Paige lifted her shaky hand out gripping the shiny satin nickel handle to the door of the school. She closed her eyes and tried to force herself still and collect her nerves. She couldn't believe what she had done but she cared for Emily so much. She knew she at the time she did the right thing in trying to protect her, but this was coming back to bite her in the ass significantly. Freshly manicured bright red fingers slid past her and she felt the breeze lift the hairs on her arm. She jumped, gasping for air and cut her eyes to the left. Mona's matching red lips stretched into a smile as she made eye contact with Paige. "I didn't see you yesterday," her eyebrows drew together sarcastically and she pulled the door open.
Paige watched the door slammed shut. The thud shook the frame and rang through her ears; she jumped and shut her eyes. The pit of her stomach slowly climbed its way to top, pushing all her contents up. She swung open the door and hurried inside. Paige's face was ghost with fear. The five girls were gathered by the entrance watching Mona pass. They turned there gaze to Paige when the noise from the door catch rang out. She cupped her hand to her mouth and jeered to the right ripping open the bathroom door. The liquid began erupting as she ran into the first open stale door kicking it shut behind her. She unloaded the bagel she had for breakfast and waited hunched over the toilet for a few moments to make sure she was empty. After what seemed like forever, she slowly straightened herself and moved herself back to the door for support.
"Paige?" A light, almost inaudible tap came from behind her. She leaned her head back, closed her eyes, and shook her head. She threw her hands up and pushed herself off the door; turned around, flipped the lock and swung open the door. She made eye contact with Emily but had no desire to speak or even acknowledge her. She widened her eyes and pressed her lips together motioning to the sink. Emily stepped aside picking up the rejection, "You never called me back?" Paige made her way over to the sink and started the water. She lowered her head down taking in water and holding it in her mouth. She stood back up looking at Emily through the mirror for a moment then turned to her swishing the water around. She pivoted her body to the side, lifting her hair, and successful expelled the waste into the sink. She returned to meet Emily's blank stare, "I don't have anything to say." She leaned back resting her hands on the cold porcelain. Emily made a sour face, "I think finding a dead rat would give you a lot to talk about?" Paige glared at Emily, "Trust me; you wouldn't want to hear anything I have to say at this point." She pushed herself off the sink and began to walk away. "Paige," she reached out and grabbed her arm hindering her, "please."
"Please what, Emily? Please tell me about my intense fear and the loud girly scream that happened after a DEAD RAT fell out of my locker because I snitched on Mona?" Paige pulled her arm away and began moving them about expressing the points of her speech with emphasis, "Or, about how it brought back all the shit from being kidnapped and almost killed?" She forced out a small amount of air resembling a light laugh, "Or, about how it made me wonder if MAYBE, just MAYBE, you are just a little more than I can mentally handle because honestly I think I may be having a nervous breakdown." A grave look appeared on Emily's face as she registered what Paige was saying, "Paige." Paige raised her hand to cut her off, "No. There's no Paige this time. There's no sad Emily look that can make this better. There is someone out there willing to commit murder, arson, and who knows how many other crimes to get Alison."
Emily folded her arms over her stomach, "I know. I'm sorry I dragged you into this. I told you, you deserve the best. I know this isn't it." Paige shook her head, "Like I said, I had it." Paige lowered her eyes and then her eyes widen and shot back up to meet Emily's as she had an epiphany, "No, you know what I didn't have everything. I was second. I had you but I was second. You chose her over us. We were after you were finished chasing Allie or A or whoever the hell was running around." Emily started to interrupt, "That's not," Paige waved her hands in front of her, "Emily, don't. You say I betrayed you but all I was trying to do was release you. You spend every moment worried about Allie. Have you looked around at your life lately? Where are you going? What are you doing? Nothing. You are doing nothing but backing Allie and fearing for your life, their lives, or any and everything else relate to this bullshit. We barely ever spent time together because you're too busy crime fighting. What about college; have you even thought about that? No, probably not you're too busy worrying about Allison. When did your sole purpose in life become to solve ALLISON'S problem? Em, there's a reason our government pays pretty good money to detectives. Have you ever thought about that? How can they do their jobs if all you five are doing is sending them on a ghost hunt with the endless lies? You all are not Mystery Inc., this is NOT your job and you do definitely don't have a cute talking dog. You need to let the cops handle this and stop letting Alison hang all this guilt over you, you've done enough saving and protecting."
Paige paused and Emily opened her mouth for a rebuttal but she had no luck, "And, there's no way in hell Allison was kidnapped and you clearly know what happened. So, she has dragged you into another mess." Paige paused as Emily lowered her eyes and started to fidget knowing she had been caught. "That's what I thought," Emily looked back up to Paige, "You don't have to give up your life to save her. She is perfectly capable of protecting herself because she can clearly get people to do whatever she wants. She got you to roll over and sit and she didn't even have to love you back." Emily's face went slack-jawed, she felt as if she'd been slapped right in the face. "Em, I can't do this anymore. I won't, I won't love you to the ends of the Earth to have you chase behind Alison. You can either have me or you can have her. But, you seriously need to think about what life looks like with Alison's war path when you're 30."
Emily's face had gone pallid. Paige shook her head and turned for the exit door she pulled open the door and stared into the face of the Devil. Alison's peered at her, lips tight, and teeth locked. Paige rolled her eyes and shoved her shoulder into Alison's knocking her clean to the side, "Excuse me." "PAIGE!" Emily called out as Alison's mouth dropped out.