Chapter 3: After The Call

Effy

I fucked it up. I always fuck things up. I'm starting to think that subconsciously I'm doing it on purpose.

I'm now watching Naomi sleeping. Thankfully she doesn't snore. I'm starting to wonder if this was the first time she took MDMA. I possibly take it too much though. I should probably ease up a bit on it.

Naomi has potential for us. For what I'm trying to do that is. And what I'm trying to do is, live. I'm a fairly good leader, but what does that get you when you dropped your grades lower and lower every day of college. That's why I took up this whole 'crime' thing. It works. It's not stable income per say, but it's helping me keep the house.

I'm starting to think I'm using the house as an excuse though. As a result I'm fucking everyone up around me. I'm bringing a random girl I met in a jail cell into a fucking bank heist for christ's sakes.

The moon is shining onto Naomi's face, and despite the fact that she looks tired as hell, she looks good. I don't know why Katie was being so mean to her, but then again that is just her, isn't it?

I'm not going to sleep. That's my realization after an hour of staring at different points in my room. Naomi's breathing is a relaxing noise, but it's not enough. At that, I hear a knock on my door.

After making my hair look okay, I walk down the stairs to the front door. I wonder who would possibly come here this late and look through the peak.

Katie. Katie's here and she doesn't have Emily with her. That usually isn't a good sign. I take a deep breath and open it anyway, watching her put on her fake smile. She always has that at the ready, but I can see right through it.

"Effy. Nice to..." I guess she remembered how late it was. "Um... I brought candy!" She holds up a package of bite-sized chocolates. She's smiling but there is a pleading look in her eyes.

I motion for her to come in, even though that type of chocolate isn't exactly my favorite. "Be quiet, okay? Naomi's sleeping upstairs." Katie immediately has an upset look on her face, though I don't know which reason she is upset. She can't just keep coming here in the middle of the night every time she needs to get rid of some urges.

"Don't give me that look. Take a seat at the table and I'll get some tea for us, okay?" I say.

By the time we both have tea in front of us and I'm sitting across from her, Katie looks anxious. I always thought it was strange how much she would freshen up. After a full night of partying she looked like she wasn't tired at all and smelled of roses.

"I didn't mean to be so angry with Naomi it's just..." Katie looks at the table so she can fix the mask she always seems to wear into conversations. "Emily... Emily doesn't need this... this affliction. I'm supposed to protect her, it would be too much for her..."

I stare at her. I don't think she realizes how hypocritical she is a lot of the time. "Can you listen to yourself? Please? You just called it an affliction."

Katie falters, looking down at the table again. I take a drink of the considerably awful tea I had just made.

"Effy... I don't know, this is all too confusing, okay?" I can't even believe her. She's like two different people. But that's the problem with me. Effy Stonem doesn't get angry, she's not supposed to. She's the calm one. It's absolutely dreadful sometimes. I take another deep breath, grabbing the small bag of chocolates she had brought.

"So, Katie Fitch. What were you actually planning on doing when you came here?" I ask, showing her the label of the candy. "Before you knew Naomi was staying here. What was your plan, hm?"

I couldn't see Katie's eyes anymore. She was pointing her gaze down at her high heels now.

"Are you going to answer? Or does Katie Fitch just constantly play a game of hide n' seek with hersel-"

"Shut up okay!" Katie said, her voice shaky. You know what? I think I do fuck things up for everyone. I probably pushed her a little too far there. I'm supposed to be nice to her. I brought her into all of this stealing business. She was probably going to have a nice husband and family, live in wealth, vacation everywhere before I came into the picture. Sure, she wouldn't have been happy, but that's what she wanted. She wants that cookie-cutter princess life. I can't really tell if I'm in the wrong or the right.

Katie stands, and I notice her hands are trembling. "I... I have to go..." She says, grabbing her coat from the back of the chair. I don't attempt to stop her. I don't think she wants me to. That doesn't stop me from feeling worse about it. I take another deep breath as I hear the front door slam shut. I stare at the bag of chocolates. I can't eat these now. It's not really fair for me to.

I stand and leave the tea at the table. Even though I'm the only one living in this house, I act like someone else will clean it up. I finally yawn and start walking up the stairs, and then I hear whimpers from the bedroom. I speed my pace, feeling even worse about everything.

When I walk in silently, I see Naomi is crying into her pillow. She whimpers again, and that makes me wince. I don't know why she's crying, but I'm not one to just ask about things I don't understand. I try to understand things I don't understand. I step quietly over to the bed. She hasn't seen me yet because her eyes are closed through her tears. I lay next to her seeing her eyes open for a split second before I put my arms around her.

My fingers run along her back as I try my best at being comforting. "Shh..." I whisper into her ear, and her eyes close again. She was embarrassed by it all, I can tell by the look I got at her eyes.

I gently nuzzle her cheek with my own. Maybe it was the drug dreams, or something like that, but she is really shaken up. "I said shh..." I whisper again, and I notice her try at a chuckle completely fails as she cries into my shoulder. After some time I can finally feel her relaxing again in my arms, and she's finally starting to go back to sleep. I watch the moon out the window as I feel her breathing settle. She's comfortable now, able to sleep.

I hope at least some good comes from tonight. Maybe I don't fuck everything up.