Chapter Thirteen

Emily

"Yesterday night was amazing." Naomi giggled and let out a puff of smoke into the night air.

I nodded in agreement. It had really been amazing. Despite how long we had been in Goa we had only made love twice. But due to my announcement things had been pretty shaky between us. But now Naomi was as happy as she had been during the past week. It still was a mystery to me… I mean how she suddenly got so happy.

"Want one?" She lifted her eyebrows and smiled at me as she offered her cigarette package.

"Thanks" I leaned over the bench and took the package she offered. I opened it and noted that there were only three long white cigarettes with a light orange end pointing upwards.

"Here" I held out the cigarettes, waiting for Naomi to take them.

She put her cigarette in her mouth and with one hand she retrieved the package and with the other hand she held out a lighter. I put my cigarette (well, it was Naomi's to be fair) and leaned over to let her light it for me. As the flame touched the end I dragged in the smoke that got created. As I breathed out through my nose the smoke poured out, I felt like a dragon or something.

As the drugs made me calm my thoughts wondered back to yesterday. Right after we left our love scene in the club bathroom I remembered laughing to the huge line of people waiting to use the loo. Now afterwards I wondered if they heard something. I smiled to myself as I figured how shocked they must have gotten if they had heard something and then Naomi and I walked out together. And I remembered that Naomi was unusually giggly after just two beers. At least she didn't seem to have a hangover the morning after. She had actually waked me up with a bright smile again. Don't get me wrong, I loved seeing Naomi happy. But her behaviour was staring to freak me out a bit...

"What are you thinking of?" Naomi interrupted my thoughts. I looked at her smiling face and eyes wide with curiosity. I couldn't help but smiling back at her.

"Nothing really... and you?"

I saw a frown forming but just as I noticed it Naomi covered it up with a smile. "Me neither."

"Ok..." I scotched myself closer to her and lay my head on her shoulder.

I felt how she wrapped an arm around me. I looked up at her and saw how she dragged in a deep breath through her cigarette to then turn her head away from me to blow out the smoke. When she no longer breathed smoke she turned to face me with a gentle smile. But I saw... I saw that there was something that she was hiding. Whatever it was it scared me to the core.

I smoked up my cigarette while listening to the crickets and the sound of Naomi's heartbeat that pounded close to my ear. The sound combined with her soft arm wrapped around me made me feel safe and secure. I wanted to stay like that forever, wanted the time to stop.

I saw how Naomi threw the end of her cigarette down onto the stone path that curved its way further into the empty park.

"I'm done." She sounded very satisfied with herself.

I took one last breath through my cigarette before I threw it in the direction of Naomi's. "Me too, let's go back to get some sleep." I took my hand and lifted Naomi's arm off me. I placed both of my hands onto the edge of the bench to push me up.

"Noo!" Naomi protested facing the sky with her eyes pressed closed. "I want to go to that club again." She continued.

"No, we can go there tomorrow." I looked at her as she sighed deeply.

"Ok then..." She got up and walked up to my side. Her hand found mine and together we walked back towards the flat. Naomi swung with our arms back and forth as we walked, it was kind of annoying. But I decided not to do anything about it because I didn't want to ruin her wide smile.

As we got back to the flat I put my hand onto the wall for support as I lifted one foot to take of my shoe. I suddenly felt how Naomi wrapped her arms around me and how she used her hand to swipe my hair away from one side of my neck. She began placing kisses witch made goosebumps explode all over my neck and back. I took off my last shoe before I turned towards Naomi who began to giggle. I studied her face and noticed dark circles underneath her eyes which indicated that she needed some sleep.

"You need to sleep babe." I said as I wrapped my arms around her and placed a kiss on her lips.

"You too." She said against my lips and I felt how she smiled.

"Ok, ok." I began to back with my arms still tightly wrapped around Naomi's waist.

She happily followed me as I dragged her over the floor. As we got to the bed I let go of her and climbed onto it. I patted the spot beside me to tell her to come and join me and she did. She crawled over to me and put and arm around me. I lay down, head resting in her lap. I snuggled close to her and smelled her. She smelled Naomi, the scent of amazing Naomi. She began stroking my forehead with her thumb.

"You need to sleep." She whispered ever so gently.

But something told me that she needed to sleep more than I did. I felt how her gentle stroked made me sleepy "You need to sleep too." I slurred out with a lazy smile, my eyes half closed. Then I drifted off into unconsciousness with one thought in my mind 'Why is Naomi so happy?'

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The sound was loud as cymbals and it pierced my diffuse thoughts and dragged me right out of my sleep by making my body give a huge jolt in a panic. My eyes opened abruptly and all I saw was darkness surrounding me. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness I saw an empty pillow right beside me. It was empty! Naomi? As the thoughts rushed through my mind I flew up to a sitting position in panic. I could hear my own breath, loud and harsh.

Then I heard her voice. It was so low, a silent whisper "Fuck."

I felt how my eyes flickered from the left corner to the right corner of my eyes and then back again in confusion. The knowledge that she was still in the flat made me somewhat calmer and my breath slowed down. As I regained some sense of reality I recalled what had waked me up. It had been a sound, a loud and quick noise. It had almost sounded like glass... GLASS! The sound had sounded just like glass shattering into a hundred pieces against hardwood floor. Had it been reality or just a dream?

Then the sound of someone inside the kitchen makes me freeze. I didn't know why it scared me since it most likely was Naomi.

I couldn't see into the kitchen from the bed so I carefully swung my legs over the side and sneaked my way towards the doorway to the kitchen. I peeked inside and I felt how my eyes widened at the sight as my gaze travelled in a rapid speed all across the room before settling on Naomi's face.

The floor lay in a glitter of shattered glass. The moonlight lit up the pieces and made them shimmer like rain. The moon also lit up Naomi's face. Her dark circles underneath her eyes were even bigger and darker. She sat on a kitchen chair with one foot under her and the other one dangling from the chair. She sat and faced the window, thankfully. Otherwise she might have been able to see me standing snug to the wall trying to peek inside.

I watched her sigh with closed eyes. Her breathing was heavy and low and she sat slumped on the chair. Judging from her body language she had been up many nights. She parted her lips and lifted up a black bottle to her mouth and began to pour the content into her mouth.

I gasped for air in shock, but tried to cover the sounds by instinctively putting my hand over my mouth, because I knew a wine bottle when I saw one. I watched as her throat contracted with every gulp she took. Suddenly everything made sense. My eyes got once more drawn to the shimmery floor. The smell, I could smell first now, smelled scarily like wine. And of course it was, without a doubt.

Her good mood must have been thanks to the alcohol. And because she had been in a good mood for a whole week I feared that this had been going on far longer than I knew. Everything became blurry as tears filled my eyes, ruining my sight. I took a deep shaky breath before I stumbled, as quietly as I could, back to bed. The thoughts spun around in my head. How long had this been going on? Was it all my fault? Why did she do it? Why didn't she tell me? What was she hiding? What could I do?

So many questions, and I had no answer. The more I thought about what I just had seen the more I began to cry. I buried my face into the pillow to kill the sound of my sobs. I just wanted to go back to sleep and wake up to a happy Naomi. I wanted this to be a dream, just a nightmare. But when I finally fell back to sleep it was with unease.

A/N: Was that expected?

I know, another chapter with just Emily's POV. And let me ad: Drink responsibly!