Smudged mascara and disheveled hair greeted Noora when she slid through the bedroom window and slumped down next to Eva.
«Rough night?» Noora nudged her friend.
«Just very short.» Eva yawned and pulled her messy hair into an even messier ponytail. «You're way to happy for 15:00 on a Saturday?»
«Not touching alcohol and going to sleep at a reasonable hour does that for you.» Noora slipped out of her jacked and shoes to curl up next to Eva on the sofa.
«Yeah, but where's the fun in that?» she would never be convinced, abstinence was a good choice.
Noora's eyebrows arch upwards. «Plenty of other ways to have fun.»
That earned her an eye roll and shrugged shoulders. Eva reached for her laptop to put on a Netflix show for background ambience.
«Speaking of fun, where did you end up yesterday? We missed you at party, Vilde got all upset over it.» Eva focused her slightly unsteady but nevertheless vigilant eyes on her.
She didn't know Noora had done anything other than go straight home last night; she couldn't, could she? That was exactly why Noora hated lying, it made her paranoid. There was no reason to suspect Eva knowing anything but her going on one date with William three weeks ago. Nothing to worry about and strictly speaking, it wasn't exactly lying just conveniently leaving out certain details.
«Nothing, I went home early.» Conveniently leaving out certain details still felt wrong.
«Okay» Eva popped a crisp in her mouth.
«The music was a touch much for me.» Noora really did have a dislike for eardrum bursting level of russ music.
Eva trailed off into her phone and Noora exhaled, relaxing back against the couch. «You seemed pretty out of it before I left.»
«Mhm» another crisp.
«Is everything okay, with Jonas and you know …»
«It's fine, really.» Eva had never been the best at hiding her feelings but Noora didn't want to dig any deeper, sprinkling salt on an obviously sore subject.
«You slept in your own bed though, right?» imagining her properly drunk friend passing out in some random boy's bed made her cringe.
«Chris brought me home, don't worry.»
«Chris has a car?» Noora furrowed her brows.
«Oh no, Penetrator Chris.» Noora definitely caught her friend blush this time. «He called a cab. Apparently William took off on his own so I thought I'd keep him company.» Eva shrugged as if none of it was a big deal.
«Penetrator Chris?» Noora's eyebrows almost disappeared in her hairline, hopefully masking her own flushed cheeks at the mention of William's name.
«He's sweet.» Eva sighed.
«He's a fuckboy.»
«I'm not looking for a relationship. Also you went on a date with William, you have no right to judge.» Eva threw her an amused smirk and Noora almost gasped at her retort. «I'm well aware that he'll have a new girl next week, but» she shrugged «he's fun.»
Gossip girl wasn't Noora's preferred choice of Netflix background drama but she had to admit it was fun to watch every once in a while (at least as long as one ignored all its moral shortcomings), especially when the drama in her own life almost rivaled that of an American teen show.
«How is that going actually, is William still texting you? Did you talk to him since the date?»
That definitely took Noora by surprise. Eva was apparently more sober than she had previously given her credit for. Squinting her eyes, she tried to judge just how much Eva had noticed and more importantly was still remembering from last night; her face-off with William hadn't exactly been private, at least the first part hadn't.
«No» Noora said a beat too slow and Eva sized up her answer for a second before turning her attention back to Blair hurling insults across her laptop screen.
They both fell silent, Eva lost in Gossip Girl and Noora in her own memories.
If it hadn't been obvious last night, it was now. Her need to keep things secret was bound to clash with the inexplicable desire to indulge deeper into whatever it was that tied her heart to William. Destiny was to be damned.
«The party was epic though. You can say whatever you want but the Penetrators know how to throw a mean party.» Eva sighed and Noora saw her scrolling though last night's Instagram feed.
«Mhm» she didn't care for the parties and no matter how redeemable Eva made them sound, Noora's stance on the whole topic had been set from the beginning. They were a bunch of assholes, vying for however many girls they could add to their 'fucked-lists', textbook fuckboys. No exceptions were made (not one, maybe one).
She would have explained all that to Eva, if it hadn't been for the buzzing phone claiming her attention.
Before Eva had a chance to see the name flashing across the screen, Noora had snatched her phone and felt instantly headier when she unlocked four new Messages from William.
William: hey
William: miss you
William: sorry, I don't wanna bother you
William: I just really miss you
She felt the annoyingly obvious flutter in her stomach set into motion and bit her lip to keep the grin from spreading.
Noora had promised herself, the moment William's car door had flung closed behind her a few hours earlier, to fight the impulse to text him today, or tomorrow. Noora had also gotten into an annoying habit of ignoring her own better judgement and all impulse control when it came to William.
Noora: it's been what, five hours?
«Who's texting you?» Eva dragged her eyes away from the screen, just long enough to study Noora.
«Just Eskild, he is basically illiterate when it comes to cleaning.»
«You never look this happy talking to Eskild.» Eva arched her eyebrows and her back. «Or about cleaning.»
Another text delayed Noora's reply.
William: What can I say, the things you do to me Noora Amalie Sætre.
«He can be entertaining.» she managed to spit out, but the spreading smirk on Eva's lips caught her lies.
«It's him, isn't it?» Eva almost yelped, forgetting all about the heated argument Blair and Chuck were carrying out on screen. «My god Noora, you're still texting with him. I don't know whether to be disappointed or amazed.»
The sheer number of exited giggles that tumbled from her friends lips, made Noora freeze for a second.
William: How about Monday?
His texts and Eva's excitement, made it more than challenging to keep Eva from discovering more than she already had. No one could know that she had spent the night in William's bed, and not for the first time.
«Just don't tell Vilde, okay. It would break her heart.» typing an answer was the perfect excuse to avoid Eva's questioning looks.
Noora: We have school on Monday
«I wont.» Eva promised. «If you tell me what he's texting you about.»
Noora rolled her eyes; another text.
William: after school then
«Nothing new really. He wants to go on another date and keeps pressuring me and yeah … really nothing new.»
«But you'd never go on another date, because you don't like him? Like at all, right?»
Noora sensed that they had gone over this once before, and Eva seemed just as skeptical to her vehemently shaken head as she had the last time.
William: I'll take you to my favorite café
William: There's this amazing chocolate place up in Grünerløkka, you'll love it
Noora: I'm not going on a date with you
«He's an asshole that uses girls for the gratification he never got as a child and thinks about no one but himself.» she had repeated it so many times, by now it sounded like an automatic recording of her three week younger self; the self that hadn't kissed William or tasted his hot cocoa. «He's very persistent though, I'll give him that.»
His preposition did sounded more tempting than it should. But going on a date, in public, someone was bound to see them. In the privacy of his apartment she had been able to relax and forget about all the constant reminders why giving into his touches and kisses was a destructive choice. In a café she couldn't simply push her worries aside and ignore her lies being found out at any moment.
«Right» Eva repeated and the suspecting smile on her lips made Noora want to smother her with one of the pillows.
William: no date, just cocoa
William: It's almost as good as mine
Noora could see his smirk through the screen.
"You really can't tell Vilde about this.» Eva shook her head, still too wound up in her friend's choice of texting partner to focus on the Upper East Side drama spilling on the screen. «You are really full of surprises, Noora.»
That Noora couldn't object to. Though surprise might not be the right word, at least not when other people discovered what she was hiding.
William: and you can pay for your own drink, if that makes you happier
Needless to say, Noora agreed to hot chocolate on Monday.
It was delicious, almost as good as William's.