Careful, Ali ➳ Emison

Chapter 10 | Clues

The five girls picked up lunch trays in turn and proceeded in the direction of the lunch line, which was longer than usual due to it being Taco Tuesday.

"They're just... I've never seen the both of them so upset before," Aria shared, her eyes tired and bodying great sorrow. She looked as though she hadn't slept in a week, and people seemed to take notice to it as well, staring strangely her way, since Aria was ordinarily the cheerful and lively one of their popular clique. "My dad slept on the couch last night. Even Mike cried."

"This is terrible, Aria. I'm so sorry," Spencer said in deep sympathy, shaking her head at the wrongful doings of their stalker.

"I can't believe A stooped so low," Emily muttered, for the first time in her life truly hating someone, a blank-faced person that she wasn't even sure she knew.

"Yeah, they really stepped it up," Hanna agreed in a quiet tone, "I mean, kicking Spencer out of some school club is nothing compared to this, and-"

Alison nudged her softly, shaking her head with an expression that told Hanna to grow a filter. The fuller blonde sheepishly silenced herself, and Alison gave her a small smile to let her know that it was alright, which seemed to calm Hanna down a bit. The queen bee knew these news must've been quite the damper on Hanna's mood, who was far too excited about her recently sprouting relationship, and Alison couldn't find it in herself to blame her because she did nothing but share a fundamental understanding with her, regarding her and Emily's relationship. It probably felt the same for Spencer as well, who informed them that Toby and her have started seeing each other.

Emily approached the cutlery station, not noticing the one other person trying to get in line.

"Oh, sorry," she said politely as she reached for the same fork as the guy next to her.

"It's fine, Emily."

She whipped her head to look at the boy with the familiar voice, locking eyes with Ben. He gave her a faint smile, nodding his head in a gesture that told her to go ahead and take the fork.

"Thanks," she uttered, taking the fork.

"No problem," he shrugged, grabbing a different one. "See you later," he mumbled a bit awkwardly as he walked away, purposefully avoiding Alison's cold, hard glare in his direction.

"This whole school is just a tiny frickin' fishbowl," Hanna grumbled.

"Yeah," Emily conceded, "and I have a feeling that A is looking at us from the outside, mocking us for swimming around in circles."

They finally reached the actual lunch line, lifting their trays so that the lunch ladies could place food on their plates.

"Oh, that's enough, thanks," Emily said, giving the woman an apologetic smile to which she responded with a blank face. Aria gave her fellow brunette a confused frown, and Emily merely replied with, "I never eat too much before a meet. I'm anchoring today."

"That's right! Are you nervous?" Aria asked, momentarily forgetting about her own mess of a life.

Emily shrugged, "Not more than I should be."

Aria responded with a small, encouraging smile, "Well, we will be there to cheer you on."

"Thanks, Ar," Emily gratefully remarked.

"With all of this mayhem, I forgot to ask how yesterday's date went."

"It was pretty incredible, actually," Emily informed with a small smile, sharing a gaze with Alison, who threw her a playful wink. She remembered walking Alison home, and though they were both very anxious and worried for Aria, Emily hadn't helped herself but smile when the blonde leaned over, pressing a long kiss against her cheek and thanking her, before disappearing behind her front door. The edges of Emily's fingertips had tingled all the way back home.