Chapter 10

Emily

"Emily!" Paige laughed. "Come on, we need to go."

Emily's eyes remained closed, wrapping her arm tighter around Paige's waist as she tried to get out of the bed. "No," she mumbled into the nape of Paige's neck, snuggling closer. She was feeling far too tired to go running; she would happily lie here spooning with Paige for the whole day.

"Fine, five more minutes," Paige sighed, her body relaxing back against Emily. Emily smiled; she knew Paige could have escaped her hold if she had really wanted to. Her fingers traced gently over Paige's stomach above her t-shirt before wandering underneath. She kissed the back of Paige's neck lightly, followed by a more open-mouthed one. When her fingers bumped against the bottom of her bra, Paige started to squirm away from her again, doing it so suddenly that Emily didn't have enough warning to stop her.

"Right, no. Enough of that," Paige said, trying to sound stern, but Emily could hear the tightness in her throat, her voice sounding an octave higher than usual. "If you're not dressed by the time I get back I'll-" Paige stopped, seeming unsure how to end the sentence. Emily raised her eyebrows questioningly, a smirk appearing on her lips as she waited for Paige to finish the threat. "Just… get up," she said, unable to suppress a small smile.

Emily snorted, Paige gathering up clothes to take to the bathroom and leaving her alone in her room. Emily couldn't help but be amused at the fact Paige was still getting changed in another room after what had happened last night.

She threw her arm over her face, grinning. That had certainly taken her by surprise; she hadn't meant for things between them to escalate that quickly, but they both seemed to have needed some form of release, and it had been perfect.

And extremely hot.

She quickly got out of bed; the last thing she wanted was to get worked up again by replaying the image of Paige grinding down into her thigh over and over again.

She dressed swiftly, and was in front of the mirror pulling her hair into a ponytail by the time Paige came back. Emily smiled at how slowly she opened the door and at how relieved she looked to find Emily fully dressed this time.

"Oh, good," Paige said. "Just so you know, I was fully prepared to throw a glass of water over you."

"Why do that when there are much better ways to wake me up?" Emily said with a cheeky grin, suddenly worried she had made Paige uncomfortable when she averted her gaze and looked down at the floor. The worry was short-lived however; Paige came up behind her, encircling her waist and resting her chin on her shoulder.

Emily leaned back into her as their eyes connected in the mirror. Paige's eyes crinkled in the corners as she smiled softly at her. In the silence of the room, Emily swore she could feel Paige's steady heartbeat against her back beating in sync with her own. She was suddenly overcome with emotion, her heart expanding in her chest.

I love you.

The thought flitted through her head before she could stop it. Paige placed a kiss on her neck, quietly saying, "Let's go." As she walked away from her, Emily could only look at herself in the mirror with slightly widened eyes.

She had fallen hard for Paige and there was no going back now.

Their run took longer than normal since they kept pulling each other into secluded areas to steal kisses, meaning that when they finally returned to Emily's to get changed they were dangerously close to being late for school.

Her mom looked at them curiously from the living room as they ran into the house, beginning to race up the stairs.

"We lost track of the time," Emily threw lamely over her shoulder as she followed Paige up to her room, praying her mom wouldn't ask anything more about it.

Paige whipped her shirt over her head as soon as Emily closed the bedroom door, dropping to her knees to rifle through her bag, pulling clothes out all over the floor in her hurry. Emily could only stand rooted to the spot, watching Paige's back muscles flex as she moved.

Suddenly Paige was standing up again, turning to look at her. "Emily! Come on! I've got Mrs Lipton first and you know how humiliating it is to be late to her class." Emily did know; she hadn't witnessed it herself but she had heard that Mrs Lipton made students sing a song of their choice to the whole class as a punishment for being late. That snapped her out of it as she started to shrug out of her own clothes. "Nothing you haven't seen before," Paige added, mimicking her words from the night before as she noticed Emily staring at her.

"Shut up," Emily laughed, shoving Paige lightly as she was in the middle of removing her running pants so that she fell into the side of the bed.

Both of them were breathless with laughter by the time they were finally dressed, Emily thankful that the amusement had masked the sexual tension that could have overpowered them otherwise.

They rushed back downstairs, shouting their goodbyes to her mom who was still sitting on the couch, running to Emily's car. Emily was craving water as she started to drive, her throat incredibly dry.

"Have you got anything to drink?" she asked hopefully.

"Uh…" Paige started, rummaging briefly through the bag at her feet. "Nope, sorry. How about this tasty looking apple instead?" Emily glanced to her side to see Paige holding up an apple that had either been in the bag far too long or had been crushed under all of Paige's school books.

Emily screwed her face up. "I think I'll pass."

Paige opened the passenger window and threw the apple out of the car.

"Paige!" Emily admonished.

"What? I wasn't putting that thing back in my bag. A bird will probably thank me for it."

Emily shook her head with a smile, holding out her hand for Paige to take for the last few minutes of the ride. They arrived with literally two minutes to spare, walking up to Hanna, Spencer and Aria who were gathered at Spencer's locker.

Spencer looked at the time on her phone. "Cutting it fine this morning. Don't you have Lipton first?" she asked, looking at Paige.

"Yeah," Paige said quickly, clearing her throat. "Em's car had a flat." The bell rang, saving them from having to expand on the lie. "Too bad, no one will get to hear me sing today. See you guys at lunch." Paige began to walk down the hallway, managing to throw Emily a small smile over her shoulder as she went. It frustrated Emily that she couldn't respond since the other girls were still facing her.

Emily took off her jacket and flapped her hand in front of her face, trying to cool down from the rush of the morning. "I'm going to go get water before class, see you." Hanna opened her mouth about to speak, but Emily was off before she got the chance.

Paige

It was her free period. She was slumped down onto the table in front of her, her chin resting on her crossed arms. Spencer usually joined her in the library since they shared the same free period, but she had ditched her for Toby today.

She stared at her phone for a moment before looking around the surrounding area to make sure no one was watching; she snapped a quick picture of herself with her head in her hand and a slightly upturned bottom lip, captioning it I'm bored. She grinned, sending the image to Emily. She only had to wait two minutes before her phone lit up with a message.

You're such a dork :P

Paige laughed quietly under her breath, pulling her notebook towards her to try and get back to studying. Her phone lit up again, this time the message making her heartbeat quicken.

Meet me in the bathroom in 5.

Paige gulped; what was Emily up to? She sat there frozen for a moment, unsure whether this was a good idea or not. However, the urge to see Emily was stronger than the fear of getting caught in this instant, so she quickly packed up her books and made her way to the girls' bathroom.

Paige cautiously checked to make sure it was empty before entering the cubicle furthest away from the door. Not long after, she heard the door opening; she tensed, relaxing when she heard Emily's voice echoing around the room. "Paige?" she whispered hesitantly.

Paige opened the door of the cubicle, poking her head out. "In here." A wide grin spread over Emily's face, walking quickly towards her. Their mouths met as soon as the door was locked, sighing into each other.

"We only have a few minutes," Emily murmured against her lips. "Mr Blair just thinks I needed to use the bathroom." Paige's hands slipped under Emily's shirt, her fingers running over the bare skin of her waist. "But really, I just realised I hadn't told you how glad I am you bought this shirt." Emily ran her fingers over the collar of the dark green shirt she had purchased at the weekend, pulling the material so that Paige was yanked even closer to her.

"Yeah?" Paige hummed, slipping her tongue into Emily's mouth, pushing her against the wall. She couldn't get enough of her; it was never enough. Just as she was about to push her thigh in between Emily's, they heard the squeak of the bathroom door.

They both froze, Paige quickly clamping her hand over Emily's mouth. She didn't know why; it's not like Emily would have shouted out that they were in here. It was painful to keep her breathing quiet when her body was aching to take big lungfuls of air to recover from kissing Emily.

They stared at each other, Paige not failing to notice how Emily had the prettiest eyes she had ever seen as they listened to someone walk to the sinks. They heard a rummaging sound; they were probably topping up their make-up or something, Paige figured.

After what felt like an eternity, the door opened and closed again, both of them relaxing in relief. That was close; too close. Emily smiled, not seeming as bothered as Paige felt about almost being caught. She gave her a quick kiss, saying, "I better get back to class before I get into trouble. I've already been away too long. Hey, are you okay?" Her face must have looked worried.

"Oh, yeah, I'm great." She kissed her again to prove her point. She had a feeling Emily would have probed her further but she didn't have the time, Paige grateful for that fact.

Emily opened the cubicle door, looking out to double check that they were alone. Paige could only give a forced smile as she said goodbye, leaning back against the wall once Emily had left, trying to ignore the shaking of her hands.

Paige was still feeling tense at lunch time, but she was doing her best not to show it. Hanna asking her and Emily how the week-long sleepover was going wasn't helping.

"I'm so jealous, that seems like so much fun," Hanna said. "What have you been up to? It looks like you've been tossing and turning all night." Paige almost choked on her water. Thankfully Emily was ready with an answer.

"Just watching loads of movies, really."

"Ugh, boring." Hanna rolled her eyes. Paige met Emily's gaze across the table and couldn't help but smile.

"Em also forgot to mention that she's a giant cover hog," Paige said, dodging the shred of lettuce that Emily threw her way. They all laughed, Paige's eyes landing on Spencer who was sitting directly across from her. The laughter died down, Spencer looking at her with inquisitive eyes; Paige looked away quickly, glancing back after a few seconds to see if she was still watching her. She was.

Oh god; she knows. She knows.

Paige only released the breath she was holding when Spencer looked away. She wanted to make up an excuse and leave but she feared that might make it look even more obvious that there was something up with her.

She could barely pay attention to the rest of the conversation over lunch even though Spencer was acting perfectly normal again. Emily must have noticed that she was feeling agitated, catching her eyes and giving her a look to say 'What's wrong?'

Paige gave the slightest shake of her head so that it was barely noticeable. 'Later.'

The opportunity didn't arise until after swim practice. As soon as they were sitting in the car in the quiet parking lot Paige blurted out, "Spencer knows."

Emily's expression turned serious instantly. "What? What do you mean? Knows what?"

"About us! Fuck," she said, throwing her hands over her face and trying not to cry.

"Paige." She ignored Emily, her mind reeling. What were they going to do? "Paige." Another person knowing just made this situation all the more real. She wasn't ready. "Paige!" Emily grabbed her wrist, pulling her hands away from her face. "Will you just look at me please?"

Paige complied, meeting Emily's gaze hopelessly. She held Paige's hand as she asked, "Now, why the hell do you think Spencer knows?"

Paige sighed. "I can't really explain it; I just know. She had this look in her eye while we were at lunch." Paige studied Emily's face, annoyed to see a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "It's not funny," she said, pulling her hand from Emily's, crossing her arms and staring out of the window.

"I'm sorry, I know it's not. But she had a 'look in her eye'? Come on, Paige. I really doubt she knows anything." Paige continued to stare out of the window, unconvinced. She heard Emily sigh, placing a hand on her thigh. "Look, if I had a dollar for every time I thought that you had caught on to the fact that I liked you… well, I'd probably have five bucks, but you get my point. Having a secret sometimes comes with a degree of paranoia." Emily squeezed her thigh gently. "And I got the impression that in the bathroom today you got scared when someone walked in. Maybe the anxiety stemming from that -I don't know- manifested itself at lunch and made you think Spencer knew?"

Paige processed that theory for a moment, finally lacing her fingers through Emily's and turning back to face her. Emily gave her a reassuring smile. "You really think it's all in my head?" Paige began to latch onto that idea, hoping that if she believed it enough that it would be true.

"Well obviously I don't know for sure, but I definitely think that's the most likely explanation." Paige searched Emily's eyes to make sure that she wasn't just saying that; seeing nothing but honesty, Paige relaxed into the seat.

"You're right," she sighed. "I'm being stupid." She shook her head, as if it were physically possible to expel the thoughts from her mind.

Emily gave her hand a squeeze. "It's okay, I totally get it." Emily looked around them before placing a quick kiss to her hand. "Feeling better?"

Paige smiled. "Yeah, thank you."

Emily

They were lying in the darkness of her room, Emily's head resting on Paige's shoulder, her hand flat on Paige's bare stomach under her t-shirt, finding her steady breathing soothing. The only sign that Paige was still awake was the light movement of her fingers on the small of her back.

She wanted to fall asleep, but she kept thinking about the conversation they'd had in the car. She'd felt confident at the time that Paige had just been imagining things, but what if she hadn't been? Spencer was clever; really clever. Emily began to think that it wasn't outside the realm of possibility that she had figured out something was different between her and Paige. Emily knew that sometimes her guard slipped when they were around other people; it could be possible that Paige's had too. There was no way she would tell Paige that though; not after how panicked she had been. But she had to ask the question that had been burning in her mind.

"Paige?"

It took her a moment to respond. "Hmm?" She sounded like she was on the brink of drifting off; Emily suddenly felt guilty.

"Never mind; it can wait."

They lay in silence again before Paige sighed. "What is it? I'm curious now."

Emily hesitated before speaking. "Okay, please don't freak out, this is just a question." She felt Paige tense immediately, Emily feeling stupid for starting like that. She traced invisible patterns over Paige's stomach to try and calm her. "But, would it be so bad? If Spencer -and Hanna and Aria- knew about us, I mean." Paige didn't answer her right away. Emily continued, "They wouldn't care. In fact, I'm pretty sure they would be excited for us."

"Emily…" Paige groaned. "We can't."

"I'm not saying we should tell them right now, I'm asking if it would be so bad?" Emily's voice was gentle, turning her head up to brush her nose against Paige's neck. "They wouldn't tell anyone."

"I know they wouldn't; that's not the point." Paige was starting to sound frustrated. Emily wanted to ask what the point was, but decided against it when Paige whispered, "I can't talk about this right now, okay?"

"Okay," Emily replied, snuggling further into Paige to convey that she understood, Paige placing a kiss to her forehead in gratitude.

She was in no hurry to do it, but at some point Emily wanted to tell their friends that they were together; it would make this dream seem more like a reality, but she was pretty sure that was the reason that Paige didn't want to tell them. It was one thing to like a girl; it was another to actually tell people about it.

Emily just hoped that Paige knew that they -and she- couldn't hide forever.

Paige

The next day at school Paige kept an eye out for any indication that Spencer knew something, but she didn't notice anything unusual. Emily was right, she kept repeating to herself. It had all been in her head. She wanted to ask Spencer outright just to be sure, but she couldn't for obvious reasons.

She pushed it to the back of her mind; there were enough things to worry about without fixating on something that probably wasn't even true.

As the day wore on, Paige became increasingly anxious. Her parents returned tomorrow, and therefore so did reality. She was concerned about the conversation (if you could even call it that) she'd had with Emily last night before they fell asleep. She wondered if Emily knew that she might never be able to tell people about them, even their friends, and wondered how long Emily would stick around once she found out.

Her stomach knotted.

"Hey, what you thinking about?" Emily asked, touching her arm briefly as they walked to swim practice. "You've gone all quiet."

Paige quickly shoved the thoughts out of her head. "Nothing. Just food, I'm starving."

Emily gave her a dubious look but didn't question her further. Instead, her face lit up as an idea came into her head. "Well, if you're hungry we could just head to The Grille after practice? And we could get ice cream after."

"Mmm, sounds tempting." She tried to ignore how it sounded like a date in public; it was perfectly normal for two friends to be seen out for dinner together, no one would suspect anything. "Let's do it."

Emily smiled.

They managed to find a small table near the back of the restaurant that wasn't exactly secluded, but it was far enough out the way that Paige felt safe enough to let her leg rest against Emily's underneath the table while they ate their food. Emily was sitting opposite her with her back to the door of The Grille.

"How did your Bio test go yesterday by the way? I meant to ask."

Emily flushed, swallowing a mouthful of food before saying, "Uh, I don't think I did my best. I was kinda… distracted, to say the least."

Now it was Paige's turn to blush, her mind going back to Wednesday night. She hadn't let herself overthink what they had done; it would only lead to anxiety. All she knew was that she had enjoyed it. A lot.

They smiled at each other, Emily looking at her from underneath her insanely long eyelashes in a way that made Paige want to leave and go somewhere private immediately. She slid her hand over the surface of the table towards Emily, stopping just behind the dessert menu that was in between them, her fingers spreading out over the wood. Emily mirrored her action so that both of their palms were flat on the table, but their fingers interlocked, concealed from the rest of the restaurant by the menu.

"Oh?" Paige teased, tilting her head sideways. "Why was that?"

Emily laughed, looking away and knocking her foot against Paige's. "Shut up." Paige grinned from ear to ear, happiness radiating from her. She happened to look up as people came through the doorway, her smile fading as she saw who it was. She subtly pulled her hand back towards her, Emily looking confused. "What is it?"

"Nothing." She focused intently on the plate in front of her, chasing a piece of salad around with her fork.

"Hi, Emily."

Paige gritted her teeth. Couldn't Maya see they were in the middle of eating?

"Oh, hey," Emily smiled politely. "Out for dinner?" Emily nodded behind Maya, throwing a quick wave to two people Paige had never seen before but assumed were Emily's neighbours and Maya's parents. It was actually surprising she hadn't seen them yet considering she had spent so much time at Emily's recently; Maya too for that matter. She wasn't complaining though.

"Yeah, it's Mom's birthday, so," Maya said, gesturing around them. She was blatantly ignoring Paige; they hadn't spoken since that first encounter in Emily's car. She had been jealous of the way Maya had acted towards Emily; she knew that now. And she still didn't like the way she looked at her; the way she was looking at her now.

"Aw, tell her happy birthday from me and Paige." Emily looked at her, eyes widening slightly.

"Uh… yeah," Paige said lamely, unable to come up with anything else to say, her eyes meeting Maya's briefly; her smile turned fake, Paige could tell. Emily cleared her throat uncomfortably.

"Well, I should probably leave you to it. See you around, Emily." Paige almost snorted at the pointed use of Emily's name. Maya made her way to the opposite side of The Grille where her parents had taken a seat. Paige looked back to Emily, who had her lips pursed and a frown on her face.

"You do realise you were actually scowling for a moment there?" There was an angry tone laced through Emily's words.

"So?" Paige didn't care if Maya liked her or not. "You know she's totally into you, right?"

Emily opened and closed her mouth to argue that fact, before a smirk appeared at the corners of her mouth. Paige laughed, taking a sip of her drink. "So what if she does?" Emily asked. "That's beside the point. She's a nice girl, Paige. You should at least try to act like you don't hate her. There's no need for you to be jealous."

Paige smiled shyly. "That obvious, huh?"

"Uh, yeah," Emily grinned, going back to her food. "You know, for someone who doesn't want anyone to know about us, I would maybe work on that." Paige's blood ran cold. Emily suddenly seemed to realise what she had said, looking up from her plate rapidly with a shocked expression. "Shit, sorry. I didn't mean it like that."

"You think she knows about us?" Paige was horrified at her own stupidity for letting her emotions get the better of her.

"No," Emily stressed. "No. That was dumb for me to say; there's no way she knows. She doesn't even know about me, remember?"

Paige's brain was going a million miles a minute, but suddenly Emily's words sank in. Yeah, Maya couldn't know. She was being paranoid again. She released a breath, trying to get her heart rate back to normal. "I'm sorry," Emily said worriedly.

"It's okay," Paige sighed, nudging Emily's foot. "But do you want to get out of here? We can get the ice cream to go." Paige knew she would feel more comfortable if it were just the two of them again.

Emily studied her face for a moment. "Sure."

Emily

They were sitting eating their ice cream in Emily's car on the deserted hilltop that overlooked the town. They had two small tubs, each a different flavour. "Switch," Paige said.

Emily passed the chocolate chip cookie dough to her, Paige handing her the chocolate fudge brownie in return. She was still feeling bad about what she had said during dinner; Paige was paranoid enough as it was without her adding fuel to the fire. Emily had literally seen the colour drain from her face when the words had left her mouth. Thankfully coming up here and getting away from everyone had returned Paige to her normal self.

"Mmm, this is so good," Paige said, licking her spoon clean. "I can't believe I hadn't tried this one before."

"I know, it's amazing," Emily agreed, looking over to see that Paige was eating it pretty fast. "Hey, don't finish it. I want some more of that one." Paige made a face, taking a huge spoonful and putting it in her mouth. Emily laughed, reaching over to try and snatch the tub back.

Paige held it away from her. "You can have the rest of the chocolate one."

"Why can't you have the rest of that one?"

"Uh, 'cause this one's better," Paige said, quickly taking another spoonful. Emily placed the half-eaten tub of ice cream she was holding on the dashboard before lunging across the seat at Paige, trying to wrestle the tub from her hands. She ended up knocking Paige's spoon into her face, ice cream smearing across her chin, but Paige still managed to hold the ice cream out of her grasp.

They were both laughing so hard that they just lay shaking against each other for a moment. "Just give it up, Em. The cookie dough's mine." Without thinking, Emily swiped her tongue over the ice cream on Paige's chin, before sucking her bottom lip lightly in between her own. She pulled back, seeing Paige frozen in surprise; she plucked the ice cream out of her hand easily.

"Ha," she said, settling back into her own seat. "Victory!" Before she could get to eat any of the ice cream however, Paige was on her mouth, her tongue pushing past her lips to meet her own.

Emily moaned as Paige's mouth, still cold from the ice cream, trailed along her jaw and down her neck, her lips latching around her pulse point as her hand came up to grope her breast.

Emily shoved the cookie dough beside the other tub on the dashboard, her hands running up and down Paige's back trying to feel as much of her as possible. She grew frustrated with Paige's jacket getting in the way. She pulled Paige's mouth back to hers, murmuring against her mouth. "Take your jacket off." Paige took a second to comply, finally detaching herself from Emily's lips and struggling to take her jacket off in the enclosed space; Paige having to lean over the parking brake between them couldn't exactly be comfortable either. "Let's get in the back," she suggested.

Paige looked at her with dark eyes before nodding quickly, both of them exiting the car to get into the backseat. Emily quickly took off her own jacket, throwing it onto the driver's seat before closing the door. She had a brief look around to make sure that they were alone before climbing into the backseat with Paige.

Paige slid over to the middle seat, groaning as their mouths connected once more. Emily needed to be closer; she manoeuvred herself so that she was straddling Paige's lap, Paige's arms wrapping around her back, Emily's hands going around Paige's neck. Paige's hands made their way under her t-shirt, gliding over the back of her bra. "Take it off," Emily gasped against her mouth, nipping at her lips.

"What?" Paige slurred, following Emily's mouth when she began to pull back.

"My bra; take it off."

Paige stilled for a moment, before kissing her slowly and deeply. A few more minutes passed before Paige's hand made its way to the clasp of her bra, fumbling slightly. Emily felt her bra come loose, leaning back to slide the straps down her arms from underneath her t-shirt. Paige was watching her every move, her eyes wide, her breathing laboured. Emily reached under her t-shirt to pull her bra free, discarding it off to the side.

Paige's hands, which had been resting on her bare hips, began to move upwards as Emily leaned back into her, Emily burying her hand into Paige's hair.

Paige's hands ran over her stomach before finally making their way up to cup her bare breasts, both of them gasping apart from the kiss. Emily's rested her forehead against Paige's, trying not to completely lose control as Paige ran her thumbs tentatively over her hardened nipples.

"Fuck," Paige whispered, her mouth moving to Emily's neck, biting gently at her skin before soothing it over with her tongue. Her fingers continued to explore beneath Emily's shirt, her nails raking lightly over her nipples, Emily groaning softly. The ache between her legs was getting unbearable, Paige obviously feeling the same, gasping, "I want you," against her neck, pinching a nipple between her fingers as she palmed the other.

Emily could only moan in response, crashing their lips together again. Emily felt one of Paige's hands travel down to the top of her jeans, swiftly undoing the button there. Paige began to push Emily backwards so that she could lie down on the seat.

Oh god, oh god. Is this actually happening?

Emily pulled Paige aggressively on top of her, lying back quickly. A sudden pain seared through the back of her skull; she had smacked it against the car door.

"Shit! Are you okay?" Paige asked, breathing heavily as Emily grunted in pain, clutching the tender spot on her head tightly.

"Ouch," Emily said with watery eyes. Paige's hand batted her own away, running her fingers softly over the area where Emily had hit her head. Emily closed her eyes, letting Paige rub it better.

"I'm sorry," Paige said softly.

Emily's eyes opened. "Don't be, it wasn't your fault." She laughed under her breath. "We both got a little carried away." The blow to the head had knocked some sense into her; what were they doing? They couldn't have their first time in the backseat of a car. That wasn't romantic; that wasn't the way Emily had imagined it.

Paige's head flopped down onto her shoulder seeming to have come to the same conclusion. "We should probably go home." Emily played with the hair at the back of her neck, sighing.

"Yeah." They made no effort to move. "I wish my parents weren't home right now." Paige lifted her head, a small smile on her lips. Emily almost suggested they go to Paige's most-likely empty house, but figured Paige probably wouldn't go for that. Maybe it was a good thing that they would have to wait a bit longer even if it was slowly killing her.

Paige kissed her chastely before struggling to get off of her, finally managing to sit back on her heels. Emily saw Paige's gaze focus on her unbuttoned jeans and slightly uplifted t-shirt, before she quickly cleared her throat and exited the car to go back to the passenger seat. Emily inhaled deeply before doing up her jeans and heaving herself out after Paige.

Paige was pacing around outside, cooling herself down from the heat of the car. Emily fanned herself, the cold air feeling good on her skin.

"Uh…" Paige smirked. "I think you forgot something." Emily frowned slightly before she saw where Paige was looking. She snorted, crossing her arms over her chest and going to the back of the car again to root around for her bra. Rather than awkwardly try to put it back on, she shoved it into her bag and just shrugged her jacket back on over her t-shirt.

She had to crack a window to help clear the fogged up windows, eyes meeting with Paige shyly. Just as she was about to drive them home, she noticed the now-melted ice cream sitting on the dashboard. "You want to fight me for this?" she asked, showing Paige the runny mess inside the tubs.

"Yeah, actually," Paige said, taking one of the cups and downing its contents. "Hmm, not bad."

Emily laughed.

Paige

She couldn't sleep, unable to stop herself thinking about her parents return tomorrow. She checked the time on her phone, squinting at the light in the darkness. 2:03am.

She felt cold without Emily snuggled into her. They had agreed that it was best if they slept further apart tonight since it was too high a risk that they could end up continuing from where they had left off in the car. Paige was desperate for that to happen, but she knew they couldn't do it with Emily's parents in the house. She didn't even feel comfortable repeating what they had done on Wednesday night (she flushed as the phrase 'dry humping' entered her mind). That had been a spur of the moment thing, neither of them thinking about the possibility of being heard.

But this was her last night sharing a bed with Emily. She couldn't lie here beside her and not touch her.

She rolled over towards her, wrapping an arm around her to pull herself flush against Emily's back. Emily sighed in her sleep as Paige closed her eyes, inhaling the scent of Emily's hair deeply, their feet tangling together.

Emily kept Paige's anxiety about the following day from seeping in, and finally she managed to drift off into peaceful dreams where she and Emily could just be.

A/N: Thanks for your support, as always.