"You off to college love?" Gina quizzed as Naomi held a slice of toast between her lips and shoved books in to her bag.
"No. I'm taking my text books for a walk." The blonde snapped, still in a foul mood from a night of restless sleep. "I've got exams in a few months, I can't afford to keep missing days…where the fuck is my book on Social Policy?"
"You put it in your locker after Friday's lesson." Emily answered from the other side of the room. She was sat on one of the kitchen benches, her legs dangling above the ground as she kept Gina company at the breakfast table. She had deliberately kept her distance from the blonde all morning, unsure of what mood she would be in when she woke up. As it turned out she had been right to avoid her.
"Great, you remember where I leave my books, but not what happened to you. Real helpful Emily."
"Naomi!" Gina scorned as Emily's face fell and she disappeared from sight. "That poor girl is going through hell at the moment!"
Naomi sighed as she slammed her book bag down and pinched the bridge of her nose. She'd woken up with a pounding headache and it was getting worse as the morning went on. She hadn't meant to take her frustration out on Emily. Again. "I'll apologise to her, ok?" She snapped at her mother in a less than apologetic tone before storming out of the house.
When she arrived at college she found Emily standing by her locker, as if it were any normal Wednesday morning and the other girl was collecting her things before registration. Except nothing about their situation was normal. Emily had been dead for almost five days and her extremely huffed spirit was lingering by Naomi's locker instead of her own. Naomi walked up to her and jammed her locker key in to the lock before yanking it open and shoving her books inside. Her book on Social Policy was sitting on top of the mess already inside, just like Emily had said. "You know what I wish?" She asked, her attention still on her locker as she wrestled with the mountain of junk that was threatening to spill out of it. It was still early and the hallway was deserted so she didn't have to worry about looking like she was talking to herself. Emily didn't reply, but the blonde carried on regardless. "I wish I didn't have nightmares about being buried alive, and I wish I couldn't see ghosts and I wasn't cursed with all this shit…but most of all I wish I could stop being such a bitch to you." It was the closest Emily would get to an apology and the smaller girl reluctantly took it as she finally started talking to her again.
"I wish I wasn't dead…I guess no one's getting what they wish for." She replied sadly. Something caught her eye at the end of the corridor and she cocked her head towards it. "Is that girl watching you?"
Naomi didn't need to turn around to know who it would be, and as she followed Emily's gaze she wasn't surprised to find Sophia lurking by the lockers. The blonde foolishly made eye contact with her and that was all the other girl needed to rush up and start talking to her. "Hi Naomi!" She smiled brightly, her eyes wide with wonder as though Naomi was some foreign goddess, not a stroppy teenager desperately trying to think of a way to get rid of her.
"Hey." She replied with little enthusiasm as she slammed her locker shut.
"How are you? Only I didn't see you in History yesterday, I thought you might be sick." The other girl was standing far too close for comfort as she leant in to Naomi, studying her with concern as she looked for any signs of her being unwell. Naomi took a discrete step back, though regretted it as an icy chill shot through her body. Emily scowled and disappeared from the spot she'd been standing in. She reappeared behind Sophia.
"I'm fine." The blonde dismissed Sophia's concern. "Had a late night Monday. Emily Fitch has gone missing; we were all out looking for her."
"Oh. She's the one seeing that Effy girl isn't she?" Sophia took it upon herself to fall in to step with Naomi as she started walking towards her form room. Trying not to encourage her to carry on talking Naomi just nodded. "Shame, she was nice."
"Look I've got to go Sophia. I'll see you later yeah?" Naomi knew she'd said the wrong thing when Sophia's eyes lit up and she eagerly repeated she would see the blonde later. That was all she needed, Sophia stalking her again. "Great. She'll be fucking following me home again." Naomi huffed as she sank in to her seat.
"Who will?"
Naomi jumped as the unexpected voice came from over by the desk. For the first time in history Kieran was at his desk before any of his students. He was usually the last one trudging through the door. Though the mountain of coursework he was surrounded by probably explained what he was doing. "Oh, just this girl, Sophia Moore." She shrugged it off as her heart stopped pounding in her chest.
"Her." Kieran replied, his Irish accent adding a few extra r's to the word. "She's a weird little fucker isn't she?" Naomi snorted with laughter. There was a reason Kieran was her favourite teacher. She'd bored him silly months ago about the story of Sophia and her stalking as they'd sat huddled on the stairs outside the college, puffing away on his roll ups. She sat on his desk, helping him grade the year twelve's coursework until the form room began to fill up. She slipped over to her usual table beside Cook and JJ.
"Hey Blondie." Cook offered her a cautious smile. "Look about the other night-"
"Forget it, yeah?" Cook was as good with apologies as she was and neither wanted another argument. "Have you heard anything more about Emily?"
"Coppers got her phone working. I was the last one she called. They want to talk me." He shrugged like it was no big deal, but Naomi could read her friend like an open book. Cook was worried.
"They're wasting their fucking time interviewing us!" Katie snapped from the table behind them. "Two hours they were at our house last night! They should be out looking for Ems!"
"They'll find her." Effy's voice was firm and calm as she put her arm around the smaller girl sitting beside her. Panda sat on the other side of her, patting her shoulder like she didn't know what else to do. Katie's face said it all. She knew her sister was dead.
Naomi had read about twin ESP and considering her own abilities she was willing to put stock in there being something to the claim that twins could feel each other's pain. Maybe Katie really could feel Emily's loss. Naomi could certainly feel Katie's pain. The other girl's grief and anguish washed over her in dizzying waves. The atmosphere in the entire room was one of hope and despair. It choked the blonde as she absorbed everyone else's mood. She was grateful when the bell went for first lesson and she scrambled out of the room. She didn't get very far as she slammed in to a portly woman. She wore a cheap black suit under a navy trench coat. Everything about her screamed cop. Her smile was warm, but her eyes were hard as they stared down at her. "In a hurry?"
"I've got class." Naomi shifted her bag from one shoulder to another.
"Naoms! Wait up!" Cook caught up to her in the corridor. His eyes narrowed at the female cop and the tall skinny man behind her.
"Mr Cook. Just the young man I was looking for. And I suppose that makes you Naomi Campbell? Can you both come with me please?" The senior detective led them to an empty classroom where they had set up a couple of desks with a laptop on to take notes. The lanky detective sat behind the laptop as the woman took the seat beside him, leaving Naomi and Cook the two empty chairs facing her. Once they were settled the woman introduced herself and her partner. "Right, I'm DS Blunt and this is DC Sweeney. You obviously know why we're here. Emily Fitch went missing Friday night; she was on her way to the club you two were in. We'll forget about the underage drinking for now shall we-"
"We're bot eighteen." Naomi interrupted, her big mouth landing her in trouble as usual. DC Blunt narrowed her eyes at her.
"I'm seventeen." Emily helpfully supplied from where she sat perched on the desk beside Naomi. "Katie and I don't turn eighteen till June…well Katie will. Oh god I'm going to be seventeen forever. Like Edward Cullen, only with less gay hair."
Naomi discretely rolled her eyes. Of course Emily Fitch was the Twilight type. "So, let's start with a few easy questions. Like how close you two were to Emily? Did she often leave her sister and girlfriend to meet you two?" Naomi didn't like the tone the older woman was using.
"We're not close. We go to the same parties, say hello in the morning…she's closer to JJ. That's who she was meeting." She made sure to watch how she spoke, referring to Emily in the present tense so as not to arouse the detective's suspicion. The last thing she wanted was to become suspect number one. Though from the way Blunt was glaring at her she was guessing she and Cook were pretty high on the list.
"JJ? That's Jeremiah Jones. We spoke to Mr Jones earlier this morning. He said he left the club an hour before Emily called you. So James, can you explain why Emily phoned you, and not JJ? She did have his number didn't she? And why, if JJ had already left, did she leave her sister and her girlfriend behind to come to the club you were in anyway?" As the detective's questions sunk in Naomi could feel the apprehension and guilt radiating from Cook's body. He was playing with the hem of his shirt, his eyes on the floor. Naomi felt a lump forming in her throat as her mother's words returned to haunt her. What if Emily knew her killer? What if she was protecting him? The blonde nervously tried to catch Emily's eye as she waited for Cook to answer. She couldn't imagine her best friend ever hurting Emily, but she couldn't ignore the guilt he was feeling either.
"You don't know what the fuck you're talking about." Cook growled. His cheeks were red with anger as he shoved his hands in to his pockets. "She wasn't meeting JJ, alright?"
Blunt wasn't fazed by his angry reaction; she sat calmly in her chair and waited for him to elaborate. When he didn't she tried to probe. "So who was she meeting? The Easter bunny?" Naomi was as much in the dark as the detectives. Emily squirmed uncomfortably on the desk, her eyes locked on Cook and willing him not to answer. Cook looked torn between answering truthfully and making something up. Naomi wasn't sure whether he was protecting himself or Emily. "Mr Cook-"
"It was Naomi alright!" He finally spat her name out. "She phoned to see if Naomi was with me. She wanted to talk to her."
"What?" It was Naomi's turn to question him after his outburst. Emily had even told her she was going to see JJ. "Why the fuck would she be coming to see me?" Cook rang his hands together as he wrestled with his conscience. He had made Emily a promise.
"Mr Cook?"
"Don't you fucking dare Cook!" Emily shouted at him angrily as he opened his mouth to speak. He couldn't hear her, but Naomi could. She narrowed her eyes at the smaller girl. She had known Emily was holding something back from her, just as Cook was. He finally looked Naomi in the eye before shaking his head.
"You don't have fucking clue, do you Blondie?" He sighed, ignoring the detectives in the room. "Ems fancied you ok? She used to wait by your locker every fucking morning just to say hello to you-"
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Naomi felt her chest tightening and her head spinning. When had Emily ever shown an interest in her? Sure she had always been friendly, always trying to talk to her, but she was with Effy. Emily was glaring daggers at Cook and refusing to meet Naomi's eye.
"She's had a thing for you since middle school Naomi! You were always too fucking up yourself to notice!"
"So she was on her way to meet Naomi?" Blunt interrupted their arguing and reminded them she was still in the room.
"She was gonna tell her how she felt." Every word Cook spoke had Emily's cheeks growing redder and redder. "When Naoms left the club I thought she'd seen Emily."
"I didn't see her." Naomi mumbled before Blunt could even ask.
"So, Emily confided in you that she was attracted to Naomi. Did her girlfriend know about this? Is that why they argued that night? Was she jealous?" Blunt pressed on; ignoring the fact that Naomi was practically hyperventilating as she tried to digest what Cook had just admitted to her. Emily had disappeared from sight before Cook could say anything else to embarrass her. He shook his head again; his aura was still troubled as he held on to his last secret.
"Effy had nothing to be jealous about."
"I think we'd best talk to Miss Stonem again-"
"Effy would never hurt Ems! She fucking loves that girl man!" Cook tried to defend the other girl. Naomi was too distracted by her own thoughts to even think about the possibility of Effy being involved in Emily's death. Her niggling headache had turned in to a full blown migraine.
"People do silly things when they're in love. Especially when they think they're about to lose someone-" DS Blunt made to stand up, but Cook stopped her in her tracks.
"She was never seeing Emily!" Naomi scoffed at that. She'd seen Effy snogging Emily's face off countless times. Everybody in college knew they were an item. "She's Katie's girlfriend. Not Emily's. Katie didn't want anyone knowing she's gay, so Ems agreed to cover for them. She told people she was seeing Eff. But then Ems got sick of it. She wanted to tell Naomi the truth. That's why she and Katie argued- Naoms!" Cook called after his best friend as she fled from the room. She couldn't sit there and listen to him anymore. She'd heard enough from him. She wanted to hear it from Emily.
She knew the little redhead hadn't gone far. She could still sense her nearby. It took a while but she finally tracked the wayward spirit down to their politics class. Kieran barely acknowledged her as she slipped inside the classroom and took her usual seat. She couldn't exactly talk to Emily in a class full of people, so she had to wait for the lesson to end. Emily pointedly ignored her. She sat in her usual seat beside Effy. As the lesson went on Naomi snuck glances at Effy and Katie. The more she watched them the more she questioned how she had missed they were an item. The little interactions between them, the tiny secret reassuring smiles and the way Effy seemed to constantly be touching her all mounted up to support what Cook had claimed. Effy and Katie were in love.
Thanks again to everyone who's reading and for all the awesome reviews! I'm glad people are enjoying this and hope you'll all like what I've got planned! So my migraine's finally gone, and while my vision is still screwed I can hopefully start writing a bit more :)
