"Alison, that was a darn stupid thing to do!" Jessica Dilaurentis shouted at Alison from down the stairs.
"No it wasn't. It was telling the truth. What's so wrong about that, mother? You told me to never tell a lie" Alison argued, attempting to run up the stairs. The Queen grabbed a hold of her dress sleeve and pulled her back down
"I didn't mean things that could make people look down on us. Who do you think you are?" Alison opened her mouth in shock.
"Look, they asked me, and I told them the truth. If you wanna yell at someone, yell at them for asking such a question" Alison argued, attempting to escape her mother's grasp.
"I shall not!" The Queen shouted in disgust "You could have given them a simple answer and let them move onto their next question. Why did you have to have a mere explosion?"
Alison chuckled slightly.
"Well, mother, I wouldn't have needed to give such an answer if it wasn't true!"
"True? Nothing about what you said to them people was true"
"Oh really? If you didn't look down on me so much, if you didn't think I was such a disappointment, if you didn't favor Charlotte and Jason over me then I wouldn't have needed to tell that to the Kahn's"
"I can't even look at you" The Queen spat "Go to your room!"
"HAPPILY" Alison shouted back at her, almost in tears "I DON'T CARE"
She stomped up the stone stairs and burst the door open to her room. Tears pouring for her eyes, she threw herself onto her bed.
Suddenly, a tapping came from the castle walls. Alison lifted her head up and looked over to her window. She was shocked to see someone hanging from the window sill outside, dangling above the ground.
Emily.
"Emily?" Alison gasped, running over to the window "What on earth are you doing here?"
"I...heard...you...arguing" She struggled to say, hauling herself into the window and sitting on the window sill "I have a thing tonight so I came to do my job early, when I heard you shouting at your mother. I gotta say, you sounded pretty angry"Alison nodded, wiping her eyes.
"Anyway. So I decided to climb up and see if you were okay
"Yeah, well, I'll never be good enough for them" She wiped Alison's eyes with her shirt sleeve and for the first time, Alison didn't push her away.
"Wanna go some place?"
"Yeah sure" She sniffed
"You look like you need to get out, somewhere far" Emily shrugged. Alison's face suddenly fell and she shook her head.
"I can't" She said "If my mother sees me leave..."
"She won't have to" Emily interrupted. She grabbed Alison's hand and pulled her towards the open window "Because I, have a rope"
She pointed at a rope dangling from the turret of the castle and reaching the floor. It was really very high.
"Your not serious" Alison giggled
"Oh I'm dead serious" Emily replied. She jumped out the window and wrapped her hands around the rope, climbing down the wall.
"It's not that bad!" She shouted "Just like rock climbing!" Alison giggled. She liked that Emily was adventurous.
"Your braver than me" Alison sighed. Emily shook her head.
"That's not true, princess, your as brave as anything" When she reached the bottom, she jumped and did a back hand spring.
"Now your turn, pretty girl" She shouted up. Alison gulped. She nervously stepped out the window and put all of her weight onto the rope. Slowly and carefully, she started walking down the castle wall.
"You look good from this angle!" Emily smirked from the grounds. Alison blushed slightly.
"Are you attempting to flirt with me, peasant?" Alison laughed in shock. Emily shrugged her shoulders.
"I'm gonna fall!" She shouted, realizing her hands were slipping "Oh..My...Gosh!"
Just like that, the rope came out of her grasp. Alison quickly started falling down down down. She thought that she was going to die, for sure. As she was just about to hit the bottom, she felt strong arms around her back.
"Gotcha" Emily smirked, Alison covering her eyes and curled up in Emily's arms. "But you look even better from this angle"
Alison hit Emily lightly on her shoulder and she laughed. She lowered Alison down as she brushed off her dress.
"So, where are we going?" Alison asked "If you are taking me to a smelly house in the smelly village..."
"Relax, princess" Emily laughed "I promise you, your going to love it"
"I can't believe I'm actually doing this" Alison laughed, as Emily continued dragging her through the woods "My mother is so going to kill me when she sees the state of my dress"
"Oh, calm down. You look absolutely fine"
They finally reached an open area at the back of the woods near the edge of the village. There was bright green grass everywhere and the sun shone right in that spot.
"This place is beautiful" Alison gasped "But, what are we supposed to be doing here?"
Emily smiled.
"You'll see"
She pressed two fingers to her lips and whistled. Out of trees, a large white horse came galloping. It had a shiny white mane and polished brown hooves.
"Whoa" Alison smiled as the horse came bounding up to the 2 girls
"Beautiful, isn't he?" Emily beamed proudly
"Is he yours?" Alison asked, gently stroking the horse's mane.
"He isn't a dress, princess. He doesn't belong to anybody. He is my friend" Emily told her. Alison smiled and looked over at Emily, who seemed to be smiling too.
"What's his name?" She asked her.
"He doesn't have one" Emily said. Alison looked confused.
"Why not?" She asked "Why doesn't he have a name?"
"Because names are just labels" Emily sighed "He doesn't need a name picked for him. No matter what his name is, he will still be the same. His name will come around naturally one day"
Alison was shocked. She had never met anyone so down to earth as Emily was. She watched as Emily tickled the name-less horse's chin.
"So, wanna ride?" She offered "Come on, you know you want to"
"I've never rode a horse before" Alison confessed "But, I do wanna try"
"Climb aboard"
Emily let Alison step onto her hands and climb onto the front of the horse. As Alison sat, she stroked the horse's back. She felt Emily jump up and sit on the horse behind her.
"How do we get it going?" Alison asked.
"Like this"
Emily lightly slapped the horse on the thighs and it started moving. Alison started giggling as the horse ran through the wind.
"This is so cool!" She shouted back to Emily
"I know!" Emily replied. Alison shuddered as she felt Emily's light hands grip around her waist.
"So where did you find him?" Alison asked her, wondering where on earth Emily found such a creature
"I didn't find him" Emily answered "My father worked with horses like these in the army"
"Your dad's in the army?"
"Yeah. Pretty cool, huh?"
"Totally. So, how did you end up with this one?"
"He freaked out and kicked a soldier one day. They were gonna shoot the poor guy but my dad insisted that he would look after him back home. So, he lives in this green area"
"I love it!" Alison screamed "We're going so fast"
"Let go" Emily whispered into her ear
"What?"
"Just do it. Let go and hold your arms out"
Alison did as she was told. She let go of the horse, held her arms out wide, tilted her head upwards and shut her eyes. Emily wrapped her arms tighter around Alison's waist as the horse galloped through the green grass.
Cue that music from Titanic
You know the one I mean
Alison's heart was beating fast. She had never ridden a horse before and this experience was as good as anything. For some strange reason, she liked this girl Emily. She was fun and brought out a new side of her. Alison turned her head to look at Emily, who's slightly messy black hair was blowing in the wind. Emily gave her a small smile and Alison thought she looked a little cute.
Just a little though. She could never think a peasant is cute, could she?
"I feel like I'm flying" Alison said
"Cool, isn't it?" Emily smiled proudly "You should come riding with me more often"
"You know, I might actually take you up on that"
The horse came to a sudden stop. Alison slipped off the horse and sat in the grass, Emily sitting closely beside her.
"You okay?" Emily smiled with her creamy brown eyes staring directly into Alison's.
"I'm fine" Alison replied, tucking her knees into her chest "It's just, you don't know anything about me. Why are you taking me on secret horse riding trips, when you don't know anything about me?"
"Oh, princess" Emily tutted "Trust me, you don't know anything about you. And I'm pretty good at getting to know people. Tell me something about yourself"
Alison smirked.
"Good afternoon. My name is Alison Dilaurentis and I live in the Rosewood Castle. I am 16 years old"
Emily shook her head.
"Nope" She said "I didn't ask for something about yourself. I asked for something, about, yourself" Emily picked up a rock and threw it in the air, throwing and catching it as Alison spoke
"That's the same thing" Alison insisted.
"No, it's not" Emily told her "Tell me something that you can't tell just by shaking your hand. Tell me something under the shell"
Alison shrugged. She had never really told anyone anything personal about herself. She didn't really have much to say.
"I...have never been kissed" Alison admitted. Emily raised her eyebrow.
"Seriously?" Emily said, surprised "Such a pretty girl like you? I'm surprised you don't have guys pouncing on you from every direction"
"Yeah, well, my mother would never allow anyone to even look at me unless they are some sort of royalty"
"That sucks" Emily sighed "So, do you have a crush or anything?"
"No" Alison sighed "Everyone these days are either ugly idiots, or even worse, pretty idiots. Your the only person I've ever met who is a pretty decent person"
"Thanks, Alison"
Alison gulped. It was the first time since they met that Emily had called her by her full name, and not princess.
"What about something about yourself?" Alison asked. She realized, she didn't know anything about Emily. Emily smirked and looked up at the sky.
"There are things about me that you don't wanna know" She finally answered, dropping the stone and staring at Alison with a serious look on her face "Things that might scare you away" Alison shook her head.
"I'm sure that's not true" she laughed "I can't think of anything that will scare me away..."
"I killed a man"
Alison gulped. She stopped breathing for a while and stared at Emily.
"Why?" She finally managed to ask. Emily looked at the ground, and looked as if she was about to cry...but she didn't.
"He wasn't really even a man yet" she choked "More of a boy"
"What happened?" Alison was eager to know. She crawled closer towards Emily and watched as she almost broke down.
"There was this girl in our village, Maya St Germain" she started explaining "A real nice girl. Never did nothing to nobody When one day...she turned up dead"
"That's terrible!" Alison gasped "Do they know what happened to her?"
"Oh yeah" Emily nodded "They do now. Shortly after, I met this boy, Nathan. Nate for short. I was immediately drawn to him and him to me. We started seeing each other for a few days...until he asked me to come to his cabin. I woke up in the middle of the night, got bored, and decided to go for a walk. He was out there waiting for me with a knife. Told me he killed Maya because he was in love with her and she wasn't in love with him because there was someone else in the way..."
"Who?" Alison asked.
"Me"
All talking stopped. Alison crawled back further and could have sworn a single tear nearly fell from Emily's eye.
"Maya was...in love with you?" Emily sadly nodded.
"And I had no idea" She admitted "I keep thinking, you know, maybe if I had noticed her, we could have been together, Nate wouldn't have come on to her, wouldn't have fallen in love with her and wouldn't have...done...that"
"It wasn't your fault" Alison assured "Nate...he was probably crazy. You might not have been able to stop it. So... you killed him?" Alison asked, smiling with pity.
"Yup" Emily threw a rock at a tree "He tried to stab me, so I grabbed the knife and...and I...gosh, I still remember the feeling when the blade hit his stomach, and how it felt like popping a bubble..."
"I'm so sorry" Alison felt as if SHE was going to cry now "But that hasn't scared me away. In fact, I think I like you more now you've admitted that to me" Emily smirked, showing her dimples.
"Thanks" she smiled "For not being scared of me"
"So, are we friends?" Alison decided to ask
"Sure we are" Emily smirked. She wiggled her hand on top of Alison's and smiled to her.
"I've never had a friend before" Alison said, sadly.
The mood was quiet and an awkward silence formed among the two girls. All they could hear was the horse, grunting in the background.
"So, if we are friends, I'm gonna need a cool nickname" Emily bounced, trying to change the mood "Got any ideas?"
Alison started thinking for a while. She tapped her chin with her fingers. Suddenly, her face lit up.
"Mermaid" She smiled. Emily's face had a look of disgust.
"Mermaid?" She chuckled "Seriously? Those weird see half human, half fish fantasy things that live in the sea?"
"They are not fantasy" Alison insisted "They are real life. And they are not weird, they are beautiful, elegant, sweet creatures" Emily smirked.
"You think I'm beautiful, elegant and sweet?" She asked. Alison was too shy to say 'Yes'.
"Well, that may be pushing it" She laughed. Emily punched her lightly on the shoulder and collapsed into laughter.
"You know" She smiled "I think I have a name for the horse"
"Really?" Alison gasped "What is it?"
"Emison"
Alison looked confused.
"Emison?" She asked "What does that mean?"
"It means" Emily started, lifting Alison onto her feet "Emily and Alison"
"Why did you decide to name is that then?" Alison asked, stroking Emison gently on his mane.
"Well, you know how I said his name will come naturally one day" Emily began, combing her fingers through his fur "I think that day is today. Your here, with me, today, right now, and this name feels right" Emily's mouth curled into a cute little smile and so did Alison's.
"Emison" She said "I like it"