Clara followed Emily towards the Overground station. She found herself unusually unable to start more than general small talk with Emily as she got a nervous lump in the back of her throat.
Once they were on the train, Clara could feel her heart beating out of her chest as, leaning up against the padded ledge, Emily put her arm around Clara's waist, tilting her head towards Clara's ear as if to talk into it, instead kissing her gently on the neck.
She looked up to the ceiling. "How long until we get there?" said Clara, half gulping.
"About ten minutes," said Emily, "and then the same to walk." Emily looked at her, smiling.
"I see," said Clara. Something else then occurred to her. "Will there be anyone else in?" As she lived alone it wasn't something she usually had to worry about.
"Shouldn't be right now, Steve and Rachel work late, Katya we hardly ever see as she is at her boyfriend's most nights, Deep works nights. Lewis... well he might be in. I hope for your sake he's not," she said.
"Why?" asked Clara.
"Umm..." Emily blushed.
"What?" said Clara, narrowing her eyes, curious.
"Apparently we were... umm..." she lowered her voice, "a little loud the other night."
"Oh..." she half smiled, "I still don't remember anything."
"Correct answer," said Emily. "And he still insists on calling you Carla."
Clara laughed, "it's a personal thing we've got."
The train arrived at Whitechapel, Emily lead Clara through the streets with that familiar gentle tight grip covering her left hand. It was beginning to start getting dark around them as they approached Emily's flat. Clara's stomach was a bag full of nerves.
As soon as they were inside, Clara felt an overwhelming urge to kiss Emily, pouncing before she had a chance to walk upstairs. They kissed briefly before Emily pulled away smiling, "not here," before disappearing up the stairs.
Clara followed her, seeing the three flights of stairs becoming higher than a skyscraper in her head, neverending. The flat door was open, she went in and suddenly found herself pressed backwards, Emily kissing her deeply.
After a few minutes Clara straightened herself up off the door and removed Emily's coat, throwing it away onto the floor. She pushed her backwards towards the back of the nearby sofa, quickly removing her own leather jacket and dropping it behind her.
"Oh I liked the jacket," laughed Emily, feigning disappointment, looking down at it.
"Shut up," Clara said, realising how northern she sounded.
"Yes, miss," Emily said, smirking, clearly goading her.
"I must have told you not to do that the other night," Clara narrowed her eyes at her.
"Yes you did," she said, laughing. "But it is so easy to wind you up."
Clara folded her arms and looked away playfully.
Emily raised her eyebrow, simply walking off from Clara in the direction of the bedroom.
Clara inhaled deeply before following Emily, arms still folded, about a minute later. She paused before opening the door, a mixture of nerves, excitement and fear of the unknown. She still couldn't remember a thing about the other night.
"And what do you think you are doing just storming off in here?" she said playfully, closing the door behind her, leaning back against it.
"I couldn't wait, kind of on the clock here, going by last time," Emily said. "And besides, no lesbianism outside etc."
"I still cannot remember anything," said Clara, sighing. "I wish I could."
'Maybe I could remind you..." said Emily, walking up to her. "For someone who, in your own words, didn't know how to do all of this," Emily pointed between then, "you were surprisingly..." she searched for the right word, "proactive."
"I was?" said Clara, incredulous, raising an eyebrow. "No..." Clara said shaking her head. "Really?"
"Yes," said Emily, watching her reaction. "For a straight girl you were very good."
Clara blushed, "thanks. Straight enough to end up in your bedroom for the second time in four, no three days?"
Emily laughed, "yes." Emily went to kiss her, Clara suddenly found herself returning the attention, nervous inside about what was going to happen. She felt that familiar feeling of wanting to kiss deeper, touch every part of Emily that she could and remove everything she was wearing as quickly as possible.
Emily moved first, removing Clara's grey jumper as far as she could without breaking the kiss, reinstating it the second she was able to.
Clara went for Emily's blue shirt, unbuttoning it from the top down as quickly as she could whilst distracted, eventually managing to pull it off and drop it to the floor. Her hands felt across the newly exposed soft skin of Emily's arms, neck and shoulders.
Clara felt Emily touch her neck at the back, searching for the buttons to undo her dress, locating them at the front and unfastening them one by one until it was pushed to the floor in one motion, leaving just her bra. Clara pulled off Emily's various vest tops and felt cool yet hot skin touch her body and was just finishing unbuttoning her trousers when pushed her onto the bed unexpectedly.
This was all very new and very exciting whilst sober, as the kiss continued to get more urgent, biting lips and tongues exploring.
Clara kicked her boots off, removing her tights as she helped Emily remove her trousers until just underwear remained. Clara inhaled deeply as Emily clambered on top of her, she could feel herself shaking with nerves. Emily ran her hands through her hair and Clara swallowed the lump in her throat.
"Do you really not remember anything about the other night?" Emily stroked her cheek, moving some hair from Clara's face.
Clara shook her head. Emily screwed up her mouth, looking at her with wide eyes as she stroked her cheek. Clara pulled Emily towards her for a slow kiss, weaving her hands through her hair.
Emily laughed as she kissed her. Emily moved to kiss her neck, before moving to whisper in Clara's ear.
"Let me remind you," Emily said as Clara swallowed hard, closing her eyes, "it was my go anyway, you had your turn the other night." Unlikely, Clara thought, she wouldn't have known where to begin. But she was drunk... she shook her head to concentrate on what was happening now.
Clara closed her eyes as Emily took over. Emily removed her own underwear and Clara's easily before carrying on. She wasn't able to get any words out from the back of her throat, eyes firmly closed. Emily laughed at her, knowing the effect she was having.
The next few hours were a blur of kissing, touching, shouting, laughing, relentless in its pursuit of pleasure. They were interrupted by a loud bang on the door a few times. Clara lost track of the time and eventually fell into a sleep entangled up with her.
"Fuck!" shouted Clara muffled through a pillow as she woke up and looked at the time on the alarm clock near the bed.
Emily barely roused to her left, simply turning over, completey naked, ignoring her.
"Fuck!" she shouted louder, realising it was 8.45am. She put her head firmly into the pillow.
"What's the matter?" Emily mumbled sleepily.
"I needed to be at work fifteen minutes ago, fuck!" Clara got up and starting collecting her clothes, realising her bag and more importantly her alarm on her phone were in the other room. "Fuck's sake, what is wrong with me?! I have never been late."
Emily woke up slightly, raising a snigger at her.
"Don't you laugh at me, it is not funny!" she barked. Clara tried to find something to cover herself with so she could go out and retrieve her things, she found a shirt dress on the floor of Emily's, which she put on quickly before going into the other room. She found her bag and coat still on the floor where she had left them last night, and found Lewis lying on the sofa, looking at his mobile phone.
"Good morning Carla," he laughed at her, "what the devil are you doing here?"
Clara blushed heavily, knowing he already knew the answer.
"Umm, I- I-," she stuttered, not ready for a conversation like this right now. "I am very late," she got out.
"Aren't you a teacher?" he said, looking at his watch with a glint in his eye.
"Yes," said Clara, collecting her jacket and bag, walking back towards the kitchen and Emily's room.
"Whoops," he said sarcastically at her.
"Yeah, tell me about it," she muttered to herself, going back into Emily's room. Emily had fallen back asleep, Clara sat down on the bed and woke her, resigned to the fact she was going to be very late. "Do you have a towel I can use?" she said to Emily. "And where is the bathroom?"
Emily still had her eyes closed as she pointed at the wardrobe. "Last door on the right," she mumbled.
Clara took the first towel she saw and took it and her bag towards the bathroom, moving as quickly as she could. She got to the bathroom and tried the door, it was locked.
"Oh no, no, no, no," she sighed, remembering why she hated living with people so much, banging her forehead onto the glazed door. She could hear the shower going inside, and then heard a male voice coming from inside.
"It's alright Carla, I'll only be another half hour or so." Lewis laughed, taunting her. She banged heavily on the door with her fist, annoyed. She pulled out her phone, expecting to see a barrage of messages and texts but instead seeing nothing. It was 09.02. She needed to call Linda, there was no way to recover this.
She went back to Emily's room, sat on the bed, putting her head in her hands and dialled the contact number. This was going to be awkward. Especially as the whole Secret Santa situation from two years earlier had yet to be fully resolved.
"Good Morning, Coal Hill School secretary's office. Linda speaking, how can I help you?"
"Hi Linda," she said, more than a little bit sheepishly, "it's Clara, err, Miss Oswald."
"Good morning, Miss Oswald, it was a rough night wasn't it?" Linda replied, "is this about the photocopying you asked me to do about fifteen minutes ago?" she sneered. "Give me a chance."
"Umm, what?" Hang on, how was she at school right now?
"I told you it's not really my job. Surely even you can press a green button on a machine yourself. What do you want?"
"Oh, nothing, just one of the parents wanted to know when parents evening was to get time off work, I couldn't remember."
"Forgotten how to use your computer as well? I'll print you off the sheets and give it to you with the copies later."
"Thanks Linda, that would be great,"
"Anything else?" Linda snapped.
"No," Clara said, there was something she needed to know, "Oh hang on. What do you think of what I'm wearing today?"
"That red thing with all the eyes on it? Makes me feel very uneasy. Quite a bit of VPL in those jeans. Shoes don't match. Wouldn't want to offend you, though."
"Thanks for your... honesty." Bitch.
"You've got work to do Miss Oswald."
Linda slammed the phone down. This was a very unexpected, yet welcome, turn of events, she laughed to herself, a message on her phone appeared.
: Go back to bed, take the day off. You owe me one.
Clara laughed, there was no way she would let herself be late for work and do the walk of shame. This was now officially a problem for Future Clara to deal with.
"Have you just called in sick?" said Emily, now awake, sitting up behind her.
"Well, it appears I do not need to go to work today," Clara laughed, turning to face Emily.
"Is that even allowed?" Emily asked, raising an eyebrow, pulling Clara towards her.
"No, I'd imagine it's not," shaking her head with a wide smile. "The secretary really does hate me."
"Why?"
"She thinks I gave her a packet of Tena Lady for Secret Santa Christmas before last."
"And did you?" Emily raised an eyebrow.
"No!" said Clara, offended, "of course I didn't."
"Did you ever find out who did?"
"No, I am 99% sure it was Sonia from Textiles, though. Seriously, what sort of subject is that?" she laughed.
"Better make the most of it today then," Emily said, as she moving Clara to straddle her.
"Are you working today?" Clara asked before running a trail of kisses down Emily's neck.
"I've got a shift at the bar, starts at 2pm," said Emily, sighing heavily, removing her dress off Clara. "I need to turn up, though, can't just call in sick like you," she breathed.
"I didn't say I'd called in sick," Clara said, trailing a finger down Emily's chestbone. "I guess you could say someone is covering for me, they owe me a favour."
"What?" said Emily, pulling away from her. "Can you do that?"
"Today apparently yes," Clara said, running her hand over Emily's shoulders, "and I am not complaining."
Clara pinned Emily down to the bed and went in for a deep kiss, before Emily moved to wrestle her over.
The door opened suddenly, making them both jump and scrabble for covers, embarrassed.
"Fuck's sake Em, put it away! Shower's free now Carla," Lewis said, not moving.
"You bastard, fuck off!" Emily shouted, throwing a pillow square at him, just catching the back of the door as he used it to shield himself.
"You know, you're right, she does have great tits," he laughed, still not moving. "Almost, but still not quite, enough to turn me straight."
"Excuse me?! Do you mind?! I am here you know," Clara said, offended, also getting irritated by him now, blushing.
"Lewis, I swear, if you do not close that door right now I am going to fucking slap you so hard you'll... you'll..." Emily paused.
"Regenerate?" Clara offered, under her breath, hiding herself under the covers, remembering one of the last times she felt angry.
"Yeah... so hard you'll regenerate." Emily paused, "regenerate? as what?" she said quietly, now realising how ridiculous that sounded.
"Look I'm sorry, OK, I was just coming in to tell Carla-"
"Clara!" Clara said, deciding she was not tolerating it any more. "It is Clara, OK? Not Clare, not Carla... Clara!"
"Shove it up your ballsack!" Emily shouted.
Clara couldn't help but laugh to herself.
"Shut up," Emily glared at her, playfully smiling and pushing her under the covers.
"Ok, I'm leaving," he said, closing the door.
"I really need to get a lock," Emily sighed.
"I'm sorry, but" Clara smiled, she impersonated Emily as much as possible, "shove it up your ballsack?"
"Yes?" said Emily, smiling.
"I've heard some creative insults, but, impressive."
"You know, I once told my mum to shove it up her tits," she laughed.
"Really?" Clara smirked.
"Totally justifiable in the circumstances, I mean, she was offering me £1000 to leave my girlfriend at the time... bitch," Emily laughed softly.
"Shove it up your tits," Clara laughed, "I might try that next time. Oh yeah, and... great tits? What do you think I am? A piece of meat?" Clara narrowed her eyes.
"Sorry about that," Emily smirked. She was clearly not sorry.
"I'm not sure that's a good enough apology," Clara sighed, shaking her head.
"Oh really?" said Emily, before pouncing onto Clara.
