A/N: Hi there! Okay okay, deep breath... Welcome to my 2nd real Emison fic... :D Let's lay down some stuff...
First of all, if you don't know me, Hi! I'm Tana! I've written two other Emison things, one was an AU story, the other a PLL 100 One Shot :P
This is going to be my first canon Emison story. It starts around 5x05 and continues on... I'm going to do my best to include as much A and other drama things that happen in the show in this story as well. I might not keep this all exactly aligned to the PLL episodes, of course, but I'll try to kind of stay around the same things hopefully.
Now, if you haven't read any of my stories before, here are some helpful things to know!
Italics are thoughts/flashbacks/dreams, and in this story, journal entries.
Bolds are texts/emails/signs etc etc...
This story is going to be in 1st person. It'll probably stay strictly to Emily and Alison POV, but I may throw some others in there. Sometimes, a chapter will be strictly one POV, or sometimes it'll switch. When it does switch, it'll be signified by something like EEE or AAA. (For anyone who reads my newer Dantana stories, we're going back to LMLY/NLMG style haha ;P)
Right now, I'm only a chapter ahead of this. I may get a little further ahead so that I'm more comfortable, but basically, I'm always ahead of where you're reading. Therefore, if you suggest ideas and such, they may not always be able to be incorporated.
I'll try to update as often as possible. I have 2 Dantana stories and 1 Quinntana story also as WIPs on this site, so it's hard to balance between updating all of them... Updates should also stay around 2k words or so. Some will be longer, some a teeny bit shorter. Oh and by the way, you should at least get an update once a week, assuming I don't get writer's block.
Furthermore, I would just like to say that while the amount of review I get has no affect on my update speed, I do very much appreciate them. I give shoutouts to every 50th reviewer. Aka, 50th reviewer gets a shoutout, 100th, 150th... etc etc :)
I think that's it for my pre-story rambling... I hope you'll like this :)
Disclaimer: I do NOT own PLL!
PLEASE enjoy, favorite, follow and REVIEW!
"Emily, you okay?" Hanna asked me, giving me one of her concerned looks. I blinked and nodded that I was fine. The next look she gave me told me that she didn't believe me for a second. "Seriously, what is up with you, Em? You've been totally acting strange all day!"
"I'm fine," I insisted, shaking my head at my friend. "I just have a lot going on."
"Yeah, we all have a lot going on," Hanna reminded me. I gave her a look that I hoped sent the message that I wanted to drop this topic.
"What about this one?" came Alison's voice as she stepped out of the dressing room behind us. Hanna and I turned around to look at the outfit Ali was trying on.
"It's cute," Hanna announced, and I agreed only with a nod. Ali's eyes lingered on me for a moment, and then she smiled at Hanna.
"Good, I think I'll get it," she decided, before slipping back into the dressing room to change. I released a breath I hadn't known I'd been holding. Hanna raised an eyebrow at me, and I just shook my head. I didn't want to talk about this, at least not with Hanna.
Alison had asked me to come with her to help her finish shopping for new outfits, but once Hanna had heard of the shopping trip, she insisted that she come along. I wasn't going to be the one to object, because I didn't think that any one on one time between me and Ali was going to be very enjoyable at the moment. Ali hadn't objected either, but I had a sneaking suspicion that she would've much rather hadn't had Hanna along.
Alison had me so confused at this point. Two days, she told me that all of the kisses we shared, before she "died" and when she pulled me out of the barn, weren't just practice. She told me that my feelings for her hadn't ever been completely one sided.
And then when I slept over at her place, she told me that I was the hardest for her to leave behind. We kissed too, that night. It was better than any other kiss I'd ever shared with her, mostly because it lasted more than half a second. In fact, it lasted a pretty decent amount of time, enough time to make my lips swollen.
Nothing else had happened, though. We'd both stopped it, in a way, like both of us knew that we weren't ready to do something like that. I mean, I'd dreamed about for years, but now it just didn't feel right. Not when I still felt like I had no idea where I stood with Ali, even after her admissions.
Yesterday, we didn't speak a word of what had gone down the previous day. We found out that Ali had lied to us about slapping Mona, and she spent a good hour or so with me in my bedroom trying to convince me to forgive her. She tried to get a kiss out of me too, and I still wasn't sure if it was going to be a for real kiss, or a kiss to get out of me being mad at her.
All four of us stopped really being mad at her, though, when the News came on to tell us that the girl buried in Ali's grave had been identified. After the shocking news, when there were eight of us squished in my living room, Toby's house next door exploded.
"Ah!" came all of our screams as we flew forward, the sound of the explosion deafening us for a moment. Alison was still squeezing my hand, which I had to admit felt good, but she released it as we jumped up with everyone else.
"Is everyone okay?" Spencer exclaimed.
"What the hell was that?" Hanna demanded. We all exchanged concerned looks, and then we ran to my front door, ignoring the glass shattered on the floor. Once outside, we saw that Toby's house was clearly on fire.
"Toby… your house," Spencer muttered, her voice laced with fear. After another moment of silence, someone else spoke up.
It was Caleb. Why he was here, I wasn't sure. "Is anyone in there?"
Toby, taking initiative, ran toward the raging flames and smoke. Spencer let out a strangled scream as he did, but Aria grabbed her arm to keep her from running after him. We all held our breath, and in the distance, I could hear the blaring of sirens.
Then suddenly, all of our phones beeped and rang, giving us all a very unpleasant knowledge. We all exchanged knowing looks, and slowly retrieved our phones. Aria was the one to read out the message. "Did you miss me, bitches?"
Just as she finished talking, another explosion rang out as more glass from Toby's house flew out from the windows, we all screamed and stumbled backward. Alison grabbed my arm and we shared looks of concern.
The police came and asked us about the incident, while firemen went into the house. Most of us didn't have much trouble giving our answers, and I personally made sure that Alison didn't lie at all. Spencer, however, couldn't stop sobbing and asking the police and the firemen about Toby. They brought him out on a stretcher, saying that he was injured but that they should be able to keep him stable once they got him to the hospital.
We all went to the hospital with Spencer to support her, and once she found out that Toby was in stable condition, she insisted that we could all go home. We received no answers or details about the explosion from the police, though.
"Emily!" Hanna and Ali snapped, as Hanna waved her hand in front of my face. "What the hell is up with you?"
"I'm sorry. I was thinking about the explosion," I admitted, crossing my arms tightly over my chest.
"There's nothing we can do until the police tell us what exactly happened," Alison reminded me. "There's no point in thinking about it over and over."
"Of course there is, Ali! A blew up Toby's house!"
"Okay, we don't know for sure that it was A," Hanna said.
I gave her an incredulous look. "Are you kidding, Hanna? We got a text from A right before the house blew up for a second time!"
In a hushed, but angry, voice, Hanna hissed at me, "A is dead, Emily!"
"Guys, come on," Ali interrupted, giving us both nervous looks before she started off toward the cash register. Hanna and I followed her, and both of us caught each other looking around nervously, as if A might be spying on us right now. After Ali paid for her outfit, we left the mall completely, walking out into the parking lot. Ali and I had come in the same car, and Hanna in a her own car.
We were all silent as we headed toward them. Finally, Ali asked, "Can you guys come over?"
"Sure," I answered, having nothing better to do and hoping that Hanna would say that she could too.
"I can't," Hanna answered. "Sorry. I told Travis that I'd finally help him finish our project."
"Looks like it's just you and me, Em," Ali commented, giving me a soft smile that I did my best to return.
We both got into my car and I started our drive back to Ali's place. Now that I'd already agreed to coming over to her house, I couldn't rightly get out of it. I would just have to put up with this tension that didn't seem to want to go away.
Throughout the whole day of school earlier, I had done my best to not hang around any of my best friends, including Ali. I'd hung out with Paige and Sydney. It was easier to forget about all of the drama about A and Alison when I was with them. Plus, Paige and I were starting to get closer again. I wasn't exactly sure how to feel about that though.
"Em, are you okay?" Ali asked me. I blinked and zoned out of my autopilot, thanking whatever was out there that I hadn't crashed us.
"I'm fine," I flat out lied.
"Don't give me that, Emily," Ali commanded in the voice that used to be oh so intimidating to me. She let out a quick sigh afterward, though, as if realizing that she'd used that voice.
"I'm fine," I repeated.
"Come on, Em. You hate it when I lie," Alison reminded me, giving me a pointed look. I gave her a quick sideways glance and they refocused my eyes on the road. We were nearing her house.
"Yeah, but you still do it," I pointed out.
Ali let out a light breath. "Point taken." There was a moment of hesitation. "I'll stop lying to you, Em."
I felt a little bad when I rolled my eyes. "Ali, you feed off of lies."
Ali pursed her lips together, and I tried to ignore the guilty feeling in the pit of my stomach. It was only the truth. Ali loved to lie and she loved to see what she could get out of them. "Maybe, but I am changing you know."
"What about all of that stuff you said to Mona? Sure sounded like fifteen year old Ali," I recalled.
"I underestimated her. I thought that I could scare her into not messing with me. Clearly I was wrong. Emily, I promise I'm not like that anymore," Alison insisted.
"Well, you're still lying to the four of us, so as far as I can see, you actually are," I stated.
"Fine. I'm still a heartless bitch," Alison said, conceding. "Clearly nothing is going to change your mind. But you're not fine, and I want to know what's wrong so I can help you."
I pulled up in front of Ali's car, noting that her dad's car wasn't there. "What's wrong is that I don't know what's real and what's fake with you, Ali, and it's so damn frustrating!" I exclaimed, turning to face her over the center console.
Ali lowered her gaze for a minute and then met my eyes again. "I wasn't lying to you two days ago, Emily."
"How do I know that wasn't a lie?" I demanded.
"Emily—"
"It doesn't matter, Alison," I muttered. "Maybe we can hang out some other time."
Ali leaned back away from me a little bit. "Yeah, maybe," she agreed in a half hearted sort of way. She sure sounded like she was being honest about all of this, but then again, she sounded pretty honest when she told the cops that she was held hostage and blindfolded for two years.
She opened the passenger side door and slipped out, grabbing her bag of clothes as she did. Then she closed it without another word and headed up to her front door. I tried not to stare after her, I really did, but I couldn't help it. That was a force of habit, I guess.
I drove down the street to my house and pulled my car into the driveway. My mom was home, but she wasn't around when I walked inside, so I just went upstairs to my room. I needed some time to think and relax. Not that anyone could really relax around here. There was police tape surrounding Toby's house, and the mystery of who blew up the house was still standing.
Plus, I was once again terrified of my phone. A was back, and none of us had any idea who it was. We knew that Shana was dead— Aria wouldn't ever let us doubt it for a second. So who had taken over for Shana? Obviously, A had been Mona at one point, but would she so willingly take back that post? She was pretty good at ruining our lives as regular Mona as it was.
I searched my mind for anyone who would've wanted our lives to continue to be ruined. Honestly, I couldn't think of anyone who would hate us that much. Sure, Ali had done some pretty terrible stuff, but the rest of us hadn't really been half bad before all of this A stuff happened.
My phone started ringing, and my heart jumped into my throat when I heard it. Taking a shaky breath, I grabbed the device. It was just Hanna. "Hey, Han, what's up?"
"You with Ali? She's not picking up," Hanna told me.
"I— uh, no, I'm not. Something came up, I just dropped her off," I answered.
"Well do you think you could walk over there and tell her to pick up her damn phone?" Hanna asked.
"I can't Hanna," I snapped, and then I hung up. I didn't want to walk past Toby's house, for one, and I didn't want to see Alison right now. Actually, I couldn't see Alison right now. Obviously, my feelings for her were still there. Maybe even more so than before she "died". Maybe back then, small, weak Emily would've jumped at this chance to possibly be with Alison. But now, strong, brave Emily wasn't about to put herself in that kind of vulnerable position. It would take a lot of effort on Alison's part to convince me that she even ever liked me at all.
It wasn't like she would go through all that effort, though. I was almost positive that she wasn't. She just wasn't that kind of person.
I shook my head and let myself fall back against my pillow. I closed my eyes and tried to block out everything going on.
So that's just the start... :) The next chapter is in all Ali's POV, that way we can get a basic understanding of where both girls are right now :) After that, I'll start switching and stuff!
Like it? Hate it? Let me know in a quick little review if you don't mind :) If you don't like to review, you're welcome to PM me of course :) Also, you can follow me on Twitter at BrittzandTana as well :) Tweet me that you read this story and I'll follow you back :) I need to follow more Emison shippers anyway :D Also, if you're a guest, I tweet the link to every update right after I update ;D
It's getting late, and I think I'm finally going to go work out some, so I better go... :P Tell me what you guys thought!
Goodnight beautifuls! Please review =D *heart*