The next morning started with me falling off my bed. Rubbing my throbbing butt, I walked to the bathroom and was down for breakfast in record time.
“Morning. Breakfast?”, she asked me, when I walked into the kitchen, pushing a plate of toast and scrambled eggs towards me.
I was still waking up and I needed a cup of coffee and some time before I could properly socialize.
Downing the mandatory coffee, I dragged the plate towards me. I was about to grab the toast when she pulled back the plate to her.
“Hey”, I whined. “Give it back”.
“No. More. Excuses. Tell me what happened yesterday at the party?”
“Well. That was rude. Give me my toast”, I reached for the plate but she moved back with a shrug.
“Ugh. Alice was in her green gown and she cut the cake. We all ate it. It was one hell of a party”, I threw my hands up in frustration when she moved further away, taking the plate with her.
“Very funny. Starve”
“Don’t be a brat”, I was getting riled up.
“Don’t act smart”, she shot back, shrugging. I held my hands in surrender.
“It was good but nothing happened like what you are expecting”. She was playing this role of match-maker for me ever since I turned 18. She pushed me to go on dates. She even got the number of a guy at Target for me. She was hoping I would meet someone at Alice’s party. What was this? The 19th century?
And she didn’t need to know about how all the hell broke loose at the party.
She huffed, giving up. “Fine”, she gave me my plate back, “what do you want to do today? Linda-lini has me under a tight schedule throughout the week. Today’s the only day I’ve got”
“I uh, I just want to stay home. Some movies maybe”.
If I was going to have limited time with her in this house, I was going to make it count.
“Ok. I get to pick the movies”. I shrugged. And so we ended up watching every film Chris Evans has ever made that we could get our hands on.
I dozed off somewhere between third and the fourth movie and I woke up rubbing my eyes when it was dark outside.
“Nora. What’s the time now?”
“Turn your head back and see for yourself “, she shouted from the kitchen.
We cooked dinner together, well she did the most job while I goofed around, pretending to be a cook show host interviewing her.
It was dinner and then monopoly and by the time we were finished It was an hour past midnight and I had dragged her out of my bedroom and reminded her that we both had places to be the next day.
The week went by in a blur and I made the most of it, with her.
I had a feeling that she knew something was up. She would catch me watching her move around the kitchen or zone out in the middle of a conversation. She would go silent, waiting for me to speak up. I would ignore her and she wouldn’t push me.
I wanted to tell her soon so that she would have some time to process it but I couldn’t bring myself to tell her. To lie to her. I had to lie to her. Telling her the truth would mean putting her in danger.
It was a week since that night, and I’ve mustered up enough courage and a somewhat decent story, to tell her at dinner.
“Nora. I have something to tell you”, I said not looking up, moving the food around my plate.
“Finally. What is it? ”
“Umm. I… “. I swallowed. It was harder than I thought it would be.
“Out with it, Woman”
“I’m going to move out”. Not a good opening line. Her face fell and I wanted to slap myself.
“Why?”. I couldn’t look her in the face and her voice only pained me more. I bit my lip and selected my next words carefully.
” I-I have a boyfriend. We met six months ago in a cafe. A mutual friend of Alice. We are in love and he wanted me to move in with him. I tried to explain it to him but he is so stubborn”, I lips started quivering and a warm tear rolled down my cheek.
She reached for me and hugged me tight and that was my last straw. I broke down, on her shoulder, shaking from all the things I wanted to say to her but couldn’t. It was a painful, ugly cry but that was my way of apologizing for lying to her.
Why couldn’t I just tell her everything? She would understand. But no, things were never supposed to be simple for me, where they?
“Hey, it’s alright. Look at me”, she hooked a finger under my chin and tilted my face up to look at her. She had tears in her eyes too.
“It’s alright, okay. I just – six months? Why didn’t you tell me? I’ve always wanted you to find someone. I would have understood”, she said her voice cracking. She wiped my tears and pushed stray strands off my face.
“I don’t know. You are the closest thing I have to a family and I was afraid you wouldn’t like him. I’m sorry”, I took a choked breathe, still not having the guts to look her in the eye.
“Is he a good guy? Is it safe to move in with him?”
Well that was Nora to you. She could take a bad situation and make the best deal out of it. I nodded, afraid that if I spoke, I wouldn’t be able to control myself.
“okay”, she said, smiling down at me. “Are you mad at me?”, I whispered, wiping my wet cheeks and looking at her, gauging her reactions.
“What, no. Well, maybe a little. And that’s because you were sneaking around behind my back with a guy I haven’t even met before for six freaking months”, she smacked me on my arms, her eyes crinkling at the end.
“I’m sorry about that”, she stood up and helped me up too.
“Well, all that crying worked up an appetite for me”, we went back to digging into our now cold dinner.
“When are you moving?”
“In a week”, I said wiping the kitchen counter.
“Cool. We should do shopping before you move out. You know, to up your vintage wardrobe”.
We finished the last of the work in the kitchen together. “Hey”, I was halfway up the staircase when she called for me, “I am happy for you, Bells. I’m happy that you found someone. If anyone deserves it, it’s you Bella. You should surely move in with him”, she said, a warm smile spreading across her face.
Oh, how I wished that was true. That I was actually in love with someone and was making the big move of moving in with him. I gave her a smile anyways, wished her goodnight and went into my room and in the privacy that my closed door provided, I broke down into silent sobs, not bothering to wipe the tears.
I laid there awake thinking about all the turns of events. Was I doing the right thing? Should I have told Nora the truth? Stream of such questions whirled like a cyclone inside my head, making my already tired brain fuzzy.
And before I knew it, the week passed in a blur and it was already Saturday night. Nora slept in my room that night, exactly like my first days in this house when I newly moved in, when I used to have trouble sleeping at night because of nightmares.
I read Alice’s text saying that Jimmy would pick me up whenever I was ready tomorrow. I placed my phone on the night stand and turned around facing her.
I was wide awake, in the midnight glow of the moon that was seeping through the curtains, watching her sleep, savoring my last night in this home.