Thank you so much for your reviews for Chapter 7, I was quite suprised how many reviews I've actually had today, definately broken a record there for me! So thanks again to you all for your reviews, they really do mean a lot to know that you're enjoying the story and some of your comments are just too kind.
Disclaimer: I don't own Skins...if I did season 3 cast would be in it forever and ever.
The week lasted for months, at least that's what it felt like. The days rolled into one long mess of sleeping and not much else. Emily had climbed into bed the moment she arrived home from the incident by the lake.
"What's up with you?" Katie had asked, sitting on the side of the bed and pressing a hand to her forehead like their mum had done almost every time they complained of being ill. "You're not warm but you are very pale."
-
Emily didn't want to talk, she didn't want to vocalise what was happening, through fear it would eat her up from the inside outwards. She couldn't explain to Katie the heavy feeling in her stomach, or the ache in her heart that the doctor would worry about if it wasn't connected to another person. Her mum tried to find out what was wrong after she didn't go down for dinner that night. But Emily didn't want to talk, not even to say hi, or explain that she was tired. She was scared that if she started to say the little things, her mouth would take control and force her to say the big things too, or worse still, cry. The thought of crying left her afraid that she would never stop, that a river would fall from her eyes and drown the world around her. Then she thought it wouldn't be so bad to drown everything, including herself. So that's how she stayed on Tuesday; a motionless body lay in bed; not crying, not eating, not doing anything but lie there. Tuesday became Wednesday, Wednesday became Thursday and Thursday became Friday.
-
On Friday, her mum had stayed home from work to drag her to the doctors, she complied and the doctor prescribed some anti-depressants! She took one when her mum made her, then hid the rest under her pillow, pretending to have taken them whenever her mum had asked. But she didn't get out of bed again after that.
"For crying out loud Ems, get out of bed already," Katie shouted. Emily opened her eyes and was blinded by the suns rays as they entered the room through the window. She squinted and held a hand to her face.
"Fuck Katie, why'd you open the curtains?" her voiced cracked from lack of use, it felt dry and she desperately needed a drink.
"It's three o clock Ems."
"Oh."
-
Emily rolled over and glanced at the clock on the table between their beds, it was in fact three in the afternoon. She yawned and stretched, remembering three am when she had lay awake staring as the numbers changed from 2.50 to 2.51 until 3.13, the last number she could remember reading before drifting off to sleep.
"Mum is doing her nut thinking you're fucking depressed, would you get up so she'll stop bothering me.
"
Katie rolled her eyes as Emily groaned her disapproval. She wanted to laugh at how selfish her sister's comment had sounded. But she was already sick of the sound of Katie's voice, unfortunately she continued.
"Come out tonight, the whole group is going to a party, its gonna be well good."
Emily looked Katie in the eye, wondering if everyone meant Naomi. Not that Katie knew Naomi was the reason she'd stayed in bed all week.
"I doubt Naomi will be there, it's obvious there's something going on, she's not been in college as long as you have."
Shocked, Emily sat up immediately. She didn't expect Katie to have been so observant, she usually wasn't. What right did Naomi have staying off when she was the one who ended it? Emily asked the inside of her head.
"Don't tell me she broke up with you, if she did I'll rip her head off," Katie called out.
-
Emily felt tears in her eyes, she wanted to tell her sister to stop talking, to stop guessing what had happened. She didn't want to hear about Naomi, she didn't want to talk about Naomi and she certainly didn't want to think about her either.
"She did, didn't she?!" Katie gasped, Emily's silence not proving effective in keeping her secrets at bay. Katie started to talk fast about how wrong it was when she was the insecure one, how horrible that girl had always been and how she'd only pretended to be friends with her when Emily ran away. Emily knew that was not true. Katie said Naomi's name at least six times in only a few minutes, six times too many.
"FUCK OFF" Emily screamed, standing up on her bed to get the full impact. Katie took a step back, shocked at Emily's outburst.
"So-rry for caring," she sighed.
-
Emily let her legs bend and she sat back down on her bed, her face red with anger and her emotions fighting to get out of her body.
It took all of her energy to keep them all inside long enough to pull herself together. Katie was still staring at her.
"You really need a night out."
-
The party was in full swing. The building was vibrating from the volume of music pumping out of the music system. Emily followed her sister inside, letting the music move through her and push her thoughts to one side. Then Katie forced several drinks into her hands one after another and she accepted them gratefully. Alcohol was fun usually, she had never used it to wash away her worries. But it worked after multiple shots. She was tipsy enough to get lost in the crowd, lost in dancing and forget about Naomi. Until she saw her stood across the dance floor, talking to Cook and Effy. She wanted to go over; she wanted to grab her by the head, make her squeal in pain and beg for mercy. But most of all she wanted to grab her by the head and kiss her. Before she could do anything she watched Katie push her way through the crowd and stop between Effy and Naomi. She looked Naomi in the eye, then turned her back on, speaking only to Effy.
"What are you doing talking to that skank?"
"I'm standing right here Katie, if you have something to say turn around and say it," Naomi sighed.
Katie raised a hand, still looking at Effy as she spoke, "I'm not talking to you, skank, I'm talking to Effy. So why you talking to her?"
Effy frowned and stayed silent as she so often did.
"She broke my sister's heart did you know that? It's time you made a choice Efs. Her or us."
"I don't believe this" Naomi rolled her eyes "are we in pre-school?"
"I said I'm not talking to you, bitch" Katie turned around, stood as close to Naomi as she said the last word with a mixture of hatred and spite.
Naomi turned and walked away without a word, a look of defeat and regret on her face. Emily sighed. She knew that she was angry with Naomi, that she would happily see her 'head ripped off' by Katie, but she was a loner and if Katie was making everyone choose sides she knew that Naomi would bare the brunt of the situation. Not because people liked Emily better, but because Katie could be such a bitch when it suited her that she would near enough force the group to take her side, which meant taking Emily's.
-
The cold breeze outside felt good on her skin. It was so hot inside that she was sweating just from standing around. JJ was stood beside a bus stop, waiting. Emily went to stand beside him, not even sure whether they were waiting for a bus or just waiting.
"I heard you and Naomi aren't having girl on girl action anymore," he informed her, a piece of information she could have lived without. "Katie said you've been ill which when you take into account the fact that Naomi is no longer your lover, I understand that to mean you're not physically sick and spending the week in bed is merely a process some girls go through when a relationship breaks down, so I doubt it's life threatening, though if you've spent the week not eating or drinking then I think the probability that you'll die is higher than if you just lived in your bed and continued to devour food. Though after a period of time the sanitation would be unthinkable, so really you could probably die of something related to that."
"JJ" Emily cried, taking a deep breath, he nodded.
"I know I'm getting locked on but when I told mum about your situation she told me that girls do that sometimes, wallowing she called it and, yes, she also told me that girls don't like to talk about it...until they choose to. Oh." he stopped talking then.
A bus pulled up at the stop and JJ jumped on, his bus pass in hand. Emily watched him turn around assuming she'd join him, but she shook her head and walked off down the street. She wasn't in the mood for company, not the type of company that required some amount of paying attention. Her head was full of things she didn't want to think about, so adding something new made he anxious that she'd have to let go of something that was already there and the thought of that was still too much for her to bare.
AN: Thanks for reading, if you enjoyed it - please leave a comment! You can now send comments anonymously, so if you tried before but couldn't comment because you don't have a log in, now you can leave a comment!