Chapter 3: Baby

June 26, 2017

“Nora,” I whisper, shaking her as I sit on the edge of her queen-sized bed. “Norey?” I lean down after brushing her hair away from her face and leave a kiss on her forehead. She lets out something between a whine and a groan and pulls the duvet over her head, making me chuckle at the adorableness.

“Come on, baby, time to wake up,” I say softly, using this nickname for the first time in my life. It makes butterflies fly even in my stomach. I smile at myself and pull the cover down to her chest, still covering her boobs, because she only sleeps in a tank top and a pair of shorts so I'm not sure if it's on her normally or half rolled down or up.

Her hand slowly moves out from under her pillow and she takes my left hand with her, pulling it under the covers. She slides them under her shirt and stops right above her heart. Her eyes remain closed, but lips form into a big smile, making me smile too. I can feel her heart beat. It's faster than usually after you wake up.

“I like that,” she murmurs, my other hand caressing her cheek softly.

“Like what?”

“Baby,” she says quietly with a smile.

My heart flutters at that as well and I push a new strand of her hair out of her face which almost seems to fall back there now, tucking it behind her ear. And then I lean in.

The kiss is amazing as usual, but this time I can feel she's tired and I can taste the morning breath (not that I'd mind).

“Come on,” I say quietly and climb under the sheets instead of getting her up. “Come here.” She moves into my arms immediately and I adjust them around her, leaving a soft kiss on the top of her head after she hides her face into my shirt. “You wanna keep sleeping?” I whisper, starting to fondle her hair softly.

She nods in my shirt. “Okay,” I sigh and wait a few minutes until her breathing gets slower and calmer again, telling me she's asleep.

I smile as I look down at the girl in my arms. I've had a crush on her ever since I was like 8 probably. And it grew bigger and bigger every time she did something kind or adorable or funny. Like when in 3rd grade she lost her stuffed animal she had had ever since she was a baby. She cried the whole day so I gave her mine; a stuffed dog named Sausage. She accepted it and hasn't stopped sleeping with it ever since. Even right now I can feel it under her left arm. Now my crush is in a point where I don't know what to call it anymore. Not to be creepy or anything, but I'm obsessed with her. We've been having this little ‘thing’ between us for a week now and I can’t get enough of her lips or skin or hands. It's incredibly frustrating if we have to be apart. But we have to because no one knows. Everyone is so oblivious that they just believe us when we lie.

#

July 2, 2017

“Hey kids,” Pop smiles as we enter the diner.

“Hey Pop,” we chuckle. “Can we get our usual?”

“5 minutes,” he says and we smile and nod. He looks at our hands for a moment and looks suspicious, but I just lead Nora to our booth and sit down, letting her slide in on the other side of the booth of me.

“Did you even see the third one?” she asks me, continuing our earlier conversation about Harry Potter books and movies and the differences in them.

“It's the one where Sirius escapes,” I say.

“Mm, and you don't remember it?” she asks with a bit tilted head.

“We watched it together when we were like 13, that's the last time I saw it,” I protect myself.

She narrows her eyes. “I’m starting to think you didn't pay attention.”

I laugh my careless laugh. “We had seen it like 15 times already.”

“How can you not remember then?” she asks with a frown.

“I do not have your brains, Nora,” I chuckle and squeeze her knee under the table, making her smile.

“Okay, what are we doing today?” she asks me.

I chuckle. “Nothing. You slept half the day away, Norey.”

She smiles at that and stands up, making me frown. But then she sits down on the same side of the booth that I'm in and slides herself against me. I raise my eyebrows with a big smile as she wraps her arms around my waist and nuzzles her nose a little into the white tank top I'm wearing over my black jeans.

“What are you doing?” I chuckle as she closes her eyes too. Even though we're in public and no one knows about us yet, I wrap my arms around her as well and rest my cheek on her head.

“Can’t I hug you?” she murmurs against my shirt.

“You can hug me, but you can’t breathe me in like that,” I smile.

She looks up at me and starts smiling, seeing my face. “Keep your ego down, it comforts me, it doesn't smell good.”

“Oh really?” I ask with a playful grin.

She nods. “Really.”

My hands move to her waist and I squeeze her sides softly the way I've been learned to do without hurting her or making her laugh too hard. But of course she laughs too hard, making everyone shut up and look at us. I don't care, I keep tickling her and she tries to wiggle herself out of my arms but doesn't succeed and only laughs and laughs and laughs.

“Alex, stop,” she giggles and I stop at that. She chuckles for a few more seconds, turning to look at me normally. And then without even thinking, she leans up and kisses me. It feels like we're the only ones here.

After a few moments of kissing, we hear an awkward throat clearing, making us pull apart. We look at Pop as he places the food on our table while Nora wipes her mouth clean the same time with her hand, smiling. We smile at Pop for thanks and he walks away, looking confused as ever.

“Let me see,” I say quietly, turning her head to face me. Her lipstick is so mushy. I smile at it and raise my hand up a little and wipe it away from the corner of her mouth. She smiles at me and then leans closer to give me a peck on the cheek. When she's accomplished that, we both smile at our food and dig in immediately, my arm going behind her head on the back of the booth. She leans onto my side and turns her head to look at me while she's eating. I look at her the same way and as our eyes meet, we smile at each other. We hold the gaze for a while, but then I need my other burger, so I wink at her and look away to get it, feeling her right next to my body now.

#

“Stop right there, you two,” we hear Mary’s voice as we're trying to go upstairs without our parents seeing us because they're all here and obviously have heard from someone that we kissed. “We need to talk to you.” She goes into the living room.

“We just started dating, are they gonna give us a sex talk? Together?” Nora whispers, making me chuckle.

“Are we dating?” I ask her quietly.

“I don't know, are we?” she asks with a smirk, still standing on the same place.

I smile at her. “I was planning on asking you tonight during movie night, but… Would you want to be my girlfriend, Nora James?”

She giggles quietly. “I’d love to.” I smile at that even bigger and my hands on her waist pull her closer to me.

“Come on, you two,” we hear my mom's voice from the living room. We both sigh, but I peck Nora's lips softly and then take her hand, leading her to the living room, because her pace is really falling slower every second.

We stop just after we go inside and I look around the room if maybe here's another place to sit except the one between my dad and Mary on the couch. Nora does that too probably because the moment I discover the armchair she's already going there. So we start pulling each other off of it and in the end I'm the one who gets it, both of us giggling. She gives me a shrug like she doesn't care and pops herself down next to me instead. She tries to make herself room, but it's so little, so I just end up pulling her onto my lap.

My mom raises her eyebrows at that because they're obviously gonna yell at us anyways for dating or kissing or whatever. Nora doesn't care though, she turns herself a little and parts my legs so that she'd be sitting on one of them, her side against my stomach.

“Are you done?” I chuckle as she tries to find a comfortable position.

“Yeah,” she says after shuffling around a little more and then resting her head on my beanie. “I’m good.”

“Okay, care to explain what's going on?” Mary asks, sounding pissed.

“Why do you sound so angry?” Nora asks quietly, looking at her with a frown.

“Because you haven't told us one word and you lied when I asked,” her mom says madly.

“Woah, I thought mine were bad,” I say. Mary and my mom give me a look.

“You thought yours were bad?” Nora chuckles. “Do you even imagine what bad means?”

“Honora,” her mom says, making her shut up and sigh.

“Don’t call me that,” she mumbles inside my shoulder now.

“Look at me,” her mom says. I feel her sigh as she raises her head and lets it fall towards her own shoulder, tilting it. “Why- did you lie?”

“Because I'm sick of you telling me what to do,” she says honestly, looking like she's gonna yell any minute. “You don't have to know everything. It's my life, I can kiss who I want and it shouldn't bother you.”

“You’re fifteen,” Mary says, sounding like she's accusing her in something.

“The average age for the first kiss is 14,” I murmur. Her eyes go on me now and I tense up a little, seeing that she is accusing me too.

“How did this even happen?” mom asks me. The dads really either don't care or don't want to get our moms even angrier by saying something what the women think isn't right.

“You know… You're chilling, just hanging out, then there's a moment you realize you're too close to each other and you're like ‘She seems to be feeling the same, I've been crushing on her since second grade, I should take my chance'. Then you just need a few words to tell her we can do it and that's-“

“You told her ‘we can do it'?” Conner asks me with an annoyed face.

“You've been crushing on me since second grade?” Nora asks quietly, eyes big and sparkling in excitement. I give her a small nod and want to answer her dad, but she kisses my cheek softly and for like three seconds so I just can't find my words anymore.

“Um,” I say and think about what I wanted to say. When I remember, I look at her dad. “No.”

“No?” he asks in confusion.

“Well, yes, but-“

“You told her you two can kiss?” dad asks me with a frown.

“Well obviously we knew you're gonna be mad at us, so I told him we couldn’t…“ Nora explains.

“Mad at you?” dad chuckles. “We’re not mad at you.”

Both of us frown and look at each other just for a moment and them back at our parents. “What?”

“I for one think it's pretty cute,” my dad says and observes our position. My arms are both around Nora's waist, holding her close to me so that she'd be comfortable and wouldn't fall. Also because I love to feel the scent she's carrying around and because I want her close to me. “Just you're both 15 and it's not gonna last. You're wasting a good friendship to be together for two years.”

“That’s harsh,” Nora tells him. I don't know how but every time Nora tells my dad something, he starts smiling or smirking or laughing, depends. “You can't see into the future, our friendship has lasted pretty long considering that he's a total jerk... Why not a relationship.”

I smirk at that and squeeze her side, making her giggle and push my hand away from there.

“You're teenagers, you're in love. It's never gonna last,” Mary says. I raise my eyebrows at the ‘love', but I guess it's true. “You're gonna break up with a fight about something stupid and since you're practically a brother and sister, all of us will be affected.”

“Ew, mom,” Nora says quietly. “We’re not incest, don't say that.” Again, my dad holds his laugh back and this time so does hers. “Plus you and dad worked out. You were 16 when you met and started dating at 17. We were less than a day old and started dating at 15, I'm pretty sure our connection is stronger.”

“Nora,” her dad chuckles. “You’re fifteen.”

“Everyone starts dating at like 12, you should be happy I waited for that long,” she explains.

“Nora. You're not dating until you're at least 16,” her mom says. Nora groans at that and drops her head onto her nape.

“Mary, are you serious?” my mom chuckles.

“Dead serious,” she says.

I smirk and look at Nora who looks so embarrassed and mad, still facing the ceiling. I feel sorry for her and for myself. “You didn't tell me that,” I tease and squeeze her sides softly, making her wince and a smile spread on her face as she takes my hands into hers and pulls my arms tighter around her instead.

“Aley,” she says really quietly, looking like she's gonna cry.

“Hey,” I chuckle sadly and pull her more against me. I rest her head onto my chest and hold it there, lowering mine onto hers, my lips against her temple. “Baby, I've waited for you for 8 years, I will wait one more to get to be with you.”

She nods slowly and sniffles quietly. I don't think she's crying, but she's about to. I leave a kiss there. She raises her head up and looks sadly at her too strict parents.

“This is not gonna help,” Mary tells her. She looks at mine the same way.

“Honey, we can't,” my mom says softly.

“You have for 15 years,” she whines.

“Nora, it's gonna be okay, you just have to wait a little,” my dad says the same way, really softly.

She huffs in frustration and then looks at me with a tricky face. I smirk, knowing what she'll do next the exact moment she cups my face. She presses her lips against mine and I don't pull back either. My hands go back onto her waist and she parts her lips for my tongue which I happily give her.

We make out for a few minutes and when she pulls away, she pecks my lips two more times and then gets up, gives her parents the finger, making me and my dad laugh and runs upstairs.

“Looks like you finally have another teenager,” my dad chuckles, nudging Mary's side.

“She will never be a normal teenager, she's just mad at you guys,” I tell them. “As a matter of fact…” I stand up. “So am I. I hate you.” And I leave the room as well, not going after Nora, knowing she wants to be alone, but go into the kitchen to eat all of their food.