The other night had been a blast. Emily woke up feeling quite peaceful that day. She hadn't consumed much liquor, but was still feeling the buzz from the massive amounts of weed they had all been smoking at Thomas's place last night in celebration of his victory against Johny White. It was unbelievable how he managed to down all those hot peppers without a single tear. She even managed to get in a couple of words with Naomi at the party, but she wasn't very talkative as usual. Still she was determined to rekindle their friendship. She knew Naomi. From years ago, she couldn't have changed that much. She was still the same person, and, despite her unwillingness to acknowledge the significance of her feelings at the moment, Emily felt drawn to her. She still sensed they had a connection, at least that much hadn't changed, she thought to herself. Emily rolled over in bed and sighed, peering over the duvet covers for a sign if her sister was still there. Not in bed, and not in the shower she deduced as she paused to listen. The coast was clear; she could check on the box underneath her bed to see if the new lock she had placed hadn't been cracked once more.
Carefully she reached an arm blindly down underneath the bed where she knew she last placed it. Shit, it wasn't there. Then it dawned on her.. James, that fucking wanker, she cussed under her breath. Quickly yet quietly she snuck through the hall to his room and suddenly swung the door wide open, taking him by surprise. There she found him, on his bed, box in lap, attempting to open it a moment ago, but now, clumsily tumbling around in shock, box dropping to the floor at Emily's sudden barging in.
"Oi! What're you doing in here?! this is my room! I'm gonna tell.." The gravity of the situation then dawned on the young man's head as he saw his sister's face darken with rage. "Uh oh.." In a fraction of a second he switched to being on the defensive. "Uh, I just found it! It was laying around! I'm sorry!" He began welping as his sister began pummeling him.
"What did you see James?" She asked him threateningly.
"Nothing!" He yelled through the pummeling. Emily was wise enough to her brother to know when he was lying and trying to save his own ass.
"I know you saw what was in there James," She began in a low serious voice. "and if you tell anyone about this I'll punch your fucking balls off, understood?!" James nodded rapidly, face squished up in a constant flinch, thoroughly convinced he had another blow coming to him, which was quite a fair assumption as Emily added a menacing feint punch to the side of his face. "And don't you ever go through my stuff again, got it?" He proceeded to once again nod rapidly, this time eyes wide in a plea for mercy. She decided that was enough to send the message. "Wanker...", she huffed as she returned to her room, box in hand.
As she had done many a time before, she sat there in her bed, box on her lap, daring herself to open the box, wanting to open the box and then fearing opening the box, and talking herself out of opening the box. She knew she always ended up opening the box, so why did she feel it necessary to do this to herself? She questioned in an unexpected moment of clarity. Spurred on by her sudden moment of clarity, she steadily opened the box and stared down at it's contents. Snippets from magazines, posters, drawings and more.. all showing off the beautiful figures of women lay scattered and unorganized within the small wooden box. She took a deep breath. This didn't have to be scary, she thought to herself, just feel it. She picked up a favourite of hers and held it, staring at it, trying to make the burning sensation in her cheeks go away. She needed to stop letting this have such a hold on her. The picture was quite beautiful she thought, even though not particularly showy. It was simply a snippet from a magazine of two women hugging, face to face, the taller girl's arms around the shorter girl's waist and the shorter girl's arms around the taller girl's shoulders. Innocent enough, but there was that unmistakenable intimacy implied between the two of them from their pose. They were two girls, and they were together. And they were happy. Seeing it in a picture gave her feelings that nothing else she had seen of or experienced with a boy could ever compare to. But to be fair she thought, it's not like she gave it much of a go in the first place. I wonder why, came an unexpected snarky remark in the back of her head which she decided to ignore. With one more deep breath and a sigh, she carefully placed the image back into the box, and tucked it away under her bed once more, this time, behind a box of junk. She had to get ready. Today was Panda's birthday party, and Naomi was going to be there. She was nervous, but she could hardly wait.
Please please please take the time to tell me what your thoughts are on the story. In other words... heeeeelp meeeee pleeeaaseee to become a better writer. lol.