Disclaimer: I do not own Pretty Little Liars. The only thing that is mine here is the idea for the plot, everything esle... Well, it's not.
There's a note at the end of the story, if you get there, check it out.
Enjoy.
Three days. Three days without hearing from her.
Emily stopped the time. Andrea Green: one minute, six seconds.
Three days without hearing from Paige. Not a word. Nothing. She thought things were going well. Paige was coming around, things were going very civil between them, two days after the fight, exactly 2 weeks ago, Paige texted her asking her how she was doing, with everything happening in her life right now, -A being after her and her friends and Spencer going to jail.
She stopped the time again, Marian Black: one minute, three seconds.
The fact that Paige texted her first just to check on her made Emily immensely happy, if she was honest, she thought she'd never heard of Paige again, so having any kind of communication with the girl was a winning. That night didn't end well, in fact that talk ended up in disaster, well, more than a talk was a shouting competition with no winner. But she couldn't actually blame Paige of how that night went, she knew she was responsible of Paige's pain, and to say she felt guilty was an understatement. Gladly, they have been texting each other and exchanging cordial greetings on the hallways, and things were going well until suddenly Paige stopped replying and she acted like she didn't see every time she tried to say hello on the halls, on swim practices. It was driving her crazy.
And she stopped her digital timer again. Jennifer Smith: Fifty seven seconds.
So, seeing her enter the locker room checking in as "present" for today's practice made her heart skip a beat. It wasn't usual that she took the times of the team; let alone run the entire practice on her own, but staring the practice the coach recived an emergency call and she said she needed to leave, but before she could cancel the season, Emily assured her that she was able to do it, she hesitated for a minute, but she caved when Emily asurred her she had it covered. Emily's chest felt heavy when looked up to see the last swimmer.
Her hand shook a little when she stopped the watch: Paige McCullers: Fifty one seconds.
She wrote down the time as the girls of team gathered around her, knowing Paige was the last; they just needed Emily to say the words and they could leave.
"Ok, guys! Good work today! "Emily called up the team" But keep it up! I wanna see shorter times. I may not be coach but I see only McCullers and Smith shorten their time this month" She checked with the board in her hands "Well done".
Only Jennifer Smith's voice replied"Thank you, Emily" Emily nodded, smiling "McCullers?" Emily asked looking around. All the girls looked at the pool "She's still in... But what's new? She's been staying after practice a lot lately" All the girls kept mumbling in agreement "Ok, I guess her work is paying off. Some of you could use the extra practice too, though; I don't want coach to think I was your rest day" Some of the girls chuckled at this "Get changed, see you all on Monday".
The girls started walking into the locker room, shower or started changing, Emily walked towards the little office while still taking notes in her clipboard. She saw through the little window all the girls leave, but not a sign of Paige. She sighed and kept on writing notes of how the practice went. After a while she noticed someone going into the showers and she stood up, walked to the lockers again and waited. It was all empty and quite, after a while she heard the sound of the shower going off. Minutes went by and she saw Paige coming. She had her jeans, a blue t-shirt and her face covered, drying her hair with a towel.
"Took you long enough" Emily said. Paige jumped at her voice.
"Oh, Emily, hi" Paige said slowly, looking surprised at the other girl's presence "What are you doing here?" Emily was sitting on the bench in front of her locker, with a little smile on her face, part because of how startled the girl seemed.
"Well… I am assistant coach. It's kind of my job." Emily said on a matter of fact tone.
"No, yeah, I know… I just imagined you would be gone by now, that's it" The swimmer took the towel she was drying her hair with and put it on her shoulder, looking around awkwardly.
"Imagined? With that expression in your face, try with "Hoped"" She stood up from the bench as the other girl opened her locker. Paige lowered her face for a moment. "What do you mean?"
"Paige, come on, I'm not stupid… You haven't replied to any of my texts and ignored all of my calls for the past days" She said crossing her arms and resting her weight on the lockers, looking at the other girl "I thought we were getting through this… We were finally starting to go somewhere… What happened? Did I do something wrong?"
"No... Em, you didn't do anything… It just that I needed some time, thta's it" She took her sport bag off her locker.
"Well, you could've told me that instead of straight up avoid me" Emily said calmly "I would have understood. I'll give you all the space you need just, please don't cut me off".
"Emily, it's just that I have been thinking about everything and..-" " Paige finally looked up to face the other girl "That fight is still playing in mind".
"And don't you think it's been affecting me too?".
"I'm not saying that"
"Then what are you saying? You think it's not killing me not being able to talk to you?".
"Oh, is it?"Paige dared.
"Of course it is! It's not easy to see you and know you hate me or to think that we could never have what we had. I miss you so much, Paige. And things happened and everything got so messed up, and I'm so sorry. I'm sorry our relationship is how it is and that I didn't fight hard enough for you… Things are so complicated" Emily voice was tremulous. Paige stared at her with a black expression. She took a breath before talking
"That's exactly the problem" Paige said, putting her towel in the bag and taking her team jacket out of it "It's always complicated, there's always something going on." She put the jacket on, zipping it up slowly "If it's not Mona dying or making our lives as miserable as possible, it's Spencer going to jail, or it's –A hunting you down, or it's someone trying to hurt you or both of us, or its friends hating me…. And if it's not all of that, there's always somebody else, Maya, or Samara or Alison…..I hate feeling that, for you, everything comes first than us...Than me" Emily felt her heart stopping at the girl's toneless voice "I'm just so tired of competing against everything and everybody else, Emily, especially if I seem to lose at the end eveytime".
Emily closed her eyes to prevent her tears from falling, but she felt Paige moving closer to her "You're not competing with anything, ok? You are not competing with anyone… You never have. I'm sorry that it felt that way, I never meant it" she opened her eyes and saw Paige staring at her like it was the first time she looked at her, seriousness showing all over her face " I made a mistake, Paige, I know that but if you let me I'll do anything to try to fix this, no matter how much effort or how long it takes" Paige blinked a noded.
"Good to hear that" Paige said after a few seconds of silence, she looked relaxed somehow but at the same time nervious, the corner of her mouth raising a little "You got a lot fixing to do... "
Emily looked expectant at Paige before looking down blushing, without even trying to fight the smile growing in her face. Her head snapped up again when she felt Paige's hand on her cheek.
"Remember what you said the moment you kissed me by the pool after I told you what happened the night –A drugged you?" Paige asked quietly.
The red on the taller girl's face got darker "Don't look away?"
Paige nodded, smiling "Don't look away, Emily… I did the night we fought and for the past three days and I regret it ".
And with that Emily moved to kiss her. The fireworks didn't appeared, the ground didn't disappeared and the time didn't stop….But damn the love was there, invading their bodies, stronger than either of them has ever felt it, draining the emotions into each other every time their lips moved, feeling the joy and happiness they didn't imagine could be felt. Emily wrapped her arms around Paige's waist, and as the other girl moved her hands to tangle her hair with her fingers while deepen the kiss, she swore she would never let go of Paige as long as she let her.
Ironically enough, said girl was the one to break the kiss to rest her forehead on hers. Emily saw she didn't open her eyes; it was like she was just tasting the moment and ,hell, so was she. That was their position for a long time, not that Emily cared, until a ringtone brought them back into the locker room they were actually in. Emily's smile grew bigger seeing how annoyed the paler girl got when she pulled away.
"Just a second" She said pulling her phone out of her pocket "It's just the coach….. Wanted me to remember to tell the team to join the choir group"
"To do what?"
"Built a spaceship" Emily got her phone again on her pocket, smirking "The Christmas presentation, what did you think?"
"Hey, there's no reason to get sassy" Paige said rising an eyebrow, smiling nevertheless "Are you singing?"
"I don't know" Emily bite her lower lip, for half a second "I mean I have to, I'm a on the choir but I guess I'm nervous"
"You shouldn't be, you've sang in public before" She shrugged.
"Yeah, with you" Emily replied timidly
"Well…. What if I sing with you? Would that help?" Paige smiled at her.
"Will you?" Emily asked hopefully, looking shocked at Paige's offer "Really?"
"Well, if it helps …."
"It will… A lot!" Emily shrouded her arms around Paige neck and kissed her softly. Boy, did she miss that feeling. "Thank you, it will help me it to have you there holding my hand" She whispered on the other swimmer's lips.
"It's not that easy, though" Paige said and Emily gave her a curious look.
"I'll only hold your hand if I do it as your girlfriend… For good this time".
Emily laughed "You're an idiot" she kissed her again.
"And you're rude" Paige laughed too.
"Let's go, it's getting late"
"Yeah" Paige closed her bag and Emily the door of the office, Emily took her hand and they walked out of the school to parking lot.
"I walked this morning" Emily said.
"Good thing I got my car today" Paige replied shaking her keys in her pocket "I'll drive you".
Emily smiled as Paige held open the passenger door, but halfway the car Paige stopped her.
"What?" Emily asked confused
"Just to be sure" Paige said seriously" You said yes, right?"
"To what?" Emily frowned
"Me holding your hand as your girlfriend" Paige said as it was obvious. And Emily shook her head her occurrences.
"Yes" She said stepping out completely and copping her now, really, without a doubt, girlfriend's face "I love you, Paige"
"I love you too, Emily" Emily smiled and kissed her again.
Well, yeah, that's it... I don't know how to fell about this.
Firts off, I know I said soon, I'm sorry I took so long with this, I swear I started writing this as soon I saw I was getting feedback, but I seriously got so stuck, I was blocked as fuck... Didn't know what to with it and didn't know how it was gonna end. I had like 4 different endings and plots for this but I though we have suffered enough on the show to have you guys suffering this fic too. I'm sorry if it sucks.
My first thought for this story was it to fit in the storyline of the show, that's why you see Emily being the assistant coach and the story taking place between 5x12 and 5x13,(Emily and Paige holding hands while singing with the choir) that have a month gap.
I want to thank eveyone who sent a review with the first chapter, thank you SO much. You have no idea what it meant to me. YOU ARE THE BEST. THANK YOU.
By the way is exactly 6:03 in the morning and I'm just finishing this, just for you all... So... Yeah, love for you all.
I'm also sorry for any mistakes or typos or shitty gramma or shitty writing, in this or in the previous chapter, still working on making my English better, and it sucks, even more at this hour.
Still not sure if this was actually any good. I'd like to know what you thought about it, even if you hated it, I'd like to hear it.
Thanks for reading.
-Alex-
