Set after 5x03 - thereafter no continuation to what happens in the show. If its well received, i'll continue :-)

Paige looked at her phone again and again. She had no idea what to make of it. No matter how many times she tried to re-phrase it, make it a question or a statement, whatever it was just didn't make sense.

It'd been over a week since they'd last spoken. Emily had told her she deserved the best of everything and she could barely stop herself crumbling to the floor. Emily was the best for her, the best she'd ever have. Or even if Emily wasn't, she was exactly what Paige wanted, and that's all that mattered. So still she sat, steady on her bed, staring at her phone as she tried to process…

"Come round to mine…."

That was it. Five minutes had passed and Paige hadn't moved an inch. Her hand still held in the air and her breath still hitched in her throat. Was Emily asking or telling? Was it a suggestion or a hope? Was it an olive branch or nothing of the sort? She finally reacted, a quick shake of the head and a deep breath before she rose to her feet and started to move. She didn't know what it was, but there was never really any doubt what the answer would be.

Emily was pacing. Up and down her room. Round and round the kitchen. Even on the front porch before she realised it was far too public to be acting like a crazy person, people did not need any further convincing. She has no idea why she sent the text… well she does but she's refusing to accept the fact that she simply misses Paige. She misses everything about her. But strangely enough she misses the way she feels around her even more. She's been searching for a way to fill the void. Something else that'll get her heart racing or laughing so hard that she could cry. She tried it all, running more, training with spencer, funny movies, sad movies, family time and distractions with the girls but nothing did it. And she hadn't quite pin pointed what she needed until earlier that afternoon.

Paige and her had both signed up to be psychology mentors for the first years. Taking full advantage of finally getting full marks in a subject outside of Phys Ed and seeing a real way to add to their scholarships hopes. And it had been great, except now they were both mentoring in the same classroom, trying to avoid awkward situations and the slight stares they see out the corner of the other students' eyes. And this afternoon Emily had been feeling a little more fraught than usual, deliberately placing herself at the back of the classroom not wanting to come into actual contact with any part of Paige. She knew it was stupid, they couldn't avoid each other for ever, even she had said that maybe they'd be friends. But she also negated to say that she loves her too. That she loves her and hates her for what she did and she can't get past it. So she's withdrawn herself from the problem, or so she thought…
Because there Paige was smiling and coaxing and sweetly helping her students whilst kindly hiding the fact she knew Emilys' eyes hadn't left her all afternoon. She just couldn't look away. It had finally clicked that she wasn't going to be able to just push Paige out her life and find something else to distract her. It was always Paige she needed. She sighed hard and pushed herself from the desk, tearing her eyes from Paige and telling her own students that she'd be back in a second before staring hard at the floor and making a sharp exit.

She had managed to make it just out the door before a hand gently locked onto her wrist. She jumped and sharply snatched it away. What with her history, she's a little jumpy. But as soon as she did, she wished she hadn't. As she turned and her eyes had fallen on a sorry filled Paige, a warmth rose up her arm and through her entire body. A flame reignited and her whole body shivered. But Paige had seen nothing but the reaction of Emily seemingly wanting to be nowhere near her and had raised her hands in defence before looking at her longingly, dropping her head and returning to class, leaving Emily stood alone in the corridor.

Emily never returned to the class. She had instead walked around and around Rosewood, not caring that people might wonder why she wasn't still at school, until she'd wasted over three hours and returned home, collapsing on her bed. She couldn't do it anymore. Every sinew of her being screamed out to be close to Paige. And her hatred at the feeling only added to the remaining anger at Paige, intensifying the whole thing. She wanted Paige to now how angry she was, make her understand. And the ways in which she wanted to do that no longer included ignoring her, shouting at her or keeping her at a distance. If fact, it was the complete opposite. Before she could stop herself, before she could fully process what she was doing, Emily was texting Paige.
And now she's pacing, still pacing. Up and down, up and down. Until she stops dead still, in the middle of her hallway at the sound of a car door closing and footsteps slowly approaching her door.

Paige stands still herself, just looking at Emilys door. For once, Rosewood is silent. All she can hear is her own breathing and her heart beating hard in her chest. She checks the text, and looks again one more time, just to reassure herself that it wasn't imagined, before she gives a light tap on the door.

But she hears nothing.

Emily takes one slow, very unsteady step backwards and immediately wishes she'd never sent that text. She's not ready to acknowledge whatever feeling is burning inside of her and she defiantly isn't ready to act upon it. She thought she was, but now that she knows that option is just meters away, she's all but running. Her heart races and head spins, struggling to keep her focus. She peers around the corner and see's Paiges shadow at the door. She can tell Paiges head is hung low, like so many times before, and as much as she wants to ignore it, it does stir something inside of her. For a second, she takes a deep breath and moves forward, knowing there's a reason she sent the text, asked Paige to come over… But as soon as her foot hits the floor, her body is moving the opposite direction and she's heading straight up the stairs.

She takes them slow as she can, quietly, and halts for a second when Paige knocks again. Her stomach rolls over with guilt and suppressed want but she buries it deeper and continues. She takes the next three steps quicker and is so nearly at the top, so assured that if she can just get upstairs, somehow it'll sort itself out… when she forgets what she's doing. She forgets to avoid the centre of just that one step that creaks, the one step that she has perfected missing so many times before, but this time it sounds louder than ever.

Paige hears it. As crazy as it is, and she has to replay the sound in her head to convince herself she wasn't imagining it. Could she really have heard a stair creak though a solid door? But she'd know that sound anywhere. She'd practised side stepping it herself when she had somewhat 'overstayed her welcome' and their parental 10pm cut off. She knew that sound anywhere.

For a second she waits, hoping that it's Emily making her way downstairs. But something tells her it isn't, something tells her it's Emily walking the exact opposite way. And now she's annoyed, because she knows no one else is home. She knows it's Emily and she knocks louder. And once more a few minutes later when she still gets no reply. Paige scans the porch, looks behind her, just checking that no one else was around, playing a joke on her. But instead it's worse, it's Emily making her feel like a fool.

Before she lets anger take hold, she decides one last move and opens her messages.

'Knock knock…'

Emilys shaking. She's actually sitting on her bed with a slight tremble to her hands as she reads the message. The alert tone had sounded like a raid siren but now her ears just ring with silence. How exactly does she answer!? Would 'I'm sorry' really explain everything she's suddenly feeling? That she's honestly just trying to stay afloat and not drown in her emotions, reaching out for something to keep her steady…

'Fine'

Her phone startles her again, she has no idea whether just seconds or minutes had passed. But as soon as she reads the singular response, Emily knows it's the latter. She can't stop herself, she doesn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed but she needs to clarify what that means and suddenly she's at her window, staring down at the driveway. She only has to wait a second before she see's her. Paige, looking stunning even from above, and it makes her breath hitch. Paige pauses, as if she somehow hears it. Somehow is that connected to Emily that she knows she's being watched, that Emily is there looking down at her, still not breathing. But Emily watches as Paige shakes herself too a little and then slowly, but assuredly, continues down the path and away from Emily.

Emily has no idea what happened first. Was it the realisation that she needed to stop backing out, stop reverting to hiding away from what she wants, or finding out what she wants. Just like the person she used to be. Was it that she can't stand being the one to hurt Paige, even if she is still hurt herself. She doesn't know if it was the sound of her phone hitting the floor as her hand goes limp, or the ragged breath she finally took… but before Paige had taken three further steps, she was turning, running out of her room, leaving her phone spinning on the floor behind her. She slides around the corner and when she distinctively hears the creak in the stairs, she knows she'd laugh if she wasn't already throwing the door wide and running onto the porch.

"Paige wait..!"