Hanna Marin slammed her fist down on the Snooze button on her alarm clock and buried her face back into her pillow. There was no way that she was getting up.

Sure, it was a Friday morning, and Fridays were generally awesome – the lax teachers of Rosewood High didn't really care what the kids did, so the last day of the week was time for Hanna to hang out with her friends, shop online for new Prada pumps, and, most importantly, sneak off into empty classrooms with Caleb for steamy make-out sessions on the desks (or against the door… or the whiteboard… or under a teacher's desk – they were trying to kiss in as many places as they could to set some sort of a record).

But things were different now.

Because if she wasn't enough of an emotional wreck from her breakup already, going to school risked a chance of seeing Caleb. And that simply could not be allowed to happen.

Hanna was definitely doing better since he broke up with her on Tuesday night – she actually pulled herself out of bed at least once a day to shower and do her makeup, though she promptly burrowed under the covers again to sob, and thus ruin the mascara she had worked so painstakingly to perfect.

Emotionally, Hanna didn't know if she would ever be the same. Yes, it was a break-up, but it killed her to know that she could have done something about it, but chickened out.

Maybe she wasn't judging herself fairly – after all, her tormentor, known only as 'A,' ran Caleb's mother off of the road and nearly killed her.

A was a bitch.

Hanna knew that she wasn't in it alone. All three of her best friends had all suffered heartbreak at the hands of A, and she could only wonder if they felt the same way she did. Empty, bleak, like there was no happy future in sight.

And her friends had been there for her. Spencer and Emily dropped by daily with all her school assignments, and Aria called to check up, though Hanna hadn't actually seen her since Tuesday night. She knew that Aria felt guilty for encouraging her to tell Caleb about A, but Hanna didn't blame her – it had seemed like the only way out at the time.

Just after she had dozed back off, her alarm blared again. She knew that she should pull herself together and get to school, as to not fall grievously behind, but she couldn't find the strength to. So she stumbled out of bed and pulled the plug to her alarm clock out of the outlet and crashed back under her duvet.

It was just easier this way.

Oh, sure, there would probably be rumors flying around school (probably starting by Riley Wolfe and Naomi Ziegler, two skanks who had always tried to ruin Hanna and Mona) now that the queen bee had been missing for three days straight.

But Hanna didn't have the energy to care any more.

"Hanna?" Her mother, Ashley, tapped on her bedroom door softly. "Morning, sweetie."

In response, the blonde beauty just groaned loudly into her pillow.

"I made you some breakfast," Ashley said enticingly. "Pancakes with chocolate chips, your favorite."

Hanna was touched that her mother actually had the time to cook breakfast for her – usually, Mrs. Marin was too busy in the mornings to bother with such little things. Of course, Hanna hadn't actually eaten breakfast, much less loads of carbs like pancakes, in years, but that was beside the point.

"But you have to come downstairs for them." Her mother's tone got a stern edge to it. "No more of this eating from a tray thing, okay?"

Hanna just grabbed her sham pillow and pressed it over her ears to silence the noise. Ashley's gesture was lovely, but nothing could alleviate her depression.

•••

That day, she didn't even change out of her pajamas or run a brush through her mussed locks – what was the point? It wasn't like she had a boyfriend to impress anymore. Instead of caring about her appearance, she just glued herself to the television in her room and watched reruns that ranged from I Love Lucy to The Big Bang Theory and Gossip Girl. While flipping through channels, she stopped briefly at ABC Family to see an actress who looked remarkably like herself, staring worriedly at her phone.

Hanna just snorted quietly. Like that girl would have any idea what kind of anguish she was going through.

Around four o'clock, she heard the front door creak open and then close again. For a moment, she was worried that A had come to finish her for good, but then she realized – What would the point be in that? A had ruined her enough already; she was as good as dead. It was probably just Spencer, or Emily, or both, come with a pile of calculus, composition, and caring, though somewhat cheesy, smiles and sympathy.

Light footsteps raced up the stairs, and Hanna just slumped down in her bed, not really feeling like social hour. Much to her surprise, when the door opened, it revealed the diminutive figure of Aria Montgomery. "Hi," Aria said, glancing down at her feet like she wasn't sure that she should be here.

"H-hey," Hanna responded, feeling a rush of gratitude to see the familiar face. The other two girls were great, but she always felt like she connected with Aria more.

"So, I, um, brought your work," the petite brunette mumbled into her snakeskin bag, which she produced a pile of papers from.

"Thanks."

There was a little pause, and then Aria asked, her eyes full of concern, "So how are you doing?"

Hanna looked down at her Paul Frank T-shirt and the carton of Ben & Jerry's that sat, rapidly melting, in her lap, then looked back up at her best friend. But then the strangest thing happened – she started laughing.

Aria looked slightly frightened. She wasn't sure if Han's laughter meant that she was happy (why?) or either going insane (the more likely option).

"I'm a mess, aren't I?" Hanna asked ruefully. Somehow, seeing Aria brought back a flood of emotions – some happy, some miserable, but all satisfying in a way. She realized that she couldn't disappear into a shell of a person – she had to find a path out of her despondent rut.

The other girl looked absolutely stunned, and then started to giggle a little, too. "A little bit," she agreed, a smile tugging at her small, pink mouth. "So you're not mad at me?" she asked hesitantly.

Hanna shrugged nonchalantly, but the smile had been wiped off of her face. "You just encouraged me to do what I already wanted to." She took a keen interest in her fingernails, trying to focus on anything but crying.

Aria wrapped an arm around her and tried to put together the right words to say, but nothing good came to mind, so they just sat there for a minute.

"Have you… seen him at all?" Hanna asked quietly. Aria didn't have to even ask who 'he' was.

"Yesterday, in the hallway. He looked like he was about to say something, but then he just walked away."

Hanna let out a long, slow exhale, but Aria's phone interrupted her contemplative silence. The urgent little beeps came in quick succession.

"It's… um, it's my mom," Aria said, a little too quickly. "I have to go – um, I'll see you soon, right?"

Hanna just nodded. She knew when her best friend was lying, and this was an instance – she knew that the text had been from Ezra, but Aria was just afraid that Hanna was too fragile to hear that.

•••

The next morning, Hanna was awoken not by the blaring alarm, but by three girls armed with foundation, lip gloss, hairbrushes, and lots of concealer. "What the hell?" she muttered, barely awake.

"You, my friend, are in desperate need of a makeover," Spencer informed her bluntly.

"And we're here to do it," Emily added.

"No!" Hanna tried to shut her eyes and tune them out, but Aria threw open the curtains, making it nearly impossible to be unaware of her surroundings. "Fine," the bed-ridden beauty grumbled.

So her three best friends started attacking her with a variety of beauty products – while Emily was gathering the blonde locks and lathering them with coconut oil, Aria was applying an exfoliating face mask and Spencer was giving Hanna the most precise manicure ever – all of the strokes had to be perfectly even.

Hanna knew that this was a group effort to cheer her up, and it actually did take her mind off of Caleb – that was, until the girls left and she starting crying, thinking about how Caleb would snort derisively if he saw all of the beauty products that she had applied.

Here she was, looking positively gorgeous on a Saturday afternoon, aside from a few stray tears, and she had absolutely nowhere to go. All of the girls had plans – Aria was spending time with her mom, Spencer was volunteering at the local soup kitchen, and Emily was meeting up with Maya's cousin for some ambiguous reason or another.

Normally, she would have spent this time hanging out with Caleb, or – she cringed to think of the name – Mona. Mona had been the perfect friend, always ready to hang out when Hanna wanted. Of course, that had all been a beautiful, deceiving illusion…

Come to think of it, Hanna had heard from Wren a few days earlier – she hadn't picked up the phone at the time, seeing as she was bawling her eyes out, but he had left a message – and he had said that Mona was allowed visitors. He wasn't sure why, but felt like informing her anyway.

Don't go to Radley, Hanna kept chanting to herself. It would only cause a hell of a lot more pain. But she was dressed and up already, so she decided to be a masochist and visit her old BFF.

•••

"Hi!" Mona's eyes were wide with excitement as she squealed her greeting. "How are you? It's been soo long since I've seen you! Here, they think that just because you flip a table in a guy's face means that you shouldn't get visitors." She rolled her eyes.

"Right," Hanna stammered. It was still laborious to keep up a conversation with Chatty Mona, the new personality that had recently emerged.

"No, seriously." Mona leaned forward. "I mean, how are you dealing with the breakup and everything?"

Hanna's eyes widened. "How did you know about that?" she hissed.

Mona just smiled warmly, but her lips didn't part.

"Who's visiting you?"

"I have friends."

"What are their names?"

Mona pouted. "Oh, now, it wouldn't be any fun if I told you, know would it?"

Hanna just shook her head and stormed out of the day room.

•••

Sunday, she managed to stay out of bed.

Monday morning, Hanna was filled with a new fire – she wanted to know what bitch was ruining her life and she wanted to know it now. So despite all of her overwhelming urges not to, she plugged her alarm clock back in and didn't slam her hand down on the Snooze button.

When Hanna Marin made a grand appearance, she did it well – so, dressed in a raspberry-colored gauzy blouse and skinny white capris, she strode into the hallways of Rosewood High with her head tilted up and a smile on her face that clearly said, Yes, yes, I know you all adore me!

She strutted over to wear Spencer, Aria, and Emily were congregated and greeted them with a smile. "Hey, guys!"

They all murmured their hellos, each not wanting to broach the topic of the break-up, for fear that it might rattle Hanna's emotions too much. So, for the moment, they all pretended that it was fine – and, gradually, it evolved into something that was.

Naturally, Hanna was still raw from the breakup, and she still hurt from it – a lot. But it became easier and easier to deal with, so she coped.

A few days later, around the time Hanna acclimated to being back in school, she practically ran into Caleb in the hallway – she was updating her Facebook status on her phone, because social networking in Rosewood is a serious business, and he was turning a corner, so they smacked into each other head-on.

Both of their eyes widened, and, temporarily, both were rendered a little speechless. Caleb gave her a little smile and a "Sorry," and she, in return, was too flustered to say anything.

The rest of the day, she was giddy, and that handsome smile kept popping into her head.

A or no, she was winning that boy back.