Title: Better With You

Rating: T with potential for M (Will warn if it gets to that)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything in relation to Pretty Little Liars or in relation to any pop culture references that are made in this chapter.

Summary: After spending a large portion of their Summer apart, the girls are back together for their senior year at Rosewood High. Mona is in Radley, Garrett's been arrested, Maya is dead, and emotions still run high. Emily returns from Haiti in hopes to move past what she's been put through, and finds happiness in an unexpected place. A Spemily focused story with mentions of Ezria and Haleb. Storyline with "A" but not the main focus. The story follows the regular season one and two storyline, and begins after the opening scene of season three, however the night ends differently.

A/N – Here's the next installment for you guys! Sorry it's so late but I've had midterms and like 4 essays due so all my writing time has been going to that. Not a lot of Spemily this chapter, because a lot of it is setting the tone for the Mexico trip. But there's a ton of interaction between all the girls, and some Spemily here and there. That'll definitely change in the upcoming chapters, but it was necessary for this one. In any case drop me a review and let me know what you think. It's Mexico part one!

Chapter 29 – I See Us On A Beach Down In Mexico

It felt like the girls had spent a decade trying to navigate their way through the airport of Puerto Vallarta. There was an onslaught of people making their way through the facility, people constantly getting in the girls' way as they tried to make their way to the luggage claim. In most instances the airport chaos wouldn't have gotten to them as much, and usually it would be easy to be patient. However, it was hard to be patient with Hanna bouncing up and down, whining about her need to go to the bathroom.

"Seriously what is it with this place? We've been trying to get through for 45 minutes now and I still haven't gotten to go to the bathroom. I swear to God if my kidneys explode because of this shit, I'm suing," Hanna ranted as she bounced up and down in her spot. At this point, the girls were standing in an excessively long line, still making their way through airport security

"Kidneys don't explode, Hanna. They can fail, but they don't just blow up inside of your body. Stop getting your medical information from old episodes of The Simpsons," Spencer scolded. Hanna rolled her eyes and crossed her arms in irritation as the lanky girl continued. "And furthermore, I don't think you can sue them for being responsible for kidney failure when you're the one who decided you weren't going to pee on the plane, because you're weird and wanted your first pee to be in the bathroom of your hotel room."

"Okay first of all, The Simpsons is comedic genius alright? Secondly, I didn't have to go to the bathroom when I was on the airplane. The only reason I have to go so badly right now is because when I'm really excited it makes me have to pee, duh," Hanna explains in a matter-of-fact tone as though that should have been common sense to Spencer. "And thirdly, it's not weird to want to have your first pee be in the hotel! Sorry for being sentimental and wanting to have some sort of commendative –"

"—Commemorative," Aria corrected so quickly that it was almost as though she was inside of Hanna's head at the moment.

"Right, sorry for wanting to have some sort of commemorative moment!" Hanna corrected. Spencer rolled her eyes, knowing that the blonde legitimately thought her reasoning made sense.

"I don't know how I'm going to make it through a week of this shit," Spencer muttered under her breath, earning her a giggle from Emily who was silently stood beside her. Emily nudged the girl lightly with her elbow, giving her a look as if to say 'be nice', which caused her to let out a deep sigh and turn to Hanna with a smile on her face. "Of course Hanna, what ever was I thinking?"

Hanna perked up, a smile now plastered on her face. She held her head up high, knowing that she had won the argument – even though that wasn't the case. Spencer was only being nice because Emily forced her to.

"Apology accepted," the blonde spoke, causing Spencer to scoff. Yep. It was going to be a long week.

Shortly after Hanna's outburst over the bathroom situation, the girls had finally made it through security and now were waiting at the luggage claim location. This time though, it wasn't the airport that was slowing them down. Rather, it was the fact that they were waiting outside of the washroom area for Hanna who had finally caved and decided to use the airport bathroom. The four girls were engaged in light conversation while waiting for the blonde in question and although they assumed she would take a long time due to the fact that she had quite literally been holding her pee for at least 7 hours now, much to their surprise the girl had been in and out within five minutes. Though they had expected her to have a look of relief on her face, when Hanna emerged from the bathroom the only visible emotion that she held was one of disgust, which immediately caused Spencer to laugh.

"Bet you wish you went on the plane now, hey Han?" Spencer spoke in a smug tone, a slight smirk on her face.

"Shut up," Hanna replied, shooting the girl a glare. "That was literally scarring. Public washrooms are bad enough as it is, but that was just gross. Lets get out of here, I need to shower."

"I second that. The itinerary says that we get a shuttle bus to take us to the resort. Where do we go for that?" Alison questioned as she looked at the sheet of paper in her hands. Spencer leaned over her shoulder and glanced at the sheet of paper, wanting to see if she could find any information on the matter. After looking at the itinerary for a few moments, she looked up and turned around to an airport staff member that was walking by. Before he got too far, Spencer tapped him on the shoulder, causing the man to look back and give her his attention.

"Hi, sorry. Would you be able to tell us where the shuttle is?" Spencer questioned. The man looked at her in confusion, his eyebrows furrowed.

"¿Qué? Lo siento, no hablo Inglés. Hablas español?" The man responded, causing Spencer to freeze, not expecting a completely Spanish answer. Before she could respond, her daze was snapped due to the voice of Emily interrupting the conversation.

"Hola, hablo español. ¿Sabes donde los autobuses son para los hoteles?" Emily spoke, stepping beside the brunette and smiling at the airport staff. As soon as Spencer heard the words come out of Emily's mouth, she felt her body go slightly weak. It hadn't struck her until now that she had never really heard the girl speak more than a few small sentences of fluent Spanish. In fact, she often forgot that Emily had several languages in her repertoire. Trying to maintain her resolve, Spencer gulped in hopes of relieving herself of the dry throat that Emily's words had just caused before tuning back into the conversation. The man was smiling back at her as he instructed Emily on exactly where to go. Once Emily verified that she understood his instructions, the girls were on to the shuttle bus full of everyone else that were all on their way to the resort.


Upon arriving at the hotel, the girls' luggage was immediately cared for by the hotel staff, leaving them in the lobby to check in. The girls approached the front desk, Spencer leading them to the line up where all of the other guests that were on the same flight were waiting to check in as well. As they all took in the tropical sights in front of them, a voice drew their attention away.

"Buenos dias, chicas! Welcome to the wonderful Puerto Vallarta. My name is Javier and I'm gonna be the guy that you wanna talk to about booking your excursions while you're here," the man started. He had a smile on his face as he greeted the girls in an incredibly friendly manner. It was obvious by the man's appearance that he was a local due to his sun-kissed skin, Mexican form, and noticeable accent. "Now, I don't work for the hotel, or for a private company or anything like that. I work for the airline you booked with, which means I guarantee you I'm not trying to hustle you out of any of your money or experiences. If you wanna shop around that's fine, but you come to me and I promise you I will give you the best deals you'll find. I have a desk set up in the lobby and I'm here at 10am every morning, but if I'm not there we always have brochures left for the packages that we offer. Other than that I hope you beautiful ladies have a wonderful stay, and I hope to see you again."

The girls smiled and thanked him, shaking their hands politely before he directed his attention to the people that were behind them, starting off his schpeel once more.

"Well he was nice," Aria commented, all of the girls nodding in agreement as they moved closer to the front of the line. Upon reaching the reception area, a petite lady appeared, smiling widely at the five of them.

"Hola and once again welcome to Puerto Vallarta!" she began, enthusiastically speaking. Her accent was extremely thick, making it very hard to decipher what she was saying, but her English was just good enough to make out. Spencer was about to take the reigns on handling the check-in information, but Emily managed to beat her to it, stepping forward right away.

"Hola señora! Dos reservas, ambos son para Hastings," Emily led casually. The woman's expression brightened as though she was relieved that someone in the group of girls spoke Spanish.

"So sexy," Spencer mumbled accidentally. Though she didn't mean to let it slip out, it was almost uncontrollable. Hearing Emily speak such a sensually beautiful language turned her on. The brunette looked at her peers, hoping that none of them heard her slip of the tongue, but knew she was out of luck when she noticed Hanna biting her lip to contain her laughter. This instantly caused her to blush as she returned her attention to the receptionist who was now sifting through the paperwork that was on their desk. After a few moments, she retrieved their check-in packages and began to explain it all.

Spencer's parents had booked two suites, a double occupancy room and a triple occupancy room – the rooms sitting right across from one another. Both rooms came equipped with relatively the same features: air conditioning, a mini fridge, a safety deposit box, a balcony, and a fully stocked mini bar which consisted of four different bottles of alcohol (tequila, rum, vodka, and gin) along with six bottles of Dos Equis beer. The only difference between the two rooms was the fact that the double occupancy had a king size bed, whereas the triple occupancy had two queen-size beds. Upon having that information revealed to her, Spencer's mind immediately went to room arrangements. In any other circumstance, Spencer would be happy that her parents were nice enough to get what she could only assume was supposed to be a separate room for she and Emily. But given the state of their relationship, she knew staying in a room would only complicate things even further. Her mind immediately went to work on a logical way of organizing their rooming arrangements, when the feeling of a nudge to her side interrupted her thoughts.

"Spence, snap out of your weird Emily-talking-dirty-to-you-in-Spanish fantasy and pay attention," Hanna whispered, although with it being Hanna, it didn't come out as a whisper. Spencer felt herself become flush once again, seeing the humorous smirk forming on Emily's face from the corner of her eye. "She's waiting to put your wristband on. Left arm."

Spencer shook her head as though it would help her refocus, and apologized to the receptionist before allowing her to put the wristband on. Once Spencer's band was all done up, the girls were free to make their way to their rooms. The elevator ride up was surprisingly quiet considering the girls were about to start a weeklong all-inclusive vacation. But it became obvious what the silence was about when they slowly approached their hotel rooms. Standing in the middle of the hallway, all five girls stared at each other, waiting for somebody to establish what the rooming arrangements should be. After a few moments of awkward silence, Spencer sighed as she rolled her eyes before speaking.

"Okay, lets just do this the logical way. Hanna, Aria and I will take the triple occupancy because I move around like crazy in my sleep so for the sake of your guys' sanity I should probably have my own bed. Ali and Emily you guys can take the double occupancy because-uh… Because Hanna snores and you're the lightest sleepers, so this way she can't wake you up. And don't even try to deny it Han, your snoring sounds like a dying velociraptor," Spencer spoke, which stopped Hanna dead in her tracks from arguing against the claim. Instead, she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest defensively.

Though she had tried to cover it up with a joke, the stumbling of Spencer's words in her reasoning did not go unnoticed, and immediately sparked Alison's curiosity as she cocked her eyebrow. It didn't make sense to the blonde, why Spencer would want her and Emily to room together considering their history. Was she trying to put both of them through some sort of weird test of faithfulness?

"We should all wash up and whatnot, then we can hit up the buffet and talk about excursions we want to check out. Everybody cool with that?" Aria suggested. Each of the girls nodded in agreement, all of them excited to finally get to freshen up. As Emily unlocked one room and Hanna unlocked the other, Alison looked back at Spencer silently questioning her choices. Spencer subtly shifted her gaze from Alison's toward Emily before snapping the hair elastic that was around her wrist, and from the brunette's actions it instantly clicked in the blonde's mind. Aside from Spencer, she was the only one who knew about Emily's anxiety and nightmares. Both Hanna and Aria were still in the dark about the situation, and it only made sense for them to make sure Emily wasn't put into a situation in which she would be forced to tell them. Alison immediately nodded in understanding, and Spencer gave her a small smile in appreciation, knowing the swimmer was in good hands.

Upon entering the room, Alison made her way to the large bed in the middle of the room, plopping down on it in exhaustion. She rolled over onto her stomach and began to observe Emily examining the room, the swimmer looking at every single aspect of it. Finally, her eyes landed on the blonde who was sprawled out on the bed. Alison winked at the girl before rolling off the bed and sending the swimmer a flirtatious smile.

"Well, well, well, alone in a room together. I always pictured some form of this to be the start of us finally hooking up," Alison spoke as she stepped towards Emily, her eyes locked on the raven-haired girl. She made it about 2 feet away from the swimmer, and rested her palm against Emily's cheek before the two of them burst out laughing at the situation. Emily brushed the girl's arm away from her face, the two of them sharing a good laugh together.

"Good one Ali. I'm pretty sure the odds of you and I hooking up are about the same as Hanna and Aria hooking up," Emily joked, the blonde now laughing even harder as she nodded in agreement. They remained like that for a few moments before the laughter slowly died down, leaving them in a comfortable since.

"Now that we've established that, I think it's time for the two of us to lay down some ground rules, don't you agree?" Alison suggested, earning a rapid nod from the swimmer. "Okay first things first. Actually, I really only have one major rule. Since I'm really the only single one of our group I need you to respect the fact that there is a possibility of me hooking up with people during our trip."

"I can respect that. If you really need the room to yourself I'll just tough it out in the other girls' room for the night," Emily suggested as she moved to the bed and sat down on it. Alison looked at her with one eyebrow raised, a slight smirk on her face.

"Because forcing you to bunk with Spencer for a night would be a total nightmare, huh?" Alison jokingly retorted. Emily let out a chuckle, knowing that Alison was right.

"Well if we're being honest, I think I'm rooting for you to hook up with someone even more now because of that option," Emily admitted, wiggling her eyebrows for emphasis. "Just… Make sure you get housekeeping to change the bed sheets. Please."

"Don't worry, I don't leave messes," Alison commented with a wink. "Speaking of Spencer though, when are you going to let me in on what your grand scheme is to win her back while we're here?"

Emily furrowed her eyebrows and shrugged her shoulders, looking away instantly.

"I don't have one," Emily answered in a somber tone. Alison snapped her head in the swimmer's direction, thinking that she may have misheard the girl, but could tell that that wasn't the case.

"What are you talking about, how could you not have one?" the blonde questioned immediately. "Look around Em, Mexico can be so romantic; the beach, the weather, not to mention the language! If you want to make a move on Spencer, this week is the time to do it."

Emily sighed and shrugged her shoulders.

"Honestly, I just want to get through this trip with the least amount of tension possible. I would love to try and 'woo' Spencer, but… If I can't pull it off then that not only affects my trip, but all of your guys' too. It's not fair of me to expose all of you to the awkward tension," Emily explained. Alison rolled her eyes as she found a spot next to Emily on their bed.

"Okay I get that, but with all due respect you need to –"


"—Grow a pair! You have got to stop letting fear dictate your relationship," Hanna told Spencer as the two of them along with Aria were sat on their respective beds, discussing the exact same thing that Emily and Alison were talking about; Spencer and Emily's relationship.

"You wouldn't understand, Han. The relationship was becoming completely one-side—" Spencer began, but was immediately cut off.

"Oh please Spencer, do you not realize the size of the dual standard you're giving Emily right now?" Hanna shot back.

"It's double standard, not dual standard. And what the hell are you talking about?" Spencer snapped, shooting a glare at the blonde. Hanna sighed in irritation as she glanced over to Aria, the two sharing a look. Aria ran her fingers through her hair and stood up, moving to sit beside Spencer on her bed. The petite girl gently placed a hand on Spencer's thigh in order to get her attention, and Spencer finally dropped her glare from Hanna, now looking at Aria.

"Look all we're saying is, maybe you need to recall not too long ago when you were constantly making decisions for your relationship without consoling Emily. I mean, with all due respect that is kind of like the pot calling the kettle black. And she stuck with you through all of it, right?" Aria argued, but Spencer shook her head in disagreement.

"That's not the same, you guys! Every decision I made on my own was to protect her. All I ever wanted to do was make sure she never got hurt. But it seems like almost every single decision Emily made on her own was to protect herself, and I don't think that's fair to me," Spencer explained, her voice slightly raising in frustration. The brunette took a few moments to calm down before continuing. "Look, I acknowledged what I did wrong, and I promised that I would never let it happen again. Now, I stayed true to my part of the deal, but I guess I made the mistake of not holding Emily to the same standard."

"And I get that, Spencer. But I want to remind you that the only reason you were able to make that promise in the first place was because Emily was always willing to take you back. How would you feel if Emily hadn't forgiven you and hadn't fought for you? Because that's probably how Emily feels right now," Hanna told the girl. Spencer sighed and ran her fingers through her hair, knowing that her friends made some crucial points. She let the words sit in her mind, trying to justify herself against their arguments. As she was about to comment on the matter, she heard the door to their hotel room open, both Alison and Emily making their way inside.

"Alright, bitches lets it's time to get this vacay started!" Alison announced upon entering the room. The three girls looked up at her smiling as they hopped off of their beds and followed her out the doors. They made their way to one of the several buffets that were open on their resort, each of the girls fanning out to gather their meals. For the most part, the girls stuck to the same general vicinity as they got their meals, except for Hanna who seemed to be a step ahead of all of them, getting her food and seating herself within minutes. As the girls made their way back to where their seats were, they noticed Hanna already sitting down, a glass of white wine in hand.

"Seriously Hanna, wine? No wonder you were in such a hurry to get your food," Spencer begins to scold the girl. She reaches for Hanna's wine glass, but the blonde quickly pulls her hand away, unwilling to give up the drink.

"Would you relax, Spence? Need I remind you that we're in Mexico, which means I can legally drink at 18," Hanna stated, waving her wristband around to emphasize the fact that she was allowed to drink alcoholic beverages. Looking up, Hanna waved one of the waiters over to their table.

"What are you doing, Hanna?" Spencer questioned as she noticed the blonde's eyes fixated on the waiter, gesturing to her glass. Hanna smirked as she gulped down the rest of her glass of wine.

"Asking for a round of wine for the table," Hanna replied, breaking out into a full grin as the waiter arrived and began to pour white wine into each of their glasses.

"Hanna, no—" Spencer began but stopped when she felt a small nudge to her side. The brunette shifted her attention to her right where she had felt the nudge, only to see Aria now holding a glass of wine as well.

"C'mon Spence. We're on vacation. Live a little," Aria coaxed the girl, bringing her wine glass up to her lips as she nudged the other glass in front of her towards the lanky girl. Spencer sighed and looked around the table to see all of the girls now indulging in a glass of wine. Though it went against her better judgment, Spencer let out a sigh and allowed herself to be coerced. She rolled her eyes and took a sip from the wine glass, which elicited a collective cheer from her group of friends.

"Okay guys we need to toast!" Emily stated, lifting her glass in the air. Everyone else followed her lead, raising their glasses as well. They looked around, not knowing who was going to lead it. Finally after a few moments, Spencer stepped up to the plate.

"Alright guys, I have a good toast. It's a little long and I changed a few things, but it's a good one," Spencer spoke before clearing her throat. "Here's to the people we've met, the people we've fucked, and the people around us who've had no such luck. Here's to vodka in a glass, and beer in a cup, and to doing it with a girl so that you don't get knocked up. Here's to you, here's to me, together as friends we'll always be. But should we ever disagree… Then fuck all of you, and here's to me!"

All five of the girls laughed at her toast, clinking their glasses together happily.

About halfway through their meal, Spencer went into her purse and pulled out a pile of brochures, placing them on the table in front of them. Emily cocked her eyebrow and began scanning through the papers that Spencer had just dropped down.

"What did you do, rob Javier?" Emily questioned jokingly. Spencer stuck her tongue out at the girl, causing the swimmer to laugh.

"Ha-ha. No, I grabbed these before we went up to the hotel room. I thought it'd be a good idea for us to look through them all. My dad gave me his credit card to book excursions. He said we could each pick one and he would pay for all of it," Spencer explained, immediately causing uproars of excitement between her four friends. Hanna squealed as she reached for the brochures, flipping through all of them.

"Are you serious Spence? Is he sure? That's too much," Emily began to debate out loud. Spencer found herself glancing at the swimmer, smiling to herself at the girl's reaction. In the time that Spencer had known Emily, she always found it adorable how much the girl insisted on paying for her own things. Even though it often proved to be a bit of a pain in the butt whenever Spencer would try and wine and dine her, she loved that Emily asserted her need to feel independent.

"Yeah, he actually insisted. It's fine, I promise. I browsed through a few of the brochures and I think I want to do the city tour. They take you into downtown Mexico and show you all of these cool architectural landmarks. Then we eat lunch at this authentic Mexican restaurant. You get to learn about the history of their land and get a true feel for the culture and lifestyle," she explained excitedly, causing Hanna to let out a loud chuckle. The girls shifted their gazes to the blonde, unsure as to what she was laughing at.

"Sorry it's just… We're on vacation for a week. Leave it to Spencer to want to nerd it up and learn," Hanna joked, causing the lanky brunette to roll her eyes.

"Hey in her defense it does sound pretty cool," Aria jumped in.

"That's because you're like her second nerd in command," Alison spoke up, the two blondes now laughing together. All four of them shifted their attention to Emily, as though her opinion was going to be the deal breaker for whether or not they went on the city tour excursion. Emily shifted her eyes back and forth between her friends and sighed.

"Well it could be fun," Emily stated shyly, causing Hanna and Alison to roll their eyes, exhaling deeply and throwing their arms up in defeat. "Getting out of the resort and doing more than just drink all week is probably a good thing, really. Besides, from what Spencer says, it'll be more than just some boring history lesson."

"Yup, there it is. We didn't stand a chance Ali. Spencer could have suggested picking garbage up off the side of the streets and Emily still would've backed her," Hanna joked, earning a glare from both of the aforementioned girls.

"Shut up, Hanna," Emily and Spencer stated simultaneously, which earned a snicker of laughter from the girl.

"Okay so it's decided. We're going to do the city bore – I mean tour. And to counteract that snooze fest, I want to do this," Alison stated as she placed an open brochure in front of all of them. By this point the girls were finished their dinner and were now just at the table going over their plans for the week. All five girls shifted closely to the middle of the table, looking at the sheet of paper in excitement. "Check it out, so they take us up into the mountains where we go ATVing. After we drive through the mountains on the ATVs, we go through this huge ziplining course, which will bring us down to the tequila factory where we'll get to have lunch and do a tequila tasting. Thoughts?"

"Alright, so I'm just gonna go ahead and put that brochure in the 'yes' pile. There's no way we're not doing it. But I guess out of respect or whatever, do any of you nerds have any objections?" Hanna questioned as she reached for the piece of paper, folding it up. She looked around the table for any sort of refute and was happy when she was met with no disapproval whatsoever. The two blondes high-fived each other as Hanna expressed her happiness with Alison's choice of excursion.

"Well I resent that nerd comment, especially because my choice is gonna be better than all of yours," Aria spoke, throwing her brochure on the table before leaning back and crossing her arms in front of her chest confidently. The girls looked at one another in curiosity and disbelief, followed by them all leaning forward to examine Aria's excursion choice. "It's a giant boat called a Catamaran. They take you on the boat for the day where you sail the waters, you get to go snorkeling, they take you to a bunch of these small beautiful hidden islands that you get to explore, they cook for you on the boat, and get this; it's open bar all day!"

A collective roar of excitement comes from the girls as they squeal and clap for the idea. Hanna quickly snatches the brochure and reads it as if it's too good to be true, an action that is quickly repeated by Alison.

"This is amazing Ar, I take back my nerd comment. You totally win," Alison praised, earning a hearty laugh from the petite brunette.

"Woah, wait a second here. I mean this is great, and we're obvi going to do it," Hanna began. Spencer cocked an eyebrow at the blonde as she could tell the girl was getting tipsy by the way she was talking. She and Emily seemed to have the same idea as the swimmer glanced over to her, biting back a laugh as she mouthed, 'Obvi? Who says that?' The lanky brunette immediately let out a deep chuckle, which caused Hanna to snap her head in the girl's direction. "Hey! I'm serious. Like it's great, but I've got a whole day planned out that'll rock your damn world."

"Hanna, your idea of a rocked world is cheesy puffs and a One Tree Hill marathon," Emily piped in, earning a collective laugh from the rest of the group. Hanna squinted her eyes at the swimmer, throwing her a sarcastic look to show her lack of appreciativeness for the girl's comment.

"Hey, do not mock One Tree Hill, okay? That show was like televisoral genius. It pretty much raised me, and lets be real; James Lafferty is a god," Hanna argued.

"Alright sure, let's pretend that televisoral is a word," Spencer muttered, loud enough for Aria to hear and laugh at.

"Okay nerds, here's what we're going to do for my excursion. To applease you geeks –"

"—Appease," Emily corrected.

"Whatever," Hanna snapped, rolling her eyes. "To appease you, we're going to have a total ladies spa day. I'm talking manis, pedis, full body massages. Nails done, hair done, everything did!"

"Please, please stop," Spencer jumped in, afraid that Hanna is gonna start to rap the rest of the song. This earned her a glare from the blonde, who put her finger up as though to tell the girl to stop talking.

"Not finished yet. After we get ourselves all dolled up, we're totally going to hit up this," Hanna stated, reaching into her purse and throwing down her own choice in brochure, one that Spencer hadn't brought at all. "Our first pub-crawl, Mexico style. I talked to Bridget Wu before we left, and she told me that when she went to Mexico over Christmas break they did this crazy pub-crawl where they take you to the hottest clubs in Downtown Puerto Vallarta. It's like 40 bucks for transportation to and from the resort, cover to get into all of the clubs, and free drinks all night. And considering one of the yearbook nominations for dynamic duo was Bridget Wu and her flask, I think she knows what's up."

"I don't know, Han…" Spencer stated hesitantly, which caused the blonde to roll her eyes.

"Oh come on, Spencer! How often do you get a chance to go to an authentic Mexican night club?" she argued, looking to her friends for support.

"Spencer's right, I don't know if it'll be such a good idea going off the resort at night to get drunk," Aria spoke, earning a scoff from Hanna.

"You know I'm down for anything, so this is really a non-issue for me," Alison stated. Once again, it all came down to Emily to be the deciding factor. All four girls shifted their gazes toward the swimmer, Hanna with a look of irritation.

"I'm just going to start looking for a different excursion now, because we all know how this one's gonna end," Hanna spoke bitterly as she reached for the brochures in frustration. Emily lurched forward, putting her hand on the blonde girl's arm to stop her movement.

"No wait! Guys, Hanna is right. I mean it's senior year! And no matter what, after we graduate our futures are headed down different paths. This could be our only opportunity to do something like this. It's our first trip together; why not make it as memorable as possible? I'm in," Emily decided, her voice confident and determined. Hanna squealed happily and began to clap.

"Yay! Majority rules, we're totally going on a pub-crawl," Hanna shrieked excitedly, her voice higher than usual. Spencer and Aria looked at one another with slight uncertainty, silently having a conversation with their eyes. After a few moments though, their resolves softened and they turned to the three girls.

"Fine, you win! Pub crawl it is," Aria caved, Spencer nodding in agreement. Hanna clapped in excitement, happy to get her way.

"Yes, it's gonna be awesome, I swear," Hanna reassured, the girls laughing at how excited the blonde was getting. "Okay, so four down, one to go. Em?"

"C'mon Han, I think it's pretty obvious which excursion Em is gonna want to do," Spencer spoke up before the swimmer had the chance to do so herself. Emily's ears perked up at the lanky brunette, unsure of what she was referring to. She had been browsing through all of the different brochures and had yet to find something she really wanted to do. Spencer caught the girl's look of intrigue and leaned back to take hold of her purse, pulling out an unrecognizable piece of paper. Putting on her signature Spencer Hastings grin, she handed the paper to the swimmer happily.

"Spence, you didn't…" Emily began as she read through the pamphlet in excitement.

"Well it was my idea, but I can't take full credit for everything. Hanna and Aria did the research on companies and found the one with the best reviews. And I got into contact with your doctor to make sure you were cleared for it, while Ali kept you distracted. Then I talked to your mom just to make sure she was cool with it, and after that my dad and I gave the company a call to reserve our spots. All we've got to do is pick a day," Spencer explained, smiling as she watched Emily's face light up. Hanna raised an eyebrow at the lanky brunette and the two exchanged a brief look before Spencer gave the same look to the others.

"Uh, y-yeah. I mean we know how much you miss swimming, Em. All of us can tell that its been killing you to be out of the pool," Hanna began.

"Exactly and, uh, and it sucks that you got dealt the shitty hand. We still haven't been able to thank you enough for what you did that day. You didn't just push Spencer out of the way of that bullet, Em. You saved us all," Aria added.

"And even though right now you're not really cleared to do any actual competitive swimming because of that, Sp—I mean, we figured this was the next best thing. So pick the date and time, and we're gonna go swimming with the dolphins," Alison stated, causing Emily to squeal in excitement.

"No way! And my doctor really said that it wouldn't set me back?" Emily questioned, still in disbelief. The girls collectively shook their heads as they smiled at the swimmer's eagerness.

"We might need to help you out a little bit in the pool, but I talked to the company that we picked, and your doctor got into contact with them as well. He told them what you would and wouldn't be capable of doing, so when we go in, it shouldn't be anything you can't handle," Spencer explained. Emily jumped from her seat and came around the table, hugging each of them individually.

"Thank you guys, so much. You're seriously the best friends I could ever ask for," Emily spoke. As she came up to Spencer, she wrapped her arms around the girl and squeezed her tightly, giving her a light kiss on the cheek before whispering into her ear. "You're amazing."

Spencer grinned, looking shyly at the ground.

"Well, now that we've all decided on excursions, we can book them tomorrow morning. But in the mean time, lets finally go explore this resort," Alison suggested excitedly. Everybody stood from their seats, packing up all of the brochures and leaving a tip before exiting the buffet and heading out onto the resort grounds.

Stepping out onto the resort grounds, the girls paused momentarily, looking around to take in the beautiful Mexican landscape. The resort itself was stunning from what they could see already. Palm trees as far as the eye could see, four different pool areas that were all interconnected: one for kids, one for rec activities, one for adults, and a section dedicated to the pool bar. Each pool section had built in lounge chairs within the pool, and the water was perfectly clear. The beach was on the horizon and from what they could see, the resort had a nice set up along their beachfront as well. The girls looked at one another as if they were silently coming to a consensus on their first destination.

"Beach?" The five girls let out all at once, sharing a collective laugh at how in sync they seemed to be before making their way towards the sandy shore. The girls walked along the straight path that led from the hotel, through the resort's pool and activities area where they could see small vendors that had set up their own booths alongside the walkway. Once they reached the bottom of the stairwell that led to the beach, they took their sandals off, putting them on an empty beach chair nearby before stepping onto the sand.

The ground beneath them was still warm from earlier that day, but the weather had cooled down enough for the surface to be warm enough to walk on barefooted. Rather than it being scorching, the heat that radiated beneath their feet had actually been soothing. While the sun was still out, its presence was fleeting, and stars were starting to become apparent in the sky – an indication that it was beginning to get later in the evening. Though none of them were fully aware of the time, they could tell that it was close to later in the evening as the people still out in the beach area largely consisted of teenagers and young adults – something that none of them were complaining about.

The girls started to walk along the beach, making mindless chatter amongst themselves while groups of people ran by, often right past them as they were trying to either get to or away from the ocean water. Eventually the girls realized that walking in a straight line was going to get one of them hurt because of how much space they were taking up along the sand, and eventually they had split into two. Spencer, Alison and Aria walking ahead while Hanna and Emily lagged behind. Hanna had purposely been lagging behind, wanting to create a big enough distance to speak to Emily without the other girls overhearing their conversation.

"It's all so beautiful; breathtaking even," Emily spoke softly as she walked beside Hanna, staring directly ahead of her. Hanna followed her line of sight, a smile creeping onto her face as she realized where the raven-haired girl was looking. Directly in front of her, with reasonable distance away from the two girls was Spencer, clad in a beautifully simple yet complex off-white shirtdress that was covered in a vibrant geometric print, the pattern a mixture of red, orange and black. Due to the heat, Spencer had eventually ended up sweeping her brown curls up into a ponytail, accentuating the cut out back that easily allowed Emily's breath to get caught in her throat. More often than not Emily caught her thoughts trailing off to all of the different ways she would love to touch, kiss, and caress the exposed skin.

"She is pretty beautiful," Hanna confirmed, giving Emily a gentle nudge as if to say 'I know exactly what you're referring to'. Emily tore her eyes away from the lanky brunette's back and threw Hanna a shy smile, realizing that she had undoubtedly been caught. "I figure I'm not supposed to spill the beans about this, but I think you should know. We had nothing to do with organizing your excursion. She kind of threw us for a loop when she said we helped her out, but none of us had any clue that she arranged that for you."

"Really?" Emily questioned in slight disbelief as she tried to fight back a smile. Hanna looked up at her and nodded, the swimmer instantly knowing that she was being genuine. "You know in my mind I had hoped so, but I refused to let myself believe it was even possible. Every once in a while it's nice to be reminded that she still cares though, even after I hurt her so much."

"Em, she loves you. She's hurt, but she loves you so much. Just give it time, and she will come around," Hanna comforted, wrapping an arm around the swimmer and giving her a gentle squeeze of reassurance.

"Thanks Han, I really needed to hear that," Emily whispered out, resting her head on the blonde's shoulder. Hanna ran her hand up and down Emily's arm, soothing the girl.

"No problem. And hey, I'm sure Ali will be willing to crash in our room so that you and Spencer can have hot lesbian island sex when you both finally figure it out. Just do us a favor and warn us so that we don't walk in on you two… Again," Hanna teased with a chuckle, giving the swimmer a light nudge before running off.

"You're dead, Han!" Emily shrieked out as she lunged forward to try and catch the blonde. She hadn't made it very far before she felt her arm make strong contact with something. Emily stopped in her tracks and looked back to see a girl on the ground, completely floored by her. The swimmer immediately backtracked, rushing over to the figure that was now lying in the sand. "Oh my god, I am so sorry! Are you alri—Woah."

Emily was about to kneel over to assist the girl, but was immediately thrown off as she got a good look at her. She hadn't meant to be so obvious in her admiring, but Emily had to admit; this girl was gorgeous. Long dirty blonde locks of hair flowed down her shoulders, shaping around her perfectly defined jaw line. Her skin was delectably sun-kissed, and it made Emily wonder if she was travelling, or if she was a local. She momentarily allowed her eyes to run over the girl's body, as she now noticed how bare her skin was. Clad in only the shortest of shorts and a black string bikini top that accentuated the girl's breasts, Emily couldn't help but admire the exposed skin of her long legs and subtle yet very apparent abs. That wasn't what got her though; what got her was the girl's piercing grey eyes that added an air of mystery to her. Stopped in her tracks, she finally snapped back into reality and realized that this beautiful woman was talking to her.

"Hey are you okay? I mean I know you knocked me over, but you seem in kind of a haze," the girl spoke. Her voice was smooth and sultry but with a slight rasp to it, and Emily could easily hear the Spanish accent that she carried. But what completely threw her off was how much her voice reminded her of Spencer's. Of course, the lanky brunette that was just feet away from her had a way more seductive and sexy voice, but it was one of those things Emily couldn't help but notice. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts away and refocused on the girl in front of her.

"Yeah, sorry I completely spaced there. Are you okay though? I totally just throttled you there," Emily stated, the concern evident in her voice. She reached her arm down, offering it to the girl. The mystery girl smiled at Emily's concern and gently reached for the swimmer's hand, allowing herself to be pulled up.

"I'm okay. Can I let you in on a little secret though? If it were almost anybody else that knocked me over, I would have lost it. You're lucky you're so beautiful," the girl answered smoothly, causing Emily to blush. It was uncontrollable and she hadn't expected it, but this girl was smooth. Realizing that their hands were still in one another's the girl gave Emily's a firm, yet gentle squeeze before briefly caressing her skin with her thumb. "Pardon me for not introducing myself; I'm Mila. Are you here on vacation, or?"

"Nice to meet you, Mila. I'm Emily. Yeah, I'm here with my friends over there actually," Emily replied, taking her hand from Mila's and pointing over to her friends who were now standing at a slight distance, observing the two of them as they spoke.


"The hell is going on over there," Spencer asked, immediately getting defensive as she observed Emily talking to somebody. Her eyes squinted at the sight of Mila's grip on the swimmer. Hanna had just run up to the group of girls, unaware that Emily wasn't immediately behind her. Realizing that her friends were now all staring at something behind her, Hanna stopped running and turned around to what they were looking at. As she turned around she watched Emily and Mila do the same, the girls now facing the direction of Hanna, Spencer, Aria and Ali.

"Who's the babe over there talking to Emily?" Hanna questioned, unaware of where this girl had appeared from. Spencer scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest, a look of blatant irritation on her face. She watched as Emily pointed to the group of them, a heartbreakingly adorable smile on her face. Instantly, Spencer felt her heart skip a beat, and an uncontrollable grin briefly came across her face before she saw Emily redirect her attention to Mila.

"Huh, who would have thought that the first person to find a hook up would be Em," Alison spoke, earning a vicious glare from Spencer. Aria turned her attention to the girl as well, narrowing her eyes in disbelief.

"Seriously Ali? It's called sensitivity; find some," the petite brunette scolded. Alison raised her hands in defeat, not entirely sure as to what she did wrong in the first place. Before the girls could delve into the conversation anymore, they watched Emily shake the mystery girl's hand one more time, giving her a smile and then walking away to join her friends. By this time the jealousy was all but radiating off of Spencer's skin. The tension was high as Emily rejoined her group of friends, and became even more eminent from Spencer's defensive stance.

"Sorry about that, you guys didn't have to wait for me though. I would have caught up," Emily spoke as she approached her group of friends once again.

"What was that anyways?" Spencer questioned, unable to bite her tongue any longer. It was obvious that she was jealous, but she was trying so hard to play it off as casually as possible. Emily looked up at the lanky brunette and shrugged her shoulders in nonchalance.

"Nothing, I just accidentally bumped into her that's all. So I apologized, and we talked for a few minutes, and now I'm here," Emily replied as though it wasn't a big deal at all. And it wasn't, to her. But as much as Spencer tried to control her irritation, she couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"Long conversation for nothing," Spencer muttered out. Emily raised an eyebrow, unaware of where the brunette's animosity was stemming from, but decided not to push it. Instead, she changed the subject as the girls once again walked along the shoreline. Slowly but surely, Spencer purposely began to lag behind the rest of the girls as her frustration started to get the best of her. After a few moments of silent sulking, she felt a gentle nudge on her shoulder that caused her to look up. "What, Han?"

"You know, it's not fair to get mad," Hanna stated, earning a look of confusion from Spencer. Seeing that the girl wasn't sure as to what Hanna was referring to, the blonde decided to further elaborate. "It's obvious, you're mad at the fact that Emily was talking to that girl. But that's not fair to her. After all, it was your idea for the two of you just to be friends."

Spencer sighed loudly, running her fingers through her hair out of frustration. On one hand, she felt like she had every right to be irritated and upset at the swimmer for chatting up some stranger. But on the other hand, they weren't together. Furthermore though, even if they were together deep down Spencer knew that Emily wasn't talking to this girl to get extra friendly. The swimmer was just a genuinely nice person who assumed the best in people. But it still hurt Spencer to think of the possibility of Emily being with anyone else but her. Was it selfish? Of course it was, in so many ways. But it was uncontrollable to the brunette; whether or not they were dating, Emily was her soul mate. Her future. Her forever and always. The last thing she wanted was to watch anybody try and interfere with that. And for the remainder of the night, from the rest of their walk along the beach to the time the girls spent in their hotel rooms afterwards, those were the only thoughts that could consume Spencer's mind.


The following day after eating breakfast and booking their excursions, the girls found themselves changed into bathing suits and headed for the beach. With not a single cloud in the sky, it seemed like a perfect day to spend out, soaking up the sun. As they approached the sand, Emily instantly spotted a few areas that held beach volleyball games. Immediately perking up in excitement, she went to make her way towards the groups. After only a few short steps though, she stopped and turned around, realizing that she shouldn't just abandon her friends. Well, at least not without asking first.

"Hey guys, any of you want to play beach volleyball?" Emily asked eagerly. As soon as the words left her mouth, she heard a scoff from Hanna as though Emily had just asked her to go and study. It wasn't to much of Emily's surprise though; aside from shopping and the occasional trip to the gym, Hanna loathed physical activity.

"As thrilling as that sounds, I think I'm just gonna go get myself a strawberry daiquiri and soak up some sun. I've only got a week to tan, and considering I look like Casper the freakin' ghost right now, that's not a lot of time," Hanna explained as she tied her hair up.

"I second that. This girl needs a drink and a tan, stat," Alison agreed with a smile on her face. Emily nodded in understanding, knowing that it would have been a long shot to try to get them to play anyways. After finding a spot to put their stuff down, the two blondes laid their towels out and then disappeared to go and get their drinks. Emily turned to Aria and Spencer who still had yet to answer her.

"Sorry Em, I think I just want to lay out in the sun for a little and read a book," Aria told the girl. "Plus, someone's gotta keep an eye on those two. Who knows what kind of trouble they could get into by themselves, right?"

"That's true, it's okay. Spence, what about you?" Emily asked, waiting to hear from the lanky brunette who had been pretty much silent ever since the night before. If Spencer was being honest, she had no desire to play volleyball in that moment. All she wanted was to jump into the water and splash around. But right before she had the chance to answer the swimmer, a voice in the distance caught both of their attention.

"Emily! Ven aqui! We're just about to start a new game, and we need players. Vamonos!" Mila shouted from a beach volleyball court nearby. Spencer's eyebrows furrowed in irritation. Where the hell does this girl keep coming from? Mila quickly made her way over to where the two girls were standing, and she couldn't help but begin to analyze every single part of the Spanish girl. As much as it pained Spencer to think, after getting a better look at her she could see that this girl was absolutely gorgeous. "Hey, I'm Mila," she quickly introduced to Spencer, throwing her a quick wave before redirecting her attention back to Emily. "So, are you coming to play or?"

"Spence, you coming?" Emily questioned with a smile on her face. She knew Spencer; she knew that the girl hadn't intended on playing volleyball the moment she saw her eyeing down the waves in the water. Emily shifted her body closer to the lanky brunette, leaning into her and whispering softly. "You don't have to join me if you don't want to, S. If you want, you can go to the beach and we'll just tag up later."

Spencer looked up at Emily with a warm smile, and it made her heart flutter at how the swimmer always just knew. Though she knew she was just given an out by the girl, Spencer couldn't help but glance over Emily's shoulder, noticing Mila blatantly checking out her former lover. At that moment, all Spencer could feel was this pit of rage deep within her stomach.

"Actually Em, I'm totally game. Let's go," Spencer responded, earning a look of slight shock followed by a happy squeal as Emily hooked her arm in the lanky brunette's, the two of them now following Mila over to where the game was being played.

The two girls ended up being on opposite teams, Emily on one team, and Spencer on the other team, with Mila. Though the game started out in a friendly manner, the longer they were out there, the more progressively worse it got. At first, Spencer took it easy, not allowing her competitive edge to come out. However, it seemed that every single time both Mila and Emily were at the net on their respective sides, all they would do was whisper back and forth at each other in Spanish. And while Spencer tried to ignore it, she couldn't help but feel like she was watching them flirt with one another. Granted she couldn't understand what either of them were saying, why else would they be talking to each other in a different language?

Spencer got up to serve the ball, focusing on getting the ball over the net. As she was about to make her toss, she heard the melodic sound of Emily's shrieking laughter. And without even needing to look over, Spencer knew that specific laugh. It was the laugh she got from the girl whenever she would spontaneously poke her in the side or brush her fingers against the nape of Emily's neck. Looking over at the two who were up at the net now, she saw as Mila continuously touched the bare sides of the swimmer to try and tickle her. Spencer clenched her jaw in rage as she watched Mila shamelessly flirting with the girl. Before she could even think twice, Spencer tossed the ball as high as she could and hit it with perfect aim and precision directly into the back of Mila's head, causing the girl to let out a loud shriek.

"Oops, sorry. That one slipped," Spencer apologized in what she tried to make sound like a sincere tone. Emily wasn't dumb though; the moment she looked at Spencer's face, she knew that that had been anything but an accident. The two locked eyes for a moment, and Emily gave a scolding look to which Spencer shrugged innocently. Even though Emily knew she shouldn't be encouraging the behavior, she couldn't help but crack a smile. Spencer was just so damn cute.

Throughout the rest of the game, Spencer made it an effort to make Mila look bad. Whether it was through hitting her with the ball, making near impossible passes that Mila would end up shanking out of play, or finding any way to distract the girl as she got up to serve, Spencer found a way to make a mistake out of almost every single thing Mila did. The funny thing about bringing out her competitive edge when it came to dating was that the Spanish girl she seemed to be competing against didn't pick up on it whatsoever. The spontaneous touches to Emily when they were both at the net didn't stop, nor did the constant exchanging of words in Spanish. And while it didn't seem like Emily was flirting back, she wasn't doing anything to stop it either. Though Spencer thought she could handle a little healthy competition, it reached a breaking point when she saw Mila go up to serve.

"Remember this, Em! Así es como me sale de las damas," Mila shouted, sending the girl a flirtatious wink that earned her a few cheers from her friends as Emily giggled and shook her head. The tiny ball of anger in the pit of Spencer's stomach had now turned into full on rage as Mila served the ball over. She watched as Emily made a perfect pass to their setter, knowing that the ball was going perfectly to their middle hitter, and coincidentally their best hitter all around. Rafael, she'd learned his name was, had been hitting into her block almost all game, but the ones he managed to get through were strong, hard hits. With the knowledge that Mila was playing as a back middle, a plan formed in Spencer's mind within seconds. The ball left the hands of the setter toward Rafael, and Spencer moved laterally along the net, following the ball. As Rafael jumped to take his swing, Spencer went up with him for the block, separating her hands at the very last second. The ball went completely through her 'block' and hit Mila square in the face, ricocheting off of it and going out of play. As Spencer landed from her jump, an uncontrollable smirk came over her face and she was unable to stop herself from letting out a slight chuckle.

As soon as the ball hit Mila, everybody but Spencer seemed to rush to her side. Emily watched onwards, completely wide-eyed at what had just happened, and she immediately rushed to the other side of the net, grabbing hold of Spencer's arm.

"I think we should call that one game. Spencer's getting really tired as you can tell by her suddenly lazy playing," Emily explained. Spencer quirked an eyebrow, a smug look still on her face as she watched the look of grimace that was still on Mila's face.

"What do you mean Em, I'm no—" Spencer began but was stopped when she felt Emily's elbow in her side. She looked over to the swimmer and tried to play it off as confusion, but the second she looked over, she was met with an icy glare from the girl, which stopped her dead in her tracks. Spencer's eyes widened at the stone-faced girl and gulped audibly. "I mean yeah, sorry. That hit was my bad, I'm just tired."

"Anyways, thanks for letting us play with you guys, it was really fun," Emily spoke, the two of them now saying goodbye to everyone that was playing. Before leaving, she took Mila in her arms, giving her a brief hug. "Sorry about your face too. I hope it doesn't leave too big of a mark."

"Well let's just be glad my face isn't my only good asset," Mila replied cockily, sending Emily another wink. Spencer couldn't help but roll her eyes and scoff at the comment, causing her to mask the scoff as a cough when Emily shot her yet another glare. Emily backed away from Mila, linking her arm in Spencer's as she began to pull the girl away. The two walked in silence as they made their way back to Alison, Aria and Hanna who were all lounging on their towels and soaking up the sun. After a few moments, Emily unlinked her arm from Spencer's and created a little bit more space between the two girls.

"You know, you should really ease up," Emily finally spoke. Spencer looked over at the swimmer, trying to pull off a look of obliviousness.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Spencer replied, which caused Emily to scoff in haughty derision.

"It's like you forget that we grew up together or something. I know how good you are at volleyball, Spence. Don't forget who cheered you on at every game you played in middle school along with the games you played your freshman year. In the entire time I've watched you play, I have never seen so many blatant misses by you," Emily explained. At first, Spencer considered trying to continue her charade of cluelessness. But she knew that Emily had already seen right through it, and there was no point in trying to lie.

"Okay, you're right and I'm sorry. It's just… You can't blame me for being a little uncomfortable watching you openly flirt with this bombshell of a girl," Spencer responded, running her hair through her fingers. The girls had now slowed their pace down, walking in a different direction than where their friends were.

"I wasn't flirting," Emily stated after rolling her eyes at Spencer's assumption. The brunette's eyes immediately shot up, her jaw dropping in disbelief. Emily glanced over at the girl and couldn't help but let out a laugh at her expression. "What's with the face?"

"Not flirting my ass! All you two did the entire match was giggle at each other and talk to each other in Spanish. And she would not stop winking at you or touching you. Come on Em, how was that not flirting?" Spencer argued, clearly exasperated at the situation. Emily shook her head at the brunette's reasoning, letting out a sigh as she ran her fingers through her hair. She stopped walking, gently grabbing Spencer's arm to halt the girl's movement too.

"I don't know if you've realized this, but I only have eyes for one girl Spence. The same girl I've had eyes for, for the past 7 months," Emily spoke. She placed her hand on Spencer's cheek, caressing it gently as the brunette felt herself lean into the girl's touch. "I love you, Spencer. So much. And for the record, yeah she may have been a little flirty with me jokingly, but the only reason we were talking so much was because Mila was asking me about Ali. She was the one who caught Mila's eye, not me. That's why we were looking at you guys for so long yesterday."

"Oh…" Spencer responded, looking down in slight embarrassment. In that moment, Spencer couldn't have felt worse about herself for how she had treated Mila. She let out a deep sigh, putting her head in her hands. "I am such a bitch, oh my god."

"It's okay Spence, I really don't think Mila even clued in on it. And it was kind of flattering to see you get all worked up. But seriously, I don't think you'll have to worry about that. Standing next to Ali, it'd be pretty uncommon for me to get hit on here anyways," Emily commented, earning a look of confusion from Spencer. Realizing how that just sounded, Emily let out a laugh and shook her head. "I should rephrase that, sorry. I just mean… To the locals here, Alison is like big foot with her blonde hair, blue eyes, light skin. It's so rare that they see girls like that that sometimes they don't believe girls like that really exist. So when they do see them, they're so cautious in approaching them out of fear that they'll scare them away."

"That's crazy talk, Em," Spencer responded, laughing at the girl's analogy. Emily chuckled long with her, shaking her head in disagreement.

"No I swear it's true! And the only reason I even talked to Mila for so long was because of the hooking up rule that Ali and I set in place. The way I see it, if I'm going to have to give up my room so that Ali can get laid, I'm gonna make sure that it's worth it," Emily explained. Spencer leaned away from the girl, a look of curiosity on her face. The swimmer immediately knew that Spencer had no idea what she was talking about. "We decided that if either of us were to hook up with anyone – and by that I mean if she found someone to hook up with – then I would bunk in your room for the night and let her have at it."

"Interesting. Gross, but interesting," Spencer responded with a slight chuckle. The two glanced up at one another shyly, looking at each other as a silence came over them. It was unclear how it happened, but the hand that Emily had placed on the side of Spencer's face had somehow managed to make it into the brunette's hand, they two now interlocked with one another. Spencer looked down at their hands, gently rubbing her thumb against Emily's fingers. It was a simple action, but in that moment, Emily had the most butterflies she had ever remembered feeling. The moment was short-lived however, when the sound of Aria's voice broke their trance, hearing the petite girl call them over. Spencer let out a deep sigh, giving Emily's hand a squeeze before letting it go. "You know for the record Em, I don't care how ordinary you think you seem to people here; you're easily the most breathtaking girl I've ever laid my eyes on. Now lets go. Last one back loses!"

Spencer gave her one last smile, nudging the girl gently before running off. Emily tried to move her feet, but she couldn't. She was stuck in a complete trance by hearing the brunette's words. And as a smile crept onto her face while she watched the girl run away, Emily couldn't help but feel even more in love than she ever did before.

Thoughts? Don't forget to review and let me know what you think! Hopefully I'll throw out the next chapter sometime this upcoming week and that's when things will really start to pick up. Thanks for reading, thanks for writing. You guys are the best, and I hope you liked it (: