sorry for the late updates…
i met sasha and shay, (and the whole cast of pretty little liars) on october 9th and it was the best experience of my life. they're so great, sasha is an actual cinnamon roll. thanks to marlene who let me meet them, she's bae.
as always, reviews help A LOT!
"So...Emily, how are you feeling?" Dr. Gordon asked, clicking his pen and opening Emily's file to write notes. It was the fourth day of December, cold. It was supposed to be like that for the next few days, every time the wind blew it made your face numb.
"I'm fine." Emily said, trying to keep her voice from quivering.
Truth be told, Emily wasn't doing well. Her nightmares were returning, though it wasn't sudden. It wasn't even what you would consider a full on nightmare. Her dreams were average, but there was that vibe to them that made her on edge and wake up abruptly delirious and scared. She was sitting on Dr. Gordon's comfortable couch, her crutches leaning next to her. Her right leg was bouncing quickly, and she wanted to leave more than anything.
Alison wasn't talking to her either. Not since that night at the party. She's just been ignoring her now. No texts returned, no phone calls picked up. It was driving her mad, why was Alison ignoring her? Emily knew something almost happened, but it didn't. So why was she not talking to her? It was driving Emily crazy, so she tried to busy herself with books but still, no luck. It kept her up at night, and began entering her dreams.
"Are you?" Dr. Gordon asked. "You've skipped two of our sessions and you can't sit still."
It was the truth.
Emily's eyes snapped up from playing with a loose string on her black hoodie. She liked her Rosewood sweatshirt better, but Alison had that sweatshirt now. Emily balled her fists at the thought, watching her knuckles turn white.
"I thought I was going to be okay." Emily said, looking back down at her knuckles.
"What changed?" Dr. Gordon pressed.
Emily didn't respond, she studied Dr. Gordon's face. He had gotten a haircut, his hair now shaved completely, probably because his dark hair was becoming gray. Emily could see the gray hairs on his sideburns. His icy blue eyes looked up lazily from his notebook, his glasses magnified his eyes slightly. He looked tired, and Emily wondered if he overworked himself.
"I don't know. I think I messed up." Emily said.
"How?"
"This girl and I almost kissed and now she won't talk to me. She's married, but it wasn't just my fault. I don't understand why she's mad and ignoring me." Emily said.
"She may not be mad at you Emily. She may be more mad at herself, for almost cheating on her partner. She could be avoiding you to prevent the temptation-"
The door suddenly opened, making Emily jump slightly. It was Dr. Rollins, in all his handsome glory. He was dressed in a pale blue collared shirt, and a navy blue sweater with a blood red tie. He had a file in his hand, and Emily checked his left hand to see his bright gold wedding band shining back at her.
"Oh, sorry I didn't realize you were seeing someone right now." he said, his eyes flickering to Emily. "Matt, I brought you that file you requested. Just dropping it off."
Rollins crossed the room and placed the file on Dr. Gordon's desk. Dr. Gordon looked slightly annoyed due to the interruption.
"Also, I'm taking an extended lunch. I'm taking my wife to lunch." Rollins said, flashing his white smile. "See you."
He left before Dr. Gordon could say a word.
"I'm sorry about that." Dr. Gordon sighed in frustration.
"I need to go." Emily said. "Can you just give me my prescription for refills?"
"Emily you've only been here for four minutes." Dr. Gordon said.
"I don't care. I need to leave."
Her stomach was in knots, she needed to leave. She grabbed her crutches and hastily took the prescription notes from Dr. Gordon before leaving. She knew she didn't have a ride home, her mom dropped her off before going grocery shopping on the other side of town.
She made it outside and shivered in her sweatshirt, it was definitely below freezing. She pulled her hood up, the black hood shielded her face from the numbing, cold wind. Snow covered the ground around her, the parking lot of the psychiatrist practice was covered in salt to melt the ice.
Emily crutched through the parking lot, and out onto the sidewalk. It was a bit harder to do, the sidewalks weren't salted as heavily. Cars passed by as she made her way home. She knew it was stupid to do so, but she didn't want to be more of an inconvenience than she already was being.
It wasn't until she was making her way towards the Main Street of Rosewood that things took a turn for the worse. Her fingers went numb, and she was starting to shake pretty violently. Her breath formed in front of her face so clearly that it seemed like she was smoking a cigarette. She pressed on though, turning her head every time the wind blew.
When her left crutch slipped on a patch of ice, Emily didn't expect it. It came out from underneath her and she fell. Thankfully, she fell on her right side. She put her left hand out to catch her fall, but it didn't help much. Her right leg hit pretty hard, and she could feel her left hand get scraped on the concrete.
"Shit." Emily hissed, her right leg tingling in pain. Not only was this embarrassing, but now she didn't have a way to stand up. She pushed herself off the ground, locking her arms to try to stand without hitting her broken leg but her foot slipped on ice and she fell face first into the concrete again. She could hear the sound of a car pull over and someone get out.
"Shit!" she shouted in frustration as she tried again.
"Fuck! Are you okay?" a girl asked, clear worry in her voice. Emily felt two hands on her suddenly. One was on her upper arm and the other wrapped itself around her waist. "Here, try to stand up. I got you."
Emily tried again, and this time she was successfully pulled to her feet...well foot. Still holding onto Emily, her rescuer picked her crutches off the ground and gave them to Emily. Emily realized who it was. The scent and the voice were clear giveaways, but seeing the bright flawless blonde hair and the red pea coat confirmed it.
"Fuck, I saw you fall as I was coming up the road. I totally thought you were going to land on your broken leg." Alison said, letting go of Emily. "Shit, you're hurt, and your face is practically blue."
Emily looked down at her hands, which were raw from being scraped. Her jeans had a tear in them on the right leg, and there was a cut that was bleeding. The red liquid trickled down her leg, staining the material. She could only guess what her face looked like.
"What the fuck are you doing outside when it's 5 degrees out?" Alison asked. She only ever sweared when she was worried, or mad. Emily figured she was feeling a bit of both.
"I-I, I was going home." Emily shivered, her teeth chattering as Alison tugged on her black hoodie slightly before walking over to the passenger door of her car.
"From what?" Alison asked, the worry in her features very apparent as she opened the car door. "Get in, you need to be cleaned up."
"I'm fine." Emily said.
"I said get in." Alison snapped, her voice as biting as the wind.
Not wanting to argue, Emily got into Alison's car. It was a bit painful, since everywhere on Emily's body hurt. Alison got in the driver's side, and pulled out of her place on the side of the road.
"I thought you had a lunch date with your husband." Emily spoke up, as she put her hands over the vents of Ali's car. Her car was warm, and Alison was playing the Christmas radio station. 'It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas', played through the car.
"How did you know that?" Alison asked, as she made a U-turn.
"I was at a therapy session. He came in and told Dr. Gordon while I was in there." Emily explained.
"And what made you think that you could crutch home when it's below freezing with only a black hoodie on." Alison said disapprovingly.
She'll be a good mother one day, Emily thought. She has that natural parenting instinct.
"I left early, I didn't want to inconvenience my mom." Emily said, as Alison pressed a button on her car.
"Call Elliot Rollins." Alison said, and her car immediately granted her request. Rollins first name was Elliot? Emily never expected his name to be Elliot, of all things. Well, the more you know.
Instead of Christmas music, the sound of a phone call came over the speakers. It took three rings until her husband picked up.
"Hey babe, where are you?" Rollins immediately asked.
"Hey, I'm gonna have to cancel." Alison said. "There's an emergency meeting at school, I'm so sorry."
Rollins sighed loudly, "You can't skip?"
"I'm sorry, no." Alison said.
"Okay, I guess I'll just get McDonald's or something." he said glumly.
"Anything but McDonalds please. You had it for lunch almost everyday last week, you're body can't take all that sodium."
Definitely a good mom, Emily thought.
"Ok. Guess I'll see you at home then. Love you."
"Bye." Alison said, disconnecting the call.
"Do you lie to your husband a lot?" Emily asked.
"What?" Alison asked, clearly caught off guard by Emily's confrontation.
"I asked, do you lie to him a lot? Really it's not that hard to tell him that I wiped out and you're going to fix me up." Emily said, as the Christmas music began playing again.
"No." Alison said, her grip on the steering wheel tightened. "He-..., he wouldn't understand."
"Sure." Emily said, turning to look straight ahead. She already was getting annoyed with Alison.
"You don't understand Rollins like I do. You're not the one married to him." Alison said.
"Do you even want to be married to him though?" Emily asked. "Because honestly you don't act like it."
"Shut up!" Alison yelled, causing Emily to jump. "I'm trying to help you and all you can do is bombard me with questions about my personal life?"
"Don't you think I deserve an explanation on why you've ignored me? You almost kissed me and then you wouldn't even talk to me!" Emily yelled back.
Alison took a deep breath and shut her eyes when they pulled up at a stop light.
"Emily you don't understand." she said, her voice calmer but shaking slightly.
"Well please do explain." Emily said.
"I have a lot going on in my life right now, and what I did was very...immature of me." Alison said. "I'm sorry I've ignored you, I just needed to clear my head. Rollins...he's..."
"Did something happen?" Emily asked.
"No, no. I don't know. But I guess I owe you an apology for everything that's happened." Alison said. "I'm sorry if you got the wrong idea."
"It's fine honestly. We don't have to talk anymore after this." Emily said.
"No! No, I still want to be friends with you. Honestly you're the easiest person to talk to ever, I can't not be friends with you. I just want to put everything behind us."
Emily stayed quiet, and swallowed thickly.
"Okay." she said bluntly.
"Okay? Thank god, I'm so glad you understand Em." Alison smiled, and placed her hand on Emily's upper thigh gently, knowing that it was broken. "Now let's get you home and fixed up."
It was starting to snow again when Alison pulled up with Emily into her driveway. The exterior of Alison's home practically screamed Christmas. Emily thought she herself was big on Christmas, but how gorgeously the outside of Alison's house was decorated. Emily could only imagine the inside.
The outside of her house was decorated with icicle lights along the gutters and in the bushes in front of her house. There were fake candles in the windows, and Emily could only guess what it looked like at night.
Alison pulled right up to one of the three garage doors of her house and turned off her car. Emily got out, gripping the handles of her crutches gingerly since her hands were scraped and raw. She followed Alison through the front path of her house.
When Alison unlocked her front door and opened it for Emily to go inside, she was hit was a great warmth. Alison kept her house very warm, and it smelled of pine trees and cookies. Anyone else on the outside looking in would've believed both Mr. and Mrs. Rollins were a perfect happy couple. But Emily knew better, even if Alison didn't admit it.
"Pepe!" Alison called out, as she shrugged out of her red coat and took off her black beanie.
There was a tinkling of bells approaching, and around the corner from the living room came Pepe in a vibrant red Christmas collar with tiny bells attached. His tail was wagging, and he slipped slightly as he came right up to Emily.
"I forgot how much he likes you." Alison said, as Emily scratched behind his ears. Neither of them mentioned that Pepe looked a bit worse than a month ago. "Let's get you fixed up though, I have to be back at school in an hour. Thank god I don't have a class after lunch or I would really be pressed for time."
With that said, Emily followed behind Alison until they reached her kitchen. When they passed by the living room, Emily saw a large and nicely decorated tree inside.
"Sit down on one of the bar stools, I'll go grab some first aid stuff." Ali said, motioning to one of the tall chairs right under the island. Before Emily could move, Ali had left to go to the upper level of her house.
Emily situated herself in one of the chairs, looking at the few items on the marble island in the center of the kitchen. Sitting on the counter was two plane tickets, resting underneath a set of keys that weren't labeled. The plane tickets were to Canada, one made out to Rollins and one for Alison. There were two different dates on the plane tickets, Alison was supposed to go a few days later than her husband.
Also on the table was a container of gingerbread cookies, with a book and a letter resting on top of it. Picking up the open letter out of curiosity, Emily read the print.
"Dear Ms. DiLaurentis,
"I've taken a great deal of time to read the manuscript you've sent to us for the book. This book is very interesting, nothing that I have ever seen before. Four high school girls that try to solve their best friend's disappearance/murder? Iconic. Scholastic would be very much pleased to publish your book.
"I know you wrote in the notes that their friend was going to end up being alive and just faked her death, I have a few questions regarding that. Also, the way you wrote the flashbacks of the girl who disappeared and one of the girls are very well done. I had a question about if those girls were going to end up together by the end of your projected series. I really like their dynamic.
"Please contact me so we can set up a meeting. We can pay for your trip to New York City, call me so we can set up an appointment. We can work on the title to your book then as well.
"Sincerely,
"Edward Unger"
Alison was publishing a book? This was news, but Alison probably didn't mention it because she didn't know it was going to be published yet. Emily folded the letter and placed it back into the envelope.
"Okay, I got some First-Aid stuff to fix you up." Alison said, coming back into the kitchen. She placed a box of large band aids, antiseptic wipes, and white cloth strips on the table. "Swing around so I can get your hands first."
Emily held out her hands automatically, the skin on her palms were red and pulsed slightly as she held them out for Alison. Alison sighed and opened an antiseptic wipe, guilty apologized for the pain in advance, and began wiping down Emily's red palms.
"Ow!" Emily hissed, snapping her hands out from Alison's grip.
"I'm sorry! I know it stings." Alison said, placing the slightly red wipe on the table before grabbing the cloth. "This cloth is gonna work better than putting a bandage on you."
Before wrapping the white strip of cloth around her hands, Alison smeared some cream on it that she said helped to heal cuts really fast. She secured the cloth by tying a knot, before moving onto Emily's face.
"At least you don't look blue anymore." Alison muttered, as she opened another antiseptic wipe and began dabbing gently at the corner of Emily's forehead. Emily watched Alison's face as Alison did it, she could see every detail down to the tiny pores of her skin and the mascara on her eyelashes.
"I should probably text my mom and tell her that you have me and she doesn't have to worry." Emily mumbled, tearing her eyes away to pull out her phone.
"Lift your leg so I can get your leg now. Uh...I think you're gonna have to take off your jeans so that I can reach your leg." Alison said, when she was done with Emily's face.
"Do I have to? It's a bit of a process." Emily said.
"Yes, I don't want your leg getting infected." Alison said, standing up. "Here I'll help."
Alison's hands immediately went for the straps of Emily's leg brace, carefully undoing each one before sliding the brave down and off Emily's leg.
"Just tell me if I hurt you." Alison said casually, her hands went up to unbutton Emily's jeans.
Emily swore she stopped breathing as she lifted herself off the barstool so that Alison could pull her pants down her legs to her ankles. How was Alison keeping such a calm composure? Right, they were friends.
"Ouch this one looks nasty." Alison said, her fingertips brushing Emily's leg. "You really fell hard, huh Fields."
"I guess so." Emily sighed, as Alison began to fix up her leg.
She tried to get passed the fact that she was sitting in her underwear in Alison's house while Alison fixed up her leg, realizing it was stupid of her to overreact these things. After all, when Emily was a medic she had to pants the wounded soldiers in order to get to the bullet wounds on their legs. It wasn't like this was new, it was just new that she was the one who was being treated.
"Great, you're all fixed up now. I totally should've become a doctor." Alison smiled, satisfied with her work. "Wants some of my world famous gingerbread cookies before I take you home?"
"Uh, sure." Emily nodded, as Alison pulled her pants back up. "That sounds good."
"Awesome. Let me just go out these things away." Ali said, hurrying off to go return the medical supplies.
Regaining her composure, she texted her mom again to make sure she knew she was at Alison's before turning off her phone. Alison returned downstairs a minute later, grabbing the container of cookies while she pushed the letter and book off of it.
"I used to make these with Cece all the time when I was younger." Alison said, opening it to hand Emily two. "We perfected the recipe when I was 15."
Emily grateful took the cookies from Alison's hand, and took a bite as she watched Alison grab one for herself. It was nice to be able to spend time with her again, it calmed her nerves.
Alison was an enigma in terms of Emily trying to figure her out. It was unclear to see just what she was thinking, for she was good at masking it.
Alison was in the living room watching A Christmas Story while folding laundry when her husband got home from work later that night. She heard him, every action he made seemed to be amplified, his footsteps, how he threw his car keys onto the counter, even when he unzipped his coat.
"I'm home!" Rollins called.
Alison paused the TV as she stood up from her comfortable place on the couch. She was wearing fuzzy pink slippers, old fluffy pajama pants that she's pretty sure she's had since she was in high school, and a long sleeved shirt. It was one of those evenings for her, where she didn't feel like cooking or putting any effort into her appearance.
She entered the front hallway and saw Rollins brushing the snowflakes off his tousled hair, the light hitting him made him look like he was Alison's age at the oldest. She wouldn't have guessed he was pushing thirty-seven if she didn't know. He gave her a perfect grin when he saw her at the end of the hallway. Rollins always had perfect teeth, well a perfect everything really.
"Good evening my beautiful wife." Rollins said, putting his bag on a coat hook before making his way towards Alison. "You're looking stunning."
Rollins leaned down and kissed Alison softly, reminding her of the early days of their marriage where everything seemed like it came from a TV show. Alison sighed as he pulled away, the familiar smell of Rollins filling her nose with a mixture of the wet snow outside. He stood back up straight, being that he was a few good inches taller than Alison.
"You're tracking snow in here." Alison said, giving him a slight disapproving look as she looked down at his snowy loafers.
"Wow, your husband of three years comes home and all he get is a 'you're tracking snow in here?'" Rollins asked, holding out his arms in defense. "Where's the love babe?"
"I'm just saying it's true. But I do appreciate all that you do, dear husband." Ali teased, scrunching her face and poking him on the nose. "You need to think of some ideas for dinner because I'm not in the mood to cook."
"Great minds must think alike, I knew you were probably not going to want to cook so guess what I brought home?" Rollins asked, grabbing two items off the hall table that Alison didn't notice before.
"Red wine and let me guess, a pizza that's half cheese and half pineapple." Ali said knowingly. "Just like the beginning months of our relationship."
"Pizza and red wine are a key factor to our relationship, I decided to bring it back." Rollins said, following Ali into the kitchen.
"How did you know I wasn't going to want to make dinner tonight?" Alison asked, grabbing two plates from the cabinets as Rollins grabbed two wine glasses and their wine opener.
"You said you had an emergency meetings, those types of things usually drain you I bet." he said, as he poured the wine into the glasses.
Alison frowned as she put a piece of cheese pizza on one plate, and a piece of pineapple pizza on the other.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Alison said, carrying the pizza into the kitchen with her husband closely behind.
"You know I love it when you dress like that." Rollins said, sitting down across from Alison. He placed a glass in front of both of them, and took his plate from Ali.
Alison laughed and looked down at her pizza, but she could still feel his eyes watching her. She looked up as she took a bite and saw him smiling slightly as he sipped his wine.
"What?" Ali asked, the word muffled since her mouth was full of pizza.
Rollins smiled wider, "Nothing. It's nothing." he said, taking a bite of his own pizza.
They continued to eat in relative silence, but made small talk throughout. By the time Alison was halfway done with her first slice of pizza, Rollins stood up to get more wine for himself. She watched his back as he exited the room, sipping her still very full glass of wine. Pepe, who was lying down next to her, yawned and shifted slightly.
Rollins returned a few moments later with a full glass of wine, and sat back down at his seat across from Alison.
"So my parents are excited to see us." Rollins said. "They were a bit disappointed you weren't coming down the same day as I was."
"Well, like I said my students are a big priority to me. And I'm coming down a week later, it'll give you time to catch up with them." Alison said, bending down slightly to rub Pepe's stomach.
"I go down on the 17th, and you're the…?"
"22nd, right after school ends. Not even a week." Alison said.
After dinner, the couple rinsed off their plates and made their way to their bedroom. Rollins brought the rest of his third glass of wine up with him, following right behind Alison has they climbed the stairs.
"Don't you think you should chill on the wine?" Alison asked, as they entered the bedroom.
Rollins laughed slightly, "I got it under control. Do you think I'm an alcoholic or something?" he joked.
"No...no." Alison said, heading towards the walk-in closet. She made her way to her side of the bed, and pushed back the covers. She ditched her fuzzy slippers on the floor and pulled the covers over her.
Rollins placed his wine glass on his bedside table, before walking into their walk-in closet to get changed. Alison picked up her phone and opened the Facebook app on her phone. Her timeline was full of different people she knew, and she stopped when she saw that Emily posted something not too long ago.
It looked like she was actually posting now, instead of being inactive. The photo was of Hanna and Emily. Hanna had her arms wrapped around Emily's neck, and kissing Emily's cheek with her face scrunched up. Emily was smiling happily at the camera, her dark brown eyes lit up and happy. The caption of the photo read, 'thanks to my favorite blonde, i finally got chipotle for the first time! :) xx'
Favorite blonde? Alison frowned at the comment, even though she shouldn't be worrying about. An old feeling inside her flared as she stared at the photo. She was sure Hanna was straight, and that she was dating Caleb. But then again, in high school Hanna was always...flamboyant when it came to girls, even if she didn't mean it.
"Em, when are you going to ask out that girl Paige?" Hanna asked.
In junior year, Hanna, Ali, and Emily were all in the same chemistry class. Emily and Hanna sat at the lab table in front of Ali and Noel, and Hanna often talked loudly. That spring day, Noel wasn't there and they had to get into groups of three. Emily being the nice and friendly person that she was, offered for Ali to join she and Hanna to do their lab questions.
Obviously, their lab wasn't making much progress. Hanna kept steering the conversation away from sig figs and finding the average atomic mass of carbon. Emily had to gently coax her back into the classwork that they were supposed to be doing, giving Ali apologetic looks every time that it happened.
"I'm not going to Hanna." Emily said, giving in to Hanna's off topic questions.
"Why not? She's totally into you." Hanna said, tapping her pencil on her worksheet.
Alison's grip tightened on her mechanical pencil, just thinking about Pig Skin made her skin boil. What was this about Emily and Paige being a thing? Seriously? Emily could do way better than Paige, it was a fact.
"Because Hanna, I don't want to." Emily said. "Can we please finish this so we don't have homework?"
"Oh come on Emily, you're super hot. Even I would date you." Hanna said, reaching over to push a stray hair behind Emily's ear. "If you would let me put a little makeup on you, you would be irresistable."
"Thanks Hanna, but I'm good." Emily said, her cheeks turning slightly pink.
Ali realized her grip on her pencil was still tightening as she watched Hanna with her hands all over Emily. Well maybe not all over, but this definitely wasn't normal for best friends. Ali wondered if they had ever made out before, and hoped that nothing had happened between them.
Hanna laughed and nudged Emily in the side, wiggling her eyebrows that made Emily's cheeks darken and for her to whisper, 'shut up.'
Yeah, they definitely had made out. Or at least it seemed like it.
"What do you think Alison, do you think Emily's hot and should totally ask out Paige?" Hanna asked.
"Can we please just work on this?" Alison snapped, her voice startling both girls across from her. "I don't really want to have homework this weekend."
"Yeah, Ali's right. We really need to work Han." Emily said, looking back down at her paper. She looked up shyly at Alison and whispered, "Sorry."
The corners of Alison's mouth rose slightly as she tried to fight off a smile.
"It's okay, Em."
"Watcha doing?" Rollins asked, climbing into bed next to her. He looked over at her phone, and Alison continued scrolling through her Facebook.
"Just on Facebook." Ali said, closing her phone and placing it on her bedside table. "I'm so exhausted."
"I bet." Rollins sighed, laying down and wrapping his arm around Alison's middle tightly.
She looked over at him, his brown eyes looking back at her expectantly. He had very different eyes than of Emily's. They were a similar shade, but his didn't hold that sparkle or warmth that Emily's had. When she looked into his eyes, she just saw brown.
"You know what would be the cherry on top of a perfect day?" Rollins asked, though Alison knew where it was going.
"What would that be?" Alison asked.
In response, Rollins leaned forward and kissed his wife firmly. Alison took a sharp breath as she felt Rollins push her against the pillows. They continued to kiss, her hands going to his neck as his hands went to her waist.
Things were getting heated, and she knew what her husband wanted but-
"Stop." Alison said, pushing back on him.
"What?"
"I said stop." she said, as Rollins leaned back.
"What the fuck? What is your problem?" he asked, his eyebrows furrowing. In that moment he looked no younger than thirty-seven.
"I'm just not feeling it." Alison said, and she wasn't. Rollins used to make her feel like she was on fire, but all she felt no was a weird feeling in her stomach. Was it because she felt guilty for almost kissing Emily?
"Is it because of the whole I want a kid thing?" Rollins sighed, rolling off of Alison and onto his side of the bed. "I told you, I'm sorry."
Alison sighed, "No, it's not that."
"Than what is it?" Rollins pressed, his voice irritated and impatient.
"I-I don't know." Alison admitted, she really didn't know why she was feeling like this. She put her head in her hands and rubbed her temples, trying to control her want to just burst out into tears.
Rollins sighed loudly, "Whatever." he said, getting up from the bed.
"What are you doing?" Alison asked, as he went into their walk-in closet again.
"I'm going out." Rollins called back.
"Going out where?" Alison asked, was he actually just going to leave?
"Going out with the guys because clearly you want nothing to do with me. I'm trying Alison, I'm fucking trying. When I ask you about what the fuck is going with you in your life, in your head? You fucking shut me out or give me vague fucking answers. I'm not fucking dealing with this ok?" Rollins said, emerging from the closet with a black hoodie on and jeans.
"Yeah? Well all you fucking do is treat me like one of your patients whenever I try to talk to you about anything!" Alison yelled back, her anger heightening quickly as she got out of bed and walked towards Rollins. Her fists were balled and her jaw was tight.
"At least I'm fucking trying to help you. You don't have to be such a bitch about literally everything when I try to actually be your husband. We're fucking in this together, but I can't deal with you if you don't want to at least give a shit." Rollins yelled.
"Really? We're having one of those kinds of fights? You fucking always bring up marriage vows to back you up for everything." Alison rolled her eyes.
"At least I'm not a fucking bitch!" Rollins snapped. "You know I heard how you were a major bitch in high school, and I still see it."
Alison snapped the same moment Rollins did. Before she even thought about it, she had slapped him hard. The connection that the bottom of her hand made with the right side of his face had made him step back in shock. Her fingers stung with pain, and one of his hands flew up to cover his face. She knew it was a bad and impulsive move, but Rollins just made her so angry. Her anger for her husband quickly turned to guilt over what she had done.
"Elliot...oh my God, I'm so sorry." she said, reaching out to touch her husband.
"Don't fucking touch me." Rollins croaked, shoving Alison hard backwards.
He lifted the hood of his black hoodie over his head and exited their bedroom, his footsteps thundering down the stairs. Distraught over what had just escalated in a matter of moments, Alison sat down on her bed and was unable to hold back her sobs now. She listened as their front door opened and slammed shut, signaling that Rollins had indeed left.
She brought her knees to her chest and buried her face in her thighs as she listened to his car start outside. Grabbing her phone, she opened up a text message to the first person she could think of and the only person who would give her some comfort.
Ali: hey are you awake?
She waited for a response, realizing it was getting later now but not too late.
Em: yeah, what do you need?
Ali: rollins and i got into another fight and he left me
Em: wait...left you like..?
Ali: no not like that. like he just left to go drink with his friends.
Em: ohhhh…. can i ask what happened?
Ali: well things were going good and then he made it clear he wanted to have sex and i said no. he got pretty mad
Em: he didn't do anything right?
Ali: no, he's not like that.
Em: just checking. just making sure nothing got physical between you two.
Ali stared at Emily's text, should she tell her about how she slapped Rollins and he shoved her? She bit her lip as she thought about it, wondering what she should do.
Ali: yeah no, nothing like that.
Em: good, i would come over if i could. do you want to talk instead?
Ali: yeah sure, you can call me.
Em: it's gonna be okay Ali, just know I care about you.
