Chapter Text
“This would all be so much easier if you just learned to do what I asked!”
William winced at the sound of the front door slamming as his father stormed out. It wasn’t exactly rare that William pissed him off enough to illicit such a reaction but each and every time it managed to dig an even deeper wound in his chest.
“Fy faen”, he sighed, dragging a hand down his face in exhaustion. Feeling a strange sense of relief at being able to speak Norwegian, his father not liking the sound of it when he could scarcely understand it, William sighed.
Collapsing onto the couch, William brought his knees up and sat back against the arm. Dropping his head onto his arms and groaning in frustration, he thought back to his phone. Sitting opposite him on the couch, having been thrown precariously by his father when he caught William texting rather than listening to another useless rant.
William stared at the phone, contemplating whether or not texting Chris would help release any of the pent up aggression he felt. It had become habit; texting Chris a simple flame emoji was enough at this point to alert his best friend that he needed a distraction. Almost every time it came in the form of Chris updating him about Eva, until that bordered on updates about Noora too much and William had to ask him to stop.
London was amazing. It was both better and worse than Oslo, providing him with a much needed respite. But, where Oslo held memories of Nicolai and his troubled upbringing, London was littered with memories of Noora.
Her coat, still tucked into the closet, was one the many imprints she had left on William’s London apartment. Her make up remained tucked into a cupboard in the bathroom and the bedroom was still overflowing with her influence. From the seemingly endless supply of clothes she had left behind to the constant whiff of her perfume William got when he entered the room, the bedroom was still as much Noora’s as it was his.
When she had left, William hadn’t expected it to last. He knew Noora, in a way that very few, perhaps not even Eva, knew her. And he knew that sometimes she was spontaneous and irrational.
But when the first 24 hours had passed and she hadn’t returned, William had to really consider that she really might have jumped on a plane back to Oslo. When the first week had been up and she hadn’t returned, William had given up, tearing through the house to figure out if she really had left.
While most of her clothes remained, which was arguably why William hadn’t believed she’d really left in the first place, all of her valuables were gone. Her favourite bracelet, never worn but always stored in her jewellery box, was missing. Her books, laptop, pictures and postcards were all missing. Her favourite clothes, including her top from Madrid, were all vacant.
It was only then that William started to realise she had really left.
It had been hard to accept at first, but by now William was used to the dull ache in his chest when he sat in the apartment, surrounded by silence. Noora hated silence and as such, their apartment was always full of noise from music to her endless phone calls to Eva.
His father had only seemed to worsen when Noora left. When she was around, he had been civil, sometimes even kind. He had purposely be softer on William lest Noora stand up to him, something William knew she wouldn’t hesitate to do.
Now that she was gone however, his father had become cruel. With every mention of her name, William’s father grew more and more angry, and resentful of that fact that William had not yet moved on.
But William didn’t want to.
So he really wasn’t sure why he had lied to Chris. Telling his best friend that he had found a new girlfriend had seemed like a good idea at the time, one that reflected his desire to get Chris off his back. Chris was his best friend but that meant that the boy was never afraid to call William out, and had been doing so every day since Noora left. It had seemed like the easiest solution to get him to stop; to never have to hear the words “Come back to Oslo” ever again, because with every time he heard them he felt his resolve break a little more.
William sighed deeply, slumping back into the couch and spreading his legs out to lay down. Reaching down and grabbing his phone, he shot a quick text to work to let them know he wasn’t coming in before dropping his head back against the couch.
It all seemed to happen at once.
First there was a ping! and when William looked down there was a text lighting up his screen.
He raised an eyebrow at Chris’ message, a simple “Open the door”. William gaped at his phone; had Chris seriously come all the way from Oslo without telling him first?
Then, there was a knock at the door but William didn’t move to answer it. The knock was far too soft to possibly be Chris’ and the silence that followed was so unlike his best friend that William immediately turned to his phone to text Chris back.
From William, 9:16am
Hva faen, Chris? What are you playing at?
To William, 9:16am
WTF bro, open the door.
From William, 9:17am
Are you seriously outside my door right now?
To William, 9:17am
Maybe. No. I dont know.
From William, 9:17am
You just text me to open the door
To William, 9:17am
so open the door
From William, 9:18am
WTF are you playing at Chris? Why are you here?
To William, 9:18am
cos im a really fucking good friend
From William, 9:18am
?
To William, 9:19am
Please come outside.
We need to talk.
William frowned at the change in tone and with a groan of frustration, pushed himself from the couch and moved towards the door. He hovered for a moment, sighing deeply before swinging open the door.
And he froze.
Noora smiled nervously, handing Chris’ phone back to him. Chris stood cautiously off to one side, car keys hanging from his finger and a smirk on his lips.
William quickly tore his eyes from his best friend and focused his attention on Noora.
She was exactly as he remembered and a part of him felt stupid for expecting her to have changed so much. But William felt like he had, as though her leaving had shaped him into a completely unrecognisable person.
But unlike him, Noora still looked stunning. Her hair was knotted and untidy and her lipstick was applied haphazardly but her eyes were bright and wide and as vulnerable as he remembered. Her lower lip quivered slightly and she appeared as uncomfortable in the silence as he expected.
“Halla”, she finally spoke, breathless.
William knew he was staring, gaping even, but he couldn’t help it. Swallowing and averting his eyes momentarily to calm down, he spoke.
“Halla.”
The air between them was charged, the tension not sexual but so thick that William expected on of them to break down any moment; and he prided himself on not often doing so.
Noora looked just as unsure, as though so afraid to say the wrong thing that she would endure the silence in order to savour the moment.
That didn’t appear likely however as the moment William opened his mouth to speak, he was cut off by the all too familiar voice of Chris.
“Faen, just kiss her already” his best friend moaned loudly.
Noora rolled her eyes and the spell was broken. Turning to Chris, she smiled softly but with obvious exasperation. “Thanks for getting me here Chris, but you can seriously go now.”
Chris looked offended for a moment but the grin that followed showed he wasn’t annoyed. “No problem.” Turning to William he said proudly, “See how good of a friend I am?”
William rolled his eyes, leaning against the door frame and looking pointedly at his best friend. Chris seemed to get the picture and quickly moved to leave. Just as he reached the stairs leading down to the lobby, he froze.
“Almost forgot”, he laughed awkwardly, turning around and dropping the car keys into William’s palm. “Here.”
William stared down at his hands in confusion but before he could ask, Chris shrugged. “If you’re wondering, yeah I brought your old car to London. And yes, I charged all of this to your card.”
With that, he spun on his heel and left as dramatically as expected of Chris, throwing over his shoulder an obnoxious “have fun!” Where he was going, William didn’t know. Nor did he care.
The silence settled once more and William knew he had to say something. In his state, he somehow managed to stutter out, “You came back?”
Noora turned back to him quickly, as though she had forgotten he was there. The look in her eyes told him that wasn’t the case however and William watched as a single tear gathered in her eye.
“I shouldn’t have left”, she said adamantly.
William shook his head softly. “No”, he said. “It’s a good thing you did.” At Noora’s look of confusion, he continued. “You needed to. For you. For me too.”
Noora nodded slowly. “Yeah.”
After a moment, William took a deep, steadying breath. He opened the door further and with as straight of a face as he could manage, he nodded Noora inside.
“Let’s talk then.”