A/N: Just a note that I forgot to mention... I know that Hollis is a liberal arts school, but I'm changing it so that it's more like a regular community college thing or something ya know? Lol yeah okay. Thank you all for your feedback, by the way. It means a lot to me!

Disclaimer: I do NOT own PLL!

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The next day, after my morning Hollis class, I found myself standing behind the counter at work, playing a game on my phone. I'd been there for about an hour, and so far, nothing interesting had happened. A few people had come in and bought some clothes, but nothing weird had happened. Basically, no Alison.

The store was mostly empty when I heard the door suddenly open. I glanced up, like I did when every customer came in, and saw familiar, curly, blond hair. Alison. She was carrying the pink blouse, and she had a somewhat distant expression on her face.

She approached the counter and her eyes suddenly met mine, and I realized that I'd been staring at her since she walked in. She set the shirt on the counter. "Did your friend not like the shirt?" I asked, even though I knew what had happened.

"I didn't end up going," Alison stated, her voice not as harsh as I'd expected it to be.

I raised my eyebrows as I began to return and refund process. "I heard you got kicked out for being late."

To my surprise, Alison let out a sigh. "Everyone always does."

"Does what?" I asked, a little confused, as I opened the cash register to get her the refund money.

"Hears about things that happen to me," Alison answered simply. "Everyone always know."

I felt a little guilty all of the sudden. "Well, the only reason I heard anything was because one of my friends is the like the biggest gossip at Hollis."

"Do you go to Hollis?" Alison asked me, seeming to just shrug off the topic of gossip.

"Yep," I answered, nodding. I closed the cash register and counted the money obviously in front of her, since that was what we were supposed to do when returning money or change. Then I set it down on the counter and took the shirt off the counter and started to put it on a hanger that I had sitting next to me.

"Thanks," she said, collecting the money. I was a little surprised at the thanks. "Oh, by the way, I'm really sorry for acting like a bitch yesterday."

I blinked and raised an eyebrow at her. I definitely hadn't been expecting that apology. "Don't worry about it."

"No, really," Alison insisted. "You even went into the storage room to try and find a shirt that you knew didn't exist. So thanks."

"It's no problem," I insisted, and I cursed myself internally as I felt my cheeks heat up a little bit.

"Anyway, thanks for the refund and sorry about yesterday. I better get going," Alison said, nodding to me. I nodded back, and she turned around a started off. However, halfway on her way to the door, she turned back around. "Hey, I don't think I got your name?"

I blinked. "Emily."

"Emily," she repeated, and then she smiled at me. My eyes probably widened by a tenfold seeing that smile, but she turned around and walked out of the store anyway, which meant that she hadn't seen my bugging eyes. I got a thanks, an apology, and a smile out of the bitchiest, most arrogant girl in all of Pennsylvania.

I looked down at the pink blouse in my hands and shook my head. Whatever had just happened was way weirder than whatever Hanna and Aria had been expecting. Pushing away whatever was going through my mind about this, I went and hung the pink shirt up on a rack, instead of back in the storage room.

When my shift was over, I immediately headed back to my dorm. When I got there, Aria was waiting for me expectantly. "So, did Alison show up?"

"Yep," I answered, walking over and sitting on my bed. Aria turned around on her own bed to face me.

"And? Did she bite your head off?" Aria demanded.

"No," I answered, shrugging. "She just returned the shirt."

"She didn't say anything to you about your comment yesterday?" Aria asked, sounding absolutely flabbergasted.

I shook my head no, which was the truth. I didn't really feel that it was necessary to mention any of the nice things that Alison had said, though, because Aria would obviously just remind me of the fact that Alison always had a motive for being nice. I already had enough suspicion for the both of us, so I didn't really need to bring that part up.

"That's crazy! Maybe she was actually embarrassed about what had happened or something. So you're totally off the hook?" Aria asked, sounding like she just wanted to clarify.

"Definitely," I answered with a nod. "I'm tired, and I have an early class tomorrow. I'm going to head to bed."

"Are you alright?" Aria asked. "It's like seven."

"I'm fine."

"Well are you hungry? Because we have some leftover pizza in the mini fridge," Aria reminded me, sounding concerned despite my insistence that I was perfectly fine.

"I'm not that hungry. I'm really tired, okay? My class this morning was really stressful, and I have multiple classes tomorrow, so I'm going to sleep. You can leave the lights on, I'll sleep fine," I told her, laying down on my bed, even though I was fully clothed and still had makeup on. I just felt oddly worn out and confused.

"I'll turn them off. I think Hanna said that her roommate was out tonight, so I'll just go down there so that I don't bother you," Aria said, looking at me weird. I nodded and closed my eyes. A few seconds later, I heard the lights flick off and the door open and close.

AAA

"Are you okay, Ali?" my roommate and friend, Spencer Hastings, asked me, her voice sounding concerned.

"No, I am pissed at Mona," I growled, sitting up on my bed. "Everybody heard about yesterday, and the only part anyone remembers is that I got kicked out of Mona's party because I was a few minutes late. That bitch is always trying to think of ways to screw with me."

"You'll survive, Alison," Spencer stated, rolling her eyes at me. I glared in her direction, but she was looking too intently at her computer screen to notice. Sometimes, Spencer drove me insane. She was a lot like me in the way that she took no nonsense, and despite the fact that it made me get frustrated with her all the time, it was also the reason that we were so close. She was less popular than me, and she was nicer as well, but she had been my best friend since high school.

"What are you doing over there anyway? Homework?" I asked.

"An essay," Spencer answered. "There's this girl named Aria in my English class this year, and she and I are sort of competing for the highest grade."

"Is it all friendly, or do I need to take this girl down a peg?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know yet," Spencer answered. "She scored the highest in her class last year, and so did I in my class. Now we're in the same one."

"Why does it even matter? It's not like you're in high school competing for the college scholarship," I stated, rolling my eyes. Spencer shot me a look that asked if I was serious, and I just shrugged. Spencer was the crazy about school girl, not me. "Well, I hope you win anyway."

"Thanks," Spencer muttered, tapping away furiously at her keyboard. "Did you return that shirt you were going to give to Mona?"

"Yep," I answered.

"Did you survive going into that place again?" Spencer teased. Spencer was the kind of person who would shop at those tiny little clothing stores if it weren't for me. I drug her out shopping to the big places with me.

"Yes, surprisingly," I answered, groaning. Suddenly, a picture of that girl who worked at the cash register—Emily—popped into my head. I had barely even looked at her the previous day, because I'd been in such a bad mood, but today I'd almost felt bad for how I'd spoken to her. I even apologized, which was totally out of character for me. In fact, I was still wondering why I'd done it, and why I'd asked for the girl's name afterward. Emily. So far, all I knew about her was that she went to Hollis and she worked at a lame clothing store.

My phone suddenly started to ring, and I grabbed it instantly. Mona, the she-devil herself. I huffed and answered it. "What do you want, Mona?"

"Hey, Ali!" came the innocent voice that Mona used when she was trying to cover up all of the horrible things she'd done. "I thought that it was about time that we made up."

"About time?" I growled. "This happened yesterday, and you're the one who got all mad at me."

"Look, all of the things you yelled at me are really hurting my image. If we walk into class tomorrow side by side, everyone will assume that we made up, and everything will be fine," Mona insisted.

"I am fine," I lied. "You are a terrible person, Mona, and I'm done going back and forth with you." I hung up and looked up to see Spencer looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

"I think you just woke a sleeping beast," Spencer stated.

"Oh please. It's Mona," I muttered, rolling my eyes. "The only reason she even has an image at all is because I gave it to her. If I wanted, I could tear it away just as easily."

"So why haven't you? Don't you want to?" Spencer asked pointedly, and I scowled at her.

"I'm going to take a shower," I muttered, standing up. I grabbed what I needed to shower and then left the dorm and headed down to the bathroom.

EEE

The next morning, I was up early getting ready for my classes. Aria got up about ten minutes before I was going to leave. Her first class wasn't for a while, but she had to finish up her paper. Apparently, she was unofficially competing for the highest grade, and she had to perfect it.

"Hey, do you want to grab lunch after your first class and before mine?" Aria asked before I left.

"Sure. The Grille?" I asked, and she answered with a nod.

"See you later!"

My class was as boring as hell, and by the time I left, I was eager for lunch time. Aria was already sitting at a table at the Grille by the time I got there, and Hanna was there, too, which was a surprise. "Hey, Han!" I greeted. "Hey, Aria!"

"Hey, Em!" they chorused. Then Aria asked, "How was your class?"

"Boring. Did you finish your paper?" I asked, sitting down at the table and grabbing the menu sitting in front of me.

"Yes I did. I've got it in the bag. That Spencer girl is going down," Aria growled.

"Spencer?" Hanna asked. "Hastings? That's who you're competing with?"

"Yeah, why?" Aria asked, sounding concerned.

"She was top of her class last year," Hanna answered, shrugging.

"Yeah well, I was at the top of mine," Aria reminded her.

Hanna nodded. "She's also Alison DiLaurentis' best friend." Aria bit her lip a little nervously, but I rolled my eyes.

"Nothing it going to happen," I said. "You were already wrong about what Alison would do once."

"Yeah, but that was a special case," Hanna stated. "She was probably just plotting a murder or something."

"That isn't funny, Hanna," Aria said, rolling her eyes. Hanna smirked and shrugged. A waitress approached us and we ordered our food.

When the waitress left, Aria muttered, "Ugh, speak of the devil." I turned around to look at the entrance of the Grille, and my eyes caught on Alison. She was walking in with a brunette that I wasn't sure I'd seen before. I pinned the name Spencer on her.

Suddenly, Alison saw me and quirked up an eyebrow at me. My eyes widened and I spun my head back around. "What was that?" Hanna asked me. I just shrugged.

"You said she didn't say anything to you yesterday?" Aria asked.

"That's what I said," I confirmed, biting my lip. "Whatever."

"Is something up with you, Em?" Hanna asked me, and I shrugged.

"Nope, I'm fine," I assured her. "I just was pretty sure that she would completely forget I even exist."

Aria and Hanna exchanged looks that I couldn't read, and I just ignored them. They could think whatever they wanted, but I was completely fine. My heart totally hadn't started beating faster when Alison raised that eyebrow at me, and the idea that she still knew that I existed totally didn't get me excited or anything. I knew better than to have things like that happen to me, didn't I? From the first time I came out as gay to anyone, I had promised myself that I wouldn't ever start liking anyone that I didn't know for sure was gay.

Hanna and Aria had started talking about something else, and I glanced behind me again at Alison. She was standing and talking to Spencer, and then her eye caught mine and she flashed me a smile. I swallowed thickly and just looked away. What the hell was happening to me?

Whoa whoa what is this twist? :P

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So today I was in the car for like four hours so I'm really tired and I have a headache so probably no RIMS update today, but definitely tomorrow! I think I'm going to head to sleep soon actually, headaches are evil and they don't ever go away for me until I sleep lol.

Anyway... goodnight lovelies! Please review :)