Locum Tenens

PART TWO: "Sic Infit"

~ So it begins. ~ 

DISCLAIMER: Pretty Little Liars and all its characters is the intellectual property of others. Some characters used in the writing of this fic belong to PLL. Events that transpire, will transpire and have transpired in this story are entirely of my own creation.

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CHAPTER SIX

"Kayla, come on. I'm sorry." Paige repeated as she knocked on the girl's apartment door for the tenth time on a Saturday morning. "I know you're awake and you're probably standing on the other side of this door scowling. That's bad. You're going to get wrinkles all over your pretty face at a young age. So come on. Open the door and stop scowling. Please?" She begged, knocking again.

When there was still no response, Paige sighed and leaned against the wall beside the door. Her left arm was starting to get sore from carrying a coffee holder with two coffees and cradling a paper bag with two muffins inside but she can't exactly carry the paper bag because she needed her other hand to knock on Kayla's door. She screwed up big time last night when she forgot to return to Girard for Kayla so she understood why the girl refused to open the door. Kayla was really mad at her. Unless...

"Kayla you did get home, right?" Paige called out, knocking on the door frantically this time. "Okay now I'm really worried. Please open the door or say something? Just give me a sign that you're in there or I'm going to call missing persons. I'm serious." She said, knocking again. "Kayla!"

Paige didn't care if she woke up her neighbors at this point. Jai would find a way to rise from the dead if her best friend found out that she forgot to pick up Jai's sister from Girard when she promised that she'd come back for Kayla...

...because I was busy perfecting the art of first base with Jai's girlfriend all night...

Paige elicited a groan when that thought occurred to her. Yeah. Jai is probably halfway digging through her grave right now. She's going to come back then take me with her. Paige was about to head back to her apartment to make the call when she heard the lock click, followed soon after by the sound of the door being slowly pulled open. She turned around and exhaled in relief when she finally saw Kayla in her pink cotton pajamas.

"Oh thank god." Paige muttered, walking forward and giving the girl a tight one-armed hug before stepping back. "I'm so sorry."

"I waited for you until one in the morning to come back before I finally accepted that you forgot me." Kayla revealed, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "When I got here I was seriously tempted to barge inside your room and wake you up but I was too exhausted and sleepy and cold so I went to bed instead."

Paige's eyes widened in panic when she remembered that the girl has a key to her apartment. "You promised to use that key for emergencies only." She reminded Kayla.

"Yeah, well you promised you'd come back for me last night but you didn't. I came close but at least I didn't break mine." Kayla shot back. "I thought I was going to turn into a human popsicle standing outside my school building. You didn't even answer your phone and I called you several times. Where the hell were you?!" She asked, irritated.

"I know. I'm sorry I forgot. I lost track of time." Paige confessed.

"I know you're sorry. You keep saying that but I'm not hearing the reason why you forgot to come back for me. I'm a human being, Paige. Not some object you forgot you were carrying around." Kayla pointed out. "I was okay even if my dad kept ignoring me and pretending that I don't exist. Keeping me at arms' length. Because I know you're still there for me. But last night for the first time I felt like I had no one." She admitted, staring at the ground.