Chapter 3

"Hey, Emily..." Spencer muttered. "So, you haven't told Aria or Hanna about what I said to you after chemistry yesterday, right?"

"No, of course not. Your secret is safe with me," Emily said with a quiet laugh. "But, can I ask... how long have you liked him?"

"Sophomore year. I tutored him in French, just like you're tutoring Alison now," Spencer confessed. "He was so nice. He was so amazing. I looked forward to it every day. But nothing ever happened between us. And nothing ever will."

"Don't say that," Emily said with a sympathetic look on her face. "Maybe fate is bringing you one more chance with this whole lab partner thing!"

"Fate? Did you actually just say that?" Spencer scoffed. "That's stupid and crazy."

"What if I believe in that?" Emily asked.

"Then you're crazy," Spencer said.

...

Emily held the sheet of paper in her hands. She stared at it nervously. It read, 'Library, 3:30'. Mrs. Berg had given it to her at the beginning of French class that day. She didn't know if she was ready to tutor Alison DiLaurentis. Honestly, she was afraid of the girl. Spencer made her seem so horrible. And she was already intimidating! But Emily had to muster up her courage, and enter Rosewood High School's library. She scanned the room for the gorgeous blonde from her French class, but had no luck. Maybe Alison found out she was her tutor, and decided not to show because she already hated her! Her mind kept jumping to horrible conclusions.

She sat down at the table, patiently waiting, but she had no luck. Emily kept scrolling through her phone, hoping that Alison would come to her at some point. But it was already 4:00, and there was no sign of her. It seemed that she really did bail on the tutoring session. Thirty minutes had passed since they were supposed to meet. She wasn't going to show up. Emily was the kind of girl to have a little bit of faith, though. She decided she would wait until 4:05.

The librarian came over to her and said, "Honey, you've been sitting on your phone for the past half an hour. If that's what you're here for, I think you can do that somewhere else. This is a library. It's for studying, reading, homework, and all that. It's not phone hour."

"I'm sorry. I'm waiting for somebody," she said, scratching her head. "I was supposed to tutor her at 3:30—"

"It's 4:05 now, I don't think she's coming," the librarian told her. "Why don't you give her a call? But not in here."

Emily raised her eyebrows as the librarian walked away. She would have called Alison, but she had no way of contacting the girl. Mrs. Berg hadn't given her any contact information! She was giving up. It wasn't her fault that Alison didn't show up at all. She picked up her bag, and started to leave, when an arm grabbed hers.

"Are you Emily Fields?" she asked, with a blank look on her face. It was Alison. "I'm Alison DiLaurentis, but you probably already know that."

"I do," she choked out, and scratched her head. "Um... we were supposed to start thirty minutes ago, but that's ok—"

"Well, I was busy hanging out. Tutoring needed to wait," Alison scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Are we going to start this thing or what?"

Emily nodded her head, and they sat down at the table again. She got out all of her French books and materials. She ever went out of her way to prepare a lesson plan for Alison. She wanted to be liked by this girl. For some reason, she wanted Spencer to be wrong about her. She wanted to get along with Alison.

"Wow..." Alison muttered, looking at everything Emily had planned for her. "You put a lot of work into this."

"Well, I just want to do the best job I can,"

Emily said, biting her lip. "We can start by flipping to our workbook pages for homework. Let's see where you struggle with this."

Alison actually obeyed, and flipped her workbook open. But as she began to scan the page, and search for concepts she didn't understand, a few papers were thrown at her. She rolled her eyes, opening the first folded up paper that was tossed at her. Emily watched, confused by what was happening.

It read, 'Come make out with us, hottie!'

Alison rolled her eyes, crumpling it up again. She tossed it in the trash can, getting upset.

"Are you ok?" Emily asked. "Why did they do that?"

"They're dicks, that's why," Alison responded, her eyes starting to water. Was she crying? "I'm sorry, I can't do this right now. Do you want to come to my place?"

"To finish studying?" Emily asked.

"No... I just want to get my mind off of everything," Alison answered, and started packing her bag up. "We can start the studying thing again tomorrow."

...

Aria stood in front of his desk, with a pink slip in her hands. He swallowed hard, knowing exactly what she was doing.

"Aria, are you sure you want to do this?" Ezra Fitz asked, grabbing a black ballpoint pen from his desk. "You don't have to switch classes because of me. We can forget about what happened before school started. This can end here. I'll be your teacher, you'll be my student. It's fine."

She shook her head and quietly said, "The thing is... I don't think I can ever forget what happened. And you, being my teacher, is making it too hard to be in this class."

"But you'll have to drop down to regular English if you're transferring out of my class. They don't do it by teacher preference. If I'm signing this, you're going to have to take regular English," Ezra warned.

"That's not enough to make me stay," Aria told him. "I'm willing to lose the extra GPA point."

"Don't run from me, please," Ezra begged. "I'll sign this paper, but before you turn it in, think about what you're doing. I'm going to try and make this not weird for us. If you stay in my class, I won't keep making it awkward, I promise. I'll try to make it normal again. Even if you do quit my class, you'll still have to see me around all the time. Things aren't going to change, so you might as well just stay."

"But I can't face you every day for the rest of the year!" Aria cried. "How am I supposed to do that when... never mind."

"When what?" Ezra asked. "What do you want me to do? I can't quit. I need this job."

"Nothing. When nothing. And you don't have to do anything," Aria told him. "I'll handle myself."

"Aria," he said, grabbing her arm. "Please, let me in. Why can't you at least try?"

"Because! I can't face you every day when I want you so badly," Aria confessed, and then turned away. She started walking towards the door. "I know it's crazy, and stupid, and—"

"It's not stupid. It certainly is crazy, but it's not stupid. But I'm crazy, too," Ezra told her, and got up from his desk. "Because I want you just as badly."

With that, he leaned down and kissed Aria's lips suddenly, sending butterflies through her. Pulling back, she grabbed the pink sheet from Ezra's desk, and began walking to the door. She couldn't say anything. She was conflicted.

"Think about it," Ezra reminded, and she nodded her head, walking out the door of the classroom.

She turned around, getting ready to walk towards the parking lot, when Hanna showed up.

"Why are you always in Mr. Fitz's classroom?" Hanna asked, laughing. "Do you have a thing for another Fitz, just like the bar guy?"

"No!" Aria cried, biting her lip. "What are you even doing here? It's almost 4:30. I came here because I needed help with my essay."

"Oh, I came here to see Sean's basketball game," Hanna said. "It's starting soon, but I wanted to get something to eat. They're serving food in the cafeteria before the game starts. It's like a pre-game celebration! They have ice cream!"

"Maybe I'll get some ice cream before I go home," Aria said, smiling, and began walking to the cafeteria with Hanna.

...

"What happened back there?" Emily asked as they entered the house.

Alison set her bag down on the couch, and then turned to face Emily.

"Nothing I want to talk about," she said, sighing. "I'm so tired of talking. But you're nice. You're not like other people."

"How do you know that?" Emily asked curiously.

"Oh, honey, I just know," Alison responded with a smirk. "You're different. And I like that about you. Tell me about yourself. For once, I actually care."

Emily felt flattered as she said, "I just moved here... my mom got a new job. My dad's in the army. He's never around, and I miss him. I wish he was still here."

"I know how you feel," Alison said, sitting down on the couch.

"You do?" Emily asked. "Your dad is in the army?"

"No, but he's never around," Alison responded. "He and my mom got divorced. He left us. He left me. And he doesn't care anymore. I think he might be dating some hooker."

"A hooker!?" Emily cried.

"When I went to visit him about a week ago, he was with some woman that works at a strip club," Alison explained sadly. "I think she was a prostitute."

"That's horrible," Emily said, biting down on her lip hard. "So, you said you wanted to get your mind off of everything. How does a movie sound?"

Alison smiled and answered, "A movie sounds great."

So, the two girls watched a movie together. But they talked in between it. They had so much to talk about, even though they didn't even know each other. Emily was starting to feel like maybe Spencer was wrong about her. She was amazing. She was so kind. She had such a strained background. Her mother never truly expressed her love for her. Her mother was always fighting with her father. Alison wasn't some monster. She was human.

It was almost midnight, and Emily had fallen asleep, her head resting on Alison's shoulder. The blonde didn't move her head. She kind of liked it there. It felt right. It fit right. Alison didn't know what was happening to her. She cared about Emily, even though they barely knew each other. She was different than other people, and that was so clear. She was sweet and compassionate. Alison could take that impression away after only knowing her for a few hours. But she already felt close to Emily, and she hates it. She didn't know how to care for somebody. She wished she knew, but she didn't. She never learned. What if it was too late to learn how to care?

Suddenly, Emily woke up and checked the time on her phone.

"Holy crap, it's late!" Emily cried. "My mom's been texting me for hours."

"Do you want to just crash here?" Alison asked. "My mom isn't coming home tonight. Plus, you probably don't want to drive at this hour..." Alison felt silly, but she wanted Emily to stay.

"It's ok," Emily said, shaking her head. "I can walk, my house is actually pretty close to yours. But thank you for the fun day. It was way better than studying." Emily smiled, picking her bag up off of the floor, and walking towards the door.

Alison got up, switching the TV off, and following her to the door.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay?" Alison asked.

"My mom's going to freak if she doesn't see me. Besides, it's a school night, and it's already really late. She doesn't like it when I have sleepovers on school nights, anyways," Emily explained. "I had a lot of fun, though."

"So did I," Alison admitted, scratching her head. Emily began walking, but the blonde exclaimed, "Emily! By the way, today at the library, I was upset because those guys always treat me like I'm a sex icon. I don't want to be that to them. No one ever thinks I mean anything... they think I have the heart of a bitch, and they always think my body and looks are the real prize. Noel Kahn and his friends... they always do that to me. And I'm scared that's all they'll ever think of me— some prize to hook up with."

Emily gave her an apologetic look before saying, "They're crazy. Some day, you're going to find somebody that loves you. Every part of you. Not just your amazing body, but who you are inside. And that person is the luckiest person on earth. I don't know you that well, but I think you're worth much more than that. Whoever gets to be the love of your life... well they're a pretty damn lucky person."