Author's Note: This is an AU with some fun with Spencer, Emily and Paige. Originally this was going to just be about Paige and Emily, but I got stuck on the idea that actually Spencer and Paige would be a better couple, but I wanted some sexual tension so Emily got some fun too. This takes place in the 5-year flash forward time frame with one major difference Emily & Spencer never met Paige in high school. Everybody is still who they are and Paige still had to overcome her life challenges without her relationship with Emily. Paige is out and proud, confidant but never had an Emily. Spencer after her big breakup with Toby had a few flings with women in college and rethought her sexuality and is Bisexual. Oh also Caleb and Spencer is so not a thing. So same personalities just slightly tweaked pasts.
Chapter Note: No sex yet but trust me we are working up to it give me a couple of chapters will ya!
TRIGGER WARNING: This chapter includes talk and some description of what LGBTQ discrimination looks like and in what form it may take with family, strangers and friends. It isn't gratuitous or graphic it is here to tell you these folks been though some stuff and are out the other side. IF you are experiencing anything like the characters I write about pleas seek out help. You are not alone IT will get better!
Chapter 3 -At the Cinema
Paige and a few of her friends waited outside of the theatre for Spencer's arrival & as she pulled up in the Uber she'd hired and slipped out onto the street Paige's friend Clarke whispered, "Woah dude you didn't say it was Spencer Hastings that girl is seriously hot and also apparently involved in that murder that happened recently, plus some odd shit back when she was in high school. Also her mom is like running for Governor or something!" Paige's eyes widen, "Clark I don't know much about her, but we like clicked dude don't ruin this for me. She's my first date since I moved here!" Clarke shrunk back to hang with Julian and Mika while Spencer and Paige said their hellos. Spencer still a bit tipsy from the bar and massage embraced Paige warmly, "Hey Paige with the magical hands hello how are you, thanks for inviting me." Paige was a bit shocked by Spencer's greeting as she assumed she was more of a buttoned up sort of girl and not much for hugs in public. "Hi, um Spencer so glad you could make it, these are my friends."
Paige intro-ed Julian, Clarke and Mika as the only friends she's made in town so far and said even that was a bit of a stretch as Mika & Julian were old swimming buddies from a high school in Riverton about 50 mins from Rosewood where Paige grew up. "So really I guess it's just Clarke they are my only new Rosewood friend." "Um, I beg to differ Clarke and I are your only new Rosewood friends!" Spencer said with a smile and hello to each of Paige's friends. Clarke shook her hand and said, "Awesome! New friends are always welcome in this film loving crowd, especially since half the time Julian and Mika were to busy making out to even talk about the films afterward!" Everybody laughed and Spencer was feeling good about all of them so far.
They started to walk in and Spencer went to go get her ticket when Paige stopped her, "Oh no I already bought your ticket or rather actually you already bought your ticket with the tip money so you are good to go!" Paige said smiling and offering her arm to Spencer who took it gently giving her a squeeze for good measure. "You are quite the charmer, Paige," and she kissed her on the cheek as a reward. The other's had stopped at the concession stand to get popcorn and drinks and asked them to go save them seats and as they sat down Spencer decided to confess her slightly intoxicated state. "So, just a small confession I was super bad after my massage and had a few drinks with a friend instead of the tons of water you suggested so I've gotta tell you I'm just a tad bit smashed."
Paige laughed out loud bit and it was beautiful to Spencer's ears, "Well that explains it! Yes you are bit bad, but I have some water here in my bag and plan on maybe taking you out for a later meal after the movie,that is if you want." Paige was gauzing right into Spencer's eyes and Spencer couldn't help but to be charmed again, "My my you think of everything, you are ridiculously charming. I could just live in those eyes Paige." And bold as you like Spencer leaned in and kissed her hard and strong, right as Paige's friends walked in. Clarke cried, "Oh no they've started too, now no one will talk about the movie afterward with me." Again everyone chuckled and found their seats.
Paige put her arm around Spencer and Spencer cuddled in close taking the water bottle Paige pulled out for her to rehydrate with, they sort of held each other throughout the whole movie adjusting only slightly for comfort. Unlike Mika and Julian they saw the whole film and only starred at each other once when Barbra Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray met for the first time and use speed limits and fast driving as a metaphor for the flirting they are doing under the surface of polite conversation. Once the credits rolled, Spencer was feeling soberer but hungry and the 5 of them sorted out where to go. There was this farm to table restaurant called Feed Me that Paige had been dying to try and the rest seemed totally into it too so they all walked the 4 blocks and found themselves being seated at an odd round booth table in a secluded area of the restaurant. 20 min later they all had drinks, food and were talking animatedly about the film.
"Barbara Stanwyck is like one of the best Film Noir actresses ever, she is so realistic in her acting, you just believe her. None of the artiface of some of the other actresses she is that dame Phyillis" Spencer said to general agreement from everyone else. "I just love that film Billy Wilder's direction, Edward G Robinson as an insurance claims adjuster just awesome," Julian says. "The plot twists and the intricacies of murder, its like 'what not to do' when you wannakill someone." Paige joked. Spencer eyes flashed over Paige wondering just for a moment if she was making a pointed comment about murdering someone, or if it was just talk about the film. "I think it is the best thing about Film Noir the murder rarely gets away with murder and if they do it always has a cost of some sort." Paige continued, "It's like life. You have to be willing to risk something to get something and you have to take responsibility for your actions regardless of whether you want to or not because your deeds are always apart of who you are."
Mika pipes up, "Woah there Spielberg don't get too deep with us, remember some of us only saw parts of the film tonight!" everybody laughs at the truth of her statement. Julian and Mika barely separated the whole time like some sort of Olympic make out event. "No really Film Noir is very moralistic," Paige says after everyone calms down. "Agreed," Spencer says, "those who commit crimes or step outside of moral boundaries are punished for them. I wish the same was true of real life." It was a conversation stopper, and Spencer could tell. Mika and Julian shifted in their seats, Clarke took a big drink of their beer and Paige looked down for a minute. Spencer did too, and sort of rubbed her head and breathed in deeply, "So I take it you all know WHO I am, yep I'm that Spencer Hastings... Me and my friends are involved with the woman who was recently killed, Charlotte & her sister Alison DiLaurentis is an old friend of mine who went missing for many years only to be found alive… Oh yes also my Mom is now a State Senator... That pretty much covers the common knowledge stuff any questions?" Spencer tried to say this with as much confidence she could, but it never failed to throw her when her past caught up with her and ruined the future.
Everybody was quiet while Spencer talked, but then Paige said, "Spencer it doesn't matter to us we aren't judging you. Everyone here learned a long time ago that judging people especially our friends doesn't work, not just for them, but for us too. If you want to talk about it we are here, but you don't have to if you don't want to. Believe me this group of friends is a super safe space." Paige finished her speech and everyone nodded in agreement echoing her sentiment. Spencer leaned over and kissed Paige in earnest right on the lips to funny whooping calls from Julian, Mika and loudest of all Clarke. After dinner the group broke up for the night, Julian and Mika went back to their house and Clarke back to their apartment down town a short walk from the restaurant. Spencer and Paige decided to go for a walk to talk and get to know each other just by themselves. "Sorry I got all serious back there I'm not usually that blunt with the thing happening in my life, it's just that I'm extremely used to people in this town looking at me and my friends with a certain amount of fear and loathing in their eyes and I just wanted to get it out in the open before it became a thing." Spencer said trying to apologize and yet hold back all the rest there was to tell about her life here in Rosewood.
"No need for sorry Spencer, it seems like you get a lot of shit for being you and dealing with your life. Darlin' I get that, believe me. My home town of Riverton was tiny, much smaller than Rosewood and much more rural. Also I meant what I said about me and my friends not judging you, cause we've been through some of the worse shit and have come out the other side stronger and more open to other people's issues. "Oh ok how do you mean, what type of things did your guys go through, I mean if you don't mind me asking, I'm just interested cause you four seem really tight and really awesome." Spencer said as they turned up Joy street to head towards the heart of the town. "Well I guess I can tell you some of it, but the rest you'd have to ask each of them to talk about. Let's see so Julian and Mika have been together since high school and were nearly beaten to death after they came out. You might have noticed Julian's like slight limp it's from her leg getting crush by some people who didn't want "queers" in our town. After I saw what happened to them I was too scared to come out, but was outed by a horrible person who was I guess like the "Queen Bee" of our high school. She made my life hell teasing me and taunting me, playing games with my head. Like once she even tricked me into thinking she actually was in love with me but it was an elaborate scheme to out me to my parents. I was kicked out of the house and my Aunt Helen took me in she raised me for a year until after lots of therapy and PFLAG meetings that my parents drove 3 towns over to get to they finally accepted me and I moved back home. Though I wasn't allowed to come out, nor did I want to really due to what happened with Julian and Mika. It wasn't until college that I felt free to be myself and you know like date girls, but it took a long while to be comfortable with myself and lose the fear of being rejected by family or physically hurt by the world." Paige said to a fairly stunned Spencer.
Paige continued as they sat on a bench in the town square, "Clarke though, they have had it rough they get tons of shit because they are non-binary. Clarke was kicked out of their home at 15 because their parents couldn't handle not just their sexuality, but all the gender issues that spring up from being non-binary. They have had no contact with their parents for 7 years and have had to build a whole life for themselves without any family because their parents blocked Clarke from seeing their siblings and the extended family won't have anything to do with them as well. The gender stuff is really hard for many folks to wrap their heads around; I mean even Mika didn't get it when they first started being friends. It took Mika a long time to get the lingo, but most people don't even try or want to accept that Clarke is just Clarke. Sometime they wear dresses and get really horrible looks and things said to them because of that massive amount of facial hair and it can be hard for them here. For a long time, they wanted to move to a big city and hide in the amenity of it all, but they just realized that it was another level of hiding who they are and they couldn't do it. So they came to Rosewood where odd ducks aren't a dime a dozen, though there appear to be more than meets the eye," Paige, gently nudged Spencer with her shoulder sort of putting the two of them back in to physical contact again and Spencer wanting more of that scooted a bit closer. Paige took note and turned a bit more towards Spencer, "Ok anyway Spencer all of that, the brief look into our stories is just to tell you really we & I get it and no matter what's in your past or whatever is going on now, I can handle any and all you wanna share. I am not gonna judge you or run away. Yes, people in this town talk, and they talk about you and your friends, but I don't care or even listen to that mess. Just don't worry what I think of things like that because I know we all have stuff to deal with and so do my friends." Paige finished touching Spencer's hand that was resting on her leg and holding it.
Spencer was taken aback by all of it, the support that Paige was showing her and all that had happened to her and her friends. It was a lot to take in, but the knot that had been in her chest since she got to Rosewood was loosening and all she wanted to do was be with Paige as long as she could tonight. They continued on their walk stopping by the Brew for late night chai something Spencer usually did not go in for as she was strictly an extreme coffee girl, but Paige tempted her to try it to her surprising delight. They made a few loops around town talking about everything getting into who each other was, but also why Spencer was back in town and why Paige took the job at RELAX & how ironic their bold lettered sign was. Spencer gave Paige the brief abridge backstory on Alison, the other girls, A slash Charlotte and Charlotte's murder. Paige listened patiently and asked probing questions without being to nosy, Spencer shared as much as she dared to and Paige never seemed too overwhelmed or frightened of the whole situation, just in awe of Spencer and her friends and their strength. Only once did Paige seem a little nervous and that was when Spencer mentioned Jenna's name and told her about her going blind and her involvement in what happened to her and her friends, but that nervousness passed. And she was right there with Spencer for the rest of her story. Spencer spoke about Toby and all the teenage boy drama and how in college she really opened up to who she was and realized she was more into women than men, though she didn't like to label things. Paige talked about her random series of girlfriends that never seemed to fit or that she bungled due to her naive attempts at a relationship or the fact that her college swimming schedule meant she never had time for dates or girlfriends as well as she struggled to find herself identity as a young lesbian from "the sticks," at college.
They held hands walked around town for hours, and went back to the seats on the bench in the town square where they stayed for a long time and shared some extremely passionate kisses. At one-point Spencer thought perhaps she should tell Paige about Emily and about the possible something that was maybe starting between them, but honestly there wasn't really a good opening in the conversation to mention it because they just flowed from one topic to another, but also she didn't want to scared Paige off or make her think she was unavailable. On top of all that Spencer felt like Paige had her own orbit, drawling her in irresistibly so she wasn't really thinking about Emily like that, she was only thinking about Paige. Just as they were walking back to the restaurant to get Paige's car Spencer stopped them in their walk and pulled Paige as close to her as possible, grabbing the back of her neck while Paige put her arms around her and squeezed really tight. "Paige," Spencer said between kisses. "Yes Spencer," Paige pulled back slightly to see her. "Will you take me to your house and put your amazing hands on me again?" "Um yes, as long as you return the favor like you said you would in your cheeky note!" "Sold," Spencer said slipping out of Paige's grasp to walk to the passenger side door where Paige opened it for her and she slid to the seat waiting on Paige to take her home. Paige was so excited by this dark haired beauty she drove the quickest route to her house and as fast as she could without being pulled over by Rosewood PD.