Author's Note: I hope you all are having a good day. Thank you so much for the new follows and favorites! I guess this won't be a two-shot after all… We'll see how far this goes. Enjoy!

Lil: I'm really glad you're enjoying this one. I needed a little break from BIF. That story is throwing my emotions all over the place. I was hoping that this story could get my mind off it for a little while. I like writing in short bursts. More updates and everybody's happy. :) Thank you so much for reading and reviewing! Can always count on feedbacks from you. :)

Jamillah: Yes, my love. All these sweet gestures and updates for you and the rest of the fanfic world. I've got a lot of affairs going on though, so I hope you don't feel too bad about it. ;) Don't try too hard to not get attached. I do want you to come back and read. hahaha

Delphine: Thank you for your encouraging words! Well, chapter two was more of a transitional segment of the story for me. I'd feel too…uneasy jumping from chapter one to writing this chapter right away. You'll see. ;) Thanks for reading and reviewing, hun.

Jjwillbabystar: Thank you! I like that you're enjoying the story so far. I tried. I was just really confused why not many people decided to write about episode 3x20. You could go off from so much of that episode. :) Here's the quick update you asked for! Enjoy!

Disclaimers: I do not own Pretty Little Liars.

I paced back and forth in my bedroom, wondering when the hell Paige was going to show up. I pressed a button on my phone to make the screen light up and saw that it was already ten past seven. Was she already preoccupied with someone else?

No, Emily stop it right now. I sat down on the edge of my bed and stared at the bedroom floor. The bedroom floor that she once slept on. I sighed and looked away towards the window seat. The window seat where our special confession had taken place. I fell back against the bed and looked up towards the ceilings. Why was I acting like this? I'm no different from a jealous, lovesick puppy as it is, so can't I just have a moment of inner peace? God, this sucks.

The doorbell ringing snapped me out of my little self-loathing state, and I rolled my eyes. Now she wants to come over. I felt exhausted and suddenly didn't want to have to deal with this any more. I gathered myself up and trudged down the stairs to open the door for the girl who had a lot of explaining to do. Paige was about to open her mouth to say something, but I just turned my back on her and started heading up the stairs again. I was too irritated to care. I heard the door clicked and footsteps trailing about five feet behind me. Once I entered my bedroom, I started to take off my denim jacket I had on. I heard Paige walk into the room and I pretended to fix the jacket on the bed.

"Any idea why Shana got in trouble for emailing confidential information?" I heard her question from behind me. Great. Shana. Just fucking great.

"We needed to find out who rented those costumes," I said nonchalantly as I started to make my way over to the study desk on the other side of the room. I felt like my blood should be boiling in this type of situation. Instead I feel myself freezing over, and I instantly wanted her to stop talking about Shana.

"So badly you're willing to risk somebody's job?" Paige gave me the third degree, as I scrambled the last few steps to the table and fumbled around looking for something to do while trying to keep my cool façade. The accusing tone in her voice stirred a very violent feeling inside of me. I hadn't even made it over to my study desk yet, and so far, all I've gotten are questions about Shana. I'm your freaking girlfriend here, Paige! I am!

"It's complicated! Okay?" I turned around and yelled at her, trying to hide my annoyed expression in vain. I couldn't deal with this right now.

"Try me!" she daringly said. I can't believe this. I turned around and started organizing the materials on my study desk to ignore her. God, she's driving me nuts. All she fucking cares about is Shana.

"There's more to this than you're letting on." I heard her speak up again. Great, here we fucking go again. "Is this something about Mona?" I didn't respond. "Did she kill Garrett?" she asked tentatively.

"I don't know!" I turned around again and screamed at her. All these questions thrown at me were further challenging my tolerance for this discussion. Why can't she just let it go? "Look, I know you and Caleb are trying to bust her, but this might be bigger than Mona, okay? She could be working for someone." I gave her an intent stare to tell her to back off and let it go.

"Someone like who?" Paige asked with a surprised and worried expression. God. This girl.

"That's what we're trying to figure out. At first, we thought it was Cici, but now, now we don't know what to think." I crossed my arms across my chest as the frustration over this other issue overtook me. Why did everything have to be so wrong? I'm already distressed enough over this, and now Paige has to go increase the tension doing whatever it was she was doing with Shana. God, the thought of it was already making me sick. My gaze fell to the ground as I let out a breath after that little outburst. I was so sick of all of this.

"Why didn't you tell me this?" Paige obliviously asked. I stared at her and contemplated for a second about whether I should tell her my reasons.

"Because I was being protective. Same as you and Caleb." I finally revealed. She gave me that look which pretty much said, "We already had this conversation Emily. I'm supposed to be the one protecting you." I only stared back to let her know that what's done was already done, and there's nothing further we can do about it. She blinked a few times and pursed her lips before looking down, finally accepting everything for what they really were.

I still couldn't let the nagging feeling go. It was just there. Pricking at my shield while I tried with all my strength to ignore it. Suddenly, the feeling just completely consumed me.

"Now it's your turn." I heard myself say. She looked up at me warily and was waiting for God knows what. I looked at her expectantly and dropped my gaze briefly to the ground as I spoke up, "Shana?" I lifted my eyes off the ground and saw surprise flash through her eyes.

"Em…" she breathed my name out exasperatedly. Great. Something was going on between them. I breathed in deeply and tried not to groan from all the anguish that was exponentially increasing.

"No, we can't be half honest. I saw the way you two looked at each other." I told her as I briefly recalled the scene at the costume shop that was still fresh in my mind.

Paige's mouth hung open in shock, and I felt like I was about to lose it. She stared at me for a few seconds in her stupor and then looked down to the ground. Guilty. She looked completely guilty. I wanted to throw myself across the room and do something to make her feel the pain that I felt was welling up in my chest. I'd given her everything. I'd…given her what was still left of my heart. And she cheated on me? How could she? It hurts even more now, because I was already ready to let it go. Because I couldn't lose her too. It would devastate me to no end. Paige stood there in all her glorious lies, and I continued to stare at her with my dumbfounded look. I can't believe myself. Where the hell is your self-respect, Fields? Honestly, I don't know any more.

"We dated." she shrugged as she said this. Paige took a few seconds looking back and forth at the ground before lifting her eyes to briefly stare at me and dropping her gaze again. "This summer." she said, and there goes that shrug again. Why the hell did she keep doing that? Now it was my turn to look down at the ground in disappointment. "While you were working in Haiti. Three weeks." I looked over to my bed and wondered about all the things she and Shana might've done that I didn't even want to think about. I shook my head, trying to rid my thoughts of those off-putting scenes.

"If it was over, why would you lie about it?" I closed my eyes momentarily to regain my control before returning my gaze back to her.

"Because I didn't want to hurt you." she voiced her reasoning. Her stare never faltered but the tone in her voice held a different meaning for me. I thought hard about the way she had said it, trying to wrap my mind around the explanation she's given me. My brows furrowed as I thought about her words and I looked away at the pathetic excuse.

What if she was lying? How could I know that that was her true intention? Or was she going to lie and hide the truth from me forever if we never stepped into that costume shop together?