Chapter 1

The cool breeze splayed reddish brown hair over her eyes, obstructing her view of the girl at the other end of the courtyard. She pressed her body into the brick pillar, peering around the corner, just enough to get a clear view. She dragged her fingertips across her forehead, ridding the hair from her eyes. She stopped when she felt a bump, the scar.

It'd been almost two weeks since the incident. Two weeks of silence and nothing. She'd been avoiding everyone, especially Emily Fields and her little group of friends. She'd barely spoken a word to her parents, partly due to the fact that they'd hardly let her get a word in anyway.

Avoiding Emily had been harder than expected, she was in about three of her classes and each time the lesson finished, she scrambled to get out of the room and out of sight before Emily could catch up with her. She was embarrassed and she could hardly remember anything from that night, what if she'd said something?

Anyway, avoiding the girls was probably easier for everyone. They all seemed really happy. Emily seemed really happy. The last thing she remembered from that night was Emily giving her a look. A look of sadness or maybe hurt? Either way, Paige was the cause of that look and she didn't want that. She wanted Emily to smile, she wanted her eyes to light up like a child's on Christmas morning, she wanted her nose to scrunch up just that little bit when she laughed.

Paige noticed that those things never happened when she was around the girl. It made her heart sink like a rock in the ocean whenever she thought about it. Emily wanted to be 'just friends' with her, but Paige was beginning to think maybe that wasn't even an option.

Paige was brought out of her thoughts when she saw Emily tilt her head back, laughter cascading from her lips, presumably at something Spencer had said to Hanna. Hanna was scowling at the taller brunette as said girl just quirked an eyebrow. Paige gave a halfhearted smile. It must be nice to have friends.

She huffed out a sigh and hugged her books closer to her chest as she twisted to walk away. She nearly dropped everything when a tiny figure blocked her path, arms crossed, head falling the side just a tad.

Paige looked to the ground, gaining her bearings. The figure in front of her unfolded her arms and softened her expression.

"Aria." Paige flicked her eyes up to greet the girl momentarily before choosing to look anywhere else.

"Paige, what are you doing?" Aria peered over Paige's shoulder to see her friends sitting at a table eating lunch. "Why don't you just come sit with us?" Paige let out a quick, dry laugh before shaking her head, a little bit flustered.

"I was just going to uh-" She wracked her brain for anything, anything at all. "I was going to the library to study."

Aria folded her arms again and cocked her hip a little. An unimpressed look worked its way onto her features.

"Why are you avoiding us? More importantly, why are you avoiding Emily?" Aria felt strangely empowered by her words. Usually it was Hanna that did all the down-talking or Spencer but since Jenna's birthday, Emily had been a lot quieter. Aria had caught her staring at the back of Paige's head in class quite a lot, not to mention the fact that she'd almost chased after the girl every single time she'd left the room.

"I'm- I'm not avoiding you." Paige looked up to meet Aria's gaze only to drop it again, she was quite a good liar. That was, until it came to Emily and her friends, they always seemed to be a step ahead.

"Paige, will you just come and sit with us for lunch? Please?" Aria pouted, Paige almost smiled at the childlike girl. She was actually pretty persuasive, not to mention cute. Paige's eyes widened and she shook her head. Thank god people couldn't hear her thoughts.

"I'm fine really. I'm just gonna-" Paige pointed in the direction of the library and moved a step.

"Hey guys look who I found!" Aria yelled across the quad to the table of girls who all spun in their direction. Paige glowered at Aria who quickly shrugged and flashed a smug smile. Paige shot a look over her shoulder to see if they'd actually seen her. Her eyes immediately connected with Emily's. Emily was smiling and automatically, so was she. Emily gave a coy wave and a small gesture signaling for her to join them.

"Come on." Aria chirped up, grabbing Paige's arm and pulling her towards the table.

"You're strong for a midget." Paige mumbled.

"I heard that." Aria growled playfully, dropping Paige's arm as they reached the table. Out of all the girls, Aria was probably the one Paige had gotten to know more, besides Emily, obviously. She liked the girl, they even went shopping together one day. She trusted her and she was pretty sure Aria trusted her back. Well, she almost did anyway.

"Hi." Paige looked down when she heard the timid voice and immediately melted. Emily was looking up at her from her place on the bench; her eyes were so pretty and smoky, the way Emily looked at her, it made her feel light.

It took Aria clearing her throat for Paige to realize she'd been stood there saying nothing and staring at Emily for about a minute.

"Hey, I- can I sit with you?" Paige stumbled across her words. Emily giggled quietly and moved her bag from the space next to her. Paige shot her a smile before perching next to her, leaving a respectful gap between them. Not that she wanted to, she just needed too. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Aria and Hanna grinning at each other. They obviously had been planning this.

"So…" Paige shook her bag off her shoulder and placed it on the ground between her feet. "What you guys talking about?" Paige looked around the girls, her eyes stopping on Spencer, the girl was giving her a look. She couldn't quite decipher it, but she decided it'd be better not to dwell.

"We were discussing Hanna's new make up style." Emily gestured to the blonde at the other side of the table in between Aria and Spencer. Hanna raised her upper lip in disgust.

"We're calling it, 'pelted by charcoal'." Spencer cocked her head to the side while forking a heap of salad into her mouth. Paige laughed as Hanna hit her head against the table repeatedly.

"Your eyeliner is darker than usual." Aria nodded turning to inspect Hanna's eyes closer. Hanna frowned at her and attempted to bite her nose. Aria squirmed out of the way.

"I had an extra ten minutes. I was bored. Let me eat my bacon in peace jeez." Hanna picked up her bacon sandwich and took a bite, narrowing her eyes at Spencer.

Paige could feel Emily's gaze on her, it was practically burning her skin but she refused to turn to look at her. All she'd been doing recently was avoiding the girl and now she was sat inches away from her, it was hard enough, she didn't need any intense eye contact or cutesy Emily things to make her walls come crumbling down. Besides, Emily wanted to be just friends.

The girls fell into silence as they ate. Paige pulled an apple from her bag and took small bites. The quiet wasn't exactly awkward but it wasn't comforting either.

"I haven't seen you around lately." Emily had somehow managed to shuffle closer to Paige without her knowing, touching their shoulders together. Hanna took this as her queue to start up another conversation with Spencer and Aria, letting Emily and Paige have their privacy. Paige pulled her lips to the side thoughtfully.

"Yeah, I know. I just have stuff, you know…" Paige trailed off, turning to Emily finally. She saw the crease in between the girl's eyebrows and the concern in her eyes. It would have been adorable if Paige didn't feel like crap for being the one making her worry. "Everything's fine."

"We missed the Katy Perry movie." Emily sighed, her bottom lip sticking out a little. Paige had to smile then, Emily was so damn cute.

"There'll be other movies, Emily." The smile that shot onto Emily's lips startled Paige. All Emily wanted was for Paige to act normally around her again and those words were progress even though Paige didn't know it.

Emily shot a sideways glance at her best friends to make sure they weren't listening in before turning in her seat so she could talk to Paige head on. Paige mirrored Emily's movements, feeling a relaxing warmth rush over her. Emily looked around warily before opening her mouth to speak.

"Come with me to see the new Ice Age film?" Paige's eyebrows shot up, a look of amusement covering her features. Emily rolled her eyes and ducked her head. Paige looked around to check that no one was listening. Emily was obviously embarrassed and it made her fall even harder.

"Ice Age? You into cartoons, Em?" Emily felt her heart beat a little faster at the use of her nickname. When Aria or Spencer or Hanna used it, she felt like it was just a name but when Paige used it, it just sounded way better. Emily shook her head, a blush creeping onto her cheeks.

"Shut up." She hissed through gritted teeth, smiling like a complete idiot. "I just really like Ice Age. It makes me feel like a kid." Emily did that scrunchy thing with her nose; the thing Paige was dreading the most. It was actually the cutest thing in the world and how she was still alive after that she did not know. She was pretty sure a soft sigh had escaped her lips but was quick to cover it up.

"I like Manny the mammoth, he's an ass. He reminds me of me." Paige nodded approvingly to herself. Emily tilted her head to the side, admiring the way the light wind made Paige squint to stop her hair from going in her eyes. She knew she'd told Paige that she just needed a friend and to be honest, she did.

But Paige made her nervous, she kept her on edge, she made her laugh, she made her smile. Paige made her feel again. After Maya died, Paige was the first one to make her smile with her eyes, the first to make her laugh without a care, the first to tell her it was okay to cry. Everything Paige had done had made her fall for her more and more without even realizing. She had needed a friend. She needed more now.

"I like Manny too." Emily whispered. Paige just looked at the girl, her mouth slightly agape. "So, will you come with me? You don't have to, I just don't want to sit in there with a bunch of 5 year olds on my own." Emily shrugged, dipping her head shyly again.

Paige quickly went over the options in her head. She could say yes and take Emily to watch the movie and torture herself with the fact that she can't have her or she could say no and have Emily look like someone had slapped her with a wet fish again. She would rather hurt herself than hurt Emily. She only wanted to protect Emily, from everything bad ever.

"Sure." Emily bounced in her seat and clapped her hands together excitedly.

"Thank you!" Paige couldn't stop the bubbles of laughter leaving her lips, seeing Emily happy made her happy and for now, that was enough.

Spencer side eyed the two girls at the other side of the table. They were both smiling, talking in hushed voices. Aria leaned around Hanna; Spencer copied her movements until they were in their own little circle.

"I'm getting good vibes, are you getting good vibes? I'm vibrating at a high frequency right now, I'm sure that's a good sign." Hanna lowered her voice so only the other two girls could hear. Spencer and Aria looked at each other with wide eyes then turned to Hanna simultaneously. Hanna looked at both of them in turn. "No! Ew, get your minds out of the gutter."

"All I got out of their conversation was something about a mammoth." Aria speculated.

"Are you taking your vitamins?" Hanna raised an eyebrow suspiciously at her friend. Aria glared at the blonde, slapping her shoulder. "Hey!"

"Behave or I will ground you both." Spencer spoke quickly out of the side of her mouth. "I heard something about going to the movies."

"Do you think it's working?"

"What's working?"

"The plan! Christ, Hanna." Hanna pulled a face at Aria who pulled one back.

"The plan was to get them talking again. Their mouths are moving and words are coming out and they're facing each other so I think it worked." Spencer spoke with a forceful hushed tone.

"Spencer your hair is tickling my nose."

"I'm sorry on behalf of my hair." Spencer rolled her head from left to right, helping to convey the sarcastic tone in her voice. Aria laughed at Hanna's solemn facial expression.

"Shut up short ass."

"So I'll pick you up from yours at 7?" Emily asked the girl across from her, completely aware of the smile that hadn't left her lips for the entire conversation. Paige nodded once, picking up her bag and books.

"I'll see you at 7." Paige stood and threw her apple core in a nearby wastebasket. "I'll see you guys later." Paige smiled at the other three girls who all quickly turned to look at her. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the smiling teens but let whatever they were doing slide. "Aria I have the notes you wanted, I'll give them to you next class?"

"Sure!" Aria answered way too quickly. Paige cocked her head to the side but decided it'd be best to just leave. She moved away, turning to look over her shoulder to get one last look at Emily. She felt her face turn hot when she saw Emily looking back. Her heart fluttered, she got out of there as fast as she could.

As soon as Paige was out of sight, Hanna, Aria and Spencer all turned to Emily, the same smile on each of their lips, the kind of smile that screams 'tell me everything or I'll hurt you'.

"What?" Emily shrugged, trying to act casually but the lasting smile that Paige had given her still hadn't worn off.

"What were you talking about?" Spencer piped up wiggling in her seat impatiently. Emily looked to the side mysteriously; she knew how much Spencer hated it when she didn't answer her immediately. She could almost see the pain on Spencer's face from not knowing.

"You are torturing her." Aria gestured to Spencer.

"Torturing Spencer is fun." Emily laughed; Spencer's demeanor immediately fell, a scowl taking the place of the former smile.

"You're hilarious." Spencer deadpanned.

"We're just going to the movies."

"You're gonna make out."

"Hanna!"

"Let's be real here people." Hanna threw her hands out to the sides. Emily just rolled her eyes.

"What film are you going to see?" Spencer questioned, Emily gave her the same mysterious look she had given her just a minute ago.

"Why do you hate me?"

"I have to get to class, I'll text you later." Emily stood abruptly, a sly smile painted across her lips. She gathered her things and walked off, waving in the process.

"I'm going to lie down." Spencer feigned distress and took off in the opposite direction.

"Drama queen."

"That's coming from you." Aria shot Hanna a look of mock disgust. Hanna glowered at the side of Aria's face.

"You're short."

Hi! So i was thinking that this would be a three parter or maybe a two-shot. It'll probably end up in three parts 'cause i ramble. If you could tell me what you think in a review, that'd be awesome. Thanks for reading, the next chapter should be up soon!