A/N Well then, my lovelies. It's obviously been far too long since last we met, but you'll just have to trust me when I say there have been a lot of very good reasons. A lot of travelling, a lot of work and some insane amounts of fun, we are at the world's biggest arts festival after all. So thanks for not bugging me, and to the girl called J who asked after my health, I'm fine, the distractions have all been good. To Steph, yes that was us at La Tohu, and no I'm not a redhead, at least not this month! This chapter is dedicated to Oi Blondie for her marathon readathon and dedication to the cause, and also to everyone else for your patience.

Hyperlove and best wishes to you all.

I don't own Skins, but nobody's perfect.

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37. The Sweet Escape

Emily

On this day a year ago I was unhappy, pretty bored and fucking angry. Katie and I were wafting around on our silks at some flashy corporate dinner thing, being moving wallpaper for a bunch of drunken rich idiots who couldn't give a shit about us and barely even looked at us. Sometimes those parties can be good, if the people are chilled. Sometimes you can get pissed on the free champagne, or pick up some fancy swag. But other times they treat you like shit, like you're their fucking servants. They won't let you talk to the punters or even into the party room unless you're actually doing the act. You usually have to get changed in the kitchen or some such shit and sometimes they don't even fucking feed you, and yet you still have to hang around for hours so you can de-rig. I had already had my revelation that I had had enough of this crap and wanted to do something more artistically satisfying, and the way the fucking arsehole promoter was talking to us had got me fuming. Katie had tried to get me to calm down so I wouldn't get us into trouble, but the sight of her sucking up to that ridiculous coke-addled dickhead only made me even angrier. Since when did my amazing flaming firebrand of a sister suck up to anyone? She was worth at least ten of him, and I wanted to tell him exactly that in no uncertain terms. In the end she had to sneak me out the back for a spliff just sure I didn't blow it for us.

"I know he's a wanker, Ems," she said calmly, "But he runs loads of events. We shouldn't piss him off."

"But why?" I countered. "So we can end up doing more shitty gigs like this where they treat us like we're scum?"

"It's good money," protested Katie.

"It's not good enough," I replied. "We're too good for this. You're too good for this."

"What do you want me to do?" she said, throwing her hands up in frustration.

"Are you happy here?" I asked her.

She didn't reply, but the look in her eyes told me she had no answer. She couldn't say no because that would be letting me win, and she could never bring herself to do that, but she couldn't say no because she would be lying, and I would know. The reason that night was so etched into my memory is that it was our birthday. As I stared back at my sister's beautiful face I found myself making a resolution. My birthday present to her would be to get us out of there. I swore to myself that I would do it, that I would find us an escape route.

One year later and my escape route had led us here. The contrast was so extreme, it was hilarious. We had come to Cornwall for our last show of the season. It was one of those towns that had pretty much been taken over by hippies. They had taken the date of the town's old traditional fayre and expanded it into an amazing one day arts festival. In the daytime they had kept a lot of the old rituals, including some crazy race where people had to run round to all the town's churches dressed as demons collecting various offerings from fake priests, but they had added street performers and performance artists into the mayhem. And in the evening, the local people got together with the visitors to make a fantastic parade through the town. The whole thing was very pagan and anarchic and had gained quite a reputation over the past few years as one of the events to see in the British summer calendar. Gina was long term best mates with Angie and Bongo, the main couple who organised it so Abandon had performed here before in their early days, but this year we were to be the headline act. The parade would lead everyone to a natural amphitheatre on a cliff top overlooking the sea where we would perform our show outside. It was going to be a hell of a way to finish the tour.

That was in a week's time. Right now we were at a party in a barn at Angie and Bongo's farm, where we were all parked up. Maybe it was just the chemicals that were having their own little disco in my brain, but I swear if I my smile was any wider I would be in danger of tearing my own face apart. Have to say I was feeling pretty pleased with myself, having pulled off the most spectacular escape in history. This time last year I was doing shitty work that I hated, fucking around with pretty much any girl that would have me, and desperately dreaming that one day my life would be like this. As I sat outside that stupid posh fuckwit's party, grinding my teeth in anger, I would never have believed that twelve short months could have had such an incredible effect on my life.

Today really was a happy birthday. I was at an amazing party surrounded by my fucking beautiful, talented new family. I was completely in love with the most amazing woman I've ever met. Not only had I gained two new amazing surrogate mothers, I was finally starting to mend my relationship with my own. I had found a wonderful new brother who I knew that I could trust with my life. Ok, he was still called James and he was still a pervert but I guess some things never change. And my sister? Just one look at her was enough to tell me that if I were to ask her the same question today "Are you happy here?" the answer would be an unequivocal yes. This time last year I would never have expected Katie to embrace this kind of lifestyle with such rampant enthusiasm. I had expected her to moan about having to live in a caravan, about what the mud was doing to her shoes. I expected her to complain about having to put the tent up, and the lack of well-heeled guys she could manipulate into buying her expensive things. But Katie Fitch had changed. She was still the awesomely powerful individual she had always been, but now she no longer seemed to care about the trappings and status symbols that once used to matter to her so much. It would seem she had found whatever it was that was missing in her life, the thing that allowed her to drop all her attitude and bravado, and finally be happy with who she was. Whatever it was, was almost certainly provided by one Effy Stonem.

I watched to two of them dancing in the beam of one of those old school oil wheel projection lamps. The colours swirled over their bodies as they held each other in the fluid light. Their arms were wrapped lazily around each other as they swayed to a flamenco driven trance track. They seemed completely lost in their own world as they so often did when they danced together, despite the many envious eyes that were drawn to them. Often when we went out Naomi and I would find ourselves beset by guys who were turned on by the sight of two fit girls dancing together. But Katie and Effy who were still to the best of my knowledge straight enough to welcome the attention, were rarely even bothered. It was as if Effy's mystery had wrapped itself around the two of them creating an invisible barrier that no-one dared to broach. Effy knew the commotion she caused in the hearts of men but ever since I had known her she had chosen to ignore it. Katie used to bathe in male attention as if she needed it to survive, but now she no loner seemed to care as long as she was close to Effy. They were both so beautiful, and yet somehow seemed even more beautiful when they were together, and as I watched them dance I finally worked out why. They were at peace. In Effy Katie had finally found someone who loved her without wanting to take anything from her, and the space that Katie created for Effy was one where her demons feared to tread.

Were they shagging? None of us really knew. We never saw them kiss, but the easy intimacy they shared was one that most regular couples could only aspire to. It was something we never really talked about. Whatever was going on between them was simply too beautiful to be the subject of idle gossip. I am sure that each one of us speculated, and of course it would have been easy for me to ask, Katie was my twin sister after all. But despite her almost constant interference and prurient fascination in my love life ever since we were teenagers, my overwhelming instinct was just to leave her be. She would tell me if she wanted to, but until then I was prepared to let this delicate friendship slash romance develop at its own pace. I felt ever so slightly smug that it was my evil schemes that had brought Effy into her life. Happy Birthday Katie.

I felt a pair of arms slide round sensually round my body from behind. I instantly recognised her scent, and fell gratefully back into the embrace. Last time I'd seen her, she had been getting stoned with her mum and Freddie round the fire outside, looking as blessed out as I was feeling. But now she was back, my beautiful Naomi. She ran her tongue along my bare skin from the shoulder strap of my dress, up my neck to the base of my ear which she subsequently bit. I couldn't help but moan as my body shuddered, and an all too familiar desire flooded through me. I think we can be fairly sure that no-one is in any doubt as to the nature of our relationship. Naomi is becoming quite the sex goddess herself these days, but luckily she focuses all of her new found skills on me. My mind flashed back to earlier in the day when we were on our way here. We had come off the M5 and were driving on a dual carriageway through Devon. I had been driving the truck for the last hour when Naomi suddenly put her hand on my arm and looked at me urgently.

"Pull over at the next lay by," she said intensely.

"What's wrong," I said.

"Pull over," she repeated. "It's an emergency."

As soon as we came to a halt, she sprang from her seat and practically ran into the back of the truck. It took me a moment to put the handbrake on and kill the engine, but as soon as I could I was chasing after her to find out what was wrong.

"What kind of emergency? Are you sick?" I called out upon rushing into a seemingly empty truck.

Suddenly I felt myself being spun around and lifted up. Naomi threw me over her shoulder and carried me to the back of the truck, where she slung me onto the bed and then jumped on me, pinning my arms above my head.

"It's a sex emergency," she growled, before taking me with a kiss that burned like liquid fire.

Animal Naomi was back. When she gets like this, she is so raw she's almost primal. She opens up a need in me that is so intense, I have no choice but to sacrifice myself to her hunger. And I give myself willingly, knowing that no-one else could ever take me so completely. She had already ripped my top off and her teeth and tongue were sending repeated electric shocks of pleasure spiralling outwards from my nipples.

"How do you like your eggs, babe?" she hissed, before circling her tongue around my breast. "I can fry you, poach you, scramble you, do you any way you like."

If I could have cut my own tits off and presented them to her on a plate I would have done so in that moment. That was how completely she owned me. Fortunately, Naomi seemed to like them attached to the rest of my body, and she chose that moment to thrust herself inside of me.

"I need you," was all I managed to gasp, before being seized by complete abandon and letting the animal devour me. She fucked me halfway round the bed and I ended up with my head hanging off the edge as I screamed my way into orgasm against the aggressive actions of her hand. Her strong arms kept me from falling even if she was pulling at my hair so hard, she was in danger of ripping out a chunk. I didn't care, the violence of her passion only made the pleasure more intense. She bit down on my breast, hard, and once again explosions of cosmological intensity ripped through my tiny frame. The muscles in my cunt slammed shut around her, and I could feel my nails drawing blood as I dug them into her back. Somehow she managed to drag me back onto the bed without pulling out of me, and I clung to her spasming wildly with intense aftershocks, and feeling like I might just die if she ever took her fingers away from me.

"Fuck," I said. Somehow sex with Naomi temporarily stripped me of the ability to form any kind of words apart from 'fuck'.

"Yeah, that certainly was one hell of a fuck," said Naomi. "You are incredible."

"Fuck," was my brilliant contribution to the conversation.

I looked up at my filthy gorgeous girlfriend to see her mouth smirking at me, but her eyes now filled with love. I decided to attempt more words. I wanted to tell her all the beautiful things she made me feel.

"Fuck me," was all I managed.

"Ok," she said, deciding to take the meaning literally.

"What?" I gasped as she started moving again inside of me.

I couldn't believe it. I had only just come, and come hard, but she was arousing me all over again. Her movements were subtle but I was already so sensitive, the tiniest frictions were driving me crazy. I wanted it, I wanted her so badly, I started pushing myself against her once more. It felt unbelievable, different from anything I'd experienced before, but oh so fucking good.

"I need you," I called out to her again.

"You can have me," she whispered, her tongue mirroring her fingers and slowly forcing its way into my body to take me in another possessive kiss. Just before I felt myself giving in completely, I grabbed her by the hair and pulled her away from me.

"Where are you?" I said, reaching desperately between her legs. "I need to feel you."

Without stopping her motions between my thighs, she manoeuvred herself so I could plunge my fingers into her wetness. She groaned and pushed herself against me, the weight of her body increasing the pressure on her own hand inside of me, and I completely fucking lost it. As we started moving together, my free hand gripped tightly around her shoulder, and my mouth clamped against her neck. I no longer knew what I was doing to her or what she was doing to me. I only knew that it felt fucking sensational as we lost ourselves in a sea of sweat and motion and fluid and breathless moaning.

"I fucking love you. I fucking love you," I yelled into her neck, and I felt her get even wetter at my words. I bit hard into the powerful muscles of her shoulder, the muscles that held me safe when I was in the air, and was rewarded with even fiercer lunges into my already ravenous pussy. Surely this much pleasure had to be illegal. Or maybe we were just upsetting the balance of the nature, and somewhere across the world terrible things were happening because we were using up all the goodness.

"Emily Fitch, you are so fucking beautiful," Naomi gasped huskily into my ear.

Sorry world, but my own world will end If I don't make this woman come. I used my body to work my fingers faster and harder inside my lover, trying desperately to suppress the incandescent sensations this was causing to take over my own flesh. I didn't want to come without her, but the harder I worked for her, the closer to complete overload I came. I couldn't hold it any more.

"Oh fuck, I'm gonna come, babe," I screamed at her helplessly.

"I'm coming with you, hun," she screamed back at me, pushing herself even more violently against me for a final few moments, before the familiar sounds of my girlfriend's orgasmic release came washing down around my ears. In an instant I added my music to her own, as the vocal representations of the most extreme amount of pleasure a human body could withstand exploded out into the atmosphere. We both rode it as long as we could bear it, before a comedown that felt like we were falling from the fucking stars. I swear her blue eyes were actually sparkling as she stared into mine.

"Happy Birthday, Ems," she said and kissed me softly.

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We must have fallen straight into a sex coma, because the next thing I was aware of was someone knocking on the door. I blinked myself awake to see Naomi looking just as dazed and confused as me. We barely had time to come to our senses before a highly nervous JJ was feeling his way into the truck with his eyes closed.

"Sorry if you're shagging, sorry if you're shagging," he kept repeating before finally coming to a halt when he bumped into the wardrobe.

"Katie made me come in," he offered by way of explanation, his eyes still clamped tightly shut. "We saw you parked up, and I thought you might have broken down, but Katie reckoned you were shagging."

"We're not shagging," said Naomi.

"Oh good," said JJ, opening his eyes.

We were under the covers, and there really wasn't anything to see, but the fact that we were naked and obviously had been shagging was still to much for JJ. I am seriously going to have to get that boy laid.

"Shit, bollocks, bobbins, shitification, boobs," he said, clamping his eyes shut again and turning in haphazard circles. He was in danger of getting locked on, but the sound of my sister's voice, and her heels clicking up the steps snapped him back to reality.

"Were they shagging?" said Katie with her trademark candour. "I told you they'd be shagging."

"There is some very powerful evidence as to the likelihood of sexual activity," replied JJ, nodding towards the two naked women in the bed. Katie rolled her eyes at us.

"You two need locking in a cage," said Katie. I could see Naomi's eyes lighting up at the image, any traces of her former sexual shyness were now ancient fucking history. Unfortunately, Katie caught it too.

"You have absolutely no control, do you?" she said.

"It was an emergency," shrugged Naomi.

"A sex emergency," I giggled.

"Your whole lives are a fucking sex emergency," grumbled Katie.

"What can I say," grinned Naomi, "She's a Fitch."

Naomi was clever. She knew by now that any comment that implied Katie's own gorgeousness was bound to be accepted as the gospel truth.

"Wish I could have a sex emergency," stuttered JJ.

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I was brought back to the present by Naomi placing an ice cold bottle of Sol on my shoulders before taking a swig and handing the bottle to me.

"Where did you go to just then," she asked me.

"Where do you think?" I replied.

I love how the mere act of thinking about us having sex makes Naomi's knees go weak. I love that the things I do still have that effect on her. She stumbled forward blindly reaching out for something to stabilise her. That something turned out to be Cook.

"Evening ladies," he grinned conspiratorially. "Over by the haystack. Sweet looking little blonde girl keeps looking over at us. And seeing as you two are practically married, that means she's all for me."

I followed his gaze, and found the girl who was indeed sweet looking and cute. As soon as I met her eyes, she started walking over to us.

"Aww, check that out," smiled Cook. "They all come to the Cookie Monster in the end. Operation Small, Blonde and extremely Shaggable is green for go."

"Are you with that circus lot?" said the girl in a local Cornish accent as soon as she had reached us.

"We surely are," said Cook puffing out his chest. "Circus Abandon at your service. I'm Cook."

"I'm Lara," replied the girl. "Do you know that boy who was doing the fire juggling outside earlier. The one with the curly hair?"

"Yeah," admitted Cook cagily.

"Has he got a girlfriend?" she asked him. "He's really cute."

"JJ?" said Cook, incredulously. "Really?"

"No he hasn't," put in Naomi. "And he's a really nice guy."

"He has a boyfriend though," said Cook.

"No he doesn't, you lying twat," said Naomi, swiping him around the ear.

"Come on," I said to Lara. "I'll take you to meet him."

The smile that lit up the whole of her face was a beautiful thing to witness. Maybe Naomi and I were not sucking all the goodness from the world after all. I grabbed her hand and started walking outside. Maybe it wasn't his birthday, but if anyone deserved a present it was him. Happy Birthday JJ.

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So there we are. I will try not to make it such a long wait next time, but the dog days are over and I'm making no promises. Keep reading, keep writing. Be happy.