A/N: boomer84: I'm basically incapable of writing "teeny, tiny" chapters LOL. I wish I could, because I love people who write short chapters where everything is condensed and making sense. This fic is getting really complex for me, I think I try to cover too many things at once! But, yeah, I think I got your point so thank you! SpemilyForever: great name, by the way, totally agree with it! Thanks. I got sick but then I had fun too! elmopll: "Spencer's cuteness is cute" LOL. I do try to work on showing they are pretty different but somehow complete each other. Not always, though. God, your fic. I must recommend it: people over there, you're probably reading it already, but please check out Red Ones if you haven't yet read it. I'm not gonna explain why, just go there and read IxHeartxGlee: thanks for the good wishes. There's Hanna and Aria's tease here, although I'm not sure they're as funny as I'd like them to be. LaughLoveLiveXx: I'm glad you liked the Nana's couch joke :D And, yeah, that last part of the conversation: I want it to have a really deep meaning. One that they can't even imagine yet. Because, you know, sometimes we say things but we're not sure about what we're really saying. sieamberc: thanks so much for your review, especially the "delicate" thing because, hell, I like that adjective and it made me feel good. Some chapters take longer to write than others. It's getting more difficult now, so I won't update so often. I take note of your suggestions: we are going to see them fighting against all their problems, "changing" and evolving thru the fight, but I'm bringing slow, progressive big drama and they won't always be able to hold on to each other. I hope you guys won't hate me. If you do, just remember it's a Spemily fic and Spemily means true love. But, overall, I hope you won't get bored (the ones who're still reading). That's my main concern. leahmarie17: thanks! I take note of that suggestion too! We did see Emily's perspective on, ahem, sex in chapters 5 and 17, but maybe we need more or in another way? I'm thinking about it, and will take it into consideration when the next M-chapter comes... Maxi-Luca: you didn't write but I miss you!
People steadily rushed from one class to another in the crowded halls, stopping by to greet or chat or grab coffee during the break, an explosion of life behind closed walls. People like Emily and Spencer. People like other people. Still in the first week of school, everybody was excited, skins slightly tanned, voices too pitchy, bodies too warm and playful while they held the last remnants of the summer. Swarming, bursting in energy after the bell rang, laughter and screams crashed against the walls and travelled through the air of the halls, the rumour becoming strident and strong, louder than it would get during the rest of the year, when the mood would cool down and become a persistent hiving sound prepared to resist the changes of temperature and the successive pass of days and weeks and months, of lectures and homework and exams. The summer was still fighting to stay, subjecting everybody to its magical spell: teachers as well, making them a little too slow and a little too smiley while they greeted the students or grabbed coffee for themselves to drink it quickly on their way to the teachers' room. Summer wasn't dying without putting up a fight. But summer would first turn into a memory, then into a dream until next summer arrived.
Spencer wasted some time saying hello to her former Russian History teacher, whom she stumbled into when she left her French class on her way to meet Emily.
Emily herself was gracefully galloping to her locker to retrieve a forgotten book before meeting Spencer in the waiting line to the cafeteria.
She opened her locker and quickly placed the Calculus book on her backpack, intensely concentrated on her actions before galloping away again, when she felt a familiar presence around. Familiar, but not overly familiar and indeed kind of blurred after two months of not seeing each other regularly, still recognizable, she looked up knowing she was going to find Paige MacCullers by her side, her hair longer now and her skin golden like everybody else's.
She instantly smiled as a greeting, in an automatic, naturally learned gesture, and Paige smiled back shyly when their eyes met. They hadn't talked since early that summer, and Paige hadn't yet returned to swim practice.
"Hey", Paige said.
"Paige, hey", Emily greeted directly. "What's up?"
"Adjusting", Paige answered, shrugging her shoulders in a laid-back manner but offering a bright, somewhat confident smile. "Just like everybody else, I guess."
"Yeah, you bet", Emily agreed while closing her locker. She wondered nervously if Spencer was already waiting in line, and couldn't help catching herself looking over Paige's shoulder to hopelessly get a sight of her girlfriend in the middle of the crowd, but she wasn't there and Emily felt instantly guilty both about Spencer's potential waiting and about Paige's expectant look in front of her. "How was your summer?"
"It was great, thanks", Paige replied, then smiled a little more awkwardly, as if realizing her presence needed some kind of justification beyond small talk. "I hope yours was too."
"It was really good, yeah", Emily said, sunnily like the summer that had just gone by. "What did you do? I haven't seen you around for ages."
Small talk would do for a second before excusing herself, Emily thought.
"Yeah, I know", Paige accepted, wondering about the best way to actually direct the small talk towards the real topic why she'd approached Emily. She wasn't that good at small talk anyway. "I'll tell you more later. If we have time."
"Yeah, 4.30."
Emily thought this was her cue for escaping at the very moment they both heard the type of cough that was a sign of someone calling for attention.
As if Spencer Hastings needed to cough in order to claim attention back to her.
Her imposing, composed presence was always more than enough, and Emily's face instantly lit up in a kind of harmonic response at the unexpected sight of Spencer. This didn't really surprise Paige, because she'd already seen this sort of reciprocal lighting-up facial work-out that happened to both of them whenever Spencer started coming to pick up Emily at swim practice right before the summer. Anything she thought she saw when Emily was dating Maya… well, it wasn't exactly like this. Especially right now. This, right now, was a brighter light than the one Paige had seen before, back when Emily dated Maya but also back in spring, when she realized Emily and Spencer weren't "just friends" anymore. This, right now, felt stronger somehow. Maybe it was because of the impact the summer had left on their bodies, although most probably it was because they were, right now, in that stage when they were all smiles and sparks around each other. There was definitely more light than the last time she'd seen them together; and Paige felt almost blinded by the sight of the sparks flying, but also suddenly pushed far away in the hall, as if she'd been sucked out of the scene because she didn't belong to it; which she didn't, actually, even though she was there to say something to Emily.
Having already been caught in a couple of occasions, always in the pool though, in the middle of the light these two shared, Paige knew what was going to happen next, and so she turned a little in Spencer's direction in order to greet her: there she confronted Spencer Hastings' infamous death stare, briefly cutting her skin like a winter wind before acquiring that warmer, softer shade that was only for Emily when her eyes naturally rested back on the taller girl's face.
"Hey, Spencer", Paige greeted.
"Hi."
Spencer sounded polite but hardly amiable.
"Did you go to the cafeteria?", Emily asked Spencer, suddenly oblivious to Paige's presence, " cause I was going there now."
"No, I ran into Mr. Sheldrake", Spencer quickly replied, slightly invading Emily's personal zone without really leaning in for a kiss, because she wasn't totally sure she'd enjoy it in front of a stranger. "And then I saw you here."
Emily's comfort zone lit up even more after Spencer's invasion, as a natural result of their progression to cosmical love.
"I was afraid you'd be waiting."
And this was when Paige knew she had to flee, although she'd actually approached Emily for a concrete purpose.
"Em", Paige called, feeling guilty about the interruption and instantly receiving a death sentence in the form of a glance after the use of the shortened, highly intimate name. "Sorry to interrupt."
"No, it's fine", Emily replied, realizing Paige's presence again. "I'll see you at 4.30, right?"
"It's actually at 5", Paige finally managed to blurt out. "Coach told me to tell you so you can tell everybody else. Something came up and… whatever", she rambled, Spencer's death sentence less deathly now, "I ran into her and she told me to get you and tell you."
"Oh, okay", Emily smiled, "thanks. I'll text everybody. Is she all right?"
"I've got no clue", Paige tried to laugh it off, knowing it was time to leave. "Anyway, I'll see you there later, okay?"
A nod confirmed it, followed by the verbal articulation. "Yeah." Then Paige MacCullers said goodbye to both of them and left, disappearing into the crowd, expelled from the movie of their lives.
"Em", Spencer called out softly, still watching the crowd where Paige had disappeared, "since when does she call you that?"
Emily, who was also looking into the crowd, fixed a mocking, warm gaze back on Spencer, a extremely light-hearted death sentence hanging on her eyes too.
"She doesn't call me that."
Spencer returned the gaze, no death sentence; only a light, happy heart.
"She just did."
"Would it really kill you to be nicer?", Emily replied instead of answering the question.
Paige didn't usually call her Em. She'd probably just blurted it out without realizing.
"Yeah", Spencer smirked, twisted smile and all, "I'd be instantly struck down and killed by an abdominal aortic aneurism, and you don't want that."
Emily rolled her eyes very slightly, trying to figure out if you could die instantly if you were struck by something with such a long name.
"Sometimes that's exactly what I want."
Spencer chuckled, taking a fake offense at the same time.
"Wishing me a sudden death? Are we grumpy today?"
But Emily didn't look grumpy. She looked just… plain gorgeous.
"No", Emily replied, grabbing Spencer's hand in a subtle move, "I'm not asking you to like her, I'm just saying you could be nicer."
"I was nice", Spencer defended her position, "I said hi. That's pretty nice, in my opinion. I don't get that from a lot of people". Emily rolled her eyes again, which only worked as fuel to Spencer's joking habits. "Some people lick my boots when I walk by, but others plainly ignore me, you know. And it hurts so much I cry all through the night."
Another, more evident eye-roll followed after Spencer's gross attempt at whiny sarcasm. However, no matter how many exasperated eye-rolls Emily could dedicate to Spencer, sparks were flying out of her and Spencer saw them too.
"She has a name, you know. There's no need to kill her with your eyes every time you say hi."
"I don't kill anyone with my eyes", Spencer half lied, shrugging it off.
Her death stare was a gift from nature and she wasn't giving it back. And it wasn't as if someone actually died from it, unfortunately.
Emily approached her more, making sure of an intense proximity between both of them so she could use her recently acquired superpowers. It was true she wanted Spencer to be nicer but, mainly, she did it because it was cool to put her powers in motion like this. She could never get tired of exercising that kind of influence over a person like Spencer, especially if other people were around to act as distant witnesses of it. Already feeling the stolen glances at their mutual invasion of space, she just stayed there, even though she wouldn't normally like that kind of attention dedicated to her.
"I'm the captain of the team and you're my girlfriend", Emily explained, her tone soft, her sweet breath slightly touching Spencer's ear, "and she's in the team. Now you have an obligation."
"I have an obligation because you're the team captain?" Spencer blinked, actually giving it some thought. Emily's powers did work, after all. "Or because I'm your girlfriend?"
"Both."
The well-known lop-sided smile revealed Spencer's pleasure both with Emily's argument and near presence.
"Do I have to be nice to everybody you have an obligation to?", she asked for clarification, but mainly because she wanted Emily to keep working her magic.
"Yep."
Spencer laughed a little.
"Okay then. I guess I'll say her name next time."
"I knew you'd come into your senses."
"What are you gonna give me in return?"
"A cookie?"
Spencer laughed again, this time drily, although if she were truly a dog she'd be undoubtedly moving her tail in expectation. Since she didn't have a tail, though, she leaned against Emily's locker wondering about how much longer she'd have to wait for a kiss, wondering if she should just lean in and steal it despite the enormous amount of people who were passing by.
She decided on subtly hinting at the kiss with another joke.
"So what were you doing here?"
Emily leaned against her locker too and stared at Spencer, delighted with the game.
"I was picking up a book."
"And what else were you doing?"
"I was… preparing to run my guts off to the cafeteria to find you."
"Really?" Spencer raised her brows, pleased with the results of her interrogation. "And why would you do that?"
"Because we said we'd meet there."
"Hmmmm", she hummed thoughtfully. "And why was that?"
"I don't know", Emily teased, running out of ideas. "To get a kiss, right? Is that it?"
"Gotcha", Spencer laughed, leaning in now to steal a quick, chaste kiss on the lips.
It was so quick and chaste it went almost unnoticed not only to the general population of Rosewood High but also to Emily.
"Is that all you want?", Emily asked, feigning seriousness.
"That and coffee."
"You don't ask for a lot."
"I'm low maintenance."
Emily gave a little, knowing smile. "Sure."
"What? You don't think so?"
"No", Emily replied confidently, much to Spencer's surprise. "What about me?"
Spencer was caught off guard by that question, still thinking about Emily's denial of her low-maintenance condition as a girlfriend.
"What about you?"
"I want a bigger kiss than that", Emily said, tugging at Spencer's sleeve to signal she was actually expecting something else.
They both hesitated, though, at least until Spencer tugged back and they started walking towards the restroom, which was now deserted because most people had already fled somewhere else after crowding it in the first minutes of the break.
As soon as they entered the restroom, wordless communication took over. A brief glance to herself in the mirror, Emily checked everything was okay with her appearance, even more than okay, because this time she had to admit she was kind of glowing, while Spencer checked there was no one in any of the three free cubicles. Then they checked each other out before smiling and entering one of the cubicles together, the most distant one from the door.
Spencer pinned Emily against one of the walls in the narrow space.
"So I'm not low-maintenance?", she murmured, looking into Emily's eyes. "What are you trying to imply?"
"I'm trying to imply you're high-maintenance", Emily joked, also in a whisper.
"Funny", Spencer reiterated, parting her lips for the deeper, bigger kiss Emily had solicited. But she broke it off soon to keep on talking, because there were ideas on her mind. "The way you put it, I'm easy but I'm high-maintenance. You don't make any sense. I should be easy, which in careful consideration also means easy to content."
"You're easy in certain ways", Emily teased, trying not to get into a big mess, "but you're hard to please in other ways."
"Where's the hard work when I only ask for a kiss once in a while?"
"It's here", Emily replied mysteriously, softly nipping Spencer's lips with her teeth. Then she decided to explain. "You said we had to meet after every class. And that requires a lot of hard work and time and dedication on my part."
Spencer had insisted they both had to see each other in between classes, even if it was for two minutes, a brief chat and a quick kiss. Her reason was that she couldn't focus if they hadn't talked before, which Emily found totally adorable, albeit strange. But she liked those little breaks too, even though she had to keep running from one class to another and then to the next one to be able to do everything she was required to do in time. She was lucky they shared three classes this year.
But, between that and the ever-growing set of dating rules, Emily thought she could actually state her high-maintenance point pretty convincingly.
"You're the one who likes to be kissed in certain, very specific ways", Spencer tried to argue, her knees already weakening at the feeling of Emily's teeth on her lips, "and in certain and specific places."
Emily frowned, a little confused.
"Which places?"
"This is a restroom."
"Yes", Emily paused, "where you came."
Oh, double meaning.
Even though Emily meant it innocently, because it'd been Spencer who led the way to the restroom after Emily said she was expecting a bigger kiss, Spencer blushed furiously in shame and pleasure at the remembrance of Texas.
Emily giggled in late realization.
"Would you like me to do something now?"
Emily couldn't keep herself from being a little wicked, and she moved her hand down to Spencer's knee, although she didn't have the intention of sneaking it up at all. She just did it for the tease. Besides, Spencer was wearing pants today.
"I'd like you to stop it", Spencer pleaded in her raspiest voice. Then she took a deep sigh. "You're gonna make me flunk all my classes. Are you prepared to take the blame?"
"Yeah", Emily agreed, even though she wasn't prepared to take the blame at all.
She was still nipping and nuzzling Spencer's lips when Spencer decided it was time to deepen the kiss again, and so their tongues slightly brushed and played inside their mouths.
A few minutes passed. They lost count of the time. Even of any other sounds.
All the while Emily fought herself to actually keep her hands quiet, away from falling into the temptation of exploring Spencer's free skin. It was hard to resist, especially whenever Spencer let out a very subtle, delicate sigh against the kiss. But her thing with restrooms was over. It was over. Especially at school, it had to be over.
"Seriously", Spencer repeated throatily when they stopped to breathe, "I won't make it to an Ivy League college like this."
"Weren't you settled on Princeton?"
"My parents are settled on Princeton, but I'm not settled on anything right now", Spencer playfully complained. "I might go to Hanna's college to attend fashion design for all I care right now."
"Hanna's college", Emily repeated. "Aria should go there too. They probably offer a whole study on feather designs."
"Aria's gonna study Art. Or Psychology. Or Literary Theory", Spencer said. "And I already gave her that belt."
Emily smiled, satisfied to know the feathered belt Spencer had bought at the beginning of the summer had finally found its most natural place in the world: Aria's closet.
"Good girl", she applauded. "Anyway, I'm the one who's gonna flunk all of my classes if we keep doing this. Remember I'm dumber than you."
"You can come to Hanna's college too."
"You think?", Emily said, contemplating the possibility. "I don't have the same sense of fashion you guys have. They won't take me and I'll have to go… Where will I go? Lesbian school."
"With me", Spencer concluded as the most obvious thing.
"You're going to Hanna's college", Emily argued. "But I have to study something. Can I get rich with a degree in Lesbianism?"
"I'll bring you to Hanna's college with me and Aria", Spencer insisted. She didn't like the idea of a Lesbian school where Emily would go alone. No, she detested the idea. "I'll teach you how to sew your own clothes."
"Boring", Emily concluded, nipping Spencer's chin now. "No. I'll have to find something else. Or else I'll stay in Rosewood forever. Ugh."
"Sewing isn't boring."
"Did you hear the bell already?", Emily asked, a little concerned they might've missed it.
Spencer denied with her head, so they went for another kiss, which they were already deepening when they jumped at the sound of a singularly sweet and melodious voice.
"Ladies", the oddly familiar voice singsonged, "I think you should stop having sex in a public restroom."
And that was how Hanna's college drove them back to Hanna's voice as well as to Hanna's actual existence.
"Shit." Spencer opened the door, already scowling at Hanna before even seeing her face. "Hanna, you almost gave me a heart attack."
The blonde smiled at them from her position against the washstand, the back of her head reflected in the mirror, flooding the room with a multiple effect of blond curls.
"Dead while having sex in a restroom", she deadpanned, "that's a good end for you, Spence."
"We weren't having sex", Emily protested, scowling at Hanna too from behind Spencer's back. "We're just kissing."
"You didn't sound like just kissing", Hanna replied, scowling her best mock scowl too and grabbing Spencer's hand to drag her out of the restroom. "You guys should be more careful. Anyone could hear you. Even A could hear you."
She tried to sound serious now, as if she was really concerned about it. Which she was, despite the fun of actually (finally!) catching these two in a seriously compromising situation after so many months of fruitlessly trying to walk in on them. Woohoo.
"Even A?", Spencer asked sarcastically. "A's probably hearing everything anyway." She looked up at the ceiling and saluted at an invisible figure with her hand in the air. "Hey, A. Fuck off."
"So I'm right", Hanna whispered in a rather loud way.
"You're not, cause there's nothing going on."
Hanna crossed her arms now and stared first at Spencer, then at Emily.
"You were having a pretty heavy make-out session in there after the bell rang", Hanna finally explained, all serious and concerned now, "and you were talking about… things I wish I hadn't heard."
"The bell rang?", Emily asked in horror.
"What did you hear?", Spencer said, feeling a certain kind of horror too. "We were whispering."
"If that's the way you whisper", Hanna whispered loudly again, "I'm not surprised A always knows what we're gonna do next."
Spencer took offense in that.
"Oh, funny, funny, look who's talking now. The girl who spies on her noisy heels."
"At least I don't whisper about flunking classes while I'm having sex at school."
"Hanna", Emily called out, "we were not having sex."
"But you wanted to."
"No!"
"What did you hear?", Spencer asked again, mainly alarmed about the restroom-sex part of the conversation.
"All the way from my college, thank you, is it really mine? Like, does it have my name and all?" Hanna mocked, then continued reciting. "Aria's feathers too, Spencer's sewing clothes. Oh, and you flunking all of your classes, Em, which you're obviously gonna do if you keep skipping them to get your degree in lesbian-sex-in-the-restroom."
Emily's eyes went incendiary, as well as the rest of her face.
"We were not having sex in the restroom", she repeated, already high pitching, "we are fully clothed."
"But you wanted to", Hanna winked again, clearly enjoying Emily's increasing scowls and glares. Emily had gotten so easy to tease lately, while Spencer had progressively gotten more immune to her jokes. Not totally immune, though. She could still make her tremble sometimes. Or make her ears talk in red. It was a shame she was wearing her long hair down today. They were funny when they both blushed at the same time. "By the way, thanks for sending me to fashion design. I appreciate that as a proof of real friendship."
"That was me", Spencer said, "and you're welcome."
"Where's that Hanna Marin's Fashion College?", Hanna asked, looking at Spencer now. "Students will be allowed to have sex in the restroom."
"Jesus!", Emily cried out in despair. "I'm going to class."
She initiated the movement to leave, but Spencer shot her a pleading, sheepish look.
"What?", she asked in a completely different tone.
"My coffee."
"We can't go for coffee now, Spence, we're late", Emily explained, "but I'll get you one after class, okay?"
High-maintenance: now she had to run after a class she was already late for, grab coffee, and take it to Spencer's next class. She should get a degree in Pizza And Coffee Delivery instead of in lesbianism, maybe, if she ever made it through senior year.
Hanna shot Spencer another mocking glance.
"Don't worry, Spence, she'll give you more caffeine kisses in…", Hanna checked her watch, "half an hour."
"God, are you serious?" Emily's eyes opened wide, wondering if Hanna was right about the time. "I'm leaving."
She planted a brief kiss on Spencer's cheek and ran out of the restroom after slightly glaring at Hanna one last time.
"Look at her running away."
"You made her", Spencer scolded Hanna. "What time is it really?"
"We're only five minutes late."
"I knew you were lying."
"The bell rang anyway."
"And why aren't you in class?", Spencer asked, fixing her hair while she looked at herself in the mirror.
"Because I caught you guys making out and that's way funnier."
Spencer rolled her eyes, but not really. As long as Hanna had not caught any part of the conversation about the restroom "sex", she was safe.
Suddenly, the door flung open again as Aria entered the restrooms too. Big eyes flashed in both curiosity and outrage.
"What are you guys doing here? Bell already rang."
"And why aren't you in class?", Spencer repeated.
Besides, Aria's next class was with Emily. What was she doing here?
"I just saw Emily wildly running to class and she told me you guys were here."
"Did she look scared?", Hanna wickedly asked.
"No, but she looked stressed", Aria answered, not really knowing what Hanna meant. "She was also a little weird with me. Did something happen? Is it A?"
"No, it's not A." Hanna was quicker than Spencer to offer a reply. "It's Spencer and Emily making out in a restroom."
Aria's big eyes went bigger with the comment, but she looked at Spencer for confirmation.
"We were just kissing", Spencer calmly said. "It's no big deal."
"I heard moans."
"Oh, come on", Spencer retorted, while Aria almost covered her ears and Hanna laughed.
"Okay, I didn't hear moans", Hanna took it back. "But some stuff was going on in that restroom and you can't deny it."
"Do you want a microphone to announce it to the rest of the school?"
"Yeah, have you got one?"
They looked at each other in defiance, but they burst out in laughter right away.
"Why was Emily acting weird?", Aria asked now, trying to figure out the clues.
"She wasn't weird", Spencer explained, "she was just pissed at Han."
"She was pretending to be pissed at me", Hanna gave her own explanation, "but she was a little too horny to make me believe it."
"Han!", Aria exclaimed, somehow acting as Emily's defender.
Horny and Emily were words that might go together in the same sentence whenever there was a private situation between Emily and Spencer, but they weren't words Aria needed to hear together in public. She had a vivid imagination. And she didn't need to picture that kind of thing, even if she knew it was a reality.
"It's true", Hanna replied, shrugging her shoulders. "Look at Spencer. She's smiling. She knows I'm right."
Spencer's mouth did indeed show the slightest shadow of a forming smile. But she wasn't going to admit it.
"I'm not smiling."
"You are."
"You are!", Aria exclaimed again, her pouty lips forming an O. "Em's gonna kill you if she finds out you're actually laughing at Hanna's jokes."
"I am not laughing at Hanna's jokes", Spencer slowly protested, "and she's not gonna find out because, if she does, I'll make sure you two die right before me."
Thus, the matter was settled. No one would squeal.
Although Spencer was indeed kind of laughing at Hanna's jokes. First, because nothing was really going on in that restroom. Second, because Hanna was sometimes kind of funny. Third, and more importantly, because she was happy. Maybe being happy was what made her think Hanna was funny. Everybody was funny in their own way. Aria was funny when she covered her ears and defended Emily. Emily was funny when she glared at Hanna and blushed, giving too much away. Hanna was funny when she desperately tried to push all the buttons at once to see which one would make them blush. Everything was funny. Emily was funny. Life was funny. School was funny.
Shit, school.
School was funny in a completely different way. School was funny when you got to listen to the teacher. Oh, how she used to love school before she started making out in restrooms.
They had to go to class.
Spencer pushed Hanna on the back and grabbed Aria's arm to force them to get out of the restrooms. Once they were out, the three of them flew off in all directions, each one to her own class.
In her Psychology class, Emily was already quietly sitting when Aria entered the class and received a scowling look from the teacher. It was the first week of classes and so that would be all. She sat a couple of seats in front of her and surreptitiously turned around to wink at her. Emily smiled back, and then continued taking notes as the lecture progressed. Only five minutes before the class ended, when Emily was already mentally collecting herself to initiate her run to grab Spencer's coffee and meet her in the next class, which was a class they had together, thankfully, her phone vibrated in her bag. Ever since she started dating Spencer, she wasn't putting the phone on mute mode, just in case she received love messages of one or another kind. Maybe it was Spencer declaring her love for her and coffee. Maybe it was Hanna apologizing (sure) or rather asking for whatever favor. Maybe it was… damn, she just remembered she had to text her teammates about the change of hour.
She subtly got the phone out and placed it under the desk, betting on Spencer, love and coffee.
"Did you believe it'd be so easy for you to get away? You really are the sweetest one. Don't tell Spencey I said hi. – A"
This was an unexpected blow, because she wasn't really thinking about A right now. But she blinked away the tears that came to her eyes and mentally kicked herself in the head for being unprepared, when they always had to expect this type of texts, no matter how much love or coffee were filling their lives. Slightly dumbfounded and a little scared, she opened the attachment. A picture, taken by a phone, of the first page of her HGH report, the one Wren stole from the hospital, the one Wren erased from all the records. A had his/her/its own copy. Had probably had it all the way since he/she/it sent Emily to the hospital with an ulcer that forced her to get her blood tested.
No, Emily hadn't really believed it'd be so easy to get away. She wasn't that foolish.
But she'd had to give it a try. She'd allowed herself to believe maybe, for once, it could be that easy.
You fool.
You idiot.
You, the sweetest one.
And now she was back at the starting point. Everything was futile. Nothing ever worked. Life, their lives, hanged again on a thread. Her life hanged again on a thread. And if she pulled out of that thread, she might just slip and fall with all her life and her baggage and the rest of her, face on the floor.
But she had to try.
She moved uncomfortably in her seat at the very moment the bell rang again, signaling the end of this class. Everybody around stood up and started to move. Laughter and screams crashed the walls, traveled the air of the halls.
Summer wasn't dying without putting up a fight.