"Hanna, let's go!" Emily yelled up the stairs. Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she ignored a text from Ali and scoffed at the time; they were going to be late. She angrily dropped her phone on the table in the Marins' foyer and groaned loudly. "Hanna! Come. On."
"Just give me a second!" Hanna threw back.
"You've said that three times!" She let her bag drop from her shoulder to land beside the table, ready to sprint up the stairs two at a time to get Hanna moving.
For the past few weeks since everything had come to light about A and Charlotte and Sara, their lives had wound down and become fairly mundane pretty fast. As mundane as graduation and college prep can be, at least.
At the encouragement of the therapist they had all started seeing at the beginning of the summer, both as a group and individually, all of them were working on spending time in assorted pairs as well as all together as a large group, to start to figure out the dynamics of and navigate their relationships with each other now that there were, in the words of their therapist, 'no longer any negative external forces constantly working against them'. Earlier in the week, Hanna had reached out and texted Emily, asking if she wanted to spend the afternoon with her at one of the newest spas that just opened in Philadelphia. Emily had jumped at the opportunity to spend the day with her; with her and Caleb's impending move to New York City at the end of the summer looming ever closer, Hanna had been very pre-occupied with making sure that everything was in order. In very un-Hanna-like fashion, she had become particularly absorbed with the details, and making sure that everything was accounted and taken into consideration for the big move; everything from their living arrangements, to transportation, to figuring out where they would be doing their laundry.
Of course, it wasn't like Emily had been exactly the most social butterfly in the past few weeks either; once the proverbial smoke had cleared and their lives were finally and gloriously free of A, she and Alison actually had a chance to sit down like the pair of pseudo-adults they were and talk. And then do a hell of a lot more than talk.
They had been an official couple for nearly three weeks, but had both agreed early on that they wouldn't tell the other girls until they were all a bit more stable in the new structure of their lives. It was the one reason why Emily was even remotely nervous about spending the day with Hanna. She knew that if she let her guard down for even a second, she could say something that would give away what's been going on between her and Ali. They had all promised to stop keeping secrets from one another, but Emily figured that their relationship really didn't need to be the other girls' business until she and Ali were ready, and decided to let it be their business.
Hanna had also agreed to get better with her time management, but that was clearly going super well, so Emily figured they could all have a bit of leeway with some things.
"All right, already, I'm coming!" Hanna walked leisurely down the stairs, her thumbs flying rapidly across her phone. "I'm just texting Caleb, hang on."
"You can text him in the car, Hanna, seriously. You're the one who made this spa appointment for us. The least you could do is try to be on time."
"You're turning into your mother; has anyone ever told you that?" Hanna asked, pocketing her phone with a smirk.
"Once or twice, yes. Now let's go." Emily scooped her bag up from the ground and made for the door before Hanna had another chance to further derail their plans.
"Something's got your panties in a particularly difficult bunch today," Hanna remarked as she shut and locked the front door behind them.
"Yeah, it's you," Emily grumbled. "We now have 15 minutes to make a 25-minute drive."
"Mm," Hanna hummed in reply, completely ignoring her and looking down at her phone again. "Wait hang on, I forgot my wallet in the kitchen. I'll be right back." She quickly turned on her heel to go back into the house, leaving Emily even more exasperated.
"If you're not back in ten seconds, I'm leaving without you. I'm serious!" she threw over her shoulder after Hanna's retreating form.
Emily angrily clicked the unlock button for her car an unnecessary amount of times before actually opening the door, climbing into the driver's seat and shoving the key into the ignition. She barely had her seatbelt on before Hanna was nearly sprinting back out of the house, eyes glued to the ground in front of her as she went.
Emily knit her eyebrows together as Hanna dropped into the passenger seat, saying nothing and looking her directly in the eyes as she closed the door behind her.
"What?" Emily asked her after a few seconds of her staring.
"Did you forget something in the house?" Hanna deadpanned.
Emily blinked once, her eyebrows furrowing even further at her question. "Um… I don't think so?"
"Oh, I think you did." She reached into her bag and flourished her prize: Emily's phone.
Her fucking phone, that she left on the foyer table when she was about to run upstairs and physically wrestle Hanna into the car. With the texts from Ali that she had never responded to still clearly displayed on the lock screen for all prying eyes to read.
"You have got some serious explaining to do," Hanna demanded, dropping the phone into her own lap.
"I don't have to explain anything to you," Emily snapped, quickly grabbing her phone and shoving it back into its rightful place in her bag. "Whatever texts you read are my business." She threw the car into reverse and began backing out of Hanna's driveway, desperately hoping that driving would be enough to keep her occupied enough so she wouldn't completely freak out.
"I knew once Ali came back for good that you two wouldn't be able to keep your hands to yourselves for very long. I fucking knew it," Hanna muttered as she pulled out her own phone.
Emily barely refrained from smacking Hanna's phone from her hands; she knew for a fact that Hanna was already texting Spencer and Aria to fill them in on what she found out without even having to see what she's doing.
"'It's really none of your business, Hanna." Emily did her best to keep a neutral tone as she drove, turning left off of Hanna's street.
"I know that after everything that happened with the A shit that we were all working on seriously forgiving Ali and moving in a more positive direction in our friendships with her, but I didn't realize that for you, that direction was directly to bed."
Before Emily had a chance to even formulate a coherent response, Hanna was dialing her phone and lifting it to her ear.
"Who are you calling?" Emily hissed through her teeth as she pulled up to a stop light. She whipped her head to the side to look directly at Hanna, frustration clearly evident on her face.
Hanna held up her finger as she began to speak to the person on the phone. "Hi, Stacey, it's Hanna Marin. Something came up and we can't make our appointment today. Is there any way that I can reschedule that for next weekend sometime? Great! Thanks so much." She hung up, taking no notice of Emily's anger. "I've got connections there. One of the co-owners of the spa used to date my cousin Stephen when they both lived in Chicago."
"Hanna, I don't care about the damn appointment! What do you think gives you the right to-" The car behind them honked and Emily realized with a start that the light had already turned green.
Hanna waved her hand at Emily. "Just drive over to Spencer's house; Aria is going to meet us there and you're gonna fill us in."
Emily felt so tempted to turn around, drive back to Hanna's house, shove her out of her moving car, and completely avoid this upcoming conversation altogether. She knew that they would find out about her and Ali eventually; she was just hoping that, for once, it would be on her terms. And that, when they did find out, that they wouldn't all react like Hanna is right now.
Clearly that was too much to wish for in this friend group.
"Emily, are you coming?" Hanna ducked her head down to look into the open driver's side window after exiting the car in Spencer's driveway.
Emily glanced up from my phone and gave Hanna a brief, clearly forced, smile. "Yeah, just give me a second. I'll meet you inside."
She narrowed her eyes. "Okay…" Before she made her way into the house, she reached into the car and snatched the keys from the ignition.
"Hanna, what-"
She jingled the keys in Emily's face. "So you don't run away."
Emily scoffed angrily as Hanna sauntered towards the door.
The other three found out about us and are cornering me at Spencer's. I'm being held hostage. Hanna took my keys. If you don't hear from me in 20 minutes, come help me. Before I kill Hanna. She sent the text to Ali as she stepped out of the car, taking a moment to lean against the car and breathe. Her phone chimed with a text message not even thirty seconds later.
Jesus Christ, they have no boundaries. I'll bail you out in 15. I'll be over earlier if I hear any screaming.
Emily threw a small smile over her shoulder towards where she knew Ali's house stood through the trees, before shouldering her bag and trudging into the house, looking every bit the person going to her very possible execution.
"Well hello, Miss Fields. We're pleased you could join us today." Spencer looked up at her with a quirk of her eyebrow from where she stood, sorting through a stack of letters that were sitting on a small table in the entryway.
Emily stopped in her tracks before her, her eyebrows knit together in irritation. She could already feel her walls coming up in anticipation of the conversation that awaited her in the next room, and she gritted her teeth against the anger that was bubbling up over the fact that she was even feeling like that around these girls in the first place; they were supposed to be the ones that made her feel the safest and most accepted.
Doing her best to suppress her anger for now, Emily rolled her eyes and hefted her bag more securely onto her shoulder. "Can we just get this over with, Spencer? Please?"
"Get what over w-"
Before Spencer could finish her question, Aria's voice rang out from the kitchen.
"Spence, is that finally Emily? Bring her in here!"
Barely managing to suppress a groan, Emily stalked past Spencer into the kitchen, where Aria was busy rooting around in the fridge and Hanna was perched on the arm of the sofa.
"What's got you in such a bad mood?" Spencer asked, following closely behind Emily.
Emily rounded on her immediately, her bag falling from her shoulder. "Really? You're going to ask me that?"
Spencer's eyes widened. "I have no idea what you're talking about," she deadpanned.
Hanna groaned from behind Emily, who could hear the eye roll evident in her voice without even having to see her. "She's just mad cause we finally found out she's been boning Alison on the down-low for weeks."
All three of our voices rang out simultaneously:
"Hanna!"
"What?"
"Really?"
Emily rightfully shifted her anger from Spencer to Hanna; after all, she was the one who had snooped on her phone in the first place and called this impromptu ambush.
"This is all your fault!" Emily started, taking a step towards her. "Why do you feel like you have a right to know what goes on in my romantic life? Why should I have to tell you who I may or may not be having sex with? Why the fuck should I be required to tell you everything?" Her voice slowly rose throughout her tirade, until she was basically screaming at Hanna, jabbing a finger in her face and coming extremely close to shoving her off the couch.
"Jeez, you don't have to get so mad at me! I just wanted to know what's going on in one of my best friend's lives!" Hanna snapped back quickly, her eyes jumping briefly from Emily to Aria and Spencer standing behind her.
"If you suspected anything, you could have just asked me! You didn't have to look through my fucking texts!" Emily replied exasperatedly.
"Oh yeah, cause you would have seriously told me! You don't tell us anything that goes on in your love life anymore until you're basically already U-Hauled up and ready to go!"
"No! You don't get to talk about moving too fast in relationships! You had Caleb living in your house when you guys started seeing each other!" Hanna scoffed, and Emily quickly continued on before she had a chance to respond.
"And you two!" She spun around to look directly at Spencer and Aria, who at least had the decency to look caught off guard. "Let's not forget that Toby was literally working with A while you all were busy doing everything you could to pin it all on Paige! Or the fact that Ezra fucking stalked us for years without any of us knowing!" She immediately cut off Aria, who looked like she was about to jump to Ezra's defense. "No, I don't give a shit what his intentions were. He knew who you were when you two met, he knew what he was doing was wrong, and he did it anyway." Aria let out a long breath, but at least she and Spencer had enough common sense to look somewhat ashamed. Turning back to Hanna, Emily saw her looking down at the floor with her arms crossed, shaking her head. "You guys are all such fucking hypocrites! And do you seriously think that I'm going to tell you guys that I'm with Ali until it's actually official after the 'Paige is A' thing? You guys jumped on that bandwagon awful fast, and she didn't even have half the track record that Ali does with bad behavior!"
"That's exactly my point!" Hanna yelled, finally standing up. "Up until really recently, Alison has done nothing but treat you and the rest of us like shit and take us for granted! I don't see how we're just supposed to let that go and give you our blessing."
"The fact that you think I want or need your blessing to be in a relationship is the most fucking insane thing that I have ever heard come out of your mouth, Hanna, and that's saying something because you've said some seriously dumb shit." Emily knew that she should probably have felt bad about blatantly insulting Hanna's intelligence, since she knew for a fact that that was one of her worst insecurities, but at that point Emily was almost entirely beyond caring. "I get that you all want to protect me, I do, I get it. But you have no right to demand information that is none of your goddamn business."
"Okay, hey! That's enough!" Spencer yelled, attempting to cut off the argument before it had a chance to escalate any further. Emily clenched her fists impatiently at her sides, her anger towards Hanna still bubbling just below the surface.
"No, Spencer! I- Emily, do you seriously not see why we're so thrown off by this?" Hanna exclaimed. Spencer dropped her head into her hands and Aria patted her on the back briefly. "Are you seriously telling me that you've forgiven Alison for how she's treated you? She knew how you felt about her, and she used every opportunity she could to make fun of you for being gay, and for having a crush on her, and-"
"Did you ever wonder why she did that? Did you ever think that maybe her reacting to me like that could have been because she was dealing with something similar herself?"
"No! Literally never! What indication could we have possibly had that that was the case?" Hanna stood up from the arm of the couch angrily, for the first time meeting Emily's furious gaze head-on. "Alison led you on, and teased you relentlessly, and made you feel ashamed of your feelings towards her, and we're just supposed to believe that she was being a psycho bitch because she realized she might be sorta gay too?"
"I don't give a shit what you believe about her motives; what I want is for you to trust that I know what I'm doing here!" Emily's voice had begun to take on a slightly hysterical tone. "I wouldn't have forgiven Ali if I didn't believe her."
"Oh jeez, Em, forgive me for not trusting your judgment on Alison's behavior. Cause you've always been such a good fucking gauge for that! You're too goddamn blinded by your feelings for her that you don't see anything else!" Hanna ran her hands exasperatedly through her hair. "Stop being such a blind, lovesick idiot all the fucking time and think, for once!"
Emily took a step back from Hanna, who threw a hand over her mouth once she actually registered what she had said. Emily blinked quickly a few times before nodding slowly.
"Wow," she breathed. "I'm glad I know what you actually think about me, then."
"Emily, I-" Hanna began, but was cut off by Emily's strangled voice.
"I'm just- I'm gonna go." Emily shook her head quickly and spun on her heel, already halfway to the door before any of the girls moved to stop her.