I walked out of the double doors to the waiting room. Hanna, Aria, and Spencer stood up to greet me, and Ali was just finishing at the front desk.
"So, it's broken?" Hanna asked, and I nodded, holding up arm to show the cast for proof. The cast went almost all the way up to my elbow, but not quite so I could bend my arm. Alison walked over and held a tiny piece of paper up.
"They told me you have to go back in there and fifteen minutes so they can give you an EKG, and do a blood test so you can get painkillers." She said and I stopped breathing for a second. "Em?" She asked.
"My mom, what's she going to say about the cast? She'll know everything…" I said trailing off.
"Just tell her you hit your hand on the wall while you were swimming, and your swim coach paid for it since she wasn't there, and then if she tries to give her money, tell her you'll bring the money to her yourself. Then tell your swim coach it's a donation for the swim team." Ali told me, she had the whole thing figured out.
"That's perfect." I said nodding.
"Please come this way?" A doctor asked me, and I nodded to Alison, telling her she could stay with the others, and that I'd be fine on my own. She glanced fearfully at the doctor before he turned away and I began to follow.
"Hello, you can call me Nurse Michelle, and I'll be taking care of you. We're going to start with some blood testing. Does blood make you nauseous dear?" She said, full of energy, it seemed like she was hopped up on caffeine, she must have had to stay overnight. I shook my head as a gesture to her former question. I'd seen plenty of blood before.
She took me to a room with a hospital bed and I looked away while she stuck needles in my arm and connected wires in other places. In no time they were done.
"Are we doing the EKG now?" I asked. She shook her head no.
"No honey, we just did an EKG." She told me, I nodded, smiling as I did so.
When I came out of those double doors once more, I noticed Spencer, Hanna and Aria all exchange glances.
"Okay, that's it, why are you guys acting so weird?" I asked, because I was honestly getting tired of it. Ali and I were always included in this, where we glanced at each other as if… as if someone like Mona was there. Like she was insane, and now they were doing that to Ali and I, and it was making me feel like I was nothing to them, plus Ali was the one who started that glancing thing anyways so how were they going to do it without her?
"Nothing," Hanna said, again, as if we were crazy. Spencer looked at her, she seemed… mad? And Aria looked at us sympathetically. Hanna rolled her eyes at Spencer and now was mine and Ali's turn to exchange glances.
"Is there something going on between you two that we… don't know about?" Aria asked us.
"No," Ali said shaking her head. A smug smirk appeared on her face, and Spencer stared at her. Spencer was the only one who ever challenged Ali. I had no idea how… I know I never could.
"We just thought…" Aria said, Hanna elbowed Aria in the stomach. "Ouch! Hanna!" Aria said turning towards Hanna.
"No, Hanna, let her talk." I said, and Ali laughed, the kind of evil superior laugh she always uses, to show she's in charge.
"Nothing happened, okay?" Hanna said, getting an attitude. "Nothing's different."
Ali stared her down. "Hanna, tell me, now." Ali said. Her laugh turned into a smug smirk, which began to shift into a frown, Ali was getting angrier and angrier by the minute. She hated being out of the loop just as much as I did. No… I think it would be safe to say that she hated it more than I did.
"Seriously, we're just worried about Emily. She broke her wrist, and look at the size of that cast. There's going to be some major clashing with her outfits." Hanna said, and I looked down. Alison shot Hanna a look telling her to back off.
Ali is really sweet to me, but… she can be rude to others. Especially Hanna, she'll never let Hanna forget what she used to be; an overweight lonely girl who sat alone and cried herself every night… But in the seventh grade, when we first met Ali, she automatically befriended four girls, who just happened to be Aria, Spencer, Hanna and I. The thing is; Alison doesn't befriend girls like Hanna on a regular basis. If it wasn't for Ali, Hanna wouldn't be the skinniest, almost prettiest girl in the school.
But the bitchiness came with Hanna's new style. She tries acting superior, but she could never match up to Ali, ever. As much as she tries, Ali will always be one step ahead, and a bit better than Hanna.
Spencer and Ali have a history as well, Spencer always has to be Little Miss Perfect, and if you met her parents, you'd understand why. Spence has an older sister, her name is Melissa. Melissa beats Spencer at everything, all Spencer wants is for her parents to be proud of her, but she can never get them to be because no matter what Spencer does, Melissa tops it. Ali can blow that in Spencer's face anytime she wants.
The only one in our group that I doubt Ali has anything against, is Aria. But you never know? It's obvious that Ali could ruin Spencer or Hanna's self-esteem with one selfish blow, so they have to play it cool with her. Though Spencer challenges her a lot, she still knows she's under Ali's control.
Last Halloween, things got tense between Aria and Ali, which makes me think that Ali knows something about Aria that no one else knows. But the tension seems to have passed.
And then of course, there's me. I don't stand up for myself, you know it as well as I do, right? Alison could use that against me, but… it wouldn't do much, because my self-esteem issues are already bad enough, she has nothing to bring me lower, because, I can't really go any lower. She could break my heart, but as far as I can tell, she's not interested in that, she's interested in staying with me. She's supposedly single. Everyone thinks she is anyways, which makes me think what we have is real.
She made me break it off with Ben. Well… she broke it off with Ben for me. But who knows if he'll take what she said seriously or not? Who knows what he'll do to me next time he gets me alone? I've tried avoiding him, and it's not that hard until swim practice. Alison isn't allowed during practices, only meets and huge competitions.
Ali started walking towards the front of the building. The way she takes charge is just so… amazing. I looked up to see her curls bouncing, and her blonde hair swishing as she strode forward. Hanna and Aria followed quickly, and Spencer began too, but she stopped.
"You coming, Em?" She asked me, I nodded and followed behind her, keeping a steady pace. By the time I got to the car, Ali was in the driver's seat urging people to get in, but when I got there she simply smirked and winked at me, she stood gracefully, walked around the car and opened the door for me. She helped me in shut the door lightly behind me.
She smiled through the window before turning and walking back to the other side and getting in herself. She pulled the keys out of her purse and put them in the ignition.
"How is your arm, Em?" She asked me before turning the keys to start the car.
"Broken," I responded. It was meant as a joke, but I think it hurt her when I said it, because her eyes got sad, but her facial expression remained the same. She was good at hiding her emotions like that, you had to look into her beautiful green eyes to really see through her.
"We're going to Wal-Mart, I got your prescription right before you came out. Are you girls okay with that?" Alison asked turning around to face the girls in the back seat.
"Ali, watch the road!" Spencer yelled freaking out.
"Okay, okay, calm down." Alison said turning back to face the road, I looked over to see a smug smile had popped up on her face again. When we arrived at Wal-Mart she turned the car off and grabbed her purse, I started to open the door when she hopped out and once again ran around the car. This time she helped me out, I glanced at the girls who had already gotten out of the car, and they were staring at Alison in a strange way. I would be too if I saw this from their point of view. I shot Alison a warning glance and she nodded.
"Why are you staring at me like that, girls?" She said to them, smirking yet again. If I were to describe Alison, her trademark would be 'the one who's always smirking.'
"No reason." Aria said and shrugged. We all started to walk across the parking lot, Ali and I trailed behind the three of them. She pecked me on the cheek before walking through the doors and quickly catching up with Spencer, Aria, and Hanna. Spencer was on the left, Aria in the middle, and Hanna on the right, Alison joined Hanna's side while I joined Spencer's.
I noticed Spencer staring at the music section. "I'm going to go look at the new Paramore album, anyone want to come?" She asked, she looked towards Hanna and Aria.
"Yeah… will you be alright, Emily?" Aria asked me and I nodded smiling.
"I'm not two guys, I think I can handle it." I said, still smiling.
"Well in that case, I'm going to go look at Britney Spears' new album." She said, with a slight look towards Aria and then back to the music section. Something was definitely up, and they definitely knew something that Ali and I didn't.
Ali and I walked silently over to the pharmacy, she handed the woman the paper and we sat on the bench next to the pick-up area. She held my hand and smiled at me.
"Everything's going to be okay, huh?" I nodded, looking away.
"Emily, what is it?" She asked me, I'm sure I looked just like Spencer does when she's debating something in her head, because that's exactly what I was doing.
I was debating on whether or not to ask Alison if we were ever going to tell people about our relationship, but I didn't want to take the risk of getting into a fight with her. She was worth the secret but… it was too hard hiding it.
"Ali…?" I asked, deciding I needed to ask at some point anyways.
"Yes?" She answered, and I looked down. "Hey? Em, it's fine, you can say whatever's on your mind, I won't judge you, okay?" She asked me.
"I know you want to keep this a secret, but it's getting really hard. I'm in love with you, really in love, and I want to whole world to see that you're mine. It's so hard being unable to hold your hand in public and being unable to kiss you in public and being unable to… to love you in public…" I said, trying to get it all out before she could interrupt, but I had to slow down at the end, it was hard digging into my feelings and I just did it.
"Baby, I know…" She said to me.
"No, Ali, you don't know. Because if you did you would let it happen, you would let people know." I told her, getting a little worked up. I felt bad immediately after saying that. She looked down, and so did I.
"I'm really sorry, Em…" She said and I nodded.
"It- It's okay." I said, with my head down. "We don't need to tell people if you don't want to." I lied, because I wanted her to be happy, but I really did want to tell people.
"No, it's not okay. If you want to tell people, so do I. You're my everything, and my everything deserves to be heard." She said, I kissed her on the cheek. "I love you," She said and I flinched. Love scares me, no, people saying that they love me scares me. "Em…?" She asked me quietly.
"Yes?" I answered back, she brushed my hair out of my face, and turned my head, she kissed me for a few seconds before pulling away. "Did you want to tell me something?" I asked.
"That kiss was everything I wanted to tell you." She said before getting up to talk to the pharmacist. Spencer and Hanna were walking our way. I could see Aria right on the outside of an isle in the music section.
Spencer sat down gracefully next to me, and Hanjoined her on the other side.
"So, how much medicine do you have to take?" Spencer asked me.
"A lot," I said with a delicate laugh. "But… I don't have to worry because now people are going to be doing me a lot of favors. And I won't have to write!" I said laughing a bit harder now. Ali came over, smirking (of course.)
"Here's your medicine, did you guys want to buy anything, and… where's Aria?" Ali asked, confidence rang in her melodious voice.
"She's…" Spencer stopped, searching around the store for a second. "She's over there." Spencer had finally found her and pointed to the music section. "I think she's getting you a get well gift." Spencer said looking towards me. Before I could open my mouth to protest Ali jumped in.
"Oh that's so sweet! I think we all should." Each one of them nodded as they jumped off in different directions, leaving me in the dust. The prescription still hadn't been filled. I waited there for 15 minutes before I heard someone calling my name… it was Mona.
I had no problems with Mona, but Ali did. Alison hates her, and I don't know why, well she was a nerd and all, and Ali usually sticks with people who aren't nerds.
"Emily! Emily! Hi!" I could hear Mona, she's a bit overenthusiastic. I waved to her and patted the bench next to me motioning her to sit so we could talk. I didn't want to be rude to her, I couldn't be.
"Hey Mona, I haven't seen you in a while…" I started to say.
"Yeah, I switched out of our math class into this AP math class." Mona said smiling.
"Listen, Mona, Ali and the girls are here. And I just wanted to warn you before they all come back, because you know they act kind of… weird around you." I said with a sound of sympathy I hoped she heard. She nodded. Mona used to try really hard with Ali, to become friends with her, but I think by now she'd come to terms with the fact that Ali wasn't going to let her join our friend circle.
But I'd gladly be her friend, there's nothing wrong with her.
"That's why I actually talk to you Emily, you're the only nice one out of all of them. And sometimes Aria too I guess, but Aria only acts nice, it's artificial, the only time you act artificially towards me is when Ali is around. And I guess I could understand why, I'd probably do that to people to if I was friends with Ali." Mona finished, and I nodded.
I looked up and saw Spencer looking at sporting equipment. Well, no, I couldn't see Spencer, I could see her purse and the fact that she was in the sporting section was a dead giveaway. And the fact that Aria was standing next to a girl with Spencer's purse, in Spencer's favorite section made it pretty obvious.
Spencer glanced around the corner of where she was, and pointed to me. Aria had a bag meaning she already bought whatever she wanted to give to me. Aria walked over and stood in front of Mona and I.
"Hi Aria," Mona said shrinking, I think she was preparing for whatever insults were going to come from Hanna and Ali today. They were the really mean ones. I mean, Ali was never mean to me, but still, I could agree with anyone who says she can be a little… stereotypical sometimes.
"Oh… hey Mona," Aria said. And right then I saw what Mona meant; Aria and her sweet fake smile, she must have picked it up from Alison. She crossed her arms impatiently, Aria made me so mad sometimes. Mona excused herself from us and I watched her walk away sadly.
Ali walked over to us. "What were you doing with that… freak?" Ali asked. I shrugged, you see, I can't stand up for anyone. It's too scary…
I glanced up at Alison, and of course she went all out; she had a bag full of things. Wrapping paper was sticking out, I stared at her like she was insane.
"What is it darling?" She asked me giggling a little. I shook my head in exasperation.
"Nothing," I gasped. She sat down in my lap and kissed me on the cheek, my eyes got wide, I looked at Aria, her face showed confusion, I'm sure she could read mine as well.
"Friends kiss each other's cheeks." Ali said, standing up to kiss Aria's. She did so and I could see Aria sinking into thought. Ali glanced at me apologetically, she wanted to tell them, but she got scared, and so did I. I gave her a small signal that it was fine, and we could talk later.