[POST TIME JUMP]
CHAPTER 1
Everything horrible was in Rosewood. The pain of her high school years, the death of her father, the constant drama. For one moment, just one, she wanted to be at peace. She was constantly finding another problem to handle, and everything began to pile up and become stressful. After being blackmailed and tortured for the last two years of high school, having no luck in finding a job, and watching her father lay lifelessly in a casket, there was nothing really compelling about staying in Rosewood. Things were always going to be dramatic in Rosewood. That's the way it was. People thought she could get through it, though. She was Emily Fields, and she proved herself to not be the weakest link. But that made her feel like she could never show her weakness again, or it would go back to that time where everybody walked all over her because she was so weak. She didn't want that.
And then there was Alison DiLaurentis. Who knew finding success in life would still bring on so much stress? She wasn't planning on a college experience right after high school, so she wasn't planning on success. She decided to move out to California to live with Jason while she figured her life out. After the A drama, Jason was more than happy to spare his extra room to his sister. But she went out one day, walking through the streets of Los Angeles when a woman came up to her and literally raved to her about how pretty she was. And this woman just happened to be a modeling agent. She seriously hooked Alison up with a successful lifestyle. By 21 years old, the blonde goddess was living the rich life. She was practically bathing in cash after appearing in countless magazines over the first two years of her modeling career. It changed her life. Literally.
But she flew back to Rosewood as soon as she heard about the death of Wayne Fields. He had a heart attack and collapsed. The doctors said they did everything they could, but it just wasn't enough to save him. Emily was still in Rosewood. She went to college at Danby University. Alison decided to relocate herself to Rosewood, at least for a little while, to support Emily.
Emily was a stressed out 23 year old woman who had recently graduated from Danby University, had no clue how to find a job, just lost her father, and was still living in a town that haunted her. Her life needed a lot of fixing before she could be happy.
It was the night of their very close friend's wedding: Spencer Hastings. She was marrying her longtime boyfriend and high school sweetheart, Toby Cavanaugh. The two had just gotten married, and now all of their friends were attending the reception. The reception was where the real party began!
"Oh, Spencer," Emily nearly was sobbing when she saw her beautiful brunette best friend enter the reception alongside her new husband. "This is... amazing... everything about it... congratulations. I love you both so much."
Spencer smiled back at her, pulling her in for a long hug.
"Aww," she excitedly spoke, "thank you so much, Em. We're so happy. This is probably the best day of my life. This IS the best day of my life," she said, glancing over at Toby, who had a grin bigger than the sun smacked on his face.
"Where's the honeymoon?" Emily questioned, smirking curiously.
"We picked Hawaii," Toby responded. "Maybe it's cliché, maybe it's not. But it's where we wanted to go. Tell her what you love about it, Mrs. Cavanaugh."
"Shut, up," Spencer giggled, leaning in to peck his lips chastely before wrapping her arms around her husband. "Everything about it, really. We can go tanning in the sun, swimming in the ocean, swimming in the pool, eat exotic food—"
"Sex on the beach," Toby joked, winking at her.
"Sex in the hotel," Emily added, laughing.
"Sex in the pool," Toby added, laughing as well. "Sex everywhere, really."
"Ha-ha," Spencer sarcastically said. "Keep this up, and there won't be any sex at all. We'll spend our honeymoon sightseeing. Don't test me, honey. You KNOW I'll make it happen."
"Sightseeing, damn it, Spence," Toby cursed. "You know I hate sightseeing..."
"That's why I married you. So I could use it against you," Spencer joked, playfully shoving him. "Em, Hawaii is our chance to run away from all our problems. While I'm off having the time of my life in Hawaii, the last thing on my mind is going to be my job, or my money, taxes, whatever other crap there is in my life... it's going to be me, the person I love, and a whole lot of fun."
"Escape your problems, huh?" Emily said, raising her eyebrows curiously.
The idea appealed to her more than she wanted it to. It was very, very considerable. She had problems. She wanted to escape them. She loved a lot of people. Why not take one of those people she loved and jet off to a fun place away from home, and forget about every problem she ever had. She knew it was silly, and probably would never happen. Silly Emily...
"Well, I hope this newlywed honeymoon phase lasts for as long as possible," Emily told them, smiling. "I bet you need to go have your first night as a married couple sex now, hmm?"
"Maybe after the party," Toby laughed. "I'd love to talk to more of our friends. How about it, Spence?"
"A million yeses, husband," Spencer playfully said, leaning in to kiss him.
This time the kiss wasn't so chaste. Emily decided to flee before she witnessed a full on make out, or even worse... their wedding sex. They'd probably get so into the moment that they'd forget she was even there, and just screw each other right in front of her. Emily chuckled to herself while she continued walking towards the drink table. Not paying attention, she accidentally bumped shoulders with somebody...
"Ali," she said softly. "Hey."
"Hello, Emily," she greeted politely, swallowing hard. "Isn't this weird?"
"Hmm?" Emily asked, furrowing her eyebrows.
"Six years ago, Spencer Hastings spat at Toby's name. Now look at this. She's marrying the guy," Alison laughed. "It's funny how people work. Once they fall in love, they can never stop."
Her eyes gazed up Emily, until they locked with her chocolatey eyes.
"Oh," Emily mumbled, "I know."
"You okay?" Alison asked, furrowing her eyebrows.
"It's weird to think about how much you and I have been through," Emily told her, staring back down at the floor. "I mean, what we've all been through together..."
"Yeah," Alison agreed. "Is something wrong, Em?"
"I don't know," Emily responded. "Maybe, maybe not. I just heard Spencer talk about her honeymoon. She's escaping her problems and running away to Hawaii with Toby for the honeymoon. Nothing but fun for the entire trip. It sounds perfect. I need a lifetime of that."
"That's temporary, though. They'll go away, have their fun, and then come back to all their problems," Alison reminded.
"But I want an escape, too. Any chance you want to run away to some other far away place with me?" Emily joked, chuckling bitterly.
"I would love to," Alison responded, shocking her greatly.
"What?" Emily asked, confused. "Ali, I was kidding. We can't run away together. You know that, right?"
"Why not?" Alison asked. "What's stopping us? You've got problems, I've got problems. I'm surrounded by people I love everywhere I go, but I still feel like I need an escape. Wouldn't running away give us that? I have the money. I've worked hard since I got my modeling job."
"Ali..." Emily mumbled. "You've got to be kidding me."
"But I'm not," Alison responded. "Let's run away and forget the problems we have, Em. There's nothing holding us back. Let's drop our phones, pack our things, and take a flight to... Paris. Let's take a flight to Paris and maybe we'll never come back."
"You must be joking," Emily said. "I mean, I want to, but..."
"But what, Emily?" Alison asked. "But nothing! There's literally nothing keeping us here. If nobody can reach us, we're off the grid. We always dreamed of Paris together, didn't we?"
"We did," Emily mumbled. "Little you in sweet Pari..."
"And you," Alison added. "You and me in sweet Pari, Emily Fields. That's the way it was. I feel spontaneous. I feel like this is what I need. And I know you feel it, too. So, what do you say we do just that? We run away to Paris."
Emily laughed. She smiled. She felt like crying, but in the best way. Her whole body felt at ease. Her mind was imagining the best situations. They could dance through sunflower fields, lounge in their bikinis in the French Riviera, and they'd BOTH look so good on top of the Eiffel Tower. 'You and me in sweet Pari'. That's what she said, wasn't it?
"Then it's you and me in sweet Pari," Emily said, nodding her head with a bright smile on her face. "We're going to Paris, Alison. We really are."
The grin on Alison's face was nearly as big as Toby's after he had just married Spencer. That said something, didn't it? She really wanted this trip. Emily's instincts pushed her to practically grab Alison and hug her so tight. Her sweet blonde hair was pushed against Emily's nostrils, and she could smell that luscious vanilla scented shampoo that she loved so much. This was for real. This was the real deal. 'You and me in sweet Pari'.