Chapter 4: You're adorable

July 3, 2017

“What are we gonna do now?” I ask Nora as she's snuggled into me on my bed in the trailer I live in.

“Keep dating and won't tell anyone,” she says quietly.

“Not even Daniel or Sophia?” I ask, stroking her hair softly and looking at her beautiful face on my biceps.

“We can't hide it from them… It'd be great to at least maybe act like a couple when we're with our best friends,” she says quietly. The whole day she has talked to me with a really timid voice. She's embarrassed. I'm telling her not to be, but she still is.

“Or you know what else we could do?” I ask.

She looks at me sadly. “What?” she sighs.

“We could keep on dating. Tell your parents to go to hell and make out in front of them just to annoy them,” I say, making her giggle.

She turns to me and snuggles her face into the crook of my neck, leaving a soft kiss there. It would be awkward to do this kind of stuff a week after our first kiss, but we're comfortable with each other and we're each other's best friends, so it's not.

“I'll get grounded,” she murmurs, her hot breath cutting my neck in a pleasurable way.

“You’ll get grounded if we won't tell them and they'll find out anyways,” I chuckle. I feel her sigh and she moves her head to my chest which seems to be her favorite place at the moment.

“I’m sorry that my parents ruined this,” she says, not facing me, but our feet, cheek against my chest.

“Baby, they didn't ruin this,” I say, keeping my arms wrapped around her torso, holding her against me. “I still love you and I don't care if your parents allow us or not, I'm still going to kiss you every time I feel like it.”

I feel her swallow and then she turns her head to face me with her excited but soft big green eyes. “What?” she asks, even though out of breath, but still sounding shocked.

“What?” I ask, frowning, deciding to tease her a little, actually knowing why she reacted like this.

She keeps staring at me with the same soft expression for a few seconds and then shakes her head just a little, looking confused and turns her head back down. I smile big. Her reaction is so freaking cute, I can't handle it. She looked almost as if she didn't believe I love her. She looked surprised I actually do. But so excited.

“I love you,” I say quietly and turn back serious the exact moment her head flies up to look at me again with a scared look. That I wasn't expecting.

“Please tell me I'm not imagining your voice,” she sighs with a small frown on her face.

“What? What voice?” I ask worriedly with a frown. Her eyes go wider and she starts blinking every second, holding back her tears. “I’m kidding,” I chuckle and she looks confused. “It was me. I love you.”

Her hand flies up and she slaps me, only making me laugh in pain. I knew she was gonna do that. She's my Nora, of course she was going to do that. And then just a second after, her hands cup my face and she pulls my lips on hers.

“I love you too,” she says between our kisses. I'm… as happy as possible right now. I knew she loves me, she's told me many many times, but it was as a friend. And now… it is as my girlfriend.

#

“Hey you two. Wake up,” I hear my dad whispering and then shaking us. Both of us groan and Nora hides her face into my chest and I do the same with her hair. “Nora, your mom's here.”

I feel Nora's head raise up immediately and she tries to get out of my arms, but I won't let her, hiding my face back into her hair. “Aley, I'm gonna get grounded for the whole summer, let me go,” she says quietly.

I hear my dad chuckling, but Nora doesn't say anything anymore, just lets her leg fall off of my torso, making my hand from her thigh drop as well. She leans up probably, because the next thing I know she kisses my lips softly and when she pulls away, my forehead.

I sigh and open my eyes in defeat. They both chuckle at me and I lean up and give Nora a kiss on the cheek after what she runs her hand through my hair and gets up from the bed, grabbing her phone. “Fuck, I was supposed to be home an hour ago,” she murmurs to herself and looks at my dad. “Is she mad?”

“No, if I won't tell her,” he teases.

I chuckle and Nora smiles with a tilted head. “You won't, right?”

“Who knows,” he sighs, still teasing, and goes out of the room.

Nora smiles at me and squats down next to the bed. “You have to wake up or you can't sleep at night,” she tells me, caressing my cheek with the back of her hand. I nod and we kiss for a few seconds. “I love you,” she whispers when pulling away.

“Love you too,” I say back quietly and lean up to kiss her forehead for a goodbye. She smiles while getting up and walks out of my small room.

#

July 4, 2017

“So you're just not telling your parents?” Layla asks to get everything clear.

We're sitting in Daniel's living room, on the ground, eating pizza in a circle. Layla is sitting next to me, Emilia by her side, Nora on my other side, snuggled into me. Next to her are Sophia and Daniel, after them Edwin, Gage and Shawn. We're having a sleepover today. Daniel lives only with his dad as her mom is in Chicago, but her dad had to go to Las Vegas for a week so we're probably gonna hang out here most of the time now.

“Well his parents know,” Nora answers Layla's question.

They chuckle. “And they won't tell yours?” Sophia smirks.

“No, they're great,” she sighs.

“They would be even greater if they convinced yours,” Shawn says, eating his chicken-cheese pizza.

“They tried,” I say. Everyone frowns and seems to think about what to do. But they are Nora's parents so we can do nothing about it.

“Okay, let's forget about that for today. You two are allowed to make out as much as you want,” Emilia says, taking her empty beer can. Edwin sneaked some beer for us from his dad's fridge. “Let’s play truth or dare.”

We all chuckle and pull our ten half eaten pizzas a little more towards us to make room for the can. Emilia places it in the middle and –since we're in a circle anyways– spins it. It lands on Gage. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth,” he says. I nod with a smirk. He's a ‘truth’ kind of guy.

Emi smirks. “Let’s do the classic ‘who's your crush' thing.”

He sighs. “Can't you ask something more exciting?” We all can see the way his face changed. He doesn't want to tell us. Last time it was Ginger.

“Come on, Gage,” Nora chuckles next to me.

He sighs and his eyes go to Shawn who is smirking as all of us and then to Emilia. “I'm gonna drop out, right?”

“What? No, not already,” Sophia whines. We always play until the truths and dares get too extreme and everyone stops agreeing and starts dropping out. And then the one who wins gets two dollars from everyone who lost.

“I’m not telling you guys,” he says, starting eating his pizza.

“Come on, Gage,” Edwin chuckles, pulling the pizza away. “We wanna know. Is it still Ginger?”

His eyes flicker on him and on Shawn and then back onto his pizza. “Oh my god,” Sophia squeals and we all look at her. She’s beaming while Gage is now blushing, looking at the ground. “Do you like Shawn?”

All of our heads fly to look at him and Shawn's reaction. He looks shocked, Gage really embarrassed. “Gage, are you gay?” Shawn asks with a frown.

Gage sighs and looks up at us. His eyes stop at Nora who is the most supportive one in the room. “Yeah.”

There's a moment of silence and only smiling and then the next second the two boys are making out in front of us. And both are hard. It's a funny sight. They're trying to get each other totally against their bodies while not having any experience on doing it so their tongues are out of their mouth.

“That’s gross,” I say quietly.

“Well I guess these two are out,” Emilia chuckles and spins the can again. It lands on Nora. “Truth or dare, cousin?” Emi smirks.

“Dare,” Nora says like always.

“Take your shirt off until it's your turn again,” Emilia smirks big and looks at me and then back at Nora.

Nora frowns uncomfortably. She's the kind of girl who is embarrassed of her body. She can be in a bikini but she doesn't enjoy it. I think she's gorgeous, but she's not that confident in herself.

“You don't have to,” I say quietly, my arm remaining around her.

She sighs and narrows her eyes at Emilia, pushes my arm off and pulls her shirt over her head, the loose elastic from her bun falling off with it, releasing her hair the same time she uncovers her black bra. I feel like the air is sucked out of the room, the only thing I can hear is Gage and Shawn making out and the only thing I can see is Nora. Her hair is dropping on her shoulders as loose blonde waves, the two-week-old haircut looking more perfect than ever. The bra is perfectly hugging her curves, the black making her look hotter than ever.

Nora's eyes go on me as my hand touches her waist. I quickly pull it away, not even noticing I was doing it, making all of them laugh. “Well Alex is enjoying it,” Daniel teases. I would like to say something, but my eyes are locked with Nora's who's smiling softly. She gives me a kiss on the cheek and then looks back at the beer can and spins it.

I can't get my eyes off of her even after she is forced to kiss Edwin and puts her shirt back on. I can't get the picture out of my mind. And I see her looking at me once every minute to see if I'm still looking. She starts smiling every time when she sees I am indeed. I'm so doomed.

#

Later the night we decide on watching horror movies. Daniel hates them and Nora is scared of them but everyone else agreed. When we're almost through the first one, Nora starts telling me in my arms that she can't sleep at night and she doesn't know why she's watching it.

“Why am I watching this?” she murmurs to herself again, making me smile at the adorableness. She can never sleep when we watch horror movies. That's why she always sleeps close to one of us. This time it's gonna be me I hope. I keep smoothing her hair and snuggling her on my lap between my legs as we're all sitting on the ground.

In the next jump scare, she winces alongside with so many others. The others keep watching –even though I see that Sophia, Gage and Layla don't want any more either– but Nora hides her face into my shirt and I hold her even tighter against me.

“You okay?” I chuckle whisper. She shakes her head in my shirt. I start stroking her hair again. “That scared?” I ask worriedly. She nods again. “Let’s get some ice cream,” I tell her quietly and we both stand up. I can see the others notice but they keep their eyes on the screen, pretending not to be afraid. Nora never wants to tell them she's scared either, but she always tells me and I always take us out of there to try and cheer her up.

I take her hand and lead her into the dark kitchen and then turn on the light. She seemingly relaxes when she can see around her and she pulls herself to sit on the counter as I keep looking at her while taking out two tubs of ice cream. “You okay?” I ask.

She shakes her head and smiles a little. “I can't watch that.”

“Yet you always do,” I smirk, handing her the vanilla one.

“I can't tell them I'm scared,” she chuckles, looking embarrassed.

“They know that already,” I say, taking two spoons for her vanilla and my chocolate ice cream. “Plus, I saw three of them scared too. They just wanna look brave,” I smirk.

“Yeah?” she asks with a sigh. I nod. “I never get through the movie,” she mumbles, opening her ice cream. “Sorry you never see the endings.”

“It's okay, I'm not a huge fan of them either. I'd much rather watch some murder mystery or cheesy musical with you,” I say, sitting on the table so that I would be facing her. She giggles at me and we both eat the ice cream. I see her eyes slipping over the room in every few minutes as we keep talking though.

“You’re so freaked out it's actually cute,” I chuckle after tossing our empty tubs into the trash can and standing in front of her.

She smiles a little and pulls me closer to her, gripping my waist with her hands. She lets me stand between her legs as my hands go onto her butt and pull her parted legs against me as well, our lips connecting exactly at the same time.

#

“Aley?” I hear Nora whispering and then her hands shaking me awake. “Alex?”

I open my eyes and she climbs into my arms. “Where did you go?” I ask, pulling her tightly against me.

“I couldn't sleep, I ate a little,” she whispers back, everyone around us sleeping. “I had a nightmare.”

I chuckle at the adorableness. “And now you're scared to close your eyes?”

“Mhm,” she says quietly, looking up at me, head on my biceps. She's been like that her whole life. I remember when we were 12 and a spider somehow got into her sister's ear, she didn't sleep for two days, panicking, terribly afraid of spiders.

She moves her head onto my shoulder basically, so that we're both comfortable and the arm that is under her head moves the hand so that my fingers would be intertwined with her locks. I bring my face close to hers and kiss her forehead and then her cheek two times really softly. After that I rest my head against hers. “It’s okay. I'm here.”

We keep our eyes locked and hers close with a few minutes of me holding her close to my body. I nuzzle my nose into her hair and close mine too, feeling her leaving a kiss on my bare chest just before I fall asleep.