Hey Everyone, I am back.

I am so sorry! Really. I have been busy with school work and family issues but now I will have the time to write. Please forgive my grammar mistakes... English is not my mother tongue and I am young too so...

Hope you enjoy this chapter; it is a little bit longer than usual.

Love you, guys.

Please feedback.

"Hush, don't worry, Em," Paige said when Emily started going desperate in her sleep. "You are okay," Paige traced circles over Emily's shoulder and pulled away for a short while just so that she could turn Emily around and feel closer to her. Emily woke up to Paige's disgrace as she had tried to move her. Emily was breathing fast and her desperate eyes showed fear and doubt. But as she saw Paige's face, she knew everything would be okay. She calmed herself down as Paige looked into her eyes. "It's okay," Paige persisted and hugged her closely, even more scared than Emily was. She closed her eyes taking a deep breath and kissed Emily's head before both of them fell asleep again.

Paige shifted uncomfortably when she felt Emily's shoulder pressed excessively hard against her ribs. She moved away gently without loosening the grip on Emily's bare waist. Emily's corner of the lips creased up even if she was not conscious. She tried to memorize the way Emily's beautiful smile made her feel. She stared at her red lips and leant in. She didn't press her lips against Emily's but rested her forehead against her love's, as she closed her eyes and took in that wonderful smell that was her lover's. And she appreciated the way light looked so well on her.

Paige remained in trance for a while until reality hit her. This is it. She knew what she had to do next but the idea terrified her. Even if it was for Emily's own sake, the emptiness she knew she would feel after she did it was already filling her. Tears filled her eyes and a broken sob escaped her mouth. She knew she could do it, she could hurt the girl no more and she froze in place as she looked at the door. Maybe if I run… But she couldn't; not again; not with the girl who was lying next to her. Running would not work, it would make everything worse, but at least she would ignore what life had in store for her, at least that is what she thought as she looked at her eyes.

But someone else was still in her thoughts… Connor still haunt her with his dark brown orbs; the hate she didn't want to see in that beautiful face… she lied; she knew she didn't care, but fear wouldn't go away, and the pain she was feeling would fill him instead. I love her. She thought and it could not be truer, but love is not enough when you are scared and cannot lie anymore.

Paige felt the tears starting to out her eyes, rolling down her cheeks and then becoming salt inside her mouth. She closed her eyes and frowned swallowing hard, trying to make the lump in her throat to untie. She moved away in a really gentle way trying not to drag Emily out of her slumber. She let go of her waist and caressed her cheek once again. Paige sat up on the bed and looked one last time at Emily. She got dressed and walked out of the room in silence.

Paige sat down on the front porch of Emily's house and thought about everything she had made the girl she loved the most go through. She rested her face against her palms and started crying again. It was useless; she could not forget. Forget about the fear that haunted her every day. She remained silent, trying hard to think but the big deal was that she was between love and fear. That was when it hit her… Emily was both.

"Hey," She heard a raspy voice behind her whispering. "I thought you had walked away," Emily's voice cracked with worry.

Paige frowned in pain. "I am… I mean…" She felt the lump tightening. "I will," She stood up and finally looked at Emily who had a dubious expression in her face.

Emily looked away; she knew what was going to happen next. "Don't you dare to do this to me," She let out softly. "Don't you dare to leave me or I swear to god..."

Paige mocked her with a broken laugh. "What? What can you do, Emily?" She was crying again so she decided to look away.

Emily looked at her again and shook her head not believing the other girl. "I love you!" Her face was an ocean of emotions, Paige could see. "I fucking love you!" She suddenly slapped the other girl's face but instantly mourned to touch that flawless face. She took it back by caressing the irritated skin and wiping away the silent tears she had just made the other girl spill. Paige hadn't seen it coming but still knew she deserved even more than that. "I'm sorry," Emily started crying and buried her head in Paige's neck.

"Please don't," She said and placed her hand over Emily's shaking hand that still rested over her cheek. Emily looked up, stared at her eyes, then at her lips and tried to close the gap between the two of them… Paige didn't let her. She instead pulled away. "Emily…" She tried to start as calm as possible. "I have to go," She let out but her voice remained raspy.

"No, you don't," Emily wouldn't admit it… but deep inside, she knew that when none of them could be brave enough to shout to the world that they loved each other… It meant it was not the time and maybe it was not worth it either. But she could not think of it that way. She loved Paige and would do anything for her… it just… was not the time. She was young; she did not feel ready. Still she could not let go. Not after everything they had been through together in that exciting mess they had gotten themselves into.

Paige spoke up again. "Yes, I do," she said. "I have thought about this and I do," She breathed deeply again. "Listen," said she. "The fact that I love you with all my being doesn't make me brave enough to… shout it to the world."

"I love you, Emily. I love you with all I have. With all I am but I can't keep doing this. I can't keep holding you back," She took Emily's shaking hands and looked at her desperate eyes. "I made a choice," she said. "And it is to let you… choose what you want to do… without me." She swallowed hard and Emily started sobbing making it harder for her to speak up.

"The only thing I want the most in this world is for you to be happy and you should never doubt or forget that." Paige said trying to make Emily stop shaking, but she failed.

"Last night… I woke up and saw the fear in your face and then I thought that I could be the reason of you being hurting and… afraid. And I finally realized that I am. I am the only person holding you back," She finally said. "So I set you free," She made Emily look at her. "Because you mean everything to me," said she. "Because I love you," She took a deep breath still trying to hold her tears back. "And I want to make this," She pointed between the two of them with her shaking hand. "Right" Emily turned away and cried silently shaking her head in astonishment.

"Emily, look at me," she said, raising the other girl's chin. "This is for us, okay? I am sure we will make our ways back to each other's arms again. When we are ready," said she. "When we don't have the need to hide the fact that we love each other; when everything is the way it is meant to be, okay?" She was now crying too. "Emily, say something, please," she begged with a cracked voice. "Say something or I will walk away without listening to your voice one…"

"Shut up, Paige!" This startled the girl so much she stumbled back; luckily she was fast enough to hold on to the wooden column of the front porch and steady herself. "Sorry," she looked down in shame. "Paige, you should go," Paige nodded but closed the gap between the two of them hugging Emily as tight as she could, spilling some tears over Emily's neck as she hugged her back tangling her fingers with Paige's hair. She looked at her eyes and turned around immediately to keep herself from staying any longer. She could hear Emily crying as she walked away and her heart screamed that she needed to stay. So she increased the pace and started to run as her soul mourned her latest actions. She ran as fast as her legs would let her and she tried not to let Emily's voice sneak in her head.

After two weeks and a half, eleven days to be precise, Emily's soul still tried to disguise the pain and anger she felt deep inside; it was corrupting her. Paige was not anymore in her thoughts; she kicked her out every time she came back and… that meant at least seven times a day. She couldn't sleep and didn't have the will to eat… at least not as much as she did before. She started skipping the classes she shared with Paige and changed some of them too. Unfortunately the act they had been practicing for was inevitable and they had to do it together so she had to find a way to connect once again with her even if it was not in the way she wanted to.

Emily stood at the door that led to the rehearsal room. She looked through the small window and saw Dorothea giving some indications to Jeremy, one of the main characters in the play, who had now fallen into Paige's arms when he did Emily's part. She took a deep breath and composed herself before placing her hand on the door knob and opening the door calmly.

Dorothea turned to see her when she heard the door closing behind Emily. "Emily! You are back, we missed you," said Dorothea when Emily walked awkwardly towards her.

Emily smiled politely and nodded. "Thanks, Dorothy," she said. "I'm sorry I haven't come…"

Dorothea interrupted her without even perceiving Emily's voice. That caused Paige and Jeremy to let out a giggle as they stood, impatiently waiting for Emily to take her place. "It is such a shame that you couldn't come, Emily," Emily rolled her eyes annoyed yet escaped from Dorothea's gaze and looked at her faking a smile. Dorothea pointed at the other student's bags. "Care to leave it there and take your place, Emily?" She smiled kindly and Emily turned away, throwing her bag next to the rest of them. She turned around again and walked towards Paige as Jeremy took his original place at the back of the room with Shelby.

Paige felt as the air left her lungs when Emily approached her. She could not handle seeing the girl there and not feeling able to smile at her because… maybe it was too soon… it was too much for herself to handle Emily smiling at her… and she knew for Emily was too. "Hey," She managed to get out of her mouth.

Emily rolled her eyes. "Okay, so, we should get started," she cut her roughly making Paige to feel like shit. "What was after the fall?" she said ignoring Paige's expression.

Paige took the copy of the script she had folded out of her jean's pocket, trying to ignore Emily's harsh tone of voice. "Okay… it says…" She flipped through the pages looking for the part Emily had asked for. She cleared her throat and started reading. "After centuries, goddess of penalty gave men the toughest weapons of all:" Paige looked at Emily who was staring at her and looked away as soon as the other girl noticed. Paige ignored the feeling the action gave her and turned her head back to the paper. "To punish them for envy, she gave them something to be so protective over what they possessed that it would not let them feel up to live if it was taken away from them, but when knowing they were not enough, they would do whatever it took to find what was actually enough or even give up on it even if it meant living in pain forever," she read. "Those were…" Paige swallowed hard. "Love and humbleness," said she. "Love as what makes you keep holding to something and humbleness as what makes one offer people what they need it not even against one's will," She directed her gaze towards Emily. "So… you enter when Johanna says…"

Emily looked at Paige. "Penalty, right?" she asked moving closer to her and looking at the text.

Paige nodded and looked at Emily for a short while. "Yeah… do you have the text? I could lend it to you so you can take a copy later," She offered.

Emily smiled at the other girl's words. "Yeah, that would be great. Thanks," she said.

Paige smile sadly. "Yeah, sure," She looked back at the script. "And then I enter when she says…" She stopped in her tracks when she felt Emily's burning stare over her. She turned her head to see her and maintained the gaze. They stared at each other trying to figure out their faces. "When she says," Paige turned her head back and looked at the text once again. "She says love and I enter," she said and Emily looked down.

Emily read the rest of the text. "Love holds penalty, without men even knowing," she said out loud. "Love consumes a whole and penalty just comes," said she. "When man less expects it; when love is ruling over all, but is actually punishment that controls the soul," she looked at Paige. "I think that's when I fall and you catch me, am I wrong?" Paige nodded and opened her arms. Emily let herself fall and Paige caught her. Then they kept reading and acting as they followed the story.

Dorothea was impressed by the way they seemed so fluent and the feeling flowed around them. "Excellent job," she whispered. "These girls are great," As they danced in sync, Dorothea took out a camera and started recording the perfect dance.

Both girls kept dancing and forgot about the world around them. Feeling each other so close after so long; just a few weeks but they couldn't get enough they needed each other so bad… and it was so hard.

Back in the locker rooms, Jeremy walked towards Paige and gathered the courage to finally speak to her. He had longed for that day to come ever since he got to Rosewood's High school that same year.

He saw her next to her locker alone. Okay, take a deep breath, you can do this. He kept walking in her direction and lastly got to her locker.

She raised her head as she felt someone approaching, opened her eyes widely an offered him a kind smile. "Hey, Jeremy," she said politely.

Jeremy felt his heart beating hard. "Hi, Paige," he smiled sweetly. "How… How are you?" he could hardly speak.

"I'm fine, it's sweet for you to ask," she nodded excitedly. "Hey, by the way, we should go out some time; I think you are really good in the acting side, you know?" she complimented him.

His heart stopped. "Oh! Really?" he said. "Do you really think that?"

She smiled. "Absolutely,"

It was Friday night and Connor was picking Paige up that night to take her to the Khan's party. She was worried she would bump into Emily but if she did she wanted to be wasted enough so that she wouldn't recognize Emily.

Paige looked at the mirror and fixed her short, red dress. She combed her hair with her hands and sighed. Think that you are dressing for Emily. She wished that was true…

As soon as Connor arrived, Paige ran down the stairs in her bare feet to find her heels next to the stairs and putting them on as fast as she could. She messed her hair but she didn't care. It isn't Emily anyway. It was lame to think about Emily taking into account that she had dumped her and not the other way around but she couldn't help herself.

When they arrived to the Khan's, surprisingly not the cabin, Connor immediately guided Paige towards the table with the drinks.

Alison and Connor had made a deal… a deal which included drugging Paige and driving Emily close to the edge.

Connor smiled mischievously when Paige swallowed a whole beer in less than twenty seconds. Then she took another. Then she took a glass. Then she drank another beer. And then he took out the flask. That was when everything was finally lost.

The clock ticked fast that night… Paige had known something was wrong but… she took the drink anyway. Connor guided her to one of the rooms upstairs and pushed her against the door after he had closed it. Paige wasn't responding, she felt like a… doll… just like the ones she played with when she was a kid. He guided her to the bed in the room and kissed her roughly before pushing her over it. Then everything went blank and that night ended up being the worst mistake of her whole life.

Emily took another drink. The music was loud and Alison was close to her; she looked over her shoulder and said what would drive Emily insane that night. "I think I saw Paige kissing Connor, did you see them?"

With that few words, Emily took more drinks and faded out. All the mixed feelings were too much for her to take in.