Disclaimer: I own no characters from PLL. For story purposes Ali will remain dead, A doesn't exist, and Paily's relationship story will be different. Please read and review, feedback is greatly welcomed and I hope you enjoy :) Short chapter to start, M for later content. Oh! and this will be solely told from Emily's p.o.v
Emily lay awake as she reflected upon the past day's events. She couldn't believe it had been another year since Ali's disappearance. Never a whisper of what happened to her left the girls forever wondering what happened. She sighed and willed herself to fall asleep with only 3 hours until morning swim practice, only 3 weeks until the next big swim meet. With the sharks, the school, and Coach Fulton on her back she was afraid of disappointing. All of these thoughts raced through her mind until she was too tired to run with them. Sleep caught up with her at last.
An alarm blaring through her pillow from her phone was not an ideal start to the day, especially at 6AM. After incoherently swiping at the screen in the hopes of silencing her nightmare, she unlocked it to find a reply from the previous night. She had text Paige around midnight asking if she could be picked up for swim practice. Paige had replied "Sure :-)" and Emily found herself giggling at the dorky face. She winced at the thought of getting out of bed but then reminded herself that Paige would be there in 10 minutes. She groggily dragged herself to the bathroom and pulled out the toothpaste from the cabinet. She grew a foam beard with the inaccuracy of teethbrushing stemming from a lack of sleep. A selfie made its way to Paige's phone, happily captioned "Santa came early this year." After she rinsed and washed her face, she headed back to her room to pull on dark leggings, Converse and a Rosewood hoodie. Her swim bag was just being thrown over her shoulder when she heard Paige pull up outside.
Upon entering the car, Emily witnessed Paige mid laughing fit. She appeared to be laughing at Emily's picture and comically quizzed Emily on the whereabouts of her presents which was answered by a breakfast bar being hurled into her lap. "Thanks Fields," she laughed whilst pulling out to drive to school.
"Hey, how are you holding up today?" Paige asked Emily softly, knowing that to get any answer would be a start.
"Tired. Very tired," was Emily's reply. Paige nodded and left it at that in case she overstepped her boundary.
The smell of chlorine was helping Emily to wake up, as was the heated competition with Paige. She was the only person who could actually compete with her at practice. Lap after lap after lap. Emily was meeting Hanna at 8.00 for coffee and so left Paige in the locker room with a "see you later" and a "thanks for dropping me off." Paige then joked that it was never too early to start learning to drive to which Emily shot a roll of her eyes and a slight smile.
Hanna was already buzzing with caffeine when Emily got to the Brew but the rings under her eyes suggested it was needed big time.
"You have a late night too, Em?"
"Sure did. I'm sure coffee will fix that. Oh look, Spence and Aria are here too!"
The four sat together in a comfortable silence, fuelling up for the day with no-one feeling the need to acknowledge one another's similar feelings. The silence said it all. Spencer eventually broke the silence with a series of questions about Emily's next swim meet which led to an uplift in mood amongst the four as they left for school. They swapped updates on Ezra, Caleb, and Toby as well as supplying Emily with ideas new potential girlfriends after her breakups with Ben an Maya both ended on a sour note. As usual, Emily laughed it off and insisted she wasn't interested which was entirely true. Nobody was catching her eye and she was enjoying life without the pressures of a relationship even though she was lonely at times. She was glad in one respect; senior year was going to be hard, having no distractions was a gift. With Hanna babbling on about the new season's trends, Spencer stressing about additional classes and Aria gushing over Ezra, Emily truly felt better. Normal even. They parted and made their way to their respective classes, vowing to catch up at lunch.
Emily's mind was taking a detour during French. She couldn't care for conjugation, all she could think of was Ali and Paris. More importantly. she thought of how that was never going to happen. She could only ever have Ali there in spirit with her which would never be enough. Her mind drifted to swimming as she watched the autumn leaves swirl outside through the window. That was how she spent all of her morning before regrouping with the girls.
The girls were desperately checking Emily was okay with being left alone that evening. Aria was going to Hollis to spend time with Ezra, Spencer was playing boardgames with Toby and Hanna was getting take-out with Caleb. Each of them offered Emily an invitation but she politely declined with the excuse of having extra swim practice even though Mondays were always free. They let go eventually and they moved on to the next topic; Halloween.
"Hey Em, is your mom still letting you throw a kickass house party?" grinned Hanna.
"I think what you're really asking is 'is your mom still out of town that weekend?' which is then a yes," laughed Emily.
They all grinned before listing who they'd like to invite. Teenagers, alcohol, Halloween.. it was destined to be a disaster. Paige walked by, throwing a piece of paper in Emily's direction as she mouthed "swim times, good luck!" Emily shouted her over and Paige walked over shyly, nodding at the other girls respectively. "Hey I'm having a Halloween party next month... well obviously next month as that's the date of Halloween...," Emily shook her head at the awkwardness of her tripping and falling over her own words, "...anyway I was... WE. Were wondering if you'd maybe like to come? You don't have to. In fact I'm sorry I bothered you, you really don't..."
"Em. Stop," Paige's laugh was out of control, "Of course I'll come, it's Halloween! Thanks for the invite." As she walked away the other girls said bye and to enjoy swim practice which earned them a questioning look from Paige, followed by "What swim practice..?"
Emily panicked and garbled to Paige, "Remember the extra sessions? Coach said it'd be best if we used more time to practice."
Paige raised her eyebrows but went along with Emily's little, and seemingly pointless, white lie; "Oh yeah. Thanks for reminding me. I have to go but I'll text you later. Bye guys."
"See you later," said Emily with a thankful smile. The other girls exchanged looks but decided to downplay it, after all they all had their weird moments.
Later that evening Emily was lying on her bed just about crying over chemistry homework when her phone buzzed.
"If you really want to practice you can come over to mine and swim :-)"
Emily felt her cheeks flush as she text back, "I wouldn't want to be a bother."
"It's no bother ;-P I'll pick you up in 10. You really gotta learn to drive Fields"
"You should teach me since you're apparently amazing at driving."
"Oh I am amazing at driving, Fields. I'll teach you all right :-)"
Emily laughed once again at the faces. Paige was the only person she knew who used those which made texting her a unique experience. The chemistry textbook was abandoned as Emily made her way out to Paige's car. She could see the other girl laughing and waving through the window. What a dork, she laughed to herself. Something about Paige made her feel different inside. Different in what way, however, she could not put her finger on.