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“Are you scared of her?” Cece had asked as she had driven away, Paige McCullers standing frozen in their wake.
“Of Pigskin?” Ali had forced a laugh. “Don’t be ridiculous. You heard what I said. I own her now. And I’m sure she’s never gonna go near Emily again.”
“But you don’t even like Emily like that.” Cece pointed out. “You’ve just spent the entire day talking about Ian Thomas. You always said that it was cute that your friend had a crush on you, but you were never going to act on it. Why do you care if she dates that girl?”
Ali had rolled her eyes. “Because it’s Pigskin. If you knew her, you’d get it. She’s a freak, she’s psychotic. I’m doing Em a favour here by making sure she doesn’t date someone like that.”
Cece had let it drop then, and Ali might even have done the same, except the next day they were playing soccer and Pigskin kicked her in the back. It was obviously on purpose, but Coach didn’t seem to care. And to add insult to injury, Loser Mona had watched the whole thing and hadn’t even tried to stifle her laughter.
Loser Mona had actually dared to laugh at her, Alison DiLaurentis.
And in that moment, Ali determined that she wasn’t done with Paige McCullers after all.
Emily hadn’t even noticed Paige, Ali knew. Why would she, when Ali was around? But Ali knew she was there, was conscious of her presence the whole time as she turned deliberately to Emily and started talking about some prank she had played on Jason at the weekend, then looked right over Emily’s shoulder, met Paige’s eyes as she and Emily laughed. And it couldn’t have gone better if she’d planned it, because as Ali finished her story, Emily threw back her head, laughed along with Ali and looked right in Paige’s direction. Paige, obviously thinking they were laughing at her, turned and ran sobbing from the cafeteria, colliding with Hermy the Hermaphrodite as she ran, Ali smirking in her wake.
“You should have seen her face,” Ali laughed as she recounted the story to Cece later. “She won’t be trying anything with Em again.”
“I still don’t get why this girl bothers you so much,” Cece replied. “Why did you do that?”
For a moment, Ali considered telling Cece everything; how she’d always liked knowing that she came first in Emily’s life and while Emily’s boyfriend Ben was no real threat, she’d feared coming second place to Paige, or even any other girlfriend Emily may have, and she also considered telling Cece that it wasn’t entirely true that Emily’s feelings for her were unrequited and that sometimes she had imagined what it would be like to be with Emily, the one person she was certain loved her.
Instead, Ali flipped her hair over her shoulder and smirked. “Because I’m a bitch,” she answered, then turned away before Cece could read the truth in her face. She’d taken care of Paige once and for all, and she was still first in Emily’s affections. Her job for now was done.