A few shout-outs to start off Chapter Two.

jtbush09- Sorry, hon, but you have to wait for updates just like everyone else. Thanks for being so amazing with my hectic life and supporting another passion (aside from my three angels).

Me A Genius- Thanks for reading; this chapter took quite awhile to write because of some personal issues. However, you gotta love the ideas that come to you at work, huh?

Jbo87- Thanks for approving the start of this story. I wasn't sure if it was gonna be any good. You're such a great RP twin and I wouldn't replace you for a million RP bucks!

pailypride- Thanks for being my sounding board, love! You know more about the story than anyone else. ;-)

OK, so I know that you all had a massive wait for this chapter. I tried to get it out before the beginning of November, which was the start of NaNo. I failed it, by the way, for the second time. I do want to point out that as I work on the chapters, I will post little quotes or scene hints on my Twitter account. You can find me at Lawral82

Kisses!

Chapter Two

Emily entered the classroom vehemently. She had been looking all morning for Paige; as of yet, the brunette had been able to avoid her. During third period, however, there would be no place to hide. Not when she had to share a desk with Emily for an hour. After her departure from the Brew, Emily had searched the empty sidewalk in search of Paige's car.

"Excuse me," Jenny Dover said, coming up behind Emily in the doorway.

Wordlessly, the former swimmer walked further into the room and deposited her bag on the table she'd shared with Paige the morning before. Emily pulled out a notebook and began to write down the daily event from the board as the classroom filled.

The bell rang suddenly and Emily's gaze fixed on the door as two stragglers tried to inch in the doorway while Ms. Sawyer got to her feet. Paige was nowhere to be seen.

"Alright, I am assuming that you all have read over your folders. I am also going to assume," She hinted, throwing a smile at the two students who had just glided into their seats. "That you have all written down the daily event and will keep it in mind as..."

Emily tuned out the rest of the day's lesson as she continuously glared toward the vacant seat to her right.

The hour past incredibly slowly as she continued to look toward the empty chair as if Paige would materialize out of nowhere. Emily exited the lunch line and looked around the lunchroom. She had sworn she'd seen Paige's Prius in the parking lot that morning.

"Earth to Emily," Spencer voice sounded from her left.

"Huh?" Emily said, turning her attention to her friend.

"I asked if you were going to sit with us or if you planned on standing here all period."

Emily stepped in line with Spencer as they made their way toward the usual table they shared with Hanna and Aria. Sitting down, Emily twisted the cap off of her water bottle but looked among the faces of the lunch room.

"Looking for someone in particular?" Spencer smirked, twisting the cap from her juice.

"Huh?" Emily asked again, turning to face Spencer.

Spencer snickered, choking on her juice for a moment.

"Whoa, easy, Spence." Aria said as she set her tray down. "Juice is to drink, not inhale."

Spencer narrowed her glare as she coughed a few more times. Aria smiled brightly in return as she sat down and removed the cover of the salad on her tray.

"So, why is Emily trying to choke you to death?"

"Emily's doing what?" Hanna asked, taking the remaining seat next to Emily.

The three looked silently at Emily, who was continuing to look around the filling lunch room. Spencer started smirking as Hanna and Aria looked in the same direction as Emily.

"She's looking for Paige." Spencer supplied as the two returned their questioning gaze to her.

"Remind me," Hanna spoke. "Wasn't she freaking out, just yesterday, about being married to Paige?"

Aria watched as Emily scanned a few tables filled with members of the swim team. "Apparently, that was yesterday."

The tiny brunette reached across the table to gain Emily's attention, grinning when she made a questionable grunt. "How was your date yesterday?"

"It wasn't a date." Emily groaned, picking up the burger from her plate.

"Then why are you looking for Paige?" Hanna countered.

"I'm not looking for Paige." Emily mumbled.

"Alright, Pinocchio, I think I just saw your nose grow." Spencer smiled.

Aria looked at Emily closely. Her brow was furrowed, her mouth was slightly agape as her bright eyes roamed over the features of every single person in the room. She knew the look on her friend's face very well after the past year.

"Em, is everything alright?"

"I'm fine," Emily answered vaguely.

"That's great," Spencer said, also noticing the familiar face of her best friend. "But that's not what she asked."

Emily finally caught sight of Paige sitting at a table outside in the courtyard. Her normally gorgeous brown hair had been thrown into a messy pony, she'd layered a red plaid shirt over a white t-shirt spattered with light blue specks of paint. Emily made note that the color seemed to match that of her bedroom walls. In all honesty, Paige looked defeated as she pushed her fork around the plate in front of her. She barely looked up as someone passed by, seemingly having greeted her in passing. The smile from yesterday had vanished from the swimmer's features; Emily found herself missing how Paige's smile seemed to light up her eyes. It had been weeks since she'd seen the light in Paige's eyes, yesterday had been close but not like she was used to.

She watched as Paige pulled the blue, floppy folder from her bag and set it in front of her before opening the cover and reading. The empty chair next to her in their Economics class suddenly reminded her that she had been searching to speak with the girl all day; and Paige had skipped the one guaranteed opportunity Emily had.

"I'll be right back," Emily announced, never taking her eye off of Paige.

"And there she goes," Spencer commentated in monotone, as Emily got up from the table and walked briskly toward the lunchroom doors.

"Where the hell were you?"

Paige closed her eyes briefly at the sound of the voice above her. Immediately she scolded herself for coming to school at all after what had happened yesterday. The fork in her hand was still plunged into the visually disgusting casserole that she'd been served for lunch. Instead of answering, Paige removed the fork and pushed her tray away slightly before turning and looking up to Emily for a moment.

"Why weren't you in class?" Emily confronted.

Paige shrugged a single shoulder before gazing down at the folder again, closing it and trying to slide it off the table without Emily noticing. "I skipped."

"Yeah, I got that."

Paige exhaled softly; she could hear the pain and anger in Emily's voice. The toned former athlete took a seat next to Paige. Emily had positioned herself so her gaze bore into the side of Paige's face; her gaze never faltered or deviated as she waited somewhat impatiently for the swimmer to look at her.

"Why?"

The courtyard suddenly felt as if it was suffocating. Or perhaps it was the conversation that seemed to be suffocating to her. There had only been once in which she'd lied to Emily, and even that was debatable. If there was one thing that she did pride herself in when it came to Emily, she'd never flat-out lied to the girl.

Paige turned to face Emily, looking straight into her angry chocolate orbs. "I skipped because of you."

Emily recoiled visibly as if Paige had literally smacked her across the face. Her brows furrowed even further as pain replaced her anger. What did Paige mean, she had skipped because of Emily? "Me?"

"Yes," Paige said matter-of-fact. "I knew that you'd want to talk about yesterday and... Alison."

Emily grazed her eyes over Paige's unkempt appearance once more. The swimmer had really came into her own skin after coming out; she didn't have to suffer in girly outfits that she thought would help hide her secret, however she had her own style that still involved accessories. Today, Paige's neck was bare and the studs in her ears were simple- the same ones from the day before.

"I don't want to talk about Alison." Paige shrugged again, turning her attention back to the lunch plate. She picked up her fork and returned to stabbing at the casserole.

"She was just trying to-"

"I know what she was doing," Paige interrupted, looking up to Emily once more. "How was the movie?"

Emily looked confused for a moment. Then it hit her; Alison had been tormenting Paige by asking her to a movie moments before the girl had practically ran from the coffee shop. "I didn't go. Look, I'm really sorry..."

Her words faltered as Paige held up a hand to stop her. The girl had thrown her napkin on the uneaten lunch, got to her feet and gathered the tray. "You aren't the one who should apologize for what Alison does. She never will and we both know that if she did apologize, it would all be a lie."

"Paige-" Emily tried once more.

"I got to go. Bye, Emily."

Emily watched as Paige dumped her tray into the nearest trash can and, instead of going inside the lunchroom doors, turn the corner that would take her to the student parking lot. She'd never seen the girl so detached. Even after Nate and Garrett... Paige had dealt with some PTSD but Emily hadn't ever seen her following Alison's bullying.

"I was willing to do much worse to myself."

Emily leaned against the headboard of her bed, her Econ book propped up against her knees. She had tried for nearly an hour to concentrate on the reading assignment but her mind kept drifting to Paige's excuse for skipping class. Why did Paige have to know her so well? All she had wanted to do was make sure that Paige was alright after being unwillingly confronted with Alison.

Alison had been trying to call her since the day before without success. Emily didn't know what to say. She'd never stood up to Ali before; she was sure that Alison would yell back at her the way she did when Spencer clashed with the blonde. As angry as she was, Emily was certain that she couldn't handle Ali yelling at her. She had just gotten her best friend back. Alison had promised she'd changed.

Next to her, the tiny screen on her cell phone lit up. Alison's smiling face looked up at her. Emily sighed as she picked up the device and pressed the green talk button. "Hey."

Spencer pulled into the parking lot. Emily hadn't returned to the lunch table after she'd gone to the courtyard to talk to Paige. None of the girls had been able to talk to Emily about what had happened and Paige had gone missing. She hadn't realized how little she knew about her best friend's girlfriend until she'd set out to talk to her. Paige hadn't been found at her house, the Brew or the woods that Emily had mentioned she ran. As she had been driving back through town on her way to the Grille, she'd found Paige's car in the student lot of the school.

Spencer found the door to the natatorium unlocked; Paige must have returned to school for practice and stayed over. As she walked into the pool area, Spencer was rewarded with the image of the object of her search gliding through the water effortlessly.

She made her way toward the edge of the pool and stood watching. Spencer had seen Paige swim during the few times she'd gone to cheer Emily on. It appeared that Paige was swimming leisurely.

"I thought you and Emily fought over that anchor spot," She yelled out as the brunette reached the far end. "Don't you have to be fast to be anchor?"

Paige turned, smiled lightly and swam over to the side of the pool to lift herself out. She picked up her towel and wrapped it around her shoulders. "Emily's not here."

Spencer had crossed her arms over her chest as she strode toward the swimmer and nodded her head slightly. When she'd tried to call Emily, her call had gone unanswered. "Yeah, I know."

On her way to the school, Spencer had seen Emily's car sitting outside of the Grille. Through the window she'd noticed a familiar blonde sitting across from the raven-haired athlete. Alison.

"I came to see you actually." Spencer continued.

Paige had thrown her track-suit jacket on and stuffed her hands deep into the pockets as she stood opposite her ex's best friend. "Why?"

Spencer shrugged. "You dated my best friend for months; it kind of makes us friends, right?"

It had taken a few weeks and near death for Paige to be exonerated as a possible A suspect. Since then, her relationship with Emily's friends had been mostly 'by association.' There hadn't been many instances where she was faced with one of the girls without Emily at her side.

"I couldn't help but notice how distracted Emily was today." Spencer said, testing the waters. "Especially at lunch."

Paige lowered her gaze. First Emily had ambushed her and now Spencer. Would Hanna and Aria be camped out on her doorstep next?

"It was nothing." Paige said as she gathered her few items.

Spencer stepped forward and reached her hand out to the other girl's arm. "Paige... Did something happen yesterday? At the Brew?"

"Before or after Alison showed up and pretended I didn't exist?" Paige asked, her tone a bit harsher than she'd realized.

It suddenly all made sense to Spencer. Emily was searching for Paige because Alison had most likely been her typical grade-A-bitchy self. She watched as Paige threw her goggles and swim cap into her bag and tossed the slightly moist towel over her shoulder.

"Before: it was great." Paige admitted. "We were reading over the folder and she was smiling.:

The image of the few moments between when they'd moved closer together and when Alison had announced herself had been bittersweet, creating a smile and soft blush to cross Paige's face.

"Then Alison came up and asked Emily out. Right in front of me."

Spencer sighed, "She only did that to get a rise out of you."

"Well it worked." Paige said forcefully, before taking a deep breath and dropping her gaze from Spencer once more. "I left."

"You left?"

Paige nodded. "I couldn't sit there and listen to Alison pretend as if Emily and I were never more than friends."

Spencer stood. silently studying the brunette in front of her. Back when they'd played field hockey together, Paige had been fierce. She didn't let anyone push her around the field and gave as well as she took. Then she'd quit playing. It had never occurred to her that Alison's torment had probably caused the sudden disappearance of the tough player Paige had been.

Without warning, Spencer pulled Paige by the shoulders into a bone-crushing hug. Three years ago it hadn't mattered who they'd hurt; Alison DiLaurentis had taken her out of obscurity and made her popular. It wasn't until last year that she'd wished she could take back all the horrible things that she'd done as part of Alison's posse. The people that Ali had tormented were actually pretty great people and very loyal friends.

"Don't give up on her, Paige." Spencer said as she felt the girl's arms lift slowly, awkwardly up to her elbows. "She loves you; anyone with eyes can see it."

Paige grinned lightly, not really happy about the pity pep-talk she was receiving. Spencer pulled away from the hug and smiling, a playful glint in her eyes.

"I bet Jenna can even see it."