"Is everything okay?"

Paige knew Emily better than she knew anyone else in the world; better than Emily was willing to admit. She knew what it meant when Emily behaved the way she'd been behaving all morning – a little too perky; a little too chatty. A little too normal. She was overcompensating. There was concern in Paige's voice when she asked the question, even though she was pretty sure the answer. She had avoided the discussion for as long as she could.

"Okay?" Emily scrunched up her and tilted her head, pretending to be confused. "Yeah," she exclaimed, all too eagerly. "Everything's great!" She rubbed Paige's wrist. "It's great to have this chance to catch up!"

Paige curled her lips into some approximation of a smile. It actually looked more like a look of disgust. Emily's shoulders slumped and she looked down at her plate. "Okay, well, if you want the truth." She looked up at Paige and shrugged. "I miss you," she said softly.

Paige folded her arms and fell back against her chair, not even trying to hide the annoyance in her sigh. Emily scowled in anger and frustration. If Paige didn't want to know what she was feeling - if Paige wanted to keep pretending that she didn't know what she was feeling, she shouldn't have asked her whether everything was okay.

"Look, Emily…"

Emily threw her napkin on the table in disgust. She felt like throwing it at Paige.

"Look Emily?"
Really?
Had Paige actually said that?

"Just forget it, Paige. Just forget I even said anything." Paige opened her mouth to apologize or something, but Emily cut her off. She had humiliated herself enough. She didn't need Paige to pile on. "You asked me what was up, and I told you, okay?" Emily shook ger head, rolling her eyes. "I get it. We're not getting back together. That's not why you came to Philadelphia." Emily folded her arms, mirroring Paige's posture. "I get it. So you don't have to say it."

Paige shook her head in frustration. She was actually glad that Emily had cut her off before she'd been forced to come up with something to say. What could she have said? That she missed Emily, too? What would have been the point? It may have been true, but it would only have given Emily the wrong impression.

Paige had wanted to move back to Rosewood for years, never really having adjusted to the West Coast lifestyle. There were so many times that she would have moved back except for one thing: Emily.

And this exact conversation.

Paige's feelings for Emily had never changed. Not in the slightest. The only thing that had changed was Paige's feelings for herself. She was devastated when Emily left her; every single time that Emily left her. It had always been so easy for Emily to walk away from her; to walk away from them. But, every time she left, it felt as if she was sticking a knife back into the open wound in Paige's heart that had never had the chance to heal.

When the opportunity came for Paige to finish high school early and head to Stanford, she jumped at it. If there was one thing that she'd learned from her breakups, it was that she had to leave first. She wouldn't have been able to stand seeing Emily walk away from her one more time.

For months, Emily blamed Paige's parents for dragging her off to California without even letting her finish her senior year at Rosewood High. And yet, she couldn't help wondering just how much of the timing was their idea, and how much was Paige's. That night at the airport, when Paige said that she didn't want to fight anymore, that she was tired of fighting, Emily tried to convince herself that Paige was talking about fighting with her parents.

It was too hard to admit that Paige was actually admitting that she had given up on fighting for her.

That fact didn't hit really home with Emily until the phone call, when her surprise news about going to Pepperdine landed like a lead balloon. It had never happened before. Paige had always jumped into her arms whenever Emily wanted her back.

That phone call changed Emily's life in more ways than one.

It had always been easy for Emily to walk away from relationships in high school, but she had never really experienced having someone walk away from her. It hurt. It hurt especially hard, coming from Paige, whose love had been one of the few constants in her life; the one thing that she could always fall back on.

That experience changed Emily's perspective on relationships. She wasn't so quick to enter into them anymore. Neither was she as quick to walk away.

That may have explained why she was still with Abby.

The walk back to their cars was silent and beyond uncomfortable. Emily kept looking up at Paige, as if expecting her to say or do something to let her know that everything would be okay. Paige just kept staring straight ahead, as if she were walking alone.

They hugged when they got to Emily's car, as they had hugged when they first met that morning. When they separated, Emily put her hand on Paige's arm. "I'm sorry," she said softly, with as genuine a smile as she could muster.

Paige opened her mouth to say something, but, in the end, she just smiled slightly and nodded in acknowledgment. There was nothing to say. Saying, "I'm sorry, too," would only have risked getting Emily's hopes up.

"I hope you do make it back out to Philly," Emily said, nodding her head. She chuckled nervously. "I promise I won't make things weird." She squeezed Paige's bicep before moving her hand away from Paige's arm. The gesture felt familiar; comfortable to Paige. A little too comfortable. She smoothed her fingers through her hair. Part of her wished that she had been brave enough - or foolish enough - to have smoothed her fingers through Emily's hair instead, the way she used to whenever Emily squeezed her arm like that back in high school.

Emily reached for the door of her car and jumped back with a startled "Oh!" as Paige reached for it at the same time. She made what looked like a clumsy bow as she thanked Paige for opening the door for her; then scooted around Paige and climbed into the driver's seat. When Paige closed the door, Emily rolled down the window. It was almost force of habit or muscle-memory, after all the times she'd done the same thing in high school whenever Paige helped her into her car after practice or after a date.

When Paige leaned forward and put her hands on the open window frame, it was also because of muscle-memory, before her conscious mind registered what she was doing. Had she had time to think, she would have remembered the good-bye kiss that used to come next.

She needn't have worried. Emily only looked up at her, with a smile that seemed sincere. "Thanks for lunch."

Paige crumbled into her seat, with no memory of the walk from Emily's car to hers. She felt numb. Her body did, at least. Her mind felt like crying.

Her entire history with Emily had been marked by a handful of good decisions buried under an overwhelming number of really bad ones.

She took her hands off the steering wheel and stared at the back of her fingers, which were spread apart slightly and trembling.

She was about to make another really bad decision.

A/N - Surprise!

I really didn't see this story as more than a one-shot, but I totally get that people want some closure on it. (I've been in the same boat with a couple of one-shots I've read over the years!) So... here we go. I have to admit, though, I'm really not sure that this is a good idea. I don't think that I'll be able to sustain the mood of the first chapter, and I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update - both because I don't have a lot of free time these days and because, for the first time in years, I'll trying to write a story without a clear idea of where it's going. But - I made a promise to myself when I first started posting fics that I'd never start a story and leave it unfinished, so, sooner or later, this story will end up complete! :)

(Maybe you'll help by sending me suggestions about where the story should go? I may not use every suggestion, but I'll sure they'll all inspire me.)

Thanks for reading this far! And thanks to those of you who wanted more from this fic. To those who decide to stick around till the end, thanks in advance for your patience! :) 3