'Like all the best families, we have our share of eccentricities, of impetuous and wayward youngsters and of family disagreements,'
Queen Elizabeth
Chapter Twenty-Six
Post 279:
I feel like I have gone over this before, but I think it needs to be said again. British guys do not dress better than American guys. In fact they probably are the worst dressed male nationality in the entire world. Seriously, I don’t know how they manage to get themselves out of bed and into a suit without messing it up somehow.
Post 278:
British Guys will not call you ‘love’. Only taxi drivers call you love; and in my 21 years (3 of those in London) I have never, ever seen a hot taxi drive, nor have I seen one under the age of 42.
Nora lay wide awake, staring up at her ceiling. She had stayed awake all night long, twisting and turning in her bed sheets as she desperately tried to figure out what was going on in her mind. Dark shadows lay beneath her tired green eyes, contrasting with her ghostly pale skin. She was still in her dress from the night before, not caring if the dress was wrinkled or not. Thoughts ran round Nora’s head, playing havoc with her mind and sleep.
Why had she listened to Dan? Why was he getting to her now and not earlier? Did she believe Dan? Was she being stupid?
Nora knew the answers, they just weren’t the answers she wanted, they were not the answers her heart wanted.
She turned over in her head, groaning at her brain as she did. It had come to the same conclusions about the questions she had again, the same conclusions that she had been coming up with all night. They were not the answers she wanted, and so the thinking process began all over again, until she got the answers she wanted, or settled for the ones she already had.
The phone call from her mother popped back into her head. Nothing out of the usual, just her calling pissed, rambling down the phone to Nora. Nora had been the only person who looked after her mother when she was younger, with her older sisters either gone or used to their mothers behavior. Because of that, Nora was the one that her mother would call when she was drunk and wanted somebody to put her to bed, despite Nora living over 500 miles away. Nora had managed to get her mother sober a couple of months ago, she had gone home in easter with Skye and had managed to get her mother to stop drinking, but she had obviously gone back to the bottle.
Suddenly, Nora heard the front door of her apartment opening, her heart beat instantly beginning to race as her mind began to make a list of people it could be.
“Nora, you here?” A voice shouted. Nora quickly rolling off her bed before walking out of her room and through to the hall to see who had walked into her apartment, not caring that she looked a mess.
“Sean, why are you here?” She questioned as she spotted Sean in the doorway. His blue eyes looked her up and down, taking in her tired green eyes and pale white skin.
“Nor, you look terrible!”
“Thanks for the Sean! Wonderful friend you are,” She replied dryly, rolling her eyes at her best friend. “Why are you here?” She questioned, repeating herself.
“Milo called to see if you were okay, he asked me to check on you,” he answered, concern filling his ocean blue eyes. Nora’s gaze fell to the floor as he mentioned Milo, Nora unable to hide the emotion that filled her eyes when he was mentioned. “Nor, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing, nothing, I’m fine. Just tell him I’m fine,” Nora replied, stuttering a little towards the end. She had told Sean that she was fine, but it would take a lot more than that to convince Sean.
“Nora, what’s wrong?” He questioned again.
“Nothi-”
“Don’t give me that bull shit Nora, what’s wrong? Did Milo do something?” Sean interrupted her, his voice rising. Nora opened her mouth to reply, before realizing that if she said the words then she would have to face them, accept them. She opened her mouth to speak them, the words rising up her throat like vomit, before tears started flowing out of her eyes, her words changing into gasps of air as she began to cry. Sean stepped forward, wrapping his arms around the crying Nora, holding her tight as he let her cry on his shoulder.
“Let it out, hun, what’s wrong,” He questioned, as Nora tried to gain control of her tears.
“I-I don’t-t trust him,” Nora stutter, tears still rolling down her cheeks. “I-I should; but I don’t,”
Sean looked down at his best friend, wondering to himself who had put these ideas in her head. Of course Nora could trust Milo? She loved him didn’t she? He hadn’t heard her say it, but he could see it in her eyes when Milo was around or something simple like his name was mentioned. Her eyes would light up like never before, her green eyes looking so bright that the green was alive, swirling around her pupil in happiness. She had to trust him to love him, didn’t she?
“Of course you do, hun, of course you trust him! You love him don’t you!” Sean replied, still holding Nora tight. She pushed him away as he said this, her heart beat picking up slightly.
“No,” she answered shaking her head, “I don’t lov-”
“Of course you do! Jesus, Nora, everyone can see it but you!” Sean replied, unwrapping his arms from around Nora and placing them on her shoulders. She shook her head in reply, pushing everything Sean was saying out of her head.
She couldn’t be in love with Milo. Love to her was the worst thing in the world. It was what plagued her father with his relationship with her mother. He loved her to his dying breath, despite the fact that she had cheated on his and divorced him six years earlier. Despite everything her mother through at her father, he loved her, the final beat of his heart was for her, everything he did was for her.
Nora shook her head for the final time, her green eyes holding back tears as memories began to plague her head once again.
“Just go, Sean,” she whispered, backing away from her best friend before turning around and walking back into her room, slamming her door as she did. She ran to her bed, lifting up her covers and climbing under. She lay under the covers, pulling her knees up to her chest, before letting the tears she had been holding back out. Unwanted memories washed over her, taking her back.
Her father lay on the hospital bed, his skin holding no colour, almost blending in with the white covers of the bed. His brown hair was gone, his green eyes held only unhappiness as he looked at Nora, trying to appear happy for his daughter. Nora knew that this was it. He had been sick for months, dying for weeks, his breathing was shallow and his heart beat was slowing. She squeezed his hand three times, letting him know that she loved him. He weakly squeezed back, before coughing loudly, letting go of Nora’s hand to cover his mouth.
Suddenly, her dad’s gaze looked past Nora, and towards the doorway. Nora turned around to see her mother standing in the doorway. Her brown eyes held sadness, an emotion that Nora hadn’t seen her mother express since she was seven. Her plump pink lip frowned and her wavy blonde hair was up in a ponytail. Her mother looked like she had, six years ago: healthy; sober; in love. Her mother was back, but it wouldn’t last.
Her mother slowly walked over to her fathers beside, sitting at the opposite side of Nora. Her father’s eyes didn’t move from her mother, not even blinking. He was trying to work out if this was a dream or not, trying to figure out if his Katherine was back, if the woman he had loved for most of his life was coming back to him.
“I-I’m sorry,” her mother stuttered, leaving Nora completely confused. Was her mother really back? The woman she had known for the past six years wouldn’t of known the meaning of ‘sorry’, she would of kicked anybody out of her house who did. She had been heartless and mean, but the woman who was now sitting at her father’s bedside was the opposite to that woman.
A smile slowly formed on her fathers lips, the life returning to his eyes. It looked like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, that he was whole again. The love of his life had returned. Her mother smiled back, the happiness not reaching her eyes. She stood up, before leaning over the bed and placed a light kiss on her fathers lips, just as they had done when they were still married. Her mother stood back up, grabbing his hand and holding it tight.
“I... love... you,” Her father slowly said, losing his breath with every word. It was the first thing he had said in days, his voice cracking as he said the words. Her mother automatically replied, repeating the same words her father had used. Nora had never heard so much emotion in her mothers words, her mother meaning every single word.
Her fathers eyes slowly closed, the smile not slipping off his lips. His breathing slowed down before he took a deep breath and then nothing. His heart beat once more, before going flat, failing to start again.
Tears began to fall down Nora’s cheeks, watching her mother as she just sat there staring at her fathers body. The doctors knew that he was dead, they were under strict orders not to resuscitate him. Not to even try and bring him back into the world of pain he had been living in for the past few weeks.
Her mother stood up, her brown eyes once again emotionless.
“Don’t fall in love, Nora. It’s the worst thing in the world. It will break you; haunt you, Like it did him,” She sneered, her voice filled with anger. Her mother turned away before walking out of the room, leaving Nora to grieve over the loss of her father alone.
Nora let some more tears out, remembering how her mother went back to being cold and hard immediately after her father passed, crushing Nora’s thoughts of her mother being back to normal once again. Even when her mother was sober - which wasn’t very often - she was still cold and mean, love seeming like a foreign feeling to her mother.
Suddenly, the ringing of her phone pull out of her train of thought. She wiped the tears off her cheeks before pushing the covers off her face and reaching out her hand to her mobile which lay on her bedside table. She grabbed the phone before pulling it over, pressing the green answer button without glancing at the caller ID.
“Hello?” she croaked, answering the phone.
“Nora! It’s Abbie,” a voice replied, Nora recognizing it as her older sisters. Abbie was the oldest of her six sisters, she was almost five-teen years older than Nora and was married with two kids.
“Abbie? Why are you calling?” Nora questioned. Abbie had never called Nora unless she needed something, just like the rest of her sisters. Her six older sisters got on with each other, all were like their mother, while Nora was the odd one out as she was more like her father. She had lived with her father for six years after the divorce, not seeing her sisters for the majority of that time and therefore never got on with them.
“Nice way to treat your older sis!” Abbie complained, Nora could practically hear the smirk.
“Well if you called when you didn’t actually need something then I might be nicer!” Nora replied dryly, knowing that Abbie was agreeing with what she was saying.
“Whatever - mums back on the piss, you need to come and sort her out,” Abbie replied, her tone as if she was talking about the weather.
“Why can’t you do it? I’m five hundred miles away, Abbie!” Nora shouted, sitting up right. She really didn’t want to be the one to go sober her mother up. She was always left to do it; her six sisters scattering into the wind whenever the words ‘alcoholics anonymous’ were mentioned.
“And I have two kids to look after! We all do! Besides you’ve done it before! You’re always the one to get her sober again!”
“Yeah, and you’re all probably the ones to get her back on the booze again!” Nora replied angrily. Abbie just laughed slightly at Nora, knowing that it was true.
“Whatever sis, just sort her out,” Abbie replied, not leaving room for argument. Nora let out a breath, knowing that she had to go sort out her mother, not for her or any of her sisters, but for her father who would roll in his grave if he knew that Nora just left her mother to self-destruct.
“Fine, I’ll catch the next plane out,” Nora replied, hanging up before Abbie could answer her. She threw her phone back onto her bedside unit, before turning back up to the ceiling.
She was running away; but first she needed to face her issue. Nora turned around and accepted the answer to the questioned that had been playing on her mind all night.
She needed to talk to Milo.
Woo! Chapter twenty six! :D Thanks to everyone who has read this so far! LOVE YOU ALL! :) Anyhoo, song on the side is the wonderful Nirvana's 'Where did you sleep last night?'! It's a cover they did but my favourite song of theirs :) x New chapter coming soon, I'll try for thursday-- maybe Monday! :) xx Stay awesome!