Something about you (Norminah)

Chapter Forty Five

A/n: someone asked me for a Norminah moment so here is one. This was the only way that I could think of justifying them being this close given how the current state of their relationship so bear with me. 

I don't know if I should put a warning but I will. So there's a nightmare loosely based on a scene in Hereditary. The nightmare comes after the paragraph below and it's written in italics. If you skip it, you won't miss anything.

I played music to distract myself while I got ready for bed and I said an extra long prayer before getting into bed and falling asleep almost immediately.

-

"Did you have fun tonight? Because I'm getting the feeling that you didn't?" Aiden asked quietly, his thumb lightly caressing mine as we walked towards my apartment.

I nodded, making sure he could see that my smile was genuine. "I did, but that movie scared the life out of me."

"I knew I should have picked a different one. But you told me you liked horror movies."

"That was obviously a lie that I told so you wouldn't think I was a wimp."

"I like you whether you're a scaredy cat or not," Aiden teased, playfully nudging my shoulder as we finally got to my apartment building. "No more horror movies?"

I grimaced, "I like to live on the wild side so I'll probably forget that I'm petrified today and I'll watch another one next week."

"Then how about I stay over and keep you safe whenever you watch horror movies?"

"You'd do that?"

"I'd do anything for you Dinah."

His pager went off as we walked into the building. Aiden sighed as he looked at his phone. "Be a surgeon, they said. It'll be fun, they said."

"Duty calls?"

He sighed, "Unfortunately. I don't know exactly how long this will take—"

"–It's okay, go and save lives. I'll go for a walk or something."

"This late?"

"First of all it's only 10 and secondly, desperate times call for desperate measures."

Ever since finding out the truth about my mother, I had worked very hard to stop myself from thinking about it. Aiden was only too willing to be a distraction, and he was helping, because I could actually talk to my mother without ever letting on that I knew what she'd done. 

Now that I was alone with nothing to distract me, I couldn't stop thinking about it, and I couldn't stop the anger that I had successfully kept at bay for so long from taking over. I was also afraid to go to sleep to add to that.

"Hey can we meet?" I asked quietly. "There's something I need to tell you."

"Dinah Jane it's late..."

"I know, but this is important. Please?"

-

Normani was already standing at the entrance to the park, this time with Noah in tow when I finally arrived. I stopped for a second, watching as she continuously checked on him while occasionally looking up to scan her surroundings in determination, most likely in search of me.

When they finally landed on me she smiled my favorite smile. The one where her eyes lit up, almost like she was channeling the stars themselves right before they scrunched up as though she was laughing at some joke that I wasn't privy to.

Then it was gone, replaced by a sheepish smiled as she stepped out of someone's way. I shook my head as I walked over to her. "Hey, I brought coffee and muffins. No nuts this time."