PRETTY Little LOVE (emison fanfic)

Chapter 28: @The_Grille

(present day)

Emily's pov

"I'll tell you everything,"

Alison said as her gorgeous mouth spread wide in a beautiful smile. She really got that kind of smile, I say, that could light up the darkest room. Much more when she laughs. It's not only bright, but infectious as well. And the last time I enjoyed someone else's company in this easy going fit of laughter was so long ago I truly failed to recall when was that or the basic details of it.

"...but first you have to try to remember who was it," she said in between chuckles.

"Okay... I'll try my best," I willed myself to look back and tried to go to that distant memory that is called homecoming dance. I dug in the deepest vaults of my brain to extract who got drunk and puked on the limo Ali had rented for the occasion at the time.

And I came up blank. I shook my head smiling, hoping it wasn't me, "Nope Ali... I really can't remember which one of us threw up... Please tell me, it wasn't me,"

"No Em... It wasn't you," she said, "Quite the contrary, you were the most sober among us,"

"Then who was it?"

"Hanna... We promised Hanna's mom that there was no drinking so we didn't take her home," Ali said thoughtfully over the rim of her tall slim wine glass before sipping into it.

It wasn't that late in the evening when we had our dinner here at Apple Rose Grille. There were a number of patrons dining when we got to our table, but at the moment, it's just the two of us, the waiter at the counter and the receptionist by the door.

I felt a little awkward at first, and a little silly, because I felt oddly like a teenager on a first date. But I shook the weird feeling away and got to my rational senses, reminded myself that this is just a casual meeting with an old acquaintance trying to catch up some lost time. And lost memories in my case. So far, the conversation Ali and I are having is entertaining, I barely noticed the time. Even if I did notice it, I chose to ignore it and pay attention instead to this wonderfully beautiful person in front of me.

"We took her to a motel?" I asked, slightly furrowing my brows. It's vague but suddenly I think I recall taking someone in a motel drunk to spend the night to get sobered up. I'm not sure really.

"No silly... We took her to my house since my parents were conveniently out at the time. After Spencer and Aria went to their homes, pretty much wasted like Hanna but still capable of walking, you helped me drag the drunken misery that was Hanna to my room,"

I imagined a picture in my head of the Hanna I met a few days ago, blonde and bubbly and sophisticatedly fashionable, as the Hanna Alison's describing as a teenage drunken misery, and I can't help snort a little laugh at the hilarity of the image I have in mind right now, "What happened next?"

"Well, you and I stripped her off her stinking dress wiped her make up with a wash cloth and put my pjs on her. She kept on whimpering and whining gibberish at us, we were actually making fun of what she was saying. When she was finally out of it and went snoring, we went to my kitchen to have some tea,"

"Hanna must've had one hell of a hang over the next day... Did I stay over as well?"

Alison paused, meeting my attentive gaze at her and lingered, "You really don't remember..."

"Moments ago I might've recalled something, but it's a slightly different picture from this memory of homecoming you're telling me,... No, I don't think I remember staying the night over," I said keeping my eyes on her as well as she does at the moment, taking notice of the change in the hue of her iris from soft gentle blue to a slightly deeper and ice-like shade of the said color.

She was the first one to break eye contact and looked down her wine glass before taking it for another sip. She placed the wine glass on the table before glancing up and met my gaze once again. She then licked the excess wine on her lips, the act seemed so deliberate and casual at the same time, it gave me an utterly uncomfortable feeling of heat. It's like the room suddenly felt warmer in a cold winter night.

This little things Alison's making me feel is starting to bother me. It isn't because it feels bad, but because it actually feels... really good. Really familiar.

"No... you didn't stay over that night... But we talked for a long good while," she said with a little sigh.

There's an edge in her voice that wasn't there earlier. She's been gracious and has been talking animatedly for a while, but being faced with the reality of my faded memory seems to get under her skin.

"I'm sorry, Ali... I'm really trying to remember all this but..."

I found myself apologizing yet again. Earlier in our conversation over the phone, I felt like saying sorry for not being around for a long time and I did so. Then, I said sorry again for being late by the time I found her waiting by herself on this table. There is something about her demeanor that just makes me feel guilty of something and the urge to make things up for her.

"Emily... It's not your fault. I don't think it's anybody's fault. I just... I feel..." She looked away from me, taking in a deep breath, " ...I feel terrible for what happened to you, Em. But I also feel frustrated for not knowing how you managed to survive these past few years being away from us, frustrated for how I, we... massively failed to find out where you've been or what you had been through. I feel angered by not being there at a time in your life where you needed me most... "

Now, it's my turn to look away. I knew it was inevitable for her to ask and I should have been ready with an acceptable answer. An answer that is far from the actual truth.

"Where were you when you woke up? I mean where exactly in this planet were you by the time you regained consciousness? How did you end up in such a miserable state in the first place, how did you manage to stay away for so long after that?"

She's upset now. And I can't find the right words to say. She has so many questions, as many as I do, and I can't handle that much at one time.

By impulse, or by whatever force of nature, I reached for her hand. My intention was to calm her, ease away a little of what's upsetting her. But at that exact moment my skin touched hers, a sudden rush of buzzing electricity coursed its way all over my body, making me feel like the blood in my veins began to simmer. I felt something fluttery in my belly that crawled up to my chest, making my heart palpitate.

And then a sudden sharp pain in the back of my head erupted, making me feel nauseous.

I pulled my hand back, having it grasp the back of my skull, that felt like there's a chainsaw splitting it in half. I was heaving with deep breaths, trying so damn hard not to falter from my seat, feeling beads of sweat trickle on my spine and on my temples.

"Emily?!" I heard Alison say, and vaguely felt her move towards me.

I saw lights flash in front of me. Showing many different images that I can't make sense of. Until one vivid image played out as though a scene from a movie. It was Alison surrounded by colorful lights wearing a flowing yellow dress, holding a corsage, smiling at me so damn beautifully I could feel my knees turn into jelly. It was perfect until that beautiful image started to fade deep into the darkness.

The last thing I was aware of was her voice, pleading...

"Emily... please stay with me,"

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