She's surprised when she calls Katie. She shouldn't...probably.

Katie greets her pleasantly enough on the phone though, and so Naomi goes against her better judgement and makes plans to meet Katie for coffee.

Katie greets her with a hug and Naomi can't help being surprised. It's hard not to expect the old Katie, the one she went to college with.

"I can't believe you're matching again! Did you have a brain transplant with somebody with a fashion sense?" Katie teases and Naomi finds herself letting out a small laugh.

It feels strange. It feels foreign. It's the first time she's laughed in twenty-four days after all. Except it's not, because she'd laughed a little night before, because of Katie. It had felt equally as foreign then too.

"Shut up, Katie," Naomi retorts.

"And who has lamer comebacks?" Katie adds with a wicked grin.

Naomi laughs again. "Glad to see you haven't given up on bitchiness completely Katiekins," she manages this time.

"That's better," Katie says with a small laugh of her own.

They order coffee and settle into a corner of the café. Katie studies Naomi for a few seconds. "How are you doing?" Katie inquires.

Naomi contemplates lying. She contemplates saying she's fine. Something makes her tell the truth. She shrugs. "I've been better."

"Sorry," Katie murmurs.

"Are you? I mean...Are you genuinely sorry that me and Emily broke up?" Naomi inquires because she can't help herself. She's been wondering it since the night before.

Katie looks as if she's about to give a smart-ass retort, but she bites her lip and takes a deep breath. "Yeah. I am," Katie replies.

Naomi takes a deep breath as she processes Katie's response. "Don't take this the wrong way, but why? You were always so against us. I mean you stopped giving us quite as much shit, but it never really seemed like you were happy for us."

Katie sighs. "I wasn't against the two of you being together. Well, maybe at first, but I was young and stupid and clinging to an idea of Emily that you dating her didn't fit into. But then I saw it, saw the two of you, and the real Emily, and then I stopped thinking you two shouldn't be together."

"So making our lives slightly miserable was just so you didn't lose your touch?" Naomi interjects before she can think better of it.

"Of course," Katie replies with a grin, but then the grin fades and she turns serious again. "I was jealous, Naomi. I mean sure you two had bumps in the road, but all in all you were good together. You fit together in a way that I'd never fit with anyone before, and I was jealous of that. Of the happiness it caused. Of the love that Emily got to feel for you and the love that you returned to her."

Naomi finds her brain replaying some of those happy times: cuddling on her couch while they watched telly, stroking Emily's hair in the morning to gently wake her up and having Emily's radiant smile be her reward, laying by the lake, their lake, and just being together, holding hands, linking arms. Familiar tears sting her eyes when she remembers that those things will never happen again.

Katie covers Naomi's hand with hers and Naomi takes comfort in the small gesture.

"Sorry," Katie murmurs.

Naomi shakes her head. "No. It's fine." A tear trickling down her cheek betrays her.

Katie gives her a knowing, slightly sceptical smile and has the common decency to look the other way pretend not to notice when Naomi uses her napkin to dry her tears.

They drink their coffee in silence for a few minutes while Naomi regains her composure a bit.

"Did she say why? When she broke it off?" Katie asks hesitantly.

Naomi nods. "She needed space and wanted to be able to live her life in St. Andrews without me."

"I'm sorry," Katie says softly.

"Me too," Naomi agrees, closing her eyes to keep in the tears that are threatening again.

"She's changed," Katie comments. "I mean at Christmas and stuff...She was different. And when we talk...she's just changed."

"Yeah. I think you're right," Naomi replies, taking the last sip of her coffee and then staring idly into the empty mug.

"Let's get out of here, yeah?" Katie suggests, standing up.

Naomi nods gratefully. The air in the café has somehow become suffocating as thoughts of Emily and the life they could have had together swirl through Naomi's head.

Katie links her arm through Naomi's as they exit the café and Naomi's taken aback at the familiarity of it. As if sensing Naomi's discomfort, Katie drops her arm and settles into walking beside her.

They walk in silence for a bit and end up wandering along rocky beach. Naomi finds herself tuning out the drifts of laughter from the crazy's actually playing in the surf on this cold March afternoon. They must be English, she muses briefly, because nobody else is daft enough to come to the beach on a freezing cold day just because the sun is actually shining.

"When I first got to London, I latched myself onto the fittest most popular bloke I could find, yeah?" Katie says after a while.

"Well, it's good to know some things haven't changed," Naomi comments with a sly grin before she can stop herself.

"Shut up, cunt," Katie mutters, but she's grinning as well and there's not vehemence in her voice. "So anyway, I hung out with him a lot to start, and then I realised that he was a complete and total wanker before I realised that he was gay."

"Well I can't say I'm surprised, given how long it took you to figure out that Emily was gay," Naomi snorts, but then thoughts of the redhead fill her mind and she feels pain stabbing through her acutely and she freezes mid stride.

Katie stops and looks at her and swallows whatever retort she was about to shoot back at Naomi.

"Yeah, right," Katie murmurs instead. "So like, I'm still hanging out with him, yeah? Cause he's still super fit. And he's just like walking all over me because, let's face it, my confidence still wasn't all that great at the end of college thanks to this lovely scar on my head and I kinda started in on that pattern, until one day I met Luke, who it turned out Carl, that's the guy, was screwing and screwing over at the same time, right? So we formed a kind of bond over how Carl was treating both of us and we realised we didn't have to take that shit and we both kicked his sorry ass to the curb."

Naomi was nodding along but she didn't understand the point of the story, assuming there was one. "Ok..." she prompts when Katie stops talking.

"And then like a month later he came back and apologised to both of us, because apparently he'd actually fallen for someone who'd fucked him over for a change, and he even tried getting back with Luke, who was with Jason by then."

"Jason being?" Naomi interrupts.

"His current boyfriend. The one he moved here for?" Katie reminds her.

"Right," Naomi remembers Luke talking about a Jason the other night. "So is there a point to this little story of yours Katie?"

Katie sighs and takes a seat on a small outcropping of rocks before looking up at Naomi. "People can be cunts whether they're gay or straight, and they can make mistakes either way as well. It doesn't matter if you're gay or straight because you're still human."

"Yes, Katie. Welcome to the world the rest of us have lived in for years now," Naomi replies sarcastically because she still doesn't really get the point.

"Shut up you stupid cow!" Katie sticks out her tongue at Naomi. "What I'm trying to say is Emily's human. And I'm sorry for that. I'm sorry that you got hurt, but there are other people around, and in time you'll heal. Or my sister will realise she's made a mistake."

"You think she's made a mistake? Because, if I recall correctly, you thought her dating me to begin with was a big mistake," Naomi asks as she stares at Katie in surprise.

Katie rolls her eyes. "For fuck's sake, can't you just take a fucking compliment?"

Naomi just continues to stare blankly. "I'm just not used to them from you," Naomi tries to tease, but her words just come out sounding extremely honest instead.

"Yeah. Sorry about that," Katie glances out at the waves.

Naomi takes a deep breath, nods, and takes a seat next to Katie, readjusting slightly when she realises that she's chosen possibly the spikiest part of the rock to perch on.

Katie notices Naomi's discomfort and laughs lightly. Naomi tries to glare up at her but instead just ends up laughing as well. They allow themselves to indulge in their fit of giggles for a while, exchanging looks that simply fuel the flames of their laughing.

When they finally relax and catch their breath, they just sit side by side staring out at the ocean for a while, listening to the sound of the surf as the wind howls around them and the sun beats down, not cutting down on the cold at all.

Naomi shivers finally and glances at Katie. "I don't think Emily thinks she's made a mistake," Naomi admits and she feels like she's stabbing herself in the heart as she says it. She takes a deep ragged breath. "And I'm not even positive I think she did. It just hurts, knowing that I'm not with her. That I have no right anymore to inquire as to how she is, or what she's doing, or who she's doing it with. I wake up every morning and forget, just for a second, and then it floods back in a horrible wave that feels like it's drowning me."

Katie reaches out and takes Naomi's hand in hers, giving it a squeeze. It's such a small gesture, really, but to Naomi it feels like so much more and she finds tears welling up in her eyes again. It really is ridiculous, she thinks, that she can't seem to go a few hours, let alone a whole day, without crying. And to cry in front of Katie Fitch...Well, part of her head still can't help that think that it's a ridiculously bad idea to let Katie see her be vulnerable in any way, even though Katie's given her no reason to feel that way in the past two days. Still the tears squeeze out and burn their path down her face and Katie, to her credit, pretends not to notice.

"I don't want to go back to Bristol for Easter. She's everywhere there," Naomi mutters through a sniffle as she wipes at her tears.

"Do you have to go?" Katie inquires.

Naomi nods as she gets hold of her emotions with a last sniffle. "I promised my mum. I think she's a bit lonely with me gone."

"I'm sure my parents would be happy to lend her James to keep her company," Katie offers with a grin.

Naomi barks out a laugh. "I don't think she's quite that lonely."

Katie laughs in return, then her turns to Naomi with a sly look on her face. "Just, like, remember to be your cunt self, only don't forget that you actually kind of have a fashion sense now, and I'm sure you'll be ok."

Naomi rolls her eyes, but grins nonetheless. "I dunno. I just got a sudden urge to wear something oversized and repulsively floral."

Katie groans. "Ugh! Don't even joke about that! At least you admit it's repulsive now."

"Yes, but so's leopard print, which I have to say I'm rather glad I haven't seen you wear in the past two days," Naomi confesses.

"Touché! But for the record, a bit of leopard print, can be quite stylish!"

"Oh yeah?" Naomi raises an eyebrow sceptically.

"Definitely!" Katie says, sounding self-assured. "I bet that I could design you an outfit that had leopard print somewhere on it that you would wear."

Naomi chuckles. "I highly doubt it, Katiekins."

Katie rolls her eyes, but looks slightly smug.

"What?" Naomi inquires.

"Nothing," Katie grins innocently back at her. "Just thinking."

Naomi is surprised when she finally glances at her watch and finds she's been hanging out with Katie for the better part of four hours and she's only cried once. In fact she's been laughing for most of it. Katie, it turns out, has rather entertaining stories from her first term at fashion college and Naomi can tell, instantly, in the animated way she talks about it, that Katie loves it. When they eventually part ways, Katie surprises Naomi with another hug (and Naomi's really not sure that she'll ever get used to getting a friendly hug from Katie because it's just so weird, even if the general shape of her body is just so familiar that it's painful). When Katie pulls away she smiles genuinely at Naomi and says, "So Jason and Luke are making dinner for me tomorrow night and Luke suggested I invite you and Alice. What do you say?"

Naomi hesitates. She's just had a rather pleasant day with Katie, but it still feels weird. And there is still the problem that Katie reminds her of Emily, not that she's not thinking about Emily most of the time when she's not with Katie anyway. She just can't help feeling like she's waiting for the other shoe to drop and bitch Katie to come back full force. But Katie raises her eyebrows in a hopeful way, and Naomi finds herself replying, "Yeah, sure. Sounds fun. I'll ask Alice."

Katie's smile broadens and she waves at Naomi. "Great. Bye then. I'll text you their address."

Naomi watches her leave as she bites her lip, thinking about how strange the world seems sometimes. When Katie's out of sight, she shakes herself out of her daze and heads back to her halls. She doesn't notice until later that she feels a little less empty inside than she's been feeling.