Can You Not?

Chapter 16

The day was cold and the road to Norah's grandparents' was frosty. It was the morning of thanksgiving and as per tradition, all the Parrish's were to meet at the family house. They drove for almost six hours to get there, choosing that over an hour flight because flights would cost too much and be too busy. It would only be Norah's family, her aunt and two cousins and her one uncle this year. Everyone else had made other plans. Norah slept for most of the drive, getting a text from Ellis every few minutes. His family stayed right where they were. Except his brother who was flown up from Florida for the occasion. She'd never met the kid. She might just catch him when they got home.

Norah loved that house. Everything about it was warm and homey. Every inch of it made her nostalgic. She spent a lot of time there when she and her cousins were younger. Family gatherings were always a big deal. The house was a big colonial with more than five bedrooms. It had to enclose a family of six, so it had to be big enough. It was also built relatively close to a lake, which made for a lot of entertaining childhood stories. If you crossed the field behind the house and ventured a few yards past the trees you'd see the water.

As they rolled up to the house, Norah felt the same sense of happy nausea she did every time she saw her family. After unloading their few things from the car, they made for the front door. The front porch was the length of the house and had a few old benches for people to sit and sip lemonade in the summer. Inside, everyone was waiting. There was a loud chorus of hellos when they came in. Then followed the mandatory 'get up and greet them properly' sequence. Norah said hi to her Aunt Helen and her Uncle Michael. She searched out her uncle Walt. He was standing to the back of the group, near the fireplace. 

"Hey, kiddo," he said and gave her a bear hug. "How've you been?"

Walt was the youngest of the brothers and sisters and also Norah's favorite. He was the cool uncle. He was more like a cool older brother than an uncle. When she was little, he would sneak cookies to her under the table or push her on the swing. He even took her to see a movie one time when tension were running high in the house and Norah wasn't taking it very well. He was just the best.

"Good. You?" she asked.

"Never been better."

He went on to greet her parents and she walked over to Claudia, one of her two cousins. Claudia and Norah were roughly the same age, Norah being the senior by two months. Claudia's sister, Danica, was nowhere to be seen. She was always on her own mission. She wasn't people shy by any means. She just preferred to do her own thing.

Norah hugged Claudia and let the adults finish exchanging pleasantries.

The two of them spent most of the afternoon chatting and catching up while the adults got thanksgiving dinner ready. They weren't close enough to talk over the phone regularly, but they did interact on Facebook every so often. Claudia was her go to person when everyone else asked her stupid questions about her life, like they actually cared about what she planned on doing after high school. Mid conversation, Norah's phone beeped. She didn't need to look to know it was Ellis.

"Boyfriend?" Claudia asked.

"Uh, no. Not actually."

"Is this one of those 'it's complicated' relationships?"

"I guess."

"You guess?"

"Well, yeah. We've kissed, but we're not together."

"So he just hasn't asked you to be his girlfriend yet."

"Yeah. That."

"What's he look like?" Claudia asked, leaning her chin on a hand.