Pretty Little Liars (Book One)

Twenty-Two: Beer Baths Are Good For The Pores.

"Check it out," Maya whispered excitedly. "There used to be one of these in my favorite cafe back in Cali!"

Emily and Maya stared at the old-school photo booth at the perimeter of Noel's yard and the woods. A long, orange extension cord wound its way to the booth from Noel's house across the lawn. As they admired it, Noel's older brother, Eric, and a very-giddy Mona Vanderwaal fell out of the booth, grabbed their photos, and skipped away.

Maya glanced at Emily. "Wanna try it?"

Emily nodded. Before they ducked inside, she quickly glanced around the party. Some kids were gathered around the keg and a lot of other people held their red plastic cups in the air as they danced. Noel and bunch of boys were swimming in the duck pond in their boxers. Ben was nowhere to be seen.

Emily sat beside Maya on the booth's little orange seat and closed the curtain. They were so squeezed together, their shoulders and thighs touched.

"Here." Maya handed her the Jack Daniel's bottle and hit the green start button. Emily did a shot, then held it up triumphantly as the camera snapped the first picture. Then they squished their faces together and donned huge grins. Emily rolled her eyes back into her head, and Maya puffed her cheeks out like a monkey for the third picture. Then the camera caught them looking seminormal, if maybe a bit nervous.

"Let's go see how they look," Emily said.

But as she stood up, Maya grabbed her sleeve. "Can we stay in here a sec? This is such a great hiding spot."

"Um, sure." Emily sat back down. She swallowed loudly, without meaning to.

"So, how have you been?" Maya asked, pushing hair out of Emily's eyes.

Emily sighed, trying to get comfy on the cramped seat. Confused. Upset at my possibly racist parents. Afraid I made the wrong decision about swimming. Kinda freaked that I'm sitting close to you.

"I'm all right," she said finally.

Maya snorted and took a swig o whiskey. "I don't believe that for one second."

Emily paused. Maya seemed like the only person who actually understood her. "Yeah, I guess not," she said.

"Well, what's going on?"

But suddenly, Emily didn't want to talk about swimming or Ben or her parents. She wanted to talk about...something else completely. Something that had been slowly dawning on her. Maybe seeing Aria had triggered it. Or maybe finally having a real friend again had brought the feeling back. Emily thought Maya would understand.

She took a deep breath. "So, you know that girl Alison, the one who used to live on your house?"

"Yeah."

"We were really close and I, like, really loved her. Like, everything about her."

She heard Maya breathe out and nervously another sip of Jack Daniel's from the bottle.

"We were best friends," Emily said, rubbing her fingers between the ratty blue fabric of the photo booth curtain. "I cared about her so much. So this one day, sort of out of the blue, I did it."

"Did what?"

"Well, Ali and I were in this tree house in her backyard—we went there a lot to talk. We were sitting up there, talking about this guy that she liked, some older boy whose name she wouldn't say, and I just felt like I couldn't hold any of it in anymore. So I leaned over...and kissed her."

Maya made a small sniffing noise.

"She wasn't into it, though. She was even kind of distant and said, like, 'Well, now I know why you get so quiet when we're changing for gym!'"