Chapter 3: Standby and Take It

Emily opened her eyes and remembered she wasn't sleeping in her own bed, or on the streets for that matter. She smiled drowsily after yawning and stretching then sat up to look around the room. Her eyes flicked from each interesting object, to the politics posters on the walls, and finally to a blonde sitting on a chair in the corner of the room. The red-head let out a small shriek, surprised that there was someone else in the room, let alone the girl she had just been dreaming about.

The blue eyes look up above the book they had just been reading. "Oh good, you're fucking awake. About time..." Emily's mouth was stuck hanging open as the blonde stood up, watching as she put her book down on the dresser and came closer to the bed. Fuck, what was her name? Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. The red-head looked down at what she was wearing and realized she had slept in her dirty clothes. There was dirt all over the sheets. SHIT. You ruined her sheets! FUCK.

She saw the blonde's nose wrinkle and sniff the room, Emily did the same and gagged at herself, trying to hide her own disgust. Not that it was really possible to hide, the blonde made that obvious to her. "You stink. My Mum told you where the shower is, yeah?" The sleepy girl on the bed nodded and got off the bed quickly and backed away from the blonde.

"Fucking hell, my sheets…" The blonde shifted the weight of her slim body onto her other foot and sighed. Emily bit her lip embarrassed realizing there was even more dirt in the space that had been beneath her body.

"I'll wash them for you!" Emily spat out, blushing at her outburst that the blonde hadn't expected. The beautiful blue eyes just rolled and then looked at brown ones to address her.

"You are staying in my house; I don't think you have a fucking washer. Whatever, just go fucking shower. Please…" The girl turned away from Emily who nodded and shyly ran out of the room.

The red-head had to check a few doors before finding the closet with the towels, she grabbed a dark one, knowing that if she used a white towel it would be noticeably worse looking after she used it. She finally found the shower and shut the door behind her.

She quickly stripped, wanting to be out of the house as soon as possible to avoid causing the girl anymore trouble. Emily climbed into the shower and turned the water on as hot as possible. She relished the extreme heat of the water washing away the dirt on her body. With her eyes closed she reached out for a shampoo bottle on the shelf, opening it and pouring some into her hand.

Humming a random tune she scrubbed all the mess away, looking at the water that was going into the drain, a nasty brown color. She tried to get all the gross stuff out of her hair until her arms were too tired to move anymore. Her nose was filled with a vanilla scent that made her take a deep breath in and wonder if it was the girl who used the shampoo and smelled like vanilla. I need to ask Gina what her name is, again…

Emily turned off the water and grabbed the towel from the floor before hopping out of the shower. She looked in the mirror and gasped at herself. Her hair was visibly a much more vibrant red and her skin was back to its usual color. She could see all the weight she had lost from not eating and suddenly felt really hungry. Her brown eyes stopped staring at her reflection and looked at the floor where the dirty clothes were sprawled out.

The door to the bathroom flung open, Emily shrieked realizing she had been too eager to shower to remember to lock the door. Gina was holding out some clothes and looked at Emily, "Wow, you look like you need some food, love." Emily blushed, looking down at the body she had just examined in the mirror. Her attention was back on Gina remembering she was standing naked and wasn't alone.

"Sorry, um, here are some clothes that I think are a bit small on Naomi. I don't think she'll even notice they were hers." Gina scooped up the dirty clothes to take away any chance that Emily may decide to wear them instead of the clean ones. The woman covered her eyes with her hand to avoid further embarrassing Emily as she stepped out and closed the door. Too late for that…

The red-head looked at the pile of clothes on the bathroom counter and then locked the bathroom door to avoid another embarrassing intrusion before she continued. She pulled up the white t-shirt with a picture of a pig on it and laughed, knowing Katie would highly disapprove.

Emily blushed impossibly harder when she saw there was a bra and underwear on the pile next. She held in the tears from thinking how tragic the situation was and slipped them on knowing she didn't really have any other options. Luckily they fit, but she was still embarrassed because it must've meant that Gina had sized her up behind her back. The jeans were a little long but Emily liked the way the bottoms bunched around her ankles, she thought they'd have fit a little tighter on her a month ago but now they were loose around her legs and easy to slip on.

She looked in the mirror again now that she was dressed and did a turn, happy that she looked almost normal again. She then remembered the clothes belonged to Naomi and begged the gods that Naomi wouldn't notice. Banging on the door startled Emily, who at first thought it was Katie, then remembered again she wasn't at home. Emily opened the door and was met with a naked man wearing headphones.

"I need the pisser. Can you move?" He mumbled, scratching his bald head pushing Emily out of the way. He doesn't even bother to shut the door or wait until Emily has completely left. He just shakes his head to the beat playing in his headphones and starts to pee. The red-head cringes at the sight and runs down the steps.

"Good morning Emily!" Emily was about to open the door and leave the house for good when she heard Gina's voice. She slowly turned her head until she was looking into the kitchen and saw Gina sitting at the table with another woman. The blonde woman wasted no time in getting up, aware of what Emily was about to do, and taking the girl's hand to pull her to the table. "Have some breakfast, love." The red-head sits awkwardly and takes the banana in the center of the table.

The other woman gives her a disgusted look, "We were going to ban those from the shopping list; they're positively patriarchal."

Emily practically chokes on the banana she's about to swallow at the ridiculous statement. But just then the naked man walks in and stretches in front of them, not minding the display he was making in the area below the abdomen. The woman who commented on the banana grimaced at him before looking back at the banana with a shake of her head. The red-head nearly gagged at the sick association that was being made and decided she was full before tossing the banana into the bin next to the counter.

Gina reappears in front of Emily again to block her escape, "Emily, I have some really urgent things I need to attend to so I'm going to have Naomi take you to Roundview and show you around, perhaps help you get registered…"

"I think I'm capable of doing that on my own." Emily didn't really want to trouble Naomi, it was just irritating the daughter and Emily only wanted Naomi to smile.

"No, no dear. Naomi is the student president, she'd be showing you around anyway… don't worry about it, love. Here's a lunch and a satchel I found laying around. Didn't even know we had one so I won't be missing it. You'll find a few pencils in there and a notebook or two, just wait by the door Emily. She should be down in a minute."

Emily took the bag and put it over her shoulder and sat on the ledge outside the house to wait. She wished she had a pack of smokes or something to ease her nerves… Naomi student president? Impressive…

The red-head had never really been outstanding at school; she didn't know it but she was definitely capable of being so. Katie was always dragging her sister to parties instead of doing coursework to drive her home when she was drunk, guilting Emily into doing her essays before the red-head had a chance to do her own, never really allowing Emily the chance to succeed.

She almost fell off the ledge when Naomi slammed the door behind her, muttering curses under her breath until they met eyes. "Let's just get this over with, okay?"

"Uhm, yeah."

The blonde goes to the back of the house and Emily goes to follow her until the blonde shakes her head and turns back to Emily, "Wait here, I'm just getting my fucking bike." Emily blushed feeling stupid and waiting for the girl to return and lead the way.

Naomi was pedaling away past Emily who was admiring the way the girl's blonde locks were swaying in the against the breeze, the sun lighting up her face. The blonde suddenly hit the break a few feet away and put her feet on the ground to balance while looking back to Emily who still hadn't moved.

"You can follow me now…" Naomi rolled her eyes as Emily embarrassedly nodded and ran to catch up.

After a series of streets, Naomi going fast enough so that she was never really close enough to Emily for them to have to make small talk but not so fast that Emily would lose sight of her. The shorter girl not wanting to fall too far behind was walking quickly, careful not to run so as not to look stupid. However, walking so quickly but not running was having the opposite of the desired effect and making her awkward.

When Naomi approached a large hill in front of the school she climbed off the bike and started to walk it up. Emily ran to catch up, now was her chance. The blonde stopped to face her, ignoring the people who were brushing past them to go into the building.

"Just go to the fucking registration office and they'll sort you out, yeah?"

Emily nodded.

"And don't tell them you're fucking homeless… just make something up…."

"I'm not homeless." Emily whispered.

"Yes. You are." Naomi bit her lip, annoyed that she was probably going to be late to classes.

"I'm not, I'm just…" Emily struggled to come up with a proper explanation that didn't sound stupid.

"You're fucking homeless, you're just another lazy-ass kid who didn't do their fucking chores and smoked too much weed and got kicked out of their house. So you came to my fucking house to sleep in my fucking bed and wear my fucking clothes and have someone like me do all your fucking work for you. Your irresponsibility isn't my fucking fault, just grow up. Not my problem."

Emily was crying and managed to force out a response to the angry blonde, "I'm not a lazy-ass kid."

"Excuse me, I didn't mean to offend you. Hyper-active crackheads are so much better than lazy-ass stoners." Naomi scoffed.

"You don't know me..." The red-head's lip was trembling as the tears started soaking through her shirt. Her voice was a weak and pathetic whisper compared to Naomi's confident and angered one.

"Oh yeah, try me." The blonde looked away from Emily and rolled her eyes.

"You, Naomi, are a bitch. Your mum loves you and you don't appreciate it. My mum would treat me like shit everyday, my sister treated me like a doormat, my dad pretended none of them did shit to me, and they all forced me to leave my younger brother… and I can't even make it better because I can't make myself not gay no matter how hard I try. YOU THINK I FUCKING ASKED TO BE GAY?" Emily's tears were falling faster, her voice was full of the built up rage.

Naomi was shocked and just stuttered, "Emily… I... I just…"

"Fuck you, Naomi. You're not perfect. You're more fucked up than I am, really. Fuck you." Emily dropped the satchel to the ground and pulled off the t-shirt and jeans. Naomi eyes were bulgding at the girl stripping in front of her and looking around to see if anyone else was watching, but everyone had already gone inside.

"Take your fucking shit. I don't want it." The red-head stormed off down the hill out of Naomi's sight, not once turning to look behind her.

Naomi stood there on the verge of crying herself, wanting to chase after the girl, but her feet remained firmly in place. Her teeth clamped over her lower lip as she looked on not sure what she should do next. She didn't want to go to school now, unlike her usual strict academic self, but she was too afraid to do what she actually did want to do. Instead she lowered herself until she was sitting in the ground with her arms wrapped around her legs, staring at the pile of clothes and bag lying on the pavement in front of her.

AWWW. Poor Emily. ;(

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. What a bitch Naomi was… it gets better…