A/N: Once upon a time, I watched the series premiere of Pretty Little Liars. Around six or so months later, Emily Fields came out to her parents.
That's right: I have a new obsession, and its name is Emily Fields.
The weight that had been sitting on top of her had finally been lifted, but her lungs must have left with it. Or at least, that's how Emily Field's felt after she said "I'm gay" to her military father. Emily had said that word "I'm" many times before in her sixteen or so years. She had said that word "gay" before, too, but definitely not as many times in her life. But never in her sixteen or so years had Emily said, "I'm gay." At least, not out loud.
She had thought about it, contemplating the meaning behind the label and whether or not she truly fit into it. Yet still, she had never before, in her sixteen or so years, contemplated anywhere else other than her head.
So when Emily Fields said the words "I'm" and "gay" out loud, with the two words right next to each other, she felt the weight disappear and her lungs disappear right along with it. She uttered the two words, surprising even herself, and then had to repeat them just to make sure she had actually said them in the first place.
Her father, more shocked than ever, sat down on his daughter's bed and looked at her. And all Emily could do, in her sixteenth or so year, was look away.
Somehow (and Emily was still unsure how exactly), her lungs returned and, finally, she was able to breath. Her lungs returned, her mother refused to even look at her, and her parents wanted to meet her girlfriend. Or rather, her father wanted to because Mrs. Fields would be perfectly happy to have Maya sent off to some foreign country.
In her sixteen or so years, Emily had never dreaded something as much as she was dreading this dinner. Even with everything going on with "A" and Hanna almost dying via car, Emily was dreading eating dinner with her parents and her girlfriend.
It was obvious to Maya how unnerved Emily was. In an attempt to calm her down, Maya coaxed the other girl to let her come over after school (and before the "dreaded" dinner) so that they could talk and Maya could reassure her that everything was going to be okay.
Emily agreed, but only if her parents were both gone. Not to mention, she had a hard time resisting Maya, especially when the other girl smiled and spoke in her smooth, calming voice. When she pulled up to her house after school with Maya in the passenger seat, Emily was not at all surprised, but still relieved all the same, to find her family's only other car gone from the driveway.
"Wait here for a minute." Emily said, and Maya nodded in return.
With her backpack hanging loosely off of her shoulder, Emily unlocked the door to her house- a sure sign that no one was home, otherwise the door would have already been unlocked- and walked in, immediately setting her bag down with a loud thump.
"Dad, are you home?" Emily called out with the front door still ajar. She called out for her father once more, and waited a minute or two for a response. When no response was given, she turned around to face her car from the open doorway. Rather than going back outside, however, Emily simply leaned against the door frame and smiled, and waited for Maya to notice her.
It took her a moment, but Maya did notice Emily smiling from the doorway, and quickly got out of the car with her own bag strapped over her shoulder. As she walked up to the other girl, Maya made sure to slip her arms around Emily's waist and conveyed a smile of her own.
"Let's go into the living room," Emily said, biting down on her bottom lip and picking her backpack up.
Mr. Fields walked gingerly down the stairs. He had just woken up from a rather pleasant nap, and knew that his daughter must be home from school already. He didn't see her backpack on the ground as he passed the front door- something he remembered seeing a lot the last time he was home. However, judging by the sound, or really lack thereof, he simply assumed that his daughter was upstairs in her room doing homework. Mr. Fields smiled.
His smile faltered, though, when he heard the sound of a hushed voice coming from the living room. Was there someone else in his house? He strained his ears to listen.
It was a girl's voice.
He let out the breath that he had been holding in. The voice was, in fact, Emily's. She, Mr. Fields presumed, was talking on the phone with one of her friends like Aria or Spencer.
But then another girl's voice chimed in, and from what Mr. Fields could remember about his daughter's friends, it was most definitely not Aria or Spencer talking back.
Slowly, Mr. Fields walked towards the living room, lifting and placing his feet to and from the floor carefully so as to not make any noise. The hushed voices grew louder with each quiet step he took until he was standing behind a wall right next to the living room. His face remained stoic as he listened, and his time with the military allowed him to breathe freely without causing his air intake to become noticeable.
"I don't know, Maya..."
Mr. Fields perked his head up when he heard the name Maya. Other than the pictures that his wife had shown him, he had never officially seen what she, his daughter's supposed girlfriend, looked like. With one, quick movement, he turned his head to look into the living room. The two girls were standing with their backpacks laying haphazardly on the floor. Emily was looking down at the ground and had her arms crossed, her hair hanging over her face. Maya's hands were clasped together, hanging in front of her, as she looked at Emily with patient eyes. Mr. Fields swallowed hard.
"It's just...my mother won't even look at me." Emily whispered her words and brought her head back up. Her face was contorted in a way that expressed both utter sadness and complete uncertainty.
Mr. Fields' stoicism broke as he watched his daughter nearly break. He wouldn't have been surprised to see tears on her flushed cheeks, had he been close enough and not hiding behind a wall. Emily unfolded her arms and dropped them down to her side, but Maya took hold of them and brought the two closer so that their arms were in a tangle.
"It'll all be okay. Sooner or later, it will all be okay." Maya said in her smooth and calming voice that Emily could not resist.
The kiss was inevitable. Mr. Fields should have seen it coming. Yet despite all of that, he was still almost as shocked as he was when his daughter had breathed the words "I'm" and "gay" right next to each other. And all Mr. Fields could do, in his sixteenth or so year as a father, was look away.
A/N: I regret nothing. Other than the inevitable mistakes. I think there are some tense issues.