It Ain't Me, Babe. 》cth

Chapter 20 》"Who will promise never to part"

"Norah Grace, would you mind helping your mother with dinner?" My dad interrupts me while I'm comfortably in my bed reading a book. I'm running out of ways to distract myself from what happened at the dance.

"Yeah sure." I nod, putting my book down and following him downstairs. I hear familiar voices coming from the kitchen. Unfortunately, they aren't the familiar voices of my family, but people I deal with at school.

The boys.

I don't need to peek in the kitchen to know that Calum will be with them, so I turn to head back up the stairs instead of going any further.

"Oh, Norah there you are. Give me a hand, love." My mom says desperately. I groan to myself, knowing that I will be unable to escape this one. Oh well, I need to face reality at some point. I was just hoping to push it off for a bit longer.

I awkwardly shuffle into the kitchen, joining my mom at the counter. The boys are all crowded around the kitchen table, and it appears that they are attempting to study. That's very out of the ordinary, they must've figured out that mid-term exams actually affect your grade. I roll my eyes at the sight and put my attention solely on my mom. 

"What do you need?" I ask politely, eager to help. 

"Sorry sweetie, I know you were reading or whatever it is you do in your room," A few of the boys chuckle at this and I glare at them. "The boys are staying for dinner, so I could use an extra hand if you don't mind." She finishes up, passing me a cutting board and a knife. 

"Start on those tomatoes, would ya?" She bustles over to the stove to stir something in a pot and I wash my hands before I begin dicing the tomatoes. I find myself chopping more and more aggressively the more that I listen to the idiots at the table behind me. 

Well, mostly just Calum if I'm being honest. 

I'm still irritated with him from even before the dance. I can't believe I let him push me against the wall and kiss me after I vowed to myself that I would move on from him and his frustrating personality. I was having so much fun that night, and then he ruined it. What makes me mad though, is that I enjoyed it. Obviously I enjoyed it, I'm infatuated with him for some stupid reason.

All it did was make it harder for me to get over him, if I was even getting over him in the first place. Every time we kiss, it always seems to end badly. But I can't prevent it from happening, because I know in that moment, he's mine. 

It's a short amount of time, but when it happens, my wishes are fulfilled, and I can have all of him that I can ask for. I'm so wrapped around his finger, and he doesn't get it. I wish I could understand what goes through his head and try to make sense of his thoughts. It turns out that helping my mom wasn't a good distraction, it just allowed me to dwell on him even more. Especially since we're in the same room together. 

"That's not the hypothalamus, mate." Ashton groans at Michael's papers. 

"What the fuck is it then?" Michael whines and my mom smacks him in the back of the head at his language.

"It's the medulla oblongata, dumbass." Calum points out and Ashton rolls his eyes, obviously giving up on these two.

"Norah, we're trying to study for anatomy. Could you tell us what part of the brain is this?" Ashton pleads, and Calum automatically tenses up at the mention of my name. 

"I'm a little busy right now, Ash." I sigh. 

"Norah, we are shit at anatomy. I know you understand what's happening in that class, so help us please." Luke begs. Luke is even asking for my help, that's new. Maybe I should just continue to let them suffer.