Chapter 1
“Nora! Come on, we’ll miss our flight.” My mom yelled from downstairs, making my anxiety fill to the top of the meter and it began to spill over.
Oh god.
“Coming!” I shouted, and grabbed my suitcases.
“Nora... wake up honey.” I felt my body being softly shaken, and my eyes fluttered open to see everyone in the plane getting up and grabbing their things.
I sat up abruptly and gasped.
“We’re here!?” I said excitedly.
“Yes, now get your things.”
I hurriedly grabbed everything and we entered the airport.
My eyes immediately started to scan the space for Emily.
“Nora! Over here!” My eyes locked with hers, and I felt overwhelmed with happiness.
“Emily!” I yelled as I ran to her as fast as possible, when I reached her I flung my arms around her.
We held each other tightly and I felt her softly cry into my shoulder, so of course, I started crying too.
“God I missed you Nora, so much.”
“Me too, Em.”
My mom hugged her parents while we were embraced, but eventually I realized there was someone I was missing.
“Hey, Nora.”
“Cy!” I exclaimed as I pulled him into the hug.
He chuckled and finally, everything felt right again.
“God Cy, you’ve gotten tall.” His green eyes sparkled and he smiled a big grin.
“Yeah, I know.”
“You should see Grayson if you think he’s tall.”
I almost didn’t realize he wasn’t here, but of course he wouldn’t be here to greet me. I mean, we were never really close.
“Where is he?”
“Probably with his new girlfriend, instead of where he said he’d be, which is here.” I heard Mrs. Marin bitterly comment.
Yikes...
I nodded my head, making a mental note to ask about it later.
“Well, anyhow, how are you dear?” Mrs. Marin asked me, changing the subject.
“I’m doing well! Really tired though.” I said with a laugh.
“I can imagine! Come on, let’s get you home.”
“Now hold on, before my daughter is taken into your custody, she needs to help me unpack.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Fine, but she has to come over tomorrow, the house hasn’t been the same without our dear Nora.” Mr. Marin said.
My mom laughed and then we grabbed our stuff and headed to the Marins’ car.
They offered a ride home, which was very appreciated.
As I helped my mom unpack, I couldn’t help but reminisce on Emily and I’s friendship. How we met, why we clicked and just the past 8 (almost 9) years.
This is how it went, pretty much; It was the third grade, and I was sent to the principals office for pulling Charlie Fawcett's stupid braids, which is where I met Emily. She and I shared a mutual hatred for Charlie, and her bestfriend Megan Tullbee.
Her and I sat together every lunch after that, and became the inseparable best friends that we are. Yep, mutual hatred is what brought two strangers together for an ultimate friendship.
Our families met and our parents became good friends, which meant we could hang out as much as we wanted.
I was the only child, but she had two brothers. One younger, the other older.
The younger one was Cy. He was adorable, and always wanted to hang out with us which, of course we couldn’t deny.
But the older one was Grayson, and he was pretty quiet. Never really talked to us, just hung out in his room and with his friends.
Emily and I remained inseparable until, well, until my dad left us.
My mom couldn’t support the house anymore, and we had to move. Far away, for a long time.
This happened when I was 13, but Emily and I never fell out of touch. We called everyday and told each other everything.
She had some new friends, but no one as awesome as me of course, and so did I.
Needless to say, they weren’t as great as her either.
She would visit a lot, like once a month. We had to move to another state, because my mom got a better job.
We went through everything together, even our first period! I remember how clueless we were, and how Emily put a pad on backwards.
But because of my move, I wasn’t even there for Emily’s first boyfriend, her first kiss, or even her first heartbreak.
She hasn’t missed out on much on my part, I’ve always been the less, well...less everything one.
At least I moved back in time for our seventeenth birthdays, mines October sixth, and hers is a day after.
So, that's the story so far.
My thoughts were interrupted by the doorbell, knowing it was probably Emily I scurried down the stairs and opened the front door but what I was met with was a teary eyed version of my normally cheerful best friend.
“Can you come over?” She asked, with a look of guilt.
“Of course, what’s wrong?”
“Let’s...not talk about it here, okay? Come on.”
I closed my front door, and followed her to the car that brought her here, questioningly.
“Whose car is this?”
As if on cue, the passenger window goes down and I see him.
Grayson.
His dark brown eyes, and messy dirty blonde hair complimented his undeniably beautiful features.
“It’s mine, get in.” His voice was low, and deep and I couldn’t help but get all jittery inside.
Why is he so darn cute?!
I hopped in and sat with Emily in the back.
Emily got out and headed to her front door, but as I went to follow Grayson caught my attention.
“Hey I’m sorry, by the way.” He said, and then turned to face me. I tried to mask my shock but I was most definitely doing a poor job.
“Hm?” Was the only response I could muster.
“For not greeting you last night, I wanted to and I was going to. Honest. I just uh...“, he paused and ran his hand through his hair, “got tied up with Charlie.”
“Is Charlie your girlfriend?” I asked, looking at the floorboard and shifting in my seat.
He nodded his head.
Hm, just as quiet as he used to be.
I remember when I was little I fantasized about being the person he would open up to, but I guess that’s pretty childish.
He probably opens up to Charlie.
“Look, I’m happy you’re back. It’s been quiet without you. And Emmie missed you.” Saying her name made me snap back into reality instead of just focusing on how hot I thought he was.
Oops...
“Y-yeah. Thank you. I uh, better get inside now...”
He nodded and I opened the door, taking a big deep breath of the outside air.
Oh lord.
I walked inside and, I can’t say the house is any different. It is quite actually, exactly how I remember it.
Eventually, I found my way to her bedroom door and gave a slight knock before she threw it open and wrapped her arms around me.
Something is seriously wrong.
I closed the door behind us and walked over to her bed with her in tow.
“What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”
“I-I did something, something really bad Nora. Like, really really bad.”
“Okay, I get it... well, what’d you do?”
Why did I get the feeling that this was about a boy?
“R-remember Jack Ambrose? Ms. Ambrose’s son?”
Knew it.
“...yeah?”
“Well... you know how I’ve always liked him? He uh, he told me that he liked me.”
“Emmie that’s great!”
“No, no it’s not.”
“Why?”
“Because 3 girls that I know of were also told that he liked them.”
Oh...
“Yeah. I put a picture of him on my Snapchat story, with like hearts n’ shit and a girl messaged me saying that they were dating. It kind of got worse from there.”
She sniffled and grabbed a tissue.
“I’m so sorry Em... god I’m going to kill him.”
“That’s not even the h-half of it! I haven’t even told you what I did...”
She paused and fumbled with her hands.
“...I was so, so angry that I... I hooked up with his best friend.”
“WHAT!?” I shouted.
“Nora! Shush!” She said as she covered my mouth.
“What the fuck Em!?”
“We didn’t have sex! Like, we were going to but I got nervous and stopped it. But we did make out and... stuff.”
My eyes were so big they felt like they were going to pop out of my head.
“Agh! Don’t look at me like that, you’re making me feel like some sort of slut.”
“Well...”
“Oh shut up!” A pillow hit my face with great force, and when it fell to the floor I saw a smirking Emily.
“Oh it’s ON.”
Emily started screaming and laughing as I chased her around the room, throwing her pillows at her. She began throwing anything she could find and even pushed a chair toward me.
We ran in circles around her room until I stubbed my toe on the end of her bed and fell on my back on the floor.
“Owww!”
Emily was cackling and suddenly I felt her plop down beside me.
I looked at her and then broke into hysterical laughter.
Pillow feathers were all in her hair and her hair was an absolute mess, which meant I probably looked just as ridiculous.
We laid there laughing for a while, and it made me remember what it was like without this friendship.
“So, what was it like?”
She started blushing like crazy.
“Okay well he did this thing where...”
We were now laying curled up on her bed, watching a romantic movie, crying our hearts out.
“I can’t believe he would say that! Is he dumb?”
“Yes, very. Ugh I hate him... but he’s so cute! Why can’t he just be less like, clueless?”
“I know.” I agreed as I shoved more popcorn in my mouth, and then put some in hers.
In the movie, a character started making cookies and almost immediately, Em and I looked at each other.
We paused the movie and ran downstairs.
“You get the ingredients out, I’ll get the bowls!”
“Okay!” I began looking in the pantry, and after I got everything I closed the pantry door but was met with a random figure standing behind it.
Everything in my hands fell as I shrieked, but he caught the eggs.
“Oh my god! You scared the shit out of me.”
Grayson just let out a loud laugh.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” He said with a big grin on his face.
I narrowed my eyes at him and picked up all the stuff I dropped.
“Don’t you think those are a little short?” He said with a smirk on his face.
I scoffed, reached back and pulled them down a little.
“No, I don’t. Can you please not be a perv?”
He chuckled, “Sorry, wasn’t my intention. You’re like a little sister anyway.”
Ouch?
I blinked a few times and just stood up, all the ingredients in my arms again.
I walked over to the counter and placed down the stuff, and noticed the bowls were already sat down.
“Em?” I turned the corner and found her sitting on the step, looking at her phone with tears in her eyes.
I grabbed her phone and gasped.
All over her social media, were pictures of her making out with Chris Wilson on his lap in his truck.
Without a shirt...
“I’m going to fucking kill him.”
“No, Chris didn’t do this.” She said quietly.
“Then who?”
“Probably his ex, Chris said she was crazy.”
“Then I’ll kill her too.”
