Emily sat in the corner of her window seat with her arms folded across her chest, glaring at Hanna. Hanna was using every trick in her arsenal - puppy-dog eyes, inappropriate jokes, wacky dancing - to try to get Emily over her anger.

Emily just rolled her eyes and glared in silence.

When Emily got mad - really mad - she got silent. She stopped screaming and acting out. She just put up a wall of stony, impenetrable silence. The wall wasn't merely defensive. It had the effect of breaking down the other person's resistance. No one wanted to see Emily Fields like that.

Hanna sat down in the window seat, earning an icy glare from Emily that had her quickly scrambling up to her feet again. "Look, Emily," she said in surrender, "I'm sorry, okay? What can I do to get back to being friends again?"

Emily just looked away and shook her head.

"What do you want me to say? That I should've told you? Tricia's the one who..."

"Don't you dare try to make this about Tricia! Her life was on the line, Hanna!"

"Don't you think I know that? That's why I kept her secret!"

Emily scoffed, looking away from Hanna's face. "I get to be mad at you," she said.

"You're right," Hanna said, daring to sit next to Emily again. She put her hand on Emily's shoulder, but Emily shrugged it away. "You can be mad at me, Em. But it wasn't my place to tell you, especially when Tricia begged me to keep her safe. But I was still looking out for you. Remember when you thought that she was two-timing you? I convinced you to stick it out, and wait for the truth to come out?"

"Ugh! I know!" Emily whined. "I know why you did it. But I just need to be mad, Hanna. And I can't be mad at Tricia!"

"I think you just don't want to admit that you are mad at Tricia."

Emily stood up and began pacing, shaking her head. "No," she said firmly. "This wasn't her fault. There was nothing that she could do."

"You can't just decide not to feel what you're feeling, Emily. You can just deny it, but that's not going to make anything better."

"So what am I supposed to do, Hanna? Tell Paige that I'm mad at her for protecting herself - and her family - and me?"

Hanna just shrugged, letting Emily know that that was exactly what she needed to do."

"I told her that it was okay. That we were okay. She was so afraid that I was going to break up with her. Now, I'm supposed to say, 'Actually, it's not okay?'"

"Emily, you have to be honest with her about what you're feeling. Otherwise, those feelings are just going to grow, and she's not going to know why you're upset, and you'll keep denying it. I mean, aren't you upset with her about not being honest with you?"

"Yes, Hanna, but I get why..."

"So, don't you think that you need to be honest with her?"

Emily wasn't as talkative as she usually was as she and Paige walked arm in arm on the way back to Emily's house after her shift. Paige sensed that something was wrong, but she hesitated to bring it up. Finally, she rubbed shoulders with Emily and leaned in, asking, "You okay?"

Emily smiled slightly and shook her head. "I had a long talk with Hanna."

"Oh." Paige didn't have to ask what they had talked about. She stopped and turned to face Emily, holding both of her hands. "Emily, I'm sorry that I put her in that position."

Emily shook her head. "I understand why you did. And I don't blame you. Or Hanna. I've been going over and over it in my head, trying to think what I would have done, or what I would've wanted you to do, and I understand."

"But?"

"But I'm still mad." Emily looked Paige in the eyes, and then looked down at the ground. "At you."

Paige's shoulders fell at those words.

"I shouldn't be, Tricia, and I wish that I wasn't." Emily sighed. "But I am. And I don't know what to do about it."

Paige nodded her head. "I'm sorry," she said softly. Emily shook her head, but Paige cut her off before she could say that it wasn't Paige's fault. "I hated lying to you, Emily. Especially after I found out about Maya. And I know that it's not the same," she interjected, before Emily could say that it wasn't.

Paige continued, "I wanted to tell you. I wanted to tell my parents. I kept getting into fights with them over stupid shit, just because I was so frustrated. And I should've just done it sooner. I don't know why I didn't. I guess I was afraid that you would think that I wasn't worth it." Emily touched Paige's cheek when she heard those words. "But after that swim meet - when I couldn't even kiss you, I just got so angry. Angry that I was with you - this beautiful, perfect woman, and I couldn't even celebrate with you. I was angry with my Dad for turning those criminals in, and for telling the caseworkers to come to the swim meet. I was just... Oooh!" Paige took a few deep breaths. "I'm just sorry, Emily. I should've told you sooner."

Emily took Paige's arm and started them walking again. "Okay," Emily said. "I'm glad that you told me all of that." After a pause, she added, "It feels better to know. Thank you."

"Are we okay?" Paige didn't look at Emily as she waited for the verdict.

"Paige, we were never not okay." Emily wasn't used to calling Paige by her original name. She knew that the name would stand out in Paige's ears, and she hoped that it would give more weight to her words. "I was mad, but it doesn't change the way that I feel about you."

Paige nodded, still not looking at Emily. She didn't know how to bring up the subject that she had originally planned to talk to Emily about. She inhaled deeply and launched into it. "Emily, I have the world's shittiest timing, but..."

Emily steeled herself, wondering what else Paige could possibly throw at her.

Paige exhaled. "Well, we've never really been out, like, you know. On a date..."

"You're asking me out?"

"I know, Emily. The mood really sucks right now, but since we don't have school Friday, I convinced my Mom to let me borrow her car, and, I thought we could do something when you get finished with practice. I'm sorry. I would've just dropped it, but..." Paige chuckled nervously. "Well, I already got my Mom's car."

"Pa-tri-cia..." Emily playfully strung out each syllable, with a slight lilt in her voice. "You're asking me out on a date?" Emily was now facing Paige, smiling broadly, with both hands playing at the collar of Paige's shirt. Paige was smiling at the way that Emily had said her name and at the answer that she could tell was coming. "I would love that," Emily confirmed with a kiss. "What did you have in mind?"

"Dinner and a show?"

"Hanna, NO!" Emily said firmly as she held a hanger with a top up to her shoulders and another with a skirt down at her waist. Hanna curled her lip and shook her head, so Emily tossed the skirt aside and headed back to her closet to look for another option.

"Why can't I come with you? Pleeeeeze?" Emily emerged with a pair of black skinny jeans, and Hanna gestured "so-so" with her hand.

"Because," Emily said, tossing the jeans into the "maybe" pile on her bed, "I don't need you staring at everything we do all night and going, 'Aw!' "

Hanna had to smile at that. She knew that it was exactly what would happen if she went with them. "I'll bring Caleb!" she shouted, in a "Eureka" moment. "He'll distract me so I don't overreact to you and Tricia!"

"Hanna..." Emily was pleading. She had enough stress without having to have this argument while she was trying to find the perfect first-date outfit. "Tricia asked me out! I can't just show up for our date dragging random people along!"

"I'm not random people," Hanna mocked. "I'm the reason that you two are together."

"Oh, really?"

Hanna just glared at Emily.

"Ugh! Whatever - even if that's true, you're not going with us, Hanna!"

"Facetime me!" Hanna said, clapping her hands at how brilliant the inspiration was. "Put it on Mute! Tricia doesn't have to know..."

"Wow! This place is... remote," Emily observed as Paige pulled into a parking space.

Paige hurried to the passenger side to get the door before Emily could do it herself. She held out her hand to help Emily out of her seat. Emily smiled at the gesture. "I hope you don't mind," Paige said, scrunching up her nose. "I'm not trying to hide you away." She held Emily's hand, as if to make the point that she wasn't ashamed to be seen in public together. "I started looking at places before I told my parents and the caseworkers about you. And this place just looked like fun, so?"

Emily bumped her shoulder with Paige's, to let her know that it was fine. "Dinner and a show?"

Paige opened the door and gestured toward a sign with the words, "Karaoke Tonight!"

Emily's eyes lit up. "We're doing karaoke? You sing?"

Paige laughed at the suggestion. "We're going to watch karaoke. You know? Drunken karaoke - it doesn't get better than that!"

Emily pouted. "So, you're not going to get up and sing with me?"

"Emily, I don't sing!"

"Oh, come on, Tricia! Take a walk on the wild side!"

Paige shook her head, unable to get rid of the smile on her face. "You know, Em, you're right: this place is too remote. Let's head back to Rosewood. I don't want you to think that I don't want to be seen with you!"

"You're not getting off that easily," Emily smirked, tightening her grip on Paige's arm.

The host led them to an out-of-the-way booth near the back. Paige waited for Emily to be seated, and then froze for a second. In the end, she sat next to Emily, rather than on the other side of the booth, bumping Emily's butt to get her to scoot over. "I learned that trick from Hanna," she boasted.

"Hanna..." Emily shook her head and smiled. "She really wanted me to bring her tonight."

Paige rolled her eyes. "I'll be sure to invite her next time," she said dripping with sarcasm.

Paige opened up her menu and Emily, rather than opening hers, leaned in over Paige's shoulder to look at hers. She put her hand on Paige's leg to steady herself. The move had the opposite effect on Paige, and she cleared her throat nervously.

Emily had worried that she was going too far before she leaned in the way she did. Part of her was still worried about how comfortable Paige was with being a couple in public. She tilted her head up to ask whether or not Paige was okay, but Paige misread the gesture and tilted her head down, meeting Emily's lips with a quick kiss. Emily giggled in genuine surprise, smiling as if it were their first kiss. She wanted to try it again, to be sure that it wasn't just her imagination.

It wasn't.

Those two kisses set the tone for the rest of the evening. They weren't making a public spectacle of themselves, but they stayed close throughout dinner, with touches on the shoulder, gentle squeezes on the knee, and some back-rubbing. They stopped short of feeding each other, although they did help themselves freely to what was on each other's plates.

Out of the corner of her eye, Paige could see Emily staring at her as they waited for their dessert to come. She knew that something was on Emily's mind, but, just as she was about to turn to ask what was wrong, Emily blindsided her with a kiss to the cheek. It was actually closer to her ear because of the way that her head was angled as she prepared to turn Emily's way, and it tickled a little. Paige tilted her head into her shoulder and laughed, poking Emily in the side to tickle her back. "What was that for?"

Emily shrugged. The night was going much better than she could have expected, and she just wanted to kiss Paige. "I'm just having so much fun tonight," she said. Paige reached her arm around Emily's shoulder and hugged her. She was having fun, too.

As they finished up their dessert, they heard the emcee in the ballroom announce the start of karaoke. Emily's eyes lit up and she put her hands on the table to stand up. "Come on! We want to get a good seat, so that we can scope out the competition."

"Oh, shoot!" Paige said with fake regret, "We forgot to sign up for a slot!"

"No we didn't, Silly!" Emily gushed. "I signed us up!"

"Huh? When?"

"When you were in the little girls' room."

Paige shook her head. "Emily, when I told you that I couldn't sing, I wasn't exaggerating or being modest."

"So?" Emily saw that Paige wasn't about to get up, so she shuffled over to the other side of the booth and out into the aisley to make her case. "You think any of these drunk rednecks can sing?"

"The difference being, we're not drunk!"

"Oh, so what? You don't think they're itching to see a couple of hot girls slutting it up on stage?"

Paige's mouth dropped open. Emily hadn't meant to say, "slutting it up," but, once it was out there, her competitive nature wouldn't let her take it back.

Paige nodded once, throwing her hands up in surrender. "Okay," she said evenly. "Let's go put on a show for some drunken rednecks!"

Paige's singing was as bad as advertised. Emily might have been able to do better, but she couldn't stop laughing at Paige's loud, unashamed, horrible attempt. Between the two of them, they got perhaps a third of the words to the song. It didn't help that the karaoke machine hadn't been updated since the early 2000s. Emily didn't recognize many of the songs, and she finally just picked the first song that she saw with "Woman" in the title, in a rush to get their slot locked in before Paige came back and stopped her. The song, "Man! I Feel Like a Woman," by Shania Twain, was one that neither of them had ever heard.

Their "slutting it up" turned out to be PG-13 at worst, but the audience seemed to enjoy it. They hooted and hollered and laughed right along with girls, as they bluffed their way through.

Of course, they didn't come close to winning any awards – not even the one for most outrageous act. But that wasn't the point. They had shared a common experience; one of those touchstones to a relationship that they would always be able to look back on. Individually, they could be shy and insecure, but, together, they were bold.

They pretty much skipped through the parking lot out to the car, holding hands and swinging their arms between them. Paige closed the passenger-side door with a flourish. Before they put on their seatbelts, they sat silent for a moment before they burst into spontaneous, simultaneous laughter. And before they knew what was happening, they were kissing. Their shenanigans on the karaoke stage, PG-13 though they were, had gotten them riled up. The couldn't wait to be alone. Alone in a lot full of parked cars would do.

Emily shifted her hips when she felt a buzz in her pocket. She didn't interrupt the kiss, though. Paige did. "What time do you have to be home?"

When Paige asked, Emily pulled out her phone to check the time. Her mom had been texting her every two or three minutes for the past half hour or so. "Apparently, a half hour ago," Emily said, bursting into laughter. As if on cue, her phone buzzed again, with a new text from her mother. She tossed it over her shoulder into the back seat, shooting a goofy face at Paige. "Fuck it!"

She would be in trouble when she got home, and she would probably be grounded for the next week, but nights like that one didn't come along very often. She pulled Paige back in for some more kissing.

Paige gave Emily a quick kiss when she pulled into the driveway. She wanted to walk Emily to the door, but Emily thought better of it. That would just get both of them yelled at. Paige waited in the driveway as Emily let herself inside, turning to blow Paige a kiss as soon as she turned the door handle. Once she pushed open the door, the whole house lit up. Paige offered up a silent prayer for her before she backed the car out into the street.

When Paige got home, she took a scolding from her mom for staying out so late. "There'd better not be a scratch on my car," she added in conclusion.

"And we're checking the odometer!" her dad teased. "Thirty cents a mile!"

Paige took it all in stride. All she wanted was to get to her room and on her phone, to make sure that Emily was okay. She quickly took off her make-up, brushed her teeth, and got dressed for bed, so that her parents wouldn't reprimand her for staying up even later, before she lay face-down on the bed and fired off a text to Emily.

TriciaB: how'd it go? :(

EmFields: ok. didn't take my phone away [Emily added an emoji wiping its brow in relief]

EmFields: grounded 2 wks tho :'(

TriciaB: so sry. u ok?

Emily texted back a thumbs up, the letters "IFLaW," and a high five. Paige muttered, "IF LaW?" to herself and said the individual letters before she made the connection with the chorus that was still running through her head: "I Feel Like a Woman." The letters became a secret code for the two of them, a lifelong reminder of their first date.