the talk wasn't finished and Nora knew it was an important one to have before they launched into anything further than whatever they had going on. Especially before jumping into anything official or public. God, after all this, that thought sounded like some sort of pipe dream that was never going to happen.

    Sighing, she placed her phone off to the side and pulled her laptop over to her as she sat up on the bed. Pulling up her essay, she began to write. Her introductory paragraph was a bit cleaned up now and Nora was clear in what she wanted to write and there was no time like the present.

Something she learned freshman year? Don't be what people expect from you, be the person you want to be. She learned that from watching Edison be the resident goth chick, from watching Kristen and Amarie discover who they were and fall in love, and she watched her sister go from some frazzled future engineer with a good head on her shoulders to a world traveller. She learned to become the unexpected and it was something she was watching herself become now in her senior year. At some point, Nora had let go of the perfect teen-movie life she had been living; the life people expected of her. Now, it was free reign to become whoever she felt she was going to be. Maybe she was going to exist in phases, but there was no such thing as a permanent state of the self and she was going to take as much advantage of that as she could.

It felt good — no, amazing — to be unblocked after struggling with this stupid final project for so long. She loved to entertain the idea that Edison had a part in this, but in reality, Nora knew this ideal came from within her. For years, Nora pressured herself to become what everyone told her to be, but she was tired of being perfect so she was giving it up to simply exist and live life the way it was meant to be lived: messily and imperfect. She was flawed, but she hid those parts of her away for much too long.

She didn't know how long she had been writing for as words flowed out of her at a rapid speed and her brain worked just as quickly to put sensible words on the page, but as she typed the last word she felt a sigh of relief escape her lungs. This was unexpected, this whole night was, but she finished the hard part. Now, all she had to do was edit and make it sensible before her after midnight brain got ahold of this. Maybe this was going to make zero sense in the morning, but she was going to remain proud of herself while the moment lasted.

Surprisingly, she slept easy. That seemed to be happening more and more lately, which hopefully was going to be a sign that things were looking up for her. She certainly felt like they were and the girl was prepared to cling to that hope until something proved her wrong. Nothing had done so yet, so she was going to appreciate the sweet dreams while they lasted.

The next morning, she was itching to tell Kristen and Amarie what happened, but there was something she had to do first.

All ready for school, she walked into the kitchen where her mom was standing at the counter preparing her breakfast.

"Nora? Joining me for breakfast? To what do I owe the pleasure?" her mother teased as her father sat at their kitchen table reading the newspaper. Nora was fairly sure her father single handedly kept print newspaper alive with how invested he was in it, but that was beside the point at the moment. There were more important things than the daily weather report in fresh ink.

"I have something to tell you guys," Nora spoke with a bright smile. The glint in her mom's eyes told her she knew what the girl was going to say, but that didn't stop her in the slightest. In fact, it motivated her to continue. She did, after all, get a do-over according to her mom the previous night. "Mom, Dad, I have come to realize that I'm bisexual. I like boys, but I also like girls. I know you guys won't have a problem with this, but I wanted full disclosure."

"Oh, I know I saw your little friend leaving last night," her dad mumbled with a slight grin as he put the newspaper down, "We love you, Nora, nothing is going to change that. Honestly, we expected it to be Eloise, but we don't mind the change of plans."

Her mother laughed out loud at this as she took a sip of her coffee, "Roy, don't be a dick. I hope you know he is only teasing, but we do love you, always. Now go, I don't want you to be late for school. Thank you for telling us. You know, full disclosure and all."

Nora stifled her giggle as she recalled her words to her mom during the awkwardness of last night. In a display of affection she rarely showed, the girl hugged both of her parents before grabbing her keys and exiting the house. Nora Watson had officially left the closet with her family. The relief fueled a pep in her step that lasted all day. Well, the pep may have been boosted slightly by the fact that Edison stopped her to talk in the hallway by their lockers for the first time in what must have been weeks.

"You seem chipper," Edison laughed as the two of them leaned against the lockers, "Anything happen that I should know about?"

"Well, I officially came out to my parents and they haven't kicked me out and they still love me, so that's definitely something to be happy about."

Although Edison's smile didn't falter, there was something in her expression that shifted to become a certain sadness. "I'm glad you have that, Nor. I'll see you in English?"

Deciding it wasn't her place to prod, Nora simply smiled and nodded, "Just like you do every day, dork. See you then."

    Walking away from the girl, Nora found herself joined up with Kristen and Amarie on both of her arms like clockwork. They must have seen her talking to Edison because they were vying for information like usual.

    "So... you and Edison not shying away from each other anymore? You two looked pretty friendly," Amarie mused, nudging her best friend's shoulder gently. "Got anything to share with us? You're practically floating on cloud nine right now."

    Biting her lip, Nora leaned up against the lockers and sighed, remembering last night. She didn't want to be one to kiss and tell, but at the same time, this was Kristen and Amarie, after all.

    "Why did no one tell me making out with girls was going to be so nice?" she sighed almost dreamily, "Oh, and then my mom walked in so I came out to my parents."

    "Nora! You can't just drop two bombs like that!" Kristen gasped, laughter spilling past her lips, "You little rascal, oh my god. I hope you guys actually worked through some stuff instead of... ahem, working out, huh?"

    "I think we did, but that conversation definitely isn't over yet," Nora shrugged as they continued their walk to their first class in the morning, "She's still confusing as hell, but at least she's talking to me like a normal person now. Girls are so confusing, how do you guys get anything done?"

    Amarie giggled, placing her arm around her best friend's shoulder, "Trust me, it took us a long time to get where we are now. If things are done right, I'm sure you and Edison will be thriving before you know it. Just gotta get through this weird patch first."

    "It's going on for so long, though! It's been like two months and I would like for things to be easy now," Nora groaned, her voice morphing into a desperate whine before her mouth settled into a pout.

    The redhead, who had been mostly silent until now, stopped in the middle of the hallway with both her hands gripping shoulders, "Nora, before anything happens further with Edison, at this point with how things have been, you need to ask yourself the question: Is this worth it?"