Like she did before, Emily grabs the spare key and enters the house as silent as she can manage.
As soon as the brunette closes the door behind her, she can't help but feel like an intruder. Before, when she came in here, at least she had notified the blonde she was coming but now, it feels like she's in a bad place, where no one has invited her here and she feels nothing but guilty.
''Guys'' Hanna says in a guilty voice when Emily is out of sight and inside the house. ''Don't you think we should have told Emily the truth?''
At that, Spencer's and Aria's heads turn around so fast they almost fall off their shoulders, and, while the shortest girl looks kind of ashamed, the cleverest one tries – and fails – to hide the same look, and instead gives the blonde a determined one.
''What do you mean?'' Spencer inquires. ''Everything we've told Emily was true. We didn't make up anything.''
''I think-'' Aria starts to say calmly ''-what Hanna means…''
''Hanna knows what Hanna means'' The blonde snaps.
The two brunettes roll their eyes at their friend's comment and then Spencer decides to follow the little game.
''What do you mean then?''
Hanna's body relaxes visibly and she shakes her head slightly before looking at her friend directly.
''I mean the whole truth.''
As soon as the words come out Hanna's mouth, the three girls remain silent looking at the floor, wondering if they should have warned the swimmer.
Emily grimaces at the squeak she hears as she walks on the first step of the staircase. She swallows hard and keeps going. Her heartbeat increases as she approaches the door that leads to the blonde's bedroom. She's not sure if she can handle the view of Alison's bedroom all messed up and of Alison's body itself. When she looked through Spencer's window, the blonde looked so small, so fragile, so breakable. Nothing to do with Alison she used to know: all big, all proud of herself and all tough.
Just as Emily's hand is about to push the door wide open, her phone starts to ring. The brunette curses her bad luck and gets it as soon as she manages.
''What?!'' She yells-whispers.
''Get out of there!'' Hanna screams.
''I haven't even…''
''Alison has just got up and is coming your direction! Run for your life!'' The blonde says before hanging up.
Emily rolls her eyes at her friend's demand because it's not like Alison's going to bite her head off if she finds her standing there. But as she's aware of the blonde's hard footsteps she decides to – as cliché as it sounds – run for her life. Because maybe, just maybe… the blonde is so angry that she will bite her head off.
Emily hasn't got time enough to exit the house besides; Alison would hear the front door close and she would know someone's been there. And Emily's sure Alison would connect the dots pretty quickly. So she runs to the living room and hides behind a couch, hoping her girlfriend won't decide to sit there.
''Do you think she got caught?'' Aria asks her friends. The six eyes never looking away from the window.
''I think we should know by now if that was the case.'' Spencer states.
''Yeah'' Hanna adds. ''Alison would have thrown something at Emily and would be screaming.''
They all look at each other for a brief moment before Spencer's phone vibrates, signalling she has a new text.
''I'm trapped in the house. She's coming downstairs. What do I do? – Emily.''
Spencer shows the text to the other girls before they quickly discuss what Emily's next move should be.
''Stay hidden. We're coming to your rescue. – Spencer.''
Although they can't see Emily's reaction, Spencer could guarantee to have heard Emily's groaning from there.
She groans as she heads downstairs to get some water and a mop (and a vacuum, and a rag, and a garbage bag….) to clean the mess she made.
She knows she may have overreacted a little bit but, at that moment, she wasn't able to think. She just wanted to smash and crash, and cry and sob. She had felt awful, and she still does. But hey, it isn't her fault! She already felt terrible when she first got home, thinking that Emily had cheated on her. 'Is she from our school? Is she another blonde? Or maybe a brunette? What has she got that I don't? Was she gentle when she touched Emily?' Those were some of the many questions lingering on Alison's brain. Some of them sent terrible waves of pain to Alison's heart, and others made her whole body shake, thinking that another girl could have touched Emily, like she used to; that someone else could have made Emily scream and shake, like she used to… and those thoughts made Alison want to puke.
When she laid on bed and closed her eyes, everything she could think of were Emily's laugh, Emily's dreamy eyes when she spoke to her, Emily's excitement when Alison proposed her to do something together, like a real couple; Emily's dark eyes when Alison teased her and they ended making out and later dragged each other to bed, where they showed how much they loved each other. Alison also thought of the way Emily hold her when they slept together, not wanting to let her go. Holding her protectively, like nobody had ever done before. And now Alison felt as if all of those moments, had just faded away. Like if she had lost all of them.
She didn't know when she did fall asleep, but at some point she did. Only that she was awoken by a pair of hands resting a blanket over her tiny body and pressing a single kiss on the top of her forehead. She didn't need to turn around to know who it was, and she felt both relieved and uncomfortable.
And when she got that damn text… she completely lost it. She doesn't know what got into her but… she lost it. And now she had to clean up the mess the made.
As she reaches the last step on the staircase, she could have sworn she heard a sound. It sounded like… like…
''Like somebody tripping.'' Alison murmurs. She holds tighter the tiny knife she's carrying with herself, you know, just in case as she starts walking slowly towards the kitchen.
When she finally gets there, she pours some water on a glass because crying that much leaves your body dry. Once she's satisfied, she collects all the items she needs to make her room look kind of decent again and when she turns around, she notices it's dark outside so she places the objects on the floor and starts to close her curtains. When she's done she freezes in place because she sees a shadow running around her house and, since she promised herself not to be weak anymore, she grabs her knife again and throws it from her window towards the suspicious person who seems to just have exit her house.
That person is slightly far for the blonde to recognize them, but not far enough for Alison's knife to stick into their thigh. She watches carefully as the figure falls to the ground with a loud groan leaving their lips and she smiles satisfied.
''If you can enter my house with that ease, you can take a tiny knife with the same ease too.'' The blonde smirks before adding: ''Bullseye, bitch.''
And, while Alison feels satisfied with her shot, someone in the distance is injured.