Author's Note: Okay, so I've made this chapter a lot longer. I think it's better than the others too as there is more detail. I know I'm not the best writer so I appreciate you all reading this. I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 12

Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty. Emily was watching the second hand on her watch propel around the face trying to pass the time waiting for Naomi to arrive at college. As it was the first day back after summer, Doug and Harriet had arranged a meeting in place of form time. Every day since the two had been seeing each other, Emily had counted the minutes and seconds on her watch of how late Naomi was for college. On average, she was three minutes and thirty-seven seconds late, however, on a Monday she was four minutes and twelve seconds late. Today was a Monday. Four minutes and eight seconds had passed when Emily looked back down again at her watch. Nine, ten, eleven, twelve... And right on cue, the door to the hall swung open and a very displeased Naomi walked in, making her way to where the group had gathered. She sat down next to Emily and sighed. Looking out of the corner of her eye she saw Emily smiling happily at her, so in retaliation she rested a hand on Emily's knee and gave it a tight squeeze. Their gaze was forced toward Doug after he sounded a very hesitant cough to clear his throat.

"Ah, everyone's here then? Excellent...wonderful. Welcome back everybody! I hope your summer's were full of fun and..."
"SEX AND DRUGS!" a boy at the back of the hall shouted above the rest of the students' heads, creating a fit of laughter from them.
"All right, that's enough!" Harriet shouted from the side of Doug. They didn't stop laughing, so she tried again, "Shut up you mindless twats!"
"Ah...well...thank you, Harriet. That was...certainly...yes, okay. Welcome back everybody. As it's a new year – your last year – I hope you're all ready to knuckle down and get the grades you wish to achieve." his mind seemed to trail off a little bit as he stopped and looked thoughtfully down at the ground. Harriet nudged him and pointed to a girl that was standing near the doorway. "Oh, yes, of course. Today, gang, a new student is joining us...she's come from...uh, where have you come from again?" he ushered the girl to join them and she made her way over.
"I'm from Yorkshire...I studied at a college there for my first year, but my parents decided to move down here. My dad had better prospects for work and stuff, so...I had to leave too." she said quietly, trying not to look at too many of the students' faces as she scanned the room. She stopped suddenly and locked eyes with a girl in the crowd.

Naomi's eyes widened as she looked vacantly back at the girl and her heart rate quickened. Her grip on Emily's knee tightened again and as Emily looked at Naomi, the girl staring at her turned back to Doug.
"Ouch, Naoms...not so hard." Emily plead Naomi.
"This is...sorry, what's your name again?" Harriet took over from Doug and looked at the girl after forgetting her name.
"Summer." Naomi whispered under her breath before the girl could answer the question directed at her.
"Huh? Did you say something?" Emily turned to Naomi again and asked with her brows furrowed together curiously, to which Naomi shook her head and smiled back at Emily.
"Summer. I'm Summer." she replied quietly again.
"Ha ha! So Summer is joining us after the Summer! How extraordinary." Doug cried out, hoping for laughter to wave from the children along with him, but it didn't so he silenced himself before speaking again, "Well, welcome Summer, we hope you will enjoy your first and last year here. I'm sure the students will make you feel very at home...won't you?" he raised his eyebrows to the year who were all sitting on the benches with rather uninterested expressions on their faces. "Hmm..."
"Go and sit down with them Summer, we only have a few more things to say." Harriet directed the girl to the benches before returning to Doug's side and straightened out her dress.

Naomi watched the girl closely as she found a space at the end of the benches and sat down. The girl looked over to her left and stared at Naomi, much like Emily had done on the first day of college a year previously. She didn't hear what Doug and Harriet had to say after that as all her energy was focused on the new girl. She was snapped out of her gaze hastily as Emily was calling her name and the rest of the group were waving their hands around to get her attention.
"Naomi, girl, you with us?" Cook asked her as she turned back to face them, "Ha, she's fucked man. What have you taken this mornin'? And can I have some?" a grin had spread across his face but Naomi had chosen to ignore him. She reached her hand for Emily's and stood up, pulling Emily up with her. In doing so, Emily noticed the girl looking over at the two of them. She saw a slight hint of sadness and despair in the girl's expression.
"Naoms, why's that girl looking at us?"
"Uh...I dunno Em...leave it." she said making sure she didn't turn to look at Summer.
"She looks sad though...maybe we should go and talk to her." Emily suggested politely.
"No! Leave it, I said." Naomi snapped at Emily firmly.
"But...it can't be easy, coming to a college that's pretty much the other end of the country...not having any friends or anything. Come on, we'll ask her to come and join us."
"Emily! Fucking hell, I said no okay? She doesn't need us to feel sorry for her or make friends with her or anything. Just leave her." her grasp on Emily's hand felt like a vice and as she continued through her sentence it was getting tighter and tighter.
"Okay...okay. Naomi! Fuck...I said okay!" she managed to free her hand from Naomi's clutch and shook it; trying to get the blood supply flowing again.
"Sorry." Naomi apologised as she saw Emily in pain, "It's just, well I don't think we should go poking around in her business...not yet anyway." she reached out her hand again and a hesitant Emily returned the gesture and let Naomi cradle it. She placed a kiss on Emily's forehead and started to vacate the hall, looking back at Summer for a final time.


Summer was also in the same English class as Naomi and Emily and the rest of the group, so Naomi was finding it hard to keep her mind off her. She lifted up her copy of Hamlet and tried to read it in the hope of it destroying the thought of Summer. It didn't work. Her eyes moved quickly from the book to Summer too frequently for Naomi to even read a sentence of the book.

"Fuck!" she exclaimed at she threw the book onto her desk causing the attention of the class to focus on her. Their eyes burned into her as they fixated their gazes. "Fuck off, all right? Jesus, I'm not a fucking circus show." her heart beat was racing again but the calm touch of Emily's cool hand on her own lulled Naomi into stillness, slowing her heart rate simultaneously. She lifted up her fingers from the table so Emily could slip hers under them. Naomi caught Summer watching the two and saw how uncomfortable their interactions were making her. She leaned over and kissed Emily's cheek, not moving her eyes from Summer's. The girl winced and looked like she was going to cry. Seeing this, Naomi smiled deviously before launching herself at Emily giving her an intense kiss whilst ignoring the howls from the rest of the class.

Emily pushed Naomi off her eventually and said "What the fuck, Naomi? What are you doing?"

It was all too much for Summer and she gathered her things and ran out of the classroom. Naomi smiled and looked around back to Emily, whose face was at the opposite end of the spectrum to her own. The rest of the class looked her at in disbelief including the teacher.

"What?" she asked them, shaking her head, "I was just being unpredictable. Shakespeare was all about that kinda shit, wasn't he?" she said out loud. Everybody knew it was rhetorical so didn't bother with an answer. She turned back to Emily and scrunched her nose, accompanying it with a small grin. Emily shook her head but couldn't resist Naomi's little motion so smiled back and kicked Naomi's foot with her own.

"Wonder what's up with the new girl..." Freddie enquired after everybody had taken in what had happened.
"I don't know...maybe she was as shocked as we were at Naomi's little incident. Maybe even disgusted. She does look a little anti-lesbian if you ask me." JJ offered his opinion.
"Yeah, no one was asking you though, J." Freddie replied, rolling his eyes.
"No one's ever asking me."
"Ah, don't you worry my little Gay-J. I'm sure all the girls are gagging to ask about your magic." Cook said as he ruffled JJ's hair.


The teacher had told them they could be excused, so everybody raced out of the door and to patch of grass that was situated outside the front of the college on the other side of the road. As it was the first day, they had only one lesson which was mid-morning and then they were free for the rest of the day. Katie had decided to take her top off and lie down so she could sunbathe – the boys were not objecting to this, but the other girls thought it was a little inappropriate. Pandora was laying in Effy's lap whilst Effy plaited her hair, and Emily was sat at the side of Naomi, drawing in her English folder. Naomi watched as the boys played football – as they normally did – and was supposed to be refereeing, but her gaze wandered over to the edge of the green. Fucking hell, she thought. Summer.

"Hey, do you think we should go talk to her? I mean, she did storm out of English earlier...maybe something's up." Emily stood up as she was saying this only to feel Naomi grabbing at her trying to pull her down. Emily stepped out of the way and started to walk over. Naomi was too late to grab her and fell onto her back trying to do so. "Fuck's sake." she said out loud and shot up and ran to Emily. "Don't! She obviously wants to be alone."
"No, Naomi, she has to be alone. She hasn't got any friends Naoms, she'll be lonely. What's the big deal anyway, it's not like you know her!" Emily said and then stopped in her tracks as Naomi stopped without replying to her. "You don't know her...right, Naoms? Naomi." Emily's tone hardened as she wasn't getting a response from Naomi.
"No...of course not!" Naomi said, snapping herself out of her silence.
"Right...then let's go."
"Do we have to?" Naomi plead.
"Yes."
"Fine, well I'm not going, you can. I don't need any more friends cheers, Em."
"Fine, fuck off over there then!" she said with a smile on her face showing Naomi she wasn't angry at her.

Naomi watched Emily approach Summer as she sat down with the rest of the group. Her nails were shrinking vastly as she was biting them nervously, trying to figure out what the girls were talking about.

"Hi...Summer, right? I'm Emily." Emily said to the girl as she approached her. She looked at the girl and when the girl looked at her she smiled and sat down with her.
"Hi." the girl replied quietly.
"How are you finding it here? I suppose we only really had one lesson and nothing happened- well...apart from Naomi's outburst." the girl flinched as Emily said this and Emily apologised, "Sorry, I didn't know it made you uncomfortable... Is that why you ran out of the class?"
"Sorry, Emily...I, uh, I have to go...I'm just, I'm late. Sorry, bye." Summer said hesitantly as she gathered her bag and folder. She stood up and left before Emily could say anything, but Emily saw a piece of folded paper fall out of her folder. Picking up the piece of paper, Emily opened her mouth to tell her she'd dropped something but she opened it to see what it was. It was a piece of paper that had the names of the people in her form on – much like what they'd received on their first day last year. She quickly noticed that a name had been highlighted. Naomi's name had been highlighted. Her heart lurched as she saw her girlfriend's name highlighted by another girl. Emily remembered doing the same thing on her very first day when she received her list.

Emily stormed back to where the group were sitting and threw the piece of paper down onto Naomi's lap. Everyone looked up at Emily but didn't say a word. Naomi lifted the piece of paper and looked at it and gulped heavily.
"I thought you didn't know her, Naomi?" Emily's voice was hoarse; Naomi could tell she was upset.
"I...Em, I don't."
"Well why is your name fucking highlighted on her piece of paper, hmm?"
"I don't know! Emily, listen, I don't know!"
"Well she seems to know you, Naomi. So you better get your story straight because I'm done playing all these games with you!" the tone in her voice made Naomi think about her actions and she knew she had to be honest with her.
"Okay...I do know her." Naomi bit her lip before replying to Emily.
"Unbelievable!" Emily called out.
"Give me a chance to explain, okay? I met her when I went on that school trip to Scotland...remember? You didn't go. I can remember feeling devastated you weren't going, Em. Even though we weren't really friends, I was absolutely gutted that you weren't going because I knew I wouldn't have anyone on the trip. I had fucking nobody! And then..." She stood up so she was at the same level as Emily. A few tears rolled down the cheeks of Emily and Naomi continued, "She was there, with her school...and a couple of us had to share a dorm with a couple of the girls from that school, and..."
"Oh, God! Naoms, really?" Emily's expression was so painful for Naomi to look at. She looked down and let out a sob.
"No! Emily, listen. Nothing happened. We just got talking...then at the end of the trip, she gave me her number. So we got talking for a while...but then when I got to college I stopped. I stopped because you were here. And you were really the only one I wanted. But then..."
"You and your mum had that trip booked to Yorkshire. You had a trip, didn't you? But you had to... Oh my God, you cancelled it didn't you, at really short notice! But that means you'd have to know she was coming down here...so..."
"Emily, please, listen..."
Emily interjected before Naomi had chance to continue her explanation, "You've been talking to her, haven't you? Whilst you've been my girlfriend, you've been talking to her."
"Emily, no, wait-"
"Don't you dare lie to me, Naomi. I want the truth." her eyes burned holes through Naomi's.
"Yes, okay, I have been. But I didn't think anything of it...she's a friend! Just like these guys, they're my friends and you don't hate me for being friends with them." Naomi tried to reason with the girl who was standing right in front of her with red tear-marks down her cheeks and puffy eyes.
"Yeah because you're not doing it in fucking secret that's why. Whatever Naomi, if you want her, go on. You can still fucking catch her." Emily moved out of the way of Naomi so she could walk past her.

Naomi grabbed Emily by the arms and bent down so their faces were at the exact same height. Emily closed her eyes and bowed her head not wanting to look at Naomi, but Naomi had other ideas; she used one hand to lift Emily's chin up and waited until she opened her eyes.

"Emily. Babe, look at me. Look at me!" Naomi demanded and Emily complied eventually. "Look, you're the one I want, okay? Summer can go and fuck herself, I didn't even like her that much anyway. What can I do to show I'm sorry? You want me to...to stand on the roof of the college and profess my love for you? What do you want? Emily – what do you want?" Naomi hardened her voice by the end of the sentence, trying to snap Emily back into reality.
Emily looked around and noticed the group staring up at them; the two had inadvertently forgotten they weren't alone. "Yeah."
"What?" Naomi said in a confused manner.
"Yes, I want you to do that. I want you to ask Summer to go up there with you, too. So she gets the idea." Emily flitted her eyes between Naomi's waiting for an answer.
"She won't..." Naomi stopped herself as she saw Emily shake her head in disappointment. "Okay, I'll do it. But how can I get her to...what if she doesn't...you know?"
"She will." Emily said and unhooked herself from Naomi's grip and sat down next to Pandora and Katie.
"Bugger." Naomi said quietly to herself as the rest of the group continued with their conversation.


Naomi spent the rest of the day searching for Summer and she thought she was wasting her time, until she saw a figure of a girl sitting on a bench at the side of the college believing it was Summer. She approached the girl, and sure enough she was correct in her assumption.

"Summer." Naomi said and cleared her voice as it was a little hoarse. The girl looked up and smiled and bit her lip before opening her mouth to say something, "Follow me, I want to talk to you."

The girls climbed to the roof of the college in silence and when they arrived at the top and stopped near the edge, Summer finally said something.
"Um, Nomie..."
"Don't call me that." Naomi snapped.
"What are we doing up here...on the roof? It's a little dangerous isn't it?" she looked over the edge of the roof and noticed Cook and the gang rounding up people from the college to witness what was about to happen. Turning back around to face Naomi, Summer noticed Emily had joined the two on the roof. "Okay, I don't need to be here..."

"You wait right there, Summer. I need to talk to you about something, so you'll fucking listen." Naomi said to Summer, almost shouting at her to stay. She then stepped closer to the edge of the roof and Emily moved to the right of her, so she was nearer the edge. "Whilst I knew you and spent time with you in Scotland, it was great. Really great, you were a wonderful friend. Knowing that you could have been more than a friend scared me, so that's why I stopped talking to you. And now that you're here...it's made things clear for me." she moved closer towards Summer which made both Summer and Emily stand on edge as they didn't know what Naomi's next move was going to be. "I never really wanted you, Summer...I never wanted you."
"Don't say that! DON'T YOU DARE SAY THAT!" Summer shouted at Naomi which made the crowd grow on ground-level.

Naomi turned to Emily and started to talk to her, "When I saw you in college last year, and we got closer than we had done in secondary...I thought it was going to scare me, like it did with Summer. But it didn't...it didn't scare me, Emily. And that's when I knew...when I knew I loved you!" she said with a smile across her face. She then turned to face the crowd of people below her and shouted at the top of her lungs, "I LOVE EMILY FITCH. I LOVE HER, I FUCKING LOVE THE GIRL. I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT HER!" she turned to look back at Emily and heard the crowd screaming and clapping. She opened her mouth to tell Emily that she loved her, but before she could she saw Summer charge over and push Emily so violently that she stumbled back, falling over the edge of the roof.

Naomi reached out and tried to grab hold on Emily's hand before she fell backwards over the roof to her death. She leaned over the edge and shouted down to Emily as she was falling. All she could do was scream her name. Everybody on ground-level was stunned into silence apart from Katie, as she watched her sister fall mercilessly from the roof of the college. Luckily there was a balcony that was half way down the college that stunted Emily's fall. It stopped her from dying, but it didn't stop her from being seriously injured. Naomi saw the blood spew from Emily's body and pour out onto the concrete floor of the balcony and cried out. Her heart felt as though it had been ripped out and thrown down from the roof of the college, falling all the way to the ground. Seeing the girl she loved falling to what Naomi thought to be her death was an experience she never thought she'd have to see and she had never thought previously how she'd process it. Her thoughts were running wild and incoherently in a manner that she couldn't decipher what was happening. The sirens of an ambulance had snapped her back into reality and she climbed down the ladder at the side of the college and ran through corridors trying to find where the balcony was. She didn't know how long it was going to take her to get to Emily, but she knew she had to reach her.

Let me know whether you think it was decent or shit or whatever. It's appreciated a lot, thank you.