Hi!
I just wanted to slip a quick thank you to my readers. I hope you are enjoying the story so far guys. =)
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Colorful flyers, paper streamers, over pricey dresses and vintage music.
Those were the things that had taken over the town since the last few days.
Why you ask? Well, it was because it was the time of the year when our otherwise normal town celebrated its 'happy week', no relation to alcohol by the way.
It was the week which marked hundred and some more years when the town was founded by its first settlers. I am sure it started with some low key event but slowly somehow British influence took over and now it was just a week to let out your inner Anglophile.
So basically there were sales, parades, costume competitions and a several more events all week round and every year there was a dance held at school too, or as people with rose tinted glasses liked to call it, a ball.
It was like being in an episode of poor man's Downton Abbey, only with less scandal and way less actual British people.
Pathetic? I know...
But this year our school had decided that we won't be doing what every one was doing so for the first time in maybe like forever, we were having a normal American high school dance. Or at least as normal as things can be when Shay was involved.
"Mike! I told you, more on the left!" Shay hollered, using her powerful trademark Taylor vocal cords and the rest of us quailed at her shrilly never ending barrage of orders.
"But you just said to the right!" Mike whined, on the cusp of losing his cool too.
"Yes, because then it was too much in the left but now it is too much in the right!" Shay clamored, looking up at Mike with a steely gaze, and establishing her hands on her hips, looking more tenacious than ever.
Guess who had the potential of having a career as a drill sergeant in the future?
Sighing exasperatedly, Mike rose up again on the step ladder and fiddled with the fairy lighting hanging below the Tulle decoration.
I shook my head at both of them and trying to block their streams of invective, I tried my best to intertwine the string lights with the barren branches of silver painted fake trees.
"No! You twerp!" Shay shrieked and Mike almost lost his balance from the ladder at her sudden flare up, but after a momentary staggering, he composed himself and turned to glare at Shay.
"What now?" he yapped in a total non-Mike manner.
"You're clustering up the lights!" Shay yelled, looking so distraught like someone had stolen her first born child. "Can't you do one thing right?"
"Shay, I swear if you yell at me one more time, I'll set fire to everything here. Norah here won't say anything 'cause we have a deal," Mike threatened, but then spun around to rectify whatever horrendous mistake he had made.
"I'll have you neutered before you can even think of doing that," Shay replied back with ease and then nipped off towards the dance area, ordering something to Haylie who was the in-charge of the music.
Haylie gulped and Mike pretended to hang himself with an imaginary noose around his neck and acted to kick the ladder from under his feet.
Yup, those were the reaction Shay had the ability to conjure up from people.
I quietly went ahead with my, quite frankly, very boring work, humming an old tune, absentmindedly.
It felt a little bit strange being around her after she had kissed Sebastian, and with whatever had gone down between Daniel and Abbey. I mean, we still shared the same table during lunch, but there were just awkward glances with her and Abbey, and for the past couple of days, when things felt too much, I would just end up annoying Daniel by sitting with him, who preferred to eat lunch alone, sitting outside of the school, while programming on some sort of language on his laptop.
Yeah, he was a nerd.
Two months ago, if someone had said to me that Daniel was some kind of computer genius, I would have certainly laughed at their face, and now I felt a little stupid whenever he tried to explain what programming he was doing, 'cause I had no freaking clue.
During lunch we didn't really talk much, but that might have been due to the fact that for the last two days, Sebastian and Mike had joined us too. The uncomfortable look on Seb's face, and the slightly pissed off one on Daniel's, whenever I tried to make them talk, was priceless.
I had to pester Daniel at least a hundred times, to make a small apology to Sebastian for punching him, before he had finally cracked. But of course, I had to face multiple sighs and frowns as a price. But it was all worth it. I mean Sebastian was my friend, and Daniel had become an essential part of my life in a very short amount of time. So it was a necessary thing to make them get along.
"Let me help you with that," a voice spoke from behind, almost startling me.
Shay reached past me to arrange the lights, more accurately than I'd been doing.
"Thanks," I muttered, looking ahead.
"It's nothing," she said, waving her hand lightly. "So...about Sebastian..."
I waited for her to continue.
"I'm really sorry about that, Noh," she said timidly, which was such a clashing thing as compared to her personality. "I never meant to hurt you, Seb or Liam."
"I know that and it's alright," I said, waving the matter off. "All is forgiven and forgotten."
A smile bloomed on her face.
"Oh god, thank you so much!" she spread her arms and enveloped me in a hug.
I giggled a little at her reaction. "It's nothing," I assured her.
I wanted to ask her about her sudden decision to talk to me finally but it was like she was thinking the same thing. "You know it was really nice of him to apologize to her."
My head whipped instantly to give her a quizzical look. "Who?"
"Daniel..." Shay replied breezily, twisting the wire of the lighting on her pointer finger. "So I guess he didn't tell you, huh? He came to talk to Abbey and it was pretty sincere."
Call me a little obsessed or whatever but I felt a sense of pride rise up in me after knowing that.
"That's really great..." I trailed, debating if I should ask her something that had been jumping around my brain for quite sometime. "Hey, I know it's none of my business but why exactly was Abbey crying that other day?"
"Oh, Dan left her saying nothing was ever going to happen between them," Shay gave me a short blurb, dipping her face a little low.
"Oh..." was my response. Maybe I was being insensitive or something but wasn't it a bit over-reaction on Abbey's part? With the intensity with which she had been crying, one would think that she had gone through a rough break up or something.
Oh well...
"Anyway, you can go now if you want. The decorations are almost done," Shay informed me, pulling her platinum blonde hair in a ponytail.
I made a agreeing noise, picking up my bag from the floor and tossed it over my shoulder.
"Hey, we're good right?" Shay called just as I was about to leave. Turning around on my heels, I gave her a reassuring smile and walked away, my shoes squeaking against the urethane coated floor of the gymnasium.
The school hallways were vacant and felt longer than usual as I ambulated down to get to the parking lot to wait for Sebastian who was busy with his basketball practice. I took out my phone, and there was a text from Sebastian, that it was going to take him at least half an hour more.
Great. Now I had to walk all the way home.
I took a cursory glance around the area to see if there was anybody present but found no one to be in my vicinity so I took out the pack of smoke, sliding out one.
Now, judge all you want but it's not so easy to quit smoking like that. I had been trying to keep it to a minimum level but there had been a slip here and there, and right now this was a slip.
I pulled out my lighter from the secret compartment of my bag, and brought it to the cigarette which was already clutched between my teeth.
Taking I drag on it, I pulled it away from my lips.
"Smoking on school ground?" A familiar voice came from behind. "So much for being a good girl."
"Never claimed I was one," I said, without turning around.
Daniel clicked his tongue in disapproval. "I thought I made it clear that you weren't going to smoke anymore."
He snatched the cigarette from in between my fingers and I let out a cry, thoroughly displeased. I was expecting him to chuck it away, but instead he took it in between his lips, taking a drag himself.
I witnessed in surprise as the smoke eddied up in the air as he exhaled and then coughed up a little.
Clearly he had never smoked in his life.
"What are you doing?" I asked, befuddled.
"I am trying to see what's so fun in smoking that you seem to love it so much," he answered, shrugging and tried to take another drag but just ended up coughing even more.
"Okay, stop. Just stop. It's almost painful to watch." I yanked off the cigarette back and throwing it on the ground, I stamped it with my shoe and then tossed it in a nearby trash can. "There. Happy?"
Daniel shot me an angelic smile. "Over the moon."
I just rolled my eyes, but couldn't seem to wipe the smile off my face.
"So how was the computer club?"
I knew that would stir him up a little and that was what I intended to do. It was fun teasing him.
"I think I just lost something..." Daniel mumbled, inspecting the ground.
"What?"
His eyes snapped to mine immediately. "My cheerful mood!" He answered with narrowed eyes, and I sighed at his stupid mannerism. "Did you have to ask about that stupid club?"
"I was just trying to make small talks," I shrugged, innocently.
"Yeah, right," he remarked, flatly. "Anyway, want a ride home?"
"Oh right, you got a new car!" I exclaimed, but obviously Daniel wasn't so happy about it because he just shook his head, with a sullen look.
"It's horrible I know," he spoke, heaving a deep sigh. "I already had people yelling "get a horse instead" to me on my way."
I looked at him with unbelieving eyes. "You little brat, are you kidding me? You have a Nissan Altima!"
"Yeah, I know," he said, looking at me like I had offended him or something. "It's a 'doucebag lawyer' kind of car!"
"My dad's lawyer," I said in a flat voice.
"You know what I mean."
Now it was my turn to shake my head in disapprobation. "You and your spoiled rich kid ass," I mumbled, pulling on the sleeves of my shirt, to shield my hands from the slightly nippy wind.
"So are you coming to the dance tomorrow?" I asked, traipsing after Daniel to his car while texting Sebastian that I was going home.
"I don't know. I am not really great with these savoir faire kind of things, but I'll see," he answered walking ahead, and I looked up from my phone in confusion.
"The what?"
He sighed, raised his hands in air and threw me a look over his shoulder. "Pick up a book sometime, Bishop."
I decided not to extend the topic and stayed silent until we got to the black Altima, parked at the corner of the lot.
Now all my knowledge of automobiles was from playing NFS with Sebastian and hence I didn't consider myself an automobile expert but I could still tell that the car stationed in front of me was certainly not something to be embarrassed about.
I let out a wistful sigh, remembering my own forty four year old Porsche.
"Yes, yes, we got that we got that you have a crush on my car," Daniel said, smirking. "Now get in."
Giving him an icy glare, I opened the door to clamber inside and an over whelming new car smell knocked me over but then my eyes went to a yellow prescription bottle lying on the passenger seat.
"Shit," Daniel cussed as he instantly swept away the bottle and threw it in his bag.
"What are they for?" I asked, a little hesitantly and slipped inside.
"Nothing," he replied, in a clipped manner and kept avoiding my gaze.
"I thought we were past that secretive thing," I pointed, as he maneuvered the car out of the lot.
He sighed heavily. "That's Lexapro," he replied, still upholding his strained voice.
"The antidepressant?" I asked immediately, shifting a little in the leather seat to face him better.
"Yeah..." he breathed, keeping his eyes trained on the road but mumbled something that I wasn't able to catch.
"Don't make that oh-my-god-she-is-gonna-think-differently-of-me face, 'kay?" I said, slightly aggravated at his reaction.
"Well, aren't you?" he asked, finally bringing his blue eyes to look at me.
"No," I answered, with an unwavering assurance but he didn't look very convinced and there was a twinge of embarrassment in his eyes.
I sighed.
I didn't wanna do this.
"I used to take Adderall," I blurted out, without bothering to think about it once because I knew I wouldn't be able to do it if I started over-thinking.
The reticent look on his face was quickly ousted by a curious and slightly concerned one. "You have ADHD?"
"No, they weren't prescribed to me," I answered, brazenly, a little shocked at the upsurge of confidence in me. "And neither did I take them for academic purpose."
"Then why?" Daniel asked, his eyebrows pulled together in confusion.
"I used to get these bad nightmares and they helped me to stay awake," I spoke, now feeling a little dubious if I should go further than this or not. "No sleep equals no nightmares."
"That's crazy," he said, in a whisper and then thought for a while before continuing, "You still have them, don't you? The nightmares? That's why you don't sleep much."
"Yeah, sometimes," I said, and waved my hand to change the topic. "Anyway, see now you're not the only one who has to deal with these stupid pills. So stop being so apprehensive about it."
The corners of his lips turned up in small smile. "You're weird, Bishop. You know that?"
"Nothing I am hearing for the first time, Cohen." I shrugged.
"You don't still take them, right?" he asked, concern painted over his painfully attractive features.
"No, I don't," I replied in an ensuring tone. "So changing the topic, you decided to talk to Abbey, huh?"
I tried to sound nonchalant but I didn't think it worked at all.
Eh...
"Yeah, I figured that there might be friction between you and your friends because of me so I decided to settle things with her," he replied, shrugging.
Okay, on a scale one to ten how inappropriate would it have been if I would have just hugged him tight, 'cause I really wanted to do that.
But I thought that might have ended up him loosing the balance over the car, and both of us in an accident, so instead I settled on just observing him in appreciation, which wasn't a hard job to do considering the fact that he really looked great with his blue shirt matching the color his eyes.
I had never really seen him experimenting with color a lot. I mean it was always white, black or gray in his case, and even though blue wasn't exactly what you call a risky color, it was still refreshing to see him wearing it.
I was still so engrossed in marveling over him that I hadn't noticed that he had turned on the music player, but as soon as the first note of the piece of the music started, my eyes instantly whipped over to the speakers, still a little confused if I was hearing it right.
Butterfly Lovers
It used to be my favorite piece to play.
As the flute portion of the instrumental piece carried on, I felt a sliver of confusion travel down my spine. "You listen to concertos?"
Okay, Norah, many people hear instrumental music. You don't need to feel so alarmed as if someone has snatched the earth from under your feet, I told myself.
"Yeah, this one's my favorite," he said, smiling, and I could have sworn it wasn't I-am-talking-about-something-I-love smile. No, it was more of a I-know-something-but-just-pretending-to-be-unknown smile.
Or maybe it was just nothing.
Yeah, let's settle on that for now.
The car pulled up in front of my house after what could be counted as merely five minutes and bidding Daniel a hasty goodbye, I sprinted inside, although I had no reason to feel this jittery suddenly.
The house felt silent, but the lights of the living room were on, so I knew that Dad was home.
Heading up the stairs, I was about to advance towards his room when I the glowing lights of another room caught my attention. Now, that shouldn't have been anything unusual, except for the fact that it was my old room- my real one- which was locked almost all of the time.
"Dad?" I called, nervous for what I was walking into. Dad only went to that room, only when he felt emotional. I never really understood the logic though. Why my old room?
"In here," was his answer and I let out a sort of relieved breath as his voice sounded normal.
In my mind, I expected to see him holding a photo frame with an old picture of all of us or something, so I was little surprised when I found him sitting on the bed, clutching an envelope in his hand.
"What's going on, dad? Did something happen?" My voice was tentative and the way I moved my feet was the same.
"This came in the mail today," he announced, holding the envelope higher and looking straight into my eyes.
With baited breath, I waited for him to say anything further, because I had no idea what he was talking about.
"It's from Aldfield," he informed me, and for a brief moment, I closed my eyes and prepared myself for the impending doom. "Care to explain, when did you decide to apply for this?"
"It was a while ago," I said, timidly, keeping my eyes on the ground. "I guess I forgot to tell you."
"Yeah, you did. Along with other things that how you want to do pre-law and that too at a local college," an annoyance was brewing in his voice. "What happened to your plan for Juilliard?"
A nervous chuckle left my mouth. "Dad, I haven't touched a violin in years. Hardly think, I am the kind of student Juilliard is looking for."
"Fine," he said in resolute way. "Then after graduating high-school, you are taking an year off and will take up violin classes so that you can audition for Julliard next year."
I felt like someone was rubbing sand paper against my throat. "I can't do that. I want to do law."
"Why?"
"Because I want to," I answered, and there was this urgency in my voice that I couldn't hide.
"Because you want to or because Emma wanted to?" Dad question but his face told me that he already knew the answer so I didn't give him any.
I just silently stared at him as he did the same. There was something different in him today. Today, he was back to being the strict dad who I had grown up respecting. For the last three years, he had gone soft on me. He had gone easy when I was addicted to pills, when I had become a chain smoker and many other times.
But the person who was in front of me was so not the person anymore and that so didn't mean a good thing for me.
When he understood that I had just decided on staying silent, he spoke again, "I know I haven't exactly been the father of the year, but that doesn't mean that your unusual behavior has gone unnoticed by me."
"Unusual behavior?" I repeated, giving him a flummoxed look but just got an earnest one from my father.
"Noh, I know that the past years have been really hard on you with your sister and mother leaving us." There was a pain in his voice as he spoke but then concealed it really quickly. "But there's a line after which I'm not letting you wander off."
I nodded. Why? I don't know. But it was the only thing that I could do since my voice was practically stuck inside.
"You have become exactly like her," he said in a whisper and then paused for a moment, "and apparently now you lie like her too."
I gulped down the lump that was rising up, and all I wanted to cry right now.
"Don't get me wrong, I loved your sister but you know this too, that her bad choices in friends and her obsessive need to lie just to be popular was not one of the things that I was proud of."
Tears were stinging in my eyes as I tried to keep them at hold.
"Is this about Sebastian?" I managed to choke out, shifting awkwardly on my feet.
"That and several other things," he said.
"Dad, I told you his dad doesn't support him-"
I was cut mid-sentence, "Yes, I remember that. But do you know, what you should have done, what the real Norah would have done? She would have supported him and stood by him when he needed her. Not lie to everyone."
What can I say, he was probably right.
Actually, scratch that. He was absolutely right.
"And the other day, I met Anya's father," he remarked, and I groaned internally.
Anya used to be my best friend three years ago. In fact she was basically my sister whom I had met when we were ten. She was this shy new kid at school and for some reason that only the lord knows, we instantly became friends.
But as all good things to end, so did our friendship. Well, actually I pushed her away.
Long story short, I acted like a total bitch and she probably ended up preparing hex bags to vanquish me, and then started being home-schooled.
"What happened between you two?" dad demanded, crossing his arms tightly over his chest.
"I told you that she-"
"Yeah, I know what you told me that she hates you, but what I'm asking is why?"
I pulled on a loose thread of my dress.
"Let me guess, you left her to hang with the popular kids," he answered for himself, and with the manner he was talking, I knew he wasn't proud of me.
He was partially correct this time. I might have done what I was accused of but when things would fall into their respective place, I knew Anya would understand why I stopped being friends with her, that I had eventually protected her from being hurt.
Or at least I hoped she would.
"I remember it was you who wanted to return to this god darn town and I obliged because I didn't think it was fair of me to keep you away from your best friend when you were already hurting through the loss of your sister and mother," he said, this time going a little soft. "And then we come here and then you basically become a replica of Emma. So what was the point in moving back?"
He didn't speak for a while, and the room fell in silence.
"What are you doing, Norah? Acting like her isn't going to bring her back or help you move on. You can't live stuck in the past. We can't live like that," his voice was breaking, and the leash that I had imposed on my tears were now gone.
I was already choking so even if I did have an answer, I couldn't have spoken.
I heard dad take a deep breath, trying to collect himself. "You better figure out how you're going to drop your act or else we're moving to New York."
It was like a bucket full of icy-cold water had been dumped on me and I finally found my voice.
"No, dad, you can't do that," I said, the words tumbling out of my mouth hurriedly.
"Why not?"
"Because..." I couldn't tell him the real reason.
"There's nothing for us here, in this town but I'm still giving you a chance to sort everything if you still want to live here," he told me, putting a hand on my shoulder.
"Till when?" I asked, trying not to make it sound like I was challenging him.
He looked straight at me, establishing that he wasn't kidding even a slightest bit. "Let's hope it doesn't comes to that but if it does, then we'll be celebrating this Christmas in our new home."
Shit.
"Anyway, it's time for dinner. I've made paninis. I know they are your favorite," he spoke, asserting some extra pressure on 'your'.
Forget eating. I had suddenly lost my need to breath.
Things were starting to take the absolute wrong turn. This couldn't be happening.
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So I know this chapter might be a little confusing at the end but I assure you that in the next few chapters, you will start getting an idea what exactly the problem is with Norah.
There might have been some mistakes in the chapter and I apologize for them. I'll fix them really soon. =)
And if you want to listen to the song that playing in Dan's car, check out the external link. It's one of the most beautiful as well as sad piece of music ever.
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