Fic: Trestling Under the Influence (Crossover) Chapter 5
Title: Trestling Under the Influence
Chapter: Past Memories/To The East
Rating: T for swearing and sexual content
Disclaimer: I don’t own Skins, nor do I own Sunshine Cleaning.
…
The subject of Sophia isn’t brought up again for a while. Both girls avoid speaking to one another and it causes working together to be a bit difficult. It also makes for awkward situations when they go to the store to pick up supplies - Effy evades socializing with Sophia, and Katie pretends not to notice. Eventually both girls bring their guards down, retreating from their separate corners and reverting back to being friends again - and it’s just a relief. Being away from each other only made Katie feel less whole, like a part of her was missing. Now that they’re together again, she feels complete - like this was how it should always be.
…
After a long week and three big jobs, the girls decide to stay in on a Saturday night to watch a couple of old DVDs. (Eric had conveniently lent Katie his laptop when she asked if she could edit the business cards he had made for the girls.) Bored, Katie waits for Effy in the living room, as the brunette makes microwave popcorn in the kitchen. “What do you want to watch?” she yells from the couch.
“Did Eric lend us any action movies?” Effy shouts back.
Katie scoffs, crossing her arms, “Ugh, I’m not in the mood for some dumb action movie.”
“Well do you want to watch a drama?”
She considers the idea for a moment, before she replies, “Nah, let’s watch something cute, and romantic!”
Effy laughs, “Why do you even bother asking me if you’re not going to listen to my suggestions anyway?” The bell on the microwave goes off with a DING! Effy takes the steaming hot bag out of the microwave, and dumps the kernels into a big bowl. She heads to the living room, and sits next to the shorter girl, putting the popcorn down on the table.
“Mmkay, so let’s watch…” Katie starts, as she lays out a few DVDs on the coffee table next to the laptop. There are a couple romantic comedies, an action film, and a couple of dramas. She decides to go for one of the comedies - something with Ryan Reynolds in it - and opens up the case. She flips Eric’s laptop open and hits the eject button. Her face goes beet red, when she reads the title of the disc that’s ejected. When Effy herself takes a gander, she immediately howls in laughter.
“What the fuck? The Dykes of Hazzard?” Effy hoots. She grabs the DVD, and takes a closer look at it.
Katie snatches the movie right out of Effy’s hands, “What a fucking loser.”
“He would watch lesbian porn,” Effy jokes, as Katie’s still burning red. “Maybe we should watch this instead?”
The burgundy haired girl glares at her friend, with a far from amused expression on her face, “There is no fucking way.”
“Oh what, like you’ve never watched porn before,” Effy’s eyes bore into hers, as she smiles at the shorter girl mischievously. Katie fights not to smile back, but fails as she feels a bashful grin spreading across her face. She clears her throat, “I don’t mind porn, I just don’t watch it with friends,” she clarifies. Effy rolls her eyes, as the twin adds, “And it’s lesbian.”
The brunette snorts, “So? What are you scared that you might get a little turned on?” She waggles her eyebrows at the Katie, who shoves her playfully.
“You’re such a moron.”
Effy laughs, “Fine, okay…. We won’t watch porn.” She grabs the offending DVD out from Katie’s hands and sets it on the table. They pop in the other disc and settle in their seats. When the opening credits begin, Katie hears Effy giggle beside her. She ignore it at first, but when it appears that the other girl isn’t going to stop, Katie addresses the situation, “WHAT?”
“Nothing.” She’s lying and Katie knows it. She pauses the movie. “Come on seriously, Eff. Either shut up and watch the movie, or say what’s on your mind.”
The taller girl coughs into her fist, thinking her response through before asking Katie subtlety, “Well… have you ever… done anything?” She looks away from Katie, avoiding eye contact.
She knows exactly what Effy means, but beats around the bush anyway, “What do you mean?”
“I mean with girls…? I know your sister’s gay-”
Katie immediately cuts in, “And I’m NOT.” Effy gapes at her teasingly. Leaning back on the couch she ponders for a moment, before saying, “Hmm, well I think I do want to see what it’s like to kiss a girl.”
She stares at Katie seductively, and leans in for a kiss, but Katie shoves her back, “Fuck off.”
Effy laughs.
“Well since I love bursting your bubble - it’s no big deal. Kissing a girl is nothing special, it’s like kissing boys except girls have softer lips and no stubble or facial hair.”
She shouldn’t expect any less when Effy’s eyes bug out at the revelation. The brunette grabs at her, like an excited teenage girl, “Really??? What the fuck - when was this? Where was I?”
“Well it was after high school at a party, so you were already out of town,” she says, detaching herself from Effy’s grasp. A blush creeps into her cheeks, “I was pretty wasted. We were going to have a threesome with her boyfriend but it never ended up happening.” She feels her tummy flip, as she catches a gleam in Effy’s eyes. She suddenly feels an unexplained nervousness, as she changes the subject, “Anyway, can we watch this fucking movie already?”
“Of course.”
Their eyes revert back to the screen in front of them, as Effy teasingly throws her arm around Katie’s shoulders. There’s a bit of resistance but then she gives in, playing along as she leans into the cuddle.
…
Katie waits behind a small line up at the gas station. She had wanted to pay at the pump, but the machine was out of order. Now, here she was - stuck in line. She hears a ring from the door behind her, as a customer has walks in. Of course fate has been extremely consistent with her run-ins lately because it almost isn’t a surprise that it’s her sister, Emily.
Bile begins to crawl up from her belly to her throat, as their eyes lock. It’s not like she hates Emily. That isn’t the reason why she dreads running into her sister at all. It was more like she hated what her sister had became - because Emily’s wonderful and glamorous life was a reminder of how much of a failure she was, and how her life was pathetic in comparison.
Emily is surprised at the chance meeting, as she greets her with a friendly but hesitant smile. She wonders if Emily is maybe just a little bit bothered with their constant but random meetings too.
“Hey how’s it going?”
“Oh just… filling up on gas. How’re you?” As always, she tries to hide her annoyance with her sister’s presence, but today felt like one of those days she just didn’t want to make the effort. Judging by the way Emily was tiptoeing around their conversations, she figures she could tell too.
“I’m about head out on a road trip with some of the girls from work. Gonna check out the coast.”
Katie realizes then, that she barely knows anything about her sister’s work life, let alone knows what her sister does for a living. “That’s nice.”
“Excuse me,” interrupts the gas attendant, from behind Katie, “May I help you?”
“Ah, yes,” she says, turning away from Emily and towards the young boy clerk, “I would like to buy forty dollars worth of gas, please.” She hands him her credit card. He swipes her card, but a few seconds later a bleep sounds off, alerting them that her credit card did not go through.
“Here, let me try that again. This happens all the time,” he says with a cheerful smile.
What the fuck? Katie thinks nervously. She prays that this was just a glitch, simply a mistake, and that the card will work the second time around. It would definitely be AWFUL timing for her credit card to fail - especially in front of Emily.
Unfortunately another bleep goes off, as the clerk smiles at her sympathetically, while handing back her card. He does his best to discreetly ask her if there’s another method of payment that she’d like to try. While panicking she stutters over a yes, as she hastily looks through her wallet, her hand lingering over her bankcard even though she knows there’s no money in it. She thinks hard trying to remember how much overdraft she has, but then Emily steps up next to her, and hands the boy two twenties. She’s torn between hating or loving Emily for saving her, but the pitying eyes from the other customers around her just couldn’t stop her for feeling so humiliated, and a little hateful.
“Thanks.” He politely avoids looking at Katie and looks over at Emily instead, who pays for her own gas. “Thank you again. Have a good day ladies.”
“You too,” Emily says, as she tugs Katie away. Just as they’re approaching the door, she utters gently, “Sorry I was just trying to help.”
“It’s fine. I’ll just have to go to the bank and ask them what the fuck is going on. That should NOT have fucking happened,” She pushes through the door, and heads to the pump. She walks about a few feet, when she hears Emily call out to her, “You should come.”
“What?” Katie turns around to face her sister.
“I mean, I’m throwing a birthday party for one my friends in a few weeks. You should come. It’d be great to have you there.”
“Sure. I’ll think about it.”
…
Katie immediately heads to the bank to figure out what the fuck is wrong with her credit card. Of course when she gets there the bank tellers are useless, and they can’t explain the error. They apologize, and Katie’s left with nothing but to get over it. As she storms out of the bank, without looking up she runs into someone.
“Jesus, I’m so sorry - oh,” when she looks up she sees that she’s run into Naomi.
“Katie?”
“Oh, hey.”
“How’re things? Are you keeping healthy?” The blonde offers her a smile, as she looks at Katie from head to toe.
“Yeah, taking care of this.” She rubs her tummy. She tries to warm up to the blonde, but she’s still feeling frazzled over the shitty day she’s been having so far.
“That’s good to hear.”
“Do you have a day off?”
“Yeah, well - actually not really. It’s rare that I get a chance to get away from work, but sometimes I get to slip out for a bit of fun.”
“Going to the bank is fun?”
“No, but it’s necessary.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Katie chuckles. There’s a pause in the conversation, as Naomi looks down at her watch, and Katie finds herself staring off at nothing. “Well I gotta go, take care.”
She’s taken about a few steps, when she hears Naomi pipe in, “Did you wanna go for ice cream or something?”
She turns around, and sees the inviting look on Naomi’s face.
“My treat.”
…
They settle for some fancy ice cream at a café they find near the bank - and it’s a good choice for the sweets are definitely delicious.
She isn’t sure why she decided to come, besides the fact that the blonde offered to pay. Maybe it’s because Naomi felt neutral. It’s like she isn’t close enough for Katie to feel guarded about the possibility of Naomi judging her shitty life, but she isn’t a complete stranger either. It’s the reason why she feels she could open up to her about some personal things, and it’s exactly what Katie needs that right now. (Not to mention she is the only other person that knows about her pregnancy besides Eric.)
They talk a bit, and catch up on each other’s lives. Katie quickly goes over her life after high school, (skipping passed the part about Eric being a married man), and is happy when Naomi doesn’t really push much for details. When it’s Naomi’s turn to share Katie is surprised to find out that there really isn’t much: after high school Naomi went straight to university to study medicine, eventually graduating and becoming a general practitioner. Judging by her tone, and the lack of life in her eyes while recalling the last nine years, it appeared that Naomi wasn’t so happy with her life either. It’s a shock for Katie, because she expected that since Naomi was so set in her career, that the girl was happy, or at least in a better place than she was - but she isn’t.
As Naomi digs into the banana split that they’ve decided to share, her voice is low, and wavers at bit when she asks, “Do you remember… the party?” All her sudden thoughts of pity for the blonde dissipate, as she can’t help but glower at her.
Naomi immediately back pedals after seeing Katie’s glare, “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
Katie contemplates strangling the blonde - but then decides that giving birth in prison, wasn’t something she’d like to experience. “No it’s fine,” she sighs. ”I mean I knew you were going to bring it up eventually.” She plays with her spoon, stirring the chocolate fudge sauce around her side of the saucer, “Definitely not one of my greatest moments.”
Naomi blanches, as she takes a bite.
“I was such a major slut back then,” Katie grimaces.
After a moment, Naomi clears her throat, “Can I be honest?”
She looks over at the blonde, curious over what Naomi felt like she needed to say.
“I don’t really remember the full details of the night, because I was really hammered… all I remember was feeling very sad, because - well you remember, Emily and I had just broken up. So yeah, we all just went to Lanny’s party, and fuck - everyone was completely wasted or on something.”
“So you don’t remember…” Katie trails off not really understanding where this was going.
“I remember wanting to go pee really badly,” Naomi continues, “And then just going upstairs, with a plan of checking every door to see if it was the bathroom. And then, I remember walking in on you, and those two boys-”
“-Ugh please don’t finish this story.”
“I won’t.” Naomi says, reassuringly. “Look we were all stupid and young back then, but who cares? We’ve all made mistakes.” Katie watches as her blue eyes darken. She ponders what big mistake had Naomi done to cause her to look so unhappy. “The only thing that matters, is that everyone has the ability to fix it,” Naomi continues after a beat, “If you want it bad enough, you can change. Besides, immediately after I left, let’s just say…”
Her blue eyes drop, as she stares at the ice cream in front of them with a shy smile, “I definitely needed a cold shower.”
“Oh shut up. That’s a terrible way to make me feel better,” Katie exclaims, as she blushes and the girls laugh. They eat in silence for a bit, as they finish their banana split.
Later when they wait for the bill, Naomi asks about Emily, and Katie does her best to tell her what she knows about her sister, and her current life. Naomi doesn’t say much in return but she does ask if Emily’s seeing anyone. When she says, ‘No’ she catches the blonde’s eyes lit up at the news. She wonders then if along with being lonely, maybe Naomi wasn’t over Emily after all. Maybe them breaking up was her big mistake.
…
When Katie gets home, she decides to go for a stroll around the block and think. Her random friend date with Naomi has left her thinking about a lot of things. Like how bad her life really is in comparison to someone as different as Naomi. Unlike Katie, Naomi has successfully gotten herself a solid career, and is set for life. Other than her student loans, there girl has nothing to worry about it. Yet, she seems just as miserable as Katie, who is obviously the complete opposite; after almost a decade after her glory days ended, Katie still has no real job, a relationship that really barely counts, and a shit ton of debt. Line up both their lives next to each other, taking in consideration that both lived in different worlds, they were equally unhappy with where their lives were heading.
What is the answer though? What is the solution to solving both their problems? The keys to solving these questions remain a mystery to Katie. However, realizing that she isn’t alone in her pain makes her feel a bit better. It opens her eyes, allowing her to understand that life is more than just being successful.
Her thoughts are interrupted as she rounds the corner as she sees the woman standing outside the apartment complex.
It’s Anthea.
How the fuck did she find them? She really didn’t need this right now.
She walks up to the older woman, in time for Anthea to turn around and notice Katie, “Um, what’re you doing here?”
“I came here to talk to Effy.” The woman’s tone is unfriendly, but Katie stands her ground. She isn’t going to let her walk all over her - she isn’t Effy.
“Yeah well Effy’s not here.”
“I don’t think you have any right to prevent me from seeing my own daughter,” she says with her voice raised.
Katie own voice gets louder as she stands her ground, “You’re the one that pushed her away.”
The verbal jab works, as Anthea backs off. Her face is full of remorse and guilt, which is a surprise for Katie given that last time she was in this woman’s presence, Anthea was far from looking guilt-stricken. The woman smiles sadly, as she steps forward closer to Katie, “And now I want to see her again.”
As protective as she is of Effy, Anthea’s pleading sounds real. She sighs, “Look I just got here. I don’t know where she is. Okay?”
The woman nods, as she digs into her purse, and pulls out a piece of paper, and a pen. She scribbles on it and hands it to Katie, “Here’s my number. Tell her to call me when she’s ready.” Anthea leaves quickly, without waiting for a reply.
Bewildered by the event, Katie speed dials Effy’s number on her cell. She contemplates telling her that she ran into her mother, but decides not to when she hears Effy happy and oblivious voice when she picks up.
“Hey babe. Bought time you ringed me. I missed you!”
“Hey Effs, where are you?”
…
Chapter Six
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