A/N: Hey everyone! I know what you're thinking "Is this the new Emison story that Tana said she was posting since she just ended Can't You See Me?" Well, the answer is no... I WILL post the new Emison story, but first, this is a little present I have for all of my Can't You See Me readers... actually, it's a present for everyone. The great thing about what I've done here is that... well..
I took every flashback from CYSM and combined them, putting them in order. I didn't use dates, but I used MM/YY dates, and each chapter will be a different months, and the flashbacks are all in order. The greatest part is, you DO NOT NEED TO HAVE READ CYSM TO READ THIS! It's a perfect little fluffy fic to read when you're bored, or CYSM readers can use it to recap and fill in all the little blanks without having to look at every chapter of CYSM to find the right flash back :)
So, I hope that you enjoy this present. You all deserve it after how amazing you've been to me. I love you all so much :)
I don't own the characters, but I do own the story that this is a sort of prequel to... Check out Can't You See Me if you haven't already :)
October 2010
Alison twisted her hands together, before checking herself in the mirror one more time. It was Friday—a week before Halloween. Swim practice had been canceled, and as Alison and Emily had been walking home, they had decided to meet at Emily's house to hang out after showering off from school at home.
Alison had no idea why things suddenly felt so different. Why looking at Emily made her smile—more than usual. She had a feeling, but she had no idea what Emily's take on the situation would be. What if Emily didn't feel any different?
It didn't matter, though, because Alison had no intention of saying anything about this new feeling she had.
Alison convinced her brother to drive her to Emily's house, because it was either that or walk through the cool air. Emily liked to bike everywhere, but Alison avoided bicycles like the plague. Plus, they always got her all sweaty. Though, Emily sweaty never really bothered Alison.
"Hey!" Alison exclaimed, bursting into Emily's bedroom. The brunette looked up at her with a smile.
"So guess what?" Emily asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Do I really have to guess?"
Emily shook her head. "You suck at guessing, so no. Coach emailed me and said that she cancelled practice so that she could reevaluate the team," Emily admitted.
"Does that mean what I think it means?" Alison asked.
"It means that I might be able to anchor on Tuesday's meet!" Emily exclaimed, grinning.
"If she doesn't pick you to anchor, I'm going to have a throw down with her," Alison threatened, "because you deserve it way more than those seniors."
Emily smiled. "So, wanna watch a movie?"
They decided on a movie to watch, but Alison spent most of it trying to ignore her random urge to grab Emily's hands and hold them tightly. Ignore it—and resist it.
After the movie, Emily asked if she wanted to watch another, and Alison came up with an excuse not to.
Then, after some thought, she asked Emily, "So, do you want to go to a haunted house with me tomorrow?"
"What? No way! I hate those things," Emily rejected.
"Emily… Come on, I promise that you'll have fun," Alison pleaded, smiling a hopeful smile at her best friend. Sure, Alison was confident that she could convince Emily to do anything, but that didn't mean that those things wouldn't take some pleading. "Em, it's not going to even be that scary!"
"Maybe not to you," Emily muttered, shaking her head. There was no way that she was going to any spooky Halloween parties or haunted houses. She hated Halloween, because she hated how freaked out she always got. Even if Alison was going to be there, Emily had a feeling that her best friend would just try to scare her even more.
"Emily," Alison whined, pouting her already so adorable lips. "You can't make me go alone or I'll get scared."
"Then we both won't go. We can stay home and watch funny scary movies and laugh instead of scream," Emily reasoned, though she knew it was in vain. She couldn't say no to Alison, not without feeling horribly bad, anyway.
"Please," Alison begged, grabbing Emily's hands and squeezing them. Emily let out a sigh as her eyes naturally rolled at her best friend.
"Fine," she agreed. "Why is the haunted house tomorrow, though? Halloween isn't until next week."
"Well obviously, it's tomorrow so that we can still go trick-or-treating next week," Alison answered, releasing Emily's hands.
"Do we even want to go trick-or-treating? Do freshmen even still do that?" Emily asked. Being new to high school, she still wasn't sure what exactly was no longer a "high-school thing".
"Of course they do. It's an excuse for everyone to stuff their face with candy and to scare little kids," Alison reasoned. "It'll be just as fun as it was when we were littler, except now, the people passing out candy will actually give us the big chocolate bars since we're in high school."
Emily just smiled. "Whatever you want, Ali."
Alison smiled proudly. "I'll see you tomorrow, Emily."
That night, Alison found herself crawling into her bed and wishing that her hands were still wrapped around Emily's. It hadn't ever really occurred to her how soft Emily's hands could be—maybe even softer than her own. It actually scared her a little bit, to feel the way she felt herself starting to feel… in fact, it scared her a hell of a lot more than a little bit. She was terrified.
Saturday found Alison at Emily's house at eight in the morning, shaking her awake. A groan emitted from Emily. "What the heck, Ali?"
"Get up! We have to go buy costumes for the haunted house tonight!" Alison exclaimed, as though it were obvious.
"How the hell did you get in here this early on a Saturday?" Emily muttered, sitting up as Alison sat herself down on the end of Emily's bed.
"Your mom gave me a key weeks ago, Em," Alison answered, smirking. "Now, get up and get dressed, we need to go shopping!"
"How do you suppose we do that?" Emily questioned. "Need I remind you that we still can't drive?"
Alison's expression fell as she sighed. "You make a valid point. Do you think your mom will get up and take us to the mall?"
Emily gave Alison an "are you serious?" look. "Have you met my mother?" Emily grumbled. "She hates Halloween even more than I do." Alison sighed and collapsed backwards across Emily's bed.
"We have to dress up. It's a Halloween Haunted House," Alison groaned, sounding genuinely disappointed.
"What did you want to dress up as?"
Alison thought for a second, and then she smirked. "I saw a Black Widow costume online the other day. I could probably pull it off, even though I'm not nearly as flawless as Scarlett Johansson." Alison actually had been interested in that costume, though she had mentally labeled it as too obviously sexy. Alison didn't really like drawing too much attention to herself, especially if it meant people would think she was a whore.
"I can see it," Emily teased. "We'll have to call Marvel and tell them we found a perfect Black Widow."
Alison felt her cheeks heat up as she laughed. Her hand rose to one of her warmed, pink cheeks as she sat up. Dropping her hand as she looked to Emily, she sighed. "So what are we going to do for costumes?"
They spent a good portion of the morning going through Emily's wardrobe and turning whatever they could find into costumes. The end results weren't perfect or really anything specific, but they were pretty impressive—considering that they came from Emily's closet.
After their costumes were picked, it was past lunch time and they managed to convince Pam Fields to drop them off at the Grille, with their costumes in bags. That way, they could walk to where the haunted house was whenever they felt like it.
They had lunch and spent the afternoon just walking around the middle of Rosewood and hanging out. When it was time to go to the Haunted House, and it was starting to get dark, they changed into their costumes and headed toward the park where the whole Haunted House was set up.
It was more of a Halloween Carnival with a Haunted House at its center—something that Emily desperately tried to avoid. She dragged Alison to play nearly every carnival game with her in the hopes that it would get late and they wouldn't be able to go to the haunted house. Alison, though, had a different idea. She really wanted to go into the haunted house at least once and, of course, she wouldn't go without Emily by her side. After much arguing and batting of eyelashes, Alison finally got Emily to tag along with her into the haunted house.
Emily full on braced herself as she walked into the Haunted House, Alison by her side. It started off silent, which Emily recognized as not a good thing. Only a few steps in, she began to hear creepy noises coming from around them as they followed the directed path. Light were flashing, revealing that the setup was actually intended to look like an old, creaky, haunted house. That did nothing to ease Emily's fear.
She wasn't sure when she had started shaking, but she did know that whenever it was that Alison took her hand, she stopped. After about ten minutes of slowly making their way around fake dead bodies and skeletons and ghosts and trying to ignore the creepy sounds of witches laughing and people screaming, Emily was sure that it was almost over. They opened a door into another room that was brightly lit, and as soon as they closed the door, the lights went off completely.
Emily, in complete honesty, was terrified, and gasped so loudly that it may well have been a scream. She had no idea which way out was as Alison started to lead her into the room. "Come on, Em, it's not that scary. It's just a dark room."
They heard spooky wind sounds, like ghosts almost, and Emily clenched her jaw to try and keep herself from whimpering. Nevertheless, Alison noticed that Emily was so scared, and suddenly, she was being pulled toward what she presumed to be the side of the room. Once they stopped, Alison took both of Emily's hands in her own, like she had the previous day.
Emily could barely see Alison's lips move as she started to talk. "Don't be so scared. None of it is real."
"I know," Emily muttered, "but it's still terrifying."
"What about it is so bad?" Alison wondered out of her pure curiosity and the hope that she could somehow make this less scary for her best friend.
"I don't know. Not having any control over what's going on, I guess," Emily admitted, looking around in the darkness and wondering if anyone else was around. Not that it would matter, though. No one at Rosewood High really even knew that Emily or Alison existed.
"Sometimes it's good when we don't have any control," Alison said slowly, suddenly aware of how close her body was to Emily's. They weren't even an arms length from one another.
"No, I think it sucks to not be in control," Emily argued. "You have no control over how you feel, or how you react, or what anyone else does. What bothers me the most is the first one, though. I don't have any control over how I feel when I'm scared or how I display how I feel. Maybe it's just because I hate feeling lame because I'm scared."
"I don't think you're lame," Alison whispered, smiling and pulling Emily slightly closer to her. Now, their fronts were almost completely touching, and Emily noticed the proximity as well. Instead of making her any sort of uncomfortable, though, she felt her breath quicken its pace. "Plus, I promise you that you secretly love to not be in control."
"What are you talking about?" Emily asked.
And that's when it happened. Emily felt soft, warm lips press softly and tentatively to her own, and her eyes flickered closed by instinct. Emily moved her lips back against Alison's slowly, and that seemed to tell Alison that this was okay. The blonde pushed her body completely against Emily's, giving them both tingles even though they were completely clothed. Alison's arms wrapped around Emily's waist and fiercely moved her lips against the brunette's.
Emily had felt her friendship with Alison evolving, but she hadn't thought about what it would feel like to do this. She tried to kiss Alison back as firmly as Alison was kissing her, but then the blonde poked her tongue out of her mouth and into Emily's. Emily was not in control at all, and she couldn't have cared less. All that mattered in that moment was Alison and Alison's hands on Emily's body.
And for the first time in her life, Emily felt strangely whole.
For the first time ever, but definitely not the last, Emily let herself be taken over by Alison DiLaurentis in their kiss. In that dark room in the middle of the haunted house.
For the first time, Emily felt a feeling in her chest like she was falling, but in the best way possible.
Like maybe, she was falling in love.
The following chapters will have no A/Ns, because I'm posting them all at once. I hope you all enjoy :) Drop a review or send me a PM if you feel like it? :)
