Yo! How is everyone? All good?

Anyway, sorry for the delay and just a heads up, the chapter is completely unedited but I got to hurry off to somewhere so I'll do the correction after I am back. I might even change a few parts that I don't think turned out any good, but it won't change anything for the few chapters so nothing to worry. Feel free to point out the mistakes. =D

Enjoy ♥

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"We can always lock you two together in a room or something," Liam suggested. "That will definitely work."

Holding the phone in my hand, I shook my head. "Really?"

"Okay, maybe not." He sighed. "But then what do we do?"

The day after Daniel's dad came over, I had decided to take Liam's help in figuring something out about Daniel. But even with the two of us putting our brains to work together, we were still far away from coming up with a suitable tactics.

"Okay, doing this over the phone is hard," Liam spoke. "Can you come over right now? Shay's here too. She can help us out."

"Um, just a slight issue," I objected. "Wouldn't Daniel be there?"

"Nah, he's not home. He barely ever is."

"Okay, I'll on my way then." I got off the bed.

"Okay."

Stuffing the phone in my back pocket, I slipped on the first pair of shoes that I could spot and ran down the stairs.

"What's the hurry?" I heard my dad say from the kitchen as I dashed towards the main door.

"Going over at Liam's," I answered, yanking the door open. "I'll be back by-" I stopped when I noticed the person standing on the other side of the door, her hand poised over the door bell and a look of surprise in her eyes at the door suddenly being opened. 

"Hey," I simply said.

With just as much awkwardness, she replied, "Hi."

"Oh, hello, Anya." I turned around to my dad who was coming out of the kitchen, a wash cloth in his hands. "It's really nice to see you. Been so long."

"Hi, Mr. Bishop, great to see you too," she said politely, the awkwardness from her voice not budging. She turned to me, while I still stared at her wide-eyed. "Do you have a little time?"

"Me?" I asked, not really believing that she was talking to me without sounding like she wanted to see me dead.

She nodded slightly.

"Yeah, well, I do, I mean I can, you know. I think I-" I took a moment to control my blabbering, not wanting to sound like a fool more than I already was. "Yeah, I do."

With a small smile, she stepped back on the porch and I silently followed. 

"So, what's up?"

Why did I say that? It sounded so stupid. You don't just humiliate someone in tenth grade, then develop almost an enemy like relationship with them and ask them what's up!

I could be such a noob at times.

"I came by to say a few things," she started, looking like she was having difficulty breathing, her face contorted in frown lines, but I recognized that face. It was the 'I am having troublings in saying some thing'. "First, thank you for making sure that I got home from the party that night."

It took a momet to let it register what she had said because I wasn't expecting her to say that.

"Um, it was mostly Daniel, but yeah," I mumbled, scratching my palms with my nails. "Is everything like okay?"

Anya let out a silent chuckle. "Why, 'cause I am not talking to you like I wanna throw daggers at you?"

"Kind of," I answered in a whisper. "So...you're not..."

"No, I am not here to have another show down with you. I think we've had enough for a whole life time," she answered, sounding a little bit amused. I silently watched as she settled down on one of the proch chairs, the fingers of her right hand plowing her long brown hair.

This was the part when I tell her that I was sorry for being a jerk to her earlier, right?

"I am sorry," I began, but it came out almost inaudible even to my own ears, so I tried again. "Anya, I am sorry, for saying those mean things in tenth grade. I am not sure if it matters, but I never meant them."

Anya looked at me straight, like seeing it in my eyes if I was speaking the truth or not. "It does matter," she spoke. "But then why did you say them? If you didn't mean them, then why?"

I really should have thought this through. What was I supposed to tell her? That I wanted to keep you away from my madhouse of life because I basically came back to the town with a suicidal mission on mind?

"It's hard to explain, but, umm, trust me it was one of the hardest thing that I had ever done and looking back, one of the worst too. And I just wish I could undo that somehow."

"It's okay, I guess. I mean, I have things to apologize for too. I am sorry for not being there for you after I came to know about Emma."

Automatically, my eyes went down to stare at the ground. "Oh. When did you find out anyway?"

"Two months after you came back," she said. "I really did try to contact you when you moved away, but you seemed unreachable. I even made my dad try but it was like your family had gone incognito and when you came back, my mom saw your dad in the store and then she was the one who told me about Emma. I wanted to talk to you so badly but then you had said that you never wanted to see me, and I just didn't do it. I could never make myself to talk to you about it. And that's just wrong. I should have. We were best friends once. Nothing should have mattered then, but I had gone so bitter about you that I let my ego win, I guess. I am really sorry about that."

"Looks like we both have things we wish we could take back, huh?" I said, with a half-smile. "Though I have more, but you know what I mean. So then like can we? You know start fresh?"

She smiled. "If you're up for it."

"Totally!" I almost shouted. "I am totally up for that. In fact that would be so great!"

Anya stood up from the chair, and before I knew I was being caught in a tight hug. "I am so sorry, Noh, for everything."

I had missed her.

"I am too."

She pulled away from me, a smile set on her face. "Now, go where you were hurrying off to. Go and make it alright."

"Have you met him lately?"

She nodded, and then shook her head in disprobation. "He's being an idiot. He is either practicing basketball for hours or when he's home, just stays inside his room, boxing all the time. Seriously, he's going to kill himself like this."

I breathed out through my teeth.

Daniel was really an idiot.

If he was mad at me, why the hell was he torturing himself over it? 

"I don't know what to do to make him listen to me," I mumbled, rubbing my forehead. "I seriously have no clue this time."

"Are you kidding me?" Anya exclaimed, looking at me in disbelief. "You could just tell him to fricking listen to him once and he wouldn't think twice. You're the only one he ever actually responds to. Seriously, it's kind of scary how much control you have over him, even unknowingly."

Only of she knew that things were kind of different this time around.

"I doubt it."

"Okay, Norah, listen to me very clearly," she said, getting a hold of my shoulders. "You two are kind of what I call 'annoyingly perfect' for each other, alright? It's almost impossible to think that anything will ever be able to keep you two seperate. Trust me, I know. So very well."

Oh, right, maybe talking about Daniel to her wasn't the right thing to do.

"I am sorry..."

"Yeah, me too," she sighed. "But I am trying to get over it. I mean I should have known. Falling for Daniel Cohen will of course end up in a disaster, unless of course you're Norah Bishop."

Her heartbreak could be heard in her voice. This shouldn't have happened to her. "Anya..."

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry about me." Anya shrugged lightly. "And while we're at it, I am sorry about that too about everytime I told you to stay away from him. Should've known it was wrong. Would have saved me years of mooning after him. But what's done is done, I guess, so...yeah, forget all this, go and make everything right again, tell him what you feel, make your own Nicholas Spark moment, I don't know how these things work," she told me, making gestures with her hands for me to run.

"Thanks, Anya." I hugged her once again, as tightly as I could. "Thank you so much."

She nodded. "Yeah, now go, and don't forget to call me later, 'kay?"

"I will," I said, pacing towards my car, feeling hopeful about everything after a long time.

"Liam?" I called, walking through the main door of his house which was unlocked.

"Hello?"

No reply came.

Okay, weird. Did he like forget that he had asked me to come?

I hesitantly took a few steps towards the staircase that led to the floor with Liam's room in it, dubious if I should. It didn't seem anyone was there.

Why was the door unlocked then?

"Liam, are you there?" Walking up the stairs, I kept talking. "Shay?"

For a second, I concluded that I had heard Liam wrong. He definitely had said something else, like come tomorrow or something, but since I was already there it wouldn't be much work to check with him once.

The first floor, like the ground one was silent too. The lack of windows in the area led to the hallway being dark even though there was still some light outside.

"Is anyone here? Liam? Shay?"

Okay, now I was sounding like the girls in the horror flicks where the killer is just around the corner or something, lurking in the shadows.

"Okay, then, I am gonna go," I mumbled to myself.

I turned around to take the stairs again, when a faint sound came, like someone talking. It came from what I remembered was Liam's room and the door looked partially ajar so I decided to check it out.

Horrible decision.

"Oh my god!" My voice came out like a loud squeal.

I almost sprained my hand with the force I pulled the door to shut it close as I heard Shay yelling, "Norah, get out!"

I was almost shaking with the disgusted feeling from the mental images. "What's wrong with you people? Ever heard of locking a door before going at it? Yuck!"

"Get lost!"

"Gladly! Just remember to notify people what they might walk into the next time you ask them to come over!" I yelled, making sure that they heard it clearly over the shut door.

I shut my eyes close tightly, trying to unsee what my poor eyes just witnessed. I was sure the images will pop up at the worst of times.

This day was turning out to be something.

My hands still shaking, I shuffled away from the door, mumbling, "Freaking disgusting inconsiderate teenagers! Not giving a ca-" 

I stopped in my tracks as I noticed Daniel leaning against the wall, silently watching what just happened with a slightly amused look.

I thought Liam said he wasn't home?!

That was strike two, Liam!

"Having fun?" Daniel asked, and I don't know how to explain this, but I got this mixed feeling like I wanted to punch him and then go running in his arms at the same time.

Weird.

"My ideal friday evening," I answered, and I sounded pissed.

Why, you ask?

Yeah, allow me to explain. 

I mean I got that I had messed a number of times, but why couldn't Daniel see that if I could, I would take the Nathan incident back. But it was not like I had any control over it! But just like that he gave up on me like it was nothing! Like I was nothing to him. And it was infuriating!

Did he think that I wanted to hurt him deliberately? Like I would ever think of doing that! For god sakes, I trusted him with the whole Emma secret. What more proof did he need me to give to believe how much he meant to me? What more signs did he need to believe that I was so clearly in love with him?

His narrowed a little, perhaps, confused at my rude tone, but he didn't say anything about it. Instead, he turned around to walk away. I was about to yell something like 'I wasn't done yet' or something, when he looked at me over his shoulder and asked, "Did you tell your dad yet?"

I avoided his eyes. "No."

"Remember you just have till next week," he said, like a teacher informing a class when their assignments were due.

Telling my dad how I had lied for three whole years isn't exactly what you discuss over lunch, Daniel!

But before I could say anything, he had already made his way up the stairs

Okay, so Liam had said that I should wait for one or perhaps fabricate a situation, where I could encounter Daniel with the least chances of him dodging me, like a family dinner or something, and I was pretty sure that going up to him now and demanding to be heard wouldn't have qualify as the 'ideal condition', but nevertheless, that was what I decided to do.

You know, when we were younger, I looked up to Anya about a lot of things, one being her ability to say what she had to. She didn't wait for a so called perfect moment to do things, she just went ahead with them. Even today, that's what she had done too. She didn't need to be the one to take the first step, after all I screwed up first, but she still did, because she wanted to, not waiting for things to fall into right places.

So with that in mind, I followed him upstairs, remembering to take deep breaths on the way to prepare myself.

Unknown of my presence there, Daniel entered his room and swung the door close behind him but it didn't shut properly.

Making a final decision, that I was going to do this, I went ahead and closed the door quickly. The lock made a small click sound.

"What the?" His voice came from the other side.

"Sorry, but this is the only way I could think of," I said hurriedly.

"Norah, what are you doing?" I heard his footsteps coming towards the door.

"No, don't open it. I am asking you to just shut up for a minute and let me talk. Just go with it." I ordered. Well, not exactly ordered, more like requested.

"What is this about?" He asked.

"This is about that I have things to say to you and since I can't seem to do this looking at you so this is the only way I have," I answered and hoped that he would just agree without any more objection. He could do at least this little for me- listen.

My request wasn't followed by any of his protest, so I took that as a positive sign. "Okay, so, thank you," I mumbled, not exactly knowing where to start. "Um, alright so, umm..."

"Norah..." he spoke softly, almost like he wasn't mad at me. But that wasn't true, now was it?

"No, no, I can do this. I need to. I just can't keep waiting for the perfect moment to tell you everything. I-I'll do this."

I rubbed my hands together, my palms feeling extremely clammy. I was seriously the queen of being nervous about everything.

Once again, I took a deep breath and decided to blurt out whatever the first thing that came in my mind. "Daniel, I am sorry. About what happened with Nathan I really am sorry. More than you can ever imagine. It was wrong but I wish you could see that neither of us meant that to happen. I mean I don't know how to explain it to you that I didn't even exist in those few seconds for him. Nathan's mind wasn't completely even there. He has been in so much pain over her for so long, and this only made things worse so you got to see that he never meant to do that. And I didn't either, to her...or...to you."

My mouth was drying up already, but I didn't have any intention of stop talking.

"I know..." I could tell that he was standing really close to the door, and without even thinking I took a step forward and leaned against the door, my forehead lightly touching the wooden surface.

I so badly wanted that door to go away right now.

I sighed.

"Then why are you doing this?" I asked quietly. My voice was barely a shot above whisper but I knew that he had heard it. I closed my eyes. "Last week has been horrible, you know. Saying that I have missed you probably won't even cover it. Everytime you looked past me in the hallways or in the class, I can assure you it felt awful that this might be how things will always remain between us. And everytime I saw you I wished that I could talk to you, once. It didn't even have to be about something important. I just...I just miss it, okay? Talking to you, being around you, or just everything about you in general..."

That was probably the cheesiest thing I had ever said to anyone, but right then I wasn't going to let that bother me. It wasn't the time to think that if I sounded lame or not.

"And I just wanted you to know that I am sorry that I didn't turn out to be what you expected, that I wasn't the person that you thought could somehow save you...but, Daniel, the truth is that I couldn't have done it any way, not the old me, the new me, no version of me could save you, the same way you couldn't save me. But that doesn't mean we couldn't have just been there for each other, and be each other reasons to have hope that one day maybe we would just be fine because I think that's what we would have been good at. Just being together." I needed him to say something right now, but I hardly thought he was going to. Was he even inside? Cause knowing him, he might have escaped through the window, just so he wouldn't have to listen to me.  

Whatever, he might or might not be listening but I was going to talk. "So yeah, I am really sorry about that. And I am sorry that you wish you had never met me, but just so you know I don't feel the same way, 'cause for a long time, I wasn't myself, and I hated being like that. I was so miserable... and even if you don't want anything to do with me anymore, I would go, maybe even move away to New York if that would make things easier, but no matter where I am, and no matter how many days go by, I wouldn't wish that I wouldn't have met you, because you were what I needed. With you, I feel like it finally makes sense why I am still breathing, and I actually feel like I could be alright, and I..." I bit my lip. Just say it. It has been long overdue. "And maybe I don't have beautiful words to express it or a five year old letter to prove it with, but...but I love you, okay? I love you so much. And I am not simply saying it just so you would change your mind, but because if things are really over between us, then I would prefer this one to be the last memory you have of me, Norah Bishop being completely honest with you, not of you walking out on me. And also so you don't get to believe that the reason things didn't work between us was because I didn't love you enough because I really do, more than I would ever be able to put into words."

I squinted my eyes close, letting a few tear drops roll down. In midst of that long rambling, I don't know when had tears well up in my eyes.

"And because I know how words left unsaid can become the greatest regret of your life, and I wanted to tell you that you are best thing to ever happen to me so thank you. Thank you so much, Daniel, for happening to me. I don't know where I would be if we hadn't met at the bridge that night. So yeah, thank you..." I let out a heavy breath. "I guess that's all I had to say and if you don't want to see me, it's okay, I get it. And if this is the last goodbye, then I would understand that too..."

I replayed quickly what I had just spoken. If it wasn't clear in my words, the way I said them felt like I was indeed saying goodbye.

This wasn't what I had planned. I had intended to make it right, not tell him that it would be alright if this was the end.

But I didn't know why, I really didn't, that why it felt like the right thing to do, to not force him to see what I wanted him to. It didn't matter that his dad, or Anya or Liam or anyone else thought that we should be together. All it mattered was that if both of us thought the same. My only work here was to tell him what I felt, and that was done. The rest was upto him. And if his silence was the answer, then this really was goodbye. And I could do nothing about it.

This was it then.

"Bye, Daniel..." 

I couldn't have been sure if he even heard that, but that didn't matter, because it wasn't for him, it was for me.

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