Emily gazed at herself in the bathroom mirror, slowly, methodically and rhythmically applying lip balm, lost in a daze.
"Earth to Emily, hello!"
She snapped back to consciousness to see Spencer peering inquisitively over her shoulder.
"There'll be none left at that rate."
"Huh?"
"Lip balm. You must have put half a tub on."
"Oh." She snapped the lid back on the small metal container and chucked it absentmindedly into her bag.
"Kissing."
"What?"
It was Hanna's turn to interject into her daydreams. "Kissing, you've been doing a lot of kissing. It makes your lips sore."
A snort from Spencer. "You'd have to do a hell of a lot of kissing to warrant that amount of balm."
"Well maybe she has!"
"Hello! Still here!" Emily reached into the depths of her purse, fishing around for the black eye liner before carefully applying to the rims of those deep, brown eyes. Eyes that someone could just about fall into, she's only just recently been told. She stared into them herself and wondered if you could perhaps commit suicide by drowning in your own depths.
"So things must be going well with Paige then," Hanna continued on regardless. Emily shot her friend at look through the reflective glass as she traced along her lower lash line with her mouth half open.
"Mmhmm."
Hanna rolled her eyes dramatically. "Spill the beans, Em, how's it going?"
Emily dropped the liner in her bag and smacked her lips together one final time before turning to face the three of them. "Fine, it's fine, we're all good, thanks for the ongoing concern."
She knew what they were all thinking; that Paige was, had and always would be simply a substitute for Maya. Perhaps they were right. It had crossed her mind more than once. A lot more than once. The fire she'd felt with Maya, the way her body had responded when they'd kissed, when they'd made love, the way her brain had almost completely left the building and she'd been able to lose herself in Maya's touch – it just wasn't there with Paige. She had feelings for her, yes of course she did, otherwise she wouldn't be with her, she wasn't that much of a bitch; but it just wasn't the same. Would anything ever be the same, would anyone? She sighed loudly without realizing. Hanna opened her mouth to say something further but Aria, ever the sensitive, cut in.
"C'mon Han, we're going to be late for English."
"Fine," Hanna grumbled, checking herself one last time and rummaging her hair to perfect the tumbling, tousled look that took ages but frankly, in Emily's opinion, looked like she'd just fallen out of bed.
The four of them left the bathroom, walking past the lockers and through the melee of students shoving and pushing to get to class.
"Brew after school?" asked Spencer, as they reached the corner and prepared to go their separate ways. Yes, the general consensus. Emily nodded to the rest of them and wandered over to the science department.
She really wasn't in the mood for school today, even less trying to fathom some sense of the periodic table and random elements that in all honesty, only served to remind her of Breaking Bad. If that wasn't boring enough, she also had to put up with that small bundle of irritating energy otherwise known Mona for her lab partner. The inane, constant patter that issued from her mouth was, Emily imagined, akin to what prisoners subjected to Chinese Water Torture must have suffered. It was never ending, and battered at her brain like an annoying woodpecker that tap, tap, tapped away. Sometimes Emily would close her eyes and imagine whatever random science experiment they happened to be working on going wrong and blowing her midget partner away.
"Did you finish your assignment?"
"What?" Mona's voice pierced through her thoughts and bought her back to the real world.
"Your assignment, did you finish it?"
Mona had already donned her plastic lab glasses and was peering up at her, a minute vision of loud patterns, over-sized earrings and gleaming white teeth. What a change from the librarian slash church-mouse she'd been just over a year ago.
"Yeah, I did, it's in here somewhere." She pulled out her science book, the dog-eared bunch of papers crammed into the middle. "It took me ages," she huffed.
"Me too," agreed Mona sagely. Oh please, thought Emily. After Spencer, Mona was probably the cleverest girl in the school, even though she did her damned best to hide it. She'd probably torn through those chemical equations in 5 minutes flat. It had taken Emily the best part of two hours to even wrap her head around them. Funny how some things just came so naturally and others needed so much work.
15 minutes later, she was brain deep trying to understand some garbled mess of an equation up on the board. Letters, numbers, cosigns, molecules, this to the that to the other, it made no sense whatsoever. She'd tried sneaking a couple of peeks at Mona's work, but that girl seemed to write her notes in fucking riddles, plus trying to figure it out sideways on and at an angle just made her head hurt. She wished she were sliding through the pool, cutting through the water like a fish, totally at home and at ease. In the water, everything fell into place; it came easily as speaking or walking or breathing. In the water, she knew who she was, what she was doing, what she was all about. She would have rather tried to lay eggs than do this nonsense. She sucked on the end of her pen thoughtfully, and tried to disassemble the random crap in front of her. It was at that point that Mona nudged her sharply with an elbow, practically forcing the thin plastic shaft up into the roof of her mouth.
"What the fuck Mona!"
"Isn't that your phone?" her lab partner hissed.
"What?"
"Your PHONE."
She'd been so lost in the sum that she'd failed to notice her cell vibrating busily in her bag, which had begun to jolt across the work bench with each manic buzz and was now in danger of crashing to the floor.
"Fuck!"
"Language Miss Fields!"
Emily grabbed the handle before disaster struck, and smiled apologetically up to the top of the room.
"Sorry."
"Phones off during class Emily, you know that."
"Yeah sorry, I totally forgot."
The teacher turned her back and carried on assisting someone on the front row.
"That was close," smiled Mona conspiratorially.
Emily shot her a half-hearted smile back. "Yeah, thanks." She opened the top flap of the bag and pulled out her phone. Turning her back on Mona, she punched the button.
AND I WASN'T THE ONLY ONE WATCHING… KISSES, A
A… For fucks sake! She felt like throwing her phone through the window. Watching what? Why was it all so damn cryptic all of the time? She was about to shove the piece down in her pocket and forget about it until after class, when she noticed an attachment under the main text. Fingers shaking slightly, she tapped the small paper clip and held her breath. Seconds later, it was all she could do not to vomit.
There, in all its grainy glory, was what could only be described as a static money shot. Paige, her head thrown back, mouth open, the whites of her eyes, fully naked, Emily knelt down on the ground, her hand deep inside Paige's pussy, her face buried beneath her thighs, clothes strewn around the ground, completely and utterly laid bare for everyone to see. Fuck! Fuck, fuck, FUCK. Paige was going to kill her.
"OMG!"
Emily whirled round, clamping the phone to her chest. "Mona!"
Mona's eyes were wide open, mouth agog, leaning forward in her chair.
"So that's what you do on your lunch break," the smaller girl said, her eyes dancing with dangerous amusement. "I guess it's still technically eating out."
"What I do is none of your damn business!" Emily snapped back angrily, shaking with frustration.
Mona backed off, hands up, palms facing. "Ok, ok! Calm down. Jeez!" She looked at Emily curiously.
"Everything ok ladies?" The teacher appeared at the end of the workbench.
Mona flashed her an easy smile. "Of course! I'm just explaining to Emily part of the equation."
The teacher frowned. "Emily, you must figure these out by yourself, it's not fair to take advantage of Mona sitting next to you. Do I need to separate you?"
Emily was about to nod vigorously but Mona interjected before she could even think. "We're fine, honestly. I was only helping her understand how things work, I wasn't giving her the answer. That wouldn't really help her now, would it?"
Emily glared at Mona through angry side eyes. The brunette just flashed her another one of those irritatingly wide smiles. Emily imagined herself wiping it out with just one quick flick of the wrist. The teacher seemed suitably satisfied and wandered off.
"Paige is one lucky girl."
Emily gripped onto the phone, her knuckles whitening at the pressure. "Fuck off Mona."
"Sorry I spoke," she retorted lightly, twirling her pen between her fingers and returning to her own work.
Emily screwed her eyes up and ran her hand through her hair nervously. She was going to have to tell Paige. If she knew A at all, that picture could end up taped to every single locker in school and if she didn't give Paige the heads up, the other girl could potentially go ballistic. She'd had previous first hand experience of Paige's temper and was not willing to go there again under any circumstances. She hated A with every fiber in her body.
In the shock, the confusion running riot in her brain, the fact that someone else other than A had been watching her had momentarily escaped her attention…