ALL RIGHTS GO TO MARLENE KING

Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love. - Mother Teresa

Chapter 7: Letting go

Alison's POV:

Six weeks later

It's been over a month now and Emily's still not waking up, I'm loosing a bit of hope every passing minute. I miss her like crazy, I'm surprised that I've actually survived this long without her. I miss her heart warming smile, her mesmerizing deep brown eyes, her laugh, her kind soul, her everything.

I've been spending 90% of my time in this hospital room, the only time I've left is for school. The girls have been trying to get me to sleep in a real bed, but Emily's doctor gave me a small air mattress that I've been sleeping on.

I stretch my arms our in the air, my neck cracking slightly from the uncomfortable sleeping position.

"Good morning." I say, gently kissing her hand. I still talk to her, the doctor said that in some cases, a coma patient can hear and understand what you're saying but they won't remember the conversation when they wake up.

Her skin is still as cold and pale as ever. I wouldn't have thought that it would be possible for a human to cry this much. These past weeks have been hell, but what's making me more nervous is that we haven't heard from A since I got that text. A's got us obsessed, and that terrifies me.

"Emily, I need you to know something." I have been mentally preparing myself to be able to say the words out loud. This is for Emily. I swallow hard, looking down at her pale, skinny face.

"Emily I don't like saying these words but I need to know that I've at least given you this choice ." I grab her limp hand, tracing patterns with my thumb.

"I need you to know that if you're in pain right now, you don't have to try to fight for me. I care about you so much and it kills me to think that you might be suffering right now. So if you don't have the energy or will to keep on going..." My breath hitches in my throat and the tears fall down my cheek. I place a kiss on her head.

Emily's POV:

I felt Ali's tears run down my neck, I hate knowing she's crying because of me.

"It's okay to give in, if you're in pain then I don't want you hurting. Please don't think of me, this is about you. You're the only one in my life that I'll do anything for, but I need you to know that I can't force you to keep fighting if you don't want to, just promise me that you'll never ever doubt my feelings I have for you." Ali grips my hand tighter, I felt like I could feel her touch but yet I still couldn't.

"I love you." I hear her whisper. She loves me. You have to wake up for her, this is Alison, you have to wake up!

WAKE UP!

Ali grips my other hand and I fought with every cell in my body to move a muscle. It felt like moving a 1000 pounds, I felt weak. After what felt like hours of trying I felt a tingly warm feeling in the tips of my fingers and I pushed through the barrier as I moved my pinky finger slightly.

The tiny movement made Ali jump.

"Emily?" I feel her hands grip the sides of my face.

Open your eyes.

Come on Emily you can do this.

OPEN YOUR EYES FOR ALISON!

My eyes weakly flutter open but immediately closes due to the florescence in the room, blinding me.

"Emily!" Ali's blurry figure screams in joy, giving me a big hug.

I opened my eyes again, trying to readjust my sight by focusing on Alison. It was like I've never seen her before. Her golden locks danced across her shoulders, her ocean blue eyes lighting up the whole room.

"Alison." I mutter weakly. I almost forgot how my voice sounded like. Almost.

"Emily, oh my god Emily! I've missed you so much!" She leaned down and pulled me into a tight hug and I let my blood drained arms limply wrap around her waist.

"I'm going to get the doctors, wait here!" She yells happily and ran out.

Seconds later a doctor came in and started checking my vitals, pulling a bunch of different cords and needles out of my body.

"How are you feeling Ms. Fields?" The doctors asks, writing down something on his notepad.

"Fine." I reply, my voice scratchy.

"Great, I'll be right back." He left the room and Ali immediately stood in front of me again. I smile weakly at her.

"The girls have been here too, they miss you so much." Ali says.

"I've missed you all so much." I say looking into her sparkling eyes, I wanted so badly to kiss her, but I can't, can i? We aren't even a couple and i'm not sure if she even wants to be a couple. She's never said she does, and neither have i for that matter.

After finally getting my cast off, I had apparently I had broken my arm. Ali had texted the girls telling them to meet up at Spencer's house. We're going to surprise them.

Ali rang the bell to the front door and she smiled at Ali. Seconds later Spencer opened the door wider and she saw me standing there.

"Oh my god Emily!" Spencer screams and pulled me into a long hug. The other girls heard Spencer's scream so they came running down, attacking me with hugs.

"I've missed you so much!" Hanna yells, hugging me tighter.

"I'm so glad your'e okay." Aria says, pulling me into yet another hug.

After the hug fest we all went inside to catch up. We started talking about nothing yet everything all at once. I've missed these girls so much, they are my family.

My family, where's my mom?

"Where's my mom?" I ask.

"Emily, your moms in Texas with your dad, she left about one week ago." Ali says, lacing our fingers together.

"When is she coming back?" I swallow back tears, I was hoping for my mom to be here.

"In about a month, she didn't know when you'd wake up." Ali says sympathetically.

"It's okay, I've got you guys." I say honestly. I love these girls more than life.

I pull them all into a big hug, a few tears dripping down my cheeks. This is my family.

Spencer had decided to put on a horror movie, we all sat down on the couch, Ali and I sat next to each other with the other girls on our left. The movie started and Ali leaned her head on my shoulder, snuggling into me. I debated whether to wrap my arm around her and bring her closer, what do the girls know?

I decided to not care about what anyone thought right now, so I wrapped my arm around her waist. The girls sneaked glances in our direction but didn't mention anything. I smiled down at Ali, remembering an earlier sleepover that had ended like this.

- Flashback -

I picked up my biology book, I've decided to put at least two hours into studying for the test. Right when I opened the book up my phone went off, I dashed across the room and picked it up. My screen lights up and i smile at my wallpaper, it's the girls and I standing on Ali's porch, drinking some fancy drink her mom made us.

Sleepover at Spencer's in 10 minutes. Xo - Ali

One of the reasons why I decided against doing studying and instead going to the sleepover was because Ali invited me. I can't exactly explain it, but every time I think about her or see her my heart does a flip, a tickling feeling in the depth of my stomach. It's frightening yet incredible at the same time.

When I got there the girls were already sitting in the couch, Hanna in the love seat stuffing popcorn into her mouth, Aria and Spencer on the floor with a dozen pillows and Ali alone on the couch, motioning me to sit next to her. She smiled her beautiful smile and I sucked in a deep breath.

Aria had picked The Notebook, which of course we've seen about a hundred times, partly because of Ryan Gosling and partly because we all know that secretly Ali loves romantic movies. I felt Ali's fingers brush against my thigh, my body froze, blood pumping viciously into my face. She noticed my reaction and smirked at me before turning her attention back to the movie. She defiantly knows what she's doing to me.

A couple of minutes later Ali's phone went off. No one paid any attention to it, Ali always got texts from plenty of different people everyday. Either guys asking her out or her older field hockey friends. I stared at her curiously, usually Ali would text back, acting all giggly but not now, she was staring down at the screen with crunched up eyebrows and a slight frown on her full pink lips. Ali stood up quickly from the couch. What's bothering her?

"Ali, are you alright?" I ask worriedly, grabbing her wrist lightly.

"Easy there killer, I'm just going to the bathroom." Ali answered before walking away.

Neither of the girls had noticed Ali acting.. Weird. I've never seen her this uncomfortable about anything, she always has a straight face with a hip pointed out, ready to pounce on her next victim. She's never nervous about anything. I follow her into the bathroom.

"Ali?" I ask. I guess she wasn't expecting me to be here because she jumped up in surprise, quickly stuffing her phone in her back pocket.

"What are you doing here?" Ali asks, startled.

"I- uh, I wanted to see whats wrong." I answer nervously.

Ali didn't answer, she just smiled and grabbed my hand, pulling me out of the bathroom and back to the couch. Ali let go of my hand and sat down. I still felt her warmth radiate on my fingers, it was an amazing feeling.

"Where were you guys?" Spencer asks, raising her eyebrows.

"Now that's none of your business, now is it?" Ali snapped back.

The girls had changed movie while we were gone, now there was a scary looking murderer on the screen instead of Ryan Gosling.

Spencer rolled her eyes and turned her head back to the TV. A sudden jump scare came on and Ali jumped up, burying her head into the crock of my neck. My body stiffed and I blushed furiously. Since when does Alison DiLaurentis get scared of a cheesy scary movie?

After a couple of seconds of debating, I slowly placed my arm around her shoulder. I expected her to push me away, laugh in my face or make some cryptic gay comment, but instead she just snuggled deeper into my neck and closed her ocean blue eyes.

"Aw, don't you two make a cute couple." Hanna teases, throwing a popcorn at my head.

Ali bolted straight up and glared at Hanna. If looks could kill, Hanna would already be buried in the ground by now. Hanna immediately ducked her head and turned her attention back to the movie. Ali really is, what some might call, the 'Alpha' of our group.

Ali let out a big dramatic sigh before leaning back down on me again. Something about Ali's movements made me wonder. I know that she likes to tease me about her suspecting that i have feelings for her but now, it seemed like she just wanted to be held.

We continued watching the movie, and because this is a cheesy predictable scary movie, there were plenty of jump scares and each time Ali tightened her grip around me. I love how she does that.

I love her.