Endless Summer (emison)

9

Alison woke up, feeling completely empty. She had been puking since around 1am, and it wasn't a fun run to the bathroom every hour or so. It was hopelessly embarrassing to have to cut Emily's dessert session short, because she was rushing herself to the bathroom to puke up everything she had eaten that night. Emily was understanding, rubbing Alison's back and holding her hair back as Alison emptied her stomach. This probably had been the most embarrassing thing to happen to Alison in a long time.

When she was done for the time being, Emily carried her back to her room and got her situated in her bed. Still mumbling her apologies, Alison watched as Emily pulled the covers over her and got her water. Whispering good night to her, Emily bent down and kissed her forehead, her lips leaving a flutter of butterflies in the pit of Alison's stomach. She didn't know if this was because of her sickness or something else, but Ali didn't want Emily to leave her. Since Emily had slept over, Alison realized how much she hated sleeping alone. Alison didn't sleep afterward due to the frequent bathroom runs, but as the sun began to come up she found herself falling asleep.

She woke up seven hours later covered in a thin layer of sweat and freezing. It was around lunch time, but Alison was no where near being hungry. This was a dilemma because Alison was supposed to meet Emily for lunch twenty minutes ago. She grabbed her phone to text Emily, but received a text from Noel instead.

Noel: hey, heard u were sick. I took care of Emily, taking her to a nice lunch in your absence ;) don't get better too fast

Attached was a selfie of Noel and Emily, her hand resting on his chest. Both had sunglasses on, sporting bright smiles and flawless faces. Alison saved the photo to her phone, smiling for the first time today.

Ali: Don't get me too jealous :(

Noel didn't reply, and Ali wanted to go and see Emily, but thought of food made her nauseous. Instead, she read a book. It was an old book with musty smelling pages and a faded cover. It was one that she had for a while but never thought about reading because she never had time. Alison had never been a reader, there were better things to do than sit around and imagine things that were written in a book. But this book she had been drawn too, maybe it was the little or maybe it was the brief summary she had heard from her junior English teacher.

Great Expectations it was called. A book that caught Alison's attention that day in English class when Mr. Fitz was reading off summer reading recommendations. He placed a small pile of paperback copies on his desk, all with the name scrawled on the side. Alison looked up from her doodle on her notebook and listened as Mr. Fitz gave a brief summary.

Mr. Fitz was a favorite among the girls at Rosewood High School, especially Ali's best friend Aria Montgomery. The two had an on and off relationship until the end of the school year, when they resumed dating over the summer. Alison kept her secret, so did Spencer and Hanna. Alison always kept peoples' secrets, only using them to her advantage when she could get something out of them. Mr. Fitz, or Ezra as he preferred outside of school, had a few secrets as well due to his previous encounter with Alison when she was a freshman in Cape May. She agreed to not tell Aria about it if he gave her something in return.

The book title caught her attention in the beginning of the school year, recognizing the title immediately. She had come across the old copy in her attic, the same day she found out that Jason was in fact only her half brother. The book had been placed on top of the documents that had the information about Jason. The maroon binding and dustiness gave the Alison the immediate notion that it was old. She placed the book back in box, so that no one would notice she had been searching through it. After Ezra mentioned the book in class, Alison went back into her attic to retrieve the book, but never read it after doing so.