So I FINALLY finished the next chapter. Sorry it took me so long, but somehow Emily's thoughts are so much harder for me to write. That's why I decided to cheat a bit and return to Naomi's thoughts rather fast...mea culpa! As always I've been a very happy bunny when I read your kind reviews, thanks a lot for those! ;-)


Chapter 7

Emily hurried down the corridor and squeezed through the door professor Byrnes was already pulling shut. "Sorry." she mumbled and scanned the room for an unoccupied seat. She ignored her sister who was waving her over and headed straight towards the blonde who was sitting on her own at the same desk in the back row she'd chosen three days ago. She was leafing through her script to which she had attached little yellow and pink post-it's, lost in thought.

"Hey." Emily whispered. The other girl gave a start as if she'd been ripped harshly out of a daydream.

"Oh." Was all the blonde replied. She looks like she's seen a ghost or something. "May I?" Emily asked and pointed at the chair beside her where the other girl had placed her bag.

"Erm…yeah." The blonde threw her bag on the floor without looking at her.

"Thanks."

Naomi didn't reply but moved her chair almost imperceptibly away from her. She twirled a pen in her fingers, her gaze fixed straight ahead, and bit her lip. Emily sat down beside her and cast an uncertain glance at the blonde. Why was she so dismissive all of a sudden? After all they'd got along quite well yesterday, at least that's what she'd thought. Have I done something wrong? There hadn't been too many possibilities, though. As she'd bumped into her and her mum accidentally, she hadn't failed to notice Naomi's shocked expression when her mother suggested she'd join them for dinner. She'd put it down to the fact that having dinner with your parents and your friends tended to be generally awkward and should therefore be given a wide berth, but now she wasn't so sure about that being the cause of her reaction. Perhaps she'd just put up with her because she'd had a bad conscience for mistaking her for Katie and acting like a total bitch. Besides that I've kind of caught her unawares by suggesting that she had to make it up to me. Damn.

She watched the blonde out of the corner of her eye, but she was still staring straight ahead, not acknowledging her presence in any way, her lips pursed, her brow slightly furrowed as if in deep concentration. She had never been so close to her before, she could even smell the sweet fruity scent of her shampoo. She had to pry her eyes away from her silky blonde hair that fell loosely on her shoulders and reflected the sun that was shining through the window. She's so out of my league. Who'd ever been 'in her league' anyway? No one ever seemed to notice her, with her sister doing anything to be in the limelight at any given time, she remained unseen in the shadows as if she was invisible.

Yeah, very dramatic, Emily. The little mousy sister in the shadows, right. She didn't even envy her sister, not really anyway, so what was she fretting about? Katie always ended up with the greatest twats possible, no doubt about that, and love had never been in the picture, so what was there to be envious about? It wasn't even true that no one was ever interested in her, but the feeling had never been mutual, so it boiled down to the same thing. She watched the blonde's slender fingers which were still playing with a pen, her movements getting faster by the minute.

Love. To be perfectly honest, she didn't even know what it felt like to be in love. Sure, she'd had a crush on someone once or twice, but that hadn't been the real thing and had lasted a few weeks at most. The girl next to her - she definitely made her feel…..something. Okay, so she was gorgeous, so what? It didn't take a genius to realize that. But she had something about her that had captured her the first time she'd laid eyes on her. She couldn't even say what exactly caused her stomach to tingle whenever she was around – her piercing blue eyes which seemed to look right inside her mind, or the adorable way she bit her lip when she was nervous, or her contagious smile. Or her wicked sense of humor which sometimes flashed through her distanced and coolish behavior that she'd put like an armour around herself. Right, Emily, you've known her - what? Three days? And you've already figured her out. Be honest – you know next to nothing about her, besides the fact that she's driving you fucking crazy whenever she's around.

……………………………………………………..

Shit, shit, shit. Will you get a grip now or what? Naomi took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. What's your fucking problem anyway? She stopped tapping her pen nervously on her desk after the guy in front of her cast her an annoyed look over his shoulder. She hadn't even dared look at her yet, let alone utter a single word. The way I'm behaving, she might as well think I'm suffering from bipolar disorder or something – all cheerful and talkative yesterday and bad-tempered and tight-lipped now. Great. Obviously she could handle her better when she knew in advance that she would meet her and could therefore prepare herself for that. Whereas those surprising encounters left her in a state of utter paralysis. Yeah, very surprising to meet her in Sociology. Jesus, Naomi.

There was something about her she found disturbing somehow, although she couldn't really put her finger on it. She did like her, though, which made things even more complicated. Otherwise she could easily have told her to fuck off, end of story. She felt the redhead's gaze on her but didn't dare meet her eyes, afraid of…. what exactly? She couldn't say. Emily bent down to rummage around in her bag. Naomi took the opportunity to get a brief glimpse of her bright red hair and a small piece of her naked back as her shirt had ridden up a bit due to her movement. As she looked up, she locked eyes with Effy who was staring at her from across the room and was smiling that mystic smile of hers. She blushed and hurriedly focused on the professor again whose words had been blanked out by her puzzled mind.

"….and I want you to work in pairs with your current neighbor. You'll have time to discuss which topic you will choose now and will hand in your results in form of a short seminar paper the following week, ten pages max. Any questions?" Jesus FUCK! This can't be happening. The whole class groaned in unison. "Okay, so look on the bright side of it – if you achieve a minimum of seventy points out of one hundred, you will have to do only one test this semester instead of two." The grumbling died down. "I'll hand out a list with possible topics now. After you and your partner agree on one subject for your paper, you put it down on this list and add your names to it." he continued and waved a piece of paper in the air and placed it on his desk. Okay. Breathe. Turn towards her. Say something. Sounds easy enough.

"That's the two of us then, I guess." Emily said tentatively in her direction.

"Yeah." Naomi answered with a forced smile on her lips and finally plucked up the courage to look at her.

"Are you alright with that?" the redhead asked carefully, the signs of her insecurity clearly visible in her eyes. Otherwise we could switch partners, I guess…" She let the sentence trail out, still watching her closely. Fucking hell, I've hurt her. Of course I have.

"What…no. Of course I'm alright with that. Why wouldn't I be?" she replied hurriedly. "Look, I'm sorry for being such a prick, I'm just a bit out of it today, I don't know. It's got nothing to do with you, though." Liar. But at least my brain seems to be able to form coherent sentences again, that's a start.

"Okay." Emily said, still looking at her quizzically. "Well….let's have a look at the list then." She flicked through the pages. "Body piercing in different cultures" she read aloud and looked up at Naomi.

"No." they said in unison.

"The effect of clothing on social interaction…I guess that's my sister's favorite." the redhead giggled. "Homosexuality in modern society…no." she said and hurriedly read on. "The relevance of cultural integration in society…how about that?"

"Sounds good to me." Naomi agreed.

"Great. Hand me your pen, will you?" Emily said and rested her hand lightly on the blonde's arm. Naomi gave a noticeable jerk at the unexpected physical contact. The pen slipped through her fingers and fell to the floor. Jesus fucking Christ. She felt as if Emily's hand was burning through her skin, sending waves of heat throughout her body. Before she could form another thought in her mind, the feeling was gone again, and Emily had disappeared under the table to pick the pen up. She laid it back on the table, careful not to touch her again. A slight blush had crept up the redhead's cheeks. Naomi braced herself for meeting Emily's gaze but almost jumped as their eyes locked, the redhead's brown ones burning into hers, keeping her paralysed like a deer facing the light cones of an approaching car.

"Sorry." the blonde whispered almost inaudibly after what felt like minutes but could only have been a split second, still transfixed by the other girl's unwavering gaze.

Emily hesitated, searching for something in Naomi's face. "No harm done." she finally replied in a voice that seemed even more husky than usual.

No. Not yet. But I'm in serious trouble, no doubt about that.


I hope you liked it and - as always - I would be more than happy to receive your feedback!