Author's Note
This chapter follows Emily after leaving the Campbell house in chapter 5 and is told from her POV.
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Emily dragged herself away from Naomi's house with the greatest of difficulty. She really wanted to spend the whole evening there (and stay overnight with Naomi?!) to continue to enjoy the special moment that had been created between her, Naomi and Gina. Her heart was almost full to bursting with joy and gratitude towards Naomi's mother for what she said to them both earlier on.
Gina's attitude towards their relationship was so perfectly wonderful, so completely and utterly more than she could have wished for in her wildest dreams (and Emily knew she'd been having some seriously wild dreams in recent months) that she was almost hugging herself with sheer delight. Her warmth and respect for Gina had grown immeasurably in the short time since her words of support and compassion had shocked the two girls into a stupor.
She had always got on brilliantly with Gina from the very start, but now in her mind an even closer bond had formed between them which she felt nothing would ever break. Even if she and Naomi didn't stay together permanently, Emily held a firm conviction that she would always remain friends with Gina. Not that Emily was prepared to give the idea of her and Naomi splitting up the satisfaction of a second's serious consideration,
But quite apart from not wanting to bring their happy evening to a premature close, Emily was also loath to leave Naomi behind once her father had suddenly and mysteriously turned up at the house. Emily could see and sense from her girlfriend's reactions, body language, and her whole general demeanour from the moment he walked into the kitchen that she was massively upset, confused and uncomfortable with him being there.
But the redhead was sensitive and bright enough to recognise that this was family business and that, even though Naomi and Gina had virtually become like a second family to her in the last few months, they were still as yet not officiallyher family. Emily understood that she had to withdraw and leave Naomi to deal with whatever issues her father's reappearance created on her own or, at least, together with her Mum.
She hoped that Naomi would confide in her later as to what had happened after she'd left. Emily desperately wanted to be there for her girl if she needed her. She longed to be a shoulder to cry on if Naomi was upset or the only friend she could trust to talk to about it if she needed to work through her anger or confusion. However she knew she would have to wait for Naomi to turn to her of her own accord, she couldn't force it out of the girl: the issues were clearly way too personal for Emily to want to risk upsetting Naomi by trying to push it too far.
As she slowly walked along the street, not heading in any particular direction as she didn't really have any firm idea about where she was going to, Emily couldn't help speculating idly as to why Naomi's father might have turned up completely out of the blue after obviously so many years. It must be for a reason, and a bloody good one, she thought, but he hadn't left any decent clues. Surely he hadn't come to get his family back again?! Neither Gina nor Naomi would want him back, judging by their reaction to his arrival at their doorstep.
Naomi had never said much to Emily about her father, other than that he was a complete shit and she was glad her Mum had divorced him. So he was unlikely to be welcomed back with open arms by either of them, especially after such a long time. Besides, Gina was with Kieran now, sort of, so he would have something to say about it, for sure.
Kieran and Gina really seemed to get on well together and Emily had wondered occasionally if he had tipped Gina the wink about her and Naomi. It wouldn't have surprised her if he had, but that was fine with her if it was true. She reckoned he would have guessed or maybe known for sure that Gina would have been cool about the two of them. Emily liked Kieran and she was aware that Naomi had a real soft spot for him too although she would never explain exactly why, other than he was her politics teacher and that he was 'a laugh'.
All these random thoughts flashed through Emily's mind and totally preoccupied her as she wandered aimlessly along in her own little world. Suddenly she became aware of her name being called out very loudly and she looked all around her to locate the source of the interruption of her train of thought. She spotted Effy and Freddie on the other side of the road waving frantically at her and beckoning her to come over and join them. She crossed the road, smiling at them.
'Hi, guys. What's up?' she said. It was Freddie who answered her question.
'We're meeting Cook and JJ in the pub for a few drinks. Come and join us.'
'Where's Naomi?' Effy turned an inquiring look on Emily. It wasn't often the redhead was seen out on her own without Naomi in tow nowadays, Effy hoped they hadn't had a row. The last time they were all together that afternoon Naomi was all over Emily like a rash after her successful virtuoso performance at Panda's.
'Trouble at home, I think. Her Dad turned up totally out of the blue. I think it's freaked her out like fuck. I thought I ought to leave her and her Mum to it. It's not really any of my business.'
Emily grimaced at the pair of them as she explained what had happened and Effy could see in her big brown eyes the unmistakeable signs of anxiety and concern for her girlfriend. She thought a few drinks would be just what Emily needed to relax her and so she and Freddie persuaded the redhead to come along with them. Emily nodded silently in agreement, she was thinking along the same lines as them. In any case she was still on an emotional high after the heart to heart with Gina and wanted to celebrate. She just wished Naomi could also be there with her to join in the fun.
Ten minutes later the three of them reached the pub and entered, spotting Cook and JJ almost immediately over at the bar. The two boys hadn't noticed them come in, fully engrossed were they both, so it appeared, in animated conversation with two young, long haired, leggy, blonde girls. To be more accurate, Cook was talking with the two girls while JJ was staring at them, goggle eyed and with his mouth practically hanging open. Freddie and Emily couldn't stop themselves giggling and smiling when they saw the scene in front of them while Effy just shook her head slowly and raised her eyebrows to signal a resigned bemusement at this all too familiar sight.
They found a table in the middle of the pub, a little distance away from the bar and sat down, only occasionally looking back to observe the two boys still deep in lustful contemplation of their drinking companions.
'I see Cook seems to have finally got over losing out on you to Freddie,' remarked Emily to Effy with a knowing look.
'Yeah, it seems so,' replied Effy with a half smile and quickly turned to check out Freddie's reaction to Emily's question. It was probably the first time anyone in the group had directly posed the question about the 'love triangle' to any of them since they had returned to Bristol after the end of term..
'Is everything alright with you two and Cook?' Emily hesitated to ask but she was dying to know if there was still an atmosphere between the three of them which was being kept under wraps when all the others were around them.
'Yeah, everything seems fine,' said Freddie. 'He hasn't said much about it but…. things seem pretty much back to normal, I guess. He hasn't challenged me to a rematch, at any rate.'
'You mean he hasn't challenged JJ to a rematch,' Effy turned on a broad smug smile at Freddie and winked at Emily who laughed quietly. She had been put fully in the picture about the infamous Granny race to determine who was to win Effy's favours.
Their conversation was suddenly cut short by the sound of loud, high pitched howls of laughter and a substantial amount of industrial language, mostly on the part of Cook, it seemed. JJ turned away from the bar, clearly doubled up in fits of laughter and saw the three of them at their table. He beamed a huge smile at them and approached them immediately, still giggling helplessly in that charmingly innocent way of his which ensured that no-one could get angry with him for long, whatever he might have done.
'Hey, guys, you've just missed an absolutely priceless moment! Pure class! Probably never to be seen again!' JJ was quite beside himself with high excitement and could hardly keep still, his animated face betraying all manner of twitches and contortions.
'What's happened?' The three friends looked at each other, bewildered, and asked the burning question in unison.
'Cook's just been taken for a ride by those two blondes!' JJ almost shouted at them even though they were only a few inches away from him.
'How?' said Freddie in disbelief and he shot a glance over to the bar at Cook who was now chasing after the girls who were making a move towards the door of the pub, obviously intent on leaving.
'They challenged him that they could pull off an impossible stunt with a pound coin, a wine glass and a matchstick and he took them on. He lost the bet and they've taken forty quid off him. He's livid, absolutely steaming. He fell for it hook, line and sinker. I thought I could smell a rat and I did try to warn him against it but, naturally, he wouldn't listen to me.'
'What was the trick?' Emily asked JJ, fascinated. She wished she had witnessed that but fortunately JJ was on hand to show them exactly how it was done. He asked Freddie for a match and his friend swiftly obliged. JJ then produced a pound coin from his own pocket and put it down on the table next to the match. Next he went up to the bar to request a wine glass, returning with one within a few seconds. The others all looked at each other with ever increasing curiosity and anticipation,
'Go on, show us, JJ' said Effy, equally intrigued as the others.
JJ took the coin and balanced it on its side in the middle of the table. He then picked up the match and broke it into two equal halves, discarding one of them immediately. With the half that he retained he then very carefully balanced the half-match on top of the pound coin so that it stayed there, precariously balanced but perfectly still. Finally he took the wine glass, turned it upside down and very delicately placed it over the coin and match so that the coin and match were now inside the glass.
'OK, 'said JJ. 'The trick has now been set up. What one of the girls bet Cook was that she could move the match without touching either the coin or the glass. You can't shake or move the table either. So, what do you think guys?'
They all stared intently at the objects that JJ had so precisely set up on the table for a good few moments, looked at each other and shook their heads slowly one by one. They all agreed it couldn't be done.
'That's what Cook said. But watch this'.
JJ revealed a straw that he must have brought back with him from the bar and, rubbing it hard against his sweater for about ten seconds, he then moved the now highly statically charged straw towards the side of the glass, lightly touching it without actually moving it, and gently pulled the straw along the side of the glass . Almost as if by magic the broken match, still perched on top of the coin, twisted around in the direction of the straw.
All of them burst out laughing and JJ smiled at them, pleased with himself for having successfully recreated the trick which the girls had just perpetrated on Cook. The four of them instinctively looked over towards the door just in time to see Cook shouting after the girls who, having performed their scam on him, had decided to move on somewhere else to find another sucker.
'Nice one, Cook!' shouted Freddie, his face still creased in laughter. 'Took you right to the cleaners, didn't they?'
'Fucking pair of bitches! They fucking cleaned me out!' Cook had come over to them, his furious expression matching his language.
'You're an arsehole, Cook' said Emily. 'Didn't your mother ever warn you about talking to strange women in pubs?' All of them roared with laughter and Cook slumped down in a vacant chair, looking thoroughly pissed off with life and hugely embarrassed at having been shown up in front of his mates.
'Come on; let's be fair,' said Freddie. 'It was just Cook's bad luck that they happened to be two good looking birds with long legs and big tits. If they'd been right mingers, he wouldn't have given them the time of the day to begin with, would he?!'
They all smiled knowingly at each other and carried on drinking and talking amongst themselves, leaving Cook silent and glum in his seat.
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