This is Real

Not Now, Not Yet

It was becoming increasingly apparent through the different media feeds they both were bothering to monitor since they both had accounts in them that Shay was now spending more and more time with Sasha when it had been Ashley she had been spending time with in the past. Naturally, the fans were all over it since the only reason for two actresses to actually spend more time together was if the two of them were spending more time on set. And of course that automatically meant Emily and Alison had more scenes together.

The PR of PLL was only too ok with how things were going because it definitely gave the show the boost it needed after losing its edge when Alison was incarcerated. Ratings were on the rise. Unfortunately for the stars, that also meant that the paparazzi was more persistent in their pursuit of Shay and Sasha and the moments that they spent together.

It would have been ok really, if it weren't for the fact that the two of them were exploring something that they both weren't exactly familiar with yet and all the media attention was slowing down the process because they didn't want anything splattered in the pages of the magazines.

Not that they were even very blatant about it. It was like they both knew they were on the way to figuring exactly what it was that was going on, but they were both very reluctant to broach the subject. Even during that fateful night and the morning after, they had both skirted around what could have happened.

*Flashback*

Shay was aware of her breathing going a little faster, her heartbeat persistently thudding against her chest, and she thought it should be the only thing she was hearing, but she was oddly highly attentive of each breath Sasha was taking. She could hear it over her heartbeat even, and it was the only thing she could focus on as their faces drifted closer. She had told herself in the past that when confronted with an attraction towards a girl, she told herself that she would go for it. But it was as terrifying in a way that being attracted to guy was as easy. Shay didn't know what it meant.

Sasha, on the other hand, was oddly calm despite how her heart rate was just the same as Shay's, unbeknownst to both of them. She let herself be moved the way her body was telling her to. She let her body dictate what it wanted, and let her heart take over. She was a firm believer in the idea that letting your head control your actions limited your chances of exploring the world. And it did. For a person to learn, they should really first acknowledge the unknown.

But she caught sight of the uncertainty in Shay's eyes, and wondered if it was because of her bold refusal to consider the consequences of what they were about to do. It had only been a week since the two of them have started to spend more time together. If this was making Shay anxious, Sasha didn't want to risk her withdrawing from a friendship that was just starting to develop.

It was for this reason that Sasha had lifted her head enough to close the gap, but instead of going for Shay's lips, like how her whole being was telling her to move, she leaned in to press her lips to Shay's cheek, lingering a little longer than a friend should. Shay had pressed a kiss to her temple earlier that night, and they both had accepted it as something that wasn't out of the ordinary. This wasn't going to be any different.

Shay felt her eyes close at the contact, relief flooding her, despite the knowledge that friends didn't exactly give each other kisses on the cheek at random. She tried to ignore a very large part of her that wanted to pull back and capture the warm lips on her cheek in her own. She tried to ignore that very loud noise inside her mind that was protesting at her lips being bypassed for an innocent kiss on the cheek. She ignored a very significant part of her consciousness that was acknowledging this small gesture as something more intimate than most of the kisses she had received in the past from the people she had dated.