Here we go! a whole lot faster than the last one. Thanks for all the follows, favorites, and reviews. Hope you guys are enjoying this. I still can't believe people are actually reading.
Chapter 6
Paige stepped outside breathing in deeply, eyes scanning over everything. She's overwhelmed with how much the town has changed, but ready to learn everything she can about it. She follows the girls down the sidewalk a little ways, running into Hanna when the blonde stopped, because she was distracted by kids playing some kind of game across the street with a black and white ball . She mumbles an apology, taking a step back realizing the girls are stopped beside one of those wagons...uh cars.
"I'm not getting in that thing!" she says when she sees Hanna start to open one of the doors, her voice an octave higher than usual.
"Paige it's fine, it's safe. Well, the car is safe. Emily's driving is questionable." Hanna laughs out.
"Hanna!" Emily scolds, "She's already nervous, and my driving is fine." She glares at Hanna before turning to Paige. She puts a comforting hand the brunettes shoulder, "Paige, just ignore Hanna, really, it's ok." She finishes with a reassuring smile.
Paige smiles in return, just Emily's hand on her shoulder is enough to make her feel safer.
"Alright." She breaths out softly.
Emily pushes Hanna out of the way and opens the passenger door for Paige.
"Hey!" Hanna exclaims, climbing in to sit in the backseat and starts pouting.
"Sorry Han. I want her up front with me to make sure she's doing ok." Emily states, "Go on, sit down." She says, lightly pushing Paige towards the seat.
Paige feels a warmth spread through her knowing Emily wanted her to feel safe in the car. She smiles again at the raven haired girl and nods before sitting down, and Emily closes the door for her.
She took a few deep breaths trying to calm her nerves while she watched Emily walk around the front and slide into the seat beside her and behind the wheel that she assumed was for steering.
"You ready?" Emily questioned.
"Not really, but let's go and get it over with." Paige laughed trying to cover up the unsteadiness of her voice.
Emily turns the key in the ignition.
"What is that!?" Paige yells in a panic.
"It's ok Paige." Emily says calmly. "I guess I should have explained first. It's just the sound the car makes when it turns on, nothing's wrong. I'm gonna put it in drive now and we'll start moving ok?" she explains further, trying to make sure Paige calms down and is ok to keep going.
"Oh, ok" Paige blushes and looks out the window feeling a little embarrassed, "Keep going." she mumbles as she grabs the handle on the door.
Emily puts the car into drive and steps on the gas.
Paige's grip on the door handle tightens and she closes her eyes.
A couple minutes go by and when nothing bad happens she opens her eyes again, glances out the window to the right and to Emily on her left.
"You ok?" Emily asks when she notices the other girl look at her.
"I think so." Paige says softly. She pauses for a few seconds, "Yea, I'm good." she continues with more confidence.
She looks out the window again giving herself time to actually watch everything flash by quickly, "Are we supposed to be going this fast though?" she asks, her nerves present in her voice.
"Yep, I'm actually going slower than the speed limit for this road." Emily answers and notices Paige visibly relax a little.
"Ok, I'm ok. This is ok." Paige looks around again, "Actually, this is pretty nice. I mean besides the speed, it's a smoother ride than the wagons I usually ride in." she laughs, "Your back end gets pretty sore, especially on long journeys. And that's from both wagon and horse. These seats are quite comfortable, much better than a saddle. Although I do miss my horse."
She stops talking when she notices the grin on Emily's face.
"What?" she questions.
Not realizing she was smiling like a idiot, Emily's grin falters and she clears her throat.
"It's just, I haven't heard you talk this much...it's cute...I mean nice. It's nice!" she feels her face get hot as her cheeks turn red, thankful her darker skin will make it less noticeable. She did not mean to call Paige cute, she thought it, but she did not mean to say it out loud.
Finding courage in Emily's slip up, Paige lets out a laugh, "Well, I suppose I'll have to find more to talk about then." she says with smirk.
Emily's cheeks turn a deeper shade of red. She glances in the rear view mirror and sees Hanna look back at her. The blondes face is full of amusement, with a knowing smile on her lips. Sometimes Emily can't stand how well her best friend can read her.
She pulls the car into the driveway and shuts it off.
"Hey, you made it." she laughs glancing at Paige.
"I sure did!" Paige exclaims excitedly, smiling from ear to ear, "But how do I get out of here?"
Emily just giggles before lifting her hand in the air, telling the other girl to watch, and pulls on the other handle on the door.
"Ah, easy enough." Paige says sighing, relieved that she wasn't hanging on to that handle during the drive. With her luck something would have made her jump and pull on the handle causing her to fall out of the car. But let's not dwell on the scary things that could have happened, she thinks to herself.
"You live here?" She asks looking up at the house in awe. She figures it's at least 3 times bigger than her own home. And it's quite charming too, it's pale yellow with white trim, and cute porch with a swing, and a balcony.
"Yep, my whole life. Let's get inside so I can start dinner, I'm starving." Emily states as she walks up the porch steps with the other two behind her.
When Paige steps inside she breaths in the smell of apples and cinnamon. A feeling washes over her that she can't quite place, but it makes her feel a lot better about this whole thing.
She was following behind the girls, looking around trying to take it all in. There was so much. She'd never seen a house with this much stuff and so many colors. She stopped dead in her tracks when her eyes landed on something hanging on the wall. She stared, eyes glinting with interest and amazement.
Emily and Hanna realized they lost Paige when they got to the kitchen so Emily went to look for her, Hanna practically pushing her back the way they came. She found the girl in the hallway looking at a picture of her with her parents taken at the beach over the summer. Emily smiled softly. It must be scary and amazing for Paige to be seeing these things for the first time. She couldn't even begin to imagine what the other girl is feeling. Just the look on her face shows a number of different emotions. She realizes she's been staring and clears her throat to speak.
"You get lost cowgirl?" she questions with a smirk.
Paige blinks and shakes her head, not sure how long she'd been standing there.
"It's a photograph." Emily continues when she sees she has the brunettes attention.
"It's incredible." Paige breaths out taking her eyes off the photograph to look at Emily, "How?"
"Here, I'll show you." Emily walks over to Paige, pulling her phone out of her pocket and opens the camera. She puts her arm around Paige's shoulders and hold the phone out in front of them, "Smile Paige."
Paige looks at her and smiles, not entirely knowing why, or what the raven haired girl was doing, but because of the way Emily said her name. She locks eyes with the other girl.
Emily takes the picture and looks at it before showing Paige. She grins at what she sees. She didn't tell the other girl to look at the phone so Paige's head is turned slightly, eyes on Emily, and the most genuine smile on her face that Emily has ever seen. As for Emily herself, she had turned her head at the last second when she realized Paige was looking at her. The result was a photo that looked a lot more intimate than it really was, with the girls looking into each others eyes and smiling. Emily handed the phone to Paige for her to see.
"Wow, this is so amazing! And now i have so many questions!" Paige said excitedly, then noticed the worried look on Emily's face, "Questions that I will ask Spencer tomorrow." She laughed when the other girl sighed and smiled again.
"Good." Emily agreed. "We should get in there, Hanna has probably eaten half the kitchen by now."
And sure enough when they walked into the kitchen Hanna was digging into a bag of cheesy doodles, with a box of cookies sitting empty on the counter.
"Han, I told you I was gonna make dinner." Emily scolded.
"You guys were taking forever." Hanna whined in response.
"I was showing Paige what pictures are, you could just learn to be patient." Emily explains.
Paige sits on one of the stools, enjoying the friends' banter.
"Well, how about pasta." Emily questions looking from Paige to Hanna.
"I don't know what that is," Paige starts, "But I'm realizing that I will have to be up to trying new things in this place. So, yes, whatever that is sounds amazing." she finishes, winking at Emily.
Emily quickly spun around to the cupboard behind her to start grabbing ingredients as well as hide the blush caused by the wink and the chill that ran up her spine because of it.
"I think you're gonna do just fine here with that kind of attitude." Emily says glancing over her shoulder to shoot Paige a reassuring smile. "So who's helping me cook?"
"I will!" Paige practically shouted, "I mean, yea, I can help. It might be nice to know what's going into the food I'm gonna be trying for the first time," she mused.
Emily smirked at the brunettes excitement, "Good idea. Han are you gonna help too?"
"Me? Um..no. I'm gonna go call Caleb. Let me know when dinner's ready." Hanna grinned and waved at the girls as she left them alone in the kitchen.
Paige didn't think the she'd ever had this much fun in her life. Discovering all the new foods was amazing. So many spices and things she'd never heard of before. And Emily was a great teacher, taking her time explaining each ingredient, where it came from and what you can use it for. She insisted on trying everything that was going into the pasta. Emily warned her that it wasn't a good idea, that things might not taste as good on their own as they do combined with everything else. But her curiosity got the best of her. And everything tasted good until she tried raw garlic and her mouth started burning.
Emily watched in horror as Paige took a huge bite of the clove. Paige started jumping up and down with her mouth hanging open, eyebrows scrunched together, and panting. Emily quickly went to the fridge to get a glass of milk and handed it to the brunette. Not being able to hold it in any longer she started laughing as she watched Paige chug it.
"Are you done being curious now?" she questioned through her laughter.
Paige slammed the glass down on the counter and exhaled loudly.
"Nope!" she shouted, smiling widely. "But how about we make a rule that you have to warn me about things that taste like that."
"Deal." Emily agreed, "let's finish up."
The two girls finished cooking with easy, and safe, conversation, both holding back the flirting that was trying to escape. Emily told Paige about her family, her dad in the army and stationed in Texas, and her mom who works at the police station.
Paige in return told Emily about her dad, the pastor, and her mom who had died a few years ago. Adding that things have been hard between her and her dad since she passed. She changed the subject soon after, seeing the sad look in Emily's eyes, she wanted to keep the mood light.
Emily showed Paige where the dishes were so she could set the table. When she was setting the last cup down Emily walked in with dinner. Paige shot her a smile and sat down at one of the chairs.
"Hanna! Food!" Emily yelled out in the direction of the living room. She sat down in the chair next to Paige, leaving the other side of the rectangle table open for the blonde.
When Hanna joined them they started to eat, each knowing the conversation they were about to have might be a bit awkward. Although they all thought so for different reasons.
Emily because she wasn't sure how Paige was really taking in the information about her and Samara.
Paige because of her feelings towards her Emily and then ones she's experiencing for this Emily, the feelings that she's trying her hardest to suppress.
Hanna because she knows what Paige is feeling and she knows her best friend and the look she gets when talking to or about Paige.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, just eating. Hanna commenting here and there about the food, and asking how Paige did with the cooking. Emily answering her, and Paige just staring at her plate trying to think of something to say.
"This is really good. I haven't learned a lot about this time yet, but the food is the best so far. The coffee and now this? Amazing. There's so many flavors. And noodles? The best invention ever!" Paige rambles off excitedly.
Emily smirks, she's beginning to love this side of Paige. She likes seeing her happy and excited and decides she's going to do whatever she can to make it happen more often, and to make sure she's glad to be here in this time.
"Once things settle down and we figure some stuff out, maybe we can find you a cooking class." she suggests.
"There are schools for cooking!?" Paige almost yells. There are so many things to discover about this new world, it just keeps getting better.
Emily laughs at Paige's excitement, "Yes they do actually. But you can just take a class that lasts a few days and learn the basics and probably how to make a few things."
"Yea! That'd be great!" Paige exclaims with a huge smile on her face.
Her smiles fades. In her excitement she forgot about the talk they were supposed to have and all the questions she wanted to ask Emily. Well, maybe wanted wasn't the right word, but she felt like she had to know.
Emily notices the change in the other girl and offers her a sincere smile.
"Alright, we'll look into that. But now," she sighs, "you have some questions to ask me?"
Paige's smile completely disappears now, she looks down to her plate where she's now moving the rest of her food around with her fork.
"Um...yea." she swallows hard, "How long have you and Samara been together?"
Emily relaxes a little when Paige doesn't start off by asking her why, or telling her she doesn't agree. But she's still a little worried about what the other girl is thinking.
"About 6 months all together. There was a couple weeks in there where I wasn't talking to her." she explains.
Paige nods, "Have there been others?"
"Yes, one other, Maya...she...passed away over a year ago. Emily replied sadly.
"Oh my gosh. Em, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to upset you." Paige tells her with worry in her voice.
"It's ok Paige, I'm ok. I'm living my life and moving on, it's what she would have wanted." she smiles over at Paige, touched by her concern and for using her nickname, which also sent butterflies flying around in her stomach.
"Why didn't you talk to her? Samara, I mean." Paige asks hesitantly, thinking it might be the thing she didn't want to get into with Hanna earlier.
Emily shoots Hanna a look telling her to keep her mouth shut before she starts speaking.
"She cheated on me..er..had an affair." She explains while trying to use terminology that Paige might understand better.
Paige stood up so fast that she almost knocked her chair over. She locked her fiery eyes with Emily's making the raven haired girl shudder in response to the intensity she saw there. It did something else to her as well, but now is not the time to dwell on the sensation lower in her stomach, somewhere underneath where the butterflies made there home.
Paige was breathing hard trying to stay calm.
"I don't understand. Why are you still with her?" she asks, just being able to keep the anger out of her voice.
"YES, WHY EMILY?!" Hanna blurts out. She slaps her hands over her mouth when Emily pins her with a glare that could kill.
Emily kept her eyes on Hanna for a minute while she thought of how to answer. She realized she should feel angry since it's not really any of Paige's business, they've only known each other for a few hours after all, even if it did feel like a lot longer.
But of course she couldn't be mad. Although Paige's voice had a hint of anger, she seemed genuinely curious.
"I know is seems confusing. But I just decided to give her another chance. She apologized and I think she really meant it...at the time. To be honest, it's not really going as well as I thought it would. I just can't talk to her without it turning into a fight. I don't know what to do." Emily explains keeping her eyes on the stain she'd found on the table when she started talking. She's not sure what made her say what she did, but it's the truth.
"BREAK UP WITH HER!" Hanna yells, and once again slaps her hands over her mouth, "sorry." she mumbles through her fingers before Emily has a chance to glare at her again.
Paige could hear the hurt in Emily's voice. She was angry at Samara for putting it there. But she understood that Emily just wanted to see the good in everybody. She knew that because her Emily was the same way. She always tried to help everyone in town no matter who they were. It was one of the things that drew Paige to her to begin with.
She took a deep breath and let her anger go when she exhaled.
"You don't deserve that, to live like that, to be treated like that. You're amazing, you deserve someone who will treat you like you are." Realizing what she said, her eyes shot up to meet Emily's, then fell back to her plate quickly. "I mean, from what I've seen and learned so far, you seem pretty great. She must be the stupidest person in the world, treating you like that...I mean.." she cringed, hoping that the raven haired girl wasn't mad at her for that, "sorry." she mumbled finally sitting back down.
Emily let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. She felt...well...she didn't know what she felt. And again, she should be mad, but she just felt lighter in a way. Like someone finally told her what she needed to hear. It may also have something to do with the person who said it.
She smiled sweetly, craning her neck down until she caught Paige's eye.
"Thank you cowgirl. I think you might be on to something there." she agreed.
"Why do you keep calling me cowgirl? I'm not a herder and I don't work on a cattle ranch, I work in bar." Paige started rambling, not able to keep her thoughts in order with the way Emily was looking at her. She just went with the first thing that came to mind.
Emily breathed out a small laugh, "That's just what we call people who wear the kinds of clothes you were wearing, the hat and the boots and everything. Just a general term these days." she explained.
"Oooh." Paige smiles now that she's no longer confused. "It was only a term for people with specific jobs where I'm from."
Emily nods her understanding, "Should I not call you that then?"
"NO! No it's fine..I kinda like it." Paige blushes.
"Do you have any more questions?" Emily asks Paige.
"Don't think so." Paige replies.
Emily's look of surprise catches Paige's attention.
"What?" she questions the dark haired girl.
"Nothing, I guess I was just thinking that you would think it was disgusting or something. I know it was a far from normal thing in your time." Emily explained somewhat nervously.
"Of course I don't think it's disgusting. And I know things have changed, Hanna told me that people are a lot more open about those kinds of things. And I'm glad for that." Paige grins and give the other girl a look that lets her know she means what she's saying.
"Good, good. I was worried." Emily says, finally able to fully relax.
The two girls sit looking each other in the eyes long enough to make even Hanna feel like she was intruding.
"Well," she said loudly. "I'm gonna walk home real quick and grab some pjs and clothes for tomorrow." She states while standing and heading towards the door.
Realizing what Hanna just said, Paige shoots out of her seat and runs after the blonde.
"Wait, you're gonna leave me alone with her?" she asks pleadingly when she caught up to Hanna by the front door.
"Yes, I am. And you're gonna go back in there and tell her what you have to tell her about your Emily." Hanna says with a reassuring smile and gives Paige a pat on the back before pushing her back towards the dining room. "You can do it P!"
"Ok, yea. I can do it." Paige says partially to Hanna, but mostly to herself. She turns back to the blonde, "But don't take too long please."
Hanna nods and closes the door behind her.
"Here we go."
Paige takes a deep breath in and let's it out slowly while making her way back to Emily.
"Where'd you run off to so fast?" Emily asks the brunette when she reappears.
"Just had to ask Hanna something. And actually, I have something else I need to tell you about my time." Paige explains, her voice a little shaky.
Emily notices how nervous Paige is.
"Do you want to help me wash the dishes while you talk, or should we sit?" She asks trying to give the girl options to make her more comfortable. She's getting nervous herself wondering what it is that Paige has to say.
"I could do with keeping my hand busy I suppose." Paige replies and starts gathering the plates.
"Ok, let's head to the kitchen then." Emily says and follows Paige's actions picking up all the cups.
Emily fills the sink and adds soap. "You wash, I'll dry?" she asks.
"Sure." Paige says as she puts all the dishes into the soapy water in the sink.
She takes a deep breath and started talking before she lost her nerve.
"I knew someone in my time...who looked exactly like you. Her name was Emily Fields."