A/N - To the guest who asked whether Paige identifies as gay & is out to her parents and to Emily:

Paige dated guys in high school only because she saw it as the "right" thing to do to achieve her goals. Now that she's made it to Stanford and gotten some distnce from her dad, she's allowing herself to entertain the attraction to women that she always repressed. She hasn't shared this with anyone.

I hope this answers your questions. Thanks for asking!

Paige and Emily were sitting cross-legged on the floor on opposite sides of a circle formed by their teammates. They were at Sydney Driscoll's house in San Leandro, about an hour's drive from campus. The season was over, Sydney's parents were away, and the team was in the mood to let loose.

"Never have I ever... not slept with a guy."

"Wait, what? What does that even mean?"

"It means drink if you've never slept with a guy," Shana explained drunkenly. "It means Emily hasn't been drinking enough, and, damn it - I want to see her take a drink!"

Emily rolled her eyes and kicked back a shot, but she wasn't the only one.

Everyone was surprised that the girl sitting on the opposite side of the circle also took a shot. "Paige?" Paige just shrugged.

When it came around to Emily's turn, she went for a little revenge. "Okay, never have I ever NOT slept with a girl!"

"Okay, if Paige drinks this time, watch out!" Shana pointed an accusing finger in Paige's direction, "She'll probably try to get us to join whatever religious cult she's a member of!"

Paige drank nonchalantly, as did most of the other girls.

"Seriously?"

"I'm told I'm frigid." Paige shrugged, saying the word with no emotion, having become numb to it over the last two years of high school. The kids in her school were too immature to accept a strong, driven woman who had other things on her mind than getting laid.

"Well, maybe you just haven't met the right guy..." Sydney paused dramatically. "Or gal!" Everyone laughed, the shots having reduced them to giggly schoolgirls. Paige laughed, nervously, and stole a glance at Emily. Emily, fortunately, was looking the other way.

Paige wasn't really drunk by the time the game switched to Truth or Dare, but she was sufficiently lubricated to have lost her inhibitions. "Truth!" she said confidently. "I've got nothing to hide!"

"Do you have a crush on any of your teammates?" Shana decided to do a little fishing, since Paige had never officially declared a major, so to speak.

Nothing to hide... Paige thought - except that. Paige dipped her head, which caused all of her teammates to cheer knowingly. "Yes," she said, barely loud enough to be heard above their cheers, and she peeked shyly at Emily. Emily was smiling like the rest of the team - perhaps more than the rest of them were, smugly celebrating the rare show of vulnerability in the way that Paige averted her eyes. But, when she looked over for another glimpse of humbled Paige and caught Paige peeking at her, her smile was replaced by a look of confusion. There seemed to be something - a hint of yearning or of pleading - in the look that Paige was giving her. And maybe it explained the real reason that they had fought after Emily's date with Samara. And maybe it explained why Paige was so desperate for Emily to understand that she was trying to be a better person.

Maybe it explained a lot of things.

The game continued while Emily mentally reviewed several of her interactions with her roommate from the past few weeks. Not surprisingly, given Emily's looks and her sweet disposition, there were always people around her, male and female, who developed feelings for her. She was usually pretty aware of it, when it happened. But it never would have entered her mind, given their history - not to mention their present - that Paige might think of her that way.

Emily was still off in her own world when the game wound its way around to Sydney. Emily was startled back into the present when she heard Sydney call her name. Without having time to think it through, she heard herself blurting out, "Dare."

"I dare you," Sydney said, taking a dramatic pause before she pointed theatrically at Paige, "to kiss your roommate for fifteen seconds!"

It wasn't a random choice. Everybody on the team knew that Paige and Emily barely got along, and that they only tolerated each for the sake of the team. Everyone was eager to see them thrust into a situation that would make them squirm.

Emily looked at Paige, who immediately dipped her head. "Fine!" she said, in an exaggerated tone, trying to sound casual and jokey, although her insides were doing a nervous dance.

Paige stood up and summoned all of her courage. This was a moment that she had dreamed of; not the opportunity to know the feeling of Emily's lips against hers, but the opportunity to be able to use her own lips to communicate, in a way that they never could with words, what she really felt for Emily.

Emily walked over to her with a genial smile and a shrug of her shoulders. Fifteen seconds didn't seem very long, in the scheme of things. But a lot can happen in fifteen seconds.

"15, 14, 13..."

Paige didn't just stand there and let herself be kissed. Within the first five seconds, she was in control of the kiss.

"12, 11, 10..."

The hoots and whistles of their teammates gradually faded from Emily's ears as she felt herself starting to drown in Paige's lips. All of a sudden, there was no one else in the room; there was nothing else; there was only Paige, and being kissed by Paige.

"9, 8, 7..."

Emily felt her head tilt back under the force of Paige's onslaught, and without any cue from Paige, Emily's lips parted. She felt a clenching - and an undeniable wetness - between her legs.

"6, 5, 4..."

Paige accepted the opening provided by Emily's parted lips and artfully worked her tongue inside Emily's mouth. Emily moaned, tangling her fingers in Paige's hair. Paige's hands were somehow on the back of Emily's shoulders, pulling her in tighter.

"3, 2, 1..."

"Guys? Guys!"

"Somebody dump a pail of cold water on those two!"

"Hey! Joke's over!" Sydney pulled at Emily's shoulders to separate her from Paige. "Emily?"

Paige's eyes were closed as she felt Emily being pulled away from her, so she didn't see the dazed smile on Emily's face. Emily had never been kissed like that before. It was a rush - and not just the kiss. It was the cumulative effect of all the clues that she had been assembling in her head as the night progressed. The kiss was the final confirmation, and it sent her adrenaline levels into overload. Her heart was racing, and her stomach was filled with that feeling of butterflies that comes when one is on the verge of new possibilities.

Emily opened her eyes at the same time that Paige did, only to see the look of regret on Paige's face. Paige knew that she had let herself get carried away in the kiss, and, in so doing, had destroyed any chance that she may ever have had to rehabilitate herself in Emily's eyes. Emily, who didn't respect her to begin with, would think even less of her for having taken advantage of the situation.

To Emily, though, Paige's regret looked like disgust. It was like those fake handshakes at the end of their high school swim meets all over again. Paige was messing with her head - giving her a mind-blowing kiss and showing her how disgusting it felt to her.

Emily suddenly felt sick. She turned and ran out of the room.

The rest of the team just sat in stunned silence. Paige climbed over them out of the circle, chasing after Emily. She cornered her in the kitchen and called out her name, pleading.

"No." Emily shook her head, forcing a smile. "I get it." She made herself look Paige in the eyes, doing her best to pretend that the kiss hadn't affected her. "It was just a joke," she rationalized, trying to make sense of the look of disgust that she had gotten from Paige. "We really put one over on the team."

Paige looked down at her feet, completely defeated. It would've been one thing if, after she had given Emily the best kiss that she could muster, Emily had rejected her. But the fact that she didn't even matter enough for Emily to take the kiss seriously was too much for her to handle.

Paige was strong, though. She picked her head up and nodded, her expression blank. "Yeah," she said, using all of her inner strength to sound okay. "We totally fooled them."

Neither Paige nor Emily got much sleep that night. Emily was confused and frustrated. Paige was lovestruck and injured.

Emily got up in the early hours of Saturday morning to get some coffee. Paige was already in the kitchen with a cup, and she gestured Emily toward the pot that she had made. Emily smiled reflexively and, without thinking, squeezed Paige's shoulder as she walked past on her way to the coffee.

When Emily offered to drive back to campus early, Paige didn't have to be asked twice. She couldn't get away from Sydney's house and the memory of that Friday night fast enough. Emily woke up Shana, since the three of them had shared a ride to Sydney's place in Emily's car. Shana woke up just long enough to assure them that she would be able to catch a ride back to campus with Sydney.

On a lonely stretch of road, in the deep-orange glow of early morning, Paige and Emily heard a loud pop right before the car swerved sharply to the left. Emily shouted, "Oh shit!" as she jerked at the steering wheel, fighting desperately to regain control. Paige reached across the console and helped steer, and, soon, the two of them managed to get the car safely off to the shoulder.

Emily sank back into her seat, breathing heavily. She looked over to Paige, who had a hand on her shoulder and was asking whether or not she was all right.

"What the fuck just happened?" Emily asked, breathless and still coming down from the fear-fueled adrenaline rush.

"Are you all right?" Paige repeated urgently.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Emily assured her, giving her hand a light squeeze. "What the hell just happened?"

"You got a flat," Paige said in a calming voice.

"Oh, that's just perfect!" Emily whipped out her phone and swiped it unlocked. She groaned when she saw that wasn't getting a signal. "This is just perfect!"

"Emily, look at me!" When Emily, the anger evident on her face, looked over, Paige continued, calmly. "It's going to be okay."

"How, Paige? Huh? Tell me! We're in the middle of nowhere, I can't get a signal, and who knows when someone will come by who can help us? And, if someone does come, it'll probably be an axe murderer!"

"It's okay, Emily." Paige couldn't help putting her hand comfortingly on Emily's thigh. The touch actually helped to calm her.

Emily shrugged, letting out a breath to calm herself. "I guess we wait."

Paige nodded, but reached for the fob in the ignition and hit the button to pop the trunk open. "Yeah. You just sit tight, Emily. I'll take care of that tire."

"Paige!"

But Paige was already out of the car. Emily heard her rummaging through the trunk, pulling out their bags to get at the jack and the doughnut. Through the rear view mirror, she saw the look of determination on Paige's face as she closed the trunk and set to work. Emily shook her head in bemusement. She pulled her jacket around her shoulders and got out of the car.

By the time Emily got out of the car, Paige was kneeling on the ground, maneuvering the jack into place. "Can I help?" Emily asked weakly - and a bit guiltily - with her arms folded in front of her.

"I got it!" Paige said, without looking up. "Just wait in the car - this will only take a minute."

Emily huffed at Paige's stubbornness. She pulled opened the driver's side door and reached for her phone, using the flashlight app to give Paige some light. Paige smiled at Emily's gesture. "That helps," she said sincerely, "but don't run down your battery."

Emily kept the light on the tire, shifting her phone from hand to hand occasionally as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other, until Paige finished. She needed to do something, even if all that she could do was hold the flashlight.

After a few minutes, Paige was rearranging the bags in the trunk to make space to put the flat tire in. She rolled it around the side of the car and hoisted it inside. Emily was too slow when she tried to give Paige a hand, so she could only watch as Paige lifted the tire off the ground and up into the trunk by herself.

Paige lowered the jack and put it back into the trunk. She wiped her hands quickly on her jeans, which were already stained from contact with the spare, before she noticed a rag in the trunk. She grabbed it and used it to wipe her hands properly.

Emily, who was hanging around Paige like a puppy, grabbed her from behind with a hug around her waist. Paige turned around with a shy smile. "Thank you," Emily said, placing the softest kiss on Paige's cheek. Paige was done. She couldn't look up. She couldn't help smiling. She just shrugged her shoulders and kept wiping her hands with the rag .

"Shall we get back on the road?" Emily asked sweetly, and Paige nodded her head vigorously. Anything to get out of that awkward spot that she was in. She tossed the rag back into the trunk and closed it, risking a glance at Emily. Emily was giving her the warmest smile, and it made Paige retreat to the passenger seat.

Emily settled into her seat and fastened her belt. She could sense how uncomfortable Paige was. She was having a hard time convincing herself that she didn't know why Paige was acting so adorably shy. "Why don't you get some rest?" she asked, not thinking what she was doing as she rubbed Paige's thigh. "I'll wake you if there's another emergency," she said with a wink.

Paige chuckled nervously at the joke that Emily used to release the tension. "Yeah, I'm pretty beat," she said. She knew that Emily was offering her a lifeline by telling her to sleep, and she took it eagerly.

Emily kept glancing over at her sleeping roommate as she drove back to campus. Paige looked content; peaceful, beautiful. Of course, it wasn't the first time that Emily had picked up on Paige's physical beauty, but it was her first glimpse of it without the obscuring filter of Paige's ugly personality.

Emily was replaying the events of the weekend in her mind, and the composite picture that they painted was getting clearer and clearer.

Paige shifted in her sleep, and Emily couldn't help reaching over and brushing the hair away from her face. Her hand lingered on Paige's cheek. They both had smiles on their faces.

A/N - Just for the record, I update every day, although FF sometimes doesn't show that the story was updated. (There's a reason that I start stories on the 1st of the month: That way, the chapter number = the day of the month - in my time zone, at least...) Mondays - Thursdays, I update right around 0900 GMT/UTC. The rest of the week, I usually update by 1300 GMT/UTC. So, not that you have to read every day, but if I leave you hanging & FF doesn't show that the story has been updated, it might be worth checking anyway. :)

Thanks so much for reading, even with all the angst... :(