Chapter 25: A Girl's Night In

A few nights later, Dani, Allee, Hayley and Emma got together at Dani's place. Kirsty and Jade were staying with Lucy, allowing the four girls to have the room to themselves and Susan was looking after Jordan, allowing Emma to have a night off for the first time in quite a while. She was a little worried about being apart from him for the whole night, but she knew he was in good hands. Allee had been out of hospital for a fortnight, after thankfully being given the all clear, though she was still under orders to take it easy. There was always the possibility that the cancer could come back, but that was something that neither she nor her friends thought much about. She was determined to enjoy life as much as possible, however much time she had left.

They watched a couple of videos, a romantic comedy for Hayley and Allee and a horror film for Dani and Emma, while they ate pizza and crisps and drank coke. Then they took it in turns to do each other's hair and make-up. Dani did Emma while Hayley took Allee. And while they messed around, the subject of conversation quickly turned to men.

"Duncan has been completely supportive through everything these last few weeks," Allee told them. "He was really upset when he first found out, then he visited me every day in hospital and brought me flowers. And this of course." She held up her wrist to show her friends her new silver bracelet. "He tried to cheer me up when I got depressed and he held me when I needed to cry. I'm so glad he came back."

"I'm lucky to have Noah too," Hayley smiled fondly. "It's not always easy, especially now that we are living together, we argue about stupid things and sometimes he gets jealous, but we always work through things in the end. That's what it's like to love someone, they drive you made at times, but you couldn't imagine being without them."

"How about you, Emma?" Allee asked, applying some blusher to Hayley's cheek. "How are things going with you and Kane?"

There was a slightly uncomfortable pause. Emma and Dani glanced at each other.

"I don't really think it's a good time to talk about him-" she started, but Dani shook her head.

"It's fine, really," she insisted. "Come on, tell all."

"Well, there isn't really much to tell," Emma shifted uncomfortably, aware that they were all watching her. "We have been seeing a lot of each other recently and that's been good, the more I see him, the more I like him." She smiled nervously. "He's absolutely brilliant with Jordan and Jordan loves him too. Calls him daddy now."

"That's sweet." The three girls smiled and Emma nodded.

"Yeah," she agreed. "It is. And Kane knows and accepts that my son comes before everything else." There was a brief pause. "I know he did some terrible things before, but I can see that he is sorry and he has changed. He's very special to me. In fact," she blushed faintly, "I'm thinking about sleeping with him soon."

"Really?" There was a lot of giggling and Emma blushed even harder.

"I'm very nervous about it," she admitted. "I'd be lying if I said that I was completely sure about it all. But I do trust Kane and I feel safe with him and it feels like the right time to…at least move things on a little. After all, I can't let what happened ruin the rest of my life."

"Good for you," Dani squeezed her hand affectionately. "Just take it slowly, okay? And don't get too upset if it doesn't work for a while. Josh and I, even though I wanted to do it, it still took me quite a bit of time before I could. We first slept together on my eighteenth birthday and it really was worth the wait."

"I intend take it slowly," Emma assured them. "Kane has been very patient so far and I know he won't try and push me. He says there is far more to our relationship than sex and that we'll only go as far as I'm ready to go."

"Just make sure you tell us all the details afterwards," Allee giggled. "Like whether he keeps his socks on-"

"Josh does that sometimes!"

"Or if he's really loud-"

"Noah!"

"Or if he grunts like a pig!"

That was enough to set them all off and they collapsed in giggles, all serious thoughts completely forgotten.

Next Chapter: Some very red faces and rather hurt feelings…