mirrors_edge1

Later on that morning, at about 7 just after the sun had risen fully, Emily crept her way back into the house through the back door that Katie had left open for her. She shut the door behind her, leaning back against it and smiling to herself at the memory of seeing Naomi again. Just as she was walking into the lounge to sit down and watch TV, she was shocked to see James up and watching cartoons very quietly so nobody could hear him. Emily smirked to herself, creeping up behind him and whispering very loudly in his ear.
“JAMES!”
James, who nearly literally crapped himself from the fear, was shaken up and glaring at Emily who laughed to herself as she sat down next to him.
“Bitch.”
“Freak.”
James and Emily sat together, arms folded and sulking, watching cartoons together. James turned and looked at Emily, who looked like she had been roughed up, and had a couple of lovebites on her neck. James giggled to himself, Emily looking at him weird.
“What are you laughing at, you twat?”
“You had sex with that GIRL didn’t youuuuu?” James laughed, pretending to make fun but secretly was amazed at the idea that girls had sex with each other. Emily rolled her eyes and went back to watching TV, before realising how James must have known.
“Oh, shit.” She said to herself. “Pass me the mirror, James.”
“You already broke it, bitch!”
“What did you just say to me?!”
James began to get intimidated as Emily stood up, grabbing him by the scruff of his pyjama t-shirt fiercely. “Okay!” he hurried, grabbing the mirror off the side and passing it to Emily. She turned her cheek slightly to show her neck, and laughed slightly at the marks Naomi had left on her neck. She threw the mirror back onto the sofa, ruffled James’ hair and as she walked out of the room, she said:
“Yes, James. I did have sex with that girl, and it was GREAT.”
She heard a “BLEGH!” from the lounge as she walked upstairs and into the bathroom.

“Naomi! Where have you been?!”
Gina, Vera, Charlotte and Rebecca were all sitting round the table, having breakfast together. Naomi shut the back door and shrugged.
“Out.”
She dismissed them all and walked upstairs sulkily, knowing that this could be the last time she saw Emily for the rest of summer until the Fitch cousins left. Gina, who like all of them could see, that Naomi looked like she’d been dragged through a hedge backwards was not standing for the explanation of just “out”. She slammed down a bowl on the table before walking briskly into the corridor to go and talk to Naomi.
“Oh god.” Vera said, taking a bite out of her toast. “This is going to be interesting.”
Rebecca and Charlotte looked at her and nodded.
Naomi, who was lying on her bed upstairs knackered, was rudely awoken by her mum opening the door and shutting it hard behind her.
“Naomi, I have no problem with you going out, for however long or where as long as you TELL me. And it also looks like you’ve been doing some things you shouldn’t be doing at a girl your age! Tell me what’s fucking going on, yeah?”
Naomi sighed. “If I told you mum, you wouldn’t understand.”
“I bet I would.” She said, walking over and sitting on the edge of Naomi’s bed. Naomi sat up and let out a sigh.
“You really wouldn’t, but I’m sick of hiding.”
Gina looked very confused. “Naomi, babes, what’s the matter?”
“I’ve…I’ve been seeing somebody. A girl.”
Gina’s face lit up. “Well, that’s alright, sweetheart! Being gay is nothing to be ashamed of, you know. I’m happy if you’re happy!”
Naomi smiled weakly. “That’s not what I’m worried about telling you, mum.”
“Oh, has she got you pregnant too, eh?” Gina said jokingly and laughing slightly. Naomi didn’t bother reacting to the joke, but continued to press onward with her unexpected confession.
“Her name’s Emily.”
Gina looked at Naomi, not really understanding why she was supposed to be phased by the name ‘Emily’.
“Emily… Emily Fitch.”

Two weeks passed, and Naomi lay in bed, heartbroken. She hadn’t seen Emily for two whole weeks, but they had text every night from midnight onwards when all the Fitch cousins were asleep. Emily and Katie hadn’t been themselves for over a fortnight, both moping around the house, miserable. Emily, miserable from missing Naomi, and Katie, miserable from being extremely confused and from not being able to keep her mind on anything other than the events that occurred at Pandora’s party. Of course, Erika, Jade and Lauren were all growing suspicious of their moody temperament, but reached the conclusion it was because they’d lost out on giving the Campbell girls a good kicking.

The cousins were asleep, and Emily had had enough of waiting around for something to change. She tiptoed out of bed, pulled some trousers on over her shorts and a jacket over the top she was wearing. Fuck what she looked like, she was going to see Naomi. Katie stirred in her sleep, opening her eyes slightly to see Emily getting ready. She shuffled up a bit, so Emily noticed she was awake. Emily pointed at the window.
“Naomi.” She mouthed, creeping over Lauren to get to the open window. Katie waved her hands frantically trying to get Emily’s attention. She wrote down on a bit of paper and handed it quietly to Emily, who slid out of the window and into the back garden. Getting the phone out of her pocket, she used the backlight to read the paper.
“Get me her cousins number!!”
Emily smirked to herself as she ran as fast as her legs could carry her to Naomi’s house.

“What the?”
Naomi had been lying in the dark, light breaking through the curtains slightly from either passing cars or the streetlight. It was supposed to be such an amazing summer, such a brilliant summer between her and Emily. Not spent alone and unhappy. She heard little taps at her window, little but loud enough to be heard. She rubbed her eyes, opened the curtains to see Emily, standing at her garden, handful of gravel from the drive and smiling.
“But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Naomi is the sun!”
Emily said up to the window, posing angelically with her hands clasped. Naomi putting a finger to her mouth to stop herself from laughing as she grabbed her skirt from the side and the closest shoes she could find, before hurrying down from the window. The second her feet touched the floor, she ran into Emily’s arms.
“I’ve fucking missed you like you wouldn’t believe.” She said, breathing in Emily’s perfume, taking in everything about her. Emily was doing exactly the same for Naomi, almost crushing her with a hug.
“I know. Me too.” She said, stroking Naomi’s face. “Come on, we’re going to the lake.”
Naomi smiled and tiptoed to the garage, unlocking it with a key that was foolishly left in there. Sometimes it was a good thing her mother was such an idiot.
She ran inside, wheeling out her bike and giving Emily another. Emily smiled to herself as she got on the bike, the two of them cycling down to the lake. The only difference between how happy they were last time and how happy they were this time was the night sky.

“Oh come on, blowbacks was the start to such a fun night, Naomi.”
Emily was sparking up a spliff, and for once Naomi was refusing as she looked around the lakeside. The lake was perfect; quiet, pretty and untraceable. Trees covered them like a blanket underneath the blue haze of a sky, and all they could hear was little drips of the lake.
No traffic. No noise. No people.
Just them.
By the time they got there it must have been at least four in the morning, but it couldn’t have been more perfect; Emily and Naomi were sitting on the jackets they’d both managed to swipe before leaving, and much to Emily’s pleasure, her jacket contained her last spliff. She finished it off, let out the final breath and threw the rubbish to the side of her, wrapping her arm around Naomi’s.
“Well, that was just plain boring.” She said looking at Naomi cheekily. Naomi looked at her, completely content with a smile on her face. And without saying a word, she knelt up and kissed Emily on the forehead. Emily put her hands on Naomi’s face as she knelt back down, and kissed her on the lips.
Once.
Twice.  Three times and more.
Pulling Naomi on top of her, and not wanting to break away from it.
Skirt off. Trousers off. Tops off.
Kissing every inch and making every second count.
Scratching turning to biting. Breathing turning into words turning into gasps turning into screams.

eeeeeee! here's the next chapter!

Katie and Emily raced down the stairs, shoving people out of the way as they did, Emily saw Charlotte and shook her shoulder frantically, and pointed at the text. Charlotte shot up from her seat on the stairs and ran downstairs with them. Naomi, Rebecca and Vera were still dancing happily away with the rest of the crowd, laughing and enjoying the music and the lights. Pandora’s living room was completely trashed, but she was far too drunk and happy with Thomas to care. Boys were throwing up other boys into the air, beer all over them and absolutely hysteric with laughter. Katie and Emily grabbed each other by the hand, shoving any person standing between them and the Campbells fiercely out of the way, provoking a few insults to be shouted but it would all be worth it in the end. Emily grabbed Naomi by the hand, trying to keep out of Erika’s eyeline by ducking down. Katie was crouched down behind Emily, trying to avoid being seen by both Erika and Rebecca. Naomi looked at Emily surprised, as Emily tried to pull her out of the living room. Naomi shook Emily off and looked at her puzzled as to what the hell she was doing.
“Emily, what-?”
“I can’t explain now, just trust me. Bring Rebecca and Vera.”
Naomi looked up to see Charlotte behind Katie, who was nodding at Naomi. Naomi sighed and allowed Emily to pull her out of the house, Vera and Rebecca linking arms and barging through subtly. Erika stood on the sofa, trying to see where they were going and who was leading them. She couldn’t see who was leading them, but she could see them leaving. She instantly called Jade on her phone, frantically shouting down the phone. They were going to get hold of those Campbells and give them the beating they deserved.
“Jade, where the fuck are you?! They’re leaving!”
“What the hell are all the Campbells doing in Bristol?!” Jade said, outraged on the other end of the phone. Lauren could see the front door open from the kitchen – it looked like two redheaded girls leading them out, but Lauren assumed that her eyes were playing tricks on her. After all, colour was everywhere with the masks, and there was people cramped everywhere. Jade was beginning to get extremely pissed off, as she hung up and shoved people out of the way quicker now, and began to run for the front door. Erika came out of the living room, catching onto Lauren as they burst out.

Naomi, Emily, Katie, Vera, Charlotte and Rebecca were all running down the street as fast as their legs could carry them. They threw their masks into the road and into bushes, hoping that they wouldn’t be followed. The Fitch cousins didn’t know where Naomi lived yet, and Emily and Katie could easily say that they went home because they were ‘bored’. Naomi and Emily ran hand in hand, Naomi having to start dragging Emily slightly as Emily was already out of breath. Rebecca, Katie and Vera sprinted quickly down the street and round the corner to the closed Post Office, Naomi helping Emily get onto her back as Naomi still managed to somehow jog down the street. They all sat down against the wall, gasping for breath from such a brisk and unexpected run. Katie however, was far too wired – she kept looking round the side of the office, watching subtly to see if the Fitches ran out of the house. She saw three beautiful looking girls in different coloured dresses look around them, and turn and run down the opposite end of the street. Katie let out a huge breath of relief and slid down the wall, resting her head on her knees as she sat. Naomi put Emily down and looked around.
“Emily, you want to tell me what the fuck is going on?!”
Emily handed Naomi her phone.
“Campbell scum are dwnstairs in party room!!!”
Naomi looked both insulted, and hurt. “Who the fuck is that from?”
“My cousin, Erika.” Emily said quietly. “What are we going to do?”
Naomi bit her lip. Vera was beginning to feel very uneasy, Charlotte was starting to panic silently to herself in her thoughts and Rebecca was being her usual irritated self.
“They don’t know where we’re staying though, do they?” she said, standing up and folding her arms. Katie couldn’t help staring at her, but Rebecca caught her out and she looked away quickly.
“No, they don’t. Katie said bluntly, trying to play it cool. Emily grinned to herself and Katie saw, both of them trying not to giggle.
“Look, we’ll be safe at mine for the time being. So let’s just go-“
“CAMPBELLS!” they heard a cry come from right at the other end of the street. They all froze as Jade, Erika and Lauren saw. “Good, Katie and Emily have caught up with them! Grab hold of them!!”
Emily and Katie looked at each other, and gently grabbed onto a Campbell each, knowing it could be the last time they saw them for the whole summer. Naomi and Emily exchanged one painful farewell glance, before Naomi pretended to shove her off and run down the road. Vera followed straight after Naomi hand in hand with Charlotte, and Rebecca and Katie took one final glance at each other and Rebecca shoved Katie off of her before sprinting down the street. Emily and Katie looked at each other, tears in their eyes as Jade, Erika and Lauren ran down the street but stopped once they got to Emily and Katie.
“Shit!” Jade said, stamping her foot, as she watched the Campbell girls sprinting down the road and onto the bus. She punched the postbox on the side of the postoffice, leaving a huge dent. Lauren and Erika looked fuming as well, but Emily and Katie felt ashamed to be a Fitch after the way tonight was ending.

“Naomi!”
Naomi turned round to see her sister hiding on the stairs behind a group of people. Naomi gave her an outgone look and walked over.
“Charlotte, why are you hiding?”
“They know. They recognized me. Well, Jade did. And let me tell you, Jade is one of the Fitches you don’t want to mess with.”
Naomi felt slightly anxious, but decided to brush it off. Surely the Campbells could handle the Fitches no problem, right?
“Come on, you’re being stupid. We can handle those twats if they try anything. Remember it’s not just you and me this time, it’s the four of us. And I know Emily wouldn’t stand for it, too.”
Charlotte shook her head frantically, glad she had a mask on to hide away from them.
“Naomi, you don’t understand. You don’t know what happened back home. They live near us in London, see – we’ve had our windows bricked and everything. When we tried to retaliate by getting some of our friends together to graffiti our last name on the side of their house, they torched our car.”
Naomi looked extremely shocked. This was their mother’s battle; not theirs. Why had it spread so far as their cousins? Nobody was fighting back in Bristol. Well, with the exception of Naomi and Katie’s fighting for a couple of years, but even that was more because of Katie’s jealousy of losing control. And even then there was probably no fighting as well due to the fact Naomi and Emily were hopelessly in love, and James was only 10 years old. Having six pent up and angry teenage girls with a reason to attack each other could only end in chaos for everyone really.
“You’re here now, Charlotte. We won’t let anything happen, even Katie’s got more of a brain than that.”
Charlotte looked wearily at Naomi, not really wanting to move from her spot on the stairs with her mask over her face. She shook her head. “I’m not moving.”
“Well I’m going in there, I don’t give a shit if there’s the other Fitch relatives. I don’t know why you’re being so fucking scared about it.”
“Don’t, Naomi!”
But Naomi had turned and walked into the lounge, instantly starting to dance with Vera and Rebecca who had cheered up considerably from the music. The party was beginning to get good, and it was extremely colourful – with everybody’s masks on, it was like something out of a modern fairytale. Of course, some people were cheating by having their masks off to get off with somebody in a corner, or get insanely drunk. Thomas and Pandora were having a cuddle on the armchair with their matching masks on. Everybody in the room was having such a good time and the atmosphere was amazing – so lively and energetic – until Erika saw Naomi and her cousins, and instantly recognized them, looking away from Anna who was still talking to her in a drunk state.
“Campbells!” she hissed to herself in disbelief, and in an automatic shocked rush, text the other four Fitches in the house.
Jade and Lauren were sitting together outside on the edge of the bouncy castle with two of the reserves, Harley and Jason, having a drink and a chat when they felt their phones go off. Jade stood up in rage as Lauren followed after her.
“Ladies! What’s the rush? Where you off to?” said Harley, who was completely confused. The girls ignored him as they stormed into the house.
“We end this now.” Jade said threateningly, shoving open the back door. It would take a while to get to the lounge, though, as people had finally found their way to the kitchen, much to the luck of Naomi.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Emily and Katie felt their phones go off at the same time. Emily froze when she read the text, and Katie began to panic. They both looked at each other, horror in their eyes – and without saying a word, knew instantly what the other was thinking. It was just a matter of time now before a big explosion blew up between the Fitches and Campbells.

How on earth were they going to get out of this one?

here ya go!

Rebecca began to realize where this was going. Naomi nodded, seeing the look on Rebecca’s face.

“Yeah, you’re right. They didn’t win the actual jackpot, so nobody was into millionaire territory, but they did win about £300,000, as far as I know which is still quite a bit of money. Jenna wanted to be a professional businesswoman with her own company, and Rob wanted his own gym, but all my mum wanted was a roof over her head and enough to get by. So instead of splitting it, she claimed all the winnings for herself and Rob, leaving mum as a single and once again pregnant mother who was penniless and in debt. So, basically, Jenna Fitch royally fucked her over. And now mum has this huge overblown vendetta against the whole of the family, and we’ve been forbidden to - “

“Katie! Katie, for fuck’s sake, hurry up!”
As usual, the morning rush for the bathroom had begun, and Katie had got there first. Emily sighed as she sulked, hanging over the banister, watching James come up the stairs, bowl of cereal in hand and attempting to give Emily a filthy look. Emily slapped him on the back of the head.
“Ow!” he cried, spilling Cheerios all over the floor. “Mum! Mum, Emily hit me and made me make a mess on the carpet!”
Emily rolled her eyes and hung over the banister again. “She’s gone to work, dickweed. You should know that after 10 years of it.”
“Just because you’re missing your lesbian lover!” James said daringly, Emily turning round outraged as James hurried into his room letting out a yelp of fear and slamming the door. Emily began to get infuriated now, with James’ cocky little remarks and Katie’s taking-foreverness in the bathroom. She walked up to the door and flung it open, Katie screaming and grabbing a towel from the bar near the shower.
“Emily!!” she yelled. “What the fuck are you doing?!”
Emily sighed tiredly. “I want a fucking shower. So get out.”

Back in the hospital room, Naomi was sat at Emily’s bedside, wrapping both of her hands around Emily’s hand. Thomas was sat in the corner looking anxiously at her from a chair. JJ was pacing up and down and Pandora was sat on the floor underneath the window. The room was a dull shade of mint green, plastic plants in the corners to try and add to the cheap décor. Unsurprisingly enough, it wasn’t really comforting to anybody.
“Where’s Freddie?” JJ said, looking round.
“He followed Katie.” Pandora said quietly. All of this was so much to take in for her, so god knows how Naomi felt. She sat there looking desperately at Emily, almost pleading with her eyes to wake her up.
“Fuck knows why.” Naomi said bluntly.
Naomi felt Emily’s fingers begin to twitch between her hands. She gasped, and everyone began to jump up, as JJ ran for a doctor.
“Oh my God!” Naomi said excitedly, as Emily’s eyes began to flicker. “Emily? Emily, can you  hear me?”
Emily’s eyes were still adjusting to the light, but she recognized the platinum blonde hair and the shocked face that were standing over her. “N…Naomi? Is that…?”
“Yes!” Naomi said, overjoyed. “Oh my god Emily, I thought I’d lost you!”
“You’d…” Emily began, and then closed her eyes and sighed weakly. “You’d never lose me.”
Naomi hugged Emily as tight as she could, minding not to touch her leg. Emily smiled weakly, letting her head flop onto Naomi’s shoulder as she tried to hug her tightly back. She put her hands on Naomi’s shoulders, looking around the room she was in. Thomas and Pandora were standing with beaming smiles on their faces.
“Am I in hospital?”
Naomi nodded. “You have been for the past two days, in a coma. You worried us all fucking sick!”
Emily’s eyes grew wide with shock. She looked underneath the covers at her leg to see a bandage around it, and then looked back up at Naomi. Naomi could just tell, just by looking in her eyes, that Emily was remembering everything that happened on the Friday of Karen’s gig.
“Katie…Katie did…” she said, trying to understand how her own sister could do this to her. She began to choke up because of how overwhelming it was.
“Emily, please don’t cry.” Thomas said reassuringly. “It will do you no good at all to be set back any more.”
Emily nodded, tears streaming down her cheeks as she held out her arms for Naomi to give her another long, and needed, hug.
“It will be okay Emily. I promise.” Naomi said, hugging Emily tightly. “I promise.”

Effy turned up at the hospital, completely out of breath and staggering through the automatic doors, pushing herself up by her hands resting on her knees.
“Fucking hell.”
She had ran all the way there after getting a text from Naomi not 10 minutes ago, only just managing to escape Anthea’s needy clutches to try and make her daughter happy again. She went to instinctively light up a fag despite her out of breath-ness, but then realized it was a hospital before rolling her eyes and slipping them casually into her leather jacket again. She looked up at the signs above the reception desk for the A&E wing, and before taking in a deep breath, sprinted down the corridor. She was determined to make Emily believe that she really DID care about her, no matter what happened between herself and Katie.
She looked down at the text, telling her what room number Emily was in.
“Room 45.” She said aloud, memorizing to herself. She looked up at the pastel coloured doors, and she was at the very start, Room 1. She looked down quite a daunting corridor of bright white lights stuck to the ceiling, men in green drawstring surgery suits coming out and talking to distraught families. The whole environment was depressing, thought Effy. But none the less she walked down the corridor at a brisk pace to find Emily’s room.
Finally, she arrived at the room, but the blinds were closed so nobody could see out. Effy took a deep breath once again, before knocking on the door.
“Effy!” Naomi said, letting her in. Emily scoffed in her bed as she folded her arms and looked out of the window.
“What do you want?”
Effy looked at Emily until Emily turned back to face her.
“I’m sorry, Emily. What happened with me and Katie was never anything personal. She was hitting me and spitting on me, I didn’t know how else to stop her. Especially drugged up in the middle of a wood – which admittedly, was my fault. But I’m here because I care about you, not to grovel. So either get over it or don’t, I don’t care, but I care about you. Ok?”
Emily sat there speechless, considering Effy had just basically told her straight. Emily nodded at the seat next to Effy.
“Sit down, if you like.”
Effy half smiled as she sat down in a chair next to Naomi. They all fell silent as they heard running down the corridor – all of them praying it wasn’t-
“Emily, you’re awake! Thank fuck!” Katie squealed, Freddie behind her, putting his face in his hands. Katie looked at Emily, and never had she seen her sister more angry. Emily’s eyes were scowling at Katie, warning her silently to back off.
“Yeah.” Emily said, irritated. Katie sighed painfully and sat down on a chair, looking over to see Effy, who quickly winked at Katie. Katie looked away out of the window, Freddie sighing and looking at Effy. Naomi and Emily were looking at each other, as were Pandora and Thomas. All the couples were looking upon each other, until Katie said, ridiculously;