Alison remained thoroughly angry at Hanna, but was able to keep her angry retorts to a bare minimum until she could get her hands on Emily alone. All the anger soon went away once Emily had a red mark on her collarbone, given to her by none other than Alison herself. Satisfied with what she did, Alison was left smirking at Emily whenever Alison glanced her way. Emily was just happy that her dress was covering the red mark Alison gave her, praying that none of the girls would notice.

The whole time during dinner, the girls ate salmon and drank fine wine while they chatted to each other. Alison, as usual, kept glancing at Emily often, worried now about Emily's reaction to what Alison gave her before dinner. They had never done anything more than making out, which was fine with Alison. But now Allison wanted to take things further, she was sure of it. Should spent quite a lot of time thinking about it. But what if Emily didn't want the same?

When Alison looked at Emily once more, she saw her in a conversation with Hanna. Hanna was asking Emily questions about boys, since Emily failed to mention any boys in her story before.

"Come on Emily, a girl as pretty as you HAD to have had a guy in the picture before you came here." Hanna said, pressuring Emily. Alison watched the scene unfold, not tearing her eyes away from Emily, who was growing pink faced. Alison felt heat rise to her cheeks once again, Aria and Spencer seemed to turn their attention to Emily once again. Alison knew Emily would become nervous with all the eyes on her, and she was right when Emily began to look nervously around at them.

"Well there was a guy named Ben, we were supposed to get married, but I came to the castle to serve Alison." Emily explained.

"Oh! Was he cute? I bet he was!" Hanna said. She turned to Alison and frowned, "Why did you take her from Ben? You've broken up love!"

"Actua-" Emily began, but Alison cut her off.

"They aren't in love Hanna!" Alison yelled, her voice echoing and making the glasses shake. "Ben was a vile person who didn't deserve Emily."

All the girls eyebrows were raised in shock at Alison's outburst. She looked around at them with their mouths hanging open.

"Well that escalated quickly." Hanna said, breaking the silence.

On the night of the masquerade ball, ships everywhere were arriving at the harbor, different kings, queens, princes, princesses, and anyone who was important, arrived at the harbor. People entered the castle with masks covering their faces, walking towards the ballroom. The ballroom had tables on the side and lively dance music was playing for the guests to dance to. There was food and many helpers that walked around in Rosewood's uniform.

As the guests arrived, Alison was up in her room, adjusting her mask in the mirror. Her mask was gold and decorated with twists of silver. It covered the upper half of her face, but it was still obvious that it was Alison behind the gold mask. Her pale yellow dresses flowed ever so perfectly, matching the gold mask. Alison wasn't allowed to see Emily, Hanna had taken her to her guest bedroom to help her get ready. This left Spencer and Aria to get ready with her. Aria had a royal blue dress with a black mask that covered the left side of her face. As for Spencer, she had a blood red dress with her white mask. All three girls were no doubt utterly stunning.

The three of them left Alison's room and made their way down the marble staircase to the front entrance. The guests who were chatting at the entrance before going to the ballroom, all turned their attention to the girls as they walked down the stairs. The noise quieted, leaving only hushed whispers to fill the entrance. Alison was used to this, but her confidence boosted as she smirked at her admirers. Aria and Spencer, on either side were looking at the crowd as well. The noise began to pick back up again and more people began chatting again.

A man in a white mask that covered half his face approached Alison. "Well don't you look beautiful." he said, kissing Alison's hand.

"So you really were telling the truth when you said you would wear a white mask." Alison answered, looking at Noel.

She looked at Spencer, "Where's Hanna and Emily?" she asked.

But Spencer wasn't even paying attention to Alison, neither was Aria. Alison noticed that there was the same silence that had filled the hall when she had descended the stairs. She looked up at the staircase, in which everyone in the hall was staring at. When Alison saw who was descending the staircase, her jaw dropped in awe as well. Two girls were walking down, one with short blonde hair and the other with black hair. It was Hanna and Emily, and Alison was blown away.

Hanna looked gorgeous in her forest green dress, but what really blew Alison away was Emily's dress. She was in light pink and had a white mask with beads on it, covering the same amount of her face as Alison's did. It felt as if Alison's stomach exploded, feelings tons of various emotions that made her head spin. She began to make her way towards Emily but once Emily reached the foot of the stairs, about six princes with masks covered faces swarmed Emily. At the same time, Noel looped his arm through Alison's and began directing her towards the ballroom. People began following their lead, and the crowd began entering the ballroom.

Once inside, Alison began looking for Emily, wanting to see her stunning assistant up close. Her eyes traveled over every face, politely excusing herself from people who tried to stop and talk to her. In the crowd, Alison found Hanna talking to what looked like Caleb behind a blue mask. "Hanna have you seen Emily?" Alison asked.

"Don't you mean, Princess Emily of Riverwood?" Hanna smirked.

"Yeah, where is she?" Alison asked, rolling her eyes.

"Over there talking to Prince Nate." Hanna said, pointing towards the side. When the crowd parted enough, Alison could see Emily talking to this Prince Nate. He was wearing purple with a white mask, and Alison already hated him. He was totally trying to talk up Emily, and Alison wanted none of it. She pressed her way through the crowd, making it a priority to get over there.

"Hey Alison. Do you want to dan-?" Noel said, coming up behind her.

"Not now Noel." Alison said, cutting him off.

When she finally arrived at where Emily and Nate were, she flashed Nate a glare, but he probably couldn't see it since her face was covered with a mask. Emily was smiling at Nate, Alison obviously arrived at the tail end of one of his funny stories. Alison almost clenched her fists and screamed in anger.

"I'm sorry to interrupt but can I speak to Princess Emily alone?" Alison asked.

Nate nodded and smiled at Emily once more before heading off into the crowd of people. Alison pulled Emily closer to her and whispered in her ear. "What are you doing?" she asked, her voice showing signs of her anger.

"What do you mean?" Emily asked.

"Are you purposely trying to make me jealous?" Alison asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"First you come here dressed like a walking sex God, and now you're flirting with the princes." Alison said, furious at Emily's obliviousness.

"Doesn't Princess Emily have an act? I mean, Queen Alison isn't who she says she is. Queen Alison doesn't like Prince Noel and has been spending the past few weeks making out with her female assistant!" Emily said, her voice rising. Alison quickly reached out and covered her mouth to silence Emily.

"Will you stop being so loud?" Alison said, looking around to see if anyone had heard.

"How do you think I feel when I see you and Noel?" Emily said, removing Alison's hand from her mouth.

"You know I don't like him that way." Alison said, sternly.

"And you know I don't like any of those men." Emily countered. "Besides, does this prove nothing?" Emily moved the strap of her dress to reveal a fading red mark.

Alison sighed, realizing she had nothing to worry about. "Fine. After the ball tonight...meet me in my room."

When the slow dance music came on, Alison was of course forced to dance with Noel. It didn't feel right though, with his hand dangerously low on her back and another holding onto Alison's. Alison looked around the ballroom, spotting her friends dance with some man behind a mask. Spencer with Toby, who was smiling brightly down at her. Hanna and Caleb, who seemed to not even blink as they stared at each other. Aria and someone that she didn't recognize, but his short curly hair made him awfully familiar. And then there was Emily and Nate, laughing at something Nate was saying.

"Ow, what's your problem?" Noel said suddenly. Alison realized she was squeezing Noel's shoulder and hand rather tightly. She quickly let the force go and shook her head.

"Nothing I'm just, tired." Alison said.

"It's almost midnight. That's when everyone takes off their masks and kissed their dance partner." Noel said, smiling.

"What?"

"Did you not hear?" Noel asked.

"No I did. But since when do you kiss your dance partner?"

"It's always been that way." Noel chuckled.

Alison's heart skipped for two reasons. One, that meant Emily would have to kiss Nate. Two, she would have to kiss Noel. It sounded terrible, Alison had never wanted to kiss someone besides Emily. In the distance, the bell tower began to chime midnight and people around them began removing their masks. Alison, took of her own and tore her eyes away from Emily and Nate as they removed their masks.

Alison realized how easily Emily could make her jealous and before she could think about it, Alison acted on her jealously and kissed Noel. It was as disgusting as she thought it would be. It wasn't physically gross like he had slobbery lips or something; but it was just Alison didn't have any feelings whatsoever for him. There were no butterflies, no crave for more.

When she pulled her lips from Noel, wanting to puke right then and there, she looked over at Emily, expecting to see her lip locking with Nate. But Emily wasn't there. It was just Nate standing there, staring at the ground.

"Where's Emily?" Alison asked, removing herself from Nate.

"Wait your assistant is-" Noel began, coming out of his trance.

"Shhh."

"She rejected me and then ran off to her room, I guess." Nate said, sadly.

"Shit." Alison mumbled.

She began walking towards the exit, trying to escape the ballroom. This proved to be a difficult task, especially because no one would move. When she finally made her way out of the ballroom, she made her way towards the lower level of the castle where Emily slept. She rushed forward, quickly reaching the door and entering.

"Emily I-" Alison began before she was greeted by Emily's bare backside. "Woah."

"Learn to knock!" Emily yelled as she frantically pulled her dress back on.

"What are you doing in here?" Alison asked.

"What? Oh I just need some air, these corset things are tough." Emily said, sitting on her bed.

"Is this because I kissed Noel?" Alison asked.

"No."

"You aren't mad?" Alison asked.

"Not really. If I did I would be a hypocrite because of Ben." Emily said.

Alison was relieved yet offended by Emily's response. "Aren't you going to come up to my room?" Alison asked, not wanting to start anymore drama.

"What do you need?"

"...just come with me."

Up in Alison's room, Emily helped her Alison ready to bed as usual, stripping her of her dress and removing the makeup from her face. When the room was dark and Emily leaned down to kiss Alison's forehead, Alison sat up and kissed Emily, pulling her down on top of her.

"You really should be getting to bed." Emily said, pulling her lips away from Ali, but there was an obvious hint that she didn't want this to stop. Alison pulled Emily back down as they continued to kiss passionately; both forgetting all the problems and drama of the day. These were the kissed Alison craved; Noel's kiss was garbage compared to these.

"You and I both know that you don't want this to stop." Alison said seductively in Emily's ear. Her hands travelled up Emily's thigh, touching her smooth skin while riding up her skirt.

"Ali-"

"Shhh, I want this." Alison whispered, leaning up and kissing Emily, hoping that she got the message across. There was silence for a few moments and Alison half expected Emily to reject her.

But Alison was surprised when she felt warm lips on her neck, traveling their way up to a spot behind her ear that made Alison moan and close her eyes.

Alison had never felt so electric. Every touch following, every kiss after, that whole time they spent together with their hands roaming, and their bare bodies pressed together made Alison feel like she was on Cloud 9. She wasn't sure if she was in love with Emily; after all they had only known each other for a few weeks. But then again, it had been a few short weeks and they both were doing the most intimate things possible.

As Alison thought, following their "fun", she wondered why this all felt so right. How Emily's bare body pressed up against her bare back, holding her securely, made everything in the world fit. In Emily's arms there seemed to be only good thoughts, nothing bad could happen to Ali while she was snuggled between them.

In Emily's arms, everything was perfect, which was the last thing Alison thought before she fell asleep.