Chapter 2: Felix & Nomi

In which Nomi meets Felix


Nomi sleeps like someone who's never had to fear falling asleep— deep, even breaths, no thrashing with nightmares, no waking up at every little noise.

It's dark in the church, but there are street lamps outside the broken windows and moonlight filtering through the collapsed rafters, and Wolfgang can make out the silhouette of her shoulder rising and falling as she breathes.

She hadn't protested the rotting old mattress when Wolfgang had shown it to her, just asked again and again if he was sure he would be okay sleeping on the ground, if he was sure he didn't want to share, or at least take the blanket? Or the pillow? Really? Was he sure?

"Thank you," she'd said at last, so earnestly that Wolfgang had felt himself blushing in the moonlight.

"Don't worry about it," he'd muttered.

She'd smiled and set down her backpack at the foot of the mattress, then curled up under his and Felix's lone blanket. "Goodnight, Wolfgang," she'd said, as he lay down on the ground beside the mattress, knees drawn up to his chest, arms pressed between his thighs.

"Goodnight," he'd replied.

Nomi had fallen asleep within minutes. Wolfgang stays awake until dawn.

o - o - o

Felix returns as the first hint of light starts to seep into the sky above the church.

Wolfgang scrambles to his feet and meets him at the door, hushing him in the middle of whatever he'd been starting to complain about.

"Listen," he says, "I met a girl, she had nowhere to go, so I brought her back here."

"A girl, eh?" Felix repeats, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

He's joking, Wolfgang knows, but he punches his shoulder anyway. "Shut up. She asked if I knew anywhere she could sleep and— What's so fucking funny?" he hisses, because Felix is, inexplicably, laughing.

"Nothing," grins Felix. "It's just that I always knew you were a big softie at heart, Wolfgang Bogdanow," he says, pressing a finger against Wolfgang's chest.

Wolfgang splutters some attempt at a protest, but Felix just laughs again. "Fine, I take it back, you're still a hardass." He gives Wolfgang another shove to the chest. "So what's her name?" he asks.

"Huh?"

"The girl, what's her name?" repeats Felix, pushing past Wolfgang and starting to make his way toward the back of the church.

Wolfgang jogs to catch up. "It's Nomi," he whispers as he grabs Felix's arm. "Now shut up, okay? She's sleeping."

They stand there for a moment, staring across the church at her sleeping form.

"You gave her the mattress," Felix observes. Wolfgang opens his mouth to apologize, but Felix just claps him on the back. "Good," he says. He looks Wolfgang in the eye. "That's good."

o - o - o

Wolfgang wakes up later that day to the sound of hushed voices.

He opens one eye, and finds Felix crouching by side of he mattress, whispering with Nomi, who's sitting up slightly, her elbow bent and her head resting on her hand.

He shuts his eye.

It's afternoon, judging by the sunlight streaming into the church. He wonders how long they've been talking. "Dark chocolate is the best," Felix is saying. "I hate the cheap sweet stuff. Just tastes like sugar."

"But sugar is divine," Nomi whispers back.

"You and Wolfgang will get along," Felix laughs. "Sugar fiends."

Suddenly Wolfgang can feel their eyes in him. He concentrates on feigning sleep, his eyelids shut lightly, his breathing as regular as possible.

"How long have you known each other?" Nomi asks after a moment.

"Four years," sighs Felix. "Feels like forever though."

"That's really nice," Nomi says, and Wolfgang can hear a smile in her voice. "I'm glad you have each other."

"Yeah," says Felix. "I am too."

They lapse into silence, and Wolfgang falls back asleep.

o - o - o

When Wolfgang next wakes up, it's late afternoon, and Nomi is gone.

He panics for a moment, glancing around the church, then wakes up Felix, who seems supremely unconcerned. "Said she had stuff to do," he mumbles, obviously still half asleep.

"What? What kind of stuff? Felix!" Wolfgang says, shaking his shoulder.

"I don't know." Felix sits up and rubs his eyes. "I— She said she was gonna go home to get stuff. She said her parents will be at work and her sister at school. She still has a key to her house. Said she'd bring food and blankets and shit. It's no big deal."

"You didn't wake me up?"

"She didn't want to bother you."

"For fuck's sake!"

"She said she'd be back in an hour or two!" Felix says. "Lighten up."

Wolfgang doesn't lighten up.

And Nomi doesn't come back.

o - o - o

They open her backpack the next day, rifling through makeup and clothes and packets of chips.

"You think she's dead?" asks Wolfgang.

"Nah," says Felix. He opens her wallet contemplatively. "I think her bitch parents locked her in her room till they can send her off to that fucking boarding school. Shit, she's got fifty dollars in here."

Wolfgang snatches money out of Felix's hand. Sure enough, there's two twenties and a ten. "What boarding school?" he asks, pocketing the money and tossing the wallet back in the bag.

"Her parents wanted to send her to boarding school for boys," Felix says. "That's why she ran away."

Wolfgang looks up sharply. "Fuck," he mutters. "When'd she say that?"

"You were sleeping. We talked a long time," Felix shrugs and begins to pull out articles of clothing. A pair of underwear. A t-shirt. A bra.

"What else did she say?"

"I don't know. Stuff. You think it'd be alright if we use the money?"

Wolfgang stares at the bra for a few moments and wants to say no, they should save it, what if she comes back. But he's hungry and cold and it's fifty fucking dollars. So— "Yeah," he says resignedly. "She wouldn't have left it here otherwise."

"Good," Felix grins. "Because I could really go for like ten cheeseburgers."

And Wolfgang tries to smile back, but all he can really think about is whatever hell Nomi must be going through right now.

And what he'd do to her parents if they were here.