Between Daylight And Darkness Chapter Three
Title: Between Daylight And Darkness
Chapter: 3/9 The Youth Is Starting To Change
Pairing: Naomi/Emily, Katie/Effy (or well, hints of)
Word Count: 8, 543
Disclaimer: I don't own, or claim to own, anything related to Skins. Borrowing the characters and throwing them into an entirely different universe altogether. I also don't own Twilight, and wouldn't ever want to. The poem is T.S. Eliot's The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock. Nothing is intended as copyright and all that stuff. Just borrowing. Caring is sharing. Chapter title from MGMT's 'The Youth'.
Summary: Naomi wakes up with a cracker of a headache, and starts to think that Emily might be a bit gay. JJ and Cook play their own version of tug of war, and Thomas finally tells her what he thinks is going on.
N.B. You don't need to know anything about Twilight to read this. It isn't an homage, nor filled with in jokes. Hell, I don't even like Twilight. I just took some of it's ideas, and Skins themed the shit out of it.
Previous Chapters: Chapter One: Cause Anywhere Is Better Than Here
Chapter Two: Like Stars Burning Holes Right Through The Dark
The Youth Is Starting To Change
She cracked an eye open somewhere near midday, was groaning before she was properly awake. All she could think was ‘Fuck.’ over and over again, like her brain was a record she’d broken the night before, and she couldn’t find the off button. Sunlight was glaring through the window directly onto her face, and she wondered if she was getting old because surely she hadn’t drunk that much the night before, surely not enough to warrant a hangover of this magnitude.
Dimly she was aware of being surrounded by warmth, and kicked her legs a little. Her quilt was wrapped around her, effectively making her a hot dog, which made her frown as she blearily rubbed her eyes. Hadn’t she fallen asleep on top of her quilt? She felt her shirt with one hand, the sun too bright to open her eyes again, felt the patterned front. Great. She had fallen asleep in the clothes she’d worn the night before. Was that where the terrible smell was coming from? Cigarettes, sweat, alcohol and something she wasn’t sure she wanted to identify made her want to cut her own nose off. She threw her quilt off, snuggled into a patch of shadow on her bed the sunshine hadn’t yet reached, far from the window, and finally managed to open her eyes.
That was a mistake. She kept them shut until she heard tapping on her door, insistent.
“Naomi, love? Are you home?” Of course. Her dad. Right. Had meant to be studying the night before, now looked and smelt like a whore house had violently vomited on a brewery. Probably. Fuck.
She heard him walk away after a moment, and cracked her eyes open again. What a fucking night. She remembered dancing, and shots of vodka. She rubbed her eyes and then paused as a flash of Emily kissing her went through her mind without warning. She bit her lip, remembered soft lips and… shook her head. That had just been to give her the pill.
Fuck, she had to get out of her clothes though. She stood up and immediately sat back down on her bed. She felt like death warmed up. Christ.
She managed, after two more attempts, to stand properly. Looking in her wardrobe mirror had probably not been the best idea she’d ever had, noticing puffy blood shot eyes and lipstick smeared around her mouth. As she wiped at it half heartedly, she remembered the kiss again, and shook her head at herself because it hadn’t been a kiss. It was just what friends did to share pills. Or, just what these friends apparently did. And fine.
She turned away from the mirror and tugged her skirt off, kicking it into the corner. She pulled her shirt up, and as she lifted it over her head, she lost her balance and fell against her wardrobe door with a loud bang.
“Is that you, Naomi?” She heard foot steps walking up the stairs, and hurriedly threw her shirt off. She reached into her wardrobe for an oversized t-shirt, pulled it over her head and stopped when she caught sight of herself again. She stared at her neck, had to reach up and rub the spot where Emily had given her a hickey, only… Only there wasn’t a mark on her throat. The little raised bumps she swore she’d felt the night before were gone, her skin was smooth and unblemished, and she frowned at it for a moment. It had happened, hadn’t it? She remembered the feel of the shorter girl pressing against her, and the eagerness with which she’d latched onto her neck. Which just had to be the drugs, right? After all, she’d let Cook have a good go of it as well. She blew out a breath, managing to pull her shirt on properly as her dad opened her door and poked his head inside.
“Morning sweetheart, or should I say, afternoon!” He smiled at her, and she kept her eyes as open and alert looking as possible, holding herself steady against her wardrobe door.
“Hi dad.” Her voice croaked, and she cleared her throat self consciously.
Her dad frowned, peered at her. “I didn’t know you were home. Late night last night?”
She smiled at him, ignoring the feeling of her brain being placed in a cake beater set to high. “Oh yeah, we were up studying till all hours of the morning. And then Panda had to go to church really early, so I got a lift back and thought I’d have a snooze.” She blinked, watched him process the information and seem to agree with it, let herself marvel for just a moment at how easy it was to lie.
“Well then, fancy some lunch?” He looked at his watch. “Your mother called again this morning, too. Maybe you should give her a call back?” He raised his eyebrows at her, and she rolled her eyes, though for a moment it made her dangerously light headed to do so.
“Okay. Look, I’ll be down in a bit, alright?” She watched him nod and throw her one last smile before closing her door, and she stumbled back to her bed, lay down and heaved a sigh of relief, and tried to gather the will to leave her bedroom.
Of course her mind went back to the previous night’s events, what had gone through her head when Emily was, well, doing whatever she’d been doing to her neck. She’d never had thoughts about girls like that before, or guys, or anyone really, so it was alarming on every front. Particularly since she hadn’t had them about Cook, particularly since she’d felt disappointed when Emily had finally pulled away. Particularly since, secretly, she’d enjoyed it. But it was obviously because the pills were amazing, and she couldn’t help but wonder where Cook and Effy had got them from.
She felt something under her neck, and reached behind it to find a piece of crinkled paper. She smoothed it out to find a swirling cursive, surprisingly elegant. When she read the delicate writing, she found herself smiling, small and private, and held the note to her chest.
‘Emily lay here’
V^^^^^V
She spoke to her mother on Saturday afternoon for all of five minutes, made non-committal ‘Mmhmm’ing noises to a variety of questions designed, she thought, to alleviate her mother’s guilt. She was far too hung over to even contemplate mollifying the woman and hadn’t felt the slightest bit guilty until she’d started to feel normal again, having swallowed almost two litres of orange juice and eaten her dad out of house and home. She’d never been hungrier in her life, and wondered if she was having a growth spurt of some kind.
Her dad spent the weekend making her food, and gently trying to talk to her about his date on Friday, but she avoided it as best as she could. On Sunday she still felt like shit, though not nearly as bad as the day before, and she couldn’t for a second bring herself to want to hear about her dad and some woman called Veronica, let alone care about actually meeting the woman.
On Sunday afternoon she convinced herself to attempt to finish some coursework, and reclined on her bed staring moodily at her philosophy textbook until a strange buzzing noise pulled her out of her thoughts. She fished her phone out from under her bed, raising an eyebrow at the ten or so text messages she had.
The first five were from Pandora asking how she was, inviting her out shopping or to the movies, the final text apologising for bugging her and that she’d see her at college on Monday. Well, she thought, it’s not like she was ignoring her. She texted back a quick message, telling Pandora she’d lost her phone and hoping she’d had a good weekend anyway.
She rolled her eyes at Thomas’ text, which basically reiterated what he’d told her Friday afternoon. It was sweet in a way, she thought, that he was offering to protect her even though he’d just met her. But it was also annoying that he wouldn’t tell her what he thought he was protecting her from, and she didn’t bother texting him back.
JJ had texted inviting her to his birthday party the next weekend, and she bit her lip and hesitated in replying, deciding that if Emily and her friends weren’t going then she didn’t really want to say yes. Which was awfully immature, she knew that much, but she’d also known the boy a week so it wasn’t like they were best mates or anything. And it certainly didn’t look like he’d be handing Katie an invitation willingly.
She felt a slight squeezing in her chest as she saw the remaining three texts were from Emily. She rolled over onto her stomach, feeling stupidly giggly as she opened the first message. What was she, twelve?
It was a short message thanking her for coming out with them and hoping she felt alright the next morning. She blinked. Emily was lovely. Properly lovely. What was Pandora’s problem? She opened the second, laughing as Emily sent her a list of reasons why communal living wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be, the last being that she hadn’t had a moment to herself in what felt like weeks, and she was pretty sure she was going to kill her sister any day now. The final message was a simple ‘P.S. Not a sex cult, pervert.’ She rolled over, debated what she would text back. She settled on ‘I’ll believe it when I find out otherwise, sicko.’ And smiled to herself because, for the first time in longer than she was comfortable remembering, it seemed she had a friend.
V^^^^^V
Naomi walked into college on Monday morning feeling stupidly nervous. She didn’t let it show, though, did her best to keep her head held high as she walked toward her philosophy class room. Not because Emily would be there and it would be the first time she’d seen her since Friday night and the, well, whatever with the kissing and the neck business. Nor because she’d blown off JJ and Pandora to hang out with their, like, arch nemeses or whatever.
Fuck, she thought. This was why friendship was retarded. Too much fucking drama.
She walked into the classroom, taking a deep breath, and flinched as someone yelled out to her.
“Naomi! Party girl!” Cook pushed himself out of his chair, and wound his way around the desks until he reached her. She felt her face heat up with embarrassment as he grabbed her and lifted her, laughing. “Where were you Saturday then, princess?” He put her down, and she just looked at him for a moment.
“Saturday?” She managed to get out, looking around the room quickly and realising that everyone was looking at them. JJ frowned when she met his eye, and Pandora looked miserable.
“Cook!” Emily called out. “Get your arse back here and leave her alone.”
Cook winked at her. “Later, darlin’.” He made his way to Emily, and she followed him until she got to Pandora, and sat down. She felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, and opened it to see a text from Emily that just said ‘Sorry.’ She turned around in her seat, and gave Emily a small smile. Emily made a show of rolling her eyes at Cook and shrugging, and Naomi raised her eyebrows. She turned back to look at Pandora, noticed the girl keeping her eyes firmly focused on the desk.
“Hi Panda.” She said gently, and Pandora’s eyes shot up to meet hers.
“Hi.” Pandora mumbled, trying to smile but her eyes were wide and she couldn’t seem to make it stick. “Good weekend?”
Naomi nodded slowly, and blinked. “Yeah, alright. Quiet. You know.” She started unpacking her bag. “Yours?”
Pandora shrugged. “Well JJ and Thomas came to mine and it was wicked cos mum made chocolate biscuits and we played Cluedo till almost eleven…” Pandora stopped talking as a bit of paper hit her in the back of the head, and her face flushed.
“Oi weird girl, sounds like a cracker of a night!”
Naomi turned around quickly, saw Cook leaning forward on his desk and grinning. Emily had her arms crossed beside him, and gave Naomi an apologetic look.
Pandora froze, and Naomi frowned and reached out to touch her arm.
“Come on then, what happened next? Gay-jay give you a good going while Thomas stuck it up your mum?” Cook started laughing, gleeful, as Pandora whipped around in her chair and glared at him.
“Don’t you be talking about my mum!” Pandora turned back around, and Naomi could see that everyone in the classroom was looking at them. She saw JJ stand up across the room.
“Leave her alone, Cook.” He stammered, and Cook turned a devilish grin toward him.
“Or what?” Cook stood up in his chair, spread his arms out. “You going to have a go then, Jay?” He narrowed his eyes at JJ, still grinning, and Naomi watched as JJ blinked and looked around him, finding no support.
Naomi looked at Emily, frowning when she saw that Emily was sitting with her arms crossed and looking out the window, ignoring what was happening.
“Sit down, please Jay.” Pandora said desperately, and JJ glanced at her, shaken. Naomi felt a sudden rush of righteous indignation, and was about to stand and tell Cook to sit down and everyone to bloody grow up since this wasn’t primary school, when the classroom door flew open and Miss Clark rushed in, shaking an umbrella and puffed in the face.
“Jesus fuck this weather. Sorry I’m late. Get your books out, we’ve missed enough as it is.” Miss Clark hurried to the front of the class, throwing her umbrella near her desk and shrugging off a rain coat before noticing JJ and Cook still standing. “Yes, what is it?”
JJ sat down quickly, turning away from Cook and keeping his head down. Cook didn’t sit, winking at Miss Clark.
“Nothing, Miss, just having a laugh with my peers, wasn’t I?” Cook laughed, and Emily finally turned toward him, put a hand gently on his arm, and he looked down at her. After a moment his face softened, and he sat down.
Naomi reached over and squeezed Pandora’s hand. Pandora gave her a grateful smile, and the rest of the lesson was lost to Miss Clark ranting at them about things Naomi couldn’t follow.
V^^^^^V
She felt eyes on her when she walked into the cafeteria, wincing as she realised that since the weather was shit, everyone was stuck inside and it was painfully obvious that she would have to choose who she sat with. Pandora and JJ each gave her small waves from a table off to her right, and she gave them a strained smile before looking around.
Katie was laughing at Cook, who was enthusiastically telling a story to her and Freddie at the back of the room. Freddie was shaking his head, a slight grin on his face, and Emily was sitting next to her sister staring at the rain splattered windows. Naomi bit her lip, willing Emily to notice her, but Emily seemed completely lost in thought.
“We won’t be offended if you don’t sit with us.” She heard said behind her, the voice low and amused and she turned to see Effy gazing at her.
“What?” She said, trying not to flinch as Effy leaned in closer.
“But they will.” Effy gave her a half smile, nodded in the direction of Pandora, Thomas and JJ, and then shrugged. “Up to you.”
Effy sauntered away from her, throwing a smirk over her shoulder before she reached her friends, sitting down between Katie and Emily and putting an arm leisurely around both of them.
She sighed and walked over to Pandora, Thomas and JJ, and sat down.
“Hi.” She said, willing herself not to look at Emily, and took her lunch out of her bag.
Pandora gave her a big smile. “I brought some of mums biscuits for you Nai, they’re tippity flibbing boo!” She excitedly brought them out, presenting them to her as if they were a reward for choosing to sit with them.
Thomas leaned toward her with a kind smile. “Your weekend, it was nice?” He asked, and tilted his head waiting for an answer.
She nodded, ignored that she felt guilty. Hated that she felt it, was sick of feeling it.
“My weekend was exhilarating, actually, on account of dad taking me camping on Saturday night because, he says, it’s a crucial part of growing up and becoming a man to be, well, able to exist in nature away from society and it was an awfully good bonding experience…” JJ animatedly kept talking, and Naomi tuned him out as she glanced at Emily, even though she’d told herself not to. Emily was gazing at her, her face expressionless, and Naomi hated that she blushed and looked away. Wanted to kick herself for it because, really.
Her phone buzzed after a moment, and she opened a text that just said ‘How are you?’. She sighed, her eyes softening as she looked at it, responding with ‘Listening to JJ ramble and wanting to kill myself, otherwise good. You?’ She tried desperately not to look at her phone every two seconds to check for a response, and nodded at JJ as if she was paying attention to everything he said.
‘Listening to Cook show off and wanting to kill him. Would much prefer to be sitting with you.’ She blinked at the message, trying to hide a smile. Pandora nudged her, and she almost dropped her phone.
“Biscuit? They’re whizzer!” Pandora handed her one, and grinned as she took a gigantic bite of her own. Pandora turned back to JJ, and Naomi debated what she’d respond with. After a moment, she typed ‘Me too.’ and pressed send before she changed her mind about admitting something like that.
As they grabbed their bags to head off to the next classes, JJ nervously grabbed her arm and stopped her.
“Naomi I was just wondering if you’d received my text about my birthday party for next weekend, and if you’d like to come, and if not well I’m having a bowling party and I would very much appreciate if you came.” JJ took a deep breath, and had the most ridiculously hopeful expression on his face.
Shit. She couldn’t say no to his face, especially not after this morning.
“Sure, JJ.” She scratched her nose, and he gave her a relieved grin that made her actually feel good about herself.
Emily was smiling at her when she sat down in politics, reached over to give her hand a squeeze and then just held it until Naomi, worried that someone would see them, gently pulled her hand away. She made a show of unpacking her bag to cover it up.
“So.” She said, tapping a pen against the desk.
“Did you have fun Friday night?” Emily asked her, turning in her seat to face her.
“Wickedly, actually. But Christ I was hung over. I thought I’d been hit by a bus on Saturday.” She raised an eyebrow as Emily licked her lips, and gave her a guilty look.
“You recovered okay, though?” Emily reached forward and gazed into her eyes, expressing such concern that Naomi felt a little overwhelmed.
“Yeah, fine.” She blinked. “What time did you leave Saturday morning? Sorry I just crashed. Wasn’t much good for company, was I?” She shrugged, relieved when Emily leaned backwards.
“Not too long after you fell asleep. Don’t even worry...”
“Ladies, sorry to interrupt your chit chat but would it be alright if you paid attention to me so I could, oh I don’t know, teach you enough so when you’re released into the wild you’re not completely ignorant?” Kieran was looking at them pointedly, his arms folded over his chest, and Naomi rolled her eyes.
“Sorry.” She said, and Emily turned so she was facing the front again.
“Apologies, sir.” Emily smirked, and Keiran sighed and started talking again. Naomi did her best to concentrate on what he was saying, until she nearly jumped out of her skin as Emily rested a hand on her knee under the desk.
She felt her heart beating hard inside her chest, leant forward to make sure Emily’s action wasn’t visible to anyone else, and barely managed to stop herself from closing her eyes as Emily gently rubbed a thumb against the top of her knee. She glanced at Emily, but Emily had a small frown of concentration on her face as if she was enraptured by what Keiran was saying. Naomi held her breath, willed her heartbeat to sort itself the fuck out. Emily couldn’t know that this exact scenario had gone through her head at the club. But unlike then, she wasn’t desperate for Emily’s hand between her legs because, for starters, they were in class for Christ’s sake and also, also, it was just too much. Far too much to even contemplate it with a sober mind, and in bloody daylight. But Emily didn’t push, didn’t move her hand further up her leg at all. She just kept it there as if reminding Naomi of something that Naomi didn’t want to think about.
V^^^^^V
“Fancy a lift home?” Emily tilted her head, a soft smile on her face as Naomi packed her bag. Her heart was still hammering in her chest even though Emily had taken her hand off her knee halfway through the class.
“That would be, uh, nice.” She turned toward Emily, gave her a half smile. As she followed Emily out of the classroom, she noticed Effy, Katie, Cook and Freddie hanging back. Cook and Freddie were deep in conversation by themselves, and Effy offered her a wave as she passed them.
“Bye.” Effy said to her.
“Bye Effy.” Naomi looked at Katie, who was staring at her with an unreadable expression on her face. “Bye Katie.” She smiled at Katie, feeling awkward when Katie didn’t return it.
Katie narrowed her eyes at Naomi, and shrugged. “Whatever.” She said, and then turned to Effy, completely dismissing her.
“Okay.” She said to herself, following Emily out of the college and to the parking lot. “I don’t think your sister likes me.”
Emily slowed down, raised her eyebrow at Naomi and was quiet for a moment.
“Don’t take it personally or anything. She’s like that with everyone at first.” Emily shrugged, turned her face away from Naomi and didn’t say another word until they reached yet another car Naomi had never seen before.
“How many cars do you have?” Naomi watched as Emily unlocked it with a smirk, and they both got in.
“A few. But then, there’s a lot of us so, you know. Lots of cars.” Emily started the engine, and Naomi frowned at her.
“Hang on, what do you mean a lot of you?” Naomi rolled her eyes as Emily raised her eyebrows at her until she’d clicked her seatbelt in place. “How many people do you live with?”
“Well,” Emily started, weaving the car through traffic and driving a little faster than Naomi was comfortable with. “There’s the five of us, plus Tony and Sid, Cassie, Chris and Michelle.” Emily kept her eyes on the road, but was smirking as Naomi’s jaw dropped beside her.
“And the, ten of you? Live together for what reason again?” Naomi was starting to become annoyed at the lack of explanation, wondered what was so special that Emily couldn’t just up and tell her. Like, ‘We’re all foster kids of a handsome young barren couple with millions of pounds to spare.’ or ‘We’re a teenage gang above the law who take pride in academic achievement.’
Emily glanced at her. “Because it’s lonely by yourself.” Naomi was frowning the rest of the way to her house, unable to get much more out of Emily on the subject, and vaguely clueless as to where to even start asking questions because, really.
“Do you want to come in for tea?” Naomi asked her as they pulled up to her house, and Emily smirked at her.
“Friendship tea?” Emily was unbuckling her seatbelt. “Only that I’m allergic to any other kind.”
Naomi rolled her eyes. “Very funny.” She led Emily through to the kitchen, hearing her dad call out from upstairs.
“Alright, we have English breakfast, camomile, gypsy caravan…” Naomi went through the varieties of boxes of tea until she felt Emily come up behind her, and reach her arms around her waist. Emily lay her head between Naomi’s shoulder blades, and Naomi felt her breath catch.
“I don’t actually want tea.” Emily mumbled against her back, and Naomi felt her eyes slip shut as Emily ran her fingers over Naomi’s stomach, the thin fabric of her shirt a weak barrier between Emily’s skin and her own.
Naomi’s eyes shot open as she heard footsteps coming down the stairs, and turned her body out of Emily’s grasp, leaning against the sink and struggling to control her breathing as her dad walked into the kitchen. He gave Emily a surprised but open smile, and raised his eyebrows at Naomi in question.
“Right, Dad. This is Emily. Friend from college. Emily, Dad.” Naomi gestured vaguely between them, still leaning against the sink and forcing herself not to blush too much.
Emily smiled at her dad, walked forward with her hand outstretched and shook his warmly.
“Nice to meet you, Mr Campbell.”
Naomi watched as her dad smiled delightedly at Emily.
“And you Emily. Make yourself at home. Naomi, have you offered your guest some tea?” Her dad gave her a pointed look as he moved to get some mugs down from the cupboard near the sink, and Naomi rolled her eyes and pushed herself away from it.
“Yes Dad, I’m not completely socially inept.” Naomi avoided looking at Emily, couldn’t look at her. “We don’t want tea anyway, we’re going to do coursework in my room.” She walked past Emily, roughly grabbed her hand, and pulled until Emily was following her up the stairs and into her bedroom.
She let go of Emily’s hand and shut her bedroom door, watching warily as Emily sat down on the edge of her bed and then just looked at her unexpectedly.
“You’re gay.” She said, and for a moment wanted to clamp her hands over her mouth because she hadn’t meant to say that. Or well, not so bluntly.
Emily seemed amused. “Yes, I am.” She said, and gazed at her until Naomi had to look away, and bit her lip.
“Right. Well. I’m not.” She said, and took a deep breath, feeling more uncomfortable than she possibly ever had. The visions, or whatever they were, were one thing but the reality of it was starting to make her panic.
Emily looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, stood up from the bed and walked towards her. She grabbed one of Naomi’s hands, and held it between her own until Naomi looked at her slightly fearfully.
“It’s okay.” Emily said and gave her a reassuring smile.
“I don’t know what you want from me.” Naomi’s voice was low and she couldn’t bring herself to pull her hand away from Emily’s grasp.
“Friendship, Naomi. That’s all.” Emily gave her a hand a squeeze. Naomi sighed, and nodded, and as they unpacked their text books because, well, there wasn’t anything else to do, Naomi found that somewhere inside of her, deep down, she was relieved that she didn’t believe it for a second.
V^^^^^V
Cook approached her on Friday as she finished eating with Pandora, JJ and Thomas, and she watched as JJ had shrunk into his seat with a fearful glance behind her.
“Naomi!” Cook bellowed, grabbing a chair and pulling it up to their table. Pandora physically recoiled, and Thomas stood up as if prepared for a fight.
“What do you want?” Thomas asked, eyes narrowed, and Cook laughed at him.
“Settle down big man, I’m talking to my girl Naomi.” Cook put his arm over the back of her chair, and she was alarmed for a moment at the sense of propriety that went with the act.
“She’s not yours, Cook.” JJ said quietly, and Naomi looked at him. “Not that she would belong to anybody is what I mean, not that of course I’d suggest she belong to me.” JJ looked alarmed at himself for a moment. “Or Thomas for that matter.” He stammered, and Naomi rolled her eyes.
“You’d like that though wouldn’t you, Gay-Jay?” Cook leant toward him, eyes narrowed, a cruel smile on his face. JJ flushed bright red, and Naomi put a hand on Cook’s arm.
“Fuck’s sake, the lot of you. I’m not bloody property.” Naomi frowned, took her hand off Cook’s arm, and Thomas sat down, leaning forward on his chair as if ready to jump back up at any moment.
“Course not, princess.” Cook winked at her. “Listen, me and the gang want you to come out with us again tonight, yeah?” He grinned at her, and felt herself blush as Pandora and JJ looked at her in shock.
“When have you gone out with them before, Nai?” Pandora asked, shocked. It seemed to Naomi that she was purposefully avoiding looking at Cook, and had shifted her chair away from him.
“Last Friday.” She replied, sighing and wishing she could be anywhere else.
“Right, well, she’s with us tonight Cook so back off.” JJ blinked rapidly at Cook, his hands balling into fists. “I won’t let you do what you did…” He trailed off as Katie pulled a chair up on her other side, next to JJ.
“And what is it I did, big man?” Cook’s voice lowered dangerously, and Naomi looked between them confused and wondering if she’d been dropped into an episode of The O.C.
JJ opened his mouth, glanced quickly at Katie, who smirked at him, and then shut his mouth. “Nothing.” He mumbled, leaning back in his chair as if defeated.
“Exactly, freak.” Katie said to him, and then turned to Naomi and seemed to size her up. “Right, babes. We’re picking you up tonight at ten, yeah? And try to look half decent, we’re going somewhere fancier than last time.”
Naomi felt like she’d been bombarded, and threw her hands up. “At this point I’m bloody staying home.” She saw JJ’s face fall, and sighed. “Look, Katie. Cook. I agreed to go to JJ’s birthday thing tonight, alright?” She bit her lip. “Sorry.” She said before she could stop herself, because she was. Last week had been fun, and eating lunch everyday with Pandora, Thomas and JJ was well enough, except for the constant moping and bloody meekness they exuded whenever her other friends, because that’s what Emily and all them were, talked to her.
Cook stopped grinning, leant back in his chair and looked back toward, Naomi assumed, Effy, Emily and Freddie.
Katie snickered. “You’d rather go bowling? Fuck’s sake.” She crossed her arms, and Naomi wanted them to leave, wanted this odd fucking showdown to end.
“I don’t know how you know what my birthday plans include, but I’ll have you know that bowling is an admirable venture based on precision, angles and…” JJ was cut off again, looking like he wanted to put his hands over his mouth and stop himself talking, because every time Katie and Cook took it as bait.
Katie squealed laughing, and Cook sniggered.
“That so, mate?” Cook looked thoughtful, a cheeky smile starting to spread over his face, and Katie raised her eyebrow at him. Something passed between them, and Naomi had an awful feeling that she knew what it was.
“I’m not your mate.” JJ’s voice cracked halfway through, and Naomi felt sorry for him for just a moment.
“Please leave this table now.” Thomas said, his eyes never leaving Cook.
Naomi watched as Cook tilted his head to the side, licked his lips, and leant toward Thomas.
“What you think you’re going to do, exactly?” Cook stood up, resting his hands on the table and leaning past Pandora to glare at Thomas.
“Cook.” Katie said, and Naomi wasn’t sure if was trying to dissuade or encourage him. “Come on, let’s leave these losers to their ‘bowling’.” She made quotation marks, and adjusted her skirt. She turned to Naomi as she stood. “Call us if you get bored hanging with fucking children, yeah?”
Cook snorted after a moment, and pursed his lips into a kiss at Thomas. Thomas was sitting deathly still, staring intently back at Cook until Cook turned away. He gave Naomi a quick, unexpected kiss on the cheek.
“Come back to us soon, yeah? Ems and I got plans for you.” He winked at her as he leant back, and she gave him a strained smile, aware that JJ and Pandora were watching her intently.
Katie flicked Cook in the chest as they walked away, and he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, ignoring her shouts, both of them laughing as they went back to their table.
Naomi turned in her chair, saw Emily shaking her head and laughing as Cook dumped Katie on top of the table. Their eyes met for a moment, and Naomi turned around, had a sudden feeling that she was about to be put on trial.
Instead, she saw concern on the three faces before her instead of the hurt she’d anticipated.
“We’ve got to tell her, Thomas.” Pandora gave him a grateful smile as he took her hand. JJ was nodding.
“Tonight then.” He smiled at Pandora, turned to Naomi and she watched his expression harden. “When they cannot hear us.”
“Right.” She said, picking her bag up and standing. “Well if you’ll excuse me, I need some bloody alone time because this is getting ridiculous.” She pushed her chair back into the table harder than she intended. “See you tonight.” She sighed, and walked away from them, from the cafeteria, and stalked into the girls’ bathrooms.
She walked into a cubicle, locked the door behind her, and sat on top of the toilet seat lid. She fished her ipod out of her bag, put the volume as loud as it would go, and blasted music into her ears.
She’d watched, when she was younger, as her friends around her squabbled over meaningless crap, and she’d never wanted any of it. It wasn’t even like Cook or JJ knew her that well, and she wondered if it was a boy thing to constantly be in a pissing contest over her. Though it didn’t explain Pandora, or Emily.
The thought of Emily made her smile. She thought back to the last few afternoons. Emily had driven her home after school each day, and they talked and laughed in her room until dinner time, Emily never staying to eat with them. They’d done all the things that Naomi had imagined friends did, and scoffed at. But actually being part of it was different. Emily had recited her favourite poem to her one afternoon, for instance, off by heart as they lay side by side on the floor, and Naomi hadn’t laughed at her, had been too caught up in the sound of Emily’s voice. And that was the thing about Emily, she could listen to her for hours and not notice time passing, hadn’t noticed time passing, each afternoon seeming to become shorter and shorter.
Emily hadn’t pushed the physical contact since she’d told her that she wasn’t gay. Which was the truth, she thought. She wasn’t gay. Wasn’t anything, really. Had always found the thought of love, and romance, and bloody poetry, completely unappealing. She didn’t like Emily because she was a girl, she just liked spending time with her. She blew out a breath. If she could just spend time with Emily, without Cook and JJ, Pandora, or any of them, everything would be easier. She would be happier.
She jumped as the bathroom door swung open, her hand flying to her chest as she let out a small shriek. Emily peered into the stall, mouthing something at her and giggling. She wrenched her earphones out of her ears.
“What the fuck?” She said, breathing heavily. “You scared the shit out of me!”
Emily was laughing, and pointing at her. “Your face!” She rasped, and bent over for a moment shaking with laughter.
Naomi stood, trying to keep a smile off her face. She shoved Emily, walking past her. “You fucking bitch.” She said, but there wasn’t any real anger in her voice.
Emily stumbled toward her, reaching out and grabbing onto her arm for support. “Class just started, I came to get you and…” Emily started laughing again. She sobered after a moment, snorting at Naomi’s frown. “Fuck that was funny.” Emily grinned at her, and Naomi rolled her eyes. “What were you doing listening to music that bloody loudly on the toilet, anyway?”
Naomi stopped frowning, and pulled a face as they started walking toward their classroom. “Jesus, don’t get me started. Cook and JJ had some sort of, like, I don’t know, big dick contest over where I’m going tonight, and I just was sick of being around people.” She glanced at Emily, watching her process the information.
“Oh, yeah, Cook told us you were going to some birthday thing tonight.” Emily shrugged. “It doesn’t phase me where you spend your Friday nights.” Naomi gave her a half smile, and Emily gave her a cheeky one in reply. “As long as some of them are with me.”
“I’d prefer to spend all of them with just you.” Naomi said, and froze because she hadn’t meant to say that out loud. Fuck. But Emily just smirked at her as they reached their classroom.
She grabbed Emily’s hand quickly before they went in.
“Emily, listen. Can you make sure Cook and Katie don’t crash JJ’s thing tonight?” She bit her lip, still holding Emily’s hand.
“Why would they do that?” Emily asked, a small frown on her face.
“I don’t know, and they might not. But I just think they might be planning to, that’s all. And could you just make sure they won’t?” She looked at Emily, and Emily finally nodded, squeezing her hand.
She was expecting Cook to harp at her about ditching JJ’s party, but he was quiet, and only offered her a small wave as she left when class was over. Looking back later, she thought, that should have been a warning.
V^^^^^V
“Happy Birthday.” She said, handing over a card she’d hastily bought on the way to the bowling alley. She’d found a card with model airplanes on the front, and something about it had screamed ‘JJ’ at her, and as his face lit up at the sight of it she found herself smiling.
“Thanks! Although my birthday isn’t actually until tomorrow but I have to celebrate it tonight with you on account of it being somewhat of a tradition to celebrate with family dinner on actual birthdays.” He grinned at her, and she looked around, taking note of the over abundance of ten year olds running around screaming. She hadn’t been to a bowling alley in years, for Christ’s sake. She nodded at Thomas and Pandora as they all lined up to get their shoes and bowling alley assigned.
“Just us then?” She asked, hoping to God this wasn’t considered a double date.
JJ gave her a slightly embarrassed look. “Yes well I consider you all to be my closest friends and,” At her raised eyebrows, considering she’d known him all of two bloody weeks, he blushed. “Or well, only friends.” He mumbled, and Thomas patted him on the back.
“Right, well. Let’s bowl!” She smiled at them, trying to feel excited and not think about Emily at this moment getting ready for a night out dancing. Tried to swallow the sick feeling she was alarmed to notice when she thought of Emily, on drugs, and dancing with someone else, kissing someone else… she shook her head, almost stumbled as the line moved forward, and crossed her arms over her chest. Because, not that she cared. Really.
“So I think we should probably form two teams, boy girl, or we could have an individual competition?” JJ raised his eyebrows at them as they put their shoes on, Naomi wishing she hadn’t worn a white shirt because JJ had chosen the one night of the week that the bowling alley had black lighting and disco music playing, and she couldn’t hide if she bloody wanted to. Christ, she thought, she was like a bloody glow worm.
JJ bowled first, and Thomas sat down next to her.
“So Naomi, you must have many questions.” He began, and she looked around her for a moment.
“What, here?” She asked, and he nodded at her.
“There is much noise, it is better for us to talk this way.” He put his hands on his knees, looking up quickly and smiling as JJ managed a strike and turned around with his arms up in victory. Pandora jumped up, and high fived him.
“Right. Well. What did Cook do, then?” She turned toward him, stared at him intently.
“Last year Pandora she was friends with Effy, Katie and Emily as you are now. They invite her to hang out with them, but her mother does not allow it. So she invites them into her home one evening, and her mother makes them delicious food, an excellent hostess, but they do not eat it.” Thomas licked his lips, looking up as Pandora got a spare, turning around with a delighted grin on her face. He looked back at Naomi. “It is your turn.”
“What?” She said, turning and seeing JJ motioning toward her with a bowling ball in his hands. “Christ.” She said, resigning herself and standing up. She chose her own ball, threw it down the lane without much effort, rolling her eyes as she managed to hit one pin. She ignored JJ as he attempted to give her advice, picked up the heaviest ball she could find, and rolled it slowly toward the remaining pins, turning without bothering to see what she’d hit.
She sat beside Thomas, annoyed when he stood up with a shrug. “My turn.” He said, and Pandora took his seat.
“What was Thomas up to?” Pandora asked, and Naomi raised her eyebrows.
“Your mum made food at some party you had but Effy and them wouldn’t eat it or something.” She crossed her arms, wondering if declining someone’s mothers cooking was really grounds for all out war.
“Yeah, Nai, and mum had made whizzer brownies, secret family recipe, but they wouldn’t touch them. And they’d helped make them! ‘Cept for the secret part of course. But then, there was a secret part even I didn’t know about.” Pandora’s face darkened for a moment. “I don’t know which one did it, but they put a whack lot of drugs in mum’s brownies.”
Naomi wanted to laugh, because really. But she didn’t, did her best to keep her face neutral as Pandora went on.
“Anyways me and mum ate a bunch of them. They drugged my mum, Nai.” Pandora looked at her sadly, and Naomi frowned. On the one hand that was bloody hilarious, and on the other, well, not so much since Naomi was sure this wasn’t the end of the story. “And me, though I didn’t know did I? All of a sudden everything was magic, and mum was dancing to rock music and mum only ever listens to opera.” Pandora stood up, her turn to bowl, and Naomi was thankful when Thomas sat back down. Pandora was lovely, but all Naomi had gotten from her was that Emily and her friends had forced her mother to have a good bloody time.
“She tells you how they drug her mother?” Thomas asked, and Naomi nodded. “Pandora, she does not remember all that happened afterwards. But those girls disappeared with her mother after they let the boys in. Cook, he talk to her, charm her. She says it was like being hypnotised. Because of the drugs, she is vulnerable. He seduces her. Pandora, she wakes to her house in complete disarray.” Naomi listened intently, waving off JJ who took it upon himself to take her turn for her. Thomas looked down at his hands for a moment, and sighed. “Pandora, she wakes up naked with bruises and scratches all over her.”
Naomi winced. “What?”
Thomas nodded. Naomi saw his hands ball into fists.
Naomi leant backwards. This wasn’t funny at all, and she looked to Pandora who was high fiving JJ after he’d gotten yet another strike. Thomas got up to bowl, and Pandora looked at her, gave her a sheepish look, blushing.
Naomi sat, slightly stunned, until Thomas came back to sit down. “There is something else.” He said gravely, and reached out to take her hands and hold them in his, squeezing. “He drinks blood from her.”
Naomi’s draw dropped, and she pulled her hands back as if she’d been burned. “What?” She said, causing JJ and Pandora to turn around.
“She has bite marks on her neck, her thigh. She is weak.” He stares at her, as if willing her to believe him. “Her mother, she has strange marks on her throat and wrists.”
“She was probably bloody hung over and he was enthusiastic. She doesn’t remember him biting her?” This was ludicrous, and she felt awfully like the butt of someone’s joke.
Thomas shook his head. “No, she blacked out. Had visions. When she wakes up, almost a full day has passed.” He shrugged at her, and she furiously began taking her shoes off.
“And you expect me to believe what exactly, that they’re vampires?” She threw the bowling shoes on the floor, started putting on her own. “That’s fucking ridiculous, Thomas.” She didn’t know why she felt so angry.
Pandora sat on her other side, and put a hand on her arm. “I don’t believe it either, Nai. But I don’t know what to believe.”
“Right. Well. Thank you JJ for a lovely bloody party, and happy birthday.” She stood up and began walking to the bowling alley entrance, pulling her phone out of her bag as she went. She dialled Emily’s number, and she picked up after one ring.
“Listen, can you come and get me? I think I want to hang out with you lot after all.” She began walking toward a convenience store. She needed a fucking cigarette.
“Of course, be there soon.” Emily said, and hung up without asking where exactly Naomi was.
She smoked furiously for twenty minutes until Emily pulled up with Cook in the back seat, winding down the passenger window and leaning to smile at her.
Naomi crushed her cigarette with her foot and got into the car.
“You alright, princess?” Cook asked, leaning toward her with a grin. “The children too much for you?”
Naomi sighed as Emily began to drive away. “You could say that.” She said, leaning heavily into her seat.
“What happened?” Emily asked, reaching over to briefly pat her knee before changing gears.
“They told me about Pandora’s party last year.” Naomi glanced at Emily, and watched as she grimaced.
She turned and looked at Cook, watched him staring out the car window for a moment.
“That didn’t go so well, I’m afraid.” Emily said, and Naomi turned to look at her. “Katie thought it would be fun to be off our faces, which is what she always thinks, and brought all this MDMA along and put it in the brownies.” Emily frowned for a moment. “Anyway, we got high as kites and didn’t realise her bloody mum was going to eat them too. We had to put her to bed, the daft cow had eaten seven.” Emily threw her a quick smile, and Naomi returned it. “And fucking Cook,” Emily looked in the rear view mirror, and Naomi turned to see Cook flip Emily off, and roll his eyes at her. “Convinces Pandora that he wants to go out with her, and fucks her in her living room.” Naomi frowned at that.
“It wasn’t like that!” Cook leant forward. “I’m not a bloody rapist! She’d never done it, wanted to, I offered, sorted. She was into it. Wanted to get it over and done with. I helped her out. She talked about wanting to lose it incessantly, and then there was an opportunity so we went for it.” Cook leant backwards, and crossed his arms. “Wasn’t my fault she thought we were in love or something.”
Emily rolled her eyes. “Whatever happened, she was scarred for life and JJ and Thomas hate us for it. I don’t blame them, sort of.” Emily shrugged. “Plus you know, we drugged her and her mum who now doesn’t let her see anyone or do anything. She’s probably waiting in the parking lot at the bowling alley making sure Pandora isn’t being gang banged.”
Naomi snorted. That made bloody sense, Pandora seemed like the type to get attached, and her mother sounded like a lunatic so of course she blew it out of proportion.
“Probably. Jesus Christ.” She looked at Emily, reached over to squeeze her leg thinking, fuck it. “They were trying to convince me you were a pack of vampires.” She laughed, watched as Emily looked at her in surprise.
“What?” She said, and Cook leant forward from the backseat laughing.
“Fucking vampires?” He slapped the back of Naomi’s seat and threw his head back. “Fucking hilarious!”
Emily started laughing as well, and Naomi felt happier, her anger dissipating into incredulity.
“I’m telling you, too much bloody science fiction. They need to get out more.” She turned to Emily, looking at her fondly. “I want to get fucked up tonight.”
“A-fucking-men!” Cook cried out from the back seat, and they were all still grinning when they pulled up at the club, as were Effy and Freddie who waited on the footpath. Even Katie gave her a smile, which was something.
When Emily showed her a pill on her tongue later that night, Naomi didn’t hesitate in pulling the shorter girl toward her, and kissing her well past what was necessary. They were on a crowded dance floor, amidst flashing lights, and Naomi knew no one could see them. When the drugs hit her later than that, she kissed Emily again, pulling at her shirt desperately, and when Emily moved to her neck she tilted her head back and gazed at the ceiling, and saw Emily lying naked in her bed, kissing down her face and shoulder, reciting the lines of her favourite poem as her hand moved further and further down Naomi’s body.
“We have lingered in the chambers of the sea, by sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown, till human voices wake us, and we drown.”
V^^^^^V
Chapter Four: Happiness Hit Her Like A Bullet In The Back
Chapter: 3/9 The Youth Is Starting To Change
Pairing: Naomi/Emily, Katie/Effy (or well, hints of)
Word Count: 8, 543
Disclaimer: I don't own, or claim to own, anything related to Skins. Borrowing the characters and throwing them into an entirely different universe altogether. I also don't own Twilight, and wouldn't ever want to. The poem is T.S. Eliot's The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock. Nothing is intended as copyright and all that stuff. Just borrowing. Caring is sharing. Chapter title from MGMT's 'The Youth'.
Summary: Naomi wakes up with a cracker of a headache, and starts to think that Emily might be a bit gay. JJ and Cook play their own version of tug of war, and Thomas finally tells her what he thinks is going on.
N.B. You don't need to know anything about Twilight to read this. It isn't an homage, nor filled with in jokes. Hell, I don't even like Twilight. I just took some of it's ideas, and Skins themed the shit out of it.
Previous Chapters: Chapter One: Cause Anywhere Is Better Than Here
Chapter Two: Like Stars Burning Holes Right Through The Dark
The Youth Is Starting To Change
She cracked an eye open somewhere near midday, was groaning before she was properly awake. All she could think was ‘Fuck.’ over and over again, like her brain was a record she’d broken the night before, and she couldn’t find the off button. Sunlight was glaring through the window directly onto her face, and she wondered if she was getting old because surely she hadn’t drunk that much the night before, surely not enough to warrant a hangover of this magnitude.
Dimly she was aware of being surrounded by warmth, and kicked her legs a little. Her quilt was wrapped around her, effectively making her a hot dog, which made her frown as she blearily rubbed her eyes. Hadn’t she fallen asleep on top of her quilt? She felt her shirt with one hand, the sun too bright to open her eyes again, felt the patterned front. Great. She had fallen asleep in the clothes she’d worn the night before. Was that where the terrible smell was coming from? Cigarettes, sweat, alcohol and something she wasn’t sure she wanted to identify made her want to cut her own nose off. She threw her quilt off, snuggled into a patch of shadow on her bed the sunshine hadn’t yet reached, far from the window, and finally managed to open her eyes.
That was a mistake. She kept them shut until she heard tapping on her door, insistent.
“Naomi, love? Are you home?” Of course. Her dad. Right. Had meant to be studying the night before, now looked and smelt like a whore house had violently vomited on a brewery. Probably. Fuck.
She heard him walk away after a moment, and cracked her eyes open again. What a fucking night. She remembered dancing, and shots of vodka. She rubbed her eyes and then paused as a flash of Emily kissing her went through her mind without warning. She bit her lip, remembered soft lips and… shook her head. That had just been to give her the pill.
Fuck, she had to get out of her clothes though. She stood up and immediately sat back down on her bed. She felt like death warmed up. Christ.
She managed, after two more attempts, to stand properly. Looking in her wardrobe mirror had probably not been the best idea she’d ever had, noticing puffy blood shot eyes and lipstick smeared around her mouth. As she wiped at it half heartedly, she remembered the kiss again, and shook her head at herself because it hadn’t been a kiss. It was just what friends did to share pills. Or, just what these friends apparently did. And fine.
She turned away from the mirror and tugged her skirt off, kicking it into the corner. She pulled her shirt up, and as she lifted it over her head, she lost her balance and fell against her wardrobe door with a loud bang.
“Is that you, Naomi?” She heard foot steps walking up the stairs, and hurriedly threw her shirt off. She reached into her wardrobe for an oversized t-shirt, pulled it over her head and stopped when she caught sight of herself again. She stared at her neck, had to reach up and rub the spot where Emily had given her a hickey, only… Only there wasn’t a mark on her throat. The little raised bumps she swore she’d felt the night before were gone, her skin was smooth and unblemished, and she frowned at it for a moment. It had happened, hadn’t it? She remembered the feel of the shorter girl pressing against her, and the eagerness with which she’d latched onto her neck. Which just had to be the drugs, right? After all, she’d let Cook have a good go of it as well. She blew out a breath, managing to pull her shirt on properly as her dad opened her door and poked his head inside.
“Morning sweetheart, or should I say, afternoon!” He smiled at her, and she kept her eyes as open and alert looking as possible, holding herself steady against her wardrobe door.
“Hi dad.” Her voice croaked, and she cleared her throat self consciously.
Her dad frowned, peered at her. “I didn’t know you were home. Late night last night?”
She smiled at him, ignoring the feeling of her brain being placed in a cake beater set to high. “Oh yeah, we were up studying till all hours of the morning. And then Panda had to go to church really early, so I got a lift back and thought I’d have a snooze.” She blinked, watched him process the information and seem to agree with it, let herself marvel for just a moment at how easy it was to lie.
“Well then, fancy some lunch?” He looked at his watch. “Your mother called again this morning, too. Maybe you should give her a call back?” He raised his eyebrows at her, and she rolled her eyes, though for a moment it made her dangerously light headed to do so.
“Okay. Look, I’ll be down in a bit, alright?” She watched him nod and throw her one last smile before closing her door, and she stumbled back to her bed, lay down and heaved a sigh of relief, and tried to gather the will to leave her bedroom.
Of course her mind went back to the previous night’s events, what had gone through her head when Emily was, well, doing whatever she’d been doing to her neck. She’d never had thoughts about girls like that before, or guys, or anyone really, so it was alarming on every front. Particularly since she hadn’t had them about Cook, particularly since she’d felt disappointed when Emily had finally pulled away. Particularly since, secretly, she’d enjoyed it. But it was obviously because the pills were amazing, and she couldn’t help but wonder where Cook and Effy had got them from.
She felt something under her neck, and reached behind it to find a piece of crinkled paper. She smoothed it out to find a swirling cursive, surprisingly elegant. When she read the delicate writing, she found herself smiling, small and private, and held the note to her chest.
‘Emily lay here’
V^^^^^V
She spoke to her mother on Saturday afternoon for all of five minutes, made non-committal ‘Mmhmm’ing noises to a variety of questions designed, she thought, to alleviate her mother’s guilt. She was far too hung over to even contemplate mollifying the woman and hadn’t felt the slightest bit guilty until she’d started to feel normal again, having swallowed almost two litres of orange juice and eaten her dad out of house and home. She’d never been hungrier in her life, and wondered if she was having a growth spurt of some kind.
Her dad spent the weekend making her food, and gently trying to talk to her about his date on Friday, but she avoided it as best as she could. On Sunday she still felt like shit, though not nearly as bad as the day before, and she couldn’t for a second bring herself to want to hear about her dad and some woman called Veronica, let alone care about actually meeting the woman.
On Sunday afternoon she convinced herself to attempt to finish some coursework, and reclined on her bed staring moodily at her philosophy textbook until a strange buzzing noise pulled her out of her thoughts. She fished her phone out from under her bed, raising an eyebrow at the ten or so text messages she had.
The first five were from Pandora asking how she was, inviting her out shopping or to the movies, the final text apologising for bugging her and that she’d see her at college on Monday. Well, she thought, it’s not like she was ignoring her. She texted back a quick message, telling Pandora she’d lost her phone and hoping she’d had a good weekend anyway.
She rolled her eyes at Thomas’ text, which basically reiterated what he’d told her Friday afternoon. It was sweet in a way, she thought, that he was offering to protect her even though he’d just met her. But it was also annoying that he wouldn’t tell her what he thought he was protecting her from, and she didn’t bother texting him back.
JJ had texted inviting her to his birthday party the next weekend, and she bit her lip and hesitated in replying, deciding that if Emily and her friends weren’t going then she didn’t really want to say yes. Which was awfully immature, she knew that much, but she’d also known the boy a week so it wasn’t like they were best mates or anything. And it certainly didn’t look like he’d be handing Katie an invitation willingly.
She felt a slight squeezing in her chest as she saw the remaining three texts were from Emily. She rolled over onto her stomach, feeling stupidly giggly as she opened the first message. What was she, twelve?
It was a short message thanking her for coming out with them and hoping she felt alright the next morning. She blinked. Emily was lovely. Properly lovely. What was Pandora’s problem? She opened the second, laughing as Emily sent her a list of reasons why communal living wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be, the last being that she hadn’t had a moment to herself in what felt like weeks, and she was pretty sure she was going to kill her sister any day now. The final message was a simple ‘P.S. Not a sex cult, pervert.’ She rolled over, debated what she would text back. She settled on ‘I’ll believe it when I find out otherwise, sicko.’ And smiled to herself because, for the first time in longer than she was comfortable remembering, it seemed she had a friend.
V^^^^^V
Naomi walked into college on Monday morning feeling stupidly nervous. She didn’t let it show, though, did her best to keep her head held high as she walked toward her philosophy class room. Not because Emily would be there and it would be the first time she’d seen her since Friday night and the, well, whatever with the kissing and the neck business. Nor because she’d blown off JJ and Pandora to hang out with their, like, arch nemeses or whatever.
Fuck, she thought. This was why friendship was retarded. Too much fucking drama.
She walked into the classroom, taking a deep breath, and flinched as someone yelled out to her.
“Naomi! Party girl!” Cook pushed himself out of his chair, and wound his way around the desks until he reached her. She felt her face heat up with embarrassment as he grabbed her and lifted her, laughing. “Where were you Saturday then, princess?” He put her down, and she just looked at him for a moment.
“Saturday?” She managed to get out, looking around the room quickly and realising that everyone was looking at them. JJ frowned when she met his eye, and Pandora looked miserable.
“Cook!” Emily called out. “Get your arse back here and leave her alone.”
Cook winked at her. “Later, darlin’.” He made his way to Emily, and she followed him until she got to Pandora, and sat down. She felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, and opened it to see a text from Emily that just said ‘Sorry.’ She turned around in her seat, and gave Emily a small smile. Emily made a show of rolling her eyes at Cook and shrugging, and Naomi raised her eyebrows. She turned back to look at Pandora, noticed the girl keeping her eyes firmly focused on the desk.
“Hi Panda.” She said gently, and Pandora’s eyes shot up to meet hers.
“Hi.” Pandora mumbled, trying to smile but her eyes were wide and she couldn’t seem to make it stick. “Good weekend?”
Naomi nodded slowly, and blinked. “Yeah, alright. Quiet. You know.” She started unpacking her bag. “Yours?”
Pandora shrugged. “Well JJ and Thomas came to mine and it was wicked cos mum made chocolate biscuits and we played Cluedo till almost eleven…” Pandora stopped talking as a bit of paper hit her in the back of the head, and her face flushed.
“Oi weird girl, sounds like a cracker of a night!”
Naomi turned around quickly, saw Cook leaning forward on his desk and grinning. Emily had her arms crossed beside him, and gave Naomi an apologetic look.
Pandora froze, and Naomi frowned and reached out to touch her arm.
“Come on then, what happened next? Gay-jay give you a good going while Thomas stuck it up your mum?” Cook started laughing, gleeful, as Pandora whipped around in her chair and glared at him.
“Don’t you be talking about my mum!” Pandora turned back around, and Naomi could see that everyone in the classroom was looking at them. She saw JJ stand up across the room.
“Leave her alone, Cook.” He stammered, and Cook turned a devilish grin toward him.
“Or what?” Cook stood up in his chair, spread his arms out. “You going to have a go then, Jay?” He narrowed his eyes at JJ, still grinning, and Naomi watched as JJ blinked and looked around him, finding no support.
Naomi looked at Emily, frowning when she saw that Emily was sitting with her arms crossed and looking out the window, ignoring what was happening.
“Sit down, please Jay.” Pandora said desperately, and JJ glanced at her, shaken. Naomi felt a sudden rush of righteous indignation, and was about to stand and tell Cook to sit down and everyone to bloody grow up since this wasn’t primary school, when the classroom door flew open and Miss Clark rushed in, shaking an umbrella and puffed in the face.
“Jesus fuck this weather. Sorry I’m late. Get your books out, we’ve missed enough as it is.” Miss Clark hurried to the front of the class, throwing her umbrella near her desk and shrugging off a rain coat before noticing JJ and Cook still standing. “Yes, what is it?”
JJ sat down quickly, turning away from Cook and keeping his head down. Cook didn’t sit, winking at Miss Clark.
“Nothing, Miss, just having a laugh with my peers, wasn’t I?” Cook laughed, and Emily finally turned toward him, put a hand gently on his arm, and he looked down at her. After a moment his face softened, and he sat down.
Naomi reached over and squeezed Pandora’s hand. Pandora gave her a grateful smile, and the rest of the lesson was lost to Miss Clark ranting at them about things Naomi couldn’t follow.
V^^^^^V
She felt eyes on her when she walked into the cafeteria, wincing as she realised that since the weather was shit, everyone was stuck inside and it was painfully obvious that she would have to choose who she sat with. Pandora and JJ each gave her small waves from a table off to her right, and she gave them a strained smile before looking around.
Katie was laughing at Cook, who was enthusiastically telling a story to her and Freddie at the back of the room. Freddie was shaking his head, a slight grin on his face, and Emily was sitting next to her sister staring at the rain splattered windows. Naomi bit her lip, willing Emily to notice her, but Emily seemed completely lost in thought.
“We won’t be offended if you don’t sit with us.” She heard said behind her, the voice low and amused and she turned to see Effy gazing at her.
“What?” She said, trying not to flinch as Effy leaned in closer.
“But they will.” Effy gave her a half smile, nodded in the direction of Pandora, Thomas and JJ, and then shrugged. “Up to you.”
Effy sauntered away from her, throwing a smirk over her shoulder before she reached her friends, sitting down between Katie and Emily and putting an arm leisurely around both of them.
She sighed and walked over to Pandora, Thomas and JJ, and sat down.
“Hi.” She said, willing herself not to look at Emily, and took her lunch out of her bag.
Pandora gave her a big smile. “I brought some of mums biscuits for you Nai, they’re tippity flibbing boo!” She excitedly brought them out, presenting them to her as if they were a reward for choosing to sit with them.
Thomas leaned toward her with a kind smile. “Your weekend, it was nice?” He asked, and tilted his head waiting for an answer.
She nodded, ignored that she felt guilty. Hated that she felt it, was sick of feeling it.
“My weekend was exhilarating, actually, on account of dad taking me camping on Saturday night because, he says, it’s a crucial part of growing up and becoming a man to be, well, able to exist in nature away from society and it was an awfully good bonding experience…” JJ animatedly kept talking, and Naomi tuned him out as she glanced at Emily, even though she’d told herself not to. Emily was gazing at her, her face expressionless, and Naomi hated that she blushed and looked away. Wanted to kick herself for it because, really.
Her phone buzzed after a moment, and she opened a text that just said ‘How are you?’. She sighed, her eyes softening as she looked at it, responding with ‘Listening to JJ ramble and wanting to kill myself, otherwise good. You?’ She tried desperately not to look at her phone every two seconds to check for a response, and nodded at JJ as if she was paying attention to everything he said.
‘Listening to Cook show off and wanting to kill him. Would much prefer to be sitting with you.’ She blinked at the message, trying to hide a smile. Pandora nudged her, and she almost dropped her phone.
“Biscuit? They’re whizzer!” Pandora handed her one, and grinned as she took a gigantic bite of her own. Pandora turned back to JJ, and Naomi debated what she’d respond with. After a moment, she typed ‘Me too.’ and pressed send before she changed her mind about admitting something like that.
As they grabbed their bags to head off to the next classes, JJ nervously grabbed her arm and stopped her.
“Naomi I was just wondering if you’d received my text about my birthday party for next weekend, and if you’d like to come, and if not well I’m having a bowling party and I would very much appreciate if you came.” JJ took a deep breath, and had the most ridiculously hopeful expression on his face.
Shit. She couldn’t say no to his face, especially not after this morning.
“Sure, JJ.” She scratched her nose, and he gave her a relieved grin that made her actually feel good about herself.
Emily was smiling at her when she sat down in politics, reached over to give her hand a squeeze and then just held it until Naomi, worried that someone would see them, gently pulled her hand away. She made a show of unpacking her bag to cover it up.
“So.” She said, tapping a pen against the desk.
“Did you have fun Friday night?” Emily asked her, turning in her seat to face her.
“Wickedly, actually. But Christ I was hung over. I thought I’d been hit by a bus on Saturday.” She raised an eyebrow as Emily licked her lips, and gave her a guilty look.
“You recovered okay, though?” Emily reached forward and gazed into her eyes, expressing such concern that Naomi felt a little overwhelmed.
“Yeah, fine.” She blinked. “What time did you leave Saturday morning? Sorry I just crashed. Wasn’t much good for company, was I?” She shrugged, relieved when Emily leaned backwards.
“Not too long after you fell asleep. Don’t even worry...”
“Ladies, sorry to interrupt your chit chat but would it be alright if you paid attention to me so I could, oh I don’t know, teach you enough so when you’re released into the wild you’re not completely ignorant?” Kieran was looking at them pointedly, his arms folded over his chest, and Naomi rolled her eyes.
“Sorry.” She said, and Emily turned so she was facing the front again.
“Apologies, sir.” Emily smirked, and Keiran sighed and started talking again. Naomi did her best to concentrate on what he was saying, until she nearly jumped out of her skin as Emily rested a hand on her knee under the desk.
She felt her heart beating hard inside her chest, leant forward to make sure Emily’s action wasn’t visible to anyone else, and barely managed to stop herself from closing her eyes as Emily gently rubbed a thumb against the top of her knee. She glanced at Emily, but Emily had a small frown of concentration on her face as if she was enraptured by what Keiran was saying. Naomi held her breath, willed her heartbeat to sort itself the fuck out. Emily couldn’t know that this exact scenario had gone through her head at the club. But unlike then, she wasn’t desperate for Emily’s hand between her legs because, for starters, they were in class for Christ’s sake and also, also, it was just too much. Far too much to even contemplate it with a sober mind, and in bloody daylight. But Emily didn’t push, didn’t move her hand further up her leg at all. She just kept it there as if reminding Naomi of something that Naomi didn’t want to think about.
V^^^^^V
“Fancy a lift home?” Emily tilted her head, a soft smile on her face as Naomi packed her bag. Her heart was still hammering in her chest even though Emily had taken her hand off her knee halfway through the class.
“That would be, uh, nice.” She turned toward Emily, gave her a half smile. As she followed Emily out of the classroom, she noticed Effy, Katie, Cook and Freddie hanging back. Cook and Freddie were deep in conversation by themselves, and Effy offered her a wave as she passed them.
“Bye.” Effy said to her.
“Bye Effy.” Naomi looked at Katie, who was staring at her with an unreadable expression on her face. “Bye Katie.” She smiled at Katie, feeling awkward when Katie didn’t return it.
Katie narrowed her eyes at Naomi, and shrugged. “Whatever.” She said, and then turned to Effy, completely dismissing her.
“Okay.” She said to herself, following Emily out of the college and to the parking lot. “I don’t think your sister likes me.”
Emily slowed down, raised her eyebrow at Naomi and was quiet for a moment.
“Don’t take it personally or anything. She’s like that with everyone at first.” Emily shrugged, turned her face away from Naomi and didn’t say another word until they reached yet another car Naomi had never seen before.
“How many cars do you have?” Naomi watched as Emily unlocked it with a smirk, and they both got in.
“A few. But then, there’s a lot of us so, you know. Lots of cars.” Emily started the engine, and Naomi frowned at her.
“Hang on, what do you mean a lot of you?” Naomi rolled her eyes as Emily raised her eyebrows at her until she’d clicked her seatbelt in place. “How many people do you live with?”
“Well,” Emily started, weaving the car through traffic and driving a little faster than Naomi was comfortable with. “There’s the five of us, plus Tony and Sid, Cassie, Chris and Michelle.” Emily kept her eyes on the road, but was smirking as Naomi’s jaw dropped beside her.
“And the, ten of you? Live together for what reason again?” Naomi was starting to become annoyed at the lack of explanation, wondered what was so special that Emily couldn’t just up and tell her. Like, ‘We’re all foster kids of a handsome young barren couple with millions of pounds to spare.’ or ‘We’re a teenage gang above the law who take pride in academic achievement.’
Emily glanced at her. “Because it’s lonely by yourself.” Naomi was frowning the rest of the way to her house, unable to get much more out of Emily on the subject, and vaguely clueless as to where to even start asking questions because, really.
“Do you want to come in for tea?” Naomi asked her as they pulled up to her house, and Emily smirked at her.
“Friendship tea?” Emily was unbuckling her seatbelt. “Only that I’m allergic to any other kind.”
Naomi rolled her eyes. “Very funny.” She led Emily through to the kitchen, hearing her dad call out from upstairs.
“Alright, we have English breakfast, camomile, gypsy caravan…” Naomi went through the varieties of boxes of tea until she felt Emily come up behind her, and reach her arms around her waist. Emily lay her head between Naomi’s shoulder blades, and Naomi felt her breath catch.
“I don’t actually want tea.” Emily mumbled against her back, and Naomi felt her eyes slip shut as Emily ran her fingers over Naomi’s stomach, the thin fabric of her shirt a weak barrier between Emily’s skin and her own.
Naomi’s eyes shot open as she heard footsteps coming down the stairs, and turned her body out of Emily’s grasp, leaning against the sink and struggling to control her breathing as her dad walked into the kitchen. He gave Emily a surprised but open smile, and raised his eyebrows at Naomi in question.
“Right, Dad. This is Emily. Friend from college. Emily, Dad.” Naomi gestured vaguely between them, still leaning against the sink and forcing herself not to blush too much.
Emily smiled at her dad, walked forward with her hand outstretched and shook his warmly.
“Nice to meet you, Mr Campbell.”
Naomi watched as her dad smiled delightedly at Emily.
“And you Emily. Make yourself at home. Naomi, have you offered your guest some tea?” Her dad gave her a pointed look as he moved to get some mugs down from the cupboard near the sink, and Naomi rolled her eyes and pushed herself away from it.
“Yes Dad, I’m not completely socially inept.” Naomi avoided looking at Emily, couldn’t look at her. “We don’t want tea anyway, we’re going to do coursework in my room.” She walked past Emily, roughly grabbed her hand, and pulled until Emily was following her up the stairs and into her bedroom.
She let go of Emily’s hand and shut her bedroom door, watching warily as Emily sat down on the edge of her bed and then just looked at her unexpectedly.
“You’re gay.” She said, and for a moment wanted to clamp her hands over her mouth because she hadn’t meant to say that. Or well, not so bluntly.
Emily seemed amused. “Yes, I am.” She said, and gazed at her until Naomi had to look away, and bit her lip.
“Right. Well. I’m not.” She said, and took a deep breath, feeling more uncomfortable than she possibly ever had. The visions, or whatever they were, were one thing but the reality of it was starting to make her panic.
Emily looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, stood up from the bed and walked towards her. She grabbed one of Naomi’s hands, and held it between her own until Naomi looked at her slightly fearfully.
“It’s okay.” Emily said and gave her a reassuring smile.
“I don’t know what you want from me.” Naomi’s voice was low and she couldn’t bring herself to pull her hand away from Emily’s grasp.
“Friendship, Naomi. That’s all.” Emily gave her a hand a squeeze. Naomi sighed, and nodded, and as they unpacked their text books because, well, there wasn’t anything else to do, Naomi found that somewhere inside of her, deep down, she was relieved that she didn’t believe it for a second.
V^^^^^V
Cook approached her on Friday as she finished eating with Pandora, JJ and Thomas, and she watched as JJ had shrunk into his seat with a fearful glance behind her.
“Naomi!” Cook bellowed, grabbing a chair and pulling it up to their table. Pandora physically recoiled, and Thomas stood up as if prepared for a fight.
“What do you want?” Thomas asked, eyes narrowed, and Cook laughed at him.
“Settle down big man, I’m talking to my girl Naomi.” Cook put his arm over the back of her chair, and she was alarmed for a moment at the sense of propriety that went with the act.
“She’s not yours, Cook.” JJ said quietly, and Naomi looked at him. “Not that she would belong to anybody is what I mean, not that of course I’d suggest she belong to me.” JJ looked alarmed at himself for a moment. “Or Thomas for that matter.” He stammered, and Naomi rolled her eyes.
“You’d like that though wouldn’t you, Gay-Jay?” Cook leant toward him, eyes narrowed, a cruel smile on his face. JJ flushed bright red, and Naomi put a hand on Cook’s arm.
“Fuck’s sake, the lot of you. I’m not bloody property.” Naomi frowned, took her hand off Cook’s arm, and Thomas sat down, leaning forward on his chair as if ready to jump back up at any moment.
“Course not, princess.” Cook winked at her. “Listen, me and the gang want you to come out with us again tonight, yeah?” He grinned at her, and felt herself blush as Pandora and JJ looked at her in shock.
“When have you gone out with them before, Nai?” Pandora asked, shocked. It seemed to Naomi that she was purposefully avoiding looking at Cook, and had shifted her chair away from him.
“Last Friday.” She replied, sighing and wishing she could be anywhere else.
“Right, well, she’s with us tonight Cook so back off.” JJ blinked rapidly at Cook, his hands balling into fists. “I won’t let you do what you did…” He trailed off as Katie pulled a chair up on her other side, next to JJ.
“And what is it I did, big man?” Cook’s voice lowered dangerously, and Naomi looked between them confused and wondering if she’d been dropped into an episode of The O.C.
JJ opened his mouth, glanced quickly at Katie, who smirked at him, and then shut his mouth. “Nothing.” He mumbled, leaning back in his chair as if defeated.
“Exactly, freak.” Katie said to him, and then turned to Naomi and seemed to size her up. “Right, babes. We’re picking you up tonight at ten, yeah? And try to look half decent, we’re going somewhere fancier than last time.”
Naomi felt like she’d been bombarded, and threw her hands up. “At this point I’m bloody staying home.” She saw JJ’s face fall, and sighed. “Look, Katie. Cook. I agreed to go to JJ’s birthday thing tonight, alright?” She bit her lip. “Sorry.” She said before she could stop herself, because she was. Last week had been fun, and eating lunch everyday with Pandora, Thomas and JJ was well enough, except for the constant moping and bloody meekness they exuded whenever her other friends, because that’s what Emily and all them were, talked to her.
Cook stopped grinning, leant back in his chair and looked back toward, Naomi assumed, Effy, Emily and Freddie.
Katie snickered. “You’d rather go bowling? Fuck’s sake.” She crossed her arms, and Naomi wanted them to leave, wanted this odd fucking showdown to end.
“I don’t know how you know what my birthday plans include, but I’ll have you know that bowling is an admirable venture based on precision, angles and…” JJ was cut off again, looking like he wanted to put his hands over his mouth and stop himself talking, because every time Katie and Cook took it as bait.
Katie squealed laughing, and Cook sniggered.
“That so, mate?” Cook looked thoughtful, a cheeky smile starting to spread over his face, and Katie raised her eyebrow at him. Something passed between them, and Naomi had an awful feeling that she knew what it was.
“I’m not your mate.” JJ’s voice cracked halfway through, and Naomi felt sorry for him for just a moment.
“Please leave this table now.” Thomas said, his eyes never leaving Cook.
Naomi watched as Cook tilted his head to the side, licked his lips, and leant toward Thomas.
“What you think you’re going to do, exactly?” Cook stood up, resting his hands on the table and leaning past Pandora to glare at Thomas.
“Cook.” Katie said, and Naomi wasn’t sure if was trying to dissuade or encourage him. “Come on, let’s leave these losers to their ‘bowling’.” She made quotation marks, and adjusted her skirt. She turned to Naomi as she stood. “Call us if you get bored hanging with fucking children, yeah?”
Cook snorted after a moment, and pursed his lips into a kiss at Thomas. Thomas was sitting deathly still, staring intently back at Cook until Cook turned away. He gave Naomi a quick, unexpected kiss on the cheek.
“Come back to us soon, yeah? Ems and I got plans for you.” He winked at her as he leant back, and she gave him a strained smile, aware that JJ and Pandora were watching her intently.
Katie flicked Cook in the chest as they walked away, and he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, ignoring her shouts, both of them laughing as they went back to their table.
Naomi turned in her chair, saw Emily shaking her head and laughing as Cook dumped Katie on top of the table. Their eyes met for a moment, and Naomi turned around, had a sudden feeling that she was about to be put on trial.
Instead, she saw concern on the three faces before her instead of the hurt she’d anticipated.
“We’ve got to tell her, Thomas.” Pandora gave him a grateful smile as he took her hand. JJ was nodding.
“Tonight then.” He smiled at Pandora, turned to Naomi and she watched his expression harden. “When they cannot hear us.”
“Right.” She said, picking her bag up and standing. “Well if you’ll excuse me, I need some bloody alone time because this is getting ridiculous.” She pushed her chair back into the table harder than she intended. “See you tonight.” She sighed, and walked away from them, from the cafeteria, and stalked into the girls’ bathrooms.
She walked into a cubicle, locked the door behind her, and sat on top of the toilet seat lid. She fished her ipod out of her bag, put the volume as loud as it would go, and blasted music into her ears.
She’d watched, when she was younger, as her friends around her squabbled over meaningless crap, and she’d never wanted any of it. It wasn’t even like Cook or JJ knew her that well, and she wondered if it was a boy thing to constantly be in a pissing contest over her. Though it didn’t explain Pandora, or Emily.
The thought of Emily made her smile. She thought back to the last few afternoons. Emily had driven her home after school each day, and they talked and laughed in her room until dinner time, Emily never staying to eat with them. They’d done all the things that Naomi had imagined friends did, and scoffed at. But actually being part of it was different. Emily had recited her favourite poem to her one afternoon, for instance, off by heart as they lay side by side on the floor, and Naomi hadn’t laughed at her, had been too caught up in the sound of Emily’s voice. And that was the thing about Emily, she could listen to her for hours and not notice time passing, hadn’t noticed time passing, each afternoon seeming to become shorter and shorter.
Emily hadn’t pushed the physical contact since she’d told her that she wasn’t gay. Which was the truth, she thought. She wasn’t gay. Wasn’t anything, really. Had always found the thought of love, and romance, and bloody poetry, completely unappealing. She didn’t like Emily because she was a girl, she just liked spending time with her. She blew out a breath. If she could just spend time with Emily, without Cook and JJ, Pandora, or any of them, everything would be easier. She would be happier.
She jumped as the bathroom door swung open, her hand flying to her chest as she let out a small shriek. Emily peered into the stall, mouthing something at her and giggling. She wrenched her earphones out of her ears.
“What the fuck?” She said, breathing heavily. “You scared the shit out of me!”
Emily was laughing, and pointing at her. “Your face!” She rasped, and bent over for a moment shaking with laughter.
Naomi stood, trying to keep a smile off her face. She shoved Emily, walking past her. “You fucking bitch.” She said, but there wasn’t any real anger in her voice.
Emily stumbled toward her, reaching out and grabbing onto her arm for support. “Class just started, I came to get you and…” Emily started laughing again. She sobered after a moment, snorting at Naomi’s frown. “Fuck that was funny.” Emily grinned at her, and Naomi rolled her eyes. “What were you doing listening to music that bloody loudly on the toilet, anyway?”
Naomi stopped frowning, and pulled a face as they started walking toward their classroom. “Jesus, don’t get me started. Cook and JJ had some sort of, like, I don’t know, big dick contest over where I’m going tonight, and I just was sick of being around people.” She glanced at Emily, watching her process the information.
“Oh, yeah, Cook told us you were going to some birthday thing tonight.” Emily shrugged. “It doesn’t phase me where you spend your Friday nights.” Naomi gave her a half smile, and Emily gave her a cheeky one in reply. “As long as some of them are with me.”
“I’d prefer to spend all of them with just you.” Naomi said, and froze because she hadn’t meant to say that out loud. Fuck. But Emily just smirked at her as they reached their classroom.
She grabbed Emily’s hand quickly before they went in.
“Emily, listen. Can you make sure Cook and Katie don’t crash JJ’s thing tonight?” She bit her lip, still holding Emily’s hand.
“Why would they do that?” Emily asked, a small frown on her face.
“I don’t know, and they might not. But I just think they might be planning to, that’s all. And could you just make sure they won’t?” She looked at Emily, and Emily finally nodded, squeezing her hand.
She was expecting Cook to harp at her about ditching JJ’s party, but he was quiet, and only offered her a small wave as she left when class was over. Looking back later, she thought, that should have been a warning.
V^^^^^V
“Happy Birthday.” She said, handing over a card she’d hastily bought on the way to the bowling alley. She’d found a card with model airplanes on the front, and something about it had screamed ‘JJ’ at her, and as his face lit up at the sight of it she found herself smiling.
“Thanks! Although my birthday isn’t actually until tomorrow but I have to celebrate it tonight with you on account of it being somewhat of a tradition to celebrate with family dinner on actual birthdays.” He grinned at her, and she looked around, taking note of the over abundance of ten year olds running around screaming. She hadn’t been to a bowling alley in years, for Christ’s sake. She nodded at Thomas and Pandora as they all lined up to get their shoes and bowling alley assigned.
“Just us then?” She asked, hoping to God this wasn’t considered a double date.
JJ gave her a slightly embarrassed look. “Yes well I consider you all to be my closest friends and,” At her raised eyebrows, considering she’d known him all of two bloody weeks, he blushed. “Or well, only friends.” He mumbled, and Thomas patted him on the back.
“Right, well. Let’s bowl!” She smiled at them, trying to feel excited and not think about Emily at this moment getting ready for a night out dancing. Tried to swallow the sick feeling she was alarmed to notice when she thought of Emily, on drugs, and dancing with someone else, kissing someone else… she shook her head, almost stumbled as the line moved forward, and crossed her arms over her chest. Because, not that she cared. Really.
“So I think we should probably form two teams, boy girl, or we could have an individual competition?” JJ raised his eyebrows at them as they put their shoes on, Naomi wishing she hadn’t worn a white shirt because JJ had chosen the one night of the week that the bowling alley had black lighting and disco music playing, and she couldn’t hide if she bloody wanted to. Christ, she thought, she was like a bloody glow worm.
JJ bowled first, and Thomas sat down next to her.
“So Naomi, you must have many questions.” He began, and she looked around her for a moment.
“What, here?” She asked, and he nodded at her.
“There is much noise, it is better for us to talk this way.” He put his hands on his knees, looking up quickly and smiling as JJ managed a strike and turned around with his arms up in victory. Pandora jumped up, and high fived him.
“Right. Well. What did Cook do, then?” She turned toward him, stared at him intently.
“Last year Pandora she was friends with Effy, Katie and Emily as you are now. They invite her to hang out with them, but her mother does not allow it. So she invites them into her home one evening, and her mother makes them delicious food, an excellent hostess, but they do not eat it.” Thomas licked his lips, looking up as Pandora got a spare, turning around with a delighted grin on her face. He looked back at Naomi. “It is your turn.”
“What?” She said, turning and seeing JJ motioning toward her with a bowling ball in his hands. “Christ.” She said, resigning herself and standing up. She chose her own ball, threw it down the lane without much effort, rolling her eyes as she managed to hit one pin. She ignored JJ as he attempted to give her advice, picked up the heaviest ball she could find, and rolled it slowly toward the remaining pins, turning without bothering to see what she’d hit.
She sat beside Thomas, annoyed when he stood up with a shrug. “My turn.” He said, and Pandora took his seat.
“What was Thomas up to?” Pandora asked, and Naomi raised her eyebrows.
“Your mum made food at some party you had but Effy and them wouldn’t eat it or something.” She crossed her arms, wondering if declining someone’s mothers cooking was really grounds for all out war.
“Yeah, Nai, and mum had made whizzer brownies, secret family recipe, but they wouldn’t touch them. And they’d helped make them! ‘Cept for the secret part of course. But then, there was a secret part even I didn’t know about.” Pandora’s face darkened for a moment. “I don’t know which one did it, but they put a whack lot of drugs in mum’s brownies.”
Naomi wanted to laugh, because really. But she didn’t, did her best to keep her face neutral as Pandora went on.
“Anyways me and mum ate a bunch of them. They drugged my mum, Nai.” Pandora looked at her sadly, and Naomi frowned. On the one hand that was bloody hilarious, and on the other, well, not so much since Naomi was sure this wasn’t the end of the story. “And me, though I didn’t know did I? All of a sudden everything was magic, and mum was dancing to rock music and mum only ever listens to opera.” Pandora stood up, her turn to bowl, and Naomi was thankful when Thomas sat back down. Pandora was lovely, but all Naomi had gotten from her was that Emily and her friends had forced her mother to have a good bloody time.
“She tells you how they drug her mother?” Thomas asked, and Naomi nodded. “Pandora, she does not remember all that happened afterwards. But those girls disappeared with her mother after they let the boys in. Cook, he talk to her, charm her. She says it was like being hypnotised. Because of the drugs, she is vulnerable. He seduces her. Pandora, she wakes to her house in complete disarray.” Naomi listened intently, waving off JJ who took it upon himself to take her turn for her. Thomas looked down at his hands for a moment, and sighed. “Pandora, she wakes up naked with bruises and scratches all over her.”
Naomi winced. “What?”
Thomas nodded. Naomi saw his hands ball into fists.
Naomi leant backwards. This wasn’t funny at all, and she looked to Pandora who was high fiving JJ after he’d gotten yet another strike. Thomas got up to bowl, and Pandora looked at her, gave her a sheepish look, blushing.
Naomi sat, slightly stunned, until Thomas came back to sit down. “There is something else.” He said gravely, and reached out to take her hands and hold them in his, squeezing. “He drinks blood from her.”
Naomi’s draw dropped, and she pulled her hands back as if she’d been burned. “What?” She said, causing JJ and Pandora to turn around.
“She has bite marks on her neck, her thigh. She is weak.” He stares at her, as if willing her to believe him. “Her mother, she has strange marks on her throat and wrists.”
“She was probably bloody hung over and he was enthusiastic. She doesn’t remember him biting her?” This was ludicrous, and she felt awfully like the butt of someone’s joke.
Thomas shook his head. “No, she blacked out. Had visions. When she wakes up, almost a full day has passed.” He shrugged at her, and she furiously began taking her shoes off.
“And you expect me to believe what exactly, that they’re vampires?” She threw the bowling shoes on the floor, started putting on her own. “That’s fucking ridiculous, Thomas.” She didn’t know why she felt so angry.
Pandora sat on her other side, and put a hand on her arm. “I don’t believe it either, Nai. But I don’t know what to believe.”
“Right. Well. Thank you JJ for a lovely bloody party, and happy birthday.” She stood up and began walking to the bowling alley entrance, pulling her phone out of her bag as she went. She dialled Emily’s number, and she picked up after one ring.
“Listen, can you come and get me? I think I want to hang out with you lot after all.” She began walking toward a convenience store. She needed a fucking cigarette.
“Of course, be there soon.” Emily said, and hung up without asking where exactly Naomi was.
She smoked furiously for twenty minutes until Emily pulled up with Cook in the back seat, winding down the passenger window and leaning to smile at her.
Naomi crushed her cigarette with her foot and got into the car.
“You alright, princess?” Cook asked, leaning toward her with a grin. “The children too much for you?”
Naomi sighed as Emily began to drive away. “You could say that.” She said, leaning heavily into her seat.
“What happened?” Emily asked, reaching over to briefly pat her knee before changing gears.
“They told me about Pandora’s party last year.” Naomi glanced at Emily, and watched as she grimaced.
She turned and looked at Cook, watched him staring out the car window for a moment.
“That didn’t go so well, I’m afraid.” Emily said, and Naomi turned to look at her. “Katie thought it would be fun to be off our faces, which is what she always thinks, and brought all this MDMA along and put it in the brownies.” Emily frowned for a moment. “Anyway, we got high as kites and didn’t realise her bloody mum was going to eat them too. We had to put her to bed, the daft cow had eaten seven.” Emily threw her a quick smile, and Naomi returned it. “And fucking Cook,” Emily looked in the rear view mirror, and Naomi turned to see Cook flip Emily off, and roll his eyes at her. “Convinces Pandora that he wants to go out with her, and fucks her in her living room.” Naomi frowned at that.
“It wasn’t like that!” Cook leant forward. “I’m not a bloody rapist! She’d never done it, wanted to, I offered, sorted. She was into it. Wanted to get it over and done with. I helped her out. She talked about wanting to lose it incessantly, and then there was an opportunity so we went for it.” Cook leant backwards, and crossed his arms. “Wasn’t my fault she thought we were in love or something.”
Emily rolled her eyes. “Whatever happened, she was scarred for life and JJ and Thomas hate us for it. I don’t blame them, sort of.” Emily shrugged. “Plus you know, we drugged her and her mum who now doesn’t let her see anyone or do anything. She’s probably waiting in the parking lot at the bowling alley making sure Pandora isn’t being gang banged.”
Naomi snorted. That made bloody sense, Pandora seemed like the type to get attached, and her mother sounded like a lunatic so of course she blew it out of proportion.
“Probably. Jesus Christ.” She looked at Emily, reached over to squeeze her leg thinking, fuck it. “They were trying to convince me you were a pack of vampires.” She laughed, watched as Emily looked at her in surprise.
“What?” She said, and Cook leant forward from the backseat laughing.
“Fucking vampires?” He slapped the back of Naomi’s seat and threw his head back. “Fucking hilarious!”
Emily started laughing as well, and Naomi felt happier, her anger dissipating into incredulity.
“I’m telling you, too much bloody science fiction. They need to get out more.” She turned to Emily, looking at her fondly. “I want to get fucked up tonight.”
“A-fucking-men!” Cook cried out from the back seat, and they were all still grinning when they pulled up at the club, as were Effy and Freddie who waited on the footpath. Even Katie gave her a smile, which was something.
When Emily showed her a pill on her tongue later that night, Naomi didn’t hesitate in pulling the shorter girl toward her, and kissing her well past what was necessary. They were on a crowded dance floor, amidst flashing lights, and Naomi knew no one could see them. When the drugs hit her later than that, she kissed Emily again, pulling at her shirt desperately, and when Emily moved to her neck she tilted her head back and gazed at the ceiling, and saw Emily lying naked in her bed, kissing down her face and shoulder, reciting the lines of her favourite poem as her hand moved further and further down Naomi’s body.
“We have lingered in the chambers of the sea, by sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown, till human voices wake us, and we drown.”
V^^^^^V
Chapter Four: Happiness Hit Her Like A Bullet In The Back