Thanks for all the awesome encouragement. Comment with anything you'd like to see. I have a pretty good idea of where I want this to go but I'm pretty much just going along with where it takes me until I get there. I hope I'm doing this justice. It's my first fanfic and I'm doing everything from my phone so bare with me.
"That's where I got the coffees today." Paige points towards a quaint café across the street and smiles. "It reminds me of The Brew from my hometown." She looks over at Paige as they walk in sync. "How do you know so many places around here?"
She shrugs her shoulder a little. "I got done unpacking around seven this morning so I just spent some time walking in the neighborhood."
Spencer stares at the girl dumbfounded. "Are you serious?"
Paige starts laughing almost hysterically. "No. My dad's mom lives in Portola Valley about ten minutes from here and I used to stay with her during summer break."
Spencer shakes her head and pushes Paige's shoulder while laughing along lightly.
"This is it." The taller girl stops and walks to the door to hold it open for the shorter one. Hastings examines the pizza shop before walking in and shuffling to the side to allow Paige to take the lead.
The girl just sits in a booth and Spencer takes that as a cue to follow suit. "Are you sure we can just sit down?" Paige chuckles and nods. "Pretty sure. But if they ask I'll just tell them you said it was okay."
The other girl rolls her eyes and then looks around the place again. It looked like a decent place, definitely not upscale and pretty plain. There was this mural of what looked like Greek mythology or something along the lines of that which took up the top two thirds of each wall. The tables were white and a lot of the edges were scrapped up and you could see what looked to be cork behind the paint. The booth itself was red and pretty worn out but they were comfy all the same.
"If you don't like the place, we can go somewhere else." Paige half smiles while waiting for a response. Spencer shakes her head and gives Paige an apologetic smile. "No, no. I'm just checking out the place. I've never been to one of these places. It's a lot homier than the restaurants I'm used to." Paige raises her eyebrow and smiles amusingly at the girl sitting across from her. "Homier?"
Spencer chuckles nervously once she realizes how that sounded. "Yea, I mean restaurants back at home are usually filled with modern crap and snobby people eating the healthiest food while trying to one-up each other. It's just nice for a change."
The other girl nods at her lightly with the same amused smirk. "I lived in a place like that once. Not for long though and I was pretty young." She looks up like she's trying to remember the name. "Roseville, maybe? I don't know. All I can remember are the kids I went to school with were pretty stuck up for being in the second grade." It takes Spencer a second to register what Paige had just said. She couldn't have. "Rosewood?" The other girls face jolted towards Spencer's. "That's it. How'd you know?" To
"I've lived there my whole life." Paige looks to her in disbelief. "You're lying." Spencer shakes her head and takes out her phone to pull up a picture. She gets to the one she wants and places it on the table in front of Paige. The girl takes the phone and looks at the photo. It's of Spencer, Hanna, Emily, and Aria standing in front of the high school.
"I guess you're not." As she checks out the picture her eyebrows furrow. "What's wrong?" Spencer inquires.
"The blonde looks familiar. Is her name Alison?" She looks up to Spencer.
"Uh. No. Hanna. But I do know an Alison that she gets confused with a lot. I mean, I never met her but the girls spoke about her a bunch of times." Paige nods slowly and gives the girl a small smile. "I didn't think you'd be friends with her." What is she talking about? "What do you mean?"
"If that Alison girl is the same one I remember, she just doesn't seem like someone you'd befriend." She says while shrugging and then shimmies out of her seat. "What do you like on your pizza?"
I wonder what she meant by that. "Doesn't matter. I'll eat anything." Paige gives her a tight nod as she turns to go up to the counter.
As Spencer waits for her roommate to come back she ponders on what she could've been meaning when she said "she just doesn't seem like someone you'd befriend". Could it be her trying to say Alison was too popular for Spencer to be friends with? No. It couldn't be. She wouldn't know Alison was popular, she only know her in the second grade. Plus, this girl seems too nice for something like that. The girl doesn't know why her new acquaintance's words bothered her. Maybe it wasn't so much her words as it was how her whole demeanor changed once Alison came up. She suddenly wishes that she could go back and actually listen to all of the obnoxious stories her three best friends used to always talk about that involved Alison.
Spencer never knew Alison personally, but her friends would constantly try to tell her things she didn't really care to know about the girl. All she had gotten from the conversations were that she was a major bitch who treated all three of them pretty badly and she went away the summer going into freshman year and never came back.
"I went with just cheese, figured it was the safest bet." Paige says as she sits back down in her booth. "I don't mean to pry but what did you mean by what you said about Alison?" The girl shies away from Spencer's intense stare but replies. "Just that you seem too nice to have a friend like her. Unless she's changed since I knew her. I'm sorry, it wasn't really fair of me to say something like that."
Spencer shakes her head. "There's no need to apologize. She wasn't my friend, she moved before I got to know her. Just my friends were sort of close to her. If you could even call it that." The slightly lighter eyed girl keeps her gaze on the chocolate eyed one hoping to gauge some type of response. "She couldn't have been too bad in the second grade." Paige scoffs. "I knew her long after that but believe me, she wasn't too nice in the second grade either."
"How'd you know her afterwards?" "Long story." "Well I've got time. Especially since we're sort of stuck with each other for a few more years." Spencer gives Paige a small smile to try and lighten up the mood. Which seems to work since Paige smiles back before explaining. "We went to this camp in Philadelphia together during the summer going into freshman year." Spencer raises her eyebrows a tiny bit and nods as if to tell her to continue. "She had caught this girl and I kissing one night. Then told everyone at the camp including one of the supervisors who knew my parents. I'm sure you can guess what happened next." Paige smiles but it doesn't quite reach her eyes. "I guess I should thank her though, I'm sure it would've been a lot harder telling them on my own time."
Spencer doesn't really know what to say. I mean what could she say to that? "Would you stop looking at me like that? I can practically feel the pity radiating off of you." Spencer lets out a small laugh that sounds more like an aggressive exhale and shakes her head lightly. "I'm sorry. I just can't believe someone would actually do that. Well I guess seeing as it's Alison, I can. The girls had some equally messed up stories."
Out of the corner of her eye she can see someone approaching the table with a big pan. It's a girl that looks to be Spencer and Paige's age with glasses and a hat with the pizza shop's logo on it. Underneath Spencer can see the girls light brown hair that's tied up in a pony tail. She has light eyes with a pretty average nose and full lips. Overall she's a very attractive girl.
"You ladies need anything else?" The girl looks to Spencer and Paige with a smile.
"I'll have a Mountain Dew, thanks." Paige says as she returns the smile then looks over at the girl across the table. "You, lady?" Spencer laughs and turns to the worker. "Just a water for me, please." The girl nods and smiles at Paige one more time before turning and walking to the kitchen.
"So if you grew up in Rosewood, why don't you know Alison?" "I was in private school up until high school. Did you go to school in Philadelphia after Rosewood?" Paige shakes her head and starts fiddling with the napkin holder.
"No. I went to a bunch of other schools before I got to Philadelphia. Mostly in Pennsylvania though. My mom and I move around a lot." She smiles and glances up at Spencer. "I could probably tell you every non-snobby pizza joint in eastern Pennsylvania. Not really familiar with the snobby ones though. They always grossed me out."
Spencer raises her eyebrows in amusement and laughs. "Grossed you out?" Paige nods and laughs along. "Yea, I can't stand being in a room full of people who think they're better than everyone else. I practically choke on the arrogance in the air."
Spencer glances over towards the kitchen doors just in time to see the light eyed girl come through them with their drinks in her hands. Once the girl makes her way to the table she sets each down in front of its respective owner.
"You two good for now?" Paige and Spencer both nod. "Alright, well my name is Alyssa. Just holler for me if you need anything. Enjoy." Alyssa brushes her hand down Paige's shoulder and winks before going back into the kitchen.
Spencer looks to Paige just in time to see her blush faintly and crack a smile. "Looks like someone has an admirer." Spencer teases as she reaches for her water and sips from the straw.
Paige just shakes her head and grabs a slice of pizza. She scans the table before a disappointed look appears on her face.
"What's wrong?" Spence asks while grabbing one too.
"Forgot to ask for a fork and knife. Plus they're out of the pepper flakes." She sits back dejectedly.
"Just holler for your girl to come here and ask her to get you it. I'm sure she wouldn't mind." Paige squints her eyes at the girl across from her and crosses her arms.
Spencer chews the bite she just took before opening her mouth. "Alyssa!" Paige's eyes widen and she blushes again before giving Spencer a death glare much like the one Spencer gave her a an hour or two ago.
"What's up?" Alyssa looks to the girls, smiling once her eyes meet Paige's.
"My friend here needs something." Spencer quips causing Paige to glance at her.
"Um yea. Can I just get a fork and knife please?" She smiles up at the waitress. "Oh and some pepper flakes if you have any? Sorry to be a pain"
Alyssa shakes her head while smiling back at the girl and her cuteness. "Don't be silly, you're not being a pain. I'll just run and get that for you." She turns to yet again walk to the back.
"Don't be silly, you're not being a pain." Spencer mocks. Paige rolls her eyes and drinks her soda before taking the grated cheese and tries to sprinkle it on her pizza but much to her frustration nothing falls out. She begins playing around with the jar.
Within thirty seconds Alyssa comes back out with the requested stuff and puts it down in front of Paige who's now knocking the jar on the edge of the table. "Need me to get you another one?" Paige's face turns red while she nods, hands the jar to Alyssa, and mumbles a thank you.
"You've got the be the pickiest pizza eater I've ever met. Why do you need a fork and knife to eat pizza anyway?" Spencer says while she grabs another piece since she already finished her first. "I'll eat the rest of the pizza before you even start your first piece."
Paige chuckles. "I noticed. And if you must know, I use a fork and knife because it tastes better."
This statement causes the girl across from her to raise her eyebrow. "That's impossible. It's not like it adds flavor. Unless you like the taste of metal."
"Well in my mind it does." Spencer smiles and shakes her head.
"It was my idea, so I'm paying." Paige argues once they received the check and grabs her wallet then puts the money on top of the paper.
Alyssa takes the money and check. She comes back in record time with the change and receipt and sets them both down on the table.
"Keep whatever's left." Paige says as she gets out of the booth.
"At least take the receipt." Alyssa looks to Paige hopefully.
"I don't need it." She says while walking towards the door and opening it for Spencer to walk out. Alyssa picks it up from the table and walks over to put it in Paige's jacket pocket. "Well I think you should take it just in case." Alyssa's eyes linger on the girls as she smiles. Paige nods and whispers bye before walking out after Spencer and letting the door close.
"Look at the back of the receipt." "What?" She looks over at Spencer with a confused expression as they walk back the way they came. Spencer rolls her eyes at Paige's cluelessness and reaches into the girls pocket to grab it herself. When she turns it over she smiles and puts it up to Paige's eye level. "She gave you her number, dumbass."
Paige's eyes light up and she smiles as she snatches the piece of paper from Spencer and stops walking to stare at the numbers written. "No way."
"Yes way, now come on before we're late to the orientation you so badly want to go to."
Don't be afraid to tell me if I'm doing something wrong or give me advice to make it better. Like I said feel free to comment with anything you want to happen in this fic. And it is a Paily fanfic, but many of the beginning chapters will continue to be McHastings friendship just to strengthen the characters relationships. I'll most likely be updating weekly from now on. Thanks :). I hope this is helping if you're having Paige withdrawal, because lord knows I am.