"Mm Ali."

Emily couldn't stop the breathy moan from slipping when Alison kissed her on the base of her neck. She pulled the blonde closer against her, Emily's back against the bed with Alison on top of her. They found themselves in this position often. This had been going for days now, sneaking around whenever they got the chance. It was harder than either of them expected. They had to dodge their parents, avoid getting found out by their friends, and most importantly, hide from Paige.

After the blow up at the lake last week, Emily and Alison talked about how to best handle the situation. Emily didn't want to date Paige anymore, but the issue wasn't that, it was that Paige was threatening to out Alison to entire town of Rosewood. Emily understood that fear. She was once terrified of being pushed out of the closet before she was ready. She hated that coming out was even a thing, truthfully. Love is love. It shouldn't have to be some big ordeal to say who you're attracted to, but the reality of it is that it was, especially in high school.

Alison was the It girl of Rosewood High. It wasn't a secret that she was the most popular girl in school. She constantly had eyes on her and anything that she was involved in usually caught the hears of her peers. If Paige outed Alison, it would be a massive story at Rosewood High. Emily knew it would change Alison's reputation instantly. She didn't know if it would necessarily hurt it though. No one had given Emily a hard time about being gay. In fact, if anything, girls started giving her more attention than they had before. She hadn't personally had a bad experience, other than from her own mother, which Emily knew there was that too.

The DiLaurentis family was well-known around Rosewood and Alison's parents weren't the most accepting to anything other than the status quo. They were an old money family who seemed to impose traditional and exceptional rules and regulations for their kids. Alison and her brother were always attending social and dinner parties with their parents at country clubs or another wealthy family's home. Emily knew that if word got back to Alison's parents that the blonde had found herself a princess charming instead of a prince, it could cause trouble.

Alison's tongue swiped at Emily's ear lobe and the brunette shivered underneath her. Emily's fingers found their way under Alison's shirt and allowed her hands to squeeze onto her sides. She loved feeling Alison bare underneath her fingertips, of Alison's skin against her own.

The blonde brought her lips back up to Emily's for a lazy kiss just before she sat up in Emily's lap, pulling Emily up with her. When Alison pulled apart from the girl under her she smiled, "hi."

Emily's brown eyes almost looked golden in the afternoon sun and Alison wanted to drown in them. Emily's dark features were so, so stunning to her. The way her dark eyelashes batted and her long dark hair fell over her shoulder.. she swore if Emily knew how beautiful she was, she'd rule the world.

"Hi," Emily smiled. She brought her fingers to Alison's face, tracing the blonde's cheekbone slowly before bringing them down to the blonde's lips. Alison kissed Emily's fingers and the brunette felt another cage of butterflies unleash in her stomach watching her. "I like when you do that."

"Yeah?" Alison mumbled.

"Mhm," Emily barely replied, pulling her fingers away from the blonde's mouth just to reconnect their lips once again. A few moments pasted, the only sounds in the room coming from their lips meeting again and again with Alison's arms wrapped loosely around Emily's neck.

When they pulled apart, Emily noticed the frown on Alison's face. "What time do you have to get back to her?"

Her. Sometimes when they were together Emily forgot that they were sneaking around. She forgot about Paige and her relationship and the entire icky situation in general. Being with Alison wiped it all away. "We don't have to do this, you know? I can break up with her. I can leave her. We can—,"

"You know that can't happen right now," Alison sighed. She removed herself from Emily's lap and took two steps back from the brunette, creating a distance between the two that made Emily frown. She shifted on Alison's bed and crossed her legs, "it just sucks."

Alison leaned against her dresser, "I know, I'm sorry, but it could ruin a lot for us."

"A lot for us or for you?"

Alison sighed and crossed her arms, "don't do that."

Emily fell back against Alison's bed and let out a frustrated groan, "I'm so sick of this. I'm being blackmailed into staying in a relationship with Paige just because of what? Your ego? Your reputation?"

Alison raised an eyebrow. She didn't like where Emily's attitude was headed. "That's not fair. You know that my parents would freak out. This isn't just about me."

When Emily sighed Alison walked to the bed and sat beside the swimmer. "Remember what it felt like for you to come out? For you to finally admit to the world that you're gay and for you to be fine with being publicly seen with a girl? I'm sure it was terrifying but like a weight lifted off of your chest when it happened, right?"

Emily sat up on the bed and nodded, so Alison continued. "That's not how I'm going to feel right now. I'm not ready. I don't even know if I like girls. I have only been attracted to one girl. Just you, Em. That part doesn't scare me. I don't care about that. It's just that I'm not ready to be labeled as gay when I don't even know if that's true. I can't answer questions for other people if I don't even know the answer myself. I'm not ready."

When Emily didn't reply Alison took her hand, "what I feel for you is real but there is a lot that I have to figure out. The last thing that I need right now is my family finding out when I wouldn't even know what to tell them. They're control freaks."

Emily nodded while she listened to Alison finish. She understood why Alison didn't want her to leave Paige just yet, but Emily was miserable fake dating her. She was getting to the point where she started to dislike Paige. She had seen a side of Paige that was ugly. Emily couldn't figure out why Paige was doing this in the first place. She knew that Paige did have real feelings for her and that she was hurt but it wasn't an excuse to do this, plus it wasn't like the girl she thought Paige was. It was so out of character.

Emily opened her mouth to respond when her phone started ringing on Alison's nightstand. When the two saw it was Paige calling, Alison rolled her eyes. "I would do anything to answer the phone right now and let her have it."

Emily grabbed the phone with one arm and reached for Alison's waist with her other, pulling the blonde in her lap as she answered. "Hello?"

Alison couldn't hear anything on the other end, thankfully, but watched Emily's face expresses as the brunette talked. "Yeah, I'm at my grandma's house with my mom. I'll be back sometime late tonight."

Alison brought her lips to Emily's jaw, peppering kisses against her skin. She shouldn't have while Emily was on the phone, but she couldn't resist. Emily was holding her against her body. What did she expect?

"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow." When Alison's lips fell to her throat, Emily abruptly cut Paige off, " I have to go. My mom is calling me. I'll text you later. She quickly hung up and tossed her phone off of the bed. "You have no self control."

"Oh whatever, you like it," the blonde mumbled against her neck. Emily closed her eyes when Alison began softly sucking on her, "I'm not complaining."

"I knew you wouldn't be," was the last words that escaped either one of them for next few minutes as Alison connected their lips, hushing the two in easily their favorite way to end a conversation.

—

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but shopping today sucked. Why couldn't we go shopping for fun things like clothes, or earrings, or shoes?" Hanna groaned, walking into Spencer's bedroom with bags filled with school supplies.

"Supply shopping is fun," Spencer retaliated, "it's basically like accessorizing."

Hanna shot Spencer a pointed glare, "school supply shopping is not accessorizing, Spencer."

"We already went school clothes shopping Han," Aria stated, following the girls in Spencer's bedroom with her own bags in hand.

"You can never have too many clothes," Hanna countered. "Always room for more."

"Only something a shopaholic would say," Spencer teased, flopping on her bed.

"If Ali were here she would definitely agree with me," Hanna grumbled.

"Speaking of, where is Ali?" Aria questioned, "I thought she was coming today."

Spencer propped herself up on her elbow, "I don't know. I texted her this morning but she said she was busy all day."

Hanna flopped down on Spencer's bed next to the brunette, "busy doing what? Do you think she's out seeing boys?"

Aria plopped in a chair, "maybe."

Spencer shook her head, "that doesn't sound right. She would have brought one of us along for that. Ali never goes alone with guys places without one of us being close."

"Maybe she really is busy then," Aria replied.

"Yeah, so anyway do you guys want to go to the pool? I don't think the rain is supposed to come in until later tonight," Spencer asked, rolling off of her bed to pull open her curtains so she could check the weather. "Oh my God," Spencer gasped, her eyes set on something outside of her window.

Hanna groaned, "what? Is it already raining? I was hoping I could at least tan a little today. The weatherman is always lying, I swear he should be fired. He was wrong last week when—,"

"I cannot believe this right now!"

"I know, me either! How hard is it to tell when it's raining? I mean the weather app literally tells you what time it's supposed to rain. I could be a better meteorologist than that," Hanna fussed.

"Oh it's raining alright, showers of kisses in the DiLaurentis house," Spencer claimed, not moving from her stationed spot at the window, "and you'll never believe who's dancing in the storm."

Aria and Hanna both shot up and jumped to Spencer's window. Hanna was practically grinning by the time she reached the window. She couldn't wait to see who Alison was—

"Oh my God!"

"Well we know why Alison's busy," Hanna smirked.

The girls watched as Alison was laid against her bed, with a figure they were all very familiar with laid on top of her, kissing the blonde with Alison's arms wrapped around her neck.

Aria covered her mouth, "I can't believe what we're seeing!"

Spencer quickly pulled her curtains back, "they so cannot see us starring at them right now."

"I don't think I can do anything but stare at them! Emily and Alison?!" Aria replied, walking back over to Spencer's chair and sitting down, her eyes still wide from shock.

"We should definitely go over there and walk in on them," Hanna grinned.

Spencer sat back down on her bed. She was in absolute shock. She didn't know which was most shocking, Emily kissing Alison or Alison kissing a girl. "Why would they keep this from us?"

"I don't know. I feel like I'm in some altered world. I mean did any of us know that Alison liked girls? Because I sure didn't," Aria questioned.

Spencer shook her head and sat back down on her bed, "No, I didn't, but we need to let them come to us about this. Emily is cheating on her girlfriend with her best friend who is supposedly straight. There are a lot of weird, red flags popping up about this."

"If I was gay I would cheat on Paige with Alison," Hanna shrugged. Spencer and Aria shot Hanna a look and the blonde put her hands up in defense. "What? Ali's hot. It's not like you guys wouldn't either. C'mon, let's be real here."

Spencer threw a pillow off of her bed at Hanna and fell back onto her bed. Today just got so much more interesting than school supplies.