Emily was laid out on her bed, her head lying in Paige's lap, and her eyes on the ceiling. Paige's fingers were running through Emily's hair gently, putting Emily in a near trance. She was nearly nodding off when her phone rang, causing her to jump. She let out a laugh and reached for her phone to see who was calling. When she read the screen, she frowned and pushed the ignore button before setting her phone back on the bed.
"You can answer" Paige said softly, giving Emily a light smile "You know I don't mind if you talk to your friends when we're hanging out."
Emily just shrugged "I'm busy."
"No you're not" Paige laughed softly "You're literally laying here doing nothing."
Emily looked up at Paige and gave another shrug "Good enough reason for me not to answer."
"What's going on, Em? You never avoid a call from one of your friends. Especially not Spencer." Paige frowned a little bit and her hand paused it's movements through her hair.
"Nothing" Emily sat up now and faced Paige. She leaned on one hand against the mattress as the other lifted and brushed her fingers against Paige's cheek with a smirk "I'm busy."
"No you're no-" Piage's words were cut off when Emily's lips caught hers in a deep kiss. It lingered for a long moment until Emily pulled back and smirked, nodding a little. Paige caught onto what Emily was saying and let out a laugh "Oh. You're busy. Good call." Paige's hand cupped Emily's cheek and the two girls leaned into each other, letting their lips press together again and within just moments they were in fact very busy and the ignored phonecall was the last thing on either of their minds.
"Shoot" Spencer hissed to herself and tossed her phone into the passenger side seat. She had not heard from Emily all week and now it was Friday evening and she was on her way to see her without knowing if her friend even wanted her there. Was she crazy? She felt pretty crazy at the moment driving an hour and a half for something that might end in disaster.
But she couldn't rest until she spoke to Emily. She had to get this figured out, no matter what. She wished she knew what was going on in Emily's head and how to make this all right again. She sighed and looked over at her phone then reached for it and scrolled through to a number before pushing call and putting it back to her ear.
"Hey, Han, it's Spence" She smiled into the phone when her friend answered "Hey, have you talked to Emily lately? I can't seem to get a hold of her and I was wondering if I just have horrible timing and she is busy whenever I call."
"We talked yesterday" Hanna said on the other end of the phone. "She said she'd been kind of busy but nothing she couldn't handle."
Spencer just nodded her head a little bit at that. Hanna's tone seemed genuine. Apparently Emily had said nothing to Hanna and had never lead on that something was wrong with her. She was thankful for that. "Okay, thanks. Hey if you hear from her any time soon will you have her give me a call?"
"Yeah sure" Hanna said with a smile.
"Thanks. I gotta go but I will call you later okay?"
"Alright! Bye Spence!"
Spencer hung up and tossed her phone to the side again. She shook her head a little bit and pushed on the gas pedal a little harder. There was no turning back now.
"Has.." Spencer looked around the hallway and lowered her voice, turning and nudging Emily with her elbow for her to follow along. "Has Paige ever mentioned her history with Ali to you?"
"A history?" Emily's brow creased in half confusion half annoyance.
"Yeah. They weren't like passing acquaintances, Em, they were like in a war." Spencer eyed her friend as they walked, trying to gauge her reaction.
Emily stopped and turned to face Spencer, more bite in her tone now "Who told you this?"
"Cece."
Emily nodded her head and rolled her eyes to the side. It figured Spencer would take a comment in passing and turn it into something more.
"No look, I know that it sounds weird, okay, but once she told me Ali's nickname for Paige it clicked." Spencer's eyes never left Emily, desperation for her friend to listen to her was written in her stare.
"Alison had nicknames for half the people in this school" Emily half rolled her eyes and gave her head a shake "That doesn't really qualify as having a history."
"Okay I get it" Spencer lightened her tone a bit, but continued anyway "But according to Cece this was a very-"
"Why are we suddenly trusting Cece?" Emily cut Spencer off, her eyes narrowing into a glare. She had an idea of where this was going and Spencer was dancing a thin line of really upsetting Emily.
Spencer looked a little shocked that Emily was fighting back so hard. Usually she would hear Spencer out. "Because Ali might have told her things she couldn't tell us." She pressed lightly, hoping her lightened tone would make Emily feel a little less threatened.
Emily shook her head and turned away from Spencer, having heard enough. "I have to get to practice" She snapped, annoyance now dripping from her tone.
"Emily, look" Spencer took a few steps after Emily and stopped her from leaving "You and Paige have been seeing each other on and off for almost a year now" Emily let out a heavy sigh, her irritation growing now with every word "and you don't think it's a little odd that she's never mentioned anything about Ali to you?" Spencer pressed on gently.
"I think what's odd is watching history repeat itself" Emily's attitude had turned from slight annoyance to full blown exasperation. "Alison loved pitting us against one another and now Cece swoops in-"
"This isn't about Cece okay?" Spencer's tone was teetering on desperate now "A friend of ours had an ongoing feud with someone we both know has a bit of a dark side."
Emily had been fidgeting side to side, more than ready for this conversation to end. When Spencer took that stab at Paige, though, it was like direct stab at Emily herself. "Excuse me?" Her eyes bore right into Spencer's, daring her to say it again.
"I'm not accusing Paige of anything" Spencer backed off a little with her tone, hoping to calm Emily a bit "But let's not forget, Emily, this girl once tried to drown you. I don't think it was a love dunk."
Emily's rage was starting to boil now "There were other issues going on in her life back then."
"Yeah" Spencer said with a nod "Like being sneaky. She almost got you kicked off of the swim team. I'm not calling her a snake-"
"Okay, are you finished?" Emily's stare was fierce now and she snapped, having had enough "Because I am." She didn't hesitate this time when she turned away from her friend. She stormed through the doors toward the locker room and out of sight.
Spencer shook her head and blinked a few times, pushing the memory of her friend storming off out of her head. That was the most upset she had ever seen Emily. She had known she had crossed the line and she had promised never to do that again to her friend but apparently pushing her to admit her feelings for her was worse than accusing her girlfriend of being A. Spencer sighed and glanced at the clock in her car then back to the road. She was only about ten minutes away now and she hoped Emily was at her dorm.
When she finally reached the dorms, she parked her SUV, and immediately headed toward the building. She took a deep breath and looked up the steps before she started up them one by one. Each step felt like a mountain but she couldn't give up now. Just as she hit the top step she heard voices in the hallway and she stopped before she was seen. She hid behind the pillar of the stairway and looked to see who it was.
Her heart twisted slightly when she saw it was Paige. For some reason she had thought Emily would be alone, sulking and sad, missing Spencer and wishing for her to show up and make things right. Seeing Paige there hurt more than she ever thought it would. She bit her lip and watched the two of them kiss before Paige stepped away and Emily closed her door. Paige turned and headed toward the steps and Spencer quickly turned and pressed her back to the pillar, hoping to be small enough not to be seen by her.
Paige took two steps up the stairs, her dorm on a higher level, then stopped when she realized her shoe was untied. She knelt down to tie it and that was when she saw someone on the flight below her. She cocked her head to the side and when it was obvious the person was hiding, she perked an eyebrow and stood up "Whoever you are, its past curfew, and we have a meet tomorrow so I recommend turning around and leaving. Whatever business you have here is not worth it, I can promise you that. No one on our team is going to risk missing the meet for breaking curfew."
Spencer closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Paige hadn't recognized her. She cleared her throat and tried to disguise her voice "I'm sorry I was just….coming to return a book I borrowed. You're right, I will give it back tomorrow." She pushed off the pillar and started down the stairs.
"Spencer?" Paige blinked and quickly turned to run down the few steps she had gone up and stood at the top of the next flight where Spencer had frozen mid-step at the sound of her name. Paige cocked her head to the side again then smiled and let out a laugh "What are you doing here?"
Spencer closed her eyes, took a breath to steady herself, then turned and looked up at Paige with a smile. "I…" Spencer Hastings, quick on her feet as she was, had absolutely gone blank and had no idea what to say.
"Are you here to surprise Emily at her meet tomorrow?" Paige asked with a grin.
Spencer thought about it for a moment, and then nodded, and her forced smile grew "Yeah, exactly. You caught me."
"Oh good" Paige said with a smile "She needs it. She has been so down lately. I swear the only thing she does is swim, and swim hard. It's like she is trying to swim away from something, I'm worried she is going to wear herself out." She folded her arms and sat on the top stair now, her face showing the worry she spoke about.
"I'm sorry" Spencer said softly, shaking her head and taking a step up to sit a few steps below Paige.
"Sorry for what? You didn't do anything." Paige said with a shrug "I just don't know what to do. She's been so weird lately. She says we're okay, but I just worry I did something to upset her somehow?" She bit her lip and looked at her feet "She won't talk to me."
"It's not you" Spencer said with a frown, her hand reaching up to lay on Paige's knee in an act to comfort her.
"You're just saying that" Paige said with a half smile.
"No" Spencer said with a shake of her head "It's not you."
"How can you be so sure?"
Spencer's heart twisted again and she looked at her hand on Paige's knee before she pulled it off and shrugged "You know Em, when she gets stressed she pushes away. Just give her time to come around. It's a big meet tomorrow, I bet she is just wound up about it."
"Yeah" Paige nodded "You're probably right."
Phew. Spencer nodded to herself, proud of her quick thinking.
"I'm glad you're here" Paige said after a moment "It'll probably calm her down and once she gets this meet under her belt I'm sure she will relax a lot more. The first one of the season is always the most nerve-wracking."
"Exactly" Spencer said with a smile. She patted Paige's knee then stood up, offering her hand to help the girl up to her feet. Once Paige was standing she nodded to the steps "You better get to your dorm, we don't want you getting in trouble either."
"Totally" Paige said with a laugh. She pulled Spencer into a quick hug then stepped back and took a few steps up to the landing between the flights of steps. "See you tomorrow, then? Maybe for breakfast?"
"You got it" Spencer said with a smile "Just don't tell Emily I'm here and ruin the surprise, alright?"
Paige mimicked zipping up her lips then gave Spencer a wink. She waved at the girl then headed up the steps toward her dorm.
Spencer nodded and took a step down, acting as if she was leaving. She waited until she heard Paige's footsteps stop and a door open and close before she took the remaining steps to the landing on Emily's floor. She took a deep breath then started to her dorm room. She stood in front of the familiar room now and the images of the last time she was there flooded her mind. She pushed the thoughts away, lifted her hand, and knocked a few times lightly.
There was a laugh from inside the door and Emily's voice came from behind it, shuffling heard as she obviously got up from her bed and was making her way to answer the door "Paige, you know you can't stay in my room tonight!" Emily pulled the door open and the smile of amusement on her face dropped and was replaced with complete shock.
"Hey" Spencer said softly, shyly, shrugging her shoulders and offering a crooked half smile to her friend, hoping she wouldn't get the door slammed in her face again.