Against All Discouragement That Could Be

Chapter One

A/N: If any of you read this story before you may be noticing some differences. Troian is now Emma, and Rachel is now Kate. I just felt that the names suited the characters better. Also because I wrote this a while ago, I'm now going back through it and just editing some bits I can improve on. And you may notice a chapter missing - that's because I wrote that chapter to conclude this story and never write anymore for this story, but now I'm restarting it I deleted the chapter so I can write more :) Hope this makes sense. Enjoy! x

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Her mother’s hand crashed into Emma’s face. “Take your stuff! And when you sleep over at your mate’s house tonight, don’t bother coming back!” Without a word, Emma picked up her bag of clothes and walked out the front door, but not before raising her middle finger to the woman whom genetics forced her to be called “mum.” The tears didn’t start spilling down her cheeks until the door slammed, but even that didn’t stop her. It was about an hour’s walk to Kate’s house, but it was worth it. The two of them were amazingly close friends. She pulled out her phone from her pocket and dialled, and after what seemed like an age, Kate answered. “There’s a slight problem with me staying over yours tonight,” she began. In response to her friend asking why, she replied, “Because my mum doesn’t want me to ever come home afterwards.”

 Kate listened to Emma explain how her mum was fed up of everything she did, and was generally sick of the sight of her. Then, after hanging up and speaking to her mum about it, she rang Emma back and gave her the news that her mum was allowing her to stay at their place for as long as she liked. The tears of sadness and anger had stopped, and new ones of ecstasy began. It would only take another ten minutes to walk to Kate’s house but they were the longest ten minutes of her life. When she finally reached the top of her driveway, Kate’s door opened and she came sprinting out, nearly knocking Emma over with the force of her hug. Both were so happy to see each other, so willingly Emma let Kate take her by the hand and lead her indoors.

 Sarah, Kate’s mum was just on her way to work her night-shift at the hospital, but on her way out she told Emma she was to treat the house like it was her own home. It was nine at night, and as Emma walked into Kate’s large, luxurious house she couldn’t help but smile. She put her bag down, took her shoes off and followed Kate into the living room. Kate headed into the kitchen to make two large cups of hot chocolate whilst Emma sat down on the soft carpet. They talked for hours, and by midnight the game of Truth or Dare was suggested. “How will we play it with just the two of us?” Kate asked. Emma pulled out her iPhone and explained, “There’s an app on my phone that comes up with questions, so we just take it in turns and obey the phone!”

Within twenty minutes, Kate had learned that Emma’s first French kiss was in a guy’s bedroom who had Harry Potter bed sheets. Kate had been dared to wave her bra out the window at the next person who walked by the house. Emma learned that the worst thing Kate had done when she was drunk was jump into a hot tub still in her expensive dress and fall asleep next to loads of strangers. Kate learned that Emma once had seven fish that were all named after Shakespearean characters. And so it went on for a while. Then as Kate clicked on “dare” for her next go, the lines came up: “Kiss the person opposite you.” Both girls saw it at the same time.  Neither of them would mind for it to happen, but didn’t want to make it awkward. “What’s the forfeit?” Emma asked. Kate clicked on the forfeit button and the screen flashed up: “Ring up an ex and tell them you still love them.”

“Well I can’t ring up any of my exes, there is a reason why they are my exes!” Kate said. Emma smiled nervously. “If you prefer the other one I won’t tell if you won’t.” Kate nodded, and moved forwards until she was sitting in front of Emma. She took her head in her hands, and their lips met. Without realising Emma placed her hands on Kate’s waist as Kate ran her fingers through Emma’s short brown hair. Neither knew how long it had been when they pulled away, but without a flicker on her face Kate just stood up and said, “Do you want some more hot chocolate? Or maybe a tea?” As she walked out into the kitchen, she raised two fingers to her lips and touched them at the exact same time Emma did the exact same thing in the living room. “Erm tea please.”

They both snapped back to their senses as the kettle started boiling noisily, but they couldn’t deny the fact they still felt something after that kiss. Kate walked into the living room and sat back down opposite Emma. “What just happened?” she asked. Emma shook her head, for she too had no idea. “I don’t know. But it can’t happen again.”

“Do you mean it just didn’t feel right?” Kate asked, trying not to give away that it felt right to her. Emma’s silence said enough, and Kate guessed that maybe it did feel right for Emma too. “It doesn’t matter. It can’t happen again. I’m not… I’m not… gay.” Emma said defiantly. Kate looked into Emma’s eyes, and said, “So stop me,” as she leant in and made their lips meet. And of course, Emma didn’t stop her.

At first they were kissing softly, with Kate’s hands resting on Emma’s shoulders and Emma’s hands on Kate’s waist again. Eventually, Kate began to lean forwards, edging Emma to lie down. She did, and Kate placed her legs on either side of Emma’s as they kept kissing. After a while, they stopped and Kate lay on the floor next to her. She entwined her fingers with Emma’s, but she pulled away. “What?” Kate asked.

“This can’t happen,” said Emma.

“Look, I know. It scares the shit out of me the way that I feel about you but… We both know that if one of us was a guy then there wouldn’t be a problem,” Kate responded.

“Trust me, I have thought quite a lot about what would happen if me and you got together, and not once have I pictured myself turning it away.”

“Wait,” Kate began, “So you liked me before all of this?”

Sheepishly, Emma replied, “Yeah, kinda.”

“I liked you too.” They both smiled weakly at each other, and then Kate continued, “Look, we’re both in our pyjamas and I’m tired so let’s just go straight to bed.”

Both girls stood up and went upstairs. As they entered Kate’s bedroom, Emma stopped in her tracks and stared at the double bed. Kate realised what she was looking at and said, “If it helps just forget everything happened. Don’t worry; I’m not going to pounce on you in the middle of the night.” They climbed into bed and began to drift off to sleep. When Emma could hear Kate breathing deeply next to her, her collarbone tingled exactly where Kate had held her. ‘I don’t like her in that way. I don’t like her in that way. I don’t like her in that way,” Emma kept repeating over and over in her head. She went to sleep with thoughts so determined that she did not have any more feelings than normal for her friend, but as she fell into a deeper sleep she began to dream. No kissing, no hugging, just Kate. She was all she dreamt about. Holding hands with Kate. When she woke up and saw the clock showing 4am, Emma realised she felt a strange sense of confidence after her dream. Confidence that she didn’t care about anyone else. At the same time she noticed Kate’s hand rested on her hip, which she probably put there unintentionally in her sleep. Emma took in a deep breath, and then placed her hand on top of Kate’s. This time, she fell asleep with a smile on her face.