POV:
I'm curled up in a ball crying silently, in the passenger seat of Pru's car. Pru just stays silent until, we get to my house.
"Stay here real quick." Pru says, and grabs my house keys and unlock the door.
She comes back and quickly takes both of our things, and rushes them in the house. When she's finish, she opens the passenger side, and I start to get out. I feel my knees start to buckle a little bit, but she's right there holding onto my side as we walk inside the house. We quietly go to my room, and I instantly crawl up onto the bed. Pru crawl up beside me and holds me, while rubbing my hair as I just cry harder. It takes about 5 minutes before I fall asleep crying.
I wake up my eyes feel puffy, and my I feel dry tears on my cheeks. I look over and notice Pru isn't there, but I just curl myself up on my bed, and think about Emily.
"Hey, I'm back, I went to go get some food, being that we didn't have lunch." Pru said, and I could feel the dip in my bed as she sits near me.
I sit up, and she hands me a brown bag. I take it to find 2 grilled cheese sandwiches. I look to Pru, and give her a weak smile. She just smiles and nods her head.
"You know, there are a lot of cures for heartbreak," she started.
"Pru I'm not sleepy with anybody. And besides, it's not like she and I were dating anyways."
"Whoa there! I was just about to suggest stuffing our face with ice cream, and chocolates while watching a movie! Get your mind out of the gutter," she says and playfully slap my arm and I laugh a little.
"Besides, Pai, you don't need to be with someone in order to be emotionally involved with them. You still have a broken heart and I, your fabulous friend am here to help with it. So shut up and eat your sandwich."
"You got it boss." I start to pick up my sandwich, but stop as it touches my lips. I look at Pru, "Thanks P. I know we haven't known each other long enough but I already love you like a sister."
She hugs me with a smile, and I automatically hug her back. I pick up my grilled cheese sandwich, and start to eat it. Only then did I realize how hungry I was.
It's finally Monday and I'm extremely nervous for 2 reasons. Emily and swimming. I ran with Spencer today, and she tried to apologies for the disastrous sleep-over, but I told her I wasn't mad at her. She still felt a little bad, but nodded her head. We didn't talk about Emily, or that other girl. Just ran.
I'm sitting in my car in the student parking lot, waiting for Pru. I'm lost in thought when there's a knock on my window door. I jump a little and look over to see its Pru, and she gestures for me to get out the car. I can't help but grin a little at the since of déjà vu, as I get out of my car, and leaned against it.
"Hey." She says, smiling and wrapping an arm around my shoulder.
"Hey." I say smiling a little back at her which disappears when I lock eyes with Emily. She looks like she hadn't slept in days. Her eyes are puffy too.
I'm frozen, and then she starts walking towards me. I start to shake my head a little, and she stops. Pru catches this, and stiffens automatically. She glares at Emily, and moves me away towards the school doors.
"Thank you." I sigh in relief. "I don't know if I would be able to stop myself from crying if she came closer."
Pru just nods and we get to our lockers.
"Hey Paigey," Hanna says softly and gives Pru a small smile that is reciprocated.
"Hi Blondie, sorry for leaving earlier," I say looking down at my feet.
"Don't." She says putting a hand under my face pushing it up to meet her baby blue eyes, "I was there remember? And what happened was a really shitty thing. You don't have to be sorry for leaving. I just don't want you pushing me away, because you're a really amazing person and just because her-who-will-not-be-named screwed up doesn't mean you can't hang out with the rest of us."
When Hanna's finished, I nod, and she pulls me into a bone crushing hug. I wrap my arms around her too giving her a squeeze before pulling away, and giving her a small smile.
The bell rings and we head off all head off to English. I go to the back and Hanna and Pru follows. Aria, Spencer, and Emily enter and Aria comes to sit next to Hanna giving me a small smile, which I return. Emily looks at me, and sits in the front of the class by the door with a determined look on her face. I sigh as the class begins to start, looking out the window.
The bell snaps me out of my thoughts, as Pru and I say goodbye to Aria, and Hanna. I walk out the door and Emily ambushes me.
"Paige, we need to talk." She says with determination.
"No, Emily, we don't. I-I can't right now I have class." I say looking down.
"Emily, can't you just go right now. I think you've done enough." Pru says in a voice so sharp it would cut through buildings.
"I'm not going until I talk to Paige. Alone," She says glaring at Pru.
"I can't right now. I have class remember?" I sigh and start to walk away.
"How about lunch then, Paige please just… just hear me out." Emily says grabbing my wrist.
I nod my head before Pru can say anything, and Emily lets me go. Pru and I walk in the direction of our class. It's a different class but the same direction.
"Well, this won't end well." Pru states shaking her head sadly.
"I know." I sigh again running a hand through my hair. And with that we go to our separate classes.
Its lunch time and I know Emily is waiting for me outside the Gym door, but I really don't want to see her right now.
I'm about to map-up and leave the locker room when I bump into someone.
"Oh, sorry, I wasn't…" I start as my eyes lock onto Shana's.
"Hey, hot new girl. Be careful next time yeah? " She says, with a charming smile.
"Yeah." I say, looking at her with a thoughtful expression.
My phone buzzes signaling that I have a text message. I look down and see it's from Emily.
EMILY:Paige get out here! U asked me 2 wait out here remember? U hav 5 mins before I come in to get u.
I sigh, before I get an idea and look at Shana.
"Hey, can you help me out with something?" I ask hopefully.
"Sure, anything." She looks at me curiously.
"Okay, so here's the deal. Emily's giving me 5 minutes, well 4 now to get out of here to meet her so we can talk. If I'm not out there in 4 minutes she'll come get me. The thing is I can't talk to her right now, and I can't stay in here for the whole lunch period. So what I need now is for you to somehow get me out of here, without her seeing me. Okay? Think you can do that?" I say quickly.
"Whoa, okay clam down I'll help you alright. Do you have everything?" She asks.
"3 minutes." I say looking at my watch while nodding my head.
She pulls me towards the back of the locker room. "Okay, so on a scale from 1 to 10 how desperate are you for ditching Emily."
"100! And we have 2 minutes now." I say panicking.
She quickly reaches up, and open the window in the back.
"Alright I'll help you up, and there's a closed garbage bin for you to land on. Once your out, wait for me okay?" She says while picking me up, and I nod my head.
"Thank you, you are a life saver." I say hoping through it with my bag.
As I land on the garbage bin, I breathe a sigh of relief. Instantly, I regret it because this garbage stinks! I hop off the top and wait for Shana.
Ironically, I waited 5 minutes, until Shana appeared. I breathe a sigh of relief and walk towards her.
"Thanks, I owe you." I say.
"Well, usually a date would be nice, but now I'm just curious. So an explanation will suffice, why you avoiding Emily? What happened?" She asks.
I sigh, looking down.
"Hey you owe me remember?"
"Yeah, I know. But I need to get out of here; we'll talk about it on the way to The Grill. You're driving." I say walking toward the student parking lot.
"Aye, Captain," she grins, following me.
"Well that's shitty, even for her. I didn't think Emily would ever do something like that. You sure you got the full story?" She asks when I finished telling her.
"Probably not, and why should I? And who side are you on anyways, I thought you and Emily hated each other." I huff, but she gives me a small grin.
"Well I don't hate her considering she's one of my teammates on the swim team. But we do have our differences."
"Like what?" I ask curiously. "Why don't you guys get along?"
She runs a hand through her dark black hair with a sigh.
"Well, I was the captain on the swim team. But then coach decided Emily should be the captain instead, even though at the time I swam faster than her. I was furious, so furious I outed her." She says, studying me for a reaction, but I just listen.
"I'm gay too, but I was out of the closet already. She wasn't. I only knew she was gay because she at time was sneaking around with a pot-head named Maya. That was her first girlfriend, and first love…until she met Samara."
"But when I pushed her out the closet, she didn't get picked on a lot, just some people called her a liar, or a fake. No one hated her, but she did have a rough patch with her mom. She couldn't accept it back then, she does now. Anyway after Samara stole Emily away from Maya, I ended up dating her. Somehow, Emily thought that, that was me trying to get back at her. I wasn't. Even during Maya and Emily's relationship Maya had a thing for me. So, when Maya and I got together it had nothing to do with her. Then Maya and I broke up, and Maya moved away. At the time Samara had cheated on Emily, and Emily was prepared to go back to Maya, but Maya had left the day before. Emily went back with Samara and ever since then Emily has never liked me, and blames me for Maya leaving though she was actually sent off to rehab. I do regret outing her, though no one should be pushed out the closet." She finishes, and I stay silent for a moment as I let it sink in. After a few minutes I finally speak.
"Why'd you do it?" I ask but there's no venom in my voice just curiosity.
"Well when coach made her captain my at home life was a living hell. My dad was pissed; he even said it was because I was gay, and seeing to many girls. That I wasn't focusing on more important things. He would make me swim for an extra 1 hour after I'd come home from practice. He didn't stop until….until he died of lung cancer. " She says the last words softly and looking down.
I nod my head and breathe out. "Well aren't we just a bunch of damaged people."
She gives me a small smile before standing up. "Come on let's head back to the school, they think I kidnapped you."
