I know I haven't updated or written anything in a long time, but since the show just ended, I wanted to return and have a fresh start with a new story. I'm not sure if or when I'll revisit old stories (could be soon, could be never), but I wanted to start a new story. This story goes all the way back to somewhere in 5A after 5x06. Why? Well, because 5A Emison was some of my favorite Emison. They had so much potential back then. Of course I'm happy with how things ended up for them on the show, but they took WAY too long to make it happen. And they wasted all the build up that happened in 5A and ignored it! Anyways, I really enjoyed the Paige/Em/Ali dynamic of that time, so I wanted to revisit it.
"It's a gut-wrenching feeling—she realizes they're Emily and Alison, and they always will be and always have been so obsessed with each other... each other's drug. And no matter who or what came between them, they'd never stop being addicted to each other."
1
Paige was stiff-faced as she walked into swim practice that day. She always felt a knot in her stomach when she came to practice these days because seeing Emily after their break up was a lot harder than she expected. For one, there was an everlasting aura of a blonde-haired former Queen Bee revived and stronger than ever since her return to Rosewood High School. And unfortunately, that aura tagged right on to Emily because, in Paige's eyes, she just couldn't seem to stop being manipulated by the blonde beauty.
"Hey, Paige."
The words were friendly and warm and came from Emily's mouth. She was unzipping her swim bag and pulling her swimsuit and swim cap out. When she didn't get a response, she shifted her eyes up to Paige. She looked back down again and continued getting her things out. But then her attention shifted to her phone when it made a faint pinging sound, and Paige wondered if this was A or some other villain that was torturing Emily. She wanted to help because she was, of course, always worried about Emily and her safety. But she couldn't bring herself to ask because she felt like she would be overstepping since they weren't exactly anything anymore.
She grew more curious because Emily's eyes really were fixed on the text message. She fidgeted with the straps of her swim bag, then shoved her stuff back inside of the bag as if she were going to leave. Paige furrowed her eyebrows; it really did look like she was leaving.
"Hey..." She turned towards Paige, but was unable to meet eyes with her. "Can you please let Coach know that something unexpected came up? I have to go."
Before Paige could even respond, Emily began darting off, but Paige bent her arm out and hit her palm against the locker to block her from leaving. She raised her eyebrows, tilting her head to the side, and gave Emily an extremely interrogative look.
"Where are you going?" she demanded. "I'll cover for you, but you've got to tell me where you're going."
By the nervous expression on Emily's face, there was no way in hell that she was going to spill where she was headed.
"I can't do that," she breathed, shaking her head. "Never mind, then. I'll cover for myself."
She pushed past Paige's arm and walked out the doors of the locker room. Frustrated, Paige followed her. She followed her because she didn't like that Emily was being so secretive, even though they were broken up. She didn't like being left out of her life and kept in the dark.
Emily stepped into an empty classroom. Paige furrowed her eyebrows, ducking down by the door and peering in through a small slit in the door's window that wasn't covered. And surprisingly yet unsurprisingly, Emily was meeting up with none other than Alison DiLaurentis. She couldn't hear what they were talking about, but it sure looked secretive. They were leaning in close, whispering things. It felt just like old times, and Paige hated that. She got the same knot in her stomach that she got all those years ago before Alison first disappeared. It was like Alison was still running the school, and it was awful. It was awful that the kids at school had given her this kind of control and power over them yet again.
"Is there any chance that he—Cyrus—was the one who attacked you at your place?"
"I don't know, Em... I really don't know."
"You said you wanted to talk. So talk."
"Look, I really just wanted to apologize to you about what happened with Mona—"
"Don't. I'm not sure if your apology really means anything anymore, Ali. I don't know if I can trust you anymore... how to trust you."
"I know I made a mistake, but I was afraid, okay? You have to understand."
"Can we not talk about this right now? I have swim practice and I'm gonna be late if I don't hurry up."
"Can I meet up with you after practice, then?"
She nodded her head.
Paige didn't hear what they were talking about, but she could see that Emily was heading towards the door. Quickly, she ran into the next empty classroom and hid inside until Emily was long gone, and probably had entered the locker room. Once it was all clear, she went back to the locker room herself.
After practice, the team headed back to the locker room to change again. Emily sighed, pulling her swim cap off, unleashing her long, wet hair. She pushed it back behind her shoulders, then picked up her normal clothes. She wrapped a towel around herself and skillfully changed underneath it. But the odd thing that Paige noticed was that she didn't leave after she was done changing— she sat down on the bench and just waited inside of the locker room.
Paige didn't question her aloud. She realized that it was pointless— Emily just wasn't willing to answer any of her questions, especially when they were relating to her friends. Especially Alison. Once she was done changing, she left the locker room.
Emily waited for a while until all her other teammates had left as well. Then, she speedily typed a message to Alison to tell her to meet up with her in the locker room. Soon enough, the blonde arrived, still dressed in her little floral dress. She smiled weakly at Emily before approaching her at her locker.
"Hey."
"Hi," Emily huffed quietly. "Did you wait at school this whole time?"
She shrugged her shoulders. "I just went to the library."
"Can I even trust that? Or were you off meeting up with someone else?"
"Em," she said, tilting her head to the side. "You can trust me, I swear. Look, I know I made a mistake lying to you about what really happened with Mona—"
"It seems like ever since you got back, it's just been one lie after another! And I thought we were done with the secrets and the lies, Ali. I thought we were finally all going to trust each other. That's the only way we'll ever get through any of this!"
"I know, and I'm sorry..."
"Are you? Because it really doesn't seem that way."
"What happened to you? I thought you forgave me. Just yesterday, you were saving me and being nice to me."
"Well, I wasn't gonna let that person hurt you, even if I was mad at you."
"Did you talk to Hanna or something? Did she convince you that I'm just too toxic for this group?"
"Hanna didn't say a thing."
Meanwhile, Paige didn't really leave school after changing back into her clothes. She hid out again, waiting to see why Emily was waiting so long after practice. She rolled her eyes when she saw Alison going inside of the locker room. It was unsurprising now. After waiting a while to be safe, she quietly stepped back inside of the locker room, but hid behind the open door so they wouldn't see her. This time, it was a lot easier to hear what they were talking about since she was actually inside of the same room as them.
"Em, I may have told you a couple of lies since I got back, but you have to know that the one thing that I didn't lie about was my feelings for you. Everything I told you that night was true. And what we did that night— that was real, I swear."
Paige had to fight the urge to audibly gasp. Her worst nightmare was coming true: Emily and Alison didn't just have a secretive little friendship, there really was something going on between them. She had tried so hard in her mind to deny that possibility, to pretend like it was impossible, to believe that Emily was strong enough to not cave into Alison's manipulative ways after she broke her heart the first time all those years ago, but it happened.
"Ali..." she breathed. "You see the problem? I just can't tell if you're being sincere—"
"I am. And there's no point in me lying to you about this," Alison said.
"Maybe you just want somebody to be on your side, and you knew that I couldn't turn you down when you look at me like that," she swallowed hard.
She hit her back against the locker, sighing.
"How can I prove to you that I'm not lying to you about this?" Alison asked, her eyes looking pleading and desperate. "Em, if there's one thing I need you to believe me about, it's this. I need you to believe me when I tell you that you mean something to me, and everything that's happened between us so far meant something to me. And it still does now."
Paige shifted her head so she could get a better look at them. She could see it in the expression on Emily's face that she was melting when she looked at the blonde. She was giving in— her chocolate eyes were melting. Her eyes were swallowing the blonde; she looked like she needed her to come closer. And Paige was fearful of what was going to happen next.
The strongest woman she knew had one damn big weakness: Alison DiLaurentis.
Her worst fears kept coming true.
When Paige looked up again, Emily's lips were pressed against Alison's. In fact, she had come from where she was standing and pushed Alison against the blue lockers, pinning Alison's wrists up above her head while she aggressively did work on her lips. She was practically devouring the girl. And Alison was kissing her back; her stomach was moving up and down rapidly.
Emily started kissing her neck, sucking on the skin roughly. Paige's jaw could've fallen off right at that moment, because she had never known that Emily was capable of being so aggressive. It seemed that Emily wasn't even the slightest bit concerned that she would leave a very visible mark on the girl's neck. Alison's eyes were shut and she was practically panting. She was clearly into this.
"Em," she let out a sultry moan.
Paige was never expecting to hear Alison DiLaurentis moaning because of Emily Fields.
And Paige didn't doubt that she loved the way it felt. There was no way she could fake that kind of enjoyment. However, she still believed that Alison had bad intentions when it came to why she was doing this. She still believed that she was just letting Emily do this because she needed her support, since Emily had always had a soft spot for her and was unable to stop supporting her.
Finally, Emily backed off, letting go of Alison's wrists, letting her arms fall back to her sides. Alison's eyes remained shut and her back remained pressed against the locker. She panted heavily. Emily backed up against the locker across from her, shutting her eyes and panting as well.
"We shouldn't do this..." Emily swallowed hard with her eyes still shut. "Not here, not like this."
Alison didn't answer. Her eyes started to open.
Emily opened her eyes as well. She stared down at the floor.
"Can I take you home?" she asked.
It didn't seem like she meant anything by it, but maybe that was just Paige trying to deny reality. Alison nodded her head. Paige wedged herself further behind the door, worried that they would see her as they exited the locker room. And it wasn't that hard to see her since she wasn't hiding that well, but those two were clearly in a different world right now, so they didn't notice her at all.
And so they went off. Paige chose to believe that Emily simply drove Alison back to her house and they parted ways from there.
She wasn't oblivious. She was just in denial.