A/N: This one is a little short, I know, but you're lucky to get any update out of me today :P I've been busy with midterms, as you all know, and I will be spending a good chunk of the rest of the night studying. However, the chapter I just wrote for this story was crazy fun to write and I so badly wanna write the next one, so I may start that... haha... :P

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"What do you think life would be like if my mom was more like yours?" Emily mused, her fingers twisting through the thick, blond locks sprawled over her lap. Alison was across her bed, on her phone. Though, she couldn't do much on it, since she kept getting distracted by the feeling of Emily's fingers on her scalp and in her hair.

"Better," Alison stated surely, focusing her eyes on the internet search she'd made a few minutes ago. She hadn't even read the first result yet.

"Do you think we… wouldn't have to always be together like this in secret?" Emily asked, wholly aware of how quiet she was.

Alison felt herself tense for half a second at how hesitant Emily sounded. "Of course we wouldn't. We would be flaunting how great we are in front of everyone."

Emily took a shaky breath, dragging her fingers through a bit of Alison's hair and then pulling her hands out of the blond stuff. "I'm never going to get to be myself with her."

Alison gave up trying to do anything on her phone and tossed it across the bed as she sat up in front of Emily. "No, Emily. You will get to be yourself with her. And she'll learn to accept it, or she won't, and she'll lose you. Em, as soon as you're out of her reach, you should be who you are."

Emily avoided Alison eyes as she choked out, "She will hate me."

"No, she couldn't," Alison insisted, raising a hand to gently touch Emily's cheek. Emily finally forced her eyes to meet Alison's. "Nobody could ever hate you, Emily. You're sweet to everybody, even when they're not sweet to you. I wish I was half as nice as you."

The brunette quirked up an eyebrow. "Are you serious? Ali, you are at least as nice as I am."

Alison smiled. "Maybe when I'm with you, but deep down, I'm a bitch." She crinkled her nose a bit as she smiled at Emily, who rolled her eyes playfully.

"You are not a bitch," Emily argued, shaking her head.

"Watch, one day you're going to see that I'm only nice because I have you, and you'll leave me," Alison joked. Emily let out a laugh at how unrealistic that sounded.

"Ali, that wouldn't ever happen, because you will always have me," Emily insisted.

Alison quirked her eyebrow a fraction of an inch as she smiled. "Oh damn, I guess I'm stuck being nice forever." She leaned forward and stole a small kiss from Emily. As she pulled away, Emily pushed forward, keeping her lips attached firmly to the blonde's. Their small kiss became a harder kiss, and then their lips molded themselves together perfectly, their tongues moving between them as well. Emily felt herself melt internally, and she knew that she would never give this girl up.


Emily felt as though every weight that had been pressing down on her shoulders, back, and every other body part had suddenly been torn away when she heard Alison's promise, and she had never felt lighter. Which is why she was hardly surprised when she found herself slipping into the natatorium and then into the locker room.

Once in her swimsuit, she was cutting through water as if with a knife through melted butter. Though she wasn't timing herself, she knew that she was hitting her fastest times over again, and she didn't even start to feel exhausted until a good two hours after she started. That was when she found herself floating gently on her back instead of powering through the clear water.

She felt as though she'd been awoken for the first time in years, a feeling that arose simply from the fact that she had a chance at being with Alison, for real and in public. It was invigorating, and when she finally got up and went back into the locker room, she felt a strange peace enveloping her.

That was until she saw a certain swimmer that immediately gave Emily a feeling of exasperation. "Oh, Emily, hey," Paige said as she saw the other girl. "I thought I heard someone in the pool. Are you finished?"

"Yeah," Emily answered, trying to step past her and toward her locker.

"Congratulations, by the way, about getting anchor this time around. I was stupid to think that I would get it more than once. I mean, I did look at your stats, and seeing that you were supposed to be the anchor at one of the biggest meets in your freshman year… that's crazy," Paige admitted. The flattery made Emily feel slightly suspicious, so she stopped and faced the redhead.

"Thanks," Emily said carefully. "Too bad I never got to anchor for that meet."

"You moved like the day before, right?" Paige asked, suddenly sounding incredibly conniving and manipulative—and this was the first that Emily had seen of it.

"It was an emergency," Emily stated, aware that her defensive voice was in place.

Paige shrugged. "Whatever, far be it from me to judge your situation. Actually, on the contrary. What the hell are you doing with Alison DiLaurentis?"

Now, Emily felt totally stunned. "What?"

"Don't give me that shit. Why are you sleeping with the bitch?" Paige demanded.

The brunette felt her eyes widening. "I'm not—"

"Look, Emily, I already know the truth. But why? You're an actual genuine person, and Alison is a falsity," Paige snapped.

Emily's eyes looked anywhere other than at Paige, and she tried to figure out what was happening right now. She was trying to think up how Paige would know anything, and what she would know. "How… how do you know?"

"Let's just say I made a deal with the devil," Paige stated, her words dripping with duplicity. It didn't take Emily more than a second to place it, though.

"I wasn't aware that you and Alison were even on speaking terms," Emily stated.

"You'd be surprised what you don't know about Alison," Paige snapped.

"Actually, contrarily, I think you would be surprised about what you don't know about her. I, however, know more than you ever will. So stay the hell out of my business, out of her business, and go crawl back in your hole," Emily growled, turning and starting to her locker.

"Wow, you sounded just like her," Paige mused, stopping Emily in her tracks. "I didn't think it was possible for bitchiness to actually spread like a disease."

Emily spun around on her heel, and for the first time since she heard her mother rip at Alison before she dragged them apart, Emily felt her natural instinct to defend Alison rising around her. "You need to stop! My bitchiness wasn't spread to me! Have you ever even felt real emotions, Paige? If not, I guess I would understand how you couldn't understand. Let's just put it in simpleton terms, shall we? You mess with Alison anymore and I will get into your business."

"You two really are great for each other," Paige growled. "You both seem to share a passion of threatening me." Emily found her curiosity peaking suddenly, and Paige noticed. "What, your new sex buddy didn't tell you?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Emily demanded.

Paige shrugged. "I'm going to go swim. See you at practice on Monday?" Emily stared after the redhead as she walked out of the locker room, and then let out an exasperated groan as she finally went to her locker. Emily was so confused about what Paige was talking about. All she knew, though, was that somehow, Alison had spoken to Paige and now Paige knew that she and Alison had slept together. Emily didn't know whether or not to be scared.

As she was driving home from the natatorium, Emily tried to call Alison so that she could ask her about it, but the blonde didn't pick up. Emily found herself back at her house, feeling extremely confused. Once in her room, she tried Alison once again, only to have the call go straight to voicemail.

"Emily," Pam Fields suddenly said as she knocked on Emily's slightly open door. "I made some lunch. I know it's a little late, but I figured you were hungry after swimming."

Emily managed a small smile and stood up, following her mom out of her room and downstairs to the dining room, where the older woman had set out sandwiches for the two of them. "Is everything okay?"

Pam smiled. "Everything is fine. Better than fine, actually. Your father is going to be back here by Christmas, for at least three months until they reassign him to something."

A smile broke over Emily's face easily. "Are you serious?" Pam nodded.

"His whole unit is moving back from overseas," she explained. "And he doesn't even have to go back to Texas—at least not yet. They may send him back there after the three months."

"Texas…" Emily's voice trailed off as a daunting thought came to her mind. "If he goes back to Texas… We won't, right?"

Pam pursed her lips. "I don't know, Emily. We haven't thought that far ahead yet. After all, he may not even be stationed back in Texas."

"But if he does get stationed there… tell me that we won't go back there," Emily growled. Pam shook her head.

"Nothing is certain yet, Emily. I don't really want to pull you out of school here and have you switch back in the middle of the year, so I would rather us not go back there," her mother answered, calming Emily considerably.

Surprising both her and her mom, Emily's phone suddenly started to ring. Emily's eyes dropped to the caller ID, and she tried to keep a neutral expression as she saw Alison's name. She looked away from it and back at her mom, who gave her a confused look.

"Who is it?"

"Um, Spencer," Emily lied, shrugging. "I'll call her back later."

Setting her phone face down on the table, Emily took a bite of her sandwich and avoided eye contact wit her mother, who was shaking her head. "Answer the phone, Emily. We're not at a formal dinner, it's just lunch."

Emily nodded, feeling slightly nervous as she answered the call.

"Hey, are you okay?" Alison asked, her voice laced with concern at the two calls that Emily had made without leaving voice mails.

Emily swallowed as invisibly as possible, and then spoke with extra emphasis in every word. "Hey, Spencer. Is it cool if I call you later? I'm having lunch with my mom."

The other end of the line was silent for a moment as Alison had to realize that Emily didn't want her mom to know that it was Alison on the phone. "Yeah. Call me later."

"I will," Emily promised, before hanging up the phone and setting it down. "It's nothing important," she told her mom. The two of them finished their lunch without much more talking, and Emily really just wanted to get upstairs to her room so she could call Alison.


"Whoa whoa, Tana, I thought that Pam was starting to get used to the idea of Emily being gay? Why is Emily not telling her mom that she's talking to Alison again? Oh, and while I'm asking, IS PAIGE GONNA OUT ALISON?"

Lemme answer your questions, assuming that's what yours were. Pam is Emily's mom, she's not gonna hate her forever obviously which is why she's being cooler. But... Well... It's complicated so that's all I'll give ya lol. half of an answer I guess. Anyway! So to part 2- many of you think that Paige will out Alison... I am not going to spoil anything. Soooo I guess I won't answer your questions.

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