Authors note:

Hey guys! Thanks for coming back to check out the next chapter of this story!

Thank you to..

Chobits3, SincerelyYours27, LoeyLoLo, PLLLOVER315, leon7272 and guest for your reviews and thank you to all my new followers :)

Enjoy...

Chapter Two

"Hanna, I told you-" Emily's words were lost.
"Hi Emily"
Emily couldn't speak. Her words were lost as she looked into the most beautiful eyes she's ever seen. Realizing she still hadn't said anything Emily swallowed hard before finding her words.
"Ali- um Alison, what are you doing here?"

Alison stood frozen. Everything she was about to say forgotten as she stared into the most amazing brown eyes she has ever seen, scanning the girl standing in the doorway. Long brown hair, her beautifully tanned skin on that amazing body, her perky bre-.

"Ali?" Emily said while her eyebrows bend in confusion, wringing her hands in front of her while taking a deep breath, trying her best to keep herself together "What are you doing here?".

The blonde snaps back into reality realizing she still hasn't said a word. Her cheeks turn rosy as she swallows hard while fumbling with the books in her hand. Looking down she finally answers the girl in front of her. All courage she built up on her way over to her former friends house has now diminished.

"Oh, um sorry. I um... noticed you weren't in class" the blonde takes a chance as she glances up into Emily's eyes telling herself not to lose her train of thought, the last thing she wants to do is make an even bigger idiot of herself. "Mr. Fitz says we have a test tomorrow and he went over a lot of the material today in class. I thought maybe I could help you study?"

Emily notices a glimmer of hope in Alison's eyes as though she is silently begging her to welcome her inside.
"Oh… um sure. Thanks." The brunette says apprehensively as she moves out of the way for the blonde to enter. Emily slowly closes the door behind them, pausing while facing the door as the latch clicks. Afraid to turn around and mentally questioning everything that is happening in this moment, wondering if she had fallen asleep on the couch and this was all a dream. Why did Alison show up on her doorstep today of all days? Why did she care to come help her study? Why is she even talking to her at all? Emily gasps for air as she realizes she's been holding her breath this entire time.

"Em… Emily? Are you ok?" the blonde asks as Emily slowly turns around. Emily flashes Alison a tight lipped smile.

"I'm ok" she replies as she starts to make her way to the kitchen with Alison following slowly behind glancing into the living room to see Emily had been using her favourite blanket, drawing a small smile upon her face.

"Can I get you a drink?" Emily asks as she reached for two waters from the fridge.
"Thanks" Alison grabs the water from the brunette's hand as she takes a seat next to her at the breakfast counter.

The blonde starts to open her books before side glancing Emily, catching her looking at her intensely.

"Why did you come here?" Emily asks without taking a single breath between her words, making sure to get them out before they were lost.

"I told you Em, we have a test tomorrow and I knew you needed the notes from today or you would probably fail." she answered in a way that made it sound as though she she was trying to convince herself.

Alison glances down at her paper before flashing her crystal blue eyes in Emily's direction.
"So the test is obviously on Great Expectations. Mr. Fitz gave us a bunch of practice questions. Why don't I ask you all the questions and we can see which answers you need to study? "
"Sounds great" Emily replies with a smile. The girls go through 5 pages of questions, however Emily seems to be struggling with answering every question. To anyone it may seem as though Emily hasn't even read the book, but the truth is, every time Alison spoke to her she would get lost in the other girls beauty, forgetting what was even being asked.

Alison helped Emily with all of the answers until she was sure Emily finally understood it.
"Okay, last question. Complete the following quote." Alison took a deep breath before staring deep into the brown eyes in front of her. ""I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace…."

Emily swore her heart was going to beat out of her chest as she continued where the blonde left off "... against hope, against happiness, against-"

"Hey girls! Wow, Alison! Long time, no see! Emily, can you please help me with these bags?" Both girls jump as Pam Fields drops a bunch of grocery bags on the counter.

Emily stands up and starts to empty one of the bags as Pam looks to Alison with a smile as she sees Alison quickly gathering her books.

"Would you like to join us for dinner? I always make more than enough"

Alison glanced at Emily who had stopped midway putting a can in the cupboard, her back to the two women, leaving Alison unable to read Emily's face in response to her mother's question.

"Thank you so much for the invite Mrs. Fields but I really should get home. I need to take my dog for a walk before it gets dark. Maybe next time" as she flashes Emily a soft smile as the tanned girl turns around.
"See you tomorrow Em" Alison says as she quickly leaves the kitchen.

Emily stands frozen before realizing the other girl is no longer in the room. She rushes to catch the girl walking down the steps to her front porch.
"Alison, wait!" she yelled as she quickly caught up to the girl who turned around slowly.

"I just wanted to say thank you for coming to help me study" as she tucks her hands into the pockets of her skinny jeans.

Alison smiles at the other girl, her eyes briefly glancing down to the girl's lips.

"Anytime. Have a good night Emily."

Emily walks back into the kitchen as her mother is starting to chop vegetables.
"That was a surprise. I thought you and Alison haven't been talking much lately."

Emily grabs a carrot and studies it as though it's a foreign object.
"We haven't been."

Pam studies Emily's face, looking for some sort of indication of how the girl is feeling. Emily senses her mother's eyes on her and throws the carrot onto the counter.
"I'm not feeling too great. I'm going to go to bed early tonight." She rounds the counter and kisses her mom on the cheek, "Goodnight".

"Goodnight Emmy", her mother says as she pulls the girl in for a hug.

Emily just laid in bed staring at the ceiling, thoughts running rapid through her head. She closed her eyes tight trying to clear her mind, but all that did was make the thoughts more vivid, a memory of a happier time spent with Ali played through her mind like a movie.

"Em, This place i'm bringing you to is very special. There is no one else in this world I would share this with. There's a story about this place you know." Ali said as she looked deep into my eyes. It feels like we are the only two people in the world. I'm trying to answer her but words won't come out, at least I can manage a smile. Alison sits on a large rock in the middle of the dark woods, patting the spot beside her as she starts to talk.
"People have been sneaking off to the kissing rock for hundreds of years. Can't you feel the ghosts of other lovers, spying on us. Pushing us to do it? You know you should never disappoint a ghost." My palms are sweating and I really hope Ali can't see how pink my cheeks are. I see her start to lean in towards me, I close my eyes and meet her halfway. I feel her soft lips on mine and the world disappears.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

"Ugh!" Emily grabs her phone and hits snooze before looking at the time realizing at some point last night she had finally fallen asleep. She grabs a quick shower and dresses in her favourite plaid shirt and jean skirt. She checks herself out in the mirror before grabbing her bag and heading downstairs.

"Hey mom!"
"Morning Emmy, are you feeling any better?" Pam asks as she takes a sip of her coffee.
"A bit" she answers with a smile as she grabs a banana off the counter before walking over and kissing her mom on the forehead.
"I gotta run, have a good day. Love you"

"Love you too sweetheart. Good luck on that test today."

Emily locks her bike up to the rack outside of the school and walks over to her usual spot to wait for her friends, who, more often than not, show up just as the bell is ringing. As she is waiting, she looks up to see the bird's nest is absent of the mother bird. She walks over and peers in to see 4 turquoise eggs. She smiles thinking how they look just like cadbury mini eggs.

Suddenly she feels two hands covering her eyes.

"Morning Hanna, glad to see you actually showed up before the bell-". The hands are removed from her eyes as she turns around to see another beautiful blonde standing in front of her.

"Alison, oh wow sorry. I totally wasn't expecting that to be you." Emily says with a laugh. "Don't you normally get here later. And in a much nicer mode of transportation?"

Alison laughs as she tucks her hair behind her ear.
"Oh! You mean Cece? She's my cousin who was taking some winter classes at Holis. She was staying with us while she was going to school and would give me a ride on her way in, however, she is done now so I am back to riding this piece of shit bike." she says as she kicks the tire of her bike.

"Well at least i'm not the only one without a car or license" the brunette says with a chuckle.

"Walk with me?" Alison says with a smile that stretches up to her eyes. Emily looks around to see if she can spot Hanna, Aria or Spencer. When none of the girls are in sight she looks back to Alison.

"Sure" she says as she starts to walk.

On their way to class Alison takes a deep breath and looks straight ahead as she speaks.
"Em, um, I know you probably have a lot of questions for me." Alison hears Emily make a scoff noise that confirmed what she was saying.
"I know we need to talk, I mean, if you want to. I was wondering if maybe we could go for coffee after school to… you know.. talk?" both girls come to a stop as they reach Emily's locker. Emily thinks about what is being asked and looks at Alison, using whatever courage she can muster.
"I'll think about it. Ok?" the brunette says with a gentle smile.

"That's all I can ask" Alison responds " I'll see you in English" she says as she walks away with less confidence than usual.

As soon as Alison is out of sight, Emily closes her locker and presses her forehead against it. As soon as she starts thinking about what just happened she hears a familiar voice behind her.
"We thought maybe you were sick again today when we didn't see you outside" Aria said as she leans against the locker next to Emily's.

"Are you sure you're feeling better?" Spencer questions as she eyes the way Emily is standing against her locker with her forehead against the cold metal.

"How come you didn't wait for us?" Hanna asked.

Emily breathes out as she turns to place her back against her locker. Staring straight ahead she answers completely monotone.

"Alison"

"Alison what, Em?" Hanna said her voice full of curiosity.

"Alison came over last night. She showed up on my doorstep asking to help me study. This morning she wanted to walk into the school with me. And then she said she wanted to go for coffee and talk. And did you know she has a dog?!" Emily barely got the last few words out as she slid down her locker to find herself sitting on the floor with her knees pressed against her chest.

"That's great Em! Isn't that exactly what you wanted?" Hanna kneels in front of Emily as she speaks "Why do you seem unhappy about this? Also no, I had no idea Ali got a dog"

"It's… complicated." the brunette looks at her blonde friend. She grabs onto her hand and gets up pulling Hanna with her "Let's get to class".

The rest of the school day flies by until Emily is walking into her English class, remembering in this moment that they had that test today. She sighs as she takes her seat noticing Alison sitting a couple seats ahead of her writing on a piece of paper. All the brunette can focus on is how beautiful the blonde in front of her is. She can't help but smile. Mr. Fitz is handing out the test sheets as Emily see`s a folded up piece of paper magically appear on her desk. She looks around before slowly opening the note reading
"So coffee? Yes or No?"

Emily smiles as she writes her decision quickly before shoving the note into her pocket as the teacher drops the test on her desk.

Not surprisingly, Alison finishes her test about 20 minutes before Emily. Since this was the last period of the day students were allowed to go home once their test was complete. Because of this, Emily was quite shocked to see Alison still standing at the bike rack as she approached.

"Hey! I'm surprised you're still here" the brunette calls out as she approaches the blonde, "Is something wrong with your bike?" she asks as she notices the blonde looking frustrated.

"Ugh, yes. This stupid kickstand is stuck down and I can't ride it home like this." she says as she kicks the bike.

Emily laughs as she puts her hands on the handlebars and kicks back as hard as she can against the kickstand, pushing it back into the correct smiles as she puts her hand over Emily's.
"Ah thank you, Em. You're a lifesaver."

Emily pulls her hand away once she registers Alisons touch and gently passes the bike back to the girl.
"It's no problem it all" she says with a tight lipped smile.

Emily then unlocks her bike and hops onto it ready to ride away. Before she does she turns to Ali, digs into her pocket pulling out the note and hands it to the blonde, riding off before the other girl can even register whats happening.

Alison sadly looked down at the crumpled note she held in her hand. She is sure that the answer must be no since Emily just rode away, she unfolds it slowly, a smile creeps across her face as she see's the words she wrote in front of her.

So coffee? Yes? Or No?

And below it in Emily's perfect handwriting…

The Brew 4:30

Authors Note:

Wow! Okay so we know something went down between these two and clearly neither girl is over it! What do you think got in the way of their friendship? Let me know your guesses and I am almost done writing the next chapter, and I can tell you, it will be revealed!

Don't forget to let me know what you think!

Thanks again to my friend and amazing writer LoeyLoLo for your assistance with editing this chapter! Check out Hand in Hand and Don't You Remember, you won't regret it!

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