The English Teacher ➳ Emison

Chapter 4 | The Closer You Get...

Monday at lunchtime, Emily was sitting with her friends at the cafeteria. Her mood had been significantly better this morning than the entirety of last week, not that the girls knew the reason for it.

Anything between Friday and Saturday felt like a surreal blur for Emily, but she couldn't stop thinking about it if she tried. Alison was constantly on her mind.

She's had pretty girls interested in her in the past, but something about knowing the blonde in particular was into her gave her such an amazing feeling, especially considering how interested she was in return.

She felt as though they were that much closer now after she'd spent the night at Alison's house. As much as the concept had scared her last week, it was now exhilarating in a wholly-consuming way. If there was one thing the night of the party had taught her, it was that she couldn't control how she felt.

Her thoughts were rudely cut off when she spotted Hanna reaching into her tray and plucking out pieces of fruit one-by-one from her small bowl of fruit salad, munching on them happily.

"Hanna," Emily exclaimed in indignation.

"I'm hungry!" Hanna defended through her bite.

"Then why didn't you take your own fruit salad?" she questioned, dismayed.

Hanna made a dismissing hand gesture and Emily rolled her eyes, purposely taking the small bowl off the table and out of the blonde's reach, eating it just to spite her. Spencer only glanced away from her phone to chuckle at the scene, shaking his head at her friends' antics.

Hanna then turned to the other brunette, who was too busy looking at a 3D model of her future college campus on her phone. She reached with her fork and grabbed a baby carrot from Spencer's plate without the girl noticing, eating it in a single bite and chewing it annoyingly in Emily's direction.

The swimmer fended her off, noticing that Aria was approaching with her own tray. She half-jokingly debated whether she should put up a sign to warn off people at this table from Hanna's wandering hands toward their food.

"Hey," she greeted Aria, who sat down next to her. The girl had missed most of the lunch hour. "Where have you been?"

"I had to talk to Mr. Garrison about my English paper. He's claiming that I didn't understand the assignment, but I did, I was just trying to answer from a different angle." Aria sighed, opening her water bottle. "God, I wish I was with you in English, Em. Everyone seems to really like Ms. DiLaurentis."

"Yeah, especially Em, I bet," Hanna cackled.

"Just eat your carrot, Han," Emily retorted dryly.

"Wait, Em, is that little crush you had on her still going on?" Aria teased with a small grin.

"It's nonexistent, okay?" Emily said, lying through her teeth.

"Yeah, right. You like, melt, when she walks into a room," Hanna joked goofily, opening a can of Coke. "You get that dazed look in your eye."

"Weirdly enough, I know exactly which look you're talking about," Spencer laughed. When she caught Emily's unamused gaze, she leaned forward inquisitively. "Wait, so, that's it with Paige? It's officially over?"

"It was officially over when I left for Haiti," Emily answered truthfully. "Not that she seems to understand that."

"God, when you told us what happened at the party, I was shocked," Aria revealed. "I couldn't believe she would try to kiss you like that when you were all drunk and vulnerable."

"Yeah, well, I can believe it," Hanna chimed in bluntly. "Remember what I told you last year, Em? I never liked Paige. Now I know why."

"Did you see her today?" Spencer asked.