Author's Note: Skyblue - I felt kind of bad leaving it the way I did after your review so here's the reason for the anti-climax. I had to bring some things back down balance the high of this chapter out.

Chapter Seven: Intelligently Moronic

The next two weeks went on no differently than any week before Naomi and Emily had met. Emily spent her days working at the teashop and Naomi spent hers writing at the coffee shop, when they were not in their respective classes.

It took Naomi less time to adapt to not seeing Emily ever again; at least, she denied herself the opportunity to dwell on the thought. Her schedule was so busy she hardly even had a chance to smoke. Naomi was reverting to her regular coping mechanism of acting as if nothing special had happened - blatantly arguing and belittling it the one time it was touched lightly by her concerned best friend. Effy sensed what was troubling the blonde but, as per usual, did not continue to push the subject.

Emily resented her new phone - the phone that lacked the message that could have changed her life in a way she had been waiting for, hopelessly. She tried to not think about the possibilities because it only put her in an awful mood. The regular customers had been tipping better to try and help her disposition. Her coworkers tried consoling her or avoiding her when she was just too grumpy to be bothered. Nobody was really capable of making the emptiness inside her soul vanish. Still, she did not want to accept why Naomi's disappearance had bothered her more than any average person's would have. Ultimately, she could not ignore her feelings and decided to give one last attempt at looking for Naomi. Where to look though? She did not share any classes - OH FUCK. MATH! THE LOUNGE! There was an exam Tuesday she had yet to study for; maybe Naomi would study in the lounge again.

But on Monday night, Emily was only met with disappointment. The blonde was not in sight. Naomi avoided anything that reminded her of the girl that kept popping into her mind when she wasn't focused on something, and that included the lounge room where they had their first actual conversation. Emily had given up completely and was hanging out with Freddie and JJ to try and distract herself when she could not avoid the topic anymore.

"Emily, you've been acting quite weird lately. Are you alright?" JJ asked when Freddie had left the room to use the bathroom. He did not want to bring it up in front of Freddie in case she was feeling sensitive about whatever it was.

"What?" Emily was confused at first; she had not expected JJ to be so in touch with her emotional cues. Then again, JJ probably focused on them more than anyone, if she thought about the reason why. After a moment she realized he was talking about her general moodiness regarding Naomi. "Oh, it's nothing."

"It would be an accurate generalization, I think, to say when girls say 'it's nothing,' that something is actually bothering them."

"Yeah, okay there's this girl from my math class. I think lost her number when I dropped my phone and now I don't think I'll ever see her again."

JJ started laughing hysterically.

"What?"

More laughter.

"You really don't know?"

"JJ, tell me." Emily pulled out her almost scarily serious tone of voice.

"Why don't you just go to class or meet her at the exam?"

"Are you shitting me? Why the fuck did I not think of that?!" Emily put her head into her hands and groaned. "I fucking hate math." JJ laughed again. When Emily was done groaning she looked up. "Thanks, Jay. I know it was obvious but sometimes I can be pretty fucking stupid."

"Oh, don't worry, Emily. It's pretty common for people to be so focused on something they don't even realize the simple answer right before them. Just the other day Freddie was searching for his phone and it was in his hand the whole time."

Freddie walked in to see both Emily and JJ laughing. "What's so funny?"

"You." Emily laughed.

"You told her about my phone mishap, didn't you?"

The only response was more laughter. JJ tried nodding.

"Yeah, well, you dropped your phone in a drain and I thought I lost mine - we're all having phone problems these days." He did not get upset at them for laughing at him and chuckled at himself.

Emily smiled to herself. Not anymore.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Naomi looked around the room and saw her regular seat was taken. But that was not enough to ruin her confident mood. The exam was going to start in a few minutes so she grabbed an empty seat close to the aisle and pulled out her pencils and calculator. She felt prepared after her lengthy evening of studying at the coffee shop. Effy had popped by in the morning and they smoked together. All her anxiety about passing was minimal to nonexistent. She felt good. The professor handed out the exams. She took one and passed the pile to the people on her right accordingly. As she flipped through the crisply printed pages, her confidence was assured. Her pencil danced across the paper with speed that intimidated and worried those beside her.

All her side-notes were fresh in her memory, until she came across a particularly hard problem - the very problem she had been studying when she met Emily. FUCKING fuck. She looked to the ceiling and tried to take a deep breath. Of course, all the emotions she had been avoiding rushed to her mind at the most inconvenient time. Her blinking accelerated as she tried not to cry - to not feel hurt. Stop it, Naomi; you don't need to do this. Not now. Not now. Not now. Just finish this exam. Then you can cry. You can fucking cry a river. Just do not fuck up the one thing you're good at.

Her small mental pep talk did little to make her stop. Instead, the anger and resentment she felt toward Emily for making her feel the bad emotions were what helped her finish the exam. Couldn't have done worse than a B. She packed her pencils, grabbed her bag, handed in her exam, and strode out of the room.

"Naomi!" A familiar throaty voice called out in the hallway from behind her, but Naomi kept walking. Not a chance in hell. But the voice was persistent, and now following her. "Naomi! Wait!"

"What, Emily?" Naomi was exuding all her upset feelings.

"I just want to talk." Emily was quiet but firm. She had been waiting for Naomi for twenty minutes. She had honestly thought the blonde was so smart that she would have finished faster. Emily had nearly had given up hope of finding Naomi because she was not sitting in her regular seat until Emily spotted Naomi when she started frequently glancing around the room throughout her exam.

"About what, Emily? What do you want from me?" Naomi was growing weak with little resistance to her emotions.

"There's just... there's something... someth-"

"Listen, Emily." Naomi cut her off in one final attempt to disassociate from her feelings. "I think I know what you're about to say, and that something, or you, as far as I'm concerned, are what caused me to nearly fail my exam today. I can't afford any distractions and you're the biggest distraction I've had so far."

"What!" Emily shouted in rage, "Are you shitting me?! I haven't seen you in two weeks. That's just about the dumbest thing you've ever said."

And then their previous conversations flashed back into her mind. Naomi could not help herself. "Yeah? Well I think you're dumb."

"NO! YOU'RE DUMB." It was with that intense rush of emotions that Emily took the single step between them, backing Naomi into the wall, and for half a second, glanced down at pink lips. She saw Naomi's eyes flick down to her own - felt her exhale shakily in the silence that followed. "You're so... stupid," Emily whispered before pressing her lips lightly, questioningly to Naomi's. Do you feel what I feel?

Author's Note: so that's two updates in one day! Hope you enjoyed. Review please.