A/N: Sorry this chapter is up a bit later than usual! On the upside, we've surpassed the number of reviews that this story was at when it was taken down, which blows me away! I am so grateful to all of you! Thank you all so much! And as that has happened, I will start giving out shoutouts for every fiftieth again.. Which means that 250 is next :D
HAPPY ONE DAY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO USER "Click here for awesomeness" ! THIS CHAPTER IS FOR YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY FROM ME! You're super awesome :) I know I didn't get you a double update for your birthday, but I've been super busy this weekend and I wasn't going to update at all until tomorrow, so this is really a present :)
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"So, you two are all made up now, right?" Spencer asked the next morning, after I'd gone down to her and Ali's dorm.
"Yes," I answered, smiling. I was waiting for Ali to come back from the bathrooms. Spencer had let me in. "She explained all of the CeCe stuff to me, and we both apologized and stuff. We're spending Valentine's day together."
"So I heard," Spencer said, winking. I blushed and rolled my eyes. "By the way, Alison won't let me wash your jacket because she said it smells like you."
I tried not to smirk, because the door was opening. I looked up expectantly from Ali's bed, because I expected Ali to walk into the dorm. However, instead, I saw CeCe.
"Hey, lovelies!" CeCe exclaimed, and then her eyes caught on me. "Oh… hi, Emily. Where's Alison?"
"Bathroom," Spencer and I answered simultaneously.
"Emily, I just want to tell you how sorry I am…"
"Don't be," I insisted. "Ali and I are fine now. Maybe even stronger. Maybe I owe you a thank you."
CeCe smiled proudly. "I knew I was doing the right thing." I laughed as CeCe walked all the way into the room, closing the door behind her. "You two have plans today?"
"Not really," I answered. "I just… haven't really seen her all week."
"I don't wanna crash your guys' day," CeCe said.
"No, it's fine," I insisted. "Maybe we could all do something."
Spencer shrugged. "I can't do anything. Got plans."
"With Aria?" I asked, trying not to smirk. Spencer glared at me, narrowing her eyes.
"What is with you and Ali?" she demanded.
"This is us not taking sides," I answered, chuckling. The door swung open and Ali walked in, her hair in its perfect curls.
Her eyes widened. "Hey, Em. Hey, CeCe. Are we having a dorm party that I forgot about?"
"I came down because I thought we could do something," I answered, smiling. "I thought maybe the three of us could do something," I revised, nodding toward CeCe.
"Sure," Ali agreed, nodding slowly.
"Don't worry, I already apologized," CeCe told the other blonde, smiling tightly. Ali physically relaxed a little.
"Okay, what do you two want to do today then?" Ali asked, coming away from the door and to sit next to me on her bed. She was asking me and CeCe, but she just looked at me, smiling.
"I don't care. After last week, I would be fine with anything," I answered, laughing lightly.
"How about we go on a shopping spree?" CeCe suggested. "I mean, Rosewood is small, but you've got some killer clothing boutiques here. I've seen a ton of them."
Ali grinned at CeCe and then looked back at me, like she was waiting for my agreement, which she probably was. "Why not?" I said, shrugging.
"Are you coming, Spence?" Ali asked, standing up.
Standing up as well, I answered for Ali's best friend, "No, she's going to be busy with Aria."
Alison snorted. "Really busy."
"Would you two just get out of here?" Spencer growled, rolling her eyes. Ali laughed, grabbing her purse.
"Let's go!"
We took one car—Ali's—and I was grateful that CeCe volunteered to sit in the back. I was pretty sure that she still felt really bad about what she said to me the previous week. I was doing my best not to hold it against her.
We went to the Rosewood Mall first, and Ali directed us to the biggest, fanciest clothing store there. I felt a little out of place, since I wasn't the fanciest person, but Ali kept hold of my hand as we walked into the store, so I wasn't complaining.
CeCe took up the lead as we entered the store, and we ended up looking at a bunch of blouses that reminded me of Ali, probably because she shopped there a lot.
To my disappointment, Ali released my hand to start looking at clothes. I looked around some, but I wasn't accustomed to buying clothes just because I wanted new clothes.
"Hey, Em," Alison piped up, "this would look amazing on you." She was holding up a loose, black top. I flashed her a smile and she lowered the top and tilted her head at me. "Em, if you don't want to shop, we can do something else."
"No, I'm fine. I just… don't think I'm going to buy anything here," I told her, shrugging. Ali gave me a helpless look, like she wanted to stay and shop, but she didn't want me to be bored. "Seriously, I told you, as long as I'm with you, I'm okay."
"Ali! You have to try this on!" CeCe exclaimed from a few racks down, holding up a white top.
"No thanks, I think I own all the white tops I need," Ali refused, shaking her head.
"I think it would look good on you," I told her, smirking a little bit, because she and I both knew what we were thinking about regarding white tops. Ali quirked an eyebrow up at me, and I gave her a sly look. Her cheeks turned pink and she looked back at CeCe.
"Fine, I'll try it on."
Ali disappeared to the dressing rooms, and CeCe dragged me over a few sections to look at jeans. As I looked through them, having no intentions of purchasing any of them, I realized something that I hadn't yet realized. Ever since Ali and I had made up the previous day, I hadn't once felt awkward or nervous around her. It was an amazing feeling, and I was actually really grateful for it. To me, it felt like we had taken a big step in our relationship, and that made me feel really happy.
Ali texted us when she had the top on, and we went over to the dressing rooms to see her in it. It really was hot on her.
"You have to get it," CeCe stated.
"It looks awesome," I told her, and she met my eyes, smiling a sweet smile.
"I'll get it," she decided, and then she went back into the dressing room.
CeCe decided that she wanted to go look at shoes at a different store, so we stopped by the checkout so that Ali could pay for her top, and then we left that store. As we walked through the mall, and Ali had her hand wrapped in mine again, my eyes caught on the Victoria's Secret store as we passed it.
As we were approaching the shoe place, I pulled my hand out of Ali's. "I'm going to run to the bathroom."
"Okay," Ali said, smiling at me. I returned the smile, and then turned back, heading to the bathrooms. I glanced behind me and saw Alison and CeCe disappear into the shoe place. Letting out a small breath, I turned away from the bathrooms and went toward Victoria's Secret.
Inside, I took a deep breath. I had like five minutes max to find something super sexy to wear for Valentine's day. My eyes traveled around the store, and I immediately went to work to find something.
If I was being honest, I hadn't ever shopped for lingerie before. Luckily, it didn't prove to be much of a challenge. I found some black, somewhat lacy stuff that I decided was perfect, bought it, and then stuffed it into the bottom of my purse. I couldn't walk into that shoe store with a bag from Victoria's Secret, because it would ruin the surprise.
Once the lingerie was safely hidden in my purse, I hurried back over to the shoe store. I was pretty sure that I hadn't taken an awkwardly long amount of time, but I didn't want to rain any suspicions. Fortunately, I didn't.
"Em," Ali called when she saw me, "do you think these are cute?" She was holding a pair of pink heels.
"Yeah," I answered, smiling. She flashed me a smile and then seemed to decide that she was going to get them.
A few hours later, we pulled up to the motel place that CeCe was staying at while she was in Rosewood, so that she could drop off all of the stuff that she'd bought. She hopped out of Ali's car to do that, and me and Ali stayed in it.
"CeCe's pretty cool," I told Ali, smiling.
"She's really sweet once you get to know her. Well, and she's kind of a bitch sometimes, but she's a good friend," Ali admitted. "I'm going to drop her off at the airport tomorrow morning, but then I'm yours for the rest of the day."
"Good," I said quietly, before leaning across the center consol to grab her lips with mine. Whether she was expecting it or not, she immediately kissed me back forcefully. Her hand came up and tangled into my hair, but before our kiss could get any deeper, someone banged on the hood of the car. We jumped apart as CeCe got back in.
"Geez, you two need to take a cold shower," CeCe decided, smirking. Her eyes widened a little, and then she added, "Separately."
I tried not to smirk as Ali's cheeks turned pink and she pulled out of parking spot we'd been in. We decided to go back to the dorms and just hang out for a while, mostly because Ali felt really bad that I hadn't bought anything—or so she thought—and she figured that I wouldn't want to just stand around and watch them shop anymore.
CeCe told us about her life in Georgia as we drove, repeatedly adding that next time, Ali had to go there to visit her instead of the other way around.
We got back to the dorms and went up to Ali's. Spencer and Aria were both in there, sitting on Spencer's bed, and they were studying. They both looked up as the three of us walked in. "I guess we're having a dorm part now," Ali joked. Two people in a dorm was bad enough. Five people in a dorm, and it felt like the place had shrunk ten times smaller.
"Did you buy a lot of useless clothes?" Spencer asked.
"They're not useless when you're going to wear them, Spence," Ali stated, grabbing my hand and pulling me through the small dorm to her bed. "You know, we should really get a desk in here or something." I realized that CeCe didn't have anywhere to sit now.
"No point. We're both going to be out of this thing at the end of the semester," Spencer stated.
"If Ezra and I are still together by the end of the semester, I'm going to get him to let me move into him," Aria stated.
"And if not, then you can just move in with Spencer," Ali suggested, getting two glares from our best friends.
"You two are so persistent," Aria muttered, shaking her head.
I shrugged. "Well, in our defense, I haven't heard one thing about your guys' competition in English."
"I beat her on our last paper," Spencer stated proudly, but I shook my head.
"Doesn't count," I said, and Ali laughed, squeezing my hand. I had forgotten that she was holding it, but I liked the reminder.
"So how about an actual party?" CeCe suggested suddenly. "I mean, I don't really know you all that well, except for Ali of course."
"I'm game," Spencer answered, nodding.
"Sure, we can call Hanna, too," Aria suggested. "She's been working most of the day, but I think she should be done soon."
"All we have are the dorms and your tiny motel, though," Ali reminded CeCe.
"Let's go out. Come on, we can have some drinks and dance. We're all twenty-one, right?" CeCe looked around the room challenging.
"Yeah, we are," I answered, shrugging. "I don't mind going out again."
"Looks like we have a plan, then," Ali stated, smiling at me. I smiled back, and she leaned into me.
Aria grabbed her phone to call Hanna, and then we decided that we should probably go up and change into something more suitable for going out. "We'll see you all in a bit?"
"Sure, and we should probably all go eat dinner before we go out, too," Ali answered, nodding.
"Sounds good," Aria and I said simultaneously, and then I added, "I'll text you, Ali."
As soon a we were back in our dorm, I dug through my purse to retrieve the black bra and underwear that I had bought from Victoria's Secret, and quickly stuffed them into my dresser, but Aria totally caught me.
"Was that lingerie?" Aria asked, raising her eyebrows at me.
"U-uh—"
"Why was it stuffed in your purse? Did you steal it?" Aria teased. I could tell by the way she was looking at me that she knew perfectly well why I'd been hiding it in my purse.
"I bought it," I snapped anyway, "for tomorrow."
Aria laughed at me and shook her head, before starting to go through her dresser for party wear options.
Hanna came up to our dorm with three clothing options before twenty minutes had passed. "Which one?" she demanded. One of them was a short, hot pink dress that screamed high school. Another was simple, black and white, and it was a little longer with a ruffle on one side. The last option was a blue tube dress, and Aria and I immediately pointed to that one.
Aria wore one of her signature black dresses that no one would ever be able to copy, and I decided on just a simple black dress. It was pretty hot in my opinion, and as I checked myself out, I wondered if Ali would like it. Then I wondered what Ali would be wearing, and I felt my skin heating up.
I texted Ali when we were all ready, and she said that we were going to eat at the Grille before going to the club, and since there were six of us, we split up into two cars, three of us in each. That left me with my best friends, and Ali with her best friends.
Dinner was uneventful. The six of us talked to each other a lot, and it was weird how comfortable we all seemed together. Especially the five of us that lived in Rosewood. We all sort of clicked. Maybe it was partly because we all seemed to like to mess around with one another in a friendly way. All I knew was that it was nice to have this group. It felt special.
"Is everyone done?" CeCe asked us once we'd finished dinner. We all nodded collectively, and CeCe raised her eyebrows. "So what are we still doing here? Come on! I want to party before I leave tomorrow!"
We walked to the club, because it wasn't far away from the Grille, and immediately I felt a little nervous. These places totally weren't my scene. The only reason I'd even gone for Ali's party was because of… well, Ali.
When Alison grabbed my hand, though, I completely forgot about where we were and focused on who was here with me. That was a lot easier to do anyway. "Let's get something to drink," Aria suggested.
We all moved over to the bar, and Ali looked at me sweetly. "What do you want to drink, babe?"
I felt heat rise to my cheeks as I raised an eyebrow. "Did you just call me babe?"
"Yes," Ali answered, and then her eyes widened a little bit. "That's okay, right?"
"It's perfect," I answered with a light laugh, glad that none of our friends seemed to be paying any attention to us.
Ali bit her bottom lip. "Okay, so what do you want to drink?"
"I don't know," I answered, shrugging. Ali laughed, rolling her eyes, and then she turned to the bartender and ordered two drinks that I didn't recognize the name of. A minute later, two fruity looking drinks were slid across the counter to us.
"Here," Ali said, handing me my glass and winking at me. "But remember, more than one of those will have you hammered."
I quirked an eyebrow up at her, and felt my lips turn up into a smile, as I took a sip of the drink. Yep, it was the same thing she ordered for me on her birthday.
"Ooh, what's that?" Hanna asked, looking at our drinks.
"What's that?" Ali asked in response, gesturing to Hanna's drink. Hanna just shrugged and took a drink of it. I tried not to laugh at her. She didn't drink often, but when she did, Hanna went sort of overboard.
I turned around to look at Aria, who was talking to CeCe and Spencer, "Hey, we all need to keep an eye on Hanna tonight, okay?"
"Hey, I'm going to be fine," Hanna snapped from the other side of me.
"Han, the last time we came here, you were wasted in like fifteen minutes," Aria reminded her.
"Okay, but this is just vodka and soda," Hanna argued, shaking her head. "Come on, let's dance."
As Hanna started for the dance floor, we all followed her. A new song came on, and we immediately all started jumping around and dancing. Ali kept flashing me huge smiles, and it didn't take me long to realize that I was really happy right now. With Ali, with my friends. With my relationship not in ruins, and feeling completely comfortable with it.
Two fruity drinks later, and I knew that I was drunk. I wasn't sure if Ali had had as much to drink as me, but I knew that Hanna, CeCe, Spencer and I were totally hammered.
I wasn't sure how late it was or how much I'd actually had to drink when Ali brought me away from the dance floor and sat me down somewhere. I blinked a few times, trying to figure out what exactly was going on. Suddenly, I felt Ali hand me something.
I must've given her a confused look, because she explained with, "It's water, Em." She was laughing, and I suddenly felt a little weird. Was I totally acting stupid?
I drank some of the water, but it didn't help much. I saw the rest of my friends come up to us, but I didn't hear what they said. I just saw Ali nodding to someone, and then she was helping me stand up.
The next thing I knew, I was waking up on a bed that I was sure wasn't mine. I groaned, sitting up a little bit. Immediately, though, my head was searing. Groaning again, I fell backwards onto the pillow. Suddenly, I felt the very edge of the bed sink a little bit under some weight, and I forced my eyes open. The lights were killing me, but I easily made out Ali's beautiful face looking down at me.
"Here," she said softly, and I realized that she was holding an aspirin and a water bottle. I sat up, this time making sure that I didn't fall back onto the pillow, and took the things from her. I took the painkiller and then downed the rest of the water.
Ali chuckled at me, and I looked around. "Why am I in your dorm?" I croaked out, blinking.
"Everyone was plastered last night, except for me and Aria. Hanna and Spencer were clinging to her like crazy, so they're all piled up in your dorm. CeCe managed to sober up enough for me to drop her off at her motel without her doing something stupid. That left you, and I wasn't going to dump you with those losers," she told me playfully, brushing some hair out of my face. "Do you feel okay?"
"I think my pride is hurt a little more than my head," I admitted, cringing. "Was I acting totally stupid?"
"I thought you were adorable," Ali admitted, taking the empty water bottle from me and setting it down on her side table.
"Ugh," I groaned, putting my hands over my eyes.
"I did warn you about those drinks. One is great for a buzz, but…" She nudged me playfully. "Don't worry. You should've seen Hanna. She was way worse than you. Spencer, too, which was a surprise."
"They were?" I asked, twisting my face into a doubtful expression. Ali smiled sweetly at me and nodded. She leaned forward and gave me a soft kiss.
"Happy Valentine's day, by the way," she whispered as soon as she pulled away from me. "I have to bring CeCe to the airport in about an hour, but after that, we can go to that hotel in Philly and you'll have me all to yourself."
"Mm, I can't wait," I said, before pulling Alison closer to me for another kiss. When we separated, she smiled again.
"I'm really glad we made up, Em. I don't know what I would do without you," Ali admitted. "You're the first person that I don't feel afraid to be myself with."
"What about Spencer? CeCe?' I asked.
"I'm always afraid, Em. I was even afraid with you. But now, I don't feel even a little scared," the blonde admitted, lowering her gaze. It rose up again to meet mine, and she smiled. "Not even a tiny bit nervous."
"So I don't make you nervous anymore?" I asked, raising a playful eyebrow.
"Do I make you nervous anymore?" Ali countered, like she knew what I was going to answer with. I smiled widely and shook my head. She leaned back a little bit, looking content. "By the way, I took off your makeup last night and I sort of changed you out of her dress."
I looked down at myself, realizing that I was wearing sweats and a tank. I didn't recognize them, so I assumed that they were Ali's. "Thank you," I said, smiling up at her. "For taking such good care of me."
"What are girlfriends for?" Ali asked playfully, stealing another kiss from me. "Come on. We should probably make sure those three are awake upstairs."
"Didn't you say that Aria was sober?" I asked.
"Yeah, but we all went to bed really late," Ali answered, standing up. "Do you feel okay enough to stand?"
I thought for a minute, and then shook my head. "I need another kiss before I can do any standing," I stated, looking up at Alison with a completely serious face. She tilted her head at me, giving me a look that asked if I was serious. I just shrugged, and she laughed, leaning down and giving me another peck on the lips.
"Come on," she said, grabbing my hands and pulling me up to my feet. "Let's go make sure our friends are alive."
Next chapter is Emison Valentine's Day :)
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My first day back at school is tomorrow, so I have to go shower and make sure I have everything ready for tomorrow, and I'll be going to sleep in like an hour, so I don't have much time to chat!
Goodnight lovelies! Please review c: