Fuck. Fuck, fuck, FUCK! Emily slammed her hand against the steering wheel and pushed the dark tumbling locks of hair back from her face in exasperation, her eyes locked on the brunette just seconds away from disappearing around the corner. She'd totally screwed that one up. What the hell was she thinking? She'd let herself run away with things, blindsided by a raging, scorching desire that had come out of nowhere and now Jenna thought she was some kind of sex crazed lunatic. Maybe she was. She certainly felt it. Her body was on fire, nerves jangling with unfulfilled physical expectations, her core pulsating and twitching. It should have been her begging for attention, it should have been her pleading with Jenna for one touch, one kiss, one fuck. She groaned inwardly at the thought of what could have been, what she'd just let slip through her fingers. She bit down on the corner of her bottom lip distractedly, her hand falling from the steering wheel and landing in her lap, making its way between her legs, rubbing slowly, insistently against the rough denim fabric that lay against her swollen, throbbing clit. She let her head fall back against the seat, teasing herself gently, her mind taking itself back to just moments ago...

"Em?"

Shit. She'd completely forgotten Spencer was there. Her friend tapped impatiently on the rolled down window.

"Earth to Emily… hello…"

She turned to face Spencer, ignoring the perfectly groomed raised eyebrow that unapologetically questioned both events and her behaviour.

"Hey Spence." She flashed a quick, non-committal smile that would hopefully smooth things over and deflect any further questioning. Who was she kidding? This was Spencer, questioning was what she did.

"Um… what are you doing?"

Emily wanted the ground to open up and swallow her whole. "Nothing!"

If she thought the raised eyebrow couldn't go any higher, she was wrong. It practically disappeared into Spencer's hairline. "Jenna Marshall? I mean... Jenna Marshall?" Her friend looked at her like she was potentially addled in the brain, her voice climbing an octave or two higher from sheer incredulity. "Em, are you deranged? What about Paige!"

Emily looked around sharply in a sudden panic. Anyone could be listening. More to the point, A could be listening. Even worse, Paige might be within earshot of Spencers big mouth. "Fuck's sake Spencer, shut up!"

"Not until you tell me what the hell is going on with you," Spencer said darkly, leaning in through the open window and tapping her finger sharply against Emily's temple. "Have you lost your damn mind?"

Emily batted Spencer's hand away. "It's not what you think…" She trailed off.

Spencer regarded her, unimpressed. "Really."

Emily screwed up her face. "Ok, it is what you think… I mean it is, and it isn't. I'm not cheating on Paige… well not really… well I mean I am… but it's not my fault…"

"Do you even know if you're coming or going right now?" Spencer queried dryly. "Unlock the doors. I'm coming in, and you're going to spill."

Emily groaned, but did as she was told. She knew Spencer well enough to know that arguing with her was a complete waste of time. Spencer Hastings on a mission was as unrelenting and unassailable as the Borg, and as any Star Trek fan worth their salt knew, resistance was utterly futile.

Depositing herself in the seat that just moments ago had held a wet and panting Jenna Marshall, pantyhose around her thighs, Emily's hand against her sex, Spencer dumped her tan leather handbag into the footwell and turned expectantly to face Emily, completely unaware as to why the passenger seat was quite so warm.

"So?"

Emily shrugged. "So what?"

Spencer frowned at her. "Hello. It's me. I know something is up. It's definitely got something to do with Jenna Marshall, and I'm guessing somehow A is involved as well?"

Emily scowled out of the front window, wishing she were anywhere else but here, facing Spencer's interrogation. "When is it not to do with A," she muttered darkly.

"Ha! So I was right. What has that twisted bitch done to you now? And what's Jenna got to do with it?"

Emily leant back in her seat, gazing at the serene neighbourhood surroundings. Someone walking their dog. A couple of kids circling round and round on their bikes, hollering back and forth to each other. The door swinging at The Brew, someone coming out carrying a cardboard tray of hot takeaway coffees. An SUV slowly pulling out from the sidewalk. It all seemed so normal, so suburban, so all-American. And yet it couldn't have been further from the truth. Rosewood held a dark, sadistic secret, a layer of filth underneath this pretty veneer, festering dankness that preyed on her and her friends from darkened corners and dimly lit alleyways, always threatening to reach out and claw their eyes out. A was everywhere and nowhere, all at once, bringing out the very worst in people, herself included.

"Em?" For the second time in as many minutes Spencer broke through her thoughts.

"Sorry." She sighed heavily. "It's all so fucked up Spence."

"What is?"

"Remember I told you about the video tape? The one with me and Paige behind the Aquatics Centre?"

"Uh-huh, yeah I remember. What about it?"

"Remember I said that there was someone else there? That A said someone else had seen us?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, they didn't exactly see us."

The penny finally dropped. "Aaaah… Shit."

"Yup."

"So that was why she was in the car? Is she trying to blackmail you or something?"

Emily winced. "Not exactly."

"What then?"

Emily avoided eye contact with her friend, but ploughed on. If she stopped now she'd never start back up again and she was so sick and tired of all the secrets, all the lies that threw a never ending spanner in the works of her life. "We sort of may of kind of... had sex."

"Whaaaat?" She didn't have to look at her to know Spencer's eyes were wide and her jaw was well on its way down towards the floor. "You and Jenna? For real? You had sex? Emily! What the fuck?"

Emily pushed the balls of her hands up against her eyes, as if shutting out the world meant it might just disappear for good, taking her along with it. "I know!" she lamented. "I know, I know! Believe me, it wasn't what I was looking for."

"But why?" exclaimed Spencer. "You and Paige seem so… so solid!"

"We are!" Emily countered "We really are."

Spencer couldn't help the snort that escaped her. "Apparently not."

"It really wasn't like that."

"Em, you either had sex with another woman or you didn't."

"Spence, it's way more complicated than that. I didn't have a choice."

"You always have a choice Emily."

Emily eyed her friend with something bordering on derision. "Do you want to revisit that phrase Spencer? How many things lately have you had a choice with?"

Spencer caught on to her meaning easily enough, twisting the corners of her mouth and pursing her lips as if she'd accidentally sucked on a bitter lemon. "A?"

Emily nodded. "Yup."

"What happened?"

"A was in my house, in my home, my bedroom. There was some sort of camera rigged up when I got back from school, they were watching everything I did. They gave me instructions over a messenger program on my computer, telling me what to do, telling me to call a number on this burner phone in my drawer. It was Jenna. It was so fucking embarrassing Spence, it was so humiliating."

"So then why did you do it? What would have happened if you didn't go along with their plan?"

Emily's gaze drifted to the young boys wheeling in ever decreasing circles on their two wheelers. "A would have put pictures of me and Paige up all over the school, sent them to my mom, sent them to Paige's dad."

"Yikes."

"Exactly. So I didn't have a choice. I had to. If I didn't, Paige would have been humiliated in front of everyone and her parents would have gone absolutely ballistic."

"I see," Spencer said slowly, mulling the information over. "So what exactly did A make you do? What did you have to say to Jenna on the phone?"

"That's the thing," Emily said sadly. "It wasn't just A making me do it. It was me as well. I liked it Spence. I mean, I really liked it."

Spencer looked at her carefully, keeping judgement to an absolute minimum. "What did you like?"

Emily twisted a lock of hair between her fingers. Was she going too far? Was this too much to reveal? But it was Spencer, one of her closest friends, a confidante. And she had to speak to someone, had to get all of this off her chest. "We basically fucked on the phone. A told me to ask some questions but then I got carried away, I started getting into it, you know? Like, her voice on the other end of the phone, the breathing, her admitting that she liked listening to me and Paige. And Spence, you've got to admit she's one hell of a gorgeous girl. And then A was listening too, A was watching… I don't know… it just really got to me. And I didn't want anything to happen to Paige, didn't want her to get hurt, have the whole school staring at her like she was some kind of sexual freak that gets off on outdoor sex. I've been pushing her boundaries lately, I know I have, I've been asking her to do things that I know she's uncomfortable with but Spence, she fucking does them! Does them for me! She'll do anything for me. And I get a kick out of that too. I mean, it really turns me on. So I keep pushing. Keep pushing her to go a little darker and a little more subversive, you know? And the more we do, the further we go, the more I have to push to get that feeling. It's all so fucked. But then I don't want to help myself out of it. I like it. I like the feelings that I get from it. Is it so wrong?"

Spencer was looking at her weirdly, as if she was some complete stranger. Emily blushed. She'd revealed way too much.

"It's not wrong. I mean, each to their own Em. As long as you're not forcing anyone to do anything they don't want to, we're all consenting adults. If Paige doesn't want to do something, she can always say no."

"Yeah, but I know Paige wouldn't want to do any of this if it weren't for me. And you see, that gives me a kick just thinking about it. She's so fucking submissive! But Jenna…"

"What were you doing with her just then?" Spencer's eyes rounded once again. "Ohhhh…"

"Yeah. But I fucked that up right royally. I got carried away, I thought I could behave like I did with Paige but I couldn't have got it more wrong if I tried. If she could see me I think she might have slapped me."

Spencer let out of long exhalation of breath. "Geez Emily, and there I was thinking you were the vanilla one."

Emily couldn't help laughing. "Not so much."

"So what are you going to do?"

Emily frowned. If she was being honest, she had no idea. She knew what she should do, she knew how she needed to behave. But whether or not she would, could, now that she'd had the slightest of tastes, was a different matter altogether.

"I don't know Spence, I really don't know."