Hello lovers of Emison. It feels like forever since PLL was airing on TV. A few weeks ago, I started re-watching it and I was inspired to write. Being a queer woman, Emily and Alison's love story was one of my favorites. I read quite a few fanfics of Emison in the past, and I wanted to bring something new to the table. This first chapter will mainly be a back story into Emily's current life. So if any of you happen across this little story of mine, leave a review, add input about what you think about it, and let's be friends!

This story is not based along the story line of PLL. I will be taking other characters from PLL as well as, of course, Emily and Alison. Here is, The Other Half of Me.

Chapter One: Adrift

Emily sighed as her mother Pam began opening her bedroom curtains to let the morning light in. "Honey, it's ten past seven, you need to get out of bed and start getting ready for school," Pam said quietly. It was just another monotonous day for Emily. She rolled her eyes after her mother left the room and thought to herself that "getting ready for school" was ironic. In reality, most days she just stayed in her pajamas since she was homeschooled. So getting for school really just meant moving from her bed to the desk that sat five feet away.

Some days she wished she was apart of the normal high school experience like the other girls on her swim team. Luckily, she was able to play sports at the local public high school. So, in truth, she felt some what normal. Well, that's a lie. At swim practices, all of the other girls would talk about boys they were dating, teachers that annoyed them, or gossip about their other classmates. Emily tried to join in the conversation, but most of the time she felt lost. It's not that the girls didn't include her or ignored her, but there wasn't much for Emily to add to their conversations. It didn't help that most of those girls have been friends since before they were even out of their diapers...since all of their mothers knew each other and were friends. It was a small town after all. She felt like an outsider, or rather, a loser. Most of her teammates were kind, but it was an underlying truth that everyone knew there wasn't much to talk about with Emily. Emily may be their teammate, but she wasn't one of them. She knew this, so she mainly only spoke with them about swimming. In reality, Emily was not that different from those girls. She knew they figured she was either too smart for public school, a goodie two-shoe Christian, or her parents were crazy control freaks. Which, okay, Emily couldn't deny she was really smart, or that her family were Christians, but what she hid from her teammates was that she chose to homeschool. Her parents were definitely more strict than some, but when the 8th grade came to a finish after her family moved to Rosewood, Emily was terrified to go to public school. Her parents left the decision up to her. They even offered for her to go to a high school with a forty minute drive from Rosewood. This decision overwhelmed Emily, and with most things in life, she chose the safest option, which was to homeschool.

In the first grade, Emily went to a private Christian school in Texas where her family used to live before moving to Pennsylvania. She went to school there all the way up until the 8th grade. That definitely wasn't her choice to do her education there, but being so young that was all Emily knew. She was surrounded by the same type of people she always had been...conservative Christians. The religion was her whole life. Especially since her grandfather was the local pastor in the small town they used to live in. It was also all her mother knew. Pam was raised that way and she raised her child accordingly. All of her friends were either at church, or at her Christian school. So far, Emily enjoyed her life, and she never felt out of the ordinary. That was until she moved to Rosewood.

Part of Emily was thrilled to go to public school. Up until middle school, she never questioned her families religion. She never thought going to a private Christian school was odd. She never felt that anything was missing, or that her life was different from other kid's. Emily truly did want to dive into the normalcy of public school, but when decision time rolled around, she panicked. She remembers that night during the summer between eighth and ninth grade shortly after the move from Texas to Rosewood. She broke down in hysterical tears, anxious over the decision she had to make. Her mother rushed to comfort her and understood that moving states away was already really hard on her daughter. So Pam offered Emily the choice of homeschooling. Freshman year was easy. Emily stayed focused and pushed herself in her studies. Sophomore year was even fine too. Although that's when Emily figured out that she really didn't have to try that hard in her studies. She even found easy ways to cheat. Since her mom was technically her teacher, Pam had all of the answer keys in a cabinet drawer. Around junior year Emily was bored with her life. She really didn't even know what depression was or that she had it either. She honestly just thought that her days were mundane. Sitting for hours inside the same four walls of her bedroom was slowly wearing on her.

The only thing interesting about her day, or even got her out of the house besides her daily runs around the neighborhood, was swim. And thank god for her new friend on the team, Spencer Hastings. For the first time in two years, Emily wasn't the newbie on Rosewood High school's swim team. Spencer joined the middle of sophomore year, and Emily was the first to make her feel right at home. Being that Emily understood how uncomfortable it was joining a tight knit swim team, Emily wanted Spencer to feel comfortable. Spencer had been a literal god send to Emily's life. They spent almost every waking moment texting each other and hanging out at the local coffee shop after practices. Emily didn't realize it at first, but she almost enjoyed spending time with Spencer too much. Well, truthfully, Emily knew she felt differently than she has ever felt with a friend before. She knew that she got butterflies anytime Spencer would platonically hold her hand or when she would sit really close to Emily at the coffee shop. The brunette knew that she was harboring a crush on her best friend. She just didn't know exactly what it meant, and she sure as hell knew she wasn't gay. However, the thought of being gay didn't really process in Emily's mind. She only knew she felt more than friends feelings towards her best friend.

One night at the end of her Sophomore year, Emily finally worked up the courage to text Spencer about how she felt. Emily paced in the bathroom and finally decided to send the text to her best friend. She was terrified she would freak Spencer out and ruin their friendship, but her feelings were eating her alive and consuming her thoughts whenever they were together. At this point, she couldn't tell if Spencer felt the same way or not. After Emily confessed her feelings, her best friend was thrown off guard that's for sure. Spencer kindly told her best friend she had no idea Emily felt that way about her. Spencer did tell Emily she didn't return those same feelings, but during that conversation Spencer asked Emily if she was gay. Thankfully, it didn't change a single thing about their friendship, but it did change a lot in Emily's life afterwards. Deep down, Emily was relieved that Spencer kept treating Emily the same way as she always has. The rejection mainly caused confusion for Emily rather than hurt. The little passing crush on Spencer opened up a can of worms for Emily. Nowadays, all she could think about was her sexuality and what that meant. Honestly, Emily was glad she decided to tell Spencer how she felt because now she had someone to talk to about her liking girls. She was coming to the conclusion that it wasn't normal for a girl to get a crush on their best friend. Emily was slowly discovering that those feelings equated to something more: it meant that she might be gay. And that possibility added to the things that depressed Emily. Before she had that conversation with Spencer, Emily never thought about what those emotions really meant. She never once thought that she was gay. Emily only focused on the little crush she had on her best friend. All Emily knew about being gay was that is was an abomination to god, and that it was simply a disgusting "lifestyle." Aside from whenever a scene of two women kissing each other would pop up on the Grey's Anatomy show she would watch with her mom, it would get turned off immediately and she would hear her mother say how disgusted she was.

"Honey, breakfast is ready," Pam called from downstairs. Emily reluctantly crawled out of bed and went down to the kitchen. Her relationship with her mom was great as a child, but the older she got, the more strained it became. Maybe it's because she couldn't really escape her mother since she was a stay at home mom, but Emily slowly started to resent her. She knew her mom loved her, and compared to other kid's home lives, she knew she was lucky to have such loving parents. It was easy for Emily to place the blame on her mother for her being homeschooled. Even if it didn't make sense, it was easier to be resentful towards her mother than face her own insecurities. Consistently, Pam was strict about going to church every Sunday, what shows she watched, even what books Emily read. So why, why of all things did her mother just leave the decision of where she could go to school up to her. An eighth grader? Really? Which Emily realized wasn't fair to hold that against her mom. It wasn't right that she placed that blame onto her mother. In reality she knew she could stop homeschooling today and walk into Rosewood high the next morning. However, the farther along she got into homeschooling, that kind of change now terrified her more than when she was 14 years old. It was easy to fight with her mom, or bitch about how uptight she was, but deep down Emily knew she was just mad at herself for being so scared of going to public school. She felt stupid for making that choice, and embarrassed that she felt out of place with her teammates when she was the one who could fix it. Emily didn't quite understand it yet, but she was mainly starting to resent her religious upbringing more so than anything. The question of liking women, and starting to discover what that was all about, led to Emily questioning almost everything else in her life.

"Are you excited to start your new job today?" Pam asked Emily as she was eating her omelet. Emily decided to apply at the town's Dairy Queen establishment last week. She was hired on the spot at the interview. Emily was nervous to start her new job, but also excited to make her own money and get out of the house more. Emily was the kind of person who enjoyed having structure and working towards a goal. That's partly why she had been slowly falling behind in her schooling. Without any teacher to push her, or other peers to compete with, Emily started to drift in her academics. Her parents were oblivious to that fact. It was easy for Emily to sneak downstairs and retrieve the answers she needed from her mother's test keys. So why would they question her progress in school when she was still making straight A's? It wasn't just her academics that was drifting, Emily's whole life felt like she was a abandoned sailboat at sea being caught in the wind...taking her far away from the familiar land she knew. Emily was starting to hate going to church. She never understood why for just one week it was impossible for her parents to let her skip out. Truthfully, it was more than just wanting to spend a relaxing Sunday in bed. Now that Emily was turning into a young adult, she began questioning everything that has been taught to her, especially her strict Christian upbringing. Which in reality, she was questioning everything she ever knew. No one at church knew it, or her parents, but she started to feel suffocated while she was at church. Emily knew there was more to life than just this, and the longer she spent in that environment, the smaller Emily began to feel. Everyone surrounding her seemed to be so happy at church. Those people would always talk about the peace it gave them from being there. Emily knew the world was big and she was small, but wasn't god supposed to make you feel bigger than it all? Bring her joy and comfort? So why was she feeling so lost? Why couldn't she feel the peace from the so-called "salvation" god was supposed to give her? Emily's life felt like a home that once was intact. Now that home was being carried away in a tornado, drifting to an unknown location in a million pieces. She wasn't getting enjoyment from her classes in school, and she knew she was out of place at swim with her teammates. Emily had great parents who cared, a great best friend, excelled in swim, but she couldn't explain the feeling of being so lost in her own life. She barely recognized the girl staring back at her in the mirror.

Above all of the things that were making Emily feel lost, questioning her sexuality trumped all of the other things that were depressing her. There was a reason she solely watched The Foster's for the parts when the two moms would come on screen. And there was more to what it all meant when that little warm tingly thing would happen between her legs when those woman on the tv would kiss. She spent most of her days scrolling through Tumblr when she should've been doing school. But hey, her parents thought she was still that once dedicated kid who could do anything she put her mind to. Without any kind of supervision, and her parents leaving her to do her schoolwork, she discovered she could get away with a lot of things being left alone in her room all day. Emily also was very thankful her parents gifted her a MacBook that was supposed to be for her school. It gave her some more freedom and allowed her to discover a whole new world on YouTube. From there, her interest led her straight to lesbian youtube. Finding that online community was a revelation. Emily spent hours upon hours on Tumblr and YouTube watching videos, and looking at photos of girls who liked girls. It felt like a safe place for Emily, and the more in depth she got, the more she realized the way it made her feel. It felt like she finally was in that peaceful place. She felt like all of the noise and commotion in her life simply stopped, and it was finally quite for once. Emily's intrigue dug her deeper into the gay internet world, and she felt slightly obsessed, but above all, she felt little voices in her head saying "you are dirty... this is wrong." Mainly because she has been taught her whole life that this is wrong. So why wouldn't she believe that it wasn't? But if it was so evil and perverted, why did Emily feel so holy? She felt saved, accepted, and above all, understood. It became Emily's church. The once overwhelmingly loneliness she felt stuck in her bedroom, it now became a reprieve. A private little world of her own. Where two girlfriends sharing their life through vlogs, became Emily's choir song. Where a tv show with a girl like her, struggling with her sexuality, became daily doses of heavenly peace. Where Tumblr threads about coming out became a studied bible verse that gave new understanding. Church. Holiness. Love. Everlasting joy. Salvation from the mental torment and anguish. Community. Family. Emily's sailboat drifting in the sea, has discovered a new holy ground.

"Emily? Are you ready for work? You don't want to be late for your first shift," Pam yelled from downstairs. "Yeah I'm almost ready mom! I won't be late!" Emily just finished putting her hair into a messy bun, and slipped on her Dairy Queen visor. She wore the classic DQ shirt, black slacks she grabbed from Target a few days ago, and horrifyingly ugly non-slip black crocs the company gave her. Emily had major butterfly's in her stomach, but time was ticking and she didn't have much time to dwell on her first day nerves. Emily grabbed her backpack and car keys, and rushed down the stairs. Her mom was there to send her out the door, "good luck honey, I know you'll do great. Don't forget to text me to let me know how it's going," Pam said as she hugged her daughter, "I can't believe my little girl is on her way to her first job! I love you." Emily hugged her mom back, "I'll text you later mom, love you too." Emily started her car and turned on some music to calm her nerves. On the way there, Emily was thinking to herself how crazy it was that she was actually going to her first job. "Here's to change and putting yourself out into the world Emily," she said to herself as she pulled into the Dairy Queen parking lot, "no turning back now."

Emily walked into the establishment where the older training manager, Robin, greeted her. "Hi Emily! Come around through the back and I'll show you where you can put your things," Robin guided Emily through the 'Employees Only' door and led her further into the work place, "Are you ready for your first shift? I know first days can be scary, but this job is actually really fun! We have an awesome crew and most of the other girls are your age too." Emily followed Robin to the back where all of the freezers were and inventory was held, "Yeah, I am a little nervous, but I'm excited to work here. Plus it'll be nice making my own money for a change," Emily laughed. "Totally understand that, girl! So you can hang your backpack here," Robin pointed to a row of coat hangers on a back wall, "and let me show you how to clock in. Just for today, I'll show you where everything is, and then you will shadow me and whoever else is working tonight." Robin looked at the shift schedule posted on the wall above a old desk, "Looks like we'll be working with Alison tonight! She's super outgoing and fun to work with, you'll love her! Alright Emily let me show you around." Emily followed Robin as she showed her the different products which mainly consisted of loads of boxed candy, and a walk-in freezer full of soft serve and frozen fast foods such as chicken and fries. Emily silently listened and tried to keep up with the onslaught of information. Robin directed Emily into the walk-in freezer, "So from here we hook this tube into this bag of soft serve, and it goes right to the machines up front where you'll be making the ice cream! Let me know show you something basic like making our classic soft serve sundae," Robin said as she took Emily to the front of the store. While they were headed to the area where the employees make the DQ treats, the 'Employees Only' door swung open, "Hey bitch, did you miss me?"

A blonde girl who appeared to be Emily's age strutted through the doors and came up to hug Robin. Emily was slightly stunned that an employee just casually called their manager "bitch", but her thoughts quickly were interrupted when the blonde spoke to Emily, "And you must be Emily, right? I'm Alison." Alison swung her purse onto her shoulder and smiled at Emily, "Yeah I'm Emily, nice to meet you. How long have you worked her?" Emily asked as she tried to make conversation. "Only like six months, but I'm pretty much the best employee here, right Robin?" Alison joked to their manager and walked into the back to put her bag down and clock in. "You're ridiculous, girl," Robin replied, "so, Emily, as I saying, here the soft serve comes out of these three stations. We have vanilla on the right side, chocolate and vanilla swirl in the middle, and chocolate on the left. Down here we have all of our cones and cups, and this fridge has our assortment of candy, toppings, and fruits." Emily attentively watched Robin and she continued to show the brunette the ropes. Alison rounded the corner from the back of the store and looked down at Emily, "Omg I love how those pants fit on you Emily, where did you get them? I can't stand the pants this place makes us wear. Like common! Not only do they make us wear these ugly shoes, but black slacks? Corporate needs a little imagination!" she rolled her eyes dramatically, "If only we could wear something more appealing I bet we would get more tips since my back is turned to the customers anyways," Alison grabbed some chopped peanuts from a container and popped them into her mouth, "I've tried to convince Robin to let us choose what pants we get to wear," she sighed, "but Robin doesn't like us having any fun," Alison winked at Emily. Emily blushed from the wink the blonde gave her. God she hated that her face reddened so easily. She was starting to regret not wearing any foundation. She's heard the acne horror stories from working around grease fryers and didn't want to add to her breakouts. "Girl, you think I would still be manager if I let you wear booty shorts in here?" Robin laughed at Alison. Alison gracefully turned around toward the ice cream machine pretending to make something, and started shaking her ass. "Come on Rob, you know those teenage boys and gross old men would love seeing this. They'd be getting two treats instead of one!" Robin playfully hit Alison on the arm, "Oh yeah I'm sure they would love seeing this saggy thirty-year old shaking her flat ass. Just be lucky you have still something going on down there girl, it doesn't last forever trust me!" Emily giggled at their banter, "Well you can do the talking Robin, and Emily and I will do a little show back here. Emily definitely has the ass for some booty shorts," Alison teased Emily. "I'm definitely not a girl who can move like that," Emily shyly replied. "Anyone can shake their ass Emily, it's all in the hips. Here let me show you," Alison started to turn around again and was cut off by Robin, "Okay, okay, enough you wanna be Beyonce. Before we start showing Emily how to twerk, how about we show her how to do the job we are all here for," Robin laughed and took control of the situation. "Alright fine, don't be such a Debbie downer Rob. I'll show you later Em," Alison winked again Emily, "Oh but seriously, where did you get those pants? They fit your long legs perfectly. Can I look at the tag?" Emily was blushing again. Most people don't call her Em, and she normally doesn't like it, but she liked the way it sounded casually coming from Alison. Emily turned around, "Okay. I'm pretty sure it's just the basic Target brand." Alison gently flipped the back side of Emily's pants inside out to look at the brand, "Thanks Em. Oh, I can call you Em right? Alison turned back around and sat up on the front counter. "Yeah that's fine, I don't mind," Emily smiled at her. Emily was sure her face was beet red. She has never met someone so confident in their own skin like Alison. It didn't help that she was beautiful, and that said beautiful girl just brushed her hands across her lower back to look at her pant's tag. Emily never really liked all of the attention on her, and the confidence this girl had made her nervous. She could only imagine Alison probably had all of the girls wanting to be her at school, and all of the boys wanting to be with her. The world was her stage, and everyone else was just bystanders watching on. Alison took control of a room simply because of how she carried herself. Emily wished she only had a little bit of that kind of confidence too. It wasn't jealousy Emily felt, but definitely admiration. She only has spent 5 minutes with Alison, and Emily couldn't describe it. Alison wasn't even purposefully doing things to make Emily self-conscious, but it was just the presence this girl had in a room...Emily couldn't quite put her finger on it, but the way Alison was made everything fun. Ever since she came into the store, Emily hadn't even thought of the first day nerves she was feeling before. Robin hit Alison again on the leg this time, "Girl I swear you drive me crazy! Get your ass off of my counter. We have training to do. Since you love to talk so much, why don't go show Emily how to run the soft serve machine. I'm going to go grab a few things from the back." Alison hopped down from the counter and turned to Emily, "Sure thing boss," Alison laughed at Robin and turned her attention back to Emily, "Okay, Em, I'm going to show you first, then you can try to do it."

Alison gracefully made a perfect tower of soft serve into a little plastic cup, "Then, when you are done making the little balls of ice cream, you want to make this little swirl on top. It's the signature DQ thing, don't ask me why it's so important, but it's easy. Here," she handed Emily her own cup, "let me hold your hands and guide them so you get a feel of what you're supposed to do." Alison's hands wrapped around Emily's holding the cup, "Okay, so after you turn the handle the soft serve comes out pretty quickly, so be ready," Emily did as Alison instructed and she was right, the soft serve came out really quick. Even with Alison gripping Emily's hands, Emily lost control and her ice cream sundae turned into a ice cream blob. Emily was so surprised that she forgot to turn off the soft serve handle, and the ice cream started to overflow in the cup. So much so, that Emily started to try to catch the soft serve in her hands. Alison reached across Emily's body and turned off the machine. Emily was mortified. Not only did a beautiful girl wrap her hands around hers to show her how to make a sundae, but she made of a fool of herself doing so. Alison was hysterically laughing, "Emily, you can't forget to turn it off," she said in between her laughs. Emily knew Alison wasn't laughing at her, but simply just thought it was comical. Emily couldn't help but start giggling too after looking at the disaster of a "sundae" she made. Plus, Alison was really laughing...like full on belly laugh, and it was contagious. The sound of her laugh was the sweetest thing in that shop. It was sweeter than all of the candy there. Emily looked down at the soft serve all over her hands. If she wasn't blushing before, she definitely was now. Normally in this type of situation, Emily probably would've been internally punching herself for being so stupid. However, with Alison laughing that hard, all Emily could do was grin back at her. Alison's belly laugh turned into a full on dimple smile. She grabbed a bar towel from the sanitizer bucket underneath the counter, "Here, let me help you clean up." Alison took Emily's hands again, smiling at her, and started to wipe the soft serve off, and went to comfort the startled brunette, "the first few days might feel overwhelming, but honestly this job is a piece of cake." Emily couldn't help but feel butterflies with Alison gently holding her hands, cleaning up the mess she made. "I bet you never made this big of a mess," Emily said to her. The blonde smiled, "Oh trust me, I think I wore half of this shop on my outfit the first few days I started here," Alison reassured her after putting the rag back into the bucket, "but I probably didn't look at cute as you did doing it," Alison winked at her again. Emily was thrown off guard by that comment. Everything about Alison threw her out way of her comfort zone, but Emily didn't mind it. The way Alison looked at her, and laughed with her, made her feel something lovely. Sure, Emily was nervous, but Alison wasn't like most popular girls that intimidated her. Those types of girls did everything in their power to make other people feel smaller than them so they could look bigger. Alison, however, made her feel seen. Made her feel important. Made her feel like an equal. Alison squinted at her slightly, "I like it when your cheeks get red, it's cute. I noticed that about you earlier. Do I make you nervous Emily?" Alison looked straight at her and challenged a response from the new girl. Alison wasn't being mean, or trying to make Emily uncomfortable, but the way she asked Emily sounded like she was genuinely curious. Before Emily could muster a response, the main door opened and a bell went off to signal a customer coming in. Robin came around the corner from the back of the store, "Alright Emily, you ready for your first customer?" Emily was thankful she didn't have to respond to Alison's comment, "saved by the bell, literally," Emily thought to herself. As Emily listened to Robin speak to the customer, she didn't notice the pair of blue eyes that were trained on her...studying her...little did she know that Alison was admiring her as well.

Emily's first shift came to a close quickly. Emily was surprised by how much she actually enjoyed the job. Maybe it was because she had so much to learn that made those five hours fly by, or maybe it had something to do with a certain blonde who made those hours even more exciting. "You did a great job, girl! ," Robin praised Emily as she was locking up the doors for the night, "What do you think? Did you enjoy yourself?" Emily began to answer before the blonde standing next to her butted in, "Of course Emily enjoyed herself. She was working with me, Rob," Alison joked and playfully nudged her elbow into Emily's side. Robin laughed, "You definitely make things more interesting that's for sure. I wouldn't say more enjoyable though, being your manager, you actually make my job quite difficult Alison." Alison made a fake face at Robin pretending the comment hurt her feelings, "Oh, girl, you can't lie and say you don't love me," Alison grinned at Robin. Emily followed the two as they slowly started walking away from the building, "Well I wouldn't go as far to say I love you, but I do like you," Robin said as Alison hugged her from the side, "I'll see you in two days for your next shift Emily, it was nice to meet you and I hope you had a good time! Bye Alison!" Robin said as she drifted away from the two teens towards her car. Emily smiled, "I had a great time. It was nice to meet you too. See ya in two days!" Emily began to walk towards her car, and she wasn't lost to the fact that her other coworker was walking with her. "So, Em, whatcha up to for the rest of your night?" Alison inquired. Emily looked down at her feet, "Oh, I don't know, probably homework. What about you?" Emily shyly looked back up to the blonde who was smiling at her with those perfect dimples that adorned her face. "Don't be serious," Alison giggled, "Homework? Really? On a Friday night? I bet you have something better than that to do. Going to see a boyfriend maybe?" Alison probed Emily for information. Emily was lying when she said homework because the blonde was right, who in their right mind does their homework on a Friday night? The truth was she didn't want to tell Alison she was more than likely going to end up on the couch with her parents watching re-runs of Dancing With The Stars. The two stopped when they made it to their destinations by their parked cars, "Nope. No boyfriend," Emily admitted, "if I'm being honest I'll probably just watch some tv with my parents like a loser." Alison sighed teasingly "Well, looks like your night is free then. Would your parents mind if you came over to my place? I'd like to get to know you better. Plus, I'm sure you'd rather do something more interesting than watching tv with your parents," Alison continued teasing the brunette. Emily was still being caught off balance with this girl like she has been all night. "Oh um," Emily was cut off again. "You don't have to say yes Emily. No pressure. Maybe we could hang out after work in two days. I'll be working then too," Alison smiled kindly, "Unless you already are tired of me..." Alison winked at Emily. There was that banter again...the testing...the teasing Emily received from the blonde all night. Not that it bothered Emily. She just had never met anyone so, well, so interested in talking with her. Emily thought to herself, "If only this girl really knew I was just a pathetic homeschooled girl who is way out of her league trying to hang out with her. It would only take Alison five minutes of us being together outside of work for her to realize that." Emily was about to tell Alison she would ask for her parents permission to hang out in two days, but Alison interrupted her thoughts once again, "You know, if your parents don't know you are off your shift yet, you could just hang out in my car for a little while. It wouldn't necessarily be lying..." Alison opened her car door and leaned against it. "Sure, yeah, I would be cool with that," Emily spurted out. "Omg you dumbass what are you doing?" Emily screamed at herself internally, "Also why does this girl want to hang out with me? Okay, fifteen minutes can't be so bad. Plus she's right, my parents would never know. I haven't texted them I'm off yet..." Emily was deep in thought as she climbed into Alison's passenger seat. The first thing she noticed was the smell of Alison's car. It smelt like flowers and sunshine, if that even was a scent. Emily was nervous as hell to be around Alison outside of the comfort of the work place, and still confused as to why Alison even wanted to hang out with her. Emily felt like she had all night around the blonde...like Alison could almost, almost read her mind. Like when she looked at you, she was more than just looking: she was analyzing you. "You seem nervous? I promise I don't bite," Alison joked, "Want to listen to some music? What do you like to listen to?" Emily smiled, "No I'm not nervous, I'm just not used to lying to my parents much. You might think this is weird, but I love rap," Alison grinned, "no fucking way! I knew you were my type of girl. I was scared you were going to say country or something. You're full of surprises Emily...what's your last name?" Emily laughed at Alison's response, "God, no. Country is horrifying. My last name is Fields. Emily Fields. I listen to indie too though." Alison continued to joke around, "I know! I was worried I was going to have to kick you out of my car if your answer was country," she said as she leaned against the drivers side door so she could look at Emily more directly, "Fields. I like that last name. So Emily Fields, do you live up to your last name?" Emily looked a little confused at that comment, but Alison took over again, "like, do you play the field?" Alison smiled and challenged Emily again. Emily blushed and giggled from embarrassment, "Oh, definitely. I'm like the bachelor of Rosewood over here," Emily replied, and to be honest, her own response surprised her. Normally, Emily isn't the joking type, but Alison brought out something in her that she didn't recognize...confidence maybe? Emily still wasn't quite sure. Alison laughed her belly laugh again, it made Emily grin from ear to ear knowing that she made Alison laugh like that. "See, I knew there was more to you than what meets the eye," Alison said more seriously, "what bachelorette has your eye then Emily?" Emily was stunned. "Oh, yeah, you said bachelor you idiot. She probably thinks you're gay now. Great." There was another voice inside Emily's head that rebutted her previous silent thought: "...but you are gay Emily." Alison could tell her last comment to the brunette changed Emily's happy mood into a shy one, reserved... "Emily, I'm kidding," Alison switched gears to make her more comfortable, "So, you said you like rap? Who's some of your favorite artists?" Even though Alison changed the topic of conversation, she silently made a mental note of the exchange that just happened between the two. Alison was superior in figuring out people secrets. She normally used it for her advantage in the future. Alison liked to see how much she could pry out of people. Using her looks, ease in conversations, and witty banter, she normally won and got what she wanted from people. It was a challenge, and Alison was great with challenges. With Emily though, that wasn't her intention. The reserved nature of her new coworker genuinely made Alison curious to learn more. This girl confused Alison immensely even if Alison wouldn't been admit it to herself. She wasn't putting her new found knowledge of Emily in the back of her mind to use for her future use, but she was interested in why the brunette said bachelor instead of bachelorette. "Alison?" Emily responded to the blondes previous question but Alison seemed to have zoned out. Alison snapped out of her daze and said, "Oh, sorry about that. What did you say?" Alison asked. "You just asked me what my favorite rap artists are. Are you okay Alison?" Emily inquired. Alison jumped back into the conversation as if nothing happened, "Let me show you this one guy. His music is so original. Plus, he doesn't just rap about fucking girls and making money." Emily laughed at her comment. Alison leaned in closer to Emily so that their arms were touching. Emily felt butterflies in her stomach with the blonde's action. Alison turned to face Emily, their faces now only a few inches apart, and she smiled innocently at Emily, "Also, you can call me Ali." Alison turned her attention back to her phone to turn on a song. Instrumentals began playing as the blonde turned to Emily, "Get ready for magic," Alison winked at Emily as she referred to showing Emily new music. Emily sat back to listen, but her thoughts were somewhere else, "I've already been experiencing magic, Ali, the magic of you," Emily said to herself.