This is Real

Girl *space* friend/s

The filming for the last half season started promptly. The different scenes require filming schedules that were a little similar to how they were during the first three seasons. Although Alison was a main character by value, she didn't appear as often as the four other girls in the series, so Sasha usually had different times to film than the others. So, although it's already started, Sasha was set to come back two more weeks after the rest of the crew.

Her best friend arrived a few days before the filming started, a few days and two weeks before Sasha does, and Sasha sort of curled up against her the first night El popped up in her home. El accepted the emotional weight that was her best friend of more than half of their lives, because she'd only been able to do that through long email rants from Sasha the past year of absence.

Elizabeth Mckeller was British, but she moved to the states when she was six because of her father's job, and her and Sasha were neighbors who became fast friends since. She left the US a year ago to go through her third year of college abroad--still home, in her case really--and she was back now after the one academic year.

Although she wasn't in the same track as Sasha, they were able to stay friends even through El's increasingly busy academic college load, and Sasha's blooming career. It had been a little heart-wrenching for the two of them to part the year before, but it was really only for a year anyway, and was actually Sasha who encouraged El to take the opportunity. She was studying to be a doctor, and the exposure to two different health care systems would be a good experience for her.

That also meant El wasn't present for most of the struggle Sasha was going through, what with her sexuality suddenly under the microscope for all the world to see, not to mention that Sasha was her own worst critique when it came to that.

So El sat now, making up for her absence. That and for the fact that when Sasha had first told about El about maybe being attracted to girls, it had taken her a month and a week to reply. She'd been very apologetic when she finally Skyped Sasha, but it had made things rockier for Sasha, thinking she'd lost her best friend from being... not normal. But it took a while for El to come to terms with Sasha's attraction, especially since they were both raised in the same Christian environment. Especially because she knew about Sasha's past.

Her past that Kenneth Pieterse had tried hard to take her far away from.

El kept her arms tight around Sasha now as Sasha drew as much comfort from one of the two people she knew wouldn't judge her now. Not for her blooming attraction for Shay, and not for denying that attraction for thinking it made her different. Sasha was obviously stuck between a rock and a hard place.

"I don't know what to do, E," Sasha croaked, throat tortured from crying.

El pressed a kiss to the crown of Sasha's head, almost smiling from the nickname Sasha had given her. They'd been young when they decided to copy Gossip Girl's best friend duo and started to call each other by the first letter of their names, and it actually stuck. El had joked Sasha about it, though, because it only shortened El's nickname by one letter.

Looking up at the muted TV in front of them, El studied the people in it remembering that she'd once thought all the drama on television series don't actually happen in real life, and here was her best friend living it. With an accompanied squeeze on Sasha's slumped shoulders, El spoke softly. "You don't have to do anything, yet, S. Give yourself time to absorb all this." She sighed. "I know you're living a Hollywood life now, but no one should force you to come to terms with this immediately."

"But they want us to pretend-"

"Oh, screw that. You're going to get the views whether or not you push through with this. You've a solid fanbase, yeah? This is optional." El's voice was firm. She was living a very typical life, only having to worry about grades and men. She used to be jealous of Sasha's life, but now knew there were always ups and downs to the two different lifestyles they both lived. She occasionally got exposed to Sasha's fame, but it was never to the point that it would affect her decisions in life.