A/N: The lack of Paily fluff in my other stories is bumming me out, and I have writers block on them. So here's a little something I thought of in the shower (this is where I get all the good ideas, unfortunately I almost always forget them because I have nowhere to write them down on the spot. Because water.) Anyways, the slight AU is that Emily never injured her shoulder, she got accepted to Stanford, and she didn't let Alison totally play with her mind. This is set after graduation. Enjoy, hopefully.
July 7, 9:05 pm.
Rosewood, PA
"Pull over."
Paige glances at Emily in confusion as she unbuckles her seat belt, "What, why?" She hesitantly pulls onto the side of the road, her eyes darting around the dark woods. "In case you don't remember, good things never happen to us in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere."
"This will only take a second." Emily glances at her in amusement, "and I would hardly call 9 pm the middle of the night."
She sighs; unbuckling her own seat belt as Emily frantically searches the glove compartment. The cars' headlights illuminate the rundown "Welcome to Rosewood" sign.
Welcome to Rosewood, she scoffs, more like Welcome to Hell.
Emily holds up her digital camera in triumph, "Got it." She opens her door, shivering slightly.
"Is this really necessary Em?" Paige hurriedly climbs out of the car, joining her girlfriend as she turns the silver rectangle in her hand on.
"I just want to capture this moment, the start of our new beginning."
"We could just get a postcard you know."
Emily rolls her eyes, setting the camera down on the hood of her car, the self-timer set to two minutes. "But it wouldn't be the same without your beautiful face on it."
"There's always photoshop." Paige says hopefully, sighing in defeat when Emily chuckles and grabs her arm, pulling her towards the wooden sign.
She stands next to Emily, her arm around her shoulder as she plasters a fake smile on her lips for the camera. "When is that thing going to go off?" She mutters under her breath, impatient to get the shot over with. As much as she loves the fact that Emily is just as excited about their trip as she is, being out in the dark, especially in Rosewood, still made her nervous. It'd be pointless trying to hide that from Emily, she could read her better than anyone else.
Warm hands grip her cheeks as Emily turns her to face her, "Is this really that bad?"
Her shoulders relax as Emily rubs her thumbs slowly over her cheeks, momentarily shoving her fear away as she gazes into Emily's concerned eyes. It really wasn't that bad, not as long as she had Emily with her. She'd go through anything as long as it meant having Emily at her side. "No, it really isn't." She smiles as she leans forward to peck Emily's lips lightly, the flash of the camera going off as they press their foreheads together. Paige glances anxiously behind Emily as they pull apart. "But next time could you maybe pick a more romantic place to 'capture moments'?"
Emily laughs quietly, kissing her once more before leading her back to the car, "I'll keep that in mind."
Paige chuckles as Emily grabs the camera and smiles warmly at her as she opens the passenger door, holding it open as Emily climbs in. She hurries to the other side of Emily's car, climbing in and shutting the door.
"You'll be glad to know it came out perfect." Emily shows the picture to her. They're standing in front of the sign, smiling as they stare into each other's eyes. Emily's hands are pressed to Paige's cheeks as she holds her close, her arms wrapped around Emily's waist.
"It did." She leans over to kiss Emily's cheek, settling back against the seat and putting her seat belt on, "Which is good because I am so not going back out there." She starts the car to make her point, glancing at Emily who's still looking at the picture. "Em, you okay?"
Emily shakes her head as she turns the camera off and puts it away. "I still can't believe this is happening." She meets Paige's eyes, "this is really happening, right? I'm not going to wake up and realize that this was all a dream?"
"Do you want me to pinch you?" Paige teases.
Emily gives her a small smile, her eyes watering.
She takes Emily's hands in hers, giving her a real answer. "This is real Emily. This isn't a dream. This is really us, leaving Rosewood, going away and starting our own lives away from this place. No more A." She rubs her thumbs soothingly over Emily's knuckles. "No more worrying all the time or being afraid of the dark. It's just us. Just us, the road and the countless Britney Spear songs you plan on torturing me with."
Emily laughs, a tear running down her cheek as she stares at the brown eyed girl gazing back at her with so much love it makes her pulse race. "Beyonce." She corrects, smiling as Paige softly brushes away her tears.
"No I saw your iPod." Her eyebrows furrow in mock despair, "You're planning on torturing me with Britney Spears, Beyonce, Rihanna, Demi-"
"Hey you love Demi!" Emily retorts.
"Yeah but that's beside the point." She smirks, pressing her lips against Emily's pouty ones. "The point is that you'll have total control over the music and I'm going to allow that because I love you." She actually didn't mind any of Emily's music, and if she was being complete honest with herself she'd admit that she knew every single word of every song. Of course she would never admit it out loud, which was probably why Emily was doing it. She knew Paige liked the songs, and she would get her to admit it one way or the other.
Emily taps Paige's nose lightly with her fingertip, both of them wearing identical smiles. "In that case I might go easy on you."
"Might." Paige's smile falters in faux-disappointment. "Darn I thought that would work," She mutters under her breath causing Emily to roll her eyes. She puts the car in drive, "Are you ready?"
"More than ready."
They smile at each other, both eager to leave Rosewood and their pasts behind. They know they can't escape forever; they still have their friends and family to think about and eventually visit. And no matter how far away they go, Rosewood will always be there; the scars imbedded into their hearts and minds. Everything they've been through and everything they've survived will always be there to remind them of how far they've come.
Paige pulls the car back onto the road, taking Emily's hand in hers.
"I love you Paige."
She glances at Emily as she smiles, letting her gaze linger longer than is deemed safe as she drives past oncoming traffic. "I love you too." Her eyes flit back to the road, missing Emily's mischievous smirk.
"Now about that torture."
Paige groans as Beyonce's "Crazy In Love" fills the car.
June 31, 12 pm
Rosewood, PA
"You're not really leaving me with these two are you?!" Hanna exclaims.
"I'll pretend I didn't hear that." Aria mutters.
"No offense, but I sooo don't want to spend the summer with you and Spencer." She huffs as she plops down on Emily's bed.
Emily watches in amusement as her friends bicker, trying her best to stay out of it as she continues packing her bags. Paige and her were leaving in less than a week, giving them both enough time to get their things ready.
"I find that offensive." Aria retorts with a roll of her eyes.
"I'm sorry. But I don't want to spend my afternoons watching Pride & Prejudice with you and Ezra."
Spencer snorts as Aria frowns. "Okay we do not spend our afternoons watching Pride & Prejudice…we watch movies at night."
"Like that's any better." Hanna grumbles.
"Wait why don't you want to spend it with me?" Spencer questions.
"Because you'll probably spend it with your tongue down Toby's throat!"
Emily laughs as Spencer rolls her eyes, "Okay first of all that's not possible. My tongue is not that long. Second-"
"Hey."
They all turn as Paige hesitantly walks into Emily's room, waving at them. "Your mom let me in…I'm not interrupting am I?"
"Not at all." Emily walks over to her, kissing her lips softly, "You actually just saved us from a Hastings speech."
"Okay I find that offensive." Spencer huffs, clearly annoyed at being double teamed.
"Anyways you won't be alone Han." Emily points out, handing Paige a small black box. "You're spending the summer with Caleb in New York aren't you?"
Spencer narrows her eyes as she watches the exchange, Hanna and Aria too distracted to notice.
"Well yeah but he's not coming back from California until August. What am I suppose to do until then?"
Emily opens her mouth to reply, she feels bad for Hanna, she really does. But staying behind in Rosewood isn't something she wants to do. She's waited four years for this moment. For freedom.
As for the rest of the girls; Spencer was leaving for Spain in two weeks, in the meantime, like Hanna had pointed out, she'd probably spend every possible minute with Toby. Aria was staying behind with Ezra, but of course Hanna would feel like the third wheel. That left her about a month until Caleb came back, a month she'd have to spend either alone or with Aria. Or with Alison.
"What's that?" She looks as Spencer points at Paige's hands.
"It's a tracker." Paige twirls the small box between her fingers.
"It's not a tracker, exactly." Emily rolls her eyes at Paige's smirk. "It's a diagnostic system device. You plug it into the car and it monitors the mileage usage and-"
"And it shows our location on an app… that both Mr. Fields and my dad have on their phones." Paige smirks again, "So in other words, it's a tracker."
Spencer nods in understanding, "So that's what finally convinced them to let you two go on this roadtrip."
"Pretty much."
Paige had shown the device to their dads a few days ago. After days of failing to convince them to let them go, Paige had pulled an all-nighter googling ways to get them to agree. She stumbled upon the device just as she was about to give up. After an intense talk with their parents a day later, explaining in very precise detail how the device worked, they had finally agreed, trusting Paige and Emily to be responsible on the road. And of course making them promise to never remove the device.
"I'm gonna go install it in your car." She nods as Paige grabs her car keys, watching her girlfriend until she disappears down the hall.
"So it's really happening huh?" Spencer questions, her eyes fixed on Emily's smile, which hasn't left her lips since Paige arrived, "You and Paige on your way to Stanford."
"Ready to take over the Cardinals swim team." Aria adds.
Emily's sure her happiness is evident in her face. She wants this. She wants to spend the next four years swimming for Stanford, Paige by her side, both in and out of the water.
"Yeah, it really is happening."
Hope you guys like it, should I continue, yay or nay?
if yay, let's join Paily on a roadtrip yeah?
Tell me what you think :)
