56 - Lean On Me

Hanna was just about furious at the school's decision to give them a self-defense class. Not that she didn't think self-defense was important, it was just, the entire cafeteria was covered in mattresses and unfortunately, Hanna had worn her favorite pair of heels to school that day, only for her to step on a mattress, falling and nearly breaking a heel. Luckily, Caleb helped her up, but she had still gotten a scratch on her blue Manolo Blahnik heels, and she was obviously not happy about it.

On a whole other hand, Emily was overjoyed by this quick course of self-defense. For one, she loved almost any type of sport and this one was no exception, and secondly, she was missing history class because of this, and she thanked God for that. She couldn't believe she would need to suffer two more years of this crap. Alison was also excited for this, any opportunity to see Emily in yoga pants was more than enough to convince her. Besides, she could use this course. Rosewood was known to be a small town and all, but she used to hurt a lot of people in the past, and she just wondered if someone out there felt like paying her back.

The school didn't give the students any sort of explanation for this sudden curiosity around self-defense, a curiosity that obviously hadn't been there before, not even when a gnarly rumor was being spread about a gang of pedophiles that had invaded their calm town back in seventh grade. Alison was never sure whether that rumor was true or not, but at the time, everyone took it pretty seriously, so she thought it might've been real.

After not getting answers from the school, Spencer - unsurprisingly - was the one to provide some to her best friends. She told them that she had thought about it ever since their sleepover, when they had played Never Have I Ever, and Emily had said it was always important to know how to protect yourself. Spencer might've been highly intoxicated at the time, but her comprehending skills were not damaged, and she had taken what Emily said to heart. And, of course, as the president of the student council, she was one of the people who eventually decided what activities were planned out for the students. She had offered the idea to one of the teachers who was in charge of activities, and they were very fond of it, enthusiastically agreeing to help.

That was how the group ended up standing in a bunch at one end of the cafeteria, waiting for the course to begin, when an unfamiliar guy approached them. He was tall and had a nice set of muscles; he obviously wasn't a student there because they'd never noticed him before that. He was handsome, Alison had to admit, but his beauty didn't even scratch the surface of Emily's. Sometimes, Alison felt like she appeared as some enthusiastic school girl whenever she gushed or fantasized about her girlfriend, but she simply knew Emily looked at her the exact same way.

"Caleb? Is that you?" the guy inquired as he shamelessly stepped closer to the group of friends.

Caleb lifted his head from Hanna's phone where she had been showing him a funny video, an episode of 'Freaky Foodies' as a matter of fact, the one where the lady ate the foam out of some seat cushions. His girlfriend was overly obsessed with the odd show.

"Jake?" Caleb laughed lightly in disbelief, jogging to the guy and embracing him in a tight 'bro hug' - or whatever it was called when two guys did the weird patting-firmly-on-the-back thing, Alison mused. The group stared at him in confusion. He parted from Jake, glancing at his friends like he had momentarily forgotten they were there. "Oh, sorry, guys. This is Jake, Jake, these are my friends, and that's my girlfriend Hanna," he pointed at the phone-holding blonde.

"So, you're the famous Jake," Hanna acknowledged, moving to stand beside Caleb. "Caleb's told me a lot about you."

"Well, you don't just spend seven years in a foster home together without getting close to one another," Jake said meaningfully, but there was a woeful tone to his voice. He smiled somewhat sadly and gave Caleb some more of those firm pats on his shoulder.

Meanwhile, the rest of the friend circle joined the chat, where they quickly learned that the last time Caleb and Jake had seen each other was nearly six years ago when they'd both left the foster home, at a difference of only a week apart, strangely enough. When Ezra asked Jake what he was doing at their school, the guy explained that his adoptive father was the manager of the company that gave out the self-defense courses and several different martial arts classes, and that because he had a black belt, his father had asked him to cover for one of the instructors who was sick that day.

By the time they were all done talking, the teachers looked quite annoyed, glancing at their wristwatches and waiting for the class to start already, and Jake, slightly embarrassed, walked up to the front of the room and introduced himself and spoke a little about what they were going to do. He asked them to pair up and, as expected, Alison and Emily naturally gravitated towards one another.

"Hey stranger," Emily moved to stand side by side next to Alison, nudging her shoulder playfully.

"Didn't your parents ever tell you not to talk to strangers?" Alison barely smothered her smirk, playing along.

Emily hummed thoughtfully. "I make an exception for cute strangers," she said, taking Alison's soft hand with her own.

Alison flushed a little and smiled at her mermaid. They turned their focus back to Jake, waiting for him to instruct them on their first move.

"Alright, before I begin, I want to make it very clear that the things I'm going to show you today are dangerous and are not for the use of entertainment. In short, do not try this at home." Jake made sure to look everybody in the eye as he said this. He was only a year older than Caleb, so he needed to seem as authoritative as he could.

"The first method I'm going to teach you is pretty simple," he started. He showed them how and where to hit someone to defend themselves from a fairly basic attack; how to strike the eyes, the nose, and the crotch - all of which were the most common places that were most effective for a short, in-the-moment solution.

To the eyes, he showed them how to clamp each hand in a way that the thumb was touching the middle finger and the hand looked a little like a bird's beak. He explained that that was how you aimed it to the attacker's eyes. For the nose, he showed them how to use the firm bottom of the wrist and aim it at the lower part of the nose. For the crotch, it was a simple knee to the general area.

"After you do this to someone, you have a window of time where you can escape. Listen to me now, if this happens to you and you need to use one of these things, afterward, run for your life. Self-defense is exactly that - defense. You don't want to stick around and wait for the person who attacked you to wake up." he said sternly. Then he sighed, rubbing at his troubled forehead, as if he was in pain from having to explain this for probably the millionth time. "Now, you're all probably still wondering why I paired you up to couples."

Some of them nodded uncertainly.

"Well, our next drill is a bit harder, and I really, really hope you'll never have to use it. It's how to protect yourself from a gun threat," he explained slowly and somberly. Even the teachers looked impressed by his way of teaching. They would probably take notes afterward, Alison snickered to herself. "Imagine one of you has a gun. You can even make one with your fingers if you want, but either way, aim it at your partner."

Alison followed his instructions, pointing her imaginary gun at Emily. "Geez, Em, I hope we never get to this point," Alison chuckled jokingly.

"Really? I heard it's very trendy to aim a gun at your girlfriend," Emily teased sarcastically.

Alison let out a dramatic gasp, shaking her head in a disappointed manner, "Teenagers these days." Emily chuckled quietly in return, amused by their banter.

Jake instructed them on, showing them that if the attacker held the gun in one hand and aimed it at their head, they were to grab the gun barrel and move it out of their face as fast as they could, then punch the intruder in the face and confiscate their gun. They all did as he instructed, and even excelled at it - he told all of them numerous times that they were doing a fantastic job - and by the time all of the students were done, they felt pretty confident about themselves. Then, he showed them another method - again, reminding them not to do this at home - that involved them putting the attacker in a chokehold after taking the gun. Emily tried it on Alison, and after taking the imaginary gun from her, spun her around quickly and put her in a pretend-chokehold against her own body, as instructed.

Alison smirked a little, huskily remarking, "I could do this all day."

Her breath hitched when she felt Emily uttered lowly in her ear, "I hope for your sake this isn't what you'll say in case this happens in real life."

Her smirk widened as she said quietly, not wanting to break the moment, "Trust me, it won't." Alison's hand found Emily's arm, currently around her neck, and her thumb brushed over smooth skin.

"And how can you be so sure?"

Alison bit her lip as Emily's warm breath covered her ear. "Because you're my knight in shining armor, remember? You won't let this happen to me."

Emily smiled despite herself, knowing just as much as Alison that she would go through hell and back for her girlfriend.

Alison spun in her arms at the sudden falter in Emily's hold, her hands landing on Emily's hips, her thumbs sneaking beneath the girl's shirt and beginning to trace lazy circles on her smooth skin. When Emily didn't move away, one of Alison's hands traveled upwards, her nails grazing the brunette's light abs under her shirt.

"A-Ali, we're-" Emily glanced around nervously, but didn't turn to move Alison's hands away, "in the middle of class."

"Hmm," the blonde let out, not making a move to shift her hands away as Emily watched her intently, noticing the small grin building on her face, "well, what's more interesting, Em? The class? Or me?"

But just as Emily was about to completely turn into a puddle at her girlfriend's sultry tone, a tap on her shoulder had the blonde release her as she turned around. "I'm glad you two are having fun, but we've moved to a different drill."

Alison turned to scowl at Jake. "We know, we were just practicing this one a little further because this exercise seems to be the most important one so far," she huffed in annoyance.

"Well, from what I heard, you two seemed to be flirting and not practicing," Jake returned the glare Alison was giving him.

"You heard wrong. Besides, it's not polite to eavesdrop," she stepped threateningly.

He ignored the second part of her sentence. "I'm pretty sure I heard right, Ali." he shot back. He stayed in tact at her attempt at scaring him away, not even flinching.

"It's Alison DiLaurentis to you. Only my friends call me Ali."

"Well, Alison DiLaurentis, if you were really practicing the gun disarm, I suppose you wouldn't mind demonstrating it to the rest of the class," he raised his eyebrow at her in a challenging manner.

A few students actually looked a little terrified for his life rather than Alison's. They felt bad for him - he didn't know the dangerous creature named Alison Dilaurentis. Others looked terrified for their Queen Bee's sake, as can be expected - Jake had a black belt, after all. Emily and Caleb were ready to separate the two when they heard;

"No problem," Alison actually smiled sweetly at him. The smile was too sweet, and he caught on on the sarcasm in her tone.

Emily watched in concern as Alison walked to the front of the cafeteria and Jake got everyone's attention.

"Given that some of you are having a difficulty paying attention in class," he said pointedly to Alison, though he didn't catch her scoff because he was looking straight to the class, "Alison and I are going to demonstrate the latest exercise."

Some kids cheered, but their smirks were wiped off when Alison pointed her icy glare in their general direction.

As the blonde turned to face Jake, he pointed the finger-created gun towards her. "Ready?" he asked her, smirking in the victory he didn't even have yet.

Alison narrowed her eyes at him for his audacity, "Bring it on, Jakey."

Jake scoffed and did a sort of 'go-ahead' motion that had Alison seeing red. She instantly walked up to him, doing the drill exactly as demonstrated, and ending up with Jake in a chokehold. When she thought she had won this battle, Jake swerved into motion, and Alison winced when her back hit the mattress with Jake standing with his legs on either side her hips, looming over her.

A few girls nearly fainted in the process of swooning and looked at Jake as if he had reached into the freaking sky and pulled down a star especially for them. Even Hanna had to stop herself from fanning her face at the sudden heat she felt, because her boyfriend was basically right there. And Jake was his old friend.

"Looks like you have some practice to do, Ali. Good chokehold, though." Jake said as he moved both his feet to one side of Alison's body, offering her his hand and doing his best to dodge the laser glare coming in his direction from Alison.

Alison only rolled her eyes at him, grudgingly sliding up by herself and stepping away from him as if he was covered in lava. She spotted Emily walking towards her, face morphed worriedly.

"Ali, are you okay? What was that?" Emily asked as soon as she was close enough, looking around for any signs of injury.

"Just me being an idiot, I guess," Alison shrugged bitterly.

Emily shook her head instantly. "You're not an idiot. Don't say that," she argued cutely, pulling Alison to her.

The blonde smiled slightly in response, taking the brunette's hand, "You were great during this lesson, babe. I think you could've easily been the favorite student, if only the instructor didn't hold a grudge against your girlfriend."

Emily chuckled easily, running her thumb over Alison's knuckles, "He doesn't look like the kind of person to hold a grudge. He was nice earlier when we were talking to him with Caleb. I guess he was just upset because of the disturbance in his class. Maybe you just need to go and apologize to him."

Alison let out a whine in protest. She somewhat knew Emily was right, since Jake must've had to assert authority on her in order to make sure the others took this class seriously and not just played around the way Alison did. She really did understand. That didn't mean she wanted to go over and apologize to him.

"Go," Emily chastised gently, and turned Alison around, rubbing the tops of her shoulders encouragingly before lightly shoving her in the direction of where Jake was packing his stuff.

Alison sighed, then walked hesitantly up behind him.

"If you're looking for round two, at least let me face you properly so you won't have an advantage."

Alison gaped in surprise as Jake turned to her, a small smile on his face. She chuckled a little at his words, then cleared her throat. "So, uh, I'm sorry, or whatever. For... disturbing your class and everything," she mumbled miserably.

He laughed, knowing it was the closest thing to an apology he was going to get, "Look, It's okay. I would probably use a self-defense class to flirt with the girl I liked, too. She's your girlfriend, it's cool. And you actually succeeded the drill, I was just being... well, kind of an ass."

She surprisingly found herself agreeing with Emily about her statement regarding Jake being nice. But, of course Emily was right, she mused. Her girlfriend always was.

She gave him a small grin in return.

"Just a little tip, though... you know, for future reference," he said a moment later, amusement shimmering in his eyes. "It's probably best if you don't challenge people with black belts in mixed martial arts to fights when you've only completed a self-defense course."

Alison found herself scoffing out a laugh, nodding, "Noted."

"Well, it was nice to meet you, Alison." He looked behind her suddenly, the corners of his mouth quirking up, "You too, Emily."

Alison turned to face Emily just as the brunette said goodbye to Jake, who went over to chat with his long time friend, Caleb.

"I'm proud of you," Emily bit her lip shyly, "I know it's never really easy for you to apologize."

Alison nodded meaningfully, "You make it easier."

Emily beamed.

"Now," Alison started, her eyes mischievously darting between Emily's, "since it's the end of the day... How about we go home and you could show me that pretend-chokehold again?"

The blonde squealed excitedly when Emily practically pushed her out the door and towards the exit of the school.

XXXXX

Emily had always been a fan of long car rides. She liked listening to music and looking out of the window, feeling like she was in a music video. It was fun. Even when she was little, and she didn't own a phone yet or a desire to get one, her father would put the same mixtapes in every single long car ride, filled with songs that Emily would still know the lyrics to in a hundred years. Nowadays, she also liked it if Alison was there with her, like when they had gone camping and she'd fallen asleep with the sweet smell of vanilla in her nose, Alison napping peacefully on her shoulder. The blonde usually did a good job of keeping her entertained.

But right now, as she was being squeezed on either side by Jason and Alison as they all sat in the Kenneth DiLaurentis' expensive Mercedes vehicle, her knee anxiously bouncing up and down, she wondered why she'd loved long rides in the first place.

It was awkward, to say the least. Jason was lost on his phone, typing away to Cece who couldn't come along this time, Ken and Jessica were at the front, their silence practically deafening, and Alison also remained quiet in the seat to her right, but her fingers were intertwined with Emily's.

Emily didn't know why she had agreed to this, but she was quickly regretting her decision. They had forty more minutes remaining to this horrid car ride until they would finally get to Alison's uncle's house, where they would all participate in the family gathering that was being held in honor of Kenneth's promotion at work.

Emily bit her lip to refrain herself from speaking to Alison at this time, or more likely, whining to her about wanting to go home. Alison had been very convincing when she'd asked Emily to come along. It must've had something to do with the pout she had sported, or the wide eyes that had gazed into Emily's soul. Either way, the brunette didn't stand a chance from the beginning, and had ended up agreeing.

Alison softly set her free hand on top of Emily's knee to keep it from bouncing. Emily smiled at her apologetically. She wished she could talk to the blonde, since that would surely relieve her tension, but the silence in the car stretched on, and she wasn't sure if she wanted Alison's parents to listen in on their chats, even though they seemed to be very fond of her.

She wondered why Mr. DiLaurentis didn't turn on the radio, maybe even for just a little while. She just really hated awkward silences.

Mr. and Mrs. Dilaurentis kept their eyes straight ahead the entire time, and Emily thought it made them look a little like robots. Emily noticed Jason smirking in the corner of her eye at the message he received on his phone. She grimaced, not wanting to ever know the content of that message. Alison looked out the window, but, as if she could feel Emily's distress, she picked up their intertwined hands and kissed the top of the brunette's hand silently.

Emily smiled reassuringly when Alison turned to her, but kept biting her lip the entire way to the celebration, keeping her eyes on the road ahead in the gap between Ken and Jessica's seats.

Calling Alison's uncle's "house", a house, was the understatement of the year. It was a Victorian Era mansion in the suburbs of Philadelphia, and its backyard was a well-kept forest. It was beautiful, and even though Emily knew Alison's family was wealthy, this was a whole new level. But what drove her crazy was Alison. The way the blonde sashayed out of the car nonchalantly like seeing a house like that was a normal, everyday ritual. Emily could never understand that. She stared adoringly at the household through Alison's window, mesmerized, to say the least.

She was startled deeply by Kenneth knocking on the opposite window. He scratched the back of his neck, as though embarrassed. "Emily, could you-" he gestured for her to step out of the car.

She flushed, completely ashamed for making any sort of mistake in front of both of Alison's robot parents. Ken handed the keys to a valet - yet another action that Emily couldn't understand how one could do so casually - leading his family and Emily into the house. Alison patted Emily's shoulder, giving her a sympathetic smile.

"It's okay," Alison assured, "I was overwhelmed by this house the first time I saw it, too."

Emily nodded slowly. "You don't look very bewildered right now," she observed.

Alison shrugged shortly, "I've been here too many times to be stunned every time I see this place."

They stepped foot through the front door, and what Emily had expected to be a small gathering turned out to be a full-blown elegant party, populated by a large portion of Alison's family.

Great, Emily kept her misery in her head, but couldn't help the small groan of nervous protest at the back of her throat. She was actually thankful for the soft background music for covering up her distressed noise.

While Alison reluctantly kissed and hugged her relatives, the brunette politely greeted them when Alison introduced her as her girlfriend, and she silently said a little prayer in thanks for actually wearing one of her best dresses. For most of the people in this place, it was their first time ever meeting her, and if there was one thing Alison had taught her, was that, first impressions - although can be changed - were very important.

Alison must've seen her discomfort, because she locked their arms together and walked around to give Emily a tour. Emily wasn't surprised by the fact that there were eight bedrooms in total, all looking like they were set up for a visit by the royal family. And, of course, the bathrooms looked like Emily could live in them. The kitchen was packed with servers in penguin suits and cooks, so they decided not to go in there, but Alison did escort her to the backyard, never once letting go of her arm.

"Hey," Alison concernedly nudged Emily's shoulder, "are you okay?"

Emily nodded, shyly eyeing the extremely good looking and terrifying members of the DiLaurentis family. Alison looked at her dubiously.

"I know you're lying."

Emily stopped, jotting Alison to halt as well. The blonde raised her eyebrow in question.

Emily sighed warily, "I'm fine. Really."

Alison hummed in uncertainty. She looked around, figuring out they were still surrounded by a horde of people, so she pulled her arm away and then put her hand on the small of Emily's back, leading her somewhere more quiet. They ended up on the second-floor balcony, and Alison closed the glass door behind them. She watched as Emily took a seat on the wooden chaise chair, facing Alison.

Alison decided she didn't give a damn about her dress at that moment, as she crouched down in front of Emily, putting both her hands on the brunette's knees. She rested her chin lightly on top of her hands and pouted, waiting for Emily to speak.

"It's just-" Emily paused, intently looking anywhere but Alison's eyes. She looked down, resting her hands in her lap, "It's nothing, Ali. I'm just being uncooperative and irritating."

Alison slapped the top of her knee, and Emily turned to look at her, surprised. "Don't ever say that again," the blonde shook her head firmly.

"Ow. You're mean," Emily pouted and rubbed at her knee absently.

"If it takes me being mean for you to stop calling yourself irritating, then I'll be mean every day for the rest of my life," Alison reassured.

"But I'm just-"

Alison made a noise of protest and covered her girlfriend's mouth with her hand, effectively silencing her. She looked at the brunette expectantly, and watched for a few moments as Emily's eyes practically smiled at her, until she was sure the brunette stopped calling herself names. She pried off her hand and sighed in relief, but Emily continued her rant for the sole purpose of annoying the blonde.

"But, Ali-"

"No, Em-"

"I'm-"

"Emily!" Alison groaned playfully, and Emily couldn't contain her amused laughter anymore as the blonde dropped her forehead to Emily's knees. Alison lifted her head up back up after a few seconds and shook it with a fond smile. "You're unbelievable."

Emily bit her lip innocently and smiled down at Alison.

"Look," Alison started, the smile fading from her lips, "I know my family makes you nervous. Trust me, it's what they do best. But once you warm up to them... it's really not that bad," Alison sighed, pausing for a moment. She looked up at Emily with serious eyes. "Not all of my family are as cold as my parents, you know. I mean, look at me, I'm not acting like them anymore, right?"

Emily nodded quickly.

"Then you see? You have nothing to be worried about. They'll love you right away, just like I did," Alison promised with a small smile, grabbing both of Emily's hands from her lap and kissing each of them lovingly. Emily blushed and watched her in an awe-struck gaze, the corners of her lips curving up.

Alison stood up and smiled, using Emily's hands as leverage to pull the brunette up. "Come on," she said, kissing Emily's lips shortly, "I want to introduce you to some people."

XXXXX

Two hours later, Emily found herself sitting in one of the many tables in the backyard, smiling sweetly at the passers and goers as she waited for Alison to return from the bathroom. Alison had introduced her to many of her family members, and Emily swooned at how proud Alison looked to have her on her arm. And the brunette was still on cloud nine from twenty minutes ago, when the blonde had pulled her into one of the eight bedrooms and locked the door behind them, and every time Emily thought about it, she could help but smile. She realized she liked the fact that there were so many bedrooms.

It took her a few moments to acknowledge the presence in the seat to her left, but once she did, she subtly cleared her throat and turned to the intruder.

She didn't recognize him. He had blonde hair which seemed neat and tidy, and crystal clear blue eyes. He resembled Alison a lot, so Emily figured he must've been one of the many family members at the venue. He was wearing a suit and looked actually handsome, one of the best looking guys she had ever met. He was smiling slightly at her, and looked about the same age as her, maybe a few years older.

He turned to face her in his chair. "Hey," he started with a grin, "what's your name? I don't think I've ever seen you around here."

Emily smiled politely, "I'm Emily. How about you?"

He chuckled at her slight nervousness which was visible from the way she played with her fingers, and she cursed herself for getting anxious. She really did want to connect with as many people as she could from Alison's family, and this was no exception. She hoped this guy could be her friend.

"I'm Charlie," he finally said, reaching a hand out to shake hers. She returned the gesture timidly. He eyed her for a moment, "So how are you related to this family?"

Emily opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off short. "Wait, no, don't tell me, I'll guess," he said, and the brunette nodded with a small amused smile. "Wait..." he sighed heavily, "don't tell me you're one of uncle Carl's teenage girlfriends. He keeps going for the young gold-digger type. Are you?"

Emily's smile dropped. She shook her head, horrified, "What? No! I-"

"Good, good," he nodded to himself, cutting her off once more. It was really starting to annoy her. He lifted his eyes to hers, managing to look sheepish, "Because then I wouldn't have been able to get to know you properly."

Emily had no doubt in her mind he was trying to flirt with her, and she was getting rather uncomfortable. She shifted uncertainly in her seat as he continued to practically gawk at her. She momentarily regretted wearing this dress, after all.

When Charlie's hand landed on her knee, she began to panic. He leaned closer, "So, Emily, what do you say-"

A different hand landed on her shoulder and she would be even more alarmed, but the second hand was familiar in a way, and she found herself relaxing a little bit.

"Get lost, Charlie," Jason said from behind her, staring the boy down. His gaze was unwavering, and Emily thought she saw Charlie subtly flinching.

Charlie drew his hand back, but then regained some of his confidence, leaning back in his chair. "Why, Jason? I thought we were close. We're cousins, after all."

Jason also freed Emily's shoulder from his hand, and crossed his arms. "I guess we're not so close if you're going around, hitting on my sister's girlfriend."

Charlie's eyes widened in a way that would be comical under different circumstances. His eyes cut to Emily's, "She's- y-you're- Alison's..."

He cleared his throat and took a moment to gather himself, then straightened his tie and stood up. "Excuse me," he said politely, and virtually fled the scene.

Emily let out a small breath of relief as Jason took the seat previously occupied by Charlie. He looked at her for a minute, "Are you okay?"

It was already dark outside, and Emily stared at the cream-colored napkin on the table in the shape of a swan as if her life depended on it. "I could've handled it," she admitted in a shy tone.

Jason exhaled audibly, leaning back in the chair and looking at the girl who turned out be like a sister to him in the past few months. "I know you could've, Em, if it were any other guy. But I also know you want to impress our family because you want them to like you, and you were being polite to him even though you really didn't need to," he said in confidence and in a softness that Emily didn't know he possessed.

She bit her lip for a moment, looking down in shame. "I don't know, I thought maybe he wanted to be my friend," she admitted in a small voice.

Jason gazed at her from the corner of his eye. She heard a chair being dragged backwards and then Jason was standing next to her. "Come on," he said simply.

She frowned in confusion but still got up, and walked behind Jason for only a few feet before he stopped at the edge of the pool. She followed hesitantly, but trusted Jason fully. He was looking off into the space around them, even when Emily came to stand beside him.

"You see all of this?" he asked, gesturing to the backyard in general. There was a buffet with a large variety of dishes and drinks, people dancing around and talking gracefully, everybody in elite clothing, looking powerful and confident. The pool was lighted stylishly from the inside and there were fountains and birdbaths and sculptures.

She nodded in response.

"It doesn't say anything about what the people in our family are like. Most of them are actually pretty decent, and not snobbish like a lot of people think they are once they see what our events look like."

"I know," she said.

"But don't get me wrong, Emily," he said, turning to her. "Most of the people might be decent, but some of them are still exactly what people think we are; standoffish and cold. That's why in every family event, I feel like I'm walking on eggshells when I'm talking to people. You just got to learn not to get close to the second kind of people, and you'll be fine."

Emily nodded in understanding, even though she had never experienced what Jason was talking about. Her family wasn't anything like that.

He looked aloof for a second before he turned to her solemnly, "Listen, uh, Ali would probably kill me if she knew what I'm about to say, but just hear me out, okay?"

Emily morphed her face into the most serious expression she could muster, because this seemed to hold some gravity. "Okay."

"Ali never told me this directly, but I know she feels very... lonely, at home. I don't really know what to do about it, because I'm always at work and as much as I want to be home, I can't quit or anything. I'm working on getting an apartment in Philly," he said, looking ashamed of himself even though Emily knew he shouldn't be. She looked at him expectantly to continue.

"And I can't ask you to spend twenty-four hours with her because I know you love her, but it's obviously too much. But with her birthday coming up soon, I just wanted to tell you that if you have a solution, tell me, okay?"

"Of course," Emily said softly. The corners of her lips kindly tilted up at him, "You're a really good brother, Jason. You kind of make me want to have one of my own."

He smiled warmly back at her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, "You do, Em. You do."

"Hey, sorry it took me so long but I took a detour to the kitchen and brought you this," Alison appeared at her side, carrying two cups of chocolate mousse, holding one out for Emily. Emily took one and smiled at the blonde in gratitude.

"You didn't bring one for me?" Jason asked, exaggeratingly feigning hurt.

Alison snorted a laugh.

Jason smiled in amusement and declined Emily's offer for him to take her own, winking at her reassuringly as he went to fetch his own desert.

Alison sweetly leaned into Emily's body, hugging the brunette's waist loosely, "So what did I miss?"

Emily's lips quirked up as she looked at her girlfriend. "Jason's a really decent guy," she said simply.

Alison's eyes met hers, entertainment shimmers in them as a smile appeared. "Thinking about swapping siblings to date?"

Emily laughed. "Never," she said, kissing Alison's cheek for emphasis.

They enjoyed a few moments of comfortable silence until Alison spoke softly, nodding to herself, "You're right, you know. About Jason." She chuckled a little, "Next time I should bring him dessert, too."

Emily chuckled gleefully, causing Alison to smile up at, because she always beamed when Emily did. And in the next few hours, as they spoke between themselves and shared all sorts of stories about themselves and their families and their friends, they didn't care that people looked at them like they were crazy as their laughter was sounded over the soft music, because they were trapped in their little bubble all over again.