Alison decides that after doing a quick cleaning of her room, she doesn't want to be too far away from the front door for when Emily comes. She learned her lesson after rushing down the stairs when the girls first came. Aria looked at her strangely when she came down the stairs slightly out of breath.

Alison doesn't want Emily to notice the same thing Aria did and think she was too eager for this meeting. If even that statement happened to be true, Alison doesn't think that Emily sure needs to know about it.

Alison spends the next several minutes sitting on the couch in her living room waiting for the doorbell to ring. It feels like it takes forever when in reality it's only about ten minutes later that the doorbell does indeed ring.

Alison springs up from her spot on the couch and resists the urge to walk over as fast as she can. Alison debates taking her time but ultimately just walks at her normal pace. When Alison gets to the door and pulls it open to reveal Emily standing on the other side, she doesn't say anything for a few beats.

She just stands there in her doorway for a few seconds taking in Emily's appearance. If Emily notices the way she's looking her up and down, she doesn't say anything about it. Alison isn't prepared for the question that might come out of Emily's mouth if she were to ask about the look Alison is giving her.

"Hey, come on in," Alison says before moving out of the doorway. She gestures to the inside of her house as she steps out of the way for Emily to enter.

"Thanks," Emily replies while she steps inside of Alison's house. She was nervous walking up to Alison's house. She was starting to feel the nerves creep up on her the longer she stood there waiting for Alison but thankfully it wasn't long at all. It just felt longer than it actually was.

It feels weird for her to be back at Alison's house after thinking that she'd never talk to her again. Let alone be in her house hanging out with her like they'd done so many times in the past. Alison's house had started to feel like her own home and now it feels nothing like that.

This time is starkly different than all the rest but Emily doesn't let that bother her. She knew this would be a bit awkward after being away so long but for some reason, the house feels both strange and familiar to her at the same time. Emily doesn't let herself dwell on that either.

After closing the door and watching Emily take off and hang up her jacket, Alison stands there in the foyer. It's silent. Emily is quietly looking around at her house. Alison can't see her face since Emily is a little further into the house than she is and Emily's back is facing her but Alison can imagine that Emily has this curious look on her face. The look that often appears on her face when she's thinking deeply about something or concentrating really hard.

Emily turns to face her after a few awkward and silent minutes of Emily looking around. Alison almost lets the huge smile overtake her face at being right about the look on Emily's face. It's starting to disappear now, but Alison can see the remnants of curiosity in her face before it goes back to normal.

Emily realizes that after looking around the house at what she can see, it isn't all that different from the last time she was here. Not much of anything has changed in Alison's house. Emily ignores the fact that she remembers Alison's house like the back of her hand. Briefly wonders if that's weird or if Alison would feel the same way about being in her house.

"It hasn't changed too much from the last time you saw it, right?" Alison stares around the living room like Emily did a few minutes ago before turning to look over at Emily.

Emily's eyebrows furrow. It's crazy how Alison can read her the way she does. "Yeah, some small things here and there have changed but everything is pretty much the same. Everything is virtually how I remember it being many years ago."

"My mom doesn't really like change, if that wasn't already super obvious" Alison comments in a way that catches Emily's attention. Her voice is soft and her left hand is holding onto her right forearm. Emily looks at Alison. The position Alison is standing in almost makes her look small and nervous. Afraid even. Emily watches Alison closely.

Emily catches the fingers of Alison's left hand flex on her arm. Emily nods before replying. "Yeah, I remember that. There's nothing wrong with keeping things the same. Though, there's nothing wrong with changing either. You know what they say, if it ain't broke don't fix it."

The somber look on Alison's face changes in the blink of an eye. She smiles tightly at Emily. "My mom must live by that saying. I can't really even remember this house looking anything like it does now."

Emily is quick to change the subject. However, in hindsight maybe she didn't really change the topic all that much. "Speaking of your mom, where is she right now?" Emily looks around the house again. "I noticed your dad and Jason aren't home. I didn't see their cars in the driveway when I walked up. Does that mean that you're home alone?"

Alison shuffles on her feet and shrugs. "My mom is working, the same as my dad. Jason… well I don't know where he is, but I'm sure he's off somewhere with one of his buddies. He's been away for a few days now and I'm not sure when he's coming back. I know my mom should be back in a couple days. Probably like… Monday. Maybe sooner than that if she gets her work done quicker than she expected."

Emily nods slowly at Alison's explanation while allowing herself some time to process the information. She doesn't say anything but she doesn't really know what to say to all that at the moment.

"Do you want to study down here or up in my room?" Alison asks after a few awkward beats. Alison hopes the question will elevate some of the awkward air around them but her question doesn't quite do that. If anything, the look Emily gives her makes her fidget in the spot she's standing in. The look on Emily's face is a mixture of a deer caught in the headlights and a fish out of water.

If she and Emily were closer, Alison would giggle at the way Emily gets shy about something like that. However, she can't do that and it feels weird not to act on the way her instincts are telling her to. The lack of answer makes Alison question if she's crossed some sort of line. It makes her question if she's taken it too far, too fast for Emily.

"We don't have to go to my room," Alison adds hastily. If she'd known or even had any idea that the mention of them going to her room would make Emily as uncomfortable as she looks right now, she wouldn't have brought it up. "Though, my text books are upstairs so I'd have to go grab them so we can get started."

"No," Emily blurts out loudly. She repeats herself in a quieter voice. "No, we can study in your room. It doesn't bother me."

Alison looks Emily square in the eyes, "are you sure?" She questions gently. She needs to make sure that taking Emily to her room won't make her feel awkward or uncomfortable. She's caused Emily more than enough pain and she wants to be more considerate this time around.

"Yeah," Emily nods before walking towards the staircase. Emily appreciates that Alison is trying to accommodate her. It makes her apprehensions about this whole situation ease a little bit. Maybe being alone with Alison in her house isn't going to be as bad or as painful as she thought it would be after all this time.

"You promise?" Alison insists while following behind Emily to the stairs. She will only be at ease if she's 100% sure that Emily means it when she says that she's sure. She refuses to make the same mistakes as before.

While standing on the platform in front of the stairs, Emily turns to Alison. Emily sighs playfully before shooting her an amused look. Smiling at her Emily says, "yes, Ali I promise. Stop worrying so much."

Alison watches, stunned as Emily heads up the stairs in front of her before moving to catch up to the dark haired girl. A smile forms on Alison's face at the fact that Emily could make the tension between them disappear so easily. Alison feels more than confident that Emily really doesn't mind being in her room. She stops worrying, just like Emily told her.

Alison wasn't quite sure where she and Emily stood the last time they talked and agreed to start these tutoring sessions. Now, it feels as if she and Emily are on the right track to getting back to being friends. They're getting along better and everything feels like it's starting to fall into place.

The girls spend about two and a half hours studying before Emily pushes the textbook off her lap. "I don't think I can cram anymore information into my brain tonight. Why does French have to be such a difficult language?"

Alison hums quietly, "did you just think that you could study for a few hours and magically memorize and understand the entire French language?"

Emily looks over at Alison and shrugs. "Well… not exactly. I know it'll take more than a few hours to get where I need to be for this class but I didn't expect that I'd feel like this after putting in the extra work and time to learn in a way that will actually help me remember the things I need to know for class."

"How exactly do you feel after all this anyway?" Alison asks while crossing her legs and casting her eyes over to look at Emily's side profile.

Her and Emily are sitting on her bed across from each other. Alison is sitting near the top of her bed, in the center by the pillows and Emily is sitting at the end. Emily is sitting at the end of Alison's bed but her legs are dangling off the left side of the bed while Alison had hers extended before crossing them. With the way the two girls are positioned, Alison can only really see the right side of Emily's face. Alison stares at her textbook for a little bit longer before closing it softly.

"What time do you have to be home by?" Alison wonders as she slides off her bed. Alison walks over to Emily and grabs the book she was using. After she's grabbed it, Alison walks over to her vanity and places both of the books they're not going to use on top of the surface for the night. When Alison returns to her spot on her bed, she leans into the pillows and watches Emily.

Emily pats her jeans and then reaches for her phone. Pulling it out Emily checks the time and looks at Alison. Normally having caught Alison staring at her would make her blush. It still does but this time Emily hides it well. "I don't have to be home for another two and a half hours. Any later than that and I might never hear the end of it from my mom in the morning."

Alison's jaw drops a little in slight shock. "12:30AM is much later than I expected your mom to let you stay put until. Especially on a day when you had practice." Yet again Alison is reminded of how much has changed since the last time her and Emily properly talked to each other.

"My mom loosened up on my curfew a couple years ago, so as long as I text or call her and keep her updated, I can stay out later than I used to be able to. I just, uh… I meant that I'd never hear the end of it from my mom in the morning because I know she'll be asking me a million questions about how things went between us."

Alison can feel her heart speed up at the thought of Emily talking to her mom about her. Alison had just assumed that Emily's mom probably didn't like her anymore but to hear that Emily's mom would let her stay out late to be with her makes her heart pound in her chest. "You told your mom that we were hanging out together?"

Emily shrugs, "I didn't want to lie to her. We promised no more secrets after everything that happened and I didn't want her to have any reason not to trust me. I did think that she wouldn't want me to hang out with you but I was wrong. It kind of surprised me because she saw what I went through when we stopped being friends. I never told her very much about what happened with the two of us even though she asked me a bunch of times. It felt too personal at the time. Not to mention it still hurt me too much to talk about with anyone else. My mom did know how much us not being friends anymore affected me though and I just expected that she'd be against the idea."

Alison wipes the sweat off of her hands and onto her jeans. "Yeah, I can understand that. I didn't really talk to anyone about the things that happened between us that day either. I wanted to keep it to myself and I don't even know if anyone noticed that I wasn't myself for a while."

Emily smiles sadly. "I'm sorry you went through that," Emily says sincerely. Emily hopes that Alison can see the truth in her statement. She really means it. It always made her sad when Alison was sad.

Alison resists the strong urge she's feeling to grab Emily's hand and squeeze it. Looking up from the piece of blanket Alison was looking at when she said she didn't think any of her friends, besides Hanna, Spencer and Aria had noticed that she wasn't as happy as she used to be. Of course the girls would notice. Alison is sure that it hurt them to watch as both her and Emily suffered because of each other. She feels bad that they at one point had to almost take sides or feel obligated not to talk about Emily when she was around. Hearing Emily's name made her break down into tears for the first few weeks and after that, the girls avoided it as much as they possibly could.

Alison pushes back the tears she can feel are on the way. She takes a deep breath in and exhales. "I'm sorry you undoubtedly went through a lot because of me. I know that the girls also must have had a harder time then they probably let on to either of us. It used to be the five of us and then suddenly you and I weren't talking and it was a variation of the four of us. Either, Aria, Hanna, Spencer and I or you Spencer, Aria and Hanna."

Emily's eyes look a little glossy now too but Alison can't be sure of that because she's trying not to cry herself. "I think that's one of the things I regret the most. Making the girls feel as though they were caught in the middle and couldn't be friends with the both of us just because we were no longer friends with each other. I hate that our falling out caused them pain too. I never intended to get them involved but regardless of me not wanting to, they were and I hate that."

Alison nods and agrees with Emily. "I hate that they were hurt in the process of that too. It always sucked to see that they couldn't… function the way that we had become so used to operating our group in."

Emily turns away from Alison and wipes away a stray tear that falls down her left cheek. "Me too," Emily says before the both of them decide to steer themselves away from that particular topic. They don't talk about it for the rest of the night and both of them are more than happy with that.

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