28 - The First Sleepover in Paris (P2)

A/n: This one's a bit of a short one, but I just wanted to continue their sleepover.

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"Jesus, when will you learn? You actually think we didn't hear you two in there?" Hanna snickered as the two girls returned to the lounge ten minutes later, after they'd fixed their clothes and made themselves presentable enough.

Hanna was already happily munching on some snacks from their kitchen while Spencer and Aria were looking at something on the short brunette's phone distractedly.

"Yeah, that was pretty gross," Spencer chuckled as she picked her head up. Aria scrunched up her nose in agreement.

"Oh, please, you enjoyed the show and you know it," Alison said absentmindedly as she sat down on the couch.

The three girls grimaced over-dramatically while Emily's cheeks turned bright red.

"What are we doing next?" Aria changed the subject quickly due to the embarrassment on the swimmer's face.

"How about Truth or Dare?" Alison suggested with a smirk.

"I'm in," Hanna quickly joined in, once again, the two outgoing blondes agreeing on a game.

"I'm in too," Aria said to her friends.

"Fine," Emily said somewhat reluctantly.

"Sure, why not," Spencer answered sarcastically. Truth or dare was probably her least favorite game, but she was never one to back out of a challenge.

Alison turned to Hanna. "Han, truth or dare?"

"Dare," Hanna answered as if it was obvious.

"I dare you to walk behind someone and dance without them noticing," Alison challenged smugly.

"Pfft, piece of cake," Hanna said cockily and stood up. They took the elevator down to the hotel lobby and searched for people.

"How about that guy?" Emily asked, pointing to a tall, muscular stranger.

"Okay, but if I come back with bruises and scars, you'll have to deal with the guilt. And the medical bills," Hanna said playfully as she nudged Emily.

Emily laughed as Hanna turned to walk behind the pacing man. He obliviously looked around the ground floor and glanced at his phone a few times as the bubbly blonde stalked behind him. She began dancing strangely behind him, kicking around and waving her hands randomly while the girls stifled their laughs. They ended up failing and bursting into laughter, making the man look in their direction as Hanna acted as if she didn't know any of the girls, suddenly interested in an art piece that was hung on the wall next to her.

Hanna returned to the group after the confused man left and they all burst into a harder fit of laughter. Alison patted Hanna's shoulder, "Good one, Han."

Hanna merely bowed playfully.

They stayed down in the comfortable lobby on the wide leather couches and continued their game. "Em, truth or dare?" Hanna inquired.

"Truth."

"Who were your crushes besides Ali?" Hanna smirked sinisterly.

"Hanna!" Alison glared at her.

"What? I wanna know," Hanna laughed.

Alison looked expectantly at Aria and Spencer for help.

"I think it's a valid question, sorry, Ali," Spencer answered.

"Yeah, don't look at me, it's Emily's decision," Aria lifted her hands up in defense.

"Em?" Alison turned to her girlfriend in surrender.

"It's okay, Ali, all of my old crushes are exactly that. Old. I have you now," Emily smiled as she grabbed Alison's hand and the blonde couldn't help but smile in return, a bit soothed.

"Besides, you were always my biggest crush," Emily stated with a chuckle. Alison rolled her eyes fondly, giving in.

"Fine," Alison huffed. "Tell us about your old crushes."

Emily sighed, "Really long ago, and for a really short time, when I was still genuinely confused about everything... it was Ben."

"Ben Coogan?" Aria chimed with a frown.

"That would be Ben," Emily confirmed shyly. "I still didn't know at the time if I was attracted to girls or boys, okay? We were like, eleven. But he's a total meathead now, so it doesn't matter to me, anyway."

"Wait, that idiot Ben who threatened to tell everyone about you and Ali?" Spencer asked Emily in dismay.

"Yeah," Emily said in self-disappointment. They all looked at her, horrified. "I never said I was proud of it." she clarified, her voice rising.

Alison felt like she needed to step in. "Okay... So, asshole Ben was one of the crushes for a little while. Were there more?"

"There was only one more. Please don't make this a big deal, okay? It was ages ago," Emily hurried to say, knowing her girlfriend tended to get possessive.

Alison looked at her anxiously in anticipation.

"It was... Paige McCullers."

"Pigskin?!" Alison instantly rose up from the couch she was sitting on. She couldn't help it, she had to make this a big deal. Paige was her sworn enemy, and Emily was too sweet to have a crush on a girl like her. She didn't even care that everyone in the lobby were staring at her.

"Ali-" Emily started hopelessly, rubbing her forehead. She should've known this would happen.

"Did you seriously have a crush on pigskin?" Alison asked, bewildered.

Emily huffed in frustration. "I told you not to call her that," she said. "But yes, I did. Barely. And it was really long ago, right when the two of us joined The Sharks. I think it was just because I was impressed with her swimming and she was nice to me," Emily admitted in a small voice.

"Oh, now I'm definitely gonna call her that! The second we're back in school, Pigskin is so gonna get it. Once I'm done with that no-neck bitch, she won't even exist," Alison decided with a little angry grin.

"Ali, I-"

"Wait, does this mean you enjoyed kissing her at Noel's party?" Alison raised her voice, making Emily flinch. She immediately regretted making her girlfriend blanch at her tone, but she didn't show it. She was too damn furious.

"I'm going to say this once, okay?" Emily said boldly as she stood up and looked solemnly into Alison's eyes. "I have nothing with Paige. It was just a stupid little crush. As much as I'm not into Ben, I'm not into Paige. Deep down, you already know that."

"But how do I know nothing will happen between you two? I mean, up until now, I could live with her pathetic attempts in flirting because she was the one following you around like a lost puppy but you didn't return her feelings. Now, I have to live with the fact that, even by the slightest chance, you might return her feelings. She's still there, Emily. She's always there, waiting for me to screw up so she could swoop in and take her shot. She's definitely not innocent in all of this!" Alison retorted back. She wanted nothing more than to choke Paige with her bare hands.

The three other best friends switched bewildered looks and stepped back from the couple during their heated discussion, feeling like the two girls should've had this argument when they were alone. Emily and Alison didn't even notice their friends dispersing, too invested in the fussy argument.

"I get that she's not innocent, but do you really think I would do something like that to you?" Emily was raising her tone to the same extent as Alison's. The surprised expression on Alison's face at her shy girlfriend's sudden outburst made the brunette deeply regret ever playing this stupid game in the first place.

A single tear slid down Alison's face. She couldn't believe they were fighting, in Paris of all places, and about Paige of all people. God, she hated this.

Before the blonde could answer, Emily was already sniffling herself and rushing out of the main door to the hotel. Alison watched as she disappeared into the night. Even if she did want nothing more than to run after her and tell her she was sorry, her body was stuck in place. She was unable to move, physically and emotionally.

She scolded herself mentally as she watched the brunette cross the street. She couldn't believe she had messed up so badly. Why did she keep ruining every good thing in her life?

She couldn't even look back at her friends, who were also wearing expressions of shock and woefulness from listening to their two best friends fighting in a way that they'd never seen before.

Alison shook herself out of her thoughts, realizing she couldn't do that to herself nor to Emily. She could not, in her right mind, let this be their breaking point, not over her dead body. She quickly flew out the door and found herself following her feet and racing to the only place that both she and Emily knew how to get to in Paris by foot. The Eiffel Tower.

The entire way over there, a mere few streets worth of walking, all she could think about was Emily. Her face, her hair, her everything. She couldn't even process the fact that she had gotten into a fight with her favorite person because of her irrational jealousy and ego. Her personality came back to bite her in the ass at the worst times. Trust was everything when it came to relationships, that's one thing Alison knew. She had no doubt in her mind that she trusted Emily with her life.

"Emily! Em!" she called out uselessly, searching around with her eyes. It was actually getting quite cold, and she could see her own breath when she spoke. She had failed to consider that although it was summer, they were still in Paris. And if that wasn't bad enough, she was barely wearing any clothes to begin with, only a flowy top and some white jeans that had rips in them.

The only place Alison wanted to be in was Emily's arms. She rubbed her hands on her arms as she walked, attempting to create friction.

As if it was fate, she suddenly spotted a brunette with tanned skin leaning against a street light. She didn't need to come closer to see that the figure was crying.

"Em," Alison didn't notice she was sniffling too as she approached, and by the time she got in front of Emily, she was crying just the same.

"Ali," Emily breathed out as her eyes landed on her in surprise.

"Em, I, I'm so sorry," Alison let out, her voice coming off as broken as the tears flowed down her cheeks. She stopped herself from reaching out and grabbing Emily's hand. She needed to say something important first.

"Em... I'm sorry that I snapped at you, and I'm sorry that I was so jealous, and... I'm sorry for being the worst girlfriend ever," her voice cracked as she lifted her sorrowful eyes to Emily's. The brunette looked like she was ready to interject but Alison raised her hand to silence her, shaking her head. The blonde took a deep breath. "I didn't mean to make you feel bad, okay? I-I shouldn't care that you used to have a tiny crush on Paige, and I swear I don't think you would do something to hurt me on purpose, but I just know that I really, really hate fighting with you," as she finished, her tone lowering, which didn't go unnoticed by Emily.

"I hate fighting with you too, Ali," Emily responded in a quiet voice. She wiped away some of her tears as Alison's apology sunk into her brain. She could tell the blonde felt bad enough already. "I forgive you," she said softly and pulled a nearly-bawling Alison into her arms. "On the way here, all I could think about was you," she admitted, "I just need you to understand, I would never do anything with Paige. You have to believe me when I say, you're the only one I want, the only one I will ever want to be with." She cried tenderly into the blonde's shoulder, falling further and further into her feelings and hoping Alison would catch her.

Alison pulled back slightly to look into the brunette's eyes. "I believe you. You're the only one for me, too," she cooed and snuggled back into Emily's warm body. "I just love you so much," the blonde mumbled into Emily's neck and her lips ghosted over the smooth skin, kissing barely.

"I love you, too," Emily responded warmly, her heart racing in her chest.

They stayed like that for a few minutes further, as Emily rocked Alison in her arms under the heat of a street light. Some people glanced their way as they walked by, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

The whole thing looked like a scene from a movie, in her opinion. The Eiffel Tower was beautifully shining behind them and the street light illuminated their bodies as she took her time to subside Alison's tears, treading her hand through silky blonde hair.

"Promise me we're not going to fight again, not about this," Emily murmured against the side of Alison's head after a while. "In general, not about other people or old history. I would hate to do this every time the subject's brought up."

"I promise," Alison answered honestly. It was a heartfelt moment between the two, but the blonde's regularly-snarky mind couldn't help but sneakily think that she couldn't really blame Emily for ameliorating her taste in partners.

"You want to head back to the hotel? It's getting really cold and the girls are probably worried," Emily offered.

Alison merely nodded weakly and they began walking, but she couldn't help but stare at her goddess of a girlfriend. The shadows that were casted on her face made her look so beautiful.

When they reached the hotel, they found the three girls sitting anxiously on the couches in the lobby.

"Where were you guys? We were worried sick!" Spencer hugged them tightly. Alison smiled at her best friend's clearly instinctive sense of protection.

Emily and Alison backed away from the hug only to look at each other with a small smile. "We found each other at the Eiffel Tower," Emily explained.

"And are we all good?" Aria asked hopefully, looking between the two.

"All good," Alison confirmed happily, intertwining Emily's hand with hers and kissing it lightly.

Emily smiled widely at the small yet thoughtful gesture.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually want to keep playing," Emily said suddenly. "I don't want the whole night to be wasted, that's all."

"Ali, is that okay with you?" Hanna asked the other blonde.

"Yeah, as long as we only do dares. I think we've had enough truth for one night," Alison responded and smiled sadly.

"Okay, then let's go," Aria smiled giddily and they headed to their little corner in the lobby.

"Hey, I'm all yours," Emily promised in a hushed tone as she turned Alison's face to look at her while the others trotted away, wanting only the blonde to hear her.

This time, Alison smiled wide and real, as she truly believed Emily's words. She kissed Emily on the cheek and sighed blissfully as she rested her head on the brunette's shoulder as they met their friends at the couches.

They later on went along with the game, as Spencer was dared to steal a burger from a sleeping guard, and Aria was dared to prank call their school vice-principal, Mr. Hackett, along with a few other playful dares. They returned to Emily and Alison's room very late at night, high from their hours of fun and laughter, the previous drama from before was all but forgotten.

Emily and Alison went straight to bed, deciding they were exhausted. The other three girls settled comfortably in the huge lounge to watch a movie, deciding to sleep together at the girls' room since it seemed their three boyfriends were still out, ripping the town.

Alison lay her head in Emily's chest as the brunette ran her fingers through her blonde hair. They intertwined their fingers on softly as Emily began to speak.

"You gotta admit, these sleepovers have been good to us. In yours, we had our first kiss and today... we had a little bad moment, but I had a really good night, nevertheless. Plus, even before we were a couple, we would sometimes cuddle when everyone else was asleep," Emily smiled at the memories as Alison lifted her head to look up at her.

"We never got to finish that trivia game, you know," Alison reminded her gently.

"What's my favorite color?" Emily smirked, playing along.

"Navy blue," Alison smiled easily in return. "My favorite subject in school?"

"English, even though you'll never admit it," Emily giggled along with Alison. "My favorite-"

"Person? That's easy- me," Alison laughed as she finished Emily's sentence playfully.

"How do you know me so well?" Emily asked. It was meant to be a mischievous, sarcastic comment, but Alison knew there was some seriousness in it.

She smiled, looking down at Emily with practical hearts for eyes.

"Years of practice, and practice makes perfect."