Disclaimer: I don't own Skins, I don't own Naomily and I don't own supermarkets...such is life.

Author Note: Thank you to you all for reading and reviewing and subscribing to this fic. I've really been enjoying writing it and it's so lovely to know that you're enjoying the pace and storyline as much as I am. Lots of people have been asking about a Naomi POV chapter and well, I'm not sure if I want to introduce Naomi's side. As much as you guys want it, I do write mixed POVs a lot and I've been enjoying seeing this whole story from one single viewpoint. I hope this chapter won't disappoint. Please review!

In This Life

The restaurant was packed full of hyper football fans who transferred their celebrations from the stands of the nearby ground to the small pub a short walk away. Emily glanced around at men, women and children in various levels of dress and let out a heavy sigh. She didn't follow football, had never really had any inclination to be a fan and was always hopeless at playing when her dad forced her as a child. She hated the whole atmosphere created by alcohol induced fans.

'Looks like Rovers won.'

If she was an open and honest person she would have happily told her date that she didn't care. But she wasn't open or honest, not with the men her mother or sister insisted she go out with.

'Hmm.'

'I don't really like football,' her date announced before rattling out a spiel of information about the local clubs scoring record. Emily rolled her eyes. It had been like that for the last hour. When she ordered a glass of wine she was informed how many units it was and the likelihood it would be that she would have an accident had she not eaten anything.

'Sorry Jonah, I don't really feel very well. I think I might go.'

His face fell, his whole body appeared to slump and for once Emily felt guilty. She usually found an excuse to leave early and never paid very much attention, anything to please her family without making a commitment to see them again.

'Did I do something wrong?' he asked, picking up on her desire to get out of there as quickly as possible.

'No, Jonah, you're great. I just, I don't think this will work out.'

'Oh.'

'It's not you.'

He looked at her with disappointment. 'It's not you, it's me. You're a nice person, I'm just not looking for anything serious.'

The mocking in his tone left her with even more guilt. She frowned, really felt every crease in her eyes as she sensed the hurt that he put across. He knew the drill and she suspected that maybe he'd been on the receiving end of the same responses multiple times.

'I'm sorry.'

'Your sister said you were really interested in going out with me.'

The age old problem of Katie Fitch, adamant that anyone not in a relationship was desperate for someone to go out with. Her sister wasn't wrong, she just didn't know the truth.

'It's not what I'm looking for. It's nothing to do with you, really. I'm not interested in this, in going out with anyone.'

'You never were.'

She lifted a glass to her lips and paused the moment Jonah spoke. His words surprised her and she was left wondering what exactly he meant. The silence alerted him and he began staring at her. She wanted to tell him it was rude and made her feel uncomfortable. Instead she waited as he cleared his throat.

'You don't remember me. That's alright, Katie didn't either. We went to the same college, Roundview. We didn't have any of the same classes but I saw you and your sister walking around a lot, she liked to be the boss.'

'That's not,' Emily began, defending Katie, for what? She shook her head. 'That's exactly what happened. She thinks she can control me. That I can be a second version of herself.'

'You're not the same as her though. I mean, you sort of look the same what with you being twins but you're nicer than her. You always were in college, even though we never really had a conversation.'

'Erm, thanks.'

She rattled her brain for a memory of the handsome young man in front of her and found herself coming up stumped. She hadn't paid much attention in college. Everything was about Katie, seeing what Katie saw, experiencing what Katie wanted to experience. She barely noticed anything, unless it was pointed out to her by her darling sister. Then a flash of memory filled her brain and she felt a chill down her spine.

'That JJ kid, he's a fucking mong. Did you see him? He starting ranting about something that nobody could understand and then he went into a corner with his hands to his ears.'

'JJ?' she asked, recognising the way his mouth turned downwards in disappointment, bar the braces she recalled him wearing as a teenager.

'You remember me?'

'Vaguely. People weren't very nice to you.'

The tone of the conversation dropped considerably and Emily regretted saying anything. She picked up a napkin and wiped her mouth, dropping the ball of paper on top of the half-eaten meal. She had to get out of there, yet felt guilty for now walking out on the kid everyone laughed at.

'Do you want to walk me home?' she suggested, finding a compromise.

They walked through a park and out along the river, which was actually really beautiful. The sun hadn't quite set, the evening clung to daylight and Emily found herself enjoying reminiscing about college. She realised they had people in common; Katie had once dated his best friend and they hated the same things about Roundview. As they approached the small apartment block, they stopped by the door.

'Do you remember Effy Stonem?' Jonah asked, appearing more nervous than he had all night.

'Yes.'

The memory was vague and mostly of Katie trying to be more popular than her. She failed because no matter what Effy did, Katie was always seen as a bit of a bike. They both knew she wasn't like that, but that was the reputation she gained. Not that Katie ever knew the truth. She thought people adored her, in reality, nobody cared.

'Freddie and her started fornicating whilst he was still with Katie.'

She didn't know that and she suspected Katie had no clue either. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as to why Jonah was bringing up an event from many years ago, that didn't really make a difference to their present situations.

'One day we saw you and Katie and she said it looked like you were more interested in Eleanor Morrissey than you were in the boy Katie was trying to set you up with.'

'What?' Emily gasped, shielding her crimson face with a hand. A lump grew in her throat which hurt to swallow. Thoughts of Katie's cheating ex-boyfriend were long gone as she processed what Jonah was trying to say.

'Don't worry Emily, I won't tell anyone if it's true. Even Freddie or Cook. If that's the real reason you don't want to go out with me, because you like girls, then it's okay.'

'It's not, it's not true.'

Lies. She knew it was, always had been the reason she didn't want to be there with Jonah. There was never any doubting it. She loved women; tits, fanny, bums and thighs. She hadn't wanted anything else. Only nobody knew that, except for the few girls she'd actually tried to go out with and the college counsellor she once found herself talking to.

'Oh, okay.'

'Thanks for dinner,' she muttered, unlocking the front door and closing it quickly before they could even say a proper goodbye.

xxx

The unsuccessful date with Jonah left Emily wondering just how long she would be single if she didn't do what Katie did and go out with as many people as possible. So when she turned up at the supermarket that week, she felt brave and prepared to face Naomi with the possibility of more than a weekly shop. Emily pulled her car into the car park, switched off the engine and walked the few meters towards the entrance where Naomi parked her bike. No bike. She analysed the spot where a metal bar was fixed to the wall and a picture of a kennel was painted on it. In theory, Naomi secured her bike up to where dogs could be left. If she hadn't been so nervous, Emily would have laughed. She leant against the wall and checked her watch. She wasn't early and most certainly wasn't late.

As she stood waiting she allowed her mind to drift to her plan. The moment Naomi arrived she would act normal, they would do their shopping as per and Emily would slip in something about their kiss in middle school. Easier said than done, she noted. She once read a book called 'Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway' if any time she needed to do that, now was the moment. But Naomi never came. She waited and checked her phone regularly, until she ended up holding the phone in her hand and watched the minutes tick by. Emily didn't think Naomi would arrive any other way and if she did, surely she would have waited where the two of them normally found each other.

'Please hurry up.'

After nearly forty minutes waiting, she went inside. What if they hadn't spotted each other? What if Naomi had already been and gone? What if Naomi wasn't ever coming back? Every possibility travelled through her mind as she paced down the aisles, barely noticing what she was throwing into her basket. She searched every aisle twice, the eggs six times and then spent ten minutes glancing up and down the checkouts, despite there being just one open.

When Emily arrived home, depleted and more worn out than usual, she noticed that the eggs she bought were battery, the milk was regular semi-skimmed and she'd forgotten nearly every other item on her list.

'What am I doing?' she called out to the empty apartment.

She wasn't that kind of girl. Since going away to university and moving out of her parent's, she'd become fiercely independent, despite still having Sunday lunch at home and occasionally taking a load of clothes for her parents to wash. She barely recognised herself, sat there obsessing over some girl she actually knew very little about. Some drunken kiss at a party nearly ten year ago made no difference.

Except that Naomi wasn't just her first kiss, or the first girl she really had feelings for. She was the adult who had become her friend, her shopping companion for almost two months. She wasn't just the Naomi she met at school, she was also the Naomi she knew now. She didn't want to give up hope, but the longer she sat there thinking, the more she wondered if everything with Naomi was built up in her mind. They weren't friends, not really. She didn't know where she lived, or what she liked to do in her spare time. She only knew the contents of her weekly shop and the bare minimum she'd learnt in conversation. She didn't even know if Naomi liked girls, or if she was the biggest heterosexual in history. One kiss during the most confusing years of life was hardly sign of her being gay.

xxx

That night Emily slept badly, a night full of active dreams that left her without bedcovers twice and waking up almost a dozen times. Each one appeared more vivid than the one before and each one starring Naomi. Only instead of imagining them kissing in the supermarket, she dreamt of telling her the truth and being knocked back. Usually in favour of the employee that liked to take forever opening the eggs. Naomi would push her down, tell her that she couldn't ever be friends with a queer and walked off with her arm linked with the shop worker's. The final dream before she decided to give up sleep, involved Naomi kissing him in front of her, not just a small snog; a full on, get a room, hands in his pants embrace that left her crying.

'Stop,' she cried out across her darkened bedroom. 'Just fucking stop.'

But even in the waking hours, Emily was plagued by fear that she'd never see Naomi again and dread that she would and her nightmares would come true. If she didn't care so much about seeing those beautiful blonde locks again, or listening to Naomi's passionate rants about various food products, she probably would have given up right then and opted to shop on another night.

xxx

As it turned out, she didn't need to wait, or go back to the supermarket at all. She didn't even need to leave the safety of her workplace. Whilst she served a customer, blonde appeared in her peripheral vision and she was forced to hide behind the cake counter to avoid being seen by those deep blue eyes she knew so well.

'You're the biggest 'screw the big people' activist I know mum, why are you buying coffee from a chain?'

'I'm not buying coffee dear, I'm buying Fairtrade tea.'

'From a chain.'

'My usual place closed down thanks to the banking men of this world, so forgive me if this is the only other cafe that sells Fairtrade tea.'

'Emily, what are you doing? We have a line full of customers! Stop hiding behind the cakes and sell, sell, sell.'

The general manager, Billy, clapped his hands together in a condescending way and didn't move until Emily had come out of hiding. She turned away from the counter and busied herself with coffee making, taking over from another member of staff. Only to be ushered back to the front of the house by a perturbed looking Billy. She cursed under her breath as she came face to face with a woman that looked very much like Naomi, except a little older.

'Hello, what can I get you?' she asked, peering over her shoulder at Naomi, who seemed less than interested in the transaction. At least she had been, until Emily opened her mouth and Naomi's head shot up.

'Emily!'

'Emily? THE Emily?' her mother asked, before being shoved aside by what looked like a gesture of embarrassment.

The Emily? she questioned waiting for Naomi to speak. Billy tried to hurry her along, but she wasn't having any of it. Something about the way Naomi's cheeks had turned pink and the tone of her mother's voice left Emily shaking.

'Why didn't you tell me you worked here?' Naomi gasped. 'I work across the road, everyone comes here all the time for coffee.'

'You don't,' she noted.

Naomi shook her head. 'Course not, it's another piece of globalised crap in this world.

'Pays good though,' Emily laughed, attempting to keep the mood light.

'Are we going to move on to the next customer now or in six weeks?' Billy questioned with an incessant tapping of the foot.

Emily rolled her eyes and let sarcasm roll from her tongue. 'If someone would make this lady a Fairtrade tea then we can.'

Once the transaction had been completed, Naomi and the woman headed for the door. A level of hope rebuilt inside Emily's mind and she imagined herself following Naomi and pinning her against the doorframe in a passionate embrace. Instead she muttered a goodbye in the hope of getting something more concrete back.

'Sorry about last week,' Naomi responded. 'Probably see you Friday.'

And with that Naomi was gone, leaving Emily's mind to wander and the smile on Naomi's face unable to leave her conscious. She thought about running after her, about standing her up on Friday the way Naomi had the week before and about curling up in a ball and wishing the whole sorry mess she'd got herself into would just go away. But she was quickly pulled from her reverie by Billy's foot tapping and a line of customers waiting to be served.

Author Note: I know it was a little Naomily light this chapter, but hopefully it gave you more of an insight into Emily's world. Thanks for reading and please review.