Chapter Text
Wednesday 1.10.18
There’s nothing Noora hates more than morning shift. Except maybe sexist assholes.
She had dragged herself out of bed this morning and managed to put on a outfit that made her bedhead and eyebags look more like accessories rather than problem areas.
She heard a honk and swiftly stuffed everything into her bag and started to run downstairs. She was met with Eskild at the end of the Hallway with a huge mug in hand, dressed in nothing but a silky robe tight underwear.
“Goodmorn Noora do you want to hear all the details about my Grindr date last night” he was wiggling his eyebrows.
“As much as I would like to hear the details about your latest hookup Sana is waiting for me outside BYE!” Noora squeezed past Eskild with her hands held up in front of her.
“You’re no fun” he shouted over his shoulder walking towards his room. Noora ran down the stairs of her flat, almost falling twice.
“Sorry sorry sorry, I woke up late this morning” she hopped into Sanas car still dazed from all those stairs.
“No sleep again?” Sana asked, her tone of voice was careful and precocious.
“Nei but I slept a little which is better then nothing at all.” Noora didn’t want to lie but also didn’t want to give the full truth. She hadn’t been able to get a good night sleep in months. Since she had broken up with William she felt like was missing something. She didn’t miss him, she missed something else. It was hard to explain to her friends that she felt lost, as if she was merely existing and not living. Her days felt like a grey haze. But she couldn’t tell her friends, she didn’t want to worry them.
“I’ll bring you one of my moms teas tomorrow! She used to give the to me when I had problems sleeping when I was like 13 or 14 they actually work, I can’t believe I forgot about them!”
“Why does mama bakkoush have a solution for everything, I wish she could adopt me” Noora made a pouty face.
“Oh god don’t even say that around her because she will take it literally and start to parent you, just ask any of the boys.” They laughed and filled each other in on what happened in the 12 hours that they didn’t see one another.
They arrived not too long after their store, it wasn’t too far from Nooras flat.
They both shook all the snow off their coats and jackets before coming into the store.
Noora loved being at work, She liked the consistency of it. It was simple: clock in, sell music, clock out.
She made her way towards where the break room was. It was a pretty spacey room that was white and had nothing but red furniture and red lighting. Being in that room gave her a headache so she always tried to beeline her way out there.
She heard arguing coming from upstairs but she couldn’t pin point the voices.
Noora went to pull up the blinds from all the windows, letting the bright sun into the store. As she was pulling up the blinds she seen Jonas and Isak arguing like children outside. Seeing Isak arguing with his hand still wrapped up tightly in white gauze brought a smile to her face. What a dramatic grown man he was.
She finished and she moved on to grab a carpet from the back room so people would shake the snow off in the carpet rather than the dark hardwood floor. She took her phone out of her pocket and texted the group chat from work.
Noora: Can someone pick me up a coffee before coming in today? I’ll vemmo you money!
Vilde: There’s tea under the sink in the cabinet!
Mahdi: She said coffee Vilde
Mutta: We have instant coffee in the cabinets you’re welcome to grab
Elias: I’ll pick some up for you Noora (: just text me what you like.
Isak: Jonas bought an extra coffee and left it inside the microwave to ahead and take it.
Yousef: Elias Why does Noora have to text you personally what kind of coffee she wanted when she could just text you in this gc
Noora: Takk guttas and Vilde <3
Noora still texting on her phone, mindlessly made her way towards the back room to grab the extra coffee. Noora turned the corner going into the kitchen and BOOM. She fell to the floor. Fuckkkk.
Still trying to register that she felt as if she had gotten punched she laid on the ground with her eyes closed. She felt the blood oozing out her nose and falling on the side of her cheeks. Thank god she was wearing the color black.
“HOLY FUCK I AM SO FUCKING SORRY WOW THAT’S A LOT OF BLOOD SHIT SHIT SHIT” Noora opened her eyes and was faced with a pair of green eyes 4 inches away from her face. She suddenly felt herself being picked up and sat on one of the red couches. Her face matched this room. Red red red.
“I should have watched where I was going I’m so sorry” the boy was now cradling Nooras head in his hand and holding pressure to her nose with tissue with his other hand.
Noora starred at the ceiling she couldn’t get a good look at the stranger who was helping her.
“Hold on tight I’m going to go get more tissue!”
She nodded and felt the couch get lighter with his descent . Once he had gotten up she tipped her head down to try and get a good look at him. All she saw was a slender boy wearing a Yellow jacket and long wavy hair.
Fucking great. Anything else that could go wrong today should just happen so she could get it over with already.
The boy walked in again and went straight to the cabinet and pulled out some chips, eating them ever so casually. He finally realized Noora was in the room when her phone pinged the same time as his did. He looked at her and squinted.
“Ouch what happened to you?” He stepped closer with a pained look on his face. His Eyes were hazel? She could have swore they were green last time he was 4 inches from her.
“You did this to me why the fuck are you acting confused.” Noora laughed. It sounded bitter but she really was just over the whole situation.
“Ahhhh I see you’ve met the clumsy twin Romil. He always manages to make a fool of himself in front of pretty girls. My name is Van.” He extended his hand out toward her. Not the hand that was full of crumbs.
She flashed him her bloody hand and he slowly retracted his hand. He stood there awkwardly, just looking at her. As if he was trying to find something to say but couldn’t figure the right thing to say. He sat on the other sofa and just glared. Noora was starting to get ready annoyed.
“Can I help you with something?” She made sure she rolled her neck with attitude.
“Shouldn’t I ask you that?” Van answered her copying her movement. At the same time she heard the doorbell ring.
Great. It was either a customer or one of her coworkers, she didn’t want to face neither.
“You should go see who that was” Noora said still looking towards the door waiting for Romil to come back with more tissue.
“Nah” Van dug deeper into his chip bag and starting licking his fingers dramatically, still looking at her still. What an ass.
Noora grabbed her phone and slowly stood up. Her head was spinning and her whole face throbbed. With her head still tilted back she made her way to the door that lead to the rest of the store. She was met again with yet another obstacle in her way. She bumped into a firm chest.
“Holy fuck we have to stop meeting like this” Romil had his hands on her shoulders to steady her. He stood there just looking at her. Suddenly he realized his hands were still there. He quickly ran his hands through his hair to put his hands somewhere that wasn’t so awkward.
They stood there both kind of awkwardly until Romil remembered what he had left her for.
“Oh I found tissues and a first aid kit come on”
He took his hand out for her and she took it. Romil lead the way to one of the counters.
“Do you mind sitting on the counter so I could be kind of eye level with you?” He asked, still had a pained look in his face, he looked genuinely sorry for hurting her.
“Can you hold the tissue on my nose while I push myself up?” Nooras Voice sounded extremely nasaly kind of like squidward from spongebob. He giggled but obliged. Noora shimmied her way up to the counter and grabbed the tissue to her nose again.
He grabbed the kit and stood in front of her.
“So I’m gonna take the tissue off and then I’m going to clean it with whatever this is and then put a bandage only if you want? If that’s ok with you….”
“Uhm sure do whatever you think”
“Please close your eyes”
“Uhhhh Why?”
“Because you staring at me will make me self conscious therefore will make me nervous, and then I’ll mess up and hurt you” he was out of breath by the time he got his sentence out.
She laughed and closed her eyes, biting her lip to try and control the smile that crept up on her face.
He slowly worked on cleaning up her face. There wasn’t any open cuts. The only thing left on Nooras face was a bruise that spread from her nose to below her eyebags.
“There all done.” Still less then a foot from her face he put a small mirror in front of her.
“I’m really going to feel this in the morning”
“’ll bring you a coffee tomorrow hopefully that’ll help, sorry again by the way. I really didn’t see you.” He rubbed the back of his head, his eyes glued to her.
“Ah it’s nothing I should have paid attention to where I was going too”
Suddenly they were both extremely aware of how close they were. He was standing in between her legs and was still really close to her face. They both broke apart and started brainstorming excuses as to why they had to go somewhere.
“The name is Romil” he stuck his hand out. She flashed him her hand covered in dry blood. Hmmm bloody hands seemed like a good way to get out of interacting with boys.
“I’m Noora thanks again.” She hoped off the counter and walked right past him flashing him one last smile. She entered the kitchen and saw Jonas and Isak sitting on the couch still arguing.
“NO I already told you that’s a bad idea! What if Arlen comes in while ……” they both quieted down once they realized that they weren’t alone in the room.
“What the fuck happened to you?!?” Jonas and Isak said in unison, they both re arranged how they were sitting on the couch to face Noora.
“Ugh I bumped into someone and my nose took more of the hit.”
“Are you sure that’s what happened?” Isak asked, with a very cautious voice.
“Yes Isak one of the new guys and I crashed into each other and then this happened” she pointed at her nose with a dull face.
“Well you still look pretty.” Mahdi said standing at the doorway with the coffee that was supposed to be hers.
“Oh thank you Mahdi for reminding me I am still beautiful”
“I said pretty not beautiful, don’t get too ahead of yourself” he snarkled, he held out the coffee for her to take. She flashed her hands at him, showing him her hands were dirty and that earned her a disgusted look from all 3 of the boys. God how she loved doing that.
She washed her hands with the cheap runny soap that the kitchen had dried her hands up with her black jeans.
Magnus walked into the room looking extremely tired, face and hair looking a hot mess, kinda like how Noora walked into her shift. He walked straight to Jonas and started yelling. Why do these boys like yelling so much?
“ You fucking asshole! You just left yesterday and I had to take your shift! My body isn’t meant to work more than 6 hours at a time!”
“Relax you only had to work 2 hours more, plus I had something I had to do.”
“Like what?” Isak looked at Jonas with a ‘tell them what you did’ face.
“I had to do laundry”
“You’re lying” Mahdi said with a mouthful of waffles. Noora walked over to Mahdi and took the remainder of his waffle. He tried to take it back but she pointed at her nose, who could take food from someone with a bruised face? As much as she wanted to know what Jonas was hiding she was too tired to be standing any longer.
As she was walking out she yelled back
“If you need me I’ll be upstairs sleeping on the bean bags, so please don’t need me.”
As she made herself comfortable on the bean bag she could help but wonder what Jonas could have been hiding. He was always a open person. seeing him squirm under Isaks gaze was something she had never seen before.