A/N Firstly, apologies for the long wait between updates, but as usual my life gets kinda crazy when we're making a new show, and everything else has to take a back seat.
Secondly some technical terms. The green room in a theatre is the back stage space where everyone gets to chill out, make coffee, eat food etc. RADA stands for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, a posh theatre school in London, and though it does produce some wonderful actors many of whom I've had the privilege to work with, some cunts who go there think it makes them better than everyone else. It doesn't.
I don't own Skins, but I do fucking love it. I've sneaked a couple of the Gen 3 guys in here, just cause they have started to get into my blood.
And finally some shout outs. For SarahKI – Bonne chance avec tous. Soyez courageuse et avoir de l'espoir. For SJ, still thinking of ya kid, and hoping you're doing ok. And finally for the woman across the ocean who makes my mornings beautiful. You know who you are xx
37. Bathed In Light
Katie
"I think you're gonna want to come in here, Katie," Steph's voice called out through the back door to the theatre. I was outside smoking. I wouldn't normally be smoking in the day, but I was fucking nervous.
"Fuck, is it that time already?" I asked her, taking a few more frantic puffs before having to return.
Nah, babe, you're cool," replied Steph calmly. "I'm just think you're going to want to come in here."
I looked at Johnny and Michael to see if they knew what the crack was, but they both just shrugged and looked at me blankly. I took a final drag and crushed out the cigarette, before turning and following Steph back inside. When we got to the green room, I saw all the female members of the cast swooning round the most fabulous bunch of flowers that was sitting on the table.
"Wow, they're beautiful," I swooned a little myself. "Who are they for?"
Realisation hit when every head in the room turned and looked at me with a stupid grin plastered to its face. Seconds later my own grin was twice as stupid. I felt like a proper star getting gorgeous fucking flowers delivered for my opening night.
"Aren't you going to read your card?" said one of the actors excitedly, and I was urged on by the rest of the women. I sauntered over to the table, more for their benefit than for mine. I didn't need to read the card. I knew who they were from. The whole bouquet was made up from beautiful white flowers. It was tasteful, it was classy and it was elegant. It was from Effy. She was the only person I'd ever dated who had that kind of style. I opened the card with a flourish for my audience and read it out.
"For my angel. Fly high tonight. You will be nothing less than brilliant. I have seen it. All my love, Effy."
A general wave of simpering went round the group.
"She's so romantic." Sighed Nadine, the girl who was playing the lead.
"Yeah," I smirked, trying to stifle a laugh. "She actually is."
It was something I had never expected, and I had never really craved it from her as I knew by the time we got together that what we had was something far more profound than a love that had to be constantly proven by the execution of ritual gestures. But it turned out that recovering Effy had quite a gift for the art of romance. And being Effy she was incredibly creative about it. One day I would find a folded up piece of paper in my pocket, that when I opened it out would contain a beautiful image that she had made especially for me. Another time I'd checked my phone at tea break to find voice texts from her reading snippets of the book I was reading. Once I had picked up an envelope addressed to me at the theatre which when I opened it had contained nothing but a memory stick. I plugged it into my netbook to find she had made me some kind of crazy mashup out of all different snatches of songs, spelling out a message of love. I had sent her a moany text one lunchtime, and then found her waiting outside the theatre for me at the end of the day with cupcakes. She would make me my (second) favourite breakfast, poached eggs on potato cakes, and she would cut the potato cakes into heart shapes. And she was always sending me pictures by email. Sometimes they were silly, sometimes they were incredibly sexy, but always they were guaranteed to make me smile.
"You're so lucky Katie," sighed Steph beside me. Even our cool as a cucumber, ultra competent stage manager was liable to get a little swoony where Effy was concerned. "Does she have a sister?'
"Does she have a brother?" piped in Nadine. She was one of those creatures who definitely always in the market for a man, somewhat desperately at times. I felt a wave of sympathy wash over me, as I remembered that I used to be just like her. It feels like another lifetime now.
"Actually she does," I told her. "And he's single, extremely handsome and he's coming tonight."
"Ooh, you'll have to introduce me," she squealed.
"Actually, I've got a few fit guys coming tonight," I said, much to her delight. All the Abandon lot were coming, and I felt sure that even if Tony wasn't up for it, Cook or Freddie would be happy to help her get laid. God knows she needed it. She was kind of uptight and she was making all our lives a misery with her little diva hissy fits. Especially during tech week, which involves days with really long hours and lots of standing around in costume getting bored out of our skulls, whilst the tech team set up their shit. The little tart was lucky. She would have been well and truly Fitchslapped on more than one occasion if Nathan hadn't been around to calm me down. And if I didn't have the most awesome girlfriend in the world.
Truth is, my crazy lady had suddenly morphed into the perfect boyfriend I had always wanted, except obviously a lot more woman shaped. She was now down to a half dosage of just one pill, and there didn't seem to be any unpleasant side effects this time. What had happened was that she became possessed by manic bursts of energy. She was always working. Half the actors on the company wanted her to do their new headshots, once they had seen the ones she'd done for me. She'd taken some wonderful shots of the boys down at the skate park, and of Dean doing his crazy crutch dancing, and she would spend hours on her computer, beavering away at films and animations that she still wouldn't let me see. Despite all of this, she was pretty much running the house whilst I was so busy at work, buying all the food, starting to cook more stuff, doing my laundry for me and always telling me to leave the washing up. I had spent a lot of my time looking after Effy under extreme circumstances, and willingly so, but now things had started to change for us, she was paying me back with a vengeance. In the beginning I had looked after her because she made me feel needed, now she was looking after me, and she was making me feel loved.
It would seem we had perfected one of the most difficult tricks of all. How to turn something extreme and intense into something that can function in the everyday world, and has the tools to make it last. I found myself wondering if Emily and Naomi would be able to make that transition with such ease. I mean, obviously they were besotted with each other, but their passion was so grand, I did worry that they would burn themselves out with it, and then be left with nothing.
My thoughts were interrupted by Linda from box office coming through with another big bunch of flowers.
"Katie," she said, prompting a round of ooohs, from the people in the room.
"Secret lover, Katie?" teased Johnny. "Tell Effy, I'll comfort her."
I gave him a quick slap round the back of the head before turning my attention to the flowers. Not as extravagant as Effy's bouquet, but a still classy arrangement of reds and oranges. Emily, I smiled to myself. I was looking forward to catching up with her after the show, I did miss the little lezzer slag.
"And this," giggled Linda, holding out a cactus in a bowl.
"What the fuck?" I frowned.
"Card says Katie Fitch," she shrugged.
I set down Emily's flowers and reached over for the spiky object, carefully extracting the card.
"You are going to be fucking badass. And if anyone tells you any different, you can shove this up their ass. Love, the mother in law xxx"
I burst out laughing at Anthea's spiky note, and all sense of nerves left my body. With three such fabulously feisty women on my team, how could I fucking fail? I felt myself trying, and failing to stifle a yawn.
"Wake up, Katie," said Steph, poking me in the ribs. "We can't have you falling asleep during the show."
"All those long days in tech week certainly take it out of you," sighed Nadine dramatically. "My voice is definitely suffering."
Yeah, well maybe if you didn't spend so much time whining, it would be in better shape, bitch. I longed to say it, I longed to just tell it like it is, but I saw Steph giving me a warning look. The last thing she needed was another luvvie tantrum at this stage of the game. Fortunately I was distracted by Michael being a dick.
"It's not the long days that have got Katie yawning," he grinned salaciously. "It's the long nights."
Try as I might, I couldn't stop the smile that spread across my face at his words. I was so fucking busted.
"I knew it," said Michael, dancing around the room with glee.
I had gotten home about midnight last night, but Effy was still up in her studio. I popped my head in, gave her a quick kiss and then headed straight to bed, my mind and body wiped from another long day of hanging around (and not in a good way). I think I must have passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow, but after only a couple of hours I woke up again, my mind churning fretfully with all the shit from the show. I rolled over to find an Effy shaped space in my bed, and stuck my lip out in a dissatisfied pout. I was overtired and grumpy and I wanted my girl. I wanted to feel her soft skin against mine and have her shut out all the business in my head. I groaned when I found my phone and checked the time. Two thirty am, surely she couldn't still be working? Fuck it, I was going to get a glass of water and persuade her to come to bed. I padded across to the kitchen a drank a huge glass of water before turning back towards the studio. A familiar panic began to grip my stomach as I realised the lights to her room were off. I knew she had been ok for ages now, but my body's reaction was instantaneous. No matter how good it got, I lived in fear. I lived with the constant fear that something would happen to her, and I'd have to go chasing off after her again.
"Oh for fuck's sake,Effy. Not now, not tonight," I murmured, unable to be anything but selfish about the thought of having to deal with an episode the night before we opened. "Not fucking fair."
I looked around the dimly lit room. Her leather was still slung casually on the sofa. I took this as a good sign, as she rarely went out without it. But then again, if the Dog Lord of Azerbaijan was snarling at her, she was hardly likely to stop to pick up her coat. I edged my way towards the studio, almost not wanting to get there if it meant discovering that my honey had done a runner.
"Effy?" I called tentatively as I opened the door to her room.
My heart started pounding as I was met with silence. For the first time since I'd known her, I felt a real anger rising in my belly towards her. She couldn't fucking do this to me tonight. It's not like I could ignore her. It's not like I had any fucking choice but to go after her. I burst into the room just about ready to scream, but all my resentful wind was taken right out of my sails when I saw her curled up on the spare bed with Pato. I knew he'd been in the room when I'd gone to bed, which means she must have come in, and chosen not to sleep with me. I was surprised at how much that upset me. She looked so adorably cute all snuggled up and sleeping, and I should have just left her to sleep. But I couldn't let it lie, my body was aching for her warmth, and I wanted her to be with me tonight.
I sat down on the bed beside her and began gently stroking the arm that was wrapped around Pato.
"Effy," I said softly. "Effy, wake up."
Her eyes fluttered open, and she looked sleepily around her, registering that it was still the middle of the night.
"What's wrong?" she mumbled, in such a cute little asleep voice, that my heart ached even more that she'd chosen to sleep without me.
"Why didn't you come to bed, babes?" I asked.
Effy shifted her weight onto her back so she could look at me directly.
"I didn't want to wake you up," she answered. "You've got a big day tomorrow."
"Well you did anyway," I said. "I missed you."
"You were asleep," she smiled at me lazily.
"I can still miss you when I'm asleep," I pouted. "My body can sense when you're not there."
She said nothing, simply pulling back the covers and inviting me in. I accepted the offer immediately, wrapping myself around her and savouring the sensation of her skin.
"That's better," I murmured into her shoulder. "Much, much better."
She turned her head towards me and our lips met in a light kiss. It wasn't enough. I shifted my weight up onto one elbow and kissed her again. It still wasn't enough. I needed her sweet mouth open and asking for mine. I kissed her slowly, not breaking it until she let me in, and then once she had, I found it impossible to stop. I found myself sliding on top of her, and deepening the kiss, desire rising within me as she started kissing back in earnest and I felt her body begin to move beneath me.
"You should get some sleep," she moaned as I relinquished her mouth to rain kisses down upon her neck. She didn't sound too convinced. This was going to be easy.
"Fuck sleep," I said. "I want to get down with my woman."
I took her mouth again, and felt her pushing her tits up against mine as she moaned. I loved how much I could turn her on. How she always let me have my wicked way with her. I started sliding my thigh up and down between hers, and I felt her body responding, her arms clinging tightly round my back, and her mouth seeking mine even harder.
It was fucking beautiful, which was why I was so stunned when I heard her gasp out, "Wait."
"What?" I said, stopping dead.
It was only a moment, but it was enough for her to flip me onto my back.
"Wait," she repeated. "I want to show you something."
I groaned as she pulled back off me and got out of bed. I got even more frustrated when she went over to her desk and started fiddling with her computer.
"Can't it wait till the morning?" I protested. I wanted her back in bed with me now.
"You won't have time in the morning," she countered. "I want to show you now."
I stopped complaining when I face her face reflected in the light from her computer. She had a look in her eye that I had been seeing more and more recently, and despite my own selfishness in this moment, I fucking loved it. It was this air of excited determination she had when she was working, when that extraordinary mind of hers stopped eating away at her soul and started feeding it instead. It reminded me of just how far she had come from the defeated hopeless woman I had first encountered. Effy had a fire in her heart now, and it made me proud as fuck to know that I had helped to light it. But she was burning under her own power these days, and I watched lovestruck as she started powering up a bunch of projectors she'd suspended from the roof. I closed my eyes at the sudden brightness of their start-up screens, and didn't open them until the room had gone dark again.
"Come here," said Effy, holding out here hand to beckon me into the centre of the room.
I got up to join her and she kissed me briefly before turning away to hit the space bar on her MacBook.
"Welcome to Effyland," she said.
Suddenly the room was bathed in light. Images flooded over every surface, and a soundscape burst out of speakers all around me, transforming the studio into a whole different world. Incredible colours morphed and melted into each other as Effy's doctored photos and film spilled out onto the walls. I span round in wonder, not knowing where to look first whilst chasing the motion within the installation. Some of the images were recognisable, some were more abstract, but the way they flowed in and out of each other as they dipped and swirled around the soundtrack made me want to cry with happiness. The air was filled with the sound of human voices as samples of different types of choirs emerged and retreated, from gospel, to male voice, to African dance, to atonal Bulgarian. These were Effy's voices, finally tamed and shaped into something beautiful. I let out a laugh of joy as I my own image joined the visual landscape, Angel Katie floating across the walls. My eyes chased myself around the room as I disappeared and re-emerged within the glorious maelstrom of light. She had made me look heavenly, otherworldly as my image glowed even brighter than the delicious environment around me.
I stopped breathing for a moment, when I realised that this was how she saw me. That this level of perception was as real for her as the every day boring universe was to me. Her soft voice in my ear confirmed it.
"This is what I see when I'm with you," she whispered. "Effyland used to be a terrifying place, until you came and banished the demons, and now I'm left with this. This is what we've been fighting for, Katie. A world without fear, a world without the darkness."
That time I did start to cry, but my heart was bursting with euphoria, not just from the physical sensations that Effy's beautiful art was inspiring inside me, but from the fact that she had finally found a place where she could create it.
"It's beautiful, Eff," I whispered out the fucking understatement of the year. "It must have taken you fucking ages."
"I've been working on it since that time in the shower at your dad's gym," she told me. "I wanted to show you what you mean to me."
"But this isn't just about me," I said, turning round to kiss her on her forehead. "This is about you. Your incredible perception, your vision. You're a fucking genius. We have to show this to people. This is heaven. You have made fucking heaven."
"Isn't that where angels live?" she smiled at me.
I didn't know how to talk about art, but I knew when it made me feel stuff that it was good. Emily used to drag me along to galleries as a wingman when she wanted to meet smart chicks, and I would wander about amidst the paintings and the sculptures and stuff. Some of it would just go right over my head, and I didn't fucking get it. But other stuff would just reach right into me and I would just love it, though I could never tell you why. Sometimes we would get high before we went, and then it was even better, it was easier to see the ones that mattered, and they would matter even more. The shapes, the colours and the textures would spark something in my heart and I could feel a sense of physical elation as I let my eyes drink in the detail. And then some wanker types would come by and start spouting some knobjockey twaddle about it all and I just wanted them to shut the fuck up so I could look, and feel, and know.
And I knew I was probably biased, what with being in love with the artist and all, but Effy's work was the most wonderful thing I'd ever seen. I could have stood there all night, just drinking in the detail of the world inside her head. And even though this version of it was a bright and beautiful and welcoming place, it helped me to understand how this much intensity of perception turned against her could drive a girl to madness.
Suddenly the walls went dark and we were dumped unceremoniously back into dull reality.
"Again, again," I insisted. "Put it on a fucking loop."
Of course I made love to her. I made love to her all fucking night. Tracing my fingertips over her back as my own angel image danced illuminated across her skin. Joining our hands and reaching them upwards into the mesmerising sea of light. Pushing her up against a wall until our bodies became camouflaged by the shifting colours. Listening to her moans as they blended with the celestial voices of the choirs. Watching her as she trailed kisses up and down the contours of my light painted flesh. Staring deep into her eyes as I came, knowing that she sees me shining every day. Exploring and tasting and feeling each other until we were becoming part of the art itself. It was trippy, as if Effy had physically drawn me into the space between universes that she herself inhabited. I never wanted to leave. I wanted to dance with her in this multilayered colourful utopia for the rest of my days. It was probably just a trick of the light, my retinas deceived after spending hours in a shape shifting otherworldy dimension, but I swear as I entered her just one more time I saw her body begin to glow with an indefinable light that fell halfway between UV and white that only intensified as I pushed her towards climax. My eyes were unfocused and I was only half awake, but my body was driving me onwards. I had fully abandoned myself to the siren Effy now, but instead of destroying me, she was showing me her magic.
Somehow we must have eventually collapsed into sleep, because the next thing I knew I woke up in daylight. The loop was still playing, but the sunlight now streaming in through the skylights had diminished its power. Effy was now back curled round Pato, in exactly the same position as I had found her the night before. I gazed down on her with new eyes. She was just a sleeping girl. Albeit a profoundly beautiful sleeping girl. But I was going to have to order an entire case of extra hearts to contain the raging infernos of emotion I had for her now. Anthea once told me how from the moment she knew she was pregnant with Effy, she could feel that she was going to be something extraordinary. It seems like now she was finally able to let us know just how extraordinary she was going to be.
I was snapped out of the memory by the sound of my phone going off in my bag.
"God I wish I could find a boy to make me smile like that," said Nadine.
Again I felt sorry for her, despite the fact that she was a bitch.
"I don't think they make Effy in boy," I said dreamily. "Actually, I don't think they make her in girl either. I think there's only Effy, and you can't have her, cause she's mine."
I fished my phone out of my bag and looked down. It was a photo message from my girl. I opened it up. It was just the letter K projected on the wall.
"The Cheshire cat's just phoned in," said Nathan, who had joined the group whilst I was daydreaming. "He's retiring. He can't take the competition."
I was warming up when another message came in, this time it was just a large letter F torn from a magazine. My reaction caused another groan of exasperation from Ellen, another one of my co-workers.
"Seriously Katie," she sighed. I am going to have to get that girl of yours to give my boyfriend lessons in how to make a woman happy. You haven't stopped fucking smiling all day."
"She's doing it so I won't get nervous," I said.
"You've got nothing to be nervous about," replied Ellen, in a lowered tone. "Quite frankly you've got more talent than some people who've been to fucking RADA."
I smiled as I realised she was having a sly dig at Nadine. I'd learned quite quickly that you didn't rock the boat here in the theatre world. Not like the open slanging matches and even smackdowns that I was used to in the circus. People like Nadine wouldn't have lasted five minutes in our world, but here it was almost compulsory to have at least one arsehole in the cast. Nathan had once told me that if you didn't know who the company cunt was, then it was you. Luckily Nadine had made herself the unanimous company cunt of choice, so I didn't have to worry.
Effy's messages kept coming in all the way through my prep. At first I thought I was just going to get a K and an F for Katie Fitch, but then another F appeared, this time drawn in the condensation on a window. Katie Fucking Fitch, yeah, sweet as, Eff. The next letter was another F, this time sprayed on a wall outside the warehouse. Then a T which was clearly made by Dean standing with his arms out to his sides and his head tucked inside his T-shirt. An finally a W, drawn out in some of the purple rope light that Effy had strung up in her studio. KFFFTW. Katie Fucking Fitch For The Win. By the time it came to go onstage my nerves were ancient history, and I was ready to make each member of the audience my own personal slave for the night.
After all the weeks of hard work and preparation, the show itself seemed to go by in minutes. I felt so confident, knowing that my lover and my band of brigands were out there to support me and I knew in an instant where they all were, the moment I heard Cook's familiar raucous laughter in the very first funny bit. I could tell the audience weren't used to seeing circus as they gasped in adoration at even the most simplest things we did. Matty, the boy aerialist in the show gave me a high five as we came offstage after our first scene.
"We totally fucking nailed 'em, girl," he grinned at me.
"They are going to cack their pants at our scene two entrance," I replied.
"Or come in them," giggled Matty.
I looked round at a harsh tutting sound and an exhaling of breath, to see Nadine staring daggers at the pair of us as she walked through to make her entrance.
"What the fuck is her problem?" said Matty once she had gone.
"She's just fucking scared we're going to steal her thunder," I scoffed.
"Well, we are," laughed Matty. "That girl sooo fucking needs to get laid."
"Are you offering?" I teased him.
"Hell no," he spluttered. "Are you?"
"No," I said, trying not to laugh so much I would ruin my make-up. "But I've got a friend who might. He'll pretty much shag anything."
"Oh God, bring him on," pleaded Matty. "Us lads need a break from being hit on."
As predicted the audience almost had heart failure when we made our entrance at the top of act two. We had wrapped ourselves into silks whilst the curtains were closed for the interval, but we were so high up into the grid that we couldn't be seen by the audience, and we'd gathered up the tails so that nothing was left dangling beneath us. On our cue, we both did a simultaneous drop into view, stopping with our heads just above the stage. It was a regular catchers drop, piss easy to do and safe as houses, but it still made everyone shriek with fright, apart from the small rowdy section of the audience who were just laughing at everyone else's reaction. The rest of the scene was awesome too. I liked working with Matty. He was cool and he was perfect for the part. He did get quite intense sometimes, but it wasn't as if I wasn't used to that when the High Priestess of Intensity was my soul mate. We blazed our way through the rest of the play and we were met with enthusiastic applause at curtain call. It wasn't the wild kind of shrieky shouty appreciation we would get at Abandon, but I guess for this audience it was fairly rapturous, and there was the rowdy section who were being a little less restrained in their appreciation.
A bottle of champagne was opened backstage and I was so high from the adrenalin and cumulative tiredness that I was already giddy after one glass. When I got back to my dressing room, I heard my phone beeping again. I absent-mindedly flicked on the screen as I engaged in the general euphoric first night banter with the other girls, but my breath was instantaneously ripped from me when I looked down at the picture. She had sent me one of my own Effy For Breakfast shots where she was naked, just fucked and scrawled on in my lipstick, with the caption 'Well done. Wanna come get your reward?'
I swear I must have nailed a world record for the fastest shower and change ever undertaken by womankind, as if the world would end if I didn't get Effy's face attached to mine within the next five minutes. I raced upstairs to the bar and saw her there, looking effortlessly gorgeous in the middle of our tribe, idly chatting to some random ginger guy. But I was unconcerned with any collaterals. I had my target in my sights, and nothing was going to keep me from her. I heard the ginger guy stop mid-sentence, as I grabbed Effy and kissed her furiously.
"I love you," I told her. "I love you so fucking much."
"I love you too, you were fucking amazing," she answered between more hungry, desperate kisses. I became vaguely aware that ginger guy was still staring at us, and that I'd interrupted their conversation.
"I'm sorry," I said. "I just had to tell her."
"Yeah, no sure…" he muttered, suddenly staring at his feet.
"This is Alo," said Effy. "He's a mate of Matty's."
"Sweet," was all I managed to get out before strong arms picked me up from behind and twirled me round in the air.
"Don't be greedy Effy," laughed Cook. "The rest of us need some Katiekins lovin too."
He deposited me in the middle of my friends where I was surrounded by all of them hugging me and giving me praise.
"So that's your girlfriend, yeah?" I heard Alo's voice in the background.
"Yep," relied Effy smugly.
"Cool," he replied, though it was hard not to hear the regret in his voice.
"Welcome to the League of Disappointed Gentlemen," laughed Freddie.
It was almost too much, how everyone was lavishing so much attention on me, though I did have to laugh when I spotted Nadine's face when Anthea was loudly pontificating that me and Matty were 'the best fucking thing in the whole cunting play'. The old Katie would have loved it, being the princess, being the centre of everyone's world, but I had had grown up a lot in the past year, and being with Effy had taught me that there were a whole lot of things more important than the ego of Katie Fitch. Working hard and being part of a team for starters. Working hard and being part of a real relationship was another. I realised that everything that had happened to me this year had conspired to make me a better person, and that I liked the person I had become. The people that I respected had come to respect me too, and that finally I could respect myself. But then I noticed that there was one important person who hadn't come to join the gush fest, and my eyes shot round frantically trying to locate her.
I finally found her lurking by the door to the outside smoking area, and her eyes were locked on me. She was waiting for me. With a brief nod of her head she gestured for me to come outside, and I quickly slipped away from the crowd to follow her. As soon as she was outside, she lit up a cigarette and offered me one. I took one off her and sparked it up.
"So, quite the success then?" said Emily.
"Looks that way," I shrugged.
"I am so fucking proud of you," she said earnestly.
"It's just a stupid play," I said casually. Although Emily and I loved each other to our very cores. It wasn't often that we would compliment each other out loud.
"I'm not talking about the stupid play," smiled Ems. "I'm talking about everything. The way you came into your own at Abandon. The way you dealt with me and Naomi. The way you're branching out now and forging your own path. Everything you've done for Effy. You're a fucking amazing woman, Katie, and I hope you fucking know it. You're one of the most amazing people I've ever met."
"It's not like you had much of a choice about meeting me," I laughed. "We did share a womb together."
"They say you can't choose your family," said Ems. "And God knows our can make our lives fucking interesting sometimes, but if I had to choose, I would choose you every fucking time. I fucking love you Katie Fitch, and I do miss you."
"I miss you too," I said, throwing myself into her arms.
"Roll on next summer, eh?" she said clinging tightly to me.
"Yeah," I said clinging tightly back.
I think we must have stayed holding each other for several minutes before I had the sneaking suspicion that we were not alone. I pulled away from my sister's embrace to see both Naomi and Effy lurking cool as fuck against the wall, fags in hand and dirty twinkles in their eyes.
"What's up with you two?" I said accusingly.
"Just smoking and perving, girls," smirked Naomi. "Just smoking and perving."
She shot a glance across at Effy for confirmation.
"True," nodded Effy. "Just smoking and perving."
I looked across at Emily and I didn't need to say a word for her to know what I was thinking, and to nod in smug agreement. Yeah, we had done alright for ourselves. Fitch twins in da house, scoring the hottest babes in town.