I've read so many great stories on here, and thought I'd give this a go myself. Hope you enjoy. Reviews are appreciated, tell me whatever you like or don't like :)

As she so often did, Emily found herself questioning whether she wanted to strangle Hanna or not. The blonde's eyes glinted mischieviously as she smiled widely at the guy in front of her who was already pulling his wallet out. She looked over at Emily who simply scoffed at her, a smile hiding in the corner of her mouth. The two guys had been eyeing them for a while and confidentily sought them out only a minute ago to dance. She had opened her mouth to reject the tall, raven-haired guy who eyed her up and down with appreciative eyes, but Hanna had cut her off before she could even begin.

"It's her birthday today!" Emily groaned and Hanna smiled wider.

"Your birthday?" She looked up at the guy again. To be fair, he was really cute. For a guy.

"Well in that case, drinks are on us, girls." He winked at her and Emily gave him a weak smile as they all headed to the bar. Hanna linked arms with her and once again cut her off before she could say anything.

"I know, I know. But its free drinks, Em!"

Emily rolled her eyes. "You're honestly the worst."

Hanna ignored her and dragged her along as she tried to catch up with the guys. The taller guy already had the bartender's attention. Emily doubted he had much trouble picking up girls, and she almost felt bad he was wasting his advances on her.

"What do you want?"

Deciding she wanted the drink enough and it was her birthday after all, Emily shrugged and gave him half a smile.

"I'll have a Jameson on the rocks."

The guy raised his eyebrows, clearly surprised by her choice, before he turned to the bartender again.

"Uh, that sounds good actually. We'll have two of those."

Emily snickered at this. From where she was standing she could see the bartender put a bottle of beer back in the fridge before he started preparing their drinks. Clearly, the guy had already ordered himself a beer but didn't want to order a weaker drink than her. She smiled innocently as he focused his attention back on her again.

"So what's your name, birthday girl?"

She bit her lip. "Emily."

"I'm Dylan."

The bartender handed the guy, Dylan, their drinks and he nodded in thanks. His friend was already nudging Hanna back towards the dancefloor.

"Uh, listen, I'm just gonna go to the bathroom. I'll be right back."

Carrying both of their drinks, Dylan followed Hanna and his friend back to the crowded floor while Emily stayed behind. She didn't actually need the bathroom, but she did need a break from dancing, and she definitely needed a moment to collect herself before she went back to that scene. She found an empty bar stool at the other end of the bar. They wouldn't be able to see her from where they were anyway, but she felt more secure on the opposite end of the dancefloor just in case. The bartender glanced at her briefly, but if he was confused, he didn't let it show. She sighed in frustration. Meeting someone would sure be a lot easier if Rosewood had at least one gay club. She was flattered by the attention, but didn't like being checked out by guys any more than she liked having to reject them. It was just tiring at this point.

For a lack of anything better to do, Emily fished her phone out of her pocket. There were Facebook notifications with what she assumed was birthday messages and a text from Aria.

"- Don't get so drunk you won't remember anything to tell me tomorrow ;)"

She scoffed. The way this night was going, she doubted she would have anything worth sharing at lunch tomorrow. When Hanna had insisted they go out for her birthday, Aria had hesitated and, when probed, admitted it would be her and Ezra's engagement anniversary the same day.

"It's not like it's our actual wedding anniversary, Ezra will understand."

Emily told her not to be ridiculous.

"Seriously, I don't mind. I'd get out of it too if I could."

"Hey!" The two brunettes both laughed as Hanna scowled at Emily.

"I wouldn't make a big deal, it's just that Ezra already made us dinner reservations.." Aria blushed, and Emily could only smile at her. She had officially been Aria Montgomery-Fitz for six months, and was happier than the girls had ever seen her. Hanna made sure to remind her not to forget about her "painfully single best friends" every chance she'd get, but jokes aside they were both incredibly happy on her behalf.

"We'll do lunch the day after." Emily winked at her and Aria nodded back gratefully.

Not bothering to scroll through the Facebook messages yet, Emily typed out a reply to Aria.

"- I'll forward your message to Hanna."

Looking up from her phone again, she noticed the bartender was stood right in front of her. She realized she probably shouldn't be occupying a seat without ordering. She hadn't even noticed someone had sat down next to her until she heard them speak.

"Two bourbon. Neat."

Her voice rang in an authorative tone, and Emily's head whipped sideways before she could help herself. She was met with wavy, blonde hair and for a second she thought Hanna had come back for her. On second glance, this girl's neatly waved curls were gold compared to Hanna's paler blonde and cascaded down her black leather jacket. Her credit card was pinned between two of her fingers as she rested her elbow on the bar counter. The bartender remained silent, but his mouth twitched into half a smile. It was the first time she'd seen him smile all night, but she didn't blame him. The girl was stunning.

It might be the slight buzz from the four drinks she'd already had or just unfiltered curiosity, because she didn't realize she was going to speak before she heard the words out of her mouth.

"Interesting choice."

The girl didn't look surprised as she faced her. She didn't show any change in expression at all.

Emily squirmed in her seat as she was met with round, blue eyes and heart-shaped lips. Her rich, red lipstick made her mouth impossible to look away from, and Emily bit down on her lip, cursing herself for her lack of tact. The blonde however didn't miss a beat.

"I'm not known to be predictable," she said.

She wasn't smiling, but her tone was light. Her eyes really were a striking shade of blue, and Emily could feel a blush fall onto her cheeks as she smiled awkwardly. This girl was intimidating. Her gaze still lingered on Emily, almost as if she was evaluating her. She couldn't think of anything to say in return and ducked her head shyly. Her hand mindlessly reached for a drinks menu and she pretended to study it, careful not to let her eyes shift back to the other girl.

"So how come you're sitting here alone?" The girl spoke again, to Emily's mild surprise. Feeling somehow more prepared this time, she studied the menu for a second longer before meeting the blonde's eyes once more. Her expression was gentler now, a hint of curiosity in her eyes.

"I'm not. Well, I am, but I'm here with my friend," she explained.

"I see." There was a definite smirk on the girl's face now.

"I'm not a huge fan of clubs, I tend to stick to bars. My friend insisted on going out for my birthday," Emily admitted.

"How dare she!" the blonde teased, her smirk even wider, and Emily rolled her eyes as she smiled.

"What, 30 seconds into our conversation and you're making fun of me already?" She tried to sound offended, but doubted it came across when she still couldn't stop smiling. Not that she would tell Hanna this after, but she was already enjoying herself more than she had all night.

"Made you smile, didn't I? Besides, you started the conversation."

"Yeah, and I' m regretting it already," Emily grinned back, trying not to make it too obvious just how much she didn't regret it.

"You question people's drinking habits a lot then?"

"Well, you see," Emily picked up the menu again and held it up demonstratively. "-I'm a bartender, so I have a general idea of people's orders." She felt a little triumphant from her come-back as the girl tilted her head curiosly.

"You're a bartender?" she questioned.

"You seem surprised."

Honestly, she enjoyed the tone of surprise. Her bartending job paid the bills for the time being, but she had promised herself to find something else and hopefully find her way out of Rosewood within the year. The blonde smiled almost apologetically.

"No, it's cool. I don't know what I was expecting."

Not wanting the girl to be embarrassed, she shrugged again. "I didn't want to say anything, you know, make a big deal and stuff, but I'm really an actress. I just flew back from Milan. I do a lot of foreign films to broaden my audience and make use of the seven languages I speak. The bartending job is mainly for the juicy stories and my assistant's holiday pay."

The girl giggled at this, and Emily congratulated herself. She has a cute laugh. Still giggling, the girl nodded, "I knew I recognized your face, I guess the American accent threw me off huh?"

Emily tucked her lip between her teeth to hide her grin, and when she looked up, she could've sworn the mischiveous glint in those blue eyes disappeared for a second as they darted down to her mouth. Then the blonde blinked and the second passed, and Emily wasn't sure she had seen anything at all. The sound of glasses clinking together broke the moment and the girl's drinks had suddenly appeared on the counter between them. The blonde tilted her head to find the bartender, Emily hadn't seen him either, but he was already engaged with another customer. Emily noted herself impressed. The blonde reached for her drinks, and it dawned on Emily that she had ordered two. Of course she's here with someone.

Swiftly looking down to hide her disappointment, she picked up her phone again, pretending to check the time. "I should probably get back to my friend, I told her I'd be right back."

The blonde nodded and got up from her seat and she did the same. They shared another smile as neither of them said anything, and Emily shrugged. "Well, it was nice talking to you."

Again, something changed in the other girl's eyes, but she couldn't decipher it.

"Yeah, it was," she said quietly.

Finding it somehow hard to look her in the eye now, Emily cleared her throat and put her phone away in her pocket. She was about to walk past her, but froze as the girl took a step towards her and then soft lips were pressed against her cheek. Her face heated instantly in a blush, which only magnified when she felt her breath on her ear.

"Happy birthday."

Then she pulled back and walked away.

As if she'd been burned, Emily touched her hand to her cheek. It had happened so fast, but the warmth in her face was evidence enough. Before she walked away, she spotted the bartender looking at her, a smug smile on his face. She gave him a somewhat embarrassed smile in return and proceeded to push her way through the crowd, back to the dancefloor.

She could use that drink right about now.

Let me know if you want this continued. Hope you're all having a great day!