Fragile (adj):
1. easily broken, shattered, or damaged; delicate; brittle; frail
2. vulnerably delicate, as in appearance
3. lacking in substance or force; flimsy
They used to call her the ice queen, the kid who never had many friends, always buried herself in schoolwork, the girl whose heart was made of glass. She liked it like that, who needed people anyway? They're all going to leave you after all. Unfortunately, her plan failed the instant she met Emily Fitch. She was always there. Always, just fucking there. Emily was like fucking water or something, once it runs, there's no stopping it from reaching its destination. It was boiling hot at first, too much, she felt like she was literally melting, like she was soft and vulnerable, weak. Hates it more than anything else in the world. Weakness. She felt as if Emily were breaking her down, slowly but surely.
The Love Ball, ahh yes. The day she finally gave up, surrendered to the inevitable. It was the day when everything else just evaporated into thin air and all that's left was them. Naomi and Emily. And of course, that, what everyone calls 'love'. Things became a lot warmer after that. More comfortable. It's blissful, she never wanted it to stop, never thought it would end. She was so fucking stupid back then, thinking their little bubble would be strong enough. Nothing lasts forever though. Nothing.
It all ended when Emily said those words, asked Naomi to go to Mexico with her. Next year, she'd said. Wait, what? She may be in love with the most wonderful girl in the world, but that didn't mean she had no hopes, dreams or aspirations. She had planned it all long before she had any clue that Emily Fitch even existed, everything was discussed and planned out in specific details with her mother. But where was she now? On her honeymoon with Keiran, and who was here? Emily. She couldn't just give up everything for Emily, could she? Saying 'yes' would be unthinkable, but saying 'no' was impossible. She caved to her once, and now...well, how could she say no?
Naomi felt shivers going up and down her spine when Emily came home one day with travel brochures and an all planned out trip to La Paz. The reality of it hit her like a bucket of ice, and suddenly everything was no longer warm and comfy, it was cold. She shouldn't have been surprised when the nagging thoughts began to appear in the back of her mind, but they did, and like everything else that caught Naomi Campbell off-guard, it scared the shit out of her. The cracks that were always there started to show. The burning sensation of wanting to run as fast as she could away from everything reared its ugly head once again, so she did, kind of. The open day was just one day after all, it wasn't as if she were leaving Emily for good. It's safe.
She met Sophia on the train, and they talked, because that's what people who share the same interests and have time to kill do, they talk. The open day was fun, spent with Sophia, because they had things in common, and were both teenagers, so why not have fun?
They go back to Naomi's after getting back to Bristol because it's near the train station and frankly, she wouldn't mind having company (something which she'd grown dangerously used to), seeing as how Emily was going to be gone for 2 days.
It was nice, having someone to talk to, without the pressures of the future, traveling or parents weighing in at the back of her mind. She told Sophia about feeling trapped, because it's a good thing to get stuff off your shoulders isn't it? Her mum once said so. And Sophia of all people would understand, that's what she wanted wasn't it? Someone who understood.
Naomi couldn't remember leaning in, but not long after, they were kissing. Sophia was soft and gentle, just like Emily, before life fucked things up, for her at least. They didn't stop, simply because it was the first time in a while that Naomi actually felt carefree, warm again.
She didn't see Sophia much, or at all at college after that day, maybe it was fate, or maybe it was Naomi's mind subconsciously telling her to stay away from the brunette. Either way, she just remembered that the rest of the summer went by without a hitch, turned out forgetting Sophia was easy, up until that night at the club...
Emily found out, of course. What she never anticipated though, was that when the redhead left, a vital part of her felt like it was ripped out mercilessly.
It was broken. Everything was broken. And there's no way to put the pieces of broken glass back together again.