EPOV

It's been 3 days since Mona was murdered, the cops still haven't found her body, Spencer is out on bail but has to stay at home but she's fine with that because Toby moved in so she's been taking care of him, Hanna hasn't left her house, mourning over Mona and Caleb hasn't left her side, Aria and Ezra have been at her house looking after Mike and I've spent the last 3 days at Paige's place, my parents have been in Texas having to finish up some stuff for his transfer to Philadelphia. We were laying on her bed watching a movie and I couldn't help but feel bad that I'm so happy right now while all my friends aren't.

"What you thinking about?" Paige asked while playing with my hair

"Once again how there's all this bad stuff happening around me but I feel so lucky. I'm so happy that we are back together. I know I hurt you when I ended things and I don't deserve another chance but I'm glad you gave me one" I looked into her eyes trying to show how much I appreciate it

"Of course I would. I'd be pretty stupid not to, you're it for me, I'm never going to love anyone the way I love you. Plus I'm the one that broke your trust and I hated that I hurt you" I see a tear running down her cheek and wipe it away

"How about we both agree that we both hurt each other and we learn from it and move on" I say, giving her a kiss

"That sounds like a remarkable idea Ms Fields. So apart from all the A, Mona and Ali stuff has anything else interesting happened in the last couple of months? You seem to be loving assistant coaching"

"Yea I am loving it. I have all this swimming information stored up from the past 4 years and it's good to be able to pass it on" I smile thinking about how much I'm loving being back by the pool "it sucks a little not being able to swim but being involved outweighs that. I've put so much energy and effort into the sharks that when I had to quit swimming it just sucked" I put my head back down on her chest and she resumed playing with my hair

"It sucked not having you there, it's great having you back, even when we weren't talking having you around the pool area made it feel like home" I can hear the smile in her voice

"It's even better now" I smile up at her "hope you can take being told what to do from your girlfriend" I laugh

"I usually do" she says with a low husky tone which sends a shiver down my spine "anyway didn't you want to go stop by your house and get the mail" she says after clearing her throat

"Yea, I'm hoping to hear back from a few colleges sometime this week" I got up off the bed and turned the TV off

"Where do you want to get into?"

"I really want to get into Drexel. I've decided that I want to become a physical therapist and its close enough to home that I can just come back and Hanna and Spencer are going to New York and Aria is going to Hollis so I'll be close enough to them too the only problem is that it's still 3000 miles away from you"

"Um, yea. C'mon we better get going" she quickly grabbed her keys, that was weird, I figured I'll bring it up later.

Once we got to my house I grabbed a few changes of clothes, grabbed the milk to use before it goes off and a few other things I might need while I'm there. I flipped through the mail and found a reply from UPenn, Drexel and NYU. The ride back to Paige's place was quiet while I stared down at the Drexel envelope

"Everything will be ok" Paige said, taking her hand off the gear stick and putting in on my knee

"I haven't had my hopes up this much since Stanford and we both know how that turned out"

"Hey that was different, that was hoping on a sports scholarship, this is hoping on your brains, so you'll get in. If not then there's UPenn and NYU. And if either of them are bad news then figure it out from there, take a year off, go traveling then apply again or get a job, save up, maybe you can stay on coaching or just apply for a few more. There are endless possibilities for you, just stay positive" she smiles and rubs her thumb in circles over me knee as we pulled into her driveway

"That's easy for you to say, you've got a full ride to one of the best schools in the country and it's not just you, all my friends have got replies, got into the school they chose and I spent so much of my time worrying about A, worrying about Alison, worrying about everything apart from my future" I yell and tears rush down my face "my future lies in these 3 envelopes and I just don't know how to deal with the fact I might not get in" she pulls me in for a hug, she holds while I cry, minutes, hours, not too sure how long, I'm out of tears and I pull back. "Thanks, I'm sorry for snapping at you"

"Hey it's no problem. Look, let's go inside, you can Skype your parents and open the envelopes with them, then there's something I need to tell you" she looks away like she does when she's nervous

"What?"

"Just talk to your parents first, find out what's in those letters then we'll talk" she lets go of me then gets out of the car, I quickly grab my stuff then jump out. By the time I get inside she's already walking up to her room

"PAIGE" I yell after her, I walk in on her sitting on the bed, holding a piece of paper "you know that I can't talk to my parents with this hanging over me. Please just tell me what's going on, what's that?" I point to the paper that she folded up, she looked up at me with an unsure look on her face

"Ok, sit down" she stands and I sit in her spot