Update soon you say? Oh alright then ;)
I noticed that in my last chapter I actually contradicted one of my own writing constraints. Everything was meant to be from Emily's pov, but at the end of ch. 6 she left the room and the story continued. Oops! Just pretend she was listening from the otherside of the door or something. I hope it didn't spoil the continuity!
Hope you like this one and maybe like it enough to review? And point out any of my silly mistakes lol
'Emily?'
The red head stared inanimately at the board in front of her.
'Emily?' JJ tried again. 'Emily! It's your turn.'
Emily still failed to respond.
JJ sighed a tried a new tactic. 'Emily? Olivia Wilde just streaked past the window. I saw nipples.'
'Huh?' Emily asked, blinking and adjusting her gaze accordingly. 'Oh shut up JJ,' she said looking back at him before mumbling, 'lies hurt you know.'
'Sorry,' JJ said with a smile. 'It was all a naked ruse to get you to take your turn.'
Emily looked down at the board on the table in front of her before huffing dramatically. 'But I can't go!' she whined. 'What did you get?' she asked, eyeing the score table sceptically.
'Eighteen,' JJ said proudly, pointing to where he'd placed his letters.
Emily inspected the word JJ was pointing to and rolled her eyes. 'Excentral isn't a word JJ.'
'It is,' he argued. 'It's a type of triangle.'
'Oh for fuck's sake will you stop using types of triangle when we play scrabble?' Emily scolded. 'They count as names. Names aren't allowed.'
'I'm a rebel. I don't play by your rules.'
'Oo geometry. How rebellious. You're a total bad boy. Let's ride into the sunset on your motorbike and do some quadratic equations.' Emily said sarcastically.
JJ narrowed his eyes. 'You shouldn't take your Naomi-frustration out on maths you know,' he said.
Emily sighed. 'Sorry. It's just ... she's acting like she never left you know?' Emily twiddled her useless letters about on their rack. 'Like ... she doesn't understand why she can't just come home after two years and immediately get back together with me like nothing happened.'
JJ frowned. 'Is that what you think she wants?' he asked.
Emily shrugged. 'I don't think she even knows what she wants. All I know is I can't take her doing that to me again.' She sighed heavily and looked up from her letters. 'We were in love, you know? Like ... totally in love. I don't understand why that wasn't enough to make her stay.'
JJ scratched his head awkwardly. 'Well,' he said nervously, noticeably unsure as to whether it was sensible to make his next point, 'it wasn't enough to make you go with her either.'
Emily's eyes widened in pure shock that JJ could even begin to consider blaming her for Naomi's actions. 'I was at university!' she shouted. 'In the middle of term! What did she expect me to do? Just pack up and fuck off with her?'
JJ immediately backed off, stuttering excuses. 'I didn't mean that you were ... I meant that she was ... I mean ... university is a confusing time for a young woman ... I mean that you ... she ... um ... oh bobbins,' JJ concluded.
'I just can't trust her,' Emily said, ignoring JJ's nonsensical wittering. 'I can't trust her not to take off again. She's like a ... fucking ... nomad or something.' Emily stopped talking and looked closer at her letters. 'Oo! I can spell nomad! Eight please,' she said as she placed the letters on the board.
As JJ dutifully amended the score table and took his turn, Katie walked into the kitchen wearing someone else's pyjamas. A towel was twisted up on top of her head and droplets of water lingered on her face.
Emily twisted her head round to look at Katie. 'Where did you come from?' she asked.
'Er ... the shower?' Katie answered. 'Stayed over in Effy's room didn't I.'
Emily rolled her eyes. Effy's room, as it had affectionately become known, was actually the spare room. It contained a futon, a box full of Naomi's childhood toys, a collapsible Christmas tree, several strange-smelling overcoats, and, more often than not, Effy.
'Scrabble yeah?' Katie asked, sitting down next to her sister. 'Can I play?'
'You can't just join in mid-game,' JJ protested.
'I'll go on Emily's team,' Katie answered.
'That's not fair!' he argued.
'Yes it is,' Emily interjected. 'I've got shit letters. I need family support.'
Katie rested a hand on Emily's shoulder and leant over the board, flicking her gaze between Emily's tiles and the available spaces. 'What do you mean you've got shit letters? You can spell tit.'
'Yeah ... thanks Katie,' Emily said. 'I'd clocked that one.'
'Vulgar misogynistic slang isn't allowed,' JJ pointed out. 'It's against the rules.'
'Shut up JJ,' Katie said bluntly, picking up the letter tiles, 'It's a type of bird. And if you can have 'excentral' we can have tit.'
'It's a type of triangle,' JJ reiterated his earlier point.
Katie rolled her eyes. 'For fuck's sake JJ. If I did know you shagged my sister in college I'd swear you'd never seen a vagina in your life.'
JJ frowned and added three points to Emily's score column. He was leant on his elbows studying his next potential move when his contemplative peace was disturbed by someone shouting.
'Mum!' Naomi's voice rang through the kitchen as she descended the stairs and swung round into the room. 'Have you seen my passport?' She stopped abruptly in her tracks as she took in the site of three people gathered around her kitchen table. 'Why are you always in my house?' she asked feebly.
Emily felt her stomach shrink inside her.
Both Katie and JJ turned their anxious gaze to Emily, as she stared unfalteringly at Naomi, who shied guiltily away from the glare.
'Passport?' she asked Naomi coldly. 'Leaving again are you?'
Naomi looked around the room casually before answering. 'Yeah. Haven't seen it have you?' she asked.
'No,' Emily answered, her voice still flat and severe. 'Not since the last time you used it to run away.'
Naomi fidgeted uncomfortably. 'Well ... if you see it ...' she trailed off.
Emily folded her arms. 'Oh I'll be sure to let you know. So you can escape and remain uncontactable for another two years or so. Or maybe five. Or maybe ten. I mean, who's counting?' The volume of Emily's voice was steadily increasing.
'What do you care?' Naomi answered back, anger rising in her voice. 'The whole time I've been back you've done everything you can to avoid me.'
'The whole time you've been back?' Emily asked incredulously. 'You've been back for five days!'
'Yeah. And you've tried to avoid me all five of them,' Naomi snapped back, ignoring the point.
Katie, who had been silently watching the exchange, finally cleared her throat and spoke. 'I've just remembered. Me and JJ need to help Gina. Far away,' she said, standing up.
JJ looked at her like she was speaking a foreign language. 'We do?'
Katie glared at him. 'Do I have to drag you by the balls or are you going to leave quietly?'
JJ stood up immediately. 'I'll go quietly,' he said quickly, following Katie swiftly out of the room, closing the door delicately behind him.
Alone in the kitchen, Emily turned away from Naomi and studied the scrabble board. She could hear Naomi shuffling through papers in the background, opening drawers, rifling around in the clutter they contained and then slamming them shut. 'Where the fuck is it?' she demanded, checking the cutlery drawer in desperation.
Emily turned back round to see Naomi agitatedly dragging her hand through her hair. 'What are you going to do now Naomi?' she asked. 'Now you can't run?'
Naomi narrowed her eyes at the small red head. 'You've got it,' she said.
'What?'
'You've stolen it! Give it back!'
'I don't have your stupid passport Naomi. What the fuck would I want with it?' Emily answered, dismissing the theory as the ridiculous claim that it was.
'I don't know,' Naomi said. 'You want to stop me from leaving. So you can rub it in my face how much you don't care about me anymore,' she suggested.
'Are you listening to yourself?' Emily asked. 'You sound like an actual crazy person.'
'You think I'm crazy? You're the one going around stealing passports!'
'Don't accuse me of things you've just made up in your entirely fucked up brain Naomi,' she said, standing up abruptly, scattering scrabble tiles from the table to Naomi's feet.
'Don't throw your M's at me!' she snapped. 'And give me back my fucking passport!'
Emily flailed her hands about in disbelief and frustration. 'What makes you think I'd stop you from leaving?' she asked angrily, moving closer to Naomi as she spoke. 'I didn't stop you when we were together. You wanted to go and I let you. I let you go because I fucking loved you more than I can ever explain.'
Naomi seemed momentarily stumped, opening and closing her mouth as comebacks failed to materialise. 'Yeah ... well,' she stuttered, 'maybe that's why I left,' she answered.
Emily crinkled her face in confusion. 'What the fuck?' she asked.
'I had to get away didn't I?' she asked, before softening her tone into something quiet and strange. 'We weren't the same Em. After ... Sophia. And Freddie ...'
Emily physically recoiled at the mention of those names.
'It was tearing you up,' she continued. 'I loved you so much I had to let you go. I thought you'd be better without me,' tears were beginning to shine in Naomi's eyes. 'Happier.'
Emily pressed her fingertips against her forehead and closed her eyes. 'Fuck's sake Naomi,' she muttered.
Naomi stared at Emily as she sighed heavily and opened her sad eyes again.
As if she had sensed the silence, Effy wandered casually in the room, waggling a maroon-coloured, pocket-sized book. 'You look like a right serial killer in this photo Naomi,' she said, handing the passport to her.
Naomi dumbly accepted the book, staring at it for a long while in her palm.
'It's the eyes,' Effy continued. 'Looks like you've been to fucking Alcatraz or something.' She looked from Naomi to Emily. 'Did I interrupt something?' she asked, before smiling. 'Apologies. I'll leave you to it.'
As she left the room she winked at Emily, who just stared blankly back at her.
The silence returned, consuming the room and choking all words from Emily's throat.
'Sorry,' Naomi said, so quietly Emily wasn't even sure she'd heard it.
She didn't answer.
Naomi flicked through the passport to the last page, glancing scathingly at her photo before closing it and slipping it safely into her pocket. 'Are going to say anything?' she asked Emily.
'I don't have anything else to say to you,' she answered.
'Fine,' Naomi said.
'Yeah, it is,' Emily agreed, moving to walk past Naomi towards the door. But as she stepped past the glowering blonde, Naomi suddenly reached out, grabbing Emily around the waist and forcefully pulling her towards her, colliding their bodies and roughly crashing their lips together. Her kisses were desperate; her hands grasping at Emily's clothes, clenching and twisting the material as she feverishly pressed her body up against Emily's.
Emily twisted and pushed back, her hands on Naomi's shoulders, trying to pry herself away from the grip, but Naomi's frantic kisses were intoxicating, confusing all of her muscles until she found herself pulling Naomi closer to her, kissing back just as desperately. She pushed her hands up underneath Naomi's shirt, roughly palming the heated skin of her back and running her hands up along the bumps of her spine.
Naomi continued to push against Emily, forcing her backwards until she hit the kitchen table. Unable to go any further, Naomi pushed herself between Emily's legs, running her finger tips up her thighs and tracing her tongue along the length of Emily's bottom lip. Emily hungrily deepened the kiss, pressing and swirling her tongue against Naomi's as her lungs burnt and her heart felt like it might explode as is struggled keep enough blood throbbing through her body. She dragged her hands from under Naomi's clothes and up to the back of her head, clutching and tangling in her soft hair. She felt Naomi's laboured breath shudder against her lips. She could smell and taste and feel Naomi all over her body, and as her brain struggled to process what was happening, she could only muster one coherent thought: 'Please don't leave.'
