Okay! So, this is my first attempt type deal. I've been amazingly inspired by everyone on FanFiction, the authors here, and everyone who reads these stories, are a force to be reckoned with. So I hope you enjoy, and I wont complain if you drop me a review, because I plan on making this one hell of a ride, and I might need a little encouragement every once in a while. ;)
Prepare for lots of Naomily goodness, and I know I said they all go their separate ways, but everyone else from gen 2 will show up at some point too, along with a few surprises.
I don't own Skins, but it owns my heart.
Chapter 1 -
It was late August, the summer after our last year at Roundview College. The air was warmer than I had ever remembered it being at this time of year, the usual London rain giving way to long humid days and when it did rain, mostly at night, it did little to quell the sticky heat. My loose fitting shirts often stuck to my sweaty back when I took the train home from work in the evenings, no thanks to the swarming mass of bodies packed into the cars. Everyone became more irritable, especially on the train, and more often than not lately I'd ended up getting off early to avoid the hostile atmosphere. It was like the weather was trying to make up for the fact that our last year of college had gone so fucking tits up though, or that's how it seemed. I preferred the rain really. I felt like I hadn't seen rain in years, and all I wanted was for it to downpour and wash everything that'd happened away, make me a new, clean slate.
It feels strange being out in the real world, not worrying about coursework or curfews (not that we ever cared that we had those) or which club we'd be getting fucked up in Friday nights. The last weeks of college had been, well, eventful. We were all dealing with Freddie's murder; Cook had gotten off rather lightly considering he'd beaten Foster to a bloody pulp. Claiming it was self defense did him a world of good, even with his record of violent tendencies. Anthea had taken Effie to Cardiff to stay with Tony for a while, thinking it would somehow make her forget it all happened. She tried her best, but we all knew that would never be the answer for Effy. Effy'd lost everything, running away wasn't what she needed. She needed her friends, her support. Panda and Thomas were at Harvard. Effy was really the only one I still kept in contact with, and we were both our own special brands of messed up.
I was here, in London. I left a week after Freddie's funeral; I couldn't stand being there without the rest of our group to deal with it on my own. I haven't been back, even to visit my mum, I know she worries about me and I feel bad for leaving just as we were beginning to finally be a family again, she did kick out all of our lodgers and found us a new flat, more fitting for us. She calls me every day though, and she's been seeing Kieran, as strange as that's always been, and she's happy, so I can't complain. He's good for her. She's doing well; she doesn't need a moody depressed daughter around bringing her down. She understands that I had to leave; she always knows what I need before I know it. As much as I hate to admit it, she knows me better than anyone.
Sometimes you just have to leave, I'd reason with myself when I'd start to feel guilty. I knew running away would fix nothing, but here I was on the train going home from work in a completely different city, running away. I had picked up a journalism job with one of the local London papers, it was nothing near as exciting as the social politics classes that I had planned on attending would have been, if things had turned out differently. I had been accepted to Goldsmith, but I knew I wouldn't have been up to it after everything, and I knew I would be able to get in next year, so I decided a year off would do me some good. I had always been so worried about grades and education, I worked my ass off to get my A-Levels, and even at my lowest point, drugged up and withdrawn into myself I'd managed to scrape by and get top grades. Now after everything, after seeing the mini solar system of people I'd found to gravitate with fall to pieces and drift apart, it didn't seem so important anymore. I was here, alive, drifting, what more did I need?
The train this afternoon was full and bustling with people, some straight backed and wearing crisp suites, and some with dirt on their cheeks carrying old guitars and begging for change. I liked to watch them; it gave my mind something other than the constant pity party in my brain to focus on. I thrived off of observing them, something I clearly picked up from the all-seeing Effy. I often imagined what they would do when they got off the train, whether they had a family to go happily home to, or a sick old parent to take care of, or if they were going home alone every night, like me.
The train came to a slow stop and I got up, welcoming the burst of fresh air when the doors opened. I slid between the tired occupants of the station and made my way onto the wet streets of London. I smiled, it was finally raining. Just a light drizzle, but the clouds were dark and ominous now, and I could smell a storm coming. My shoes hit the slick pavement and I made my way to the old bakery that I frequented a few blocks away. It was starting to cool down, the rain slowly soaking through to my skin and I thought a cup of hot tea might warm me up. Silly I know, complaining about the heat and then seeking it when it rains again. I think it's just the way people react to certain weather; maybe it's a science thing.
The old man that owned and ran the bakery knew me by name now and had my order ready when I walked in. Chai tea and a blueberry muffin. I inhaled the scent of fresh bread and picked out a few fresh made sandwiches for dinner, then paid the man with a smile and a wink. He and his wife lived above the shop, and from the few conversations I'd had with him on the days when I was the only customer to come into the place for hours, I'd heard quite a few fascinating stories. He'd met his wife when he was seventeen, traveling from London, where he was born, to Spain, France, Italy, Greece. He blew into a small fishing village on the edge of Athens one day and was wandering the pier when he saw her.
"There she was," He'd say, his old eyes sparkling at the memory, "sitting on her father's fishing boat, soaking up the sun like only the Greek can. I knew nothing about her, but I fell in love in that moment." He laughed then, "I went back to sit on the rocks overlooking the boats for weeks, it was the longest I'd stayed in one place in months. She noticed me after a while and we would waste the entire day talking, she taught me about Athens, her family, her culture. She taught me Greek. I had to work on her father's boat for nearly 6 months before he agreed to let me take her out once." I laughed with him. Love like that doesn't happen anymore.
He liked my company as much as I liked his I think. He never asked more about me than I'd offer up myself, and I was thankful for it. We were both quiet, he'd tend to the shop and I'd sit and read or work on an article, or just watch the people passing the windows. We were comrades, we both new loss. They'd lost their only child when he was young, I lost one of my best mates. He'd only mentioned it once; the only time I'd seen his eyes look so sad. I never pushed though, and I think I gave him back a bit of what he lost. Someone to fret over and take care of. Not that I'd let anyone know I needed taking care of. I was a stone fortress, unbreakable.
Normally I would bring my food home and eat there, with my loyal feline wrapped around my feet, a stray that I took in on a particularly cold night a few weeks ago. She like eating leftover crumbs and climbed up into my lap whenever I sat down to write an article, but it had started raining harder as soon as I turned to leave the cozy shop and it was warm here. I couldn't bring myself to step out into the storm quite yet. So I strode over to my usual place by the front window and sunk into the large leather arm chair, setting my food down on the low table beside it and let my mind wander as I sipped my tea. The sound of the rain outside was soothing and soon I was pleasantly relaxed.
I heard every order that that the old man took, and how kindly he spoke to the patrons who came in. He joked with the regulars, and was polite and patient, even when a rowdy group of teenagers came through and left a mess in their wake. I liked that about him. He didn't care who you were, he was nice to everyone. I wished I could be like that when I'd look at him sometimes, but then I'd always convince myself that caring too much never ends well. I moved to clean up after them, but he shooed me back to my leather covered haven and happily cleaned it up himself. When she arrived though, I was drawn out of my daydreaming and had to drag my eyes from the rain and see who the unfamiliar husky voice belonged to.
"May I have a coffee, black, and a croissant please?" Her voice was just the right amount of husk, and it dripped with the perfect amounts of confidence and innocence. I'd never heard anything like it.
She turned and leaned on the counter while the old man went to get her order, and we locked eyes for a moment. She was small, 5"2 tops, absolutely adorable. Dark skinny jeans covered legs that went on for miles despite her small figure, and a tight shirt fit perfectly to a body that made my head spin. I felt my lips curl into a smile as her chocolaty brown eyes bore into me. There was a fiery mischief that danced in them that I couldn't help but find extremely enticing. She smiled back and looked away quickly, before thanking the old man and sitting at a table nearer to the door. The wind whipped her crimson hair around her porcelain face and into her eyes every time someone came into the shop, and I couldn't stop a chuckle from escaping my lips when she became increasingly irritated by it.
She heard my laughter and glared into her coffee mug, before shooting me a look as if to say well are you just going to sit there and laugh at me, or are you going to do something to fix this? I suddenly felt a blush make its way to my cheeks and an unfamiliar nervousness dance around in my stomach, but manage to shrug it off and point to the chair opposite my own. I frowned at myself, I hadn't even noticed another person like this since coming here, I'd observed people, but never felt anything like this. And I've never been one to initiate any sort of contact with people, let alone laugh at them and then offer them a seat next to me in my favourite place, but something made me want to talk to the petite redhead. I shook my head at my strange behaviour.
She set her mug down next to mine and sat, her shoulders relaxing as she sunk into the chair that made her seem even smaller than she was. We sat in silence for a while, and more than once I found myself looking at her over the rim of my cup, catching her eye and then a blink later, staring back out towards the rain. Something about her made my eyes unconsciously gravitate towards her, like they wanted to soak in the colour of her hair or catch one last look into her eyes, like they were afraid she'd disappear any second. I wanted to say something, I didn't want her to finish her coffee and disappear forever. I couldn't seem to find my voice though, and seemed to forget to breathe when our eyes met. After the third time they did she rolled her eyes and spoke,
"I'm Emily." I looked past the cup I was half hiding behind to find her leaning forward in her oversized chair, looking at me intently her hand outstretched. Her gaze made my stomach flutter, and it was making me more nervous than I already was. What made it worse was that she'd only said two words to me and already I never wanted her to stop talking. I hadn't thought about Freddie or Effy or my mum once since she walked in, I felt a strange, welcome calm accompanied by an even stranger excitement with her near me. My heart felt like it was on speed, pounding uneven rhythms against my ribcage. I chastised myself mentally. Come on Campbell, stop being stupid and say hello.
"Um.. Hi, I'm, uhh, I'm Naomi." I managed to stutter. I shook her hand and shivered as our fingers brushed when she pulled away, sending sparks up my arm. I puffed out a frustrated breath and studied the bottom of my now empty mug.
She let out a low, throaty laugh at my clear inability to form any kind of coherent thought, but when I looked back up at her, her lips were forming into a beautiful smile, and her eyes glimmered mischievously, and I wasn't sure anyone had ever looked at me like that in my entire life. If I wasn't having trouble forming words before, I sure as hell was now.
"Nice to meet you Naomi, can I get you another tea?" She got up before I could answer and made her way back to the counter. The old man caught my eye as she did, and shot me a wink and a knowing smirk. He knew something.
She returned a few minutes later, handed me my fresh tea and smiled that smile again before sitting down and looking out the window. It was then I knew I was a goner.
I could definitely get use to a smile like that.
Oh gosh, so there it is. What did you guys think, let me know? I really hope you guys like this so far, I know it's just the boring intro chapter, but I promise it's all going places I know you'll love. Yup, it's going there. ;) I should be updating on a semi-normal basis. Because I love you guys. And I love Naomily.