"Emily just tried to strangle me half to death" Cook smiled, sitting up on the table I was eating at.
"How come?" I frowned.
"Naomi told her about the drug thing" He shrugged, plucking a chip off my plate.
"Secrets out then" I sighed.
"Yep. Shes not happy about it. I managed to calm her down though" He replied, grabbing another chip.
"How?"
He took a slip of paper out of his pocket.
"Look at that"
I read it and frowned.
"What the fuck?"
"The detective, I stole his fucking briefcase. His mum still leaves him notes in his sandwiches look" He smiled, stealing another chip.
"No way" I giggled.
"See, I told you everything would be fine" He said, putting a finger on my chin and tilting it upwards so I faced him.
I nodded, smiling at him for a long moment.
"You've got ketchup all over your face you tosser" I laughed, handing him a napkin.
"Where? Here?" He joked, pointing in the completely wrong place.
"No, here" I said, pointing at it.
"Here?" He pointed in the wrong place again.
"Here!"
"What here?" He wiped some on the tip of my nose.
"Are you fucking serious!" I gasped, and reached forward to hit him. He dodged it and ran away, laughing, before Emily came and sat next to me.
"What's up Ems?" I smiled, while scrubbing my face with a napkin.
She glanced at me, before staring behind me again. I looked over. She was staring at Naomi.
"Ems?"
"Have you ever.. loved someone and then..something happens and..you wonder if perhaps you didn't ever know them at all?"
"What do you mean?"
"Do you trust him?" She asked, turning to nod at Cook.
I looked over and saw him and Effy, who were hugging and talking by the vending machine.
"Yeah, definitely" I nodded.
"But..now that you two are together aren't you worried he might..fuck Eff again?"
I slowly frowned.
"Would rather not think about that Ems" I replied.
"..Fuck, sorry" She said, putting her head in her hands.
"What's wrong? Is something up with you and Naomi?" I asked.
She lifted her head up again, but couldn't look me in the eye.
"I don't know" She said. "Things just keep to be getting worse right now"
I leaned in and hugged her, letting her head rest on my shoulder.
"This whole Sophia thing. I just can't escape it"
"Me neither"
"It's just..I think Naomi knew her? But she won't tell me anything other then.."
"The fact that she sold Sophia the MDMA?"
She pulled away, her eyes widening.
"You know?"
"Cook told me. Don't worry, I won't let it slip"
She stared at me for a second, before sighing and reaching into her bag, pulling out a University booklet.
"Goldsmiths? But I thought-"
"It's not for me. Look"
She opened it to a marked page and there was a picture of Naomi and Sophia.
"Shit. They knew each other" I whispered, tracing the picture with my finger. Seeing her face made me feel shaky again.
"I don't know what to do" Emily said.
"Get to the bottom of it. Ask Naomi"
Emily snapped the book shut and tucked her fringe out of her face.
"Right. I'm gonna get to the bottom of it" She nodded. "Gonna get to the bottom of it..."
She stood up and took a few steps away, before turning on her heel and coming back.
"Will you come with?"
I nodded, and walked with her.
"Why didn't you tell me you knew her?" Emily asked, crossing her arms.
Naomi stood feebly in front of her, struggling to look her in the eye.
"Em, not in front of Kal-"
"Answer my question Naomi"
"..Fine. I met her once. At an open day"
"What open day?" Emily frowned.
"It was an open day, what does it matter?"
"But aren't you two going traveling next year?" I asked.
"Yeah, we decided?" Emily said.
"You decided" Naomi shot. "Look, I went to an open day, I met a girl, we talked, that's it"
"You should've told me!"
"Well how could I without telling you where you where I met her? I didn't want a referendum on our relationship over a stupid open day!"
"Did you know she was gay?"
"I met her once"
"Did you fuck her?"
"No! Do you think i'd shag something random girl behind your back?"
"I'm not saying you did it"
"Well what are you saying?"
"I'm just asking!"
"Why are you acting like this?"
"..Her mum seems to think we knew her"
"You went to her house?" I asked.
Emily nodded.
"You promised me you'd stay out of it! Stay out of it!" Naoms cursed, looking more worried now.
"Do you know what this is for?" Emily asked, handing Naomi a key with a keychain attached.
"Looks like something to do with the army.." I said, staring at the design.
"Probably her cadet locker key?" Naomi replied.
"How do even know that Naomi?" Emily said, taking the key back.
She grabbed hold of my hand and began walking away.
"Where are you going?" Naomi sighed.
"To find out if you're lying" Emily said, not looking back.
"Oh, nice. Let's go then" Naomi said, catching up to us.
We walked into the army building and wandered around for a while, looking for the lockers. We eventually found them, and tried all of them until we found the right one. Emily and Naoms both stared at it blankly, both too scared to open it. I reached my hand forward and slowly swung it open.
Inside were notes, drawings, little fake candles. It was beautiful. Then I looked a little closer. All the notes mentioned Naomi, there were photos of her, a biscuit packet and.. a toothbrush?
"What the fuck?" Naomi said.
"Garibaldis.. aren't these your favorite Naoms?" I asked.
She nodded slowly, gulping.
"She went through your rubbish" Emily whispered.
"That's my old toothbrush..and my bracelet I lost" Naomi said.
"She...stalked you?" I frowned.
"Close it...please Kal close it.."
I slowly locked it shut, and watched tears form in Naomis eyes. Cook suddenly texted me, asking if I wanted to come smoke with him.
"I'm...I'm sorry.." I whispered, touching Naomis shoulder. She stared forwards, trying not to let tears fall, as I went to leave.
-
"Doesn't look great" I said, as we stood in the doorway of a house party a while later.
"Fuck it, if it's shit we'll just go home and shag each others brains out. Deal?" Cook smiled.
I took his hand.
"Deal" I laughed.
We walked into the crowd of people, who were all either drunk or high, and immediately lost each other. I wandered into a packed room, and bumped into JJ.
"Curlynob, what's up?" I asked, reaching up to kiss him on the cheek.
"Nothing much. But look" He said, pointing over at Pandora.
She was crazily dancing with some guy, occasionally glancing over towards the corner. I saw Thomas standing there, sipping on his drink, looking regretful. He walked over to us.
"Hey Kal, JJ. This is the worst party i've ever been to" He sighed. "The worst"
"Really?" I said.
"Pandas giving Tommo a dose of the old 'look at me' routine"
"Look at me routine?" I asked.
"You know how it is. Letting your ex's know your out there. That other people find you attractive. That everything you thought you had together..they can do without it. That they don't...need you"
Thomas's face dropped more and more, until he walked away.
"Tommo.." I called, but he walked out, slamming the front door behind him.
"I merely observed.." JJ shrugged.
"It's ok JJ, he's probably still getting over it" I explained.
JJ sighed, and stared at his empty glass.
"I'm gonna get another drink. Want one?" He asked.
"Yeah, please"
"Might take me a while to get through this crowd.." He said, walking off into the swarm of people.
I leaned against the wall, fiddling with my hands and occasionally checking my phone, texting Liv as she was abroad this year. I eventually went to the bathroom, trying to get some space.
"Oh! Sorry Ems" I said, realizing Emily was at the sink, muttering to herself in the mirror.
"No..it's ok" She shrugged.
I sat on the cold rink of the bath.
"Kal? Can I ask you something?"
"Yeah" I nodded.
"Do you ever get jealous?"
"Like.. with Cook?"
She nodded.
"Yeah. Girls are always all over him"
"What do you do about it?"
"Just shrug it offi"
"Is that possible?"
"Yeah. Or else you just look a bit stupid if you don't, don't you? Look at me look, happy, even though there's probably some random girl perving on my boyfriend as we speak" I smiled.
Her face was still in a frown.
"How about a dance, muff-monkey?"
She nodded, and managed to crack a smile as I took her hand and led her out. She walked into the crowd of people dancing, and I followed her until suddenly some random guy cornered me, towering over me and smirking.
"Piss off" I tutted, trying to walk away. He put his hand on the wall, blocking my escape.
"Nah" He laughed, leaning in closer.
"Get the fuck away!" I frowned, trying to push him off of me.
He slid his hand up my thigh, up my skirt.
"Listen, just relax" He laughed, tightening his grip on my leg. "You frigid or what?"
I turned my face and tried not to look at him, while silently screaming for help.
"I think we should go upstairs, don't you babe?"
A cold piercing shiver ran down my spine. I couldn't even reply. He couldn't do anything to me with all these people here right? But look how much he'd done already, cornering me with his hand now in my pants.
"I-" I stared, but suddenly the guy was shoved to the ground, getting punched over and over. I recognized the guy beating on him.
It was Cook.
The man curled up into a ball, yelping while Cook refused to stop punching him.
"FUCK YOU!" Cook yelled, making his fist hit the guys nose over and over. It was definitely broken, twisting to the side like something out of a horror movie.
"Cook that's enough!" I said.
He carried on punching.
"Cook! Stop!" I said, louder this time.
Believe me, I wanted that asshole to be beaten to a pulp- but I knew the consequences if Cook went to far.
I gestured at Freddie to help, but he shrugged helplessly, not knowing what to do. JJ came out of the crowd and tried to break it up, but Cook ended up elbowing him straight in the face. He fell back, covering his eye.
"For fucks sake!" I shouted, bending down in front of JJ and holding his face in my hands. He winced in pain as a purple bruise quickly formed. Cook stood up, and instead started kicking the guy and stamping on his chest.
This was bad.
Really fucking bad.
"COOK STOP THIS SHIT, NOW!" I yelled.
He heard my voice and finally stopped, breathing heavily. He slowly opened up his hands and stared down at his bloody knuckles, glanced at all of us, and then down at the guy on the floor. A lot of people rushed out, not wanting to be involved in all this.
I stormed out of the house, overwhelmed and shaky. I ran my fingers through my hair and paced the front garden, feeling a panic attack coming on. I had to clamp the back of my hand over my mouth to stop myself from screaming. I knew Cook was going to jail for this, and there's nothing I could do about it. I could hardly breathe in between sobs. Freddie ran outside a few minutes later and grabbed me into a hug.
"I cant- fucking- breathe" I cried, my head buried in his chest.
"It's ok, it's ok" He said, rocking side to side.
"It- isn't it's all- gone- wrong"
"Kal-"
The sound of a police car siren suddenly rang out, a few streets away. I lifted my head off Freddie's chest and looked behind me, hoping I was hearing things. It rang out again.
"Freddie? Freddie!!" I gasped.
He took my face in his hands so I was facing him, and took a deep breath.
"The guy is really fucking hurt, and one of his mates called the police..Cooks gonna get arrested"
I didn't even know what to say. I instead cried and cried, listening to the sirens get closer and closer. I looked over Freddie's shoulder and saw Cook coming outside, wringing his hands out. Freddie stepped aside, crossing his arms.
Cook came towards me, and I hugged him for a short moment, before pulling away and weakly pummeling his chest with closed fists.
"You stupid bastard, you stupid fucking bastard.." I cried, before Freddie pulled me away.
"I'm sorry! Im sorry..." He said.
"One punch was enough Cook, fucking hell" Freddie said.
"He was he was touching her I just saw red!" He sighed. "It's like I wasn't..me"
I heard the sirens get closer, until they stopped right in front of us. I watched them walk up to the house. They took one look at Cooks knuckles, and knew it was him they wanted. They grabbed him and handcuffed him, before leading him into a police car.