Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my ideas. Everything else belongs to the creators of Pretty Little Liars.

Hello! Is anyone still there? I have always planned to finish this story, even all these years later, but I've had to revise it as I feel it no longer distinctly represents my voice. I can't promise when I'll update, but I will even if no one is still reading it. Thank you if you are! You have the patience of a Saint.

Emily POV

It was impossible not to be mesmerized by her beauty. The way her lips curled into a radiant dimpled smile, that if sent in your direction could warm even the coldest of hearts. The way her blue eyes twinkled rivaling the sparkling nature we only attribute to the stars above us. Her golden locks effortlessly flow down and frame her face. I would love to say it gave me butterflies, but I couldn't attribute what I felt to a simple flutter. It more so resembled a herd of rhinos recklessly running. I was in love. A love that expanded my chest. A love that causes my heart to stutter. A love that caused my face to flush. A love that made me smile. A love that made me cry. An unrequited love. The thing they never tell you about love is that as easily as it is for you to love someone, it's just as easy for them not to love you back.

By the age of twelve I knew that I was different. While girls often giggled and blushed as they talked about the Sean Ackard and Noel Khan's of the world, I couldn't help but notice the Maya's and Courtney's. Something about girls always felt infinitely more right than boys. Though, I wish I was 'normal' because then I wouldn't be in love with my best friend. Alison DiLaurentis. The Queen bee of Rosewood High. The envy of all girls and fantasy of all the guys and some girls.

Rinnnnng…Rinnnnng…Rinnnnng

The abrupt ringing of my alarm stirs me out of my thoughts. I look over towards the blinking numbers displaying 5:00 AM and groan as I cut the alarm off. Yet another sleepless night thinking about someone I can't have. Why do I torture myself? I swear I must be a secret masochist or something.

After laying in bed for another 20 minutes just staring at the ceiling I finally get up, stretch and head into the bathroom. My eyes immediately close after turning on the light due to how bright it is. Once I finally gain the ability to see again I can't help but notice how red my eyes are and how tired I look. Just great.

I turn towards the shower and turn on the water hoping that I'll at least look a little bit alive afterwards. Once I finish my morning routine I look in the mirror, I've had worse looks, grab my keys, bookbag, gym bag, and head downstairs to the kitchen to grab an apple and fill up my water bottle before I head out to swim practice.

Just as I start to make my way towards the door I hear my mother ask "Emily is everything alright." In my rush to get out the door I didn't even notice that she was sitting out the kitchen bar sipping on some coffee. Definitely need more sleep.

"Yeah, everything is fine. Why?" I asked my mother, putting a smile on my face to top it off.

"Nothing, you just seem quieter these days and you look like you haven't had sleep in weeks. Are you sure everything is fine?" My mother is persistent in her line of questioning. I swear her job at the police station has done more harm than good. At least for me.

"Yes mom. I'm sure I'm fine!" I say, getting a little annoyed at her line of questioning only to feel guilty a second later. She has no idea what's going with me. She's just concerned. After taking a deep breath I continue "I'm sorry mom. I'm just stressed because of swimming." My number 1 excuse. Swimming does get hectic, but that's not what's been keeping me up. But it's not like I can say sorry mom, just another night of me thinking about Alison DiLaurentis. Oh, you didn't know I was gay? Oh you want me to leave now, but what about dad -.

"Emily!" My mother says now standing in front of me with her hands on my shoulders. "Are you sure that's all it is?" She finishes worriedly.

"Yeah mom I promise." I say crossing my fingers behind my back. "It's just swimming."

She stares at me for another moment before gently patting my cheek and resuming sitting in her seat.

"You work really hard Emily. How about you do something fun this week?" She says with a look I don't quite like. "Like what?" I responded.

"Oh, I don't know. How about you go out on a date with that nice boy, what was his name again?"

I looked my mother in the eye, slightly clenching my jaw. "You mean Ben Coogan."

"Yes, now there was a nice boy. Why did you two break up again?" She says slowly sipping her coffee as she waits for a response.

I can only sigh as I look at the ground trying to calm my thoughts. We have had this conversation repeatedly since Ben and I broke up. She doesn't understand how I could let such a nice boy go. I don't think boys who are actually nice wait until you're done with swim practice and alone in the locker room changing so that they can catch you half naked and force themselves on you. I will never understand how she could like someone like Ben, but not see how sweet Toby is. Exhaling slowly I finally manage to speak.

"Mom, I'm not interested in Ben anymore, can you please drop it!" I don't give her a chance to respond. I head outside, throw my stuff in the back seat before finally getting into the driver's seat. I pull off letting out a frustrated sigh.

I reached the school fairly quickly and parked by the swimming natatorium. I grab my things and head towards the door Coach Fulton leaves open for us to get into the school since no one else is crazy enough to be here this early. As I enter I see some girls already changed and stretching by the pool. I put a little more pep in my step as I make my way towards the locker room to get changed. There are more girls in here getting ready. I make sure not to look at anyone as they are changing. I tend to either look at my locker or some abstract point, probably more intensely than I need to.

After years of experience I'm able to change rather quickly and already have my hair up to put my swimming cap on. I exit the locker room and make my way towards the stretching girls and join in. More girls join and it isn't too long before Coach Fulton is blowing her whistle signaling us to line up and begin our exercises in the pool.

The cold water rushes through me and I am encompassed by a calming sensation. When I'm here it's as if the world and its problems are washed away. I can, ironically, finally breathe. It reminds me of how I feel when my dad hugs me. When I play the guitar and am able to sing a melody as if I'd been singing it my whole life. Or the moments I spend with Ali. The true Alison. Not the façade she puts on in front of the world, but the loving, caring and happy person she is behind closed doors when it's just the two of us.

Coach Fulton blows her whistle again and we get out of the pool and dry off as she details our upcoming match against Ravenswood. It's an important match. They got the better of us last year, leading to us not being able to go to the championship meet. I wasn't on the team at the time, but I know a lot of the girls are looking to rectify that loss. I also know a lot of them are depending on me to be some sort of secret weapon. As Coach finishes what I think was supposed to be a motivating speech, I head to the locker to take a shower and get ready for the rest of the day.

I go to meet my best friends at our lockers, which happen to be next to each other this year. Something tells me Alison had something to do with it as she did that little smirk of hers when we first noticed at the beginning of the school year.

As I make my way through the crowds I finally see the girls. Aria Montgomery, Spencer Hastings, Hanna Marin, and… Alison. Holy fuck.

My mouth suddenly dries and I forget how to breathe. She was dressed in short shorts that looked like they just barely qualified as being such and a yellow halter top. Her favorite color, though everyone assumes it's pink. I can't seem to control my eyes anymore as they unrestrainedly run up and down her body. Her sexy body. Her glorious body. Oh, the things I want to do to that bod-.

"Em my eyes are up here." Alison says, interrupting my thoughts with a smirk on her face. Almost as if she knew exactly what I was thinking about. My face flushes at the mere idea. I look around to see the other girls still by the locker. She must've told them to stay put. When Alison speaks, we listen. I clear my throat as my eyes find her glittering blue ones.

"Uhhhh yeah I-I-I know I just really like that outfit." I say as I turn my face to the ground hoping for some type of wormhole to open up and swallow me whole.

She just smiles. That beautiful and full smile, and says "Sweet Emily." before turning around and heading abc towards the girls. Not even looking back to see if I'd follow. I mean was there any other option?

As I reach the girls we exchange hugs and pleasantries before Hanna starts talking about the latest gossip she's heard. We were a strange group. Pieces of different puzzles that shouldn't fit but somehow come together through the effortless molding of one Alison DiLaurentis.

The bell rings signaling that it was time to make our way to our first class. Since it was Junior year we didn't share as many classes as we once did. Spencer was taking… Well, I have no idea about most of the classes Spencer is taking. I swear by sophomore year she'd taken every class possible. Hanna and Alison had the most similar schedules as they focused more on fashion classes and economics. They wanted to start their own line someday. Aria decided to have a more art based schedule. Thankfully, we both took music class together. She has a beautiful voice and is getting really good on the flute! She was also the only one in our little group that knew how passionate I was about music. We all have the same lunch period and English as our final class of the day, which is nice. From the outside it may look like we're all close to someone in particular in the group and maybe we are for certain things, but we're also really close as a whole and it makes me happy knowing I have them in my life.

We all say goodbye and head to our respective classes with an unspoken agreement to see each other at lunch.

It was finally lunch time, but I was running a little late due to my music teacher wanting me to stay behind to talk about a possible guitar solo in our next concert. I told Aria to go ahead, not wanting to make her late too. The hallways were empty, which was a nice reprieve as kids seemed to virtually trample each other to reach the cafeteria. Before I could make it to the cafeteria a hand grabbed me and covered my mouth so I couldn't scream. Just as I was about to use my weight to throw them off balance like my Army bred father taught me they spoke.

"Shhhh, Em it's me." Said a lovely voice softly.

Alison?

She let me go and I quickly turned around to see we were in an alcove of lockers with no one else around. I allow my breathing to return back to normal.

"Sorry, I didn't think you would get so scared." She said concernedly, running a hand up and down my arm. After everything with Ben I'm on higher alert than normal. My heart was still beating fast but it wasn't because I was scared. We were so close and her hand felt so good even through the sleeve of my leather jacket. Soon though that hand makes its way up to my chest just above my breast, gently pushing me until my back hits a nearby locker. She looks around at the empty hallway and once satisfied she takes a seemingly impossible step towards me.

I could feel her breath on my face as she looked up at me. If I angled myself down just a bit we would be kissing. My head begins to move, but she has already bypassed it to reach my ear using my shoulders to hold herself steady as she leans up to it. My hands automatically go to her hips to steady her.

"I didn't get to say it earlier but I'm really glad you like my outfit." She breathes into my ear causing me to close my eyes and clench my jaw to prevent the moan that had made its way up my throat from being released. It was hot until it wasn't. I suddenly felt cold and realized Alison had started to walk away towards the cafeteria.

She turns back just as she reaches the doors and says "You coming?" tilting her head in that cute way she does.

Almost did. Fuck why did she have to do things like this? She draws me in only to leave me cold. But I'm like a moth to a flame, willing to get burned just for a touch of heat. So, I walk to her and follow her in.