Title: Land of Make Believe
Characters/pairing: Emily, Naomi/Emily.
Rating: PG-13 for language and sexual innuendo.
Word count: 673
Disclaimer: Sadly I still don't own Skins…
Summary: "I'm Emily. I've never had a boyfriend."
Land of Make Believe
"I'm Emily. I've never had a boyfriend."
Because she hadn't and what was the point in lying? It wasn't as though she'd never been asked, she just never really felt like saying yes to anyone. Something didn't feel right about it and for many years, she'd never even thought to ask herself why that was. She hadn't felt she needed to.
So what if Katie spent all her time hanging around the boys, that didn't mean she had to do the same. They were sisters, not clones. Besides, the thought of going anywhere near a wanker like Danny didn't bare thinking about, let alone have him come near her with – well, she didn't exactly like thinking about that either, some things were better left to the imagination.
Her thinking changed somewhat on the day she found herself staring a little too long at the blonde one from Girls Aloud. Yet as soon as the thought came, she shoved it aside again, too ashamed to let it register for more than a moment.
The episode involving her fellow classmate, Naomi, had been the turning point. After that, there had been no going back, but pretending it wasn't her fault made things easier… at least to begin with anyway. Naomi wasn't the kind of person to simply take things lying down; sooner or later Emily had known it would come back to haunt her, she just hadn't expected it to be on her first day of sixth form in front of a load of people she didn't know.
Katie didn't help matters much either, but then, she never really did…
The trouble was, no matter how many lies she told, how many secrets were kept, she still found herself attracted to the other girl.
Some days she would sit and imagine what it could be like, to run her fingers through Naomi's blonde hair and kiss those lips again, pretend as though what had happened between them never turned out the way it did. That maybe just maybe they could have been together and happy and Katie wouldn't look at Naomi the way she did every single day.
What happened had been a mistake, the events that followed messed up a lot of things and Emily hadn't meant it to, not in the slightest. But when you're scared, it's human nature to try and protect yourself, damn the consequences.
It was on her twelfth birthday that she realised she would rather kiss Naomi than the boy stood next to her, currently on his tiptoes, lips puckered and looking very hopeful.
And so, in a moment of curiosity, she'd done just that. It had been perfectly innocent, they weren't even teenagers yet, but Katie had found out, blamed Naomi, called her a dyke and Emily hadn't been brave enough to say otherwise.
As they grew, Katie's jibes became crueller, Naomi's retorts snappier, well thought out.
"Watch out Katie, might get confused and fuck you with my great big strap-on by mistake."
She wanted to laugh out loud and had to bite her cheek to stop herself from doing so. Somehow Katie had that coming, it had been building up for months and the break from one another during the summer had done nothing but let their feelings and frustrations stew that little bit longer. Vengeance was sweet in whatever form it chose to manifest.
Emily knew things would change soon. This was a new beginning, they were starting college and she was done getting walked all over.
It stopped now, it needed to and it had to.
'Come on, we're going to be fucking late! I swear, if you make me keep Danny waiting one more time I'll-'
The sentence was cut short as she fell in behind Katie, who was now chatting animatedly away to her new "best friend", Effy. Emily suddenly felt small and insignificant and her gaze dropped to her feet, the soles of her pumps dragging against the pavement, her face hidden behind her hair.
So it stopped tomorrow then… maybe anyway…