Hello my awesome readers! So I've been receiving a few reviews asking questions about more back story to some of the things Paige and Emily are thinking to themselves as well as some things that have been mentioned in previous chapters, don't worry! I'm piecing it all together within the next several chapters.. I guess the way I'm going about it is you guys will find out when the girls find out at their respective times.

There are LOTS of little details strung throughout the first five chapters already.. some you may have forgotten about already. But they will not be forgotten! I'm sure many of you have also noticed that my chapters don't move very fast through time. That wasn't how I intended it to happen when I first came up with this story idea, but once I started writing, and kept writing, that's what has become of it, but hey, at least that means I'm nowhere near finished with this!

Thanks for hanging in there with me. It took me so long to update the last chapter because I initially wasn't feeling it, and I was not going to post something that I didn't feel good about, but I seemed to have cleared that hurdle because I'm back on track with where I'm taking the story.

Thanks for your patience. And a big thanks to my new followers. You guys are the best. I keep writing for you. (ALL OF YOU FOLLOWERS!)

Also the reviews bring constant smiles to my face. Thanks for the awesome feedback, my reviewers give me that little extra bit of motivation when I need it. If you read something you like, tell me, if you read something you don't, tell me!

Alrighty, well enjoy this next chapter :) I updated so soon due to how long it took me to get Chapter 5 up.

Paige greeted Emily with a "Hey."

Emily's eyes quickly averted their gaze from Paige's tiny bit of exposed flesh to her eyes. Eyes that Emily already loved looking into. They were the perfect shade of dark brown. They were extremely warm and inviting. And they made it almost impossible for Emily to collect her thoughts because she felt like she was melting under Paige's stare.

Emily responded with an overly excited "Hi" and a stupid grin she couldn't wipe off her face.

It must have been contagious though, because Paige was now smiling back.

"It's kinda cold out there. Did you want to come in?" Paige asked with raised eyebrows and expectant eyes.

"Yeah, sure. Thanks."

Stepping inside, Emily reached her hand up and pulled down the hood of her sweatshirt. She ran her right hand through her hair and tousled it around. She had hoped it would prevent her hair from looking too weird after having her hood on for so long when her hair had still been drying.

Emily took a brief few seconds to look around from where she stood in the entryway. Immediately she thought that the inside of Paige's house looked like it had been decorated by Martha Stewart herself. A hallway made its way from the front door to the back of the house where Emily assumed the kitchen was as well as possibly the living room. The staircase was almost immediately to the right of the front door. And at the top of the stairs directly in front of them was a door that was half cracked.

Probably a bedroom.

There was a railing bordering left side of the staircase that eventually angled ninety degrees to the left at the top of the stairs and connected with a separate wall creating an inside balcony hallway space that probably led to the rest of bedrooms. Emily always figured it probably made it easier for people to yell down below to the lower level of the house when they needed to.

The wall, that followed the stairs up on the right side, ran parallel to the railing and was lined with numerous family pictures along the way up the staircase. To the right of the bottom of the staircase was what she assumed was an office space. It wasn't well lit, and two French doors closed this space off, but from what she could see there was a large wooden desk and several well stocked bookcases. To her left was the family room and in its back left corner sat a grand piano. Emily wondered if anyone played.

Paige gently shut the door behind Emily while locking the dead bolt as well as the handle. Emily had the habit of doing the exact same thing to her door when she was home.

Paige walked a little ways away from the door and towards the side of the stairs by the railing. She leaned against it with her left shoulder, facing Emily, and her back now facing a side table that had a few picture frames resting on it.

Emily was still standing off to the left side of the now shut front door facing Paige.

"So did you find my place okay?"

"Yeah, I recognized the street once you sent me your address. I didn't expect your driveway to be so long though."

"Ah, yes. It makes for quite the trip just to grab the mail and newspaper. But I guess it's not so bad if I plan mail pick up around my run workouts or if my parents pick it up on their way back from work."

"Ha, I would imagine that could be quite a bit of hassle just for the morning paper."

"Hence, the reason we often read the newspaper in the evenings." Paige smiled at Emily.

"I don't blame you one bit."

At this moment Emily noticed one of Paige's tank top straps was twisted a couple times on her right shoulder, without thinking Emily took a step forward towards Paige and untwisted it, allowing it to lay flat against Paige's shoulder. She then let her hand drop back down to her side.

Emily and Paige were now inches apart. Paige's slightly longer than shoulder length hair smelt of strawberries and some sort of citrus fruit. It was obvious she had showered not too long ago because Emily saw that her hair was still lightly damp. It was the first time that Emily noticed Paige's hair was a beautiful auburn color as opposed to the brown she thought it was when they were talking by the poolside.

Paige seemed to have been taken by surprise by Emily's small act because she stood upright from leaning on the railing and took a slight step back.

Shit, why did I do that?

Emily was worried she had just made Paige uncomfortable.

The step back caused Paige to hit into the side table.

"Shit." Paige hissed out.

With the slight bump of her body, one of the picture frames had knocked over and both Emily and Paige reached for it at the same time. Emily's hands met the object first and Paige's second. Paige's left hand was almost directly on top of Emily's. Paige's contact with Emily's hand sent shivers up Emily's spine that eventually led to her having a hot face.

Paige hesitantly released her grasp on the frame; Emily now held it completely in her hands. Turning the frame over and flipping it upright Emily took a minute to examine the picture.

It was a family of four captured in the picture she was staring at. Paige was probably three to four years younger. She was standing next to a handsome teenage boy that was about a good foot taller than her. She could see that they had very similar features in their faces, no doubt they were related. The only difference she could spot was that he had bright blue eyes and a darker shade of brown colored shaggy hair. His body looked like it might have had the build of a swimmer. A woman and a man, Paige's parents she presumed, stood to the other side of the boy. In order from left to right, it was Paige's father, her mother, the boy and then Paige. They were wearing similar outfits, all of them in navy blue tops and khaki pants. They looked extremely happy and Emily couldn't help but smile as she continued to look at the picture.

"This is a really good picture of you." Emily stated looking up at Paige making eye contact with her.

"Oh, uh. Thanks." Paige answered in a slightly surprised tone of voice.

Emily saw Paige's face turn the slightest bit of pink before she looked down at her feet. Paige had a habit of looking away when Emily complimented her or when, Emily guessed, she felt embarrassed.

"Is that your brother?"

"Yeah. Mark. We were three years apart."

"You guys look a lot alike."

"Yeah, we used to get that a lot from people when they saw us together. He used to be a swimmer too actually. He was really good."

Emily noticed Paige kept using the past tense when talking about him.

"Well I think it's a great picture of you both and your parents." Emily said sweetly while returning the picture frame back to the table and took a few steps back to put a safer distance between herself and Paige. She really wasn't sure if Paige had freaked out when she fixed her strap or if it was just a weird coincidence that she took the step back into the table.

She had wanted to know more about Paige and her brother, but figured Paige would tell her more when and if she wanted to.

"Oh, and speaking of swimming, here."

Emily reached out her hand that held Paige's goggles and swim cap.

"These are for you."

Paige met Emily's hand with her own and grabbed onto the goggles and cap. Their hands made the tiniest bit of contact and it sent an almost electric pulse through Emily's finger tips. She began to crave more contact. It was an amazing sensation that she wanted more of.

"Oh yeah, thanks so much for dropping them off. That really means a lot."

"No problem. Turns out you're only about a fifteen minute drive from my place."

"That's convenient."

"Yeah, turns out you've been closer to me than I ever knew."

Paige held a smile on her face and kept eye contact with Emily.

"So are you home alone right now?" Emily asked.

"Yeah, my dad is working late again tonight. He has a new business deal that almost fell through earlier so he's doing what he can to get it fixed. He's normally only home all day on Sundays so him being gone all day Saturday isn't anything new. My mom went out with a few work friends after she dropped me off at home from practice."

"Ah okay."

Emily saw that Paige was fidgeting with the goggle straps now.

"How's your leg feel now?" Emily asked.

Paige reached down to her thigh and rubbed it.

"Oh, it's great, wouldn't even have known it was bothering me earlier."

"Good, I'm glad."

Emily wasn't exactly sure but she sensed that Paige might not be in the mood for talking right now so she figured she'd give her a way out.

"I guess I should go now."

Paige looked up with a face that looked full of disappointment.

"Oh, please don't, …I—I mean. My folks won't be back for a while. I'm home alone. I wouldn't mind the company, unless you have something to do, or somewhere to be."

Emily felt a slight rush of excitement. She held her eye contact with Paige and smiled happily.

"No, no I don't actually. I was just going to be a couch potato at home. I'd love to keep you company."

"Great. Awesome."

Emily watched Paige as she came away from the side table and started to walk down the hall towards the back of the house. She had no choice but to follow. Paige's sweatpants were low enough on her hips and her tank top trailed high enough up her back that Emily could spot the dimples on her lower back.

God, that's so hot.

Even with Paige's sweatpants hanging slightly baggy, Emily had an amazing view of her nicely toned butt. And she was relishing it. She did everything in her power to ignore the dirty thoughts that kept forming in her mind and to stop herself from giving into the urge to throw Paige against the wall and kiss her hard. Emily was so ridiculously attracted to Paige that it was causing her to want to do things she never once would have thought about doing with a girl she'd only met earlier that day. But there was an undeniable attraction that she felt between them and she was almost at a loss of what to do about it. She knew though that it was way too soon to make any rash decisions. It could completely ruin any chance she may have with Paige. And she was willing to wait out her suffering until the right time.

Paige walked them into the living room and took a seat on her large brown suede couch. She leaned forward and placed her goggles and swim cap gently on the coffee table that sat in front of her. Emily had been so busy watching Paige that she had forgotten that she was still standing off to the side of the couch.

"You can sit down if you like. I promise don't bite that hard." Paige joked while patting the sofa cushion next to her.

Emily let out a small nervous chuckle and took a seat next to Paige but made sure to maintain a respective distance.

Paige crossed her legs in front of her which actually caused her right knee to be just inches from Emily's left thigh. Taking her eyes off the small amount of distance that separated their two bodies, Emily looked up at the television and noticed that a documentary about gorillas was currently on.

Paige must have noticed Emily's attention on the television because then she said,

"Oh, ha. Yeah, I'm a bit of a nerd. I watch a lot of documentaries. I think they are so interesting. I figure if I'm having a lazy moment and watching TV, I might as well learn something from it. Did you know that western lowland gorillas are considered to be critically endangered? Their population has fallen by more than eighty percent in three generations. It's also estimated that three hundred gorillas are poached each year in the Republic of Congo an—oh gosh. Sorry. I'm rambling, you don't really care."

Paige was looking at Emily with a face full of embarrassment. She bent her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around the front of her shins while resting her chin in the space between her touching knees. Her gaze was now focused on the TV.

"No, no. I care. Really. You shouldn't have stopped. I didn't know any of that." Emily said.

Paige brought her head up from its original resting position and looked over at Emily.

"Ha, you're just being polite."

Emily smiled at Paige to reassure her. She was actually interested in what Paige had to say. She wished Paige had kept talking because she found it to be extremely cute to see Paige slightly worked up over something. And she couldn't help but adore her voice. It had this dangerously low, yet subtle smokey quality to it that Emily thought was extremely sexy whenever she heard her talk.

"No, I swear I'm interested. Tell me more." Emily said as she turned her body facing Paige completely and slid closer to Paige. Emily's left leg was now bent, resting on the couch cushion, her shin parallel to Paige's side. Her right leg was draped over the front of the couch seat cushion and maintained her foots planted position on the floor.

Paige's eyes lit up and she smiled widely. "Well, this documentary in particular is really neat because Natalie Portman is in it. I love her. It's an Animal Planet documentary called Saving a Species Gorillas on the Brink. It actually won an Emmy. There was a point where she was only about five feet away from an actual gorilla. It was nuts. I mean can you imagine. That'd be so surreal to me."

Emily loved Natalie Portman too, but she figured Paige probably just meant she liked her as an actress. Emily found Natalie to be extremely attractive as well as a fantastic actress. There was a difference and she wondered if maybe, just maybe, Paige liked Natalie Portman the same way she did.

"That's really neat. It's always nice to see famous people doing things for a good cause. She's trying to help educate others about this problem and she's giving a voice to animals that can't actually speak on behalf of themselves. She has a pretty big fan base, I'm sure it's helping to get others excited about the cause too."

"Yeah I was thinking the same thing and she's genuinely eager to do what she can to help raise awareness. I don't know, she just seems like a really neat person."

Emily and Paige proceeded to talk between commercial breaks and enjoy each other's company as the documentary continued to play on the TV. It was extremely easy to talk to Paige and Emily was glad she was finally seeing a more relaxed side of her. Their conversation never got too deep, it mostly consisted of making fun of some of the commercials or talking about new movies they were looking forward to seeing in the coming months.

Emily noted that Paige was sarcastic and had a fairly dry sense of humor. She was constantly catching Emily off guard. It was refreshing to be kept on her toes and not know what to expect from the other girl. They continued to share lots more laughs throughout the evening and Emily noticed she had been smiling so much that her cheeks were actually starting to feel sore.

As the night went on Emily realized that Paige was a mystery that she wanted to solve. But while Emily was finally finding interest in someone else, she just worried that there wasn't a single chance the girl would be interested in Emily as more than friends.

By the time the documentary had come to a finish, Paige was now sitting on the floor with her back leaning against the middle of the couch. Her arms were relaxed in her lap and her legs were stretched out in front of her under the coffee table. Emily had taken the opportunity, when Paige deserted the couch, to stretch out across the entire couch laying flat on her stomach with her head resting on its side on top of her crossed arms.

Emily wasn't sure if her proximately to Paige had made her uncomfortable or if Paige really did feel more comfortable on the floor like she said she did. She tried not to read too much into Paige moving off the couch.

Paige turned her head towards Emily's and asked,

"Are you thirsty or hungry?"

"HHHmm, I guess I wouldn't mind a glass of water actually. I didn't hydrate much after that unplanned race we had."

Emily eyes were level with Paige's lips. She couldn't help but wonder what it might be like to kiss her lips.

Paige jumped up and in doing so she managed to bump her left knee on the edge of the coffee table.

"Son of a bii—scuit! Ow, ow, ouch. That's definitely going to leave a bruise" Paige whimpered as she started to hop up and down in place and then began rubbing her hands over the spot on her knee that Emily guessed had been bumped.

Emily adored how clumsy and accident prone Paige was. She thought it was extremely cute. Earlier, she initially thought Paige was just letting her down easy when she offered to help her out of the pool, but as evening had progressed, she could easily tell Paige was being totally and completely honest about her clumsiness.

Emily gracefully got off the couch and grabbed Paige's elbow to guide her over to the coffee table. She beckoned her to take a seat on top of it.

"Wait here, I'll grab some ice. Do you have any plastic sandwich bags?" Emily asked.

"Yeah, but it's fine I can grab it on my own." Paige whined.

"No, I'll do it. Stay seated."

Paige let out an exaggerated breath of air and responded with "Fiiine."

Emily could tell Paige was either fiercely independent or that she wasn't used to having people do things for her or take care of her. Emily was hoping to change that.

"They should be in the second drawer over from the sink." Paige called over to Emily who was rummaging through cupboards and drawers in the kitchen to find a baggy.

"Found em" Emily called back.

It only took her a couple more minutes to fill the bag up with some ice, seal it, and then grab a paper towel to wrap the bag with.

Emily made her way back through the kitchen and into the living room where Paige was still seated on the table with her leg stretched out and her hands rubbing her knee still.

"Here." Emily said handing the bad of ice to Paige.

Paige placed it on top of her knee and rested her hand over it. Emily looked down and let out a small amused laugh.

"You realize it'd work better if you rolled your pant leg up, right?" She asked Paige.

Paige looked down at her knee and then up at Emily with a face that looked as though she realized Emily was right.

"Here, I'll do it, if you don't mind." Emily stated more-so than asked.

She knelt down on the ground and started tugging on Paige's sweatpants leg guiding it up her shin and then eventually above Paige's knee. She folded it once more so it would stay in place. She took a second to glance and study Paige's new injury and without thinking, started to lightly run her fingers over the red swollen spot on her knee.

"Ow-that tickles." Paige let out.

Emily snapped her hand back as soon as she had thought she might have been hurting Paige.

"I'm sorry. Sorry. Wait, why did you say ow if that tickled?"

"Ha, I don't know. It's a little tender but you touching it tickled. My brain didn't know the proper words to use to react to the sensation." Paige said shrugging as she placed the ice on her now bare knee.

"Brrrr- and that feels really cold."

Emily laughed. "Well that is the idea."

"Oh shush" Paige said while swinging her free arm out to playfully hit Emily.

Emily, of course, was ready for this and threw her hand out to stop Paige from actually hitting her.

"Cat-like reflexes, remember?" Emily teased as she still held onto Paige's forearm.

"Maybe I should take notes." Paige said in a serious tone of voice.

Emily laughed and released Paige's arm before it might have become too weird and took a seat on the ground leaning her back against the couch as she faced Paige.

"Oh and I should definitely start taking notes on your ways to cover up the slipping of profanity. Son of a biscuit, really?"

Paige smiled sheepishly and caused Emily to shake her head at Paige and laugh some more.

"Listen, I don't want to be a buzz kill or anything but I feel as though I owe an explanation to you."

"What about?" Emily asked with a puzzled look.

"Well, why it was so important to me that you dropped my things off tonight. Why I couldn't wait."

"Oh, um well, only if you want to. You don't have to tell me anything you aren't ready to."

"I guess I feel like it's better to talk about it now so it doesn't come up as a surprise later."

"Okay."

"You probably already noticed how beat up those goggles are," Paige started as she turned and looked over her back to the goggles that were still sitting on the table where she had left them earlier.

"...they were a gift. From my brother."