I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint. I've thought long and hard about this one and how to end it. Not even sorry about the cliffhanger ;)

I love each and every one of you who reads this fic. Anyone who leaves a review is amazing. You know where I am :) I am so proud of this fic and yes, I know there hasn't been any real drama yet, but wait for it. Things WILL get rocky soon. 3 Mae

Paige's POV

The short trip home gave me time to think about the night before. I already knew I was going to tell my mom I was at Lauren's house for the night but, what came after that I wasn't sure. I could feel myself start to internally shake as I pulled onto our street and nearly jumped as I heard the phone ring me out of my thoughts. Caller I.D on the phone said Mal so I put it on speaker.

"Hey freak. How was your party?" I asked a little louder than I needed.

I heard a groan on the other end. "Come get me. I'm at Ksenia's." Mallory managed to get out.

I chuckled some. "Fun night?" I said bypassing our house to head to grab Mal.

"Come get me, Paige." Mallory exaggerated as I laughed.

Taking a second to stop laughing I shook my head. "Am on my way not to have too much fun until I get there." I tried to stifle a laugh but failed before she hung up on me.

Thinking about last night as I drove debating on what I should tell Mallory about my date. Even knowing that she was going to ask and bug me about it, I still couldn't stop the feeling inside of me that was dying to tell her everything. The thought that kept crossing my mind was telling Mallory about first. It hadn't been long even knowing Emily but I knew without a doubt who I was. Figuring a talk with my best friends would be in order later today I waited until I got to Ksenia's house to text Lauren to get Tamsin and meet for lunch in a couple hours. When I got the text back that they had no problem with meeting I put my phone in the center console and got out of the car to go in and get Mallory.

I knocked on the door and one of Ksenia's roommate's answered. "Hey, Paige." She said sleepily as she opened the door wide to let me enter.

"Hey, Dani. They in the back or K's room?" I asked as I passed her into the main hall. It always puzzled me why Mallory didn't live here with her friends but I guess it wasn't for me to know.

Dani cuckled, "Where else?" nodding to Ksenia's room.

I just laughed a little and went to the door before knocking and walking in. There was a movie in the background and Mallory was sitting at the computer playing around on Starcraft and Ksenia was laying on the bed still waking up.

"Morning K. Mal what level you on?" I got a grunt back from Ksenia as I walked and stood behind Mallory's chair.

"Ugh, I can't get passed this Zerg level. I'm trying not to cheat and look it up online but it's becoming harder to resist with each time I die." She stated in frustration seeming to not show the signs of her hangover just fifteen minutes before.

I put my hand on the desk and one on the back of her chair and leaned forward to look at the screen with her. "I remember this level. Pissed me off as well. May you be strong, once you figure it out you're going to be mad for not seeing it in the first place."

She looked up at me with an expression that suggested I tell her now or suffer. "Uh….. Oh come on! Don't expect me to give you the answer." I laughed and backed away with hands up. Her expression didn't change. "Oh, fine. I'll show it to you when we get home. I wrote my own strategy guide that I've deprived u of." I gave a short laugh and went to stand behind her again. "You ready?"

"Give me a sec to die again, idget." Mallory's voice wasn't annoyed but playful. "If you would help I could kick this level's ass and not have a problem but, no. Why would you help me? Why help when your sister is in need of your help." She feigned hurt as her last guy was killed. "Alright, let's go." She said grabbing her stuff from the other side of the room and looked to Ksenia. "Call you later. Get sleep."

Ksenia looked our way. "Paige, hey. Take her home. She's a menace."

"I am. Go back to sleep. I can only promise to keep her til lunch." I laughed to Ksenia as Mallory chuckled.

On the ride home I decided to tell Mallory what I was thinking. "Mal, I think I might tell mom."

I could hear her head snap towards me as my sentence finished.

"Really? It's not been that long. Are you sure?" She asked with raised eyebrow and concern.

I gave her a look quickly before I just pulled the car over. We were only a couple minutes from the house but if I went home and sat in the driveway my mom would come out and we couldn't talk.

"Well, not about Emily yet. If that's what you think but, I do know. I'm gay Mal." I breathed as I told her. It was the first time I had spoken it aloud and it felt, freeing.

A huge smile broke on Mallory's face as she leaned over and gave me a hug. "I'm proud of you for this. I know it takes strength to say it out loud."

Letting go with my own huge smile, I nodded. "I'm going to have lunch with Lauren and Tamsin so I can talk to them about how I should talk to mom about it. Oh, and uhm, mom is going to ask me a lot of questions about where I was last night. I'm going to tell her I was at Lauren's so just say that's where I was." A smirk formed on her lips and an eyebrow raised signalling to me that she wanted details. My head dipped as I bit my lip smiling. "Em and I fell asleep watching a movie on her couch. I swear that was all, Mal."

"Uh huh." She winked and nodded her head.

"HEY!" I defended. "Even if I was getting laid I wouldn't tell you about it right now." I stuck my tongue out at her and turned around to head to the house again. "Let's go before I get grounded and can only go to swim practice." I told her as I pulled back onto the street.

Emily's POV

I tried hard to wait a decent amount of time before I raced for the phone but, that didn't happen. I knew Hanna hated to be woken up on Saturday mornings before noon but I couldn't wait. I called her within five minutes of Paige leaving. It rang a few times before Caleb answered.

"Hi, Em." He said with a small laugh in his voice.

It was only about ten thirty so I knew he would be awake as usual. "Hey. Hanna awake?" I questioned fast.

Now he let out a full laugh. "You of all people know she isn't. Would you like me to wake her up?"

It was my turn to laugh now. "Yeah, wake her. I'll take the blame."

I heard some ruffling and Hanna moaned for him to leave her alone then he told her I was on the phone. She said something along the lines of 'why didn't you say so' and I heard her snatch the phone from him.

"How was the date!" Hanna squealed in my ear.

I had to move the phone away a little. I didn't realize she would be so peppy in the morning at the thought of hearing about my date. "Hi, Hanna." I said with a smile in my voice. "It was amazing. Dinner and then we came back to my house for a movie."

"You did not! Did you…?" It was funny how excited Hanna was.

"Is that the only place your mind resides? No, we didn't. We put a movie in and cuddled on the couch. Then fell asleep." I smiled into the phone and laid down on the couch against the armrest.

I could hear the slight disappointment in her voice now. "No. That is NOT all I think about. It's been a long time since you've liked someone this much I just want you happy." She groaned and continued. "You fell asleep? As in together? That's so cute!"

I knew she would find that adorable. "Yes, we did. I woke up this morning in her arms. It was…..right. I don't even really know how to explain it. We made breakfast together and everything before Judy called and freaked out about her not being home last night."

"I know what you mean. That's how I felt the first time I woke up in Caleb's arms the morning after….." Hanna sighed happily and I could hear her kiss Celeb before she spoke again. ""Judy's her mom right? That sucks. Does she know where Paige really was or did she lie?"

I sighed worriedly now. "Yeah, she's her mom. I don't think she know's and I don't think she would like it if she knew."

Caleb said something in the background I couldn't quite understand and Hanna agreed. "Em, you know I love you but are you really going to be able to be in her house and not give away your relationship with Paige?"

I hadn't thought about that. I had a study session with Judy Monday afternoon. "Uhm…..I hadn't thought about that. I believe Paige has swim practice after school so I should be ok. I don't think she will be home until after I leave."

"You're not really good at hiding things Em. Talk to Paige about it and see. I don't want something to happen and you to lose her." I knew Hanna had good intentions when she said it. It just hit me that I could really lose her though.

I shook my head on my end of the phone. "I'll call her later today and talk about it. You're right, Han. Talk later?"

"Late lunch? I can call the girls. I think we should all have lunch today next week is going to be crazy." Hanna told me. It was more of an order and not a question.

I laughed a little knowing that she would want to get the girls in on this. "Alright. Text me where and when. I'll see you later. Love ya." She said bye and we hung up.

I went upstairs to get a shower and do some stuff in my room. I had some math homework to finish and then I was going to get ready for lunch. If I knew Spencer she would want us to go somewhere nice and not just the Grille in the middle of town. Sure enough, I got a text an hour later from Spence telling me where and to meet in an hour.

Paige's POV

We walked into the house and Mallory headed straight for the stairs to get out of the way. She knew my mom could be mad with the best of them. I swallowed hard and walked into the living room where I heard the television on. I was met with my mother sitting on the couch like nothing was wrong. Oh, this wasn't good…

"Hey, ma." I said as I walked further into the room and went to sit down.

"Hello." She said coldly.

I looked around and knew I was in trouble. "Uhm, Lauren say's hi." I told her in hopes she wouldn't be so mad if she heard that.

Mom looked at me now with those mom eyes that make you know you're not getting out of the situation. "I bet she does. Tell me, why didn't you call or leave a note or come home last night?" She raised her voice a little now.

I braced myself and thought quickly on what to say. " We were out late and I fell asleep. I didn't mean to stay there all night, ma. I'm sorry."

Looking back at the t.v and nodding. "I'm sure. Make sure next time Lauren know's to call for you." Her voice was deadpan now. "Go do your homework."

"Yes mom." I agreed as I got up and went upstairs.

Mallory intercepted me when I got to the top of the stairs with a smirk on her face and followed me into my bedroom. It didn't phase me too much until she started to laugh some at me.

"What?" I snapped at her.

She just smiled at me. "So, does Lauren know you were there last night?"

I shrugged and shook my head. "No, but she will in a couple hours. Her, Tam and I are going to have lunch to talk." I glanced to the door. "Shut that?"

Mallory crossed and shut the door moving away to the bed and sitting. "Well, I assume you're going to be talking about each other's last night fun?" To refrain from laughing she just bit her bottom lip and snickered.

I rolled my eyes and unzipped my bag to get out my math homework. "Since you are smart and on my bed, your ass is helping me with my Calc homework." I mockingly smiled at her with a head tilt before I went to my desk and sat my stuff down.

Mallory groaned. "It's too early for math! Give me reading or like English or something. Let me do those for you."

I laughed and I shoved her feet off my bed. "Get up. You are helping. English and everything else are a breeze. Calc isn't."

"Fine." She groaned out and got up. "How do you managed to get me to help with calc on the weekends?"

"Simple." I stated. "You love me." I stuck my tongue out to her quickly before smirking.

"I hate you." She joked before pulling over my spare chair and sitting down. "Alright where are we this week."

-couple hours later-

I smiled across the table to Lauren and Tamsin after we ordered our drinks. "Sooo, tell me how last night went!" I asked excitedly.

They looked at each other smiling and looked back at me. "Uhm….well. She said yes!" Lauren almost shouted. "I thought it was beautiful."

Tamsin lightly shoved Lauren to get her to not ramble about last night. "Babe, she doesn't need every detail like I know you're going to do."

Lauren just rolled her eyes, smiled and shook her head a little.

"I stayed at Emily's last night." I blurted out.

They both looked at me with shocked expressions.

"Hell yeah! Get it, Paige!" Tamsin put up a hand for a high five with a huge grin.

Shaking my head I didn't even know how she was real right now. "Tam, it wasn't like that. We fell asleep watching a movie and I hadn't told my mom where I was, obviously. She freaked out and called this morning mad. I may have lied and said I was at your house, Lauren." I said with a frown and hopes she wasn't about to whack my arm over it.

"Mine?" She asked unbelieving. "Babe, I wasn't even at my house last night. If our moms talk you are fuckkked."

I smacked myself in the forehead for not thinking about her already telling me that. "Shit."

Tamsin popped in with her thought on the matter now. "Just tell her we were all out together." She shrugged.

I laughed, "Oh, yeah, that's what I'll do." I laughed hard thinking about what my mom might think if I really did say that to her. "'Ma, I was out with my best friends who are lesbian and together all night as Lauren asked Tamsin to be exclusive.' Yup, totally going over well."

Lauren and Tamsin started laughing as well now that they heard it out loud.

"You're right. Can't tell her that" Tamsin managed to laugh out.

"Gee thanks. So much support from you two about this." I rolled my eyes and leaned back in my chair folding my arms over my chest just watching them laugh again.

Lauren was the first to quiet down and stop laughing. "It's alright, Paige. We got ya covered. Right Tam?" Lauren shoved her elbow a little harder than was needed into Tamsin's side and gave her a look.

"What?" Tamsin gave Lauren a look. "Oh right. Nah, we gotcha Paige. Promise. Tell her you were with us out and you passed out before you remembered to text her."

"Yeah. It's fine. Just say something like that." Lauren added.

All I could do was look between them and give in. "Alright, I'll say something like that if it comes up again." I started to fidget more than usual and Lauren was who noticed first.

Watching me for a minute before she asked, "Hey, why are you worried?" Reaching a hand over to mine and stopping my movements.

Sighing because Lauren knew me so well I laced my hands together and licked my lips before I asked the question on my mind. "How did you guys come out to your parents?"

I felt the air change after I asked. A glance at each other before Lauren sat back in her chair to take a breath.

"Well, they kind of already knew but I told them over dinner one night. Mom asked me if I was seeing anyone and at the time I wasn't. When I brought Tamsin over for dinner a few weeks later Dad asked me when I was going to ask her out." She laughed a little. "Tam went to the bathroom when we were watching something and I planned out this whole speech to give about how I liked her and was going to ask if she would go out with me. When she came back I didn't get a chance to say anything because she just walked in and kissed me."

Lauren smiled and placed a lingering kiss on Tamsin's lips. They both smiled and looked at me.

"As for me? Well, they didn't care. I brought home Lauren and all my parents asked was if I was happy. I said yes and we've talked about it a few time since but it's not a big deal in our house. My Aunt is gay and has been with her partner for about twenty years. My cousin is a freshman." Tamsin shrugged and took a swig out of her root beer bottle.

"That's awesome." I grin and tell her. "Thing is, my mom's best friend is gay. She's like an Aunt to me. I just don't know how my mother would take it if I were gay….." I trailed off and looked down at the table.

Tamsin gave her best 'who cares' face to me, "Bitch, doesn't matter who you want. Your mom should love you regardless. I've met your mom. I don't think there's anything you could do that she wouldn't be proud of."

Lauren joined now, "Yeah, maybe she will surprise you. Might be joining PFLAG before you even end the conversation!" She laughed.

As I laughed and rolled my eyes, they laughed too. "Alright, alright. I might do it tonight. I'll be good so long as I don't wuss out. Should I tell Emily before I do it? I mean, I don't plan on naming anyone. Or even telling her I'm with anyone so…...not sure how to go about that."

"I'd call and see what she thinks but really, it's your decision so I don't think it matters what she thinks. Just one more step to your mom knowing about you two." Lauren offered me.

I shook my head firmly. "Ohhhh no. She's not going to find out about Emily and I for a looooong time."

"Why not?" They asked in unison.

"Really?" I looked between them like they had lost their minds. "First off, Emily is currently in my mother's class and second she's her study partner. Her friend! How do you tell your mom that you are with her friend?!"

No one knew the answer so no one spoke.

Emily's POV

Spencer was the first one there much to no one's surprise. Hanna and I got there before Aria and we got a table near the window in one of Spencer's favorite booths. When we were done ordering our drinks, it was apparently time to talk about my love life.

"Ok, so how can we help Em not give away her and Paige when she's over at Paige's house?" She started.

Aria was the one who chimed in next. "Easy, don't go over there."

The girls chuckled while I rolled my eyes. I didn't see the point in this really. I could control myself around people.

"Come on," I cut in. "I'm not that bad. I know how to keep myself in check around people."

All three of them looked at me with skeptical looks.

"Not really Em. You get this wistful look on your face and a cute little smile whenever you look at her. We have all seen it. Don't try to lie." Hanna clued me in on.

I groaned and dropped my head. "Fine. So what? I just talk to Paige about not being home when I'm studying with her mom?" I asked them.

Nodding Aria was the first to get a word out, "Why not? Em, she likes you a lot. I'm sure she's willing to do that for you."

"Yeah, plus isn't swim practice everyday after school for her?" Spencer asked me.

All I could do was nod as they went on about how to solve my dilemma. Under the table I pulled out my phone and texted Paige about talking later. After she had left that morning my mind was reeling from how great it felt to make breakfast with her on a Saturday morning.

"Emily?" Hanna raised her voice a little to get my attention back on them. "You really like her don't you?" She asked after I raised my head to look at them.

A bashful look came over me and they all smiled. "Yeah. It's just complicated and I never realized how much it would be." I look down at the table feeling the worry start to show on my face.

The girls exchanged looks and I knew what was about to happen.

"Emily, let's have a girls night. We haven't done one in a while and I think we all just need to sit and dish when we are not in public." Spencer said as she handed her credit card to the waitress so we could leave.

Hanna and Aria agreed and it was done. Tonight was going to be girly movies and drinks and talking. Much needed talking for all of us really.

Paige's POV

After I left my friends and headed home I went to my room to study. I still had homework and some reading to do so I figured I was safe until dinner. My mom was making our Saturday night dinner and from the sounds of it she was actually happy tonight. I couldn't help but hope that her happy mood continued even after I voiced who I really was. She's my mom though, she has to love me no matter what…...right?

When Mallory emerged from her cave about an hour before dinner she came in to hang out.

"You look tired as hell, Mal." I voiced with concern as she sat next to me.

I got a groan just before she laid her head down on my desk. "I feel like crap.."

I laid my head down and turned it to face Mallory's. "What all did you do last night?"

Mal closed her eyes and looked like she was going to fall back asleep. "We went to a frat house and stayed out forever drinking."

"Idiot." I managed to suppress the giggle that threatened to come out at her words. "I might have news. Be ready for it."

Mallory's eyes opened and she smiled. "Are you really sure?"

I loved how I never had to say everything out loud with her. "I think so. Not a word about Emily though. That could result in bad things."

A small squeal as Mal quickly sat up and pulled me into a hug. "Yay! I'm proud of you!"

I wasn't sure what else to do so I just hugged her back. "Well I haven't done it yet, Mal. Let's save the love for after dinner and the backlash that might happen."

"Eh, Aunt Judy loves you. You can't do anything wrong. I'll be here so maybe things won't get too bad." She reassured me as she pulled away.

"Thanks," I told her.

We spent a little while just taking until my mom called up the stairs that dinner was ready. We looked at each other and I gave a sigh. Mallory just looked pleased now like she was waiting for a seat to watch World War 3 start.

"Get that look off your face. You're my back up in this." I made sure she knew as we left the room.

Mallory and I exchanged looks across the table as a sort of signal. I was silently telling her that this was it. My nerve was up and I was ready to take on anything my mother could throw at me.

"Mom? Can I talk to you about something?" I inquired.

"Always, Paige." My mom responded not looking up.

"Uh….well? It's kind of no big deal but, I uhm, I'm," I don't know what prevented me from saying it completely out loud but something held me back.

Mom looked up now with a quizzical look on her face. "Honey, you're usually so articulate. What's wrong?"

"She's just not feeling well tonight, Aunt Judy. That's all." Mallory jumped in to save me.

I gave her my best 'what the fuck' look before letting out a breath and with it the words that scared me when said out loud. "I'm gay, Ma."