"So the two of you are really going to go?" Emily sighed into the phone and pushed her bangs out of her eyes, trying to find a clip to keep them back in her ponytail.
"Yes, Han. Why wouldn't we? We've been talking about it for months now." Ah, there was a clip. She shut her drawer and stood up so that she could see the mirror propped on her shelf over her desk, cradling the phone between her shoulder and her ear.
Something thudded on Hanna's end of the line and then she spoke. "I don't know, it all just seems a little…" she trailed off, trying to find the word. "Impromptu. It all just seems a little impromptu for Emily Fields."
Emily grinned, moving away from her desk and sliding the chair underneath it so that her roommate wouldn't complain when she came back to the room after her run. "Nice word," she commented, tossing the phone onto her lofted bed and pulling herself up next to it and picking it back up quickly, just missing the beginning of what Hanna was saying. It was the wrong word, but still.
" - you. I've been working on my vocab to impress this hottie next to me in Intro Lit. It's just too bad classes are done with tomorrow." Emily could hear something that sounded suspiciously like Hanna filing her nails but she just tried to ignore the sound, squirming a little as the phone was obviously put on speaker and placed down.
"Well, I'm definitely glad my classes have been over with."
"Yeah, lucky you, getting out and having your exams over with before I even have my last class," Hanna grumbled, clicking the phone off of speaker once more. "So, when are the two of you leaving?"
"Um, well, I'm heading back home Saturday, and Paige gets back Sunday, and we're going to give ourselves a few days with our families and then we'll leave next Saturday." Emily turned on her bed and pulled down her cork board, trying to pick up on where she had been when Hanna had called. She carefully unstuck the pictures that were on there and smiled fondly at each one: her and Hanna in their senior year on Hanna's bed, hamming it up for the camera; a mall kiosk strip of Hanna, Aria, Spencer, and Emily taken their junior year; a single picture each of Aria and Spencer taken by Emily; and finally, several pictures of Paige and Emily. Emily traced over one of them; she had been missing Paige more and more each day. They hadn't seen each other in person in two months, but they Skyped weekly and called each other every night and texted throughout the day, so the distance didn't feel quite so bad.
"How long will you guys be gone?" Hanna's voice cut through Emily's thoughts and she blinked, tucking the photos together and sliding them under the frame of the cork board before lowering it over the side of her bed onto the desk.
"I'm not sure, really. A month?"
After months of planning and compromising, their little, impossible dream of going on a road trip between freshman and sophomore years of college wasn't so little or impossible anymore. Emily and Paige were going to leave Rosewood in a matter of days in Paige's SUV and spend the next few weeks traversing America with the money they had painstakingly saved up over the past few months from the jobs they both worked at off-campus (Emily was a waitress and Paige worked as a stocker in a bookstore) to get to California. Both of them had wanted to visit there ever since they were little and, on a whim last summer, had decided to do it this summer. Neither had really thought that they would do it until Paige brought it up during a Skype session just before winter break and they spent their break drawing up plans.
Now they were going to drive nearly three thousand miles and stop along the way in various states to take in the sights before reaching their destination of the California shoreline. Hanna, Spencer, and Aria had been a little doubtful at first, but ultimately it wasn't up to them. "Em, that sounds like a long time."
"Han, it'll fly by. Seriously. Aria will be with Mr. Fitz, Spencer will be taking all of those classes at Hollis and she'll be with Toby, and you'll be working. You guys won't even have time to miss me." There was a long pause and Emily could hear the pout in Hanna's voice when she spoke again.
"Of course we will, Em." The four girls had been fairly separated since the college year had started, scattered across half the country. Spencer had graduated at the top of her class and gone on to study at Dartmouth in New Hampshire. Aria stayed in Rosewood to be near Ezra, attending Hollis College and sharing his apartment. Hanna was the wildcard, the one that no one really knew where she would end up. She hadn't even told them where she had applied, so when she strolled into Spencer's bedroom one day and announced that she was going to Hofstra University on Long Island, New York, the other girls were understandably stunned. Emily herself was at Indiana State on a swimming scholarship; she had chosen it because it was ranked one of the best Division I schools in the country. Paige had been recruited to a different school, a Division II one, in Michigan.
Emily pinched the bridge of her nose. "You know we'll have the rest of the summer to be around each other, Hanna. I mean, we'll have to pry Aria away from Mr. Fitz and Spencer away from her books and Toby at some point, won't we?"
Hanna was silent for a moment. "And how am I supposed to pry you away from Paige?"
Emily's eyes grew wide in realization and then she smiled to herself, pressing the phone closer to her ear. "Hanna, is that what this is really about?"
"No!"
"Hanna, you do know that we're always here for you even if we do have boyfriends and girlfriends and school and stuff, right? It's the four of us, you know that. Any of us would drop what we were doing for you if we had to." Hanna was silent again and so Emily continued, moving about her room and taking things down and packing for the next hour or so until Hanna was laughing and back to sounding like her old self.
When the two of them hung up, Emily slowly slid the unlock key on her phone and scrolled her icons over so that she could see her background: a picture of Paige that she had taken when she had first visited her at Grand Valley State. Paige was totally working it for the camera, pointing to her GVS sweatshirt and making the most ridiculous face she could. After a moment of thought, Emily tapped the message icon.
Emily: I miss you.
It took a few minutes, but the reply came back with a ping.
Paige: If you missed me so much you'd send me something dirty.
Emily rolled her eyes. Classic Paige. But that was why she loved her, she thought, as she decided to forgo texting altogether and dialed Paige's number.
"Something dirty? Really?"
—
Emily's knee was bouncing up and down and she couldn't help herself. Every single time she saw Paige again for the first time in a while she was nervous like it was the very first time all over again. Paige assured her that she felt the same way, but Emily was sure that was just to make her feel better since she always seemed fine and was as steady as a rock.
The doorbell rang and Emily's head whipped around, and she practically leapt off of the couch. When Ashley began to walk down the hall, calling "I'll get it!" Emily all but body checked her into the far wall in order to get to the door.
"Sorry, Mrs. Marin! I'll get it!" she called over her shoulder, her nerves getting the better of her normal politeness. When she finally reached the front door she paused, giving herself a second to calm down and take a breath. Then she opened the door and grinned at Paige's back. It took Paige a second to realize the door had opened and then she turned and smiled crookedly at Emily and Emily let out a little scream and jumped onto Paige and somehow Paige held her up and kept the two of them from falling right off the porch.
Emily's arms were tight around Paige's neck and her face was buried in Paige's long dark hair (which she loved so much more than her short red hair), and Paige had one arm around her waist and one underneath her, trying not to drop her. "Um, Em?" she finally said, and Emily blushed, dropping both herself and her gaze to the porch.
Looking up shyly through her eyelashes, Emily bit her lip. "I missed you a lot. Like, a whole lot."
Paige didn't even bother to respond verbally and just leaned in to kiss her, something Emily was incredibly thankful for. Her arms found their way around Paige's neck again, this time loosely, and Paige's hands cupped her face as they properly greeted each other.
"I hate to interrupt this whole love-fest, but I kind of need to get inside my house, so, like, can you guys go make out inside?"
Busted by Hanna.
—
"Now, are you sure that you have everything? Enough money? Enough clothes? Enough gas? You'll be safe, right? No seedy motels? No picking up hitchhikers? No talking to strangers who look like they could murder you? You'll try to call us every other day to check in? If you get into trouble you'll call right away? Oh, and no sex in public places? Or at least not where people will see you and where you'll get ticketed? Or arrested?"
"Mom! Oh my God!"
"Mrs. McCullers, yes to all of the above, I promise."
—
Emily slipped on her sunglasses and took out her iPhone, scrolling through her music before selecting a playlist and hooking it up to the car stereo. As soon as it was synced Ocean Avenue by Yellowcard began to play and Paige grinned. "You made us a summer playlist?"
"Yep." Emily then opened the glovebox and pulled out the massive map that they had stored in there, opening it partially. They had a GPS, too, but she liked the idea of an old fashioned map to help them in their trek across the country. "So, we're going straight from Pennsylvania to Ohio, but I'm not sure there's really much to see there, so maybe we can skip the sightseeing there? From there down to West Virginia, where we can do all of those lame history tours that you like."
"Hey! They are not lame!" Paige took her eyes off the (empty at five in the morning) road for a second to shoot a look at Emily. "They're very interesting, okay?"
Emily reached over to pat Paige's arm. "You're a nerd and I love you for it. Stop denying it. I've caught you watching the History Channel more than once. Anyhow, from West Virginia to Kentucky, Tennessee, maybe Alabama and Missouri and all of those places, and Louisiana, and then Texas, and Arizona because I want to see the Grand Canyon, and then California, baby! We can hit the upper part of the states on our way back. How does that sound?"
Paige glanced over again and smiled. "It sounds great, Em." Emily was busy poring over the map, her bottom lip tucked between her teeth and her pointer finger tracing their route, and Paige had the sudden urge to kiss her, but considering the fact she was about to merge onto the highway that probably wasn't the best of ideas.
—
Emily was going to die of boredom. She was just going to drop dead right there and they were never going to make it to California because she was so bored and she couldn't remember a time where she wasn't bored. She leaned over to Paige and whispered, "We are never having sex again." The older lady next to them gave her a scandalized look and Emily blushed, shifting away from Paige a little and trying her hardest to look like she was interested in this Civil War stuff.
Paige had found a pamphlet for the Civil War DIscovery Trail and the second Emily looked over it she had been struck with the fear that it was going to be one of the most tedious things she'd ever had to sit through. She was right so far.
"And so, in 1864, Ulysses S. Grant was promoted to Lieutenant General, a rank previously held by General George Washington, and led the 533,000 men of the Union Army, the largest in the world. Three years later, he was made President of the United States," the man in the front of the group droned, and Paige nodded, completely enraptured. Emily groaned and buried her face in her hands. The woman next to her sniffed, apparently not happy with her behavior, and Emily very nearly snapped at her, because really, who took this tour for the fun of it?
"On May 13, 1865, a month after Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Private John J. Williams of the 34th Indiana became the last man killed in the Civil War, in a battle at Palmito Ranch, Texas. The final skirmish was a Confederate victory."
"Totally knew that," Paige said proudly.
Oh, right. Her girlfriend.
—
"Paige, I swear to God, if you make me go visit a "Mystery Hole," I am breaking up with you and driving back home right now."
"Fine. But it would have been cool."
"Get in the car."
—
Emily wasn't ready for how pretty some of the scenery in Kentucky could be. It was a nice change of pace after the seemingly endless stretch of highway she had just driven, she thought, as she got out of the car and stretched. Paige had fallen asleep somewhere around Bluefield, West Virginia, and they were in Bowling Green, Kentucky now. She wasn't quite sure where that was, only that she had passed the sign and decided that they both needed a rest. There wasn't a whole lot to do in Kentucky, either, but she thought that maybe they could visit Churchill Downs, the place where the Kentucky Derby was held.
She had stopped at one of the nicer looking motels, figuring that was one of their better bets, and leaned back into the car. "Hey, Paige. Paige." Paige moved a little and then finally opened her eyes, glaring at Emily.
"The car better be on fire."
"I thought maybe you'd rather sleep in a bed than in the car."
She straightened up then, looking around, and brought a hand up to her hair, smoothing it down absentmindedly. "Where are we?"
Emily touched the GPS, waiting a few seconds for it to load, and then shrugged her shoulders. "Bowling Green, Kentucky. Oh, wait…crap." Somehow Emily had managed to cross more than half the state without realizing it. Maybe that was why the highway had seemed so endless. She had gotten fed up with the GPS and had turned it off, preferring the silence over the automated voice.
"Emily, you drove, like, six hours straight!"
"In my defense, I totally zoned out for five hours!"
"Em!" Paige didn't look mad, she just looked tired and a little surprised that they were so far so early on.
Emily frowned suddenly and punched something into the GPS. "Crap," she muttered. Louisville was across the state, a good two hours away, and that's where Churchill Downs was. "Paige, I was thinking, I wanted to visit where they hold the Kentucky Derby."
Paige brightened. "That'd be so cool! I wonder if they'd let us take a bunch of pictures. My dad woud be jealous."
"It's two hours away from here."
Paige shrugged her shoulders, climbing out of the car. "It's a road trip, Em. We're going to do a lot of driving, aren't we?"
Emily bit her lip and backed out of the car, closing the door. "Yeah, but then we'd have to double back through the state to go through Tennessee and it seems like a lot of unnecessary driving."
Paige met her at the back of the car and put an arm around her shoulders. "Em. When are you ever going to get this chance again? A few extra hours won't kill us. It'll all be fine, alright?" She kissed Emily's temple and Emily smiled at her, kissing her lips.
"Alright, alright, you're right."
—
Their motel room was scary. Like, there-might-be-a-body-under-the-bed scary. Everything looked like it was at least twenty years old and all of it was either dusty, moldy, or just plain dirty. Emily and Paige stood in the doorway, looking horrified.
Emily broke first. "We paid for this? I want a refund!"
Paige inched towards the bed, poking it with a finger and then recoiling in horror. "Oh my God, that is the grossest thing I have ever seen in my life! Emily, Emily, I think there's blood on the bed!"
"Well, we can't have stay here!"
There was a long, long silence, and finally Paige sighed, rubbing her temples. "Jesus Christ."
They slept in the car for another night.
—
Tennessee was going to be one of their longer stays. They found a nice hotel that they could actually sleep in and not fear for their lives and planned out all of the places that they were going to see. On their list was the Orpheum Theater, Graceland, the Country Music Hall of Fame (like Paige would let them leave without seeing that), the Pink Palace Museum, and the Memphis Zoo. They had tacked on the last one when Paige learned that Emily had never been to a proper zoo and decided that the situation needed to be remedied.
The Orpheum Theater was gorgeous. The girls had never really had too much of an interest in it before, but everyone said that it was a must-see while they were there, so they decided why not? After seeing a list of who had performed there and hearing the tale of the ghost who supposedly haunted the theater the girls had to admit, it was a pretty cool place.
Graceland was the next stop, and even just looking at the house made the both of them feel a sense of awe. "Elvis lived here," Paige said, hitting Emily's hand. The girls had been careful with their PDA since arriving in the southern states after overhearing a drunken man rambling about how "the goddamn gays were ruining the country" and how "they all should be shipped off somewhere," not to mention some other choice words. It was the south, they reasoned, they should have expected that.
"Come on, let's go in, I bet one of the tours is about to start. It's almost one."
Somehow, some way, the tour guide managed to make talking about the King of Rock and Roll sound boring. Even Paige was shifting uncomfortably, looking at all of the memorabilia surrounding them instead of paying attention to him. Emily was staring down at her phone, surreptitiously playing Temple Run after staring at the same guitar for ten minutes straight. How someone made Elvis sound as exciting as a paper bag was beyond her. Paige leaned over, finally, and whispered in her ear. "He sort of looks like what I imagine Mr. Fitz to look like in forty years." Emily did a double take.
"I totally see it," she whispered back, and the two girls giggled. Several people nearby turned around in annoyance and it only spurred them on. They couldn't even try to hide it, and it caught the attention of the tour guide.
They could add getting kicked out of Graceland to their list of things accomplished on the road trip.
Paige pretty much died and went to heaven when they visited the Country Music Hall of Fame, and even Emily had to admit that it was a fun visit. Their tour guide made it interesting and she was actually funny and captivating, unlike their previous guides. In fact, she was a little too captivating, Emily found, when she went to the bathroom and came back and Paige was trying to edge away from her as she clearly flirted.
They got kicked out of there, too.
They skipped over the museum after all and went straight to the zoo. Emily said that they could skip that, too, and go to Alabama, but Paige was adamant that she visit a real zoo, saying that she was deprived as a kid and that everyone had to visit one in their lifetime.
"Paige, oh my God, look at the baby giraffe!"
"The gorillas! Paige, the gorillas!"
"Paige, the zebras are so cool!"
"I wish I could be a polar bear. That would be fun."
Paige just smirked whenever Emily spoke, her silence saying "I told you so" for her.
—
"It's a giant chair."
"Alabama has weird things."
"Between this chair and the face in the window I'm pretty sure this is the weirdest state ever."
"Don't forget the death car."
"Don't talk about that. That was just creepy."
—
Emily snorted as she scanned her phone. "There's a museum of hair in Missouri. Also a museum dedicated to the Titanic."
Paige glanced over at her then merged into the fast lane, purposely missing the exit to Missouri. "I think we're skipping that, thank you very much."
—
Their car broke down in Louisiana and they were stranded in New Orleans, which was completely fine by them. Everything they wanted to see was there, so while their car was being fixed they took advantage of all the things that the city had to offer.
Surprisingly, it was Emily who insisted that they go on a swamp tour, and it was Paige who resisted, saying that an alligator was going to crawl right out of the water and eat the both of them and that their parents were going to kill them if that happened. Emily won the fight by using the Civil War Discovery Trail card, and a few hours later they were speeding along on a boat, being told all about the Louisiana bayous.
"A lot of alligators, crawfish, and catfish live in these waters, which are the ideal home for them. They're all considered bayou foods around here, too."
Paige's eyes lit up and she turned to face Emily, who put a hand up before she could say anything. "Paige, no. We are not trying alligator."
They tried alligator. They hated alligator.
They visited Bourbon Street and the French Quarter, took a ghost tour, and went on a mule drawn carriage ride. They learned about voodoo and visited some of the local cemeteries, and finally their car was fixed and it was time to move on. Louisiana was definitely one of their favorite states to visit.
—
"I don't know, Paige, maybe you should just shut up!"
"Just get off my back, Emily, and let me drive!"
"You can be such an insensitive ass and you know it!"
"And you can be such a bitch!"
Things between them had been fine up until now, but so much time alone together in such a tiny space was bound to cause irritation at some point. It was such a tiny thing - Emily had gotten them slightly lost again as they entered Texas - but now they were fighting like they never had before. Paige and Emily didn't fight. It was one of those things that just never happened between them, much to the envy of their friends. But now? Now it was like a brawl.
"You know what Paige? Maybe you should just pull over."
"Fine!"
The SUV came to a stop on the side of the small road that they had been travelling on and Emily flung open the door, stalking down the road a ways and unlocking her phone, putting it to her ear. Paige stayed in the car, her anger dissipating with every passing minute. That was how she worked: she got angry quickly and was sorry even quicker. Emily, on the other hand, could hold a grudge.
"Spencer?"
"Emily? Hey! How are you? How's the big road trip going?" Emily could hear some shuffling in the background and could only assume that Spencer was working on something for one of her three classes she was taking that summer.
"It's going okay. I mean, we've hit a lot of places already and it's been fun but - Spencer, do you ever want to just strangle Toby?"
"Uh oh. Things not going so great with Paige?" There was a sympathetic note to Spencer's voice, but also an edge. Emily closed her eyes, flashing back to when Spencer said she'd destroy Paige for hurting Emily.
"We're just fighting right now and I need a minute to cool off. It's hard being together all the time. I guess I didn't realize that when we left."
"Well, it's a small space, so you guys are on top of each other all the time."
"I wish," Emily muttered, and there was a bang on Spencer's end.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Nothing, nothing."
"Emily Fields, was that a sex reference?"
"Spencer, shut up."
"Are you two - "
"I didn't call to talk about that!"
Spencer laughed and Emily was torn between wanting to reach through the phone and strangle her instead and wanting to laugh with her. Spencer had a way of doing that to her.
"Look, Em. Just take a deep breath, go back, and apologize. You love Paige, Paige loves you. You two are just having a little spat because you're frustrated and you're taking it out on each other." Spencer, ever the voice of reason.
Emily suddenly missed all three of her best friends, a sudden sharp pang in her chest. "I miss you guys," she said softly, feeling small.
"And we miss you too, but we'll see you in a few weeks. Now go! Have fun! Tell Paige I said hi!" And with that the line went dead and Emily was left alone again. She did what Spencer said and took a breath, composing herself before heading back to the car. She had hardly touched the seat before Paige was apologizing.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap, you're not a bitch. I'm the bitch. I'm just frustrated and I shouldn't have taken it out on you; I really didn't mean it."
Emily reached out and clapped a hand over Paige's mouth. "I'm sorry, too. Let's just - let's just keep going and try to not kill each other, yeah?" Paige nodded. "And let's have more sex. That would be awesome."
She had to close Paige's jaw for her.
—
Emily was horrified to find that Paige had never been to Six Flags. Now that was something to be deprived of, not a silly zoo. So their big stop in Texas was the Six Flags in Arlington.
Paige couldn't even figure out where to look first; all of the rides looked exciting and scary at once. Emily seemed calm as she pointed them out and explained them all before telling Paige to wait there for a second as she went to get them both drinks. Paige found herself staring at a large yellow and black ride called Batman: The Ride. That just didn't look safe, let alone fun. She turned to find Emily and tell her as much, and when she found her in line for drinks she found something else as well.
Emily was clad in a regular printed t-shirt and short shorts that day, showing off her long, tanned legs, and two teenaged boys around their age in line behind her were definitely taking notice. As Paige watched, they not-so-subtly pointed and the taller of the two tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around, listened to whatever it was he wanted, then politely shook her head. He tapped her on the shoulder again and she ignored him, and his voice got a little louder. Paige caught "bitch" and that was all she needed.
"Uh, is there a problem?" she asked, drawing herself up to her full 5'7 height when she reached Emily, smiling at the boys. The two of them glanced at her, shrugging their shoulders and ignoring her. Emily took their bottles of water and they left, heading towards some of the smaller rides.
"Those guys were skeevy," she said, handing Paige one of the bottles. "He kept offering to show me a good time and his friend was just leering at me. It was creepy."
"Yeah, well, I was going to knock his teeth out if he kept staring at your ass," Paige said irritably. "Now, what ride are we going on first?"
She was pretty sure that she was going to die when they got to the top of Batman: The Ride, trying to figure out how Emily had roped her into it. Emily looked excited as hell, whereas Paige thought she was having a heart attack. "Having fun?" Emily shouted, and Paige nodded her head.
"Loads!" she shouted back, wondering if this was what a panic attack felt like. The sudden drop scared the shit out of her and she screamed so loudly she wouldn't be surprised if she was half-deaf when they got off of the ride.
"Never again," she gasped, exiting the ride on shaky legs as Emily laughed, taking her hand and pulling her towards something called "Superman: Tower of Power."
She was definitely going to die. Goddamn superheros.
—
"It's…nice."
"Nice. That's a good word."
"I thought it'd be a little different."
"Me too."
"I don't know what I thought it would be."
"I mean, I always knew what it was, so I don't know what I expected."
"It's - it's cute?"
"Em, how can a giant hole be cute?"
They were at the Grand Canyon, and neither of them was particularly impressed with it. It really was just a giant hole in the ground. They had read all of these accounts of people feeling so small and finding all of this spiritual faith and whatnot, but they really only saw it for what it was: a hole.
"I mean, I guess if you look at it at the right angle?"
"It's still just a hole."
"Want to go back to the hotel?"
"Yeah, I guess so."
—
Emily was in the driver's seat when the blue sign with yellow flowers that read "Welcome to California" finally came into view. She quickly leaned over, eyes still on the road, to shake Paige awake.
"What - ?"
"Paige, we made it!" Emily grinned and let out a little cheer. They were really only at the tip of California, but who cares? They were in the state and that was all that mattered. All of their talking and planning and hoping over the last few months had finally come true and they had actually made it. They were actually going to hit the shoreline and swim in the Pacific Ocean and visit Los Angeles and go to the Santa Monica Pier and do all of the other things that they wanted to.
Paige sat up, smiling as well, looking more excited than she had for the entire trip. "Oh, man, I can't believe it! Em, okay, maybe we should stop for a bit, just to rest up. I mean, you've been driving for, like, six hours." Emily had to agree; she was getting tired.
They pulled off at the next exit and found a motel, where Emily quickly curled up in ball on the bed and fell asleep. Paige took the time to call her parents and fill them in on all the things that had been going on with them in the last few days, speaking in hushed tones so she wouldn't wake Emily. Then she went to go and take a shower, glad to see hot water after several days without it.
When she got out, dressed in only a towel, she was surprised to see Emily awake again and flipping through the TV channels. She definitely didn't miss the way Emily's eyes started at her feet and roamed up her body until they hit her face and she nodded towards the bed, the tiniest smile on her lips. Paige cocked an eyebrow upwards. "Are you trying to seduce me?"
Emily stood, walking over to Paige and hooking her finger into the top of her towel, bringing her mouth to Paige's ear. "I don't have to try."
—
The instructor in front of them could have been a Greek god, Emily was convinced. He was all chiseled muscle and bronze skin, with fair hair, blue eyes, and a charming smile, not to mention he was genuinely nice and smart and actually sort of funny. The thought actually crossed her mind that if she wasn't gay…
It was as though Paige could read her mind, because her girlfriend shot her a look and elbowed her in the ribs, trying to awkwardly keep a grip on her massive surfboard. Emily shot her a look back, raising her eyebrows as if to say "Who, me?"
The two of them were at surfing lessons for beginners, having decided that if they were in California they might as well learn. They hadn't even hit the water yet and Emily knew that they were going to be terrible at it. Josh, the instructor, finally called for the group to enter the ocean and she and Paige exchanged glances and sighed in unison before trudging down the beach.
"This was a terrible idea," Paige whispered, and Emily nodded.
"The worst," she agreed.
They managed to make it out to where Josh was, since paddling on their stomachs wasn't the hardest job in the world, but when he tried to teach them how to stand up Paige got halfway up and went right over the side, sending Emily into a fit of giggles that she tried to control when Paige's dark head popped back up. She got her comeuppance when she couldn't even get halfway up on her own board before falling over. Twenty minutes later and they had made considerable progress, actually standing up for a full three seconds before the tiniest wave would knock them off.
"I think we should break up," Paige groaned, floating past Emily and coughing, having inhaled about a gallon of seawater.
"If I ever get another idea like this again, please kill me," Emily said, trying to pluck seaweed out of her hair.
When Josh announced that it was time to ride a little wave, the girls announced that it was time to bail. They knew that they were probably going to break their necks if they tried to surf anymore and they weren't even going to try to risk it. Josh could have his money, because they didn't really care at this point. They were tired and wet and sleepy, and none of it was because of a good reason.
—
"We could go to a medical marijuana dispensary," Paige commented, flipping through her book, a smile curving her lips. Emily shot her a look from behind her sunglasses before reclining back on her arms again to soak up the sun.
"Funny, McCullers. Keep it up."
"Not my fault my girlfriend is a stoner."
"It was four times! Four times, okay?"
"Four more times than I've ever done it, Michael Phelps."
Emily pushed down her sunglasses this time, glaring hard at Paige, who finally held up her hands in defeat. The two of them were lounging on Venice Beach in Los Angeles, one of the stops that they had agreed they definitely needed to make because, hello, Hollywood. There were people everywhere and there wasn't much room, but they had managed to squeeze their towel in on a tiny patch of sand and had been situated there for the past two hours. Paige was flipping idly through a California travel book and suggesting things to Emily, who would either veto or maybe the suggestion.
A guy around the age of twenty strolled by their blanket, saw the two of them, and did a double-take. Checking himself over and running a hand through his damp hair, he approached them, a smile on his face. "Hi, I'm Owen."
Emily frowned. "Hi, Owen. It's nice to meet you, but - "
Owen ignored her, holding his hand out to Paige. Oh. Well. Emily's eyebrow was so far up her forehead that it might as well have been in her hairline. Paige smiled at the guy, internally thanking whoever it was that decided that Emily's ego needed a bit of deflating today. It really was no secret that Emily was the more attractive one - Paige had come to terms with that a long time ago - and she definitely got hit on more. Paige had her fair share of run-ins, too, but if they were out in public together, it was normally Emily who garnered the attention from guys. In fact, with the exception of the Country Music Hall of Fame, every single time one of them had been hit on it had been Emily.
"So, where are you from?" Owen asked, managing to sit down at the foot of their towel. Emily wanted nothing more than to reach out and kick him into the man behind them; the guy looked like he was a weightlifter and it would have been hilarious to see what happened, but she could feel Paige's hand on her wrist, stopping her.
"Pennsylvania. You?"
"Malibu born and bred," Owen preened, running a hand through his hair again.
Paige nodded, trying and failing to look interested. "So what are you doing in Los Angeles?"
"I'm going to be an actor. I've already had some bit parts, but I know my big break's coming up. I've got a read for that new Nic Cage movie soon." Paige nearly snorted but settled for lacing her fingers between Emily's on the towel, figuring that this had gone on long enough.
"So, Owen, it was nice talking to you, but my girlfriend and I are going to go swim now, alright?"
"Well, mind if I join you and your friend?" Owen asked hopefully, not getting the hint.
Emily rolled her eyes. "No, girlfriend as in we're dating, you idiot."
Owen's mouth dropped open and he looked from girl to girl before giving them a thumbs up. "Hot."
Paige shook her head. "Move along, Owen." He did what he was told after another unsuccessful minute or two of trying to flirt with Paige, and she turned to Emily. "Still think you're the only one who can get hit on?"
Emily at least had the decency to look chagrined. "In my defense - "
"Yeah?"
" - okay, fine, I'm sorry. I shouldn't just assume that they're always after me." She began to fix her ponytail, eyes concentrated on the towel in front of her.
Paige grinned, feeling like she'd won some sort of unspoken battle between them. "Okay, come on, hot stuff, let's hit the water!" Emily laughed and took her hand, pulling her up and towards the water. (They made it there relatively easy, only stepping on one person's blanket and with Emily only falling over one sunbather. When they went back to their towel, however, they found that it was no longer there and a family of four had somehow gotten themselves in there. To make matters worse, a seagull flew off with Emily's hotdog later on in the afternoon and Paige nearly peed herself laughing, only stopping when Emily took her hotdog and threw it over her shoulder.)
—
"And on your left you'll see the home of Jennifer Aniston, star of the hit TV show Friends and many big screen movies including Marley & Me, He's Just Not Into You, and her most recent, Horrible Bosses. Next up on the tour is David and Victoria Beckham's multi-million dollar mansion."
Emily and Paige hadn't stopped staring in awe since their tour started nearly an hour ago in Hollywood. They had seen a ridiculous number of celebrities' houses, including Courtney Cox, Orlando Bloom, Tom Cruise, Christina Aguilera, and Nicolas Cage's, and the list still went on. "Maybe we should forget about swimming and try to become actresses instead," Emily whispered, eyes scanning the program they'd been handed at the beginning of the tour.
"Yeah, or we can try to sleep with some actors," Paige whispered back, and Emily snorted.
"I don't know what part of that is more wrong."
"Probably the actors part."
They got off the bus for a break fifteen minutes later, Emily stretching a little to try and relieve the stiffness in her joints from sitting for so long. She nearly fell over when Paige hit her right in her exposed stomach, doubling over and clutching it. "Paige!"
"Emily, look, look, it's totally Captain America!"
"You mean Chris Evans? Where?"
"Right there, just standing over there with the dog!"
Sure enough, there was Chris Evans, casually leaning against a tree as he waited for his dog to finish sniffing around. Paige wasn't the only one who had noticed him, as half their tour group was taking pictures at this point. "Oh my God, should we go over there and see if we can take a picture?"
"Paige, that's totally lame. I bet he won't want fans bothering him while he's out walking his dog."
They got a picture with Captain America.
—
Everything else that they did in California for the next week seemed to go by in an absolute blur. They had pictures of everything from their beach days to their nights out at the restaurants to Emily completely hamming it up in the hotel room with the mini bar fridge. Eventually, though, they had to head home, considering they had already been gone for three weeks. They had thought that their whole trip would take them a month, but the sight seeing and their car breaking down and the entire week they took out for California had really put them behind schedule.
Getting back to Pennsylvania was another thing entirely than it was to get there. They stopped in a bunch of the upper states, traversing more than three thousand, five hundred miles in two weeks, and they were almost delirious with relief when they made back within the state lines of Pennsylvania.
"That was the best trip ever, but I really can't wait to be back in my own bed. And my own shower! Oh, my God, I miss my shower," Emily said, stretching as best she could in the passenger's seat.
Paige nodded in agreement, flicking on her turn signal. "I miss real food. Not, like, fast food every other day. I'll need to swim every day for four hours straight for the rest of the summer to work all of that off."
Eventually they made it back into Rosewood and Paige dropped Emily off at her house, Emily promising that she'd go to Paige's the next day to pick up all of her things. "I had the best time ever on this trip," she told her, leaning across the console to kiss her, one hand behind Paige's head. "Even if we did get into our first real fight."
"I had the best time, too, even if you wouldn't let us go to the medical marijuana place."
"Paige!"
"Sorry, sorry!" Paige laughed, kissing Emily again before she could go into her "it was only four times" speech yet again.
—
"So, the trip was a success?" Aria asked, swirling the ice in her soda around in the cup before taking a sip.
Emily nodded, making a noise of affirmation as she smiled down at her plate, replaying everything that had happened the entire time they had been gone. Hanna gave Spencer a knowing look, and Spencer nudged Aria, who returned Hanna's look.
They were glad that Emily had gone to have the adventure of a lifetime, and they were glad that it was with Paige, who they saw as sticking around for a while, but now it was time to get down to business.
"Okay, so you'll never guess what Aria and Fitz did while you were gone…"
"Hanna!"
"Oh, and Spencer said - "
"Hanna!"
"Well, you know what? Hanna hooked up with - "
"Aria!"
"Did you know that Hanna - "
"Spencer!"
Emily rolled her eyes at her friends but soon found herself joining in on the conversation, stopping every once in a while to check the time on her phone and to smile at the background: a picture of her and Paige standing at the edge of Venice Beach with their arms around one another, positively beaming into the camera.
"Hello? Earth to Emily! What were you thinking about, girl?"
Emily snapped to attention, focusing on Aria. She smiled, putting her phone back into her bag. "Oh, just, you know, the trip. Did you know that Missouri has a museum of hair?"
"Ew! That's disgusting!"
"Did you guys go?"
"Spencer!"
"What? It's a valid question!"
Emily laughed. She'd definitely missed her girls while she was gone, but now she had the entire rest of the summer to split between them and Paige. The four of them were off to quite the start, she surmised, when she found out that Hanna had hooked up with someone that they had gone to high school with that she used to hate. She wanted to be shocked, but they had the entire rest of the summer ahead of them for things like that. Right now, things were good, almost like they were last summer before they had all separated, and she liked it. She liked the familiarity of it, and she liked how content she was.
She liked her life the way it was, in short.