Fic: The Shortest Distance Between Two Points Pt. I
The Shortest Distance Between Two Points
Author: cobalt_siren
Artist(s): shan_3414
Link To Art: The night starts here!
Word count: ~16,000
Rating: R
Warnings: Language, drug and alcohol use, mild sexual content
Disclaimer: I do not own Skins, any of its characters, actors, setting or anything else cool.
Summary: Set at the beginning of second year (disregards series 4). Summer is over, but things are anything but ‘back to normal’ for the gang. Thomas and Panda, Naomi and Emily are happy in couples-land, but tensions are still high between Freddie and Cook and things can only get worse when Effy comes back from Italy. Katie, still in a funk from the events in the woods and at the Love Ball, isn't exactly thrilled to see Effy either. Will the group fracture entirely or will they learn to fix each other?
Notes: It's finally here! Huge, enormous thanks and ♥ to my amazing beta prunesquallormd , who kicked my ass into gear, corrected my abuse of the Queen's English, and generally made sure this story actually happened. Big thank yous to artist, cheerleader, and mod extraordinaire shan_3414 for getting this whole thing off the ground. Thanks to everyone at skinsbang_vent for all their hard work and making this event so much fun, go show their stories and art some love!
Summer was over like a flash. Of course, a few short weeks were not enough to heal the rifts between them.
Part I: Effy
We had pennies in our pocket/we had hope in our eyes/He said ‘girl you’ve got a million different faces/so why’d you put on that disguise?’
For the first day back to school, Katie had the absolute perfect outfit picked out: a denim pencil skirt, a zebra-print vest with a red jacket and stiletto heels. She had just finished her shower and was starting to get dressed when Emily came into their room through the window.
“Ugh, do you ever plan to sleep again?” Katie sniffed as Emily flopped onto her bed. “You might want to take a shower, you smell like sex. And you’ll have to hurry if you don’t want to be late for college.”
“Thanks for the advice, but don’t wait for me. I can handle myself, Miss Model Student,” Emily smirked.
Sometime over the summer, Emily’s hair had gotten brighter, become an aggressive, challenging shade of red. Katie had dyed hers darker, as if they needed one more thing to mark the differences between them these days. She heaved in a frustrated breath as she tugged on her top.
“God, if you have to be a muff-muncher, could you at least not look so self-satisfied after you’ve gotten some?”
“Nothing’s stopping you from ‘getting some’, Naoms and I have tried to invite you out…” Emily started.
“Oh fuck you, like I want pity from you and that fashion retard.” Katie snapped.
Her hand instinctively brushed her hair back from her temple. Concern flashed briefly through Emily’s eyes before she tossed the jacket at her sister.
“Go on, you’ll be late for your grand entrance.”
Katie rolled her eyes as she left, heels clicking on the stairs.
*-*-*
Cook whistled around his fag as Katie walked up the stairs to the front door.
“Welcome back Katiekins, looking well lush.”
“Spare me the flattery Cook, I heard all about you and Freddie and that man-whore competition, and the resulting infection. I’m staying as far away from you and your cock as possible.”
Cook grinned and hopped down from the stair rail, crushing out his cigarette. “Why so harsh? I’ve got a clean bill of health now haven’t I?” he asked as he inched closer to her.
“Thank God for modern medicine. Now if you’ll excuse me.” She brushed past him in through the front doors.
*-*-*
Freddie sat in the back row of the gym, the end of his joint burning down to his fingers. He stubbed it out quickly as he began to feel the heat of it, then sat back with a sigh, scratching absently at his crotch. If only Effy hadn’t left, he thought, after she had said she loved him, then he wouldn’t have been left adrift and felt the need to compete with Cook in his mission to fuck everything that moved. So many things ‘might have been’ if Effy hadn’t decided to take a two-month-long bath…
As he was lost in his reverie, the other students began to file in for the opening assembly. Cook and JJ came and sat in the row below him, forming an uneven triangle.
“Freds, mate, you got that spliff?” Cook winked up at him.
“Nah, smoked it already. Anyway, all the teachers are about to get here, I think you can manage to hold off on that shit at least until assembly’s over.”
“I could, but where’s the fun in that?”
“Cook,” JJ cut in, “I’ve attempted to calculate your rate of short-term memory loss, and if you continue to smoke so much your exam results will drop another 10 points this term.”
Freddie tuned out as JJ continued his rant about the brain’s ability to retain information and Cook laughed off his warnings. Naomi and Emily had wandered in holding hands and sat down, seemingly oblivious to any snide remarks or whistles at the sight of open lesbianism. Thomas and Panda sat a few rows below them, Panda giggling about something and Thomas smiling at her indulgently. The faculty entered from the far doors, and just as they were about to call order Katie walked in, her hips swaying in possibly the tightest skirt Freddie had ever seen. She sat gracefully on the lowest tier of benches (as if she could climb in that outfit), and the assembly began.
Katie uncrossed and crossed her legs as the new first-years were divided into forms. Freddie had an amazing view of her cleavage, and it was all he could do not to think about what was under that skirt, what it felt like to have her warmth wrapped around him. It was something he wouldn’t know anything about if Effy hadn’t kept going back to Cook…
He knew he couldn’t expect Effy to be there, to come stalking in wearing a torn black shirt as a dress and sit next to him as if nothing had happened. He also couldn’t be bothered to lie to himself, tell himself that he hadn’t hoped that she would do exactly that. Effy was nowhere to be found though; that feeble hope was just a dull ache he had nursed in his chest all summer.
*-*-*
Effy helped her mother pull their luggage into the house with a cigarette dangling precariously from her lips. Smoking without using her hands was one of the many idle things she had practiced as her mother dragged her around Italy. They almost hadn’t made the flight back because Anthea felt the need to have one last look at some monument with a man she had met. Not that Effy was particularly worried about returning to her education, but she had had quite enough quality time with her mother for a few months, especially if ‘quality time’ inferred trying to get her to actually give a shit about something besides dark-haired European men.
The phone rang as she dumped a suitcase at the foot of the stairs. She picked up and was assaulted by an effusive greeting from Panda before she could even speak.
“Eff! You're back! You missed assembly today, it was really boring but Thommo told me he was hosting another party at the club tonight and I wondered if you’d be able to make it and Naomi and Emily already said they’d come, they said it all in unison like they’ve got just one brain now that they’re surfing and well, surfing I guess so do you think…”
“Hi Panda,” Effy cut in.
“Hi Effy. I missed you, you know.”
“Missed you too.”
“So can you come??”
“Why not?”
*-*-*
Panda was bouncing on her doorstep by nine o’clock. Effy had armed herself for the evening, combat boots and a leather jacket over her short, shredded gray dress, dark eyeliner and about twenty black bracelets. She lit a fag as she grabbed her purse and let the impassive air of mystery wrap around her. She couldn’t help but smile just a little though, as Panda babbled incessantly about ‘Thommo’ through their entire walk. Effy chain-smoked and rolled her eyes just to make sure she didn’t betray the secret that she was actually in a fairly good mood. The only thing worrying her was that Freddie and Cook might both be at the party.
The problem was expectations. Panda’s affection was apparently invariable, but Cook and Freddie saw things in her. They wanted her to be an angel, a whore, a mystery, all wrapped in leather and lace. Freddie had really wanted to know her though, she had felt like it meant something. Then suddenly it had meant far too much. She had been grateful almost to the point of showing it when her mother dragged her away from the whole mess on the boat to go on ‘family holiday.’ That had dissipated rather quickly though, when she realised ‘family’ didn’t include her father or Tony, nor that her mother was going to actually pay attention to the world outside her head. Expectations always came back to bite you in the arse.
“We’re here! Hi Thommo!!” Panda cut through her thoughts.
“Hello Panda, so nice to see you again Effy. How was your trip?” Thomas asked.
“Great. I ate pasta. A lot.” Effy rolled her eyes as Panda snuggled into Thomas, pulling him into a sloppy snog.
“Super!” he managed to interject, “The party is free for you, of course. Please have fun, some friends are already inside.”
Effy smoked her last cigarette down to the filter, calmly looking in every direction except Panda and Thomas’s tangled tongues. She crushed her empty pack and threw it in the bin as she walked inside alone, since Panda seemed no longer interested in breathing. It would probably be easier if she wasn’t there when Effy saw Freddie again anyway. She was fairly sure he would be waiting for her, and as soon as she had had a drink or three, she would let him find her.
*-*-*
He saw her across the room, and not staring was impossible. She shouldn’t be able to look more fragile than that night they had driven away from Bristol toward… wherever, but she did. She was standing at the bar getting a drink and everything he had ever felt when he looked at her welled back up inside him. Apparently shagging half the female population of Bristol wasn’t enough to forget her, and the worst part was that it wasn’t even about the fucking anymore. It was this hot, jealous thing inside him that just wanted to be with her, just Effy, and never share her, which went against everything Cook had ever stood for. He forced himself to walk out of her line of sight before she noticed him, and before Freddie got back from the loo. Just when they were starting to really be mates again, he could already feel everything falling to bits before she even said a word.
*-*-*
Freddie stared at himself in the mirror over the sinks. His eyes were a little blood-shot (typical) and puffy. His hair, well, he could never do anything with it, it just fell in his face. He didn’t normally think much about the way he looked, but he had overheard Thomas talking to someone on the phone, mentioning ‘back’ and ‘Italy’ and ‘coming tonight’. It had to be Effy, it just had to be. He didn’t know why he was worried about his hair, the last time he and Effy had had sex she hadn’t showered in at least a week, and he wasn’t in much better shape. She didn’t seem to be one for caring much about appearances. He splashed some water on his face and took a deep breath. He rationalised to himself as he pushed through the washroom door, it wasn’t like he had done anything wrong, she had just…left. It was her job to explain why, right? Right.
His breath hitched as he caught sight of her, swigging from an alcopop as she wandered across the dance floor. He approached her slowly, as if she could startle and bolt like a gazelle, but when she saw him she actually smiled. It was like the dim, dingy club lit up with all the dazzle of a sunny day.
“Hey,” he said with an awkward smile.
“Hi Freddie. How was your summer?”
“Oh, you know, it was…whatever. Hung with Cook and J, skated…”
“Sounds wicked.” Her smile turned up into a little smirk and he wondered if she was laughing at him, or worse, if she’d heard about his little…problem.
“How about you, did you have a nice bath?”
“Yeah, lots of baths. In various bits of Europe.”
“You could have, y’know, called or something.”
“Why, did you miss me, or ‘something’?”
He had to stifle a sigh, wondering how she could keep joking about this, like there was nothing special between them.
As his eyes fell, she said “Freddie, I… I get it okay? I just needed some space, but… I missed you too. I want to give this a shot.”
“Yeah? I mean, yeah. Sure.”
She just kept doing it, flipping his world upside down with a couple words and half a smile.
*-*-*
Effy took the drink Freddie brought her with a smile. She threw her free arm over his shoulder and started swaying to the pulsing rhythm of the music. Freddie was a pretty shit dancer, but it didn’t really matter. They just swayed and she finally relaxed into being there with him… until she saw Cook. He had his hands shoved in his pockets, slouching and elbowing his way towards the exits. Her mouth tightened instinctively, but she quickly looked away over Freddie’s other shoulder.
She could only keep so many people happy, and she had decided that this time one of them would be herself.
*-*-*
It was like something out of one of his fantasies. They were happily drunk at a club and Effy was just dancing with him. It was too good to be true, for sure. Freddie kept feeling like he was forgetting something.
‘Shit,’ he almost swore aloud.
He had come here with Cook.
Part II
Author: cobalt_siren
Artist(s): shan_3414
Link To Art: The night starts here!
Word count: ~16,000
Rating: R
Warnings: Language, drug and alcohol use, mild sexual content
Disclaimer: I do not own Skins, any of its characters, actors, setting or anything else cool.
Summary: Set at the beginning of second year (disregards series 4). Summer is over, but things are anything but ‘back to normal’ for the gang. Thomas and Panda, Naomi and Emily are happy in couples-land, but tensions are still high between Freddie and Cook and things can only get worse when Effy comes back from Italy. Katie, still in a funk from the events in the woods and at the Love Ball, isn't exactly thrilled to see Effy either. Will the group fracture entirely or will they learn to fix each other?
Notes: It's finally here! Huge, enormous thanks and ♥ to my amazing beta prunesquallormd , who kicked my ass into gear, corrected my abuse of the Queen's English, and generally made sure this story actually happened. Big thank yous to artist, cheerleader, and mod extraordinaire shan_3414 for getting this whole thing off the ground. Thanks to everyone at skinsbang_vent for all their hard work and making this event so much fun, go show their stories and art some love!
Summer was over like a flash. Of course, a few short weeks were not enough to heal the rifts between them.
Part I: Effy
We had pennies in our pocket/we had hope in our eyes/He said ‘girl you’ve got a million different faces/so why’d you put on that disguise?’
For the first day back to school, Katie had the absolute perfect outfit picked out: a denim pencil skirt, a zebra-print vest with a red jacket and stiletto heels. She had just finished her shower and was starting to get dressed when Emily came into their room through the window.
“Ugh, do you ever plan to sleep again?” Katie sniffed as Emily flopped onto her bed. “You might want to take a shower, you smell like sex. And you’ll have to hurry if you don’t want to be late for college.”
“Thanks for the advice, but don’t wait for me. I can handle myself, Miss Model Student,” Emily smirked.
Sometime over the summer, Emily’s hair had gotten brighter, become an aggressive, challenging shade of red. Katie had dyed hers darker, as if they needed one more thing to mark the differences between them these days. She heaved in a frustrated breath as she tugged on her top.
“God, if you have to be a muff-muncher, could you at least not look so self-satisfied after you’ve gotten some?”
“Nothing’s stopping you from ‘getting some’, Naoms and I have tried to invite you out…” Emily started.
“Oh fuck you, like I want pity from you and that fashion retard.” Katie snapped.
Her hand instinctively brushed her hair back from her temple. Concern flashed briefly through Emily’s eyes before she tossed the jacket at her sister.
“Go on, you’ll be late for your grand entrance.”
Katie rolled her eyes as she left, heels clicking on the stairs.
*-*-*
Cook whistled around his fag as Katie walked up the stairs to the front door.
“Welcome back Katiekins, looking well lush.”
“Spare me the flattery Cook, I heard all about you and Freddie and that man-whore competition, and the resulting infection. I’m staying as far away from you and your cock as possible.”
Cook grinned and hopped down from the stair rail, crushing out his cigarette. “Why so harsh? I’ve got a clean bill of health now haven’t I?” he asked as he inched closer to her.
“Thank God for modern medicine. Now if you’ll excuse me.” She brushed past him in through the front doors.
*-*-*
Freddie sat in the back row of the gym, the end of his joint burning down to his fingers. He stubbed it out quickly as he began to feel the heat of it, then sat back with a sigh, scratching absently at his crotch. If only Effy hadn’t left, he thought, after she had said she loved him, then he wouldn’t have been left adrift and felt the need to compete with Cook in his mission to fuck everything that moved. So many things ‘might have been’ if Effy hadn’t decided to take a two-month-long bath…
As he was lost in his reverie, the other students began to file in for the opening assembly. Cook and JJ came and sat in the row below him, forming an uneven triangle.
“Freds, mate, you got that spliff?” Cook winked up at him.
“Nah, smoked it already. Anyway, all the teachers are about to get here, I think you can manage to hold off on that shit at least until assembly’s over.”
“I could, but where’s the fun in that?”
“Cook,” JJ cut in, “I’ve attempted to calculate your rate of short-term memory loss, and if you continue to smoke so much your exam results will drop another 10 points this term.”
Freddie tuned out as JJ continued his rant about the brain’s ability to retain information and Cook laughed off his warnings. Naomi and Emily had wandered in holding hands and sat down, seemingly oblivious to any snide remarks or whistles at the sight of open lesbianism. Thomas and Panda sat a few rows below them, Panda giggling about something and Thomas smiling at her indulgently. The faculty entered from the far doors, and just as they were about to call order Katie walked in, her hips swaying in possibly the tightest skirt Freddie had ever seen. She sat gracefully on the lowest tier of benches (as if she could climb in that outfit), and the assembly began.
Katie uncrossed and crossed her legs as the new first-years were divided into forms. Freddie had an amazing view of her cleavage, and it was all he could do not to think about what was under that skirt, what it felt like to have her warmth wrapped around him. It was something he wouldn’t know anything about if Effy hadn’t kept going back to Cook…
He knew he couldn’t expect Effy to be there, to come stalking in wearing a torn black shirt as a dress and sit next to him as if nothing had happened. He also couldn’t be bothered to lie to himself, tell himself that he hadn’t hoped that she would do exactly that. Effy was nowhere to be found though; that feeble hope was just a dull ache he had nursed in his chest all summer.
*-*-*
Effy helped her mother pull their luggage into the house with a cigarette dangling precariously from her lips. Smoking without using her hands was one of the many idle things she had practiced as her mother dragged her around Italy. They almost hadn’t made the flight back because Anthea felt the need to have one last look at some monument with a man she had met. Not that Effy was particularly worried about returning to her education, but she had had quite enough quality time with her mother for a few months, especially if ‘quality time’ inferred trying to get her to actually give a shit about something besides dark-haired European men.
The phone rang as she dumped a suitcase at the foot of the stairs. She picked up and was assaulted by an effusive greeting from Panda before she could even speak.
“Eff! You're back! You missed assembly today, it was really boring but Thommo told me he was hosting another party at the club tonight and I wondered if you’d be able to make it and Naomi and Emily already said they’d come, they said it all in unison like they’ve got just one brain now that they’re surfing and well, surfing I guess so do you think…”
“Hi Panda,” Effy cut in.
“Hi Effy. I missed you, you know.”
“Missed you too.”
“So can you come??”
“Why not?”
*-*-*
Panda was bouncing on her doorstep by nine o’clock. Effy had armed herself for the evening, combat boots and a leather jacket over her short, shredded gray dress, dark eyeliner and about twenty black bracelets. She lit a fag as she grabbed her purse and let the impassive air of mystery wrap around her. She couldn’t help but smile just a little though, as Panda babbled incessantly about ‘Thommo’ through their entire walk. Effy chain-smoked and rolled her eyes just to make sure she didn’t betray the secret that she was actually in a fairly good mood. The only thing worrying her was that Freddie and Cook might both be at the party.
The problem was expectations. Panda’s affection was apparently invariable, but Cook and Freddie saw things in her. They wanted her to be an angel, a whore, a mystery, all wrapped in leather and lace. Freddie had really wanted to know her though, she had felt like it meant something. Then suddenly it had meant far too much. She had been grateful almost to the point of showing it when her mother dragged her away from the whole mess on the boat to go on ‘family holiday.’ That had dissipated rather quickly though, when she realised ‘family’ didn’t include her father or Tony, nor that her mother was going to actually pay attention to the world outside her head. Expectations always came back to bite you in the arse.
“We’re here! Hi Thommo!!” Panda cut through her thoughts.
“Hello Panda, so nice to see you again Effy. How was your trip?” Thomas asked.
“Great. I ate pasta. A lot.” Effy rolled her eyes as Panda snuggled into Thomas, pulling him into a sloppy snog.
“Super!” he managed to interject, “The party is free for you, of course. Please have fun, some friends are already inside.”
Effy smoked her last cigarette down to the filter, calmly looking in every direction except Panda and Thomas’s tangled tongues. She crushed her empty pack and threw it in the bin as she walked inside alone, since Panda seemed no longer interested in breathing. It would probably be easier if she wasn’t there when Effy saw Freddie again anyway. She was fairly sure he would be waiting for her, and as soon as she had had a drink or three, she would let him find her.
*-*-*
He saw her across the room, and not staring was impossible. She shouldn’t be able to look more fragile than that night they had driven away from Bristol toward… wherever, but she did. She was standing at the bar getting a drink and everything he had ever felt when he looked at her welled back up inside him. Apparently shagging half the female population of Bristol wasn’t enough to forget her, and the worst part was that it wasn’t even about the fucking anymore. It was this hot, jealous thing inside him that just wanted to be with her, just Effy, and never share her, which went against everything Cook had ever stood for. He forced himself to walk out of her line of sight before she noticed him, and before Freddie got back from the loo. Just when they were starting to really be mates again, he could already feel everything falling to bits before she even said a word.
*-*-*
Freddie stared at himself in the mirror over the sinks. His eyes were a little blood-shot (typical) and puffy. His hair, well, he could never do anything with it, it just fell in his face. He didn’t normally think much about the way he looked, but he had overheard Thomas talking to someone on the phone, mentioning ‘back’ and ‘Italy’ and ‘coming tonight’. It had to be Effy, it just had to be. He didn’t know why he was worried about his hair, the last time he and Effy had had sex she hadn’t showered in at least a week, and he wasn’t in much better shape. She didn’t seem to be one for caring much about appearances. He splashed some water on his face and took a deep breath. He rationalised to himself as he pushed through the washroom door, it wasn’t like he had done anything wrong, she had just…left. It was her job to explain why, right? Right.
His breath hitched as he caught sight of her, swigging from an alcopop as she wandered across the dance floor. He approached her slowly, as if she could startle and bolt like a gazelle, but when she saw him she actually smiled. It was like the dim, dingy club lit up with all the dazzle of a sunny day.
“Hey,” he said with an awkward smile.
“Hi Freddie. How was your summer?”
“Oh, you know, it was…whatever. Hung with Cook and J, skated…”
“Sounds wicked.” Her smile turned up into a little smirk and he wondered if she was laughing at him, or worse, if she’d heard about his little…problem.
“How about you, did you have a nice bath?”
“Yeah, lots of baths. In various bits of Europe.”
“You could have, y’know, called or something.”
“Why, did you miss me, or ‘something’?”
He had to stifle a sigh, wondering how she could keep joking about this, like there was nothing special between them.
As his eyes fell, she said “Freddie, I… I get it okay? I just needed some space, but… I missed you too. I want to give this a shot.”
“Yeah? I mean, yeah. Sure.”
She just kept doing it, flipping his world upside down with a couple words and half a smile.
*-*-*
Effy took the drink Freddie brought her with a smile. She threw her free arm over his shoulder and started swaying to the pulsing rhythm of the music. Freddie was a pretty shit dancer, but it didn’t really matter. They just swayed and she finally relaxed into being there with him… until she saw Cook. He had his hands shoved in his pockets, slouching and elbowing his way towards the exits. Her mouth tightened instinctively, but she quickly looked away over Freddie’s other shoulder.
She could only keep so many people happy, and she had decided that this time one of them would be herself.
*-*-*
It was like something out of one of his fantasies. They were happily drunk at a club and Effy was just dancing with him. It was too good to be true, for sure. Freddie kept feeling like he was forgetting something.
‘Shit,’ he almost swore aloud.
He had come here with Cook.
Part II