Chapter 12

Emily was wrong about Naomi killing her the next day; the blonde made no mention of the incident. In fact, Naomi hadn't uttered a word to her in the last eight days and it was a little unnerving. She wished Naomi would say or do something even if it meant being yelled at because the silent treatment was becoming worse than anything she could say. What was even weirder was the fact that Naomi didn't even seem particularly angry with her—she just wasn't speaking.

Naomi was also becoming detrimental to her grade. She couldn't seem to pay attention to the professor when the blonde was sitting on the other side of the room. She just couldn't take her mind off Naomi, especially when she could see her out of the corner of her eye. It was getting so bad that Effy, who never really seemed to give a shit about school, was constantly having to elbow her because she was staring off into space and had missing something important.

"Talk to her," Effy demanded.

"I can't," Emily said, sighing as she averted her eyes from the blonde.

"Why not?" Effy asked.

"She obviously doesn't want to talk to me," Emily replied.

"What the fuck has happened to you?" Effy asked.

Emily frowned. "What do you mean?"

"When have you ever cared about what people want?" Effy asked. "I didn't want you to take care of me, but you did because as much as I didn't want to admit it, I needed it. You're starting to do the same thing with her as you do Katie, and I much prefer the Emily that doesn't give into what people want. Don't be a doormat for another fucking person."

Emily opened her mouth to respond, but Effy was already on her way out of the room. The professor dismissed the class a few moments later and Emily watched as Naomi gathered her stuff. She closed her eyes for a second, preparing herself, and grabbed her bag before walking over to the blonde.

"We need to talk," Emily stated.

"No we don't," Naomi replied, walking away.

"Naomi!" Emily called after her, but the blonde didn't stop.

Naomi didn't even look back, so Emily hitched her bag up higher on her shoulder and rushed after the other girl. She paused at the door to see which way she had gone; Naomi was already halfway down the hall, heading for the stairs, and Emily walked quickly to catch up to her.

"Naomi!" Emily tried again. "Will you fucking stop."

"What?" Naomi asked harshly as she stopped at the top of the stairs.

"Can we talk?" Emily asked.

"Isn't that what we're doing?" Naomi asked.

Emily sighed. "You know what I mean. You haven't said a word to me in over a week and our next assignment is due next week."

Naomi's jaw visibly clenched. "Of course—you're worried about your fucking grade."

"I know you're mad at me and I'm sorry," Emily said desperately. "It was you at the party, too, wasn't it? Because I didn't know it was until I did it again. Can we just forget that I did it and go back to being—not exactly friends, but at least you were talking to me."

"Was it payback?" Naomi asked.

Emily frowned. "Payback? Payback for what?"

"Don't act like you don't know," Naomi spat.

"It wasn't payback for anything," Emily said, shaking her head. "It just happened and I'm sorry."

Naomi scoffed. "I'm sorry, too."

"Naomi!" Emily yelled as the blonde turned away and walked down the stairs.

Emily normally ate lunch of with Effy and Katie after class, but since Effy was already gone, she decided to go back to the dorm since she didn't have much of an appetite. When she walked through the door, though, she paused for a moment before walking the rest of the way in and closing the door.

"I wasn't expecting you here," Emily commented. "I thought you would be having lunch with Katie."

"Not hungry," Effy replied.

Emily sighed. "Me either."

"What took you so long to get back?" Effy asked, staring at her.

"I talked to Naomi," Emily replied.

"Oh?" Effy said.

"I apologized," Emily said, shaking her head.

"You're an idiot," Effy stated.

Emily gave a sardonic laugh. "Thanks, that is exactly what I needed to hear."

"Sit down," Effy commanded as she stood up, and Emily rolled her eyes, but sat down nonetheless. "What exactly did you say to Naomi?"

"I apologized for kissing her," Emily said with a shrug.

"Did you act like the kiss was a mistake?" Effy asked.

"I don't know—maybe," Emily replied.

Effy nodded. "How did she react?"

"She—didn't seem very happy," Emily said, frowning. "I thought she wasn't speaking to me because she was mad about what I'd done, but she didn't seem happier after I apologized."

"Yep—an idiot," Effy stated.

"Can you stop calling me an idiot," Emily loudly said.

"Naomi likes you," Effy said, staring down at her.

"What? No, she doesn't," Emily replied.

"Yes, she does," Effy said. "You can't see it, but I know all, remember? Naomi likes you and pretending that the kiss was some fucking mistake is why she wasn't happy. It meant something to her and now she thinks it didn't mean a damn thing to you."

Emily wanted to laugh, thinking this was some kind of joke, but Effy looked so serious. She shook her head as she stood up and tried to think for a moment. If Naomi liked her, why would she have been such a bitch to her since the moment they met? Effy seemed to know these things, though, and she knew her friend wouldn't lie to her.

"Where are you going?" Effy asked as Emily walked toward the door.

Emily opened the door and walked out of the room without saying a word. She didn't know if Naomi would be in her room, but she walked down the hall, and stopped in front of her dorm. She raised her hand and took a deep breath before giving door two quick knocks. The door swung open a few seconds later and a blonde girl was staring at her, but not the blonde she was looking for.

"Is Naomi here?" Emily asked.

"She's in the back," the girl said, smiling at her. "Are you her friend?"

"Umm—not exactly," Emily replied.

"Who the hell are you?" another girl—a gorgeous brunette with a scowl on her face—asked, walking up beside the blonde.

"Be nice," the blonde said, nudging her shoulder into the other girl's.

"Whatever," the brunette said, scoffing. "Let's go eat, B."

Emily stepped to the side, allowing the two to leave the room, and as they walked past, the blonde said, "You can go on back; she's in the bedroom. She seems sad right now, so maybe you can cheer her up. I tried, but she was mean to me."

"Okay," Emily said, not knowing what to make of the blonde, but she seemed nice.

"Good luck," the girl called over her shoulder, giving her a smile.

Emily smiled back and then stepped into the dorm; she was nervous and felt out of place as she looked about the room, which was quite a bit messier than hers. There was music playing in the back room and Emily followed the sound. When she walked into the bedroom, she found Naomi lying on her bed with her eyes closed.

"Hi," Emily whispered, not wanting to frighten the blonde.

Naomi's eyes flew open. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm not done talking," Emily replied.

Naomi sighed. "Wonderful."

Emily's mouth opened and closed several times as she tried to find the words she was looking for. She didn't know how to go about this conversation, though, especially with Naomi staring at her the way she was.

"Do you like me?" Emily asked, mentally smacking herself for the lack of tact.

"Excuse me?" Naomi asked, scoffing.

"Effy—she thinks you like me and I had to ask," Emily hastily replied. "When I said I was sorry, I didn't mean that it—that the kiss meant nothing to me." Emily sighed and rolled her eyes at herself. "What I'm trying to say is that I don't really know how I feel about you considering our history, but I liked kissing you.

"You liked kissing me," Naomi repeated.

"Yeah—I want to kiss you now, actually," Emily admitted. "So, if Effy's right—do you want to go do something tonight?"

"What makes you think she's right?" Naomi asked.

"I don't necessarily," Emily said, shrugging. "Just hoping, I guess."

"Okay," Naomi replied.

"Okay?" Emily repeated, wondering if she'd heard correctly.

"Okay," Naomi said, nodding.

"I'll—be back at seven," Emily said, giving her a smile.

She turned on her heel and made her way back to her room. Effy was sitting down now and looked up at her as soon as she came through the door.

"That's settled," Emily said, smiling.

"What's settled?" Effy asked.

"You were right," Emily stated.

Effy smirked. "Of course I was."

"Naomi and I are going to go do something tonight," Emily said, sitting on the arm of the couch.

"What are you going to do?" Effy asked.

Emily sighed, frowning. "I haven't thought that far ahead."

"Well, don't fuck it up," Effy replied.

Emily rolled her eyes. "Thanks, Eff."

"I hope this is okay," Emily said as she walked beside Naomi. "I didn't have a lot of time to think of something and, well—I've never really—this is the first time I've asked anyone out. Plus, I don't really know this town all that well, and I was trying to look online for something, but this town is really fucking boring, but then I saw this was happening, and—"

"It's okay," Naomi said, stopping Emily's rambling.

Emily let out a relieved sigh. "Okay."

"You ramble when you're nervous," Naomi said, smirking.

"Not usually, but you seem to bring it out in me," Emily said, smiling at her before turning her head and looking around. "There's more people than I thought there'd be."

"There's an empty spot over there," Naomi said, pointing to their left.

Emily nodded and they made their way over before anyone else took the space. A lot of people were sitting on the ground, and Emily gave herself a mental pat on the back for remembering to bring two blankets—one for the ground and one to cover them when it got cold. The school was putting on a movie in the small park near campus and she thought it could be something fun—or at least better than her other options.

"What movie's playing?" Naomi asked.

"Jaws," Emily answered as she grabbed one of the blankets from her bag and spread it out on the ground.

Naomi smiled as they both sat down. "You know, I've actually never watched Jaws."

"Then I guess you're finally going to see it tonight," Emily said, smiling back.

"Seems like it," Naomi replied.

They fell silent and Emily looked at her watch, wondering when the movie was going to start, but they still had about five minutes.

"I knew it was you," Naomi suddenly said.

"What?" Emily asked, furrowing her brows.

"At the party," Naomi said, looking at her. "I knew it was you that kissed me."

"You did?" Emily asked and Naomi nodded. "How?"

"I recognized your voice," Naomi replied.

"Oh," Emily said, smiling. "I didn't know it was you until I kissed you in the elevator."

"How did you even know then?" Naomi wondered.

"Kissing you just felt different than anyone else I'd kissed," Emily said, shrugging. "When it happened again, I just knew."

"Different, huh; is that a good thing?" Naomi asked, smirking slightly.

"That depends," Emily replied.

Naomi's eyebrow rose. "On?"

"If you liked kissing me, too," Emily replied.

"And if I said I didn't?" Naomi asked.

"I wouldn't believe you," Emily said. "I don't think you'd be here with me right now if you didn't like it."

Naomi laughed lightly. "Okay, I think you got me there."

Emily looked at Naomi and a small smile appeared on her lips; she didn't exactly know what the hell had happened today, but she didn't really care. She was enjoying seeing the slightly more playful side of Naomi and actually found that it was kind of nice being around her. This wasn't how she would have guessed her day was going to end up, but sometimes the unexpected was just the thing she needed.