Thanks to everyone that is still reading this, even after my ridiculously long hiatus.

The last chapter was done a long time ago—since I had posted chapter 6, actually—but I had never posted it. So, this is the first time I have written Naomily in a long time, and I'm still trying to get in the groove. Also, I realized while reading the rest of the story that my writing style has changed a bit, so you might notice a difference. Nothing I can really do about that, though, so hopefully you find this just as enjoyable.

Chapter 8

"Don't you need to be going?" Effy asked, her eyes never leaving the book in front of her face.

"Yes," Emily replied, making no effort to get up.

"She won't be happy if you're late," Effy chided.

Emily snorted. "She wouldn't be happy if I walked in there an hour early."

"Maybe not," the brunette replied. "But she'll bitch at you if you're late."

Emily rolled her eyes. "She'll bitch at me no matter what—and when have you started worrying so much about my punctuality?"

Effy set her book down and looked Emily in the eyes. "Stop stalling and go."

"Fine," Emily huffed.

"What are you so worried about?" Effy wondered.

"I'm not worried," Emily lied. "Last time just went so fucking terrible and she's actually been moderately civil lately—mostly because she just ignores me now and I don't want to go back to her openly hating me."

"Just be glad you don't have to work with her all the time," Effy said, going back to her book.

"I know," Emily said, frowning. "With the way the professor was talking, I thought we'd be doing a lot more in the group."

"Count yourself lucky," Effy replied. "Now go."

Emily sighed. "Fine."

"You said that once before," Effy reminded her.

Emily grabbed her bag and shook it for emphasis. "Happy now?"

"I'll be happy when you walk out that door," Effy said, smirking.

Emily glared at the brunette and opened the door. "Later."

"Have fun," Effy said as the redhead closed the door.

Emily made the short walk to the library and was right on time when she walked through the doors. Naomi, however, was nowhere to be seen, so Emily went up the steps and to the secluded spot they went last time thinking the blonde might be there. Sure enough, Naomi was sitting there, not looking very happy.

"You're late," Naomi stated.

"I'm not late," Emily replied.

"It's two after," Naomi said, holding up her arm, showing Emily her watch.

Emily rolled her eyes. "Can we not do this?"

Naomi's eyebrow rose as she stared the redhead down. "Do what?"

"Let's just get through this assignment, okay?" Emily said, sighing.

"We'd already be working on it if someone wasn't late," Naomi said.

Emily chose to ignore the comment, not wanting to get into it with Naomi. She just wanted to get this over with; the assignment was due the next day, so they really didn't have the time to argue.

"Do you have the assignment?" Emily asked.

"Right here," Naomi said, opening her notebook.

Emily sat down across from the blonde, holding out her hand; Naomi stared at her for a moment before handing over the paper. Emily scanned it to see exactly what they had to do; she'd looked over it once before and it didn't look like it would be too bad. As she read over it now, though, she realized it was going to be a little more involved than what she originally believed.

"This sounds like it's going to be loads of fun," Emily sarcastically said.

"I don't know why he's so fucking obsessed with us getting to know our partners," Naomi commented.

Emily shrugged. "I guess he just wants us to learn to communicate one on one, since the rest of the class is about communicating to large groups."

"Thanks, that was really fucking helpful," Naomi said, rolling her eyes.

Emily liked Naomi better than when she was ignoring her, but she appeared to be in a combative mood tonight.

"First question," Emily said, looking back to the paper. "What's your earliest memory?"

"Why do I have to answer first?" Naomi asked.

Emily sighed. "Fine, I'll go first."

Emily wasn't very thrilled about answering these questions and she had the feeling Naomi was stalling for a reason. They had to answer these questions—earliest memory, biggest regret, and deepest secret—and the other person had to essentially write an essay over it, answering some very specific questions. Emily thought it was completely ridiculous, but ridiculous or not, they were getting graded on it, so she had no option but to do it if she wanted a passing grade.

"Okay," Emily finally said after thinking for a few moments. "My earliest memory—I think I was four and we were visiting my grandmother's house. Katie wanted to go play with their neighbor kids; I didn't want to but Katie dragged me with her. We walked down the street with them, but then Katie ditched me and ran off with one of the boys. I decided to go back since Katie was no longer there, but I took a wrong turn and got lost. By the time mum and dad found me, it was dark and I was crying on a stoop because I thought I would never see them again. My mum grounded us both for a week and Katie wouldn't speak to me because she said it was my fault she got in trouble."

"That's shit," Naomi stated.

"A bit, yeah," Emily agreed.

Naomi cleared her throat. "I guess my earliest memory was me and my mum. We used to just scrape by a lot of the time since my dad took off when I was little, but my mum surprised me with a bicycle one day. I'd been asking for it for a while, but she said we couldn't afford it; one day, though, it was sitting in our shed. It wasn't until a few weeks later that I realized she got it by walking to work every morning to save on petrol and selling a ring my grandmother had left her."

Emily smiled. "You're lucky; my mum would never do that. How old were you?"

"Five maybe," Naomi said, shrugging; she then grabbed the paper from Emily. "Enough of that. What's your biggest regret?"

"Not being able to help my friend when she needed it," Emily said without hesitation.

"That's a big vague," Naomi replied.

"You know Effy, my friend it our class?" Emily asked. "A year ago she tried to kill herself; most of us didn't realize how bad it was getting. She had this shrink after that and he—he wanted her for himself. She was dating this guy, Freddie—Foster killed him. Another one of our friends discovered it and killed Foster. Two lives were lost and several were ruined, and it was all because we didn't notice how much she was hurting, so my biggest regret is that I didn't do something to stop that from happening."

"I don't really have any regrets," Naomi stated.

"There has to be something," Emily replied.

"There isn't," Naomi snapped.

"What the fuck am I supposed to write about?" Emily asked.

"Not my problem," Naomi replied.

Emily sighed. "Fine, what's your deepest secret?"

"I have no secrets, either," Naomi replied.

"You're lying," Emily stated. "Answer the questions or I'm not telling you my last answer."

Naomi sighed as she rolled her eyes. "Why are you so annoying?"

"Why are you so stubborn?" Emily countered.

She really wanted to ask the blonde why she was such a bitch, but she didn't think that would go over very well.

"Fine, but if you repeat any of this to anyone, I will find you and make you regret it," Naomi threatened. "My biggest regret is how I've treated my mum for the past several years. I haven't always been the easiest daughter to have, and she tries, but I push her away most of the time. She can just be so annoying sometimes. I know if anything happened to her—" Naomi shook her head. "Anyways, answer the next question."

"My deepest secret," Emily said, trailing off.

She knew what her deepest secret was, but she wasn't going to divulge that information to the girl that hated her. Naomi would actually be the last person she would tell—well, next to the last. She would probably tell Naomi before she ever told Jenna. So, without much thought, she decided to lie.

"Okay, once I was out on my Moped—"

"How'd it go?" Effy asked the moment Emily had shut the door.

Emily was pretty sure Effy was sitting in the exact same spot when she left and she wondered if the other girl had been sitting there the whole time. She looked at the clock, though, and realized she hadn't been gone nearly as long as she thought; being around Naomi was exhausting and it always felt like time slowed.

"It went," Emily replied, but Effy just stared at her. "It was—I don't know, okay? She wasn't quite as horrible as usual, but it wasn't exactly fun, either."

"So you told her your deepest, darkest secret?" Effy asked, raising her eyebrow.

"Are you kidding?" Emily asked. "Of course not."

Effy continued staring at her. "So what did you tell her?"

"I made something up about running over the family dog with my Moped," Emily said, shrugging. "Considering her deepest secret was that she fancies Alan Carr, I'm going to guess she lied, too."

"You should have told her," Effy stated.

Emily rolled her eyes. "Yeah—right. Did you tell your partner your deepest secret?"

"She couldn't deal with knowing my secrets," Effy stated.

"Then why should I tell Naomi mine when you didn't tell the truth, either?" Emily asked.

Emily became uncomfortable under Effy's intense stare, so she stood up to go to the other room. Before she was out of the room, though, the door banged open and Katie's excited voice stopped.

"You will never guess what happened," Katie said.

"Probably not," Effy replied.

"This guy just told me about this, like, super-secret party this weekend," Katie said, and Emily internally groaned. "You have to have an invite to get in, and guess who just got one?"

"Have fun at the party," Emily said, trying to walk away.

"You have to come, Em," Katie said.

"I'm too tired to go," Emily lied.

"It's not tonight, stupid," Katie said, putting her hands on her hips. "The party is tomorrow night. The three of us should go, yeah?"

When Effy just shrugged, Emily knew she was going to have to go to keep an eye on her friend; sighing, she said, "Fine."

"You won't regret it," Katie promised. "The party is supposed to be totally kickass."

"Why do I get the feeling I am going to regret it?" Emily asked Effy as her sister went to the other room.

"Maybe you'll have fun," Effy said, shrugging.

"Doubtful," Emily replied.

Effy smirked at her. "Maybe you could invite Naomi."

Emily scoffed. "Why would I willingly spend extra time with her? It's bad enough when I have to do it because of this stupid class."

"One of these days, you're going to open your eyes," Effy said, giving her a knowing look.

Emily sighed. "And see what? In case you haven't noticed, Naomi hates me, and I'm not exactly fond of her, either."

Effy shrugged. "Maybe or maybe there's more to her than you think you."

"What the fuck are you two talking about?" Katie asked as she walked through the hall and into the room.

"Nothing," Effy said, going back to her book.

"C'mon, Em," Katie said, grabbing her sister's arm.

"What are we doing?" Emily asked.

"We're picking out your outfit for tomorrow," Katie replied. "I don't want to spend all fucking night tomorrow trying to find something acceptable."

"I can't, Katie" Emily said, pulling away.

"Why not?" Katie asked.

"I need to work on an assignment that's due tomorrow," Emily replied

"Hurry the fuck up," Katie demanded, storming away.

For the first time in her life, Emily has happy to have homework. At least it saved her from having to try on everything from her and Katie's wardrobes.

I know I'm finishing this regardless, but reviews are always appreciated.