"First kiss?"

"13. He was my neighbor and his breath smelled like those Gushers candies. You?"

"12. My first boyfriend in middle school."

"You dated guys?"

"That shouldn't surprise you too much. Yeah, actually I only recently came out. I've only dated two girls. Nothing serious."

Spencer was surprised that she was sincerely enjoying herself on her date with Natalie. She never considered herself attracted to girls overall, but she was open-minded. And Natalie was obviously really pretty and funny. Paige also vouched for her friend's intelligence and loyalty. So Spencer decided to test things out.

They were out at a restaurant Natalie had suggested because "they don't card". Spencer didn't plan on getting drunk, but both girls had a couple of glasses of wine ("whatever's cheapest") and were loosened up slightly.

"Have you ever... you know... with Paige?" Spencer asked, more out curiosity since Emily had recently brought up the topic to her circle of friends.

Natalie almost choked on her sip of wine, coughing it up with laughter. "Ew, no."

"What? Paige's pretty," Spencer added, though it was obvious.

"Oh, I am not disputing that. Paige is a total catch. But she's basically my little sister. We've known each other since we were kids. Plus, as you can tell by your friend Emily, I am not exactly Paige's type."

Spencer arched an eyebrow out curiously. "What do you mean?"

Natalie laughed again, a little shocked by Spencer's ignorance. "Paige's totally into Emily. Obviously, she's keeping her distance since Em's seeing the She-Beast Fun Suck of 2015."

"Christen?"

"Yeah. Can you tell I don't like her? I'd keep an eye on your friend Emily too. I don't trust Christen at all."

"Why? What did she do, besides that stuff with Caleb's cousin?"

Natalie scoffed. "As if that wasn't enough? Well, the reason she kissed Kelley – and I saw it. Make no mistake, Christen definitely made the first move. The reason she kissed Kelley was to make her ex-boyfriend, Noel Kahn jealous. He showed up to that party with another date. So she grabbed Kelley McBitchface and started making out with her. I'm just worried that Chris is trying to pull a similar stunt with Emily."

"You don't think she would?" Spencer asked, bringing her hand to her head. She was definitely feeling the effects of the wine.

"I think Christen is capable of a lot of evil. Given Paige's stupid crush on Emily, I'd say I wish Emily would like Paige too. But obviously that's never going to happen."

Spencer nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Em didn't even wanna ask out Paige in the first place. Hanna made her. To make Christen jealous," Spencer hiccupped and immediately covered her mouth.

"What are you talking about?"

Spencer kept her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide. "Nothing."

"No. You have to tell me now," Natalie reached her hands over the table and pulled Spencer's hands off her mouth, pouting pitifully. "Pleeeease tell me."

Spencer went back and forth in her mind, trying to decide what to do. But truthfully, the weight of this lie about how Paige and Emily met had been dragging on her conscious. "Fine," she mumbled, letting her hands stay in Natalie's.

"Em has been crushing on Christen for years. So Hanna told her she needs to get a girlfriend to see if it got Christen's attention. Like, maybe if Christen saw Emily with someone else, she'd be interested. And we saw Paige and Hanna convinced her to talk to Paige and... we didn't know she was Christen's step-sister."

Natalie withdrew her hands and considered this new information.

"I guess Emily has it coming if Christen is really just using her then," Natalie said finally, staring down at her plate. "She did the same thing to Paige. Does Paige know about this?"

Spencer shook her head, guilt written all over her face. "I tried to tell her a few times. But I just couldn't find the words."

"We have to tell her," Natalie said finally. "She's not going to be happy," sadness etched in her voice.

"I just wish Emily would like Paige back and they could finally really date and it would make everything easier," Spencer said hopefully.

"Yeah, but that'll never happen after what Emily did to Paige this week."

"What?" Spencer asked, genuinely confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Emily pushed Paige in the pool. Ruined her phone. And her new sweater."

"What? No. Paige told me she fell in the pool."

Natalie shrugged, not knowing what to tell Spencer. "Paige told me Emily was acting really weird for a few days. Then after swim practice this week, Emily shoved her and she fell into the water. Paige kept asking me if she said something dumb at the party that she forgot."

"That.. doesn't.. sound like Emily," Spencer said, processing and slowly remembering how Emily had warned the other girls that Paige was a liar. She wondered what Emily knew that she didn't.

"Do you ever take a day off?"

Paige turned her head from the far end of her home's swimming pool and looked toward the voice she just heard.

"I missed a day this week and wanted to get another session in," Paige responded self-consciously to Emily. The black-haired girl had entered through the backyard gate. It had become pretty common for Emily to stop by their home to hang out with Christen. "Chris isn't here," Paige said after lifting herself out of the pool and grabbing a towel.

"I, uh.." Emily hesitated. "I didn't come to come here to see Christen."

Paige used the towel to wring out her long hair. She leaned her head to one side as she did. She gave Emily a questioning look, expecting her to follow up on the thought.

"I wanted to apologize for the other day. After practice. I am so sorry, Paige."

Emily took a step forward, and Paige instinctually took a step backwards. Emily cursed herself. Paige always stepped away from her. But instead of being out of respect for her sister, it now seemed like it was out of fear.

"It's fine. You already apologized."

"Stop... stop saying it's fine. It was horrible what I did. I don't expect you to forgive me. But I hope you can. I don't want things to be awkward with us."

"Right, because of Christen."

"It has nothing to do with Christen, Paige. I just like you and I want to be your friend."

Paige shivered at the word 'friend' thinking that it sounded worse than falling in the pool felt.

"Why did you do it, Emily? The last I talked to you before that was at the party. And we seemed fine there. Did I do something to you?"

Paige's earnest tone made Emily feel awful. She couldn't answer the question honestly, so she just shook her head.

"Ok, well, I can't accept your apology without knowing what was wrong first. Because what if I did something wrong that warranted that? Or what if I do that same thing again?"

"You didn't do anything, Paige. I promise. It was me. Just me being an idiot."

Paige thought for a moment, wrapping the towel around her waist.

"Ok."

"Ok?" Emily responded hopefully.

"Ok, your apology has been accepted," Paige clarified.

Emily couldn't contain the grin that broke out onto her face. Paige felt her lip twitch in a smile, but she held it back.

"Did you walk here? Did you want some water or something?" Paige offered, the tense, awkward atmosphere around them suddenly lifted.

"Yeah, I walked. Water would be great actually."

The two made their way inside the house as Paige grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge.

"Have you heard Matt & Kim's latest album?" Emily asked to make conversation.

Paige smiled, "Yeah, I bought it a couple of days ago. It's fantastic. I like, have it on repeat."

Emily's eyes got big as she took a sip of water. "You have it? Can I burn a copy? I was going to buy it next weekend."

Paige nodded and motioned upstairs. "Yeah, it's up in my room."

Paige made her way upstairs, surprised to find Emily a few steps behind. She figured she'd just run and grab it, but motioned for Emily to join her in Paige's room when the two got to the top of the stairs.

Paige searched her large CD collection for the album Emily wanted. Meanwhile, Emily made use of being in Paige's room and began to snoop around.

Emily let her finger run along the book titles on Paige's book shelf. It was overflowing with books Emily herself loved. She took special notice that Paige had all of the Harry Potter books in hardcover. That was Emily's favorite book series.

She noticed a small shelf dedicated to some swim medals and trophies, but clearly not all of Paige's trophies were displayed. On the same shelf were photos of Paige surrounded by little girls, also in swimsuits.

"You coach?" Emily asked, motioning to the picture.

"Yeah, the last 3 summers. U-8's, mostly. It's fun," Paige responded, then mumbled to herself, "I found the case, but I can't find the CD."

Paige put her head back down and searched for the CD.

Emily continued to check out Paige's stuff, keeping an eye on the framed photos that decorated her nightstand. She smiled, looking down at young Paige and the people she assumed were her parents.

"Ah hah, found it. I am also including a copy of a Sigor Ros record. Do you know them?"

Emily shook her head.

"Well, they are great. Icelandic and awesome. You should listen to them."

Emily grabbed the CDs and put them in her purse. Paige looked at Emily expectantly, not really knowing what else to say to the girl.

"Were you doing anything else today?" Emily asked when the silence had grown too long.

"Ah, no. I kind of figured I'd hear from my friend Natalie today at some point. She's out on a date with Spencer. I figured she'd want to talk after. But I don't really know when that'll be."

"I could wait with you? Maybe watch a movie or TV show or something?"

Paige bit the side of her lip in thought. She was so torn and confused. Emily continuously seemed so hot and cold with her. It was like every other day, Paige didn't know how to act around Emily. And Paige also wanted to keep her distance. She didn't want to overstep any boundaries with Christen's relationship. At the same time, she felt like Emily would take offense if she said no to her request.

Emily tried to fill the silence by asking once more. "Pleeease, Paige? You can pick what we watch?"

Paige rolled her eyes with a smirk and nodded. "Yeah, fine. Let me take a quick shower to rinse off the chlorine."

Paige reached into her drawers to grab a pair of track shorts and a running vest to change into and headed into the bathroom.

Emily kept herself busy in Paige's room by looking through the girl's stuff. Emily tried to tell herself not to be nosy, but she couldn't resist the urge to learn more about Paige. The first thing she noticed was the huge stack of offer letters from at least a half dozen universities sitting piled up on Paige's nightstand. Emily checked the bathroom again and heard the shower start. When she felt she was safe, she thumbed through them. University of Southern California. UCLA. Stanford. UPenn. Penn State. Berkeley. University of North Carolina. Emily was shaking as she looked through the huge offers Paige had on her plate. All of these universities were the top 10 D1 schools for swimming in the country. Emily herself had only been given offers from local colleges, including UPenn. She had received partial scholarships to USC and Florida, but she wasn't seriously considering them because they were so far from home.

When she heard the shower turn off, Emily hastily put the offer letters back where she found them and moved to sit down on the far end of Paige's mattress, hoping to look inconspicuous.

Paige emerged a few minutes later, and despite herself, Emily couldn't help but take in her slender, athletic form. Paige's thighs and calves were incredibly toned and her arms were probably the best Emily had ever seen. She that was saying something, because she saw the arms of a lot of swimmers. Emily gulped to herself and turned her attention to Paige's DVD collection.

"Anything you want to watch?"

Paige shrugged and tossed her towel into a nearby hamper and crouched down next to the DVD collection. "American Horror Story if you're feeling gruesome?... Um, I just bought Firefly if you like sci-fi. Personal favorite is Freaks and Geeks if you want to look at a young Linda Cardellini," Paige held up the DVD to Emily with a smirk on her lips.

"I've never seen it," Emily confessed. "What's it about?"

"Like pot heads and nerds who go to high school in the '80s. It's all the same guys who do, like.. Knocked Up and stuff."

"Yeah, ok," Emily agreed with a smile, getting herself comfortable on Paige's bed.

Paige watched her scoot back and lean against the headboard. "Oh, we're watching this in here? We can go down to the living room..."

"But your bed is comfortable and I don't want to move," Emily argued, pulling a throw blanket up over her lap.

"Um, ok," Paige mumbled as she fumbled with the DVD, letting it slip through her grasp and fall onto the floor. Paige cursed herself for being such a spaz and turned on her TV to get the DVD player set up.

Paige laid down on her stomach so her feet were near the headboard. Her face was about 6 inches from the TV screen, but she thought it was better than having to awkwardly sit shoulder to shoulder with Emily.

For her part, Emily was slightly relieved that Paige decided not to sit next to her. But then she realized that her vantage point let her stare, unnoticed, at Paige's legs, shoulders, hair, back and ass. Emily felt herself getting distracted every time Paige would so much as breathe in, and by the end of the first episode, Emily couldn't say a single thing that happened in it. But she did note that Paige's legs looked extremely smooth and tan and that tan started to fade somewhere around mid-thigh and she wondered what shorts she wore to get that tan.

Paige rotated her ankle to crack it, and it caused her calf muscle to flex and Emily almost fainted.

By the start of the second episode, Paige had mercifully pulled a blanket over herself – letting Emily focus on the episode a little more.

Somewhere before the opening credits of the third episode, Emily pulled her legs in and maybe slightly intentionally ran her foot along Paige's calf for a second.

"Sorry," Emily mumbled, but Paige didn't even register the felt anything. Emily was right, her legs were smooth.

Paige was frozen and had goosebumps trailing up her whole body. It felt like an electric current running up from her leg through her spine and shooting out to the far reaches of her body. Paige couldn't move and couldn't barely breathe. She felt her heart thumping wildly in her chest. After the adrenaline subsided slightly, she told herself this is why she couldn't be around Emily. This is why she needed to keep her distance. Because she overreacted anytime there was any sort of encounter with Emily at all. She knew she had no chance with Emily. The girl made that very bluntly clear and didn't mince words when she said it. She knew she had no chance. But she'd see Emily come up to her in class. Or at the party. Or scoot up to sit on her bed. And she'd feel like she had even a morsel of hope.

About halfway through the 4th episode, it was starting to get dark outside – but neither girl had any intention of stopping the TV marathon.

A knock on the door startled both girls slightly, but Paige paused the DVD player and headed downstairs. "It's probably Natalie," Paige reminded Emily.

Paige opened the door to her blonde friend looking stunning and glowing from her date. "Good date?" Paige asked, despite knowing the answer.

"You could say that. We made out in my car when I dropped her off and we're going out against next weekend," Natalie said, holding up her hand for a high five.

"Am I seriously high-fiving you," Paige asked, but humored her friend with a slap anyway as the two laughed. "I was sure Spencer wouldn't be into chicks. But I guess you're too hot."

Natalie jokingly tossed her hair over her shoulder. "She told me she never thought about dating chicks til she met me and considers herself open-minded."

"Well, I'm happy for you, Nat."

Natalie looked inside from the threshold, having still not been let inside. "There is something Spencer told me that I really want to tell you."

Paige shrugged, a little taken aback by her friend's tone, which sounded serious. "Ok. Go for it."

"But you have to promise you won't get mad at Spencer. Or Hanna," Natalie added quickly.

"Ok..." Paige said hesitantly.

"No. Promise."

Paige rolled her eyes, but relented. "I promise not to get mad at Spencer or Hanna." Paige eyed her friend curiously. Natalie looked genuinely worried about what she was about to say.

"Listen. You know how Emily asked you out on your first day at Rosewood?"

Paige tilted her head to the side in confusion. "Yeah?"

"It turns out.. she basically only did that on a dare from Hanna," Natalie paused and took a deep breath. "To make Christen jealous."

Paige's grip on the front door handle tightened slightly and she heard the staircase creak behind her. Paige felt her shoulders tense as Natalie's words resonated. She looked at Natalie once more, just to make sure she was telling the truth.

Paige felt a stray tear fall down her cheek and she quickly wiped it away and nodded her head. "You hear that?" Paige asked, but not to Natalie.

Finally she turned her head to see Emily standing at the bottom of the staircase.

Paige turned around and looked firmly at Emily. "Is she wrong?" Paige asked Emily, who looked frozen in her tracks. The raven-haired girl's mouth open as if she had something to say but no words could come out.

"Paige," she finally whispered, but it sounded like a plea.

"I... uh," Paige started but stopped when she felt her voice crack. "I think you should go."

"Paige. Please. I'm so sorry. You have to understand. I didn't think I'd like you. I didn't think anyone would get hurt," Emily tried to explain frantically, her voice choking up somewhere in the middle. Emily didn't even know what she was saying anymore. She just wanted to keep talking so Paige would have a reason to stay in front of her.

Paige just turned back to her friend. Natalie watched the whole scene play out with shock etched on her face. Her heart breaking when she saw the look on Paige's face. "Nat. Can you.. please just.." Paige motioned to Emily.

"Sure, babe. Go up to your room. I'll be there in a minute."

Paige brushed past Emily as she made her way up the stairs, shrugging off Emily's hand as she ascended. She vaguely registered Natalie's voice talking to Emily as she went into her room, closed the door and laid down face-first on her bed, the tears falling before she even hit the mattress.

Downstairs, Natalie wanted nothing more than to sock Emily in the gut – but looking at the girl, it looked like someone already had.

"Come on, Emily. You need to go home," Natalie said, gently tugging on her arm. "I'll talk to her tonight. Maybe she'll talk to you soon."

Emily felt like her feet were made of lead as she shuffled her way to the door, chancing one more glance at Paige's bedroom to make sure she wasn't there.

As the two made their way outside, Natalie shut the front door so Paige couldn't hear. "Listen. Don't be mad at Spencer about this. I forced her to tell me. But Paige needed to know. After what happened with Kelley, she doesn't deserve to be deceived again."

Emily's mind cleared of the fog of the last 30 seconds and she looked up, meeting Natalie's eyes.

"What are you talking about? Can you please tell me what happened between Paige and Kelley? I feel like I get different answers from everyone."

Natalie let out a deep sigh, and figured she was just tipsy enough to continue her truth-telling mood. "Kelley and Paige dated for several months. But Paige was thinking of ending things when she found out she was moving to Rosewood," Natalie started, and Emily nodded – like this sounded familiar.

"Kelley kinda sensed Paige was pulling away. And she started to get super clingy. Like gross clingy. And Paige would jus pull away further. And finally one night... Kelley got really drunk at a party. And. I don't know, I guess she thought if Paige didn't like it when she was clingy, maybe she'd respond to the opposite? So anyway.." Natalie paused again, unsure of how to say the end of the story.

"Basically.. Christen and Kelley ended up kissing. In front of the whole party."

Emily's eyes bugged out huge, and she immediately shook her head. "My Christen? No way. That wouldn't happen."

Natalie grimaced, and just raised her hand in desperation for Emily to believe her. "I saw it. I was there."

"Who initiated it?" Emily asked, desperate to find a way to exonerate Christen.

"From what I saw, Christen did."

"No."

"I'm just telling you what I saw. Which is why the fact that you used Paige to get with Christen is even doubly worse. Because you're the second girl to use her step-sister to hurt her," Natalie bit her lip nervously, figuring the truth had to hurt.

Emily stood in silent disbelief as Natalie made her way back inside. Before she got in, she turned back around. "Like I said. I'll talk to her. Hopefully I can get her to calm down and you can salvage some kind of friendship."

Natalie closed the door in Emily's face as the dark-haired girl just stared at the frame dumbly – wondering how she could ever have gotten things so wrong.

Upstairs Natalie took off her shoes and padded into Paige's dark room and gently sat down on the bed. She made herself comfortable and put Paige's head on her lap and wrapped a protective arm around her friend and petted her hair with the other hand.

Paige sniffled and wriggled to get a little more comfortable. In a small voice, she asked her friend earnestly - "Tell me about your date."

A/N: Whilst writing this chapter, the song for which this story is named popped up on my Pandora! What fate! It's a New Order track, if you're interested.