Clouding My Judgement

35

Time was moving too fast. Naomi had just submitted her final piece for term one. It was really finished. First term was done.

Her flat and next door had organised a Christmas dinner before they all went their separate ways and came back in the new year. The eight of them were busy moving from one kitchen into the next trying to prepare all the food. They even insisted on moving the sofas from flat 157 into 156, so that they could watch a Christmas movie together before everyone left. It was chaotic but definitely a memory which they would all remember.

Naomi was left with the chicken. It was her forte. She had seasoned it hours before and it was now in the oven roasting. Theo was meant to be helping her with it. She hadn't seen him all day. It wasn't like he had lectures or football training. He was avoiding her and she couldn't understand why. She wasn't upset though, it did make life a lot easier. She could focus on Seb more, forgetting all about what had almost happened in the laundry room.

The girls had all agreed to dress up for the meal. Any excuse to go through Naomi's wardrobe, they'd take it. Liv wore wide leg high waisted brown trousers, with a cropped long sleeve turtle neck top. Tiana wore a cropped off the shoulder white knitted jumper tucked into a midi leather skirt. Eliza went for a black pencil skirt, tucked into a black turtle neck. Naomi decided on a satin deep red mini dress, with a small split in the thigh. Her hair was natural and slicked back into a low ponytail, her edges framing her face with light makeup.

As the food was ready in no time. Everyone began to rush into flat 156's kitchen, setting their dishes on the countertop. Theo walked in with a beer in hand not even acknowledging Naomi. He just wanted to eat and then leave.

Naomi's phone buzzed, notifying her of a text. It was Seb, telling her he was outside. She got up made her way to the front door and let him in. He took no time in scooping her up for a kiss to say hello, igniting cheers from everyone in the flat. They all found Naomi and Seb to be cute. Everyone but one.

They made their way back into the kitchen smiling, with two seats empty just for them. As they sat in their seats, Naomi found herself next to Seb and opposite Theo. He glanced in her direction the first time that night and she smiled at him but he ignored her, turning away, sipping on his beer.

She frowned at the weird response but brushed it off not knowing if he was simply in a bad mood and didn't want to talk to her. She didn't want to say anything and potentially start an argument and ruin the meal for everyone. So she kept quiet, hoping he'd come to her later in and actually talk about what was wrong. After all, they did trust each other with very personal things about each other now.

They all dug into their food and before they knew it, everything had been consumed. Along with several glasses of whatever each of them were drinking. Naomi giggled as she felt Seb's hand rub her thigh.

"Stop" She warned

Seb paid no attention to her and continued to creep his hand up her thigh, reaching the hem of her dress. He saw how her chest began to rise and fall quicker than before. He began to play with bottom of her dress, teasing her on whether she'd stop him from going any further.

"Stop" she repeated but it fell on deaf ears

His hand slowly disappeared under the fabric and made its way to her core. Naomi's head snapped towards his. She gave him a look, telling him to stop. She didn't want to embarrass herself infront of her friends.

Seb began to part her thighs and rub her through her panties. Naomi's eyes fell to her empty plate, as she began to play with her own fingers to calm herself down as she didn't want to make a scene and embarrass herself infront of her friends by shouting at seb to stop, but he wasn't listening.

She didn't know what do

She didn't know where to look.

She couldn't look at anyone.

Theo noticed Naomi had stopped talking.

Everyone else was carrying on with their conversation unfazed and unnoticed, but he noticed. He noticed that she was suddenly very quiet. He noticed that she had began to play with her own fingers, something he knew was a trait of nerves and anxiety.

He may have been ignoring her and been on his phone the entire night but that didn't stop him listening to the group's conversation every now and then.

He looked up in her direction and saw her looking down at her empty plate.

He was confused.

He glanced over to Seb to see if he had noticed, when - in fact the next three seconds of him watching the scene infront of him, told him everything. He realised exactly what was going on.

His eyes fell to Naomi's thighs, which he had kept his eyes off of all night out of decency, but right now that was a bit hard with what he saw.

He looked at her thighs.

Then to the clear intrusion of Seb's hand underneath it.

Back up to Naomi's fingers which were being played with more furiously.

Then to seb's smile as he looked over at the group, not caring for what he was doing.

That he had his grimy hand up her dress, as she was in clearly wasn't enjoying it.

Theo was pissed. He was pissed that they would do that at the table. He was pissed that Seb was touching her infront of him.

"Seb stop" Naomi warned as she felt seb trying to move her panties to the side. Seb just smirked at her.

"Hey, Seb don't you have to leave around about now to drive home in time so you're not caught in traffic?" Theo asked, remembering how Seb had announced earlier in the evening he was only stopping by for a bit before he needed to leave. He wanted him to leave already. He wanted him gone. He wanted him to stop touching Naomi.

"Huh? Oh shit yeah" Seb laughed, checking the time on his phone.

"Before I go, Naomi I wanted to give you something though" He confessed

"I didn't know we were getting each other presents" she admitted

"We weren't but I just wanted to give this to you" he said, as he passed her a jewellery box

Naomi opened it and her eyes widened. It was a necklace with the 'S' initial on it. She assumed it was for Sebastian.

"Here, let me put it on you" he offered as he took it out of the box and clasped it around her neck

"T-thank you" Naomi said, unsure if she really wanted to wear it.

"Okay I have to go now, but thanks for the meal guys, it was great" He announced to everyone before he kissed Naomi on the forehead and left.

Naomi looked back at everyone on the table smiling at her. She smiled back. The smile quickly left her face as she turned away. She didn't know what to think. She looked down at her empty plate, it was the only place she could look away from anyone else. As she finally glanced up to see everyone engaged in a conversation she found Theo glaring at her.

Theo's eyes zeroed in on the necklace placed on Naomi's chest and he couldn't be more pissed off.

She watched his Adam's apple Bob as he swallowed, hardening his jaw as he stared at her, saying nothing.

"I'm gonna go finish packing" he grumbled, quickly getting up from his seat and leaving the flat before anyone had anytime to say bye or even stop him.