Whispers in the Dark

- Chapter One -

~(Months ago)~

"Have you spoken to any of the DiLaurentis family?" Austin asked his daughter quietly as they moved through the crowd starting to gather outside of the church for Alison's funeral.

"You mean have I spoken to Jason?" Cory sighed the correction, then shook her head, "No dad, not since we moved away from here… you know that."

He nodded, looking over at her and wanting to explain how he'd only banned her from contacting him a year ago for her own good but he knew today wasn't the day for that –today his daughter was having to bury one of her best friends.

"Wow… there are so many people here." She breathed, looking around to see everyone dressed in black, "It's not like they all even knew her."

"Well honey, I think everyone in the community just wants to pay their respects." He assured her, pausing as he saw one of the reporters taking interviews with some of Rosewood's residents as they entered the church, nodding he reasoned, "Or get their fifteen minutes of fame on the local news."

Just as they reached the front steps they saw Emily with her parents, the girls hugged while their parents caught up some as Spencer's family also joined them. None of their parents wanting to admit it out loud, but silently thankful that it wasn't their daughter laying in the coffin.

"Ready for this?" Spencer asked as she stepped back from hugging Cory with a longing smile at how much she'd missed her since her friend moved away not long after Alison had gone missing the year before.

"I don't think I'll ever be ready to do this." She admitted, looking over to Emily who appeared to be on the verge of tears.

"I don't think I can even go in there… I mean after the service, they're going to put her in the ground and then it's really over, you know?" Emily whispered to them, her hands shaking down by her sides.

Reaching over Cory grabbed onto her hand and said, "I know, but we have to do this."

"For Ali." Spencer agreed as she stepped in front of them and opened the doors; allowing her friends to walk into the building ahead of her.

They had a short talk and exchanged hugs with Alison's mother, before she instructed them to sit up front because she knew that's what her daughter would have wanted.

The trio started their way towards the front pew, but the closer Cory got to the very front of the church where Alison's casket was, the harder it became to get her legs to move. Every step felt like she was trying to wade through quick sand. Not only because of losing her friend, but this was the same church that her little brother's funeral had been in.

Her mind drifted back to that day and how Alison had been by her side the entire time, either because she knew Cory needed her or to make sure that she kept their secret. Either way, she couldn't have made it through that day without her and now she was having to come to terms with the fact that her friend would never be there to help her ever again.

After they took their seats, Hanna found them and soon after Aria joined the group as they all sat in silence and stared at the large array of flower displays and the picture of Alison displayed next to the casket.

"Poor Ali." Emily finally broke the silence, almost causing her friends to jump.

Looking over her shoulder and around at the quickly filling pews, Hanna softly smiled, "Can you believe what a scene this is?"

With watery eyes, Aria stared straight ahead as she agreed, "Alison would have loved it."

"Popular in life and death." Spencer added on as she also surveyed the crowd.

Unable to pull her eyes away from the casket, Cory managed a smile as she recalled Alison's own words and said, "That's immortality my darlings."

They all silently smiled at the memories of their late friend, until the somber mood took over again and they looked around. Not sure how to feel in those moments.

People always say that the hardest part is not knowing –not knowing if someone is dead or alive, without that answer there can be no closure. But now that they had the answer, it was debatable if that was the truth or not –because now all hope was gone. Alison DiLaurentis was really gone.

Cory looked over to Spencer as she thought of how if she knew what Cory was thinking she'd tell her that hope breeds eternal misery.

"What?" She whispered at catching her friend staring at her.

"Nothing, just thinking." Cory replied.

"Thinking is kind of the last thing I want to do today." Hanna breathed as she opened up her small purse and pulled a flask out, she looked at her friends then noticed that Emily seemed the most upset out of them all.

Reaching over she offered her the flask.

Emily's eyes widened, "Oh, no thanks… I don't-"

"Today I think you do." The blonde argued, and Emily took the flask from her but didn't open it when Aria's phone buzzed from her purse.

"Anyone we know?" Hanna questioned as Aria opened her phone and checked the message.

"Uh, no, it's just my mom… sending me a text." She lied, as she reread the message from A.

When Hanna and spencer continued to stare at her she realized they could see straight through her lie, which meant they were getting A messages as well.

"Cory, Emily and I aren't the only ones who got messages from A, are we?" She breathed out in a hushed whisper, staring at them wide-eyed.

The night before Emily and Aria had met Cory at the hotel she and her dad were staying at after their flight landed and the girls had all three learned they weren't the only ones being taunted by A.

To Cory it had felt like the moment she'd stepped off the plan, the harassing texts started up.

Her friend's silence was the only answer she needed as Hanna shifted around in her seat before looking over her shoulder and gasping, "Oh my god… it's Jenna."

They group of five continued to stare as Jenna was led to an open spot and sat down, their concentration was broken when they all had to scoot over to allow room for Alison's mother and father to sit down in the same row as them.

"Did you see that Jenna Marhsall was here? I didn't realize she and Ali were friends." Mrs. DiLaurentis quietly whispered to the group of friends.

"They weren't." Spencer filled her in.

~()~

After the service, the group headed outside; all of them in some dire need of fresh air after sitting through the funeral.

They'd barely made it down the steps when they heard someone call out, "Emily, Spencer, Aria, and Hanna…"

When the group turned around the man looked at her before questioning, "Cory Blackwell?"

"Who are you?" Cory shot back, noticing he was dressed in a suit like he'd just attended the funeral, but she didn't remember seeing him inside.

"I'm Detective Wilden. I understand you were all good friends with the victim?"

"Yeah, we were." Aria nodded looking over the card he'd handed to Spencer.

"I'm going to need to talk to each one of you." He asserted, looking them over.

"We talked to the police when Alison went missing." Spencer argued with him and Cory nodded her head in agreement.

"And I intend to go over every one of your statements. This is no longer a missing person's investigation, it's a homicide. Rest assured I will find out what happened that summer." He said before nodding to them, and turning to walk away. They stood in silence as they watched him disappear into the crowd of patrons leaving the church.

"Do you think he knows about the Jenna thing?" Aria started to ask.

"No! How could he?" Hanna quickly silenced her.

Just then all of their phones went off with a text message, and they had a pretty good idea who it was going to be from before they opened it.

"Oh my god…" Cory breathed as she read the message.

"It's from…" Hanna began to say.

"Yeah, I got one too." Emily agreed.

"I'm still here, bitches… and I know everything. –A" Spencer read out loud, and everyone else nodded with their faces a few shades paler than moments before.

"How is this even possible?" Aria breathed, but none of her friends had an answer for her. None of them even had a clue who A was now that they knew without a doubt that Alison was gone.

"You guys have to call me and let me know what happens with the police." Cory urged as she faced her friends.

"You really have to leave tomorrow?" Emily asked her face contorted with pain after saying goodbye to one of their friends forever, now she was having to say goodbye to another who was only back in Rosewood long enough for the funeral.

"I thought you said on the phone that your dad was looking into houses here…" Aria asked with raised eyebrows.

"He is… but right now it took everything we had to pay for the return trip flight here for the funeral, until they unfreeze all of the accounts we're essentially broke." She sighed, rubbing her forehead.

"So they still have no idea what happened with your mom?" Hanna's voice was so quiet, it was hard to hear her over the sounds of traffic leaving the church.

"Other than the fact that they think my dad had something to do with my mom disappearing on the cruise… no. He obviously doesn't know anything, but since the IRS looked into my mom's finances from her company they started suspecting she was embezzling money. They've questioned me about a thousand times and my dad even more that that." Cory admitted biting down on her bottom lip as she looked around between them.

"But she didn't do that, right?" Emily asked.

"I don't know." Cory shrugged, before she pinned her eyes shut and breathed, "All I know is that everything is a mess right now, I'm burying one of my best friends and ever since I stepped foot back in Rosewood some freak has been sending me messages, acting like they're Ali. Honestly, at this rate guys… I don't even know if I want to move back."

"You have too!" Aria said reaching out and giving her friend's arm a supportive squeeze as Emily nodded in agreement, "You have to keep talking your dad into letting you move back, we need you."

~(Present time- months later)~

"You want to grab dinner or something?" Austin asked his daughter as he walked into the living room to see Cory setting up some family pictures on top of the fire place.

"No thanks, the girls are on their way over and they're going to help me unpack." She said with a smile.

He arched a brow at his daughter, "We've been back here for nearly a month and you still haven't unpacked?"

She laughed, "No, dad. I haven't had time, I've been throwing myself into school work and helping Hanna run lines for a play she wants to audition for… even though she refuses to read the entire script."

He shook his head, but smiled at her. it was good seeing her that happy; which seemed to be a rare occurrence ever since the death of her little brother and once her mom had gone missing –she never really smiled anymore.

Cory looked down avoiding his eyes as she thought of how much everything in her life was complete chaos now, her friends were convinced that Ian Thomas had killed Alison DiLaurentis, and after they'd showed her the video of them in the woods at the kissing rock –she was pretty sure he was the one responsible as well.

Aria Montgomery was in a secret relationship with Mr. Fitz and Emily Fields was still struggling with being openly gay and the backlash she'd gotten from her mom about it.

Hanna Marin, was currently letting Caleb Rivers crash in her basement and trying to hide it from her mom and Spencer had to deal with the fact that her older sister Melissa was with Ian and living in her backyard.

Every single one of her friends were being threatened and blackmailed by text messages from "A" about their own secrets, and even though Cory hadn't gotten once since she went back to Ohio after her friend's funeral she had a feeling the anonymous bully was going to come at her full force.

As much as she hated to see her friends being taunted by A; a small selfish part of her was also a little relieved that she wasn't being targeted at the moment. While her friend's secrets could do some damage if they got out, her secret could land her in prison –not to mention probably disowned from what family she had left.

After her dad left, she started to text her friends to make sure they were still coming over but before she could there was a strange sound coming from the backyard.

Her eyebrows lowered in confusion as she entered the kitchen and made her way over to the doors, "Hello?" Cory called out into the darkness of her large backyard as she opened the French style doors and looked around. When she was met by silence she wasn't sure if she should be relieved or worried. Stepping back inside and quickly locating the light switch, she flipped it on illuminating the yard.

After still not seeing any reason for the thudding noise she'd heard moments before, she started to turn and go inside when a gust of wind blew and she heard a flapping sound. Spinning around she saw it was just the edge of the pool cover blowing in the wind.

Letting out a relieved sigh she walked over and pinned it back down, but she'd barely gotten stood up when her phone went off from her pocket. Her first thought was that it must be her friends, but when she looked at the screen she saw it was a text from a blocked number.

Her stomach was in knots, the last time she'd gotten a text from a blocked number was when she'd came back to town for Alison's funeral. She'd hoped and prayed that –that would be the last ones she'd ever get.

'I'm surprised your dad bought a house with a pool… Your brother's body may have been buried, but your secrets never were. Welcome home. -A'

With a gasp she raised her head and looked around, now all too aware of the feeling that she was being watched.

Rushing back into the house, she slammed the doors shut and locked them behind her before pushing her face against the glass to look out into the backyard –still no sign of anyone else.

Tears burnt her eyes until she pinned them shut and shook her head. It was impossible, there was no way that A could stand for Alison, she was dead; but…Alison was the only one who knew the truth.

~(Flashback)~

"Cory, what the hell is going on? You were so frantic I could barely understand you over the phone…" Alison's voice trailed off as she saw her friend sitting on the deck next to the in ground pool with her knees pulled up to her chest. Not that far away from where she was sitting was the motionless body of her seven year old bother, Ryan.

"Oh my god!" Alison yelled as she rushed over and dropped to the ground beside them, tears falling down her own cheeks as she gasped, "W-what happened?"

"I was supposed to be watching him… but I left once he fell asleep." The brunette continued to sob, mascara staining her tear dampened cheeks, "I guess I didn't lock the back door."

Her forehead lined with confusion as she pointed out, "But your brother was an okay-enough swimmer to at least keep his head above water until you could find him."

Lowering her head, Cory cried even louder causing her entire body to shake as she pulled in deep, gasping breaths.

"I didn't know he was in the pool, Ali. I came home and I saw the pool cover was off… I didn't see him in the water. Oh my god, how could I have missed that!" She cried, her voice loud as she made some gagging noises like she could throw up at any second.

Alison looked over to where the switch for the electrical pool cover was just outside of the door and her eyes widened as she realized exactly what had happened. Cory had inadvertently killed her own brother.

"We have to call 911!"

"No, no, no. Hold on." Alison yelled as she grabbed her friends arm and stopped her, "We have to be smart about this… even with the chlorine from the pool I can still smell the alcohol on you from here."

Cory's head lowered in shame but she closed her eyes before they fell on her brother's body again.

"You go upstairs, get cleaned up and I'll… I'll take care of this, okay?"

The brunette helplessly nodded, tucking her tangled hair behind her ears. All she wanted to do was call the police and tell them what she'd done, but she also knew she wasn't thinking clearly. For the time being she was going to have to trust her best friend.

After cleaning up and changing clothes, Cory raced down stairs at the sounds of glass shattering to find Alison destroying the living room.

"What are you doing?" she shouted, stopping her as she was trying to knock the TV stand over.

"Think about it, Cor. You're going to have way too many questions to answer otherwise. I already destroyed the computer that the security system is fed into so that there wouldn't be video evidence of what you've done." Picking her bag up from the couch she opened to reveal almost all of Cory's mother's expensive jewelry, "And we'll get these out of the house so it looks like a robbery… while the house was being ransacked, your little brother ran outside and fell in the pool. It was an accident and you were barricaded in your room, on the phone with the police."

Cory's mind raced to try and understand everything and exactly what her friend was saying about her cover story.

After Alison broke the glass of the back door to make it look like someone broke in, she said, "I'm going to take the jewelry with me, we can figure out what to do with it tomorrow. What you need to do now is…" Her voice cracked as she pinned her eyes shut and slowly opened them, "Put your brother back in the pool, go up to your room lock the door with a chair against the handle like you're trying to keep someone out and call the police to say someone broke in. Be convincing and let them find Ryan."

"What?" Cory gasped, wrapped her arms around herself and crying with such force that her ribs were aching, "I can't… I can't put him back in the pool… Ali, no…. I can't."

"You have to!" she yelled, taking her friend's face in her hands as she continued, "Do this and no one will ever have to know what happened. It will be our little secret." A few tears slid down her face as she leaned forward with her forehead resting against Cory's as she whispered, "And remember what I said about secrets; they're what keep us so close."

~(End of flashback)~

Cory sat down on her bed with a smile on her face as she waved bye to three of her four best friends who had just helped her unpack her boxes and set up her room in record time. Aria was staying the night with her after seeing how shaken up she was when they'd gotten to her house.

There was a lot going on, most of which Cory had found out through the long phone conversations she'd shared with all of them while still living in Ohio, but now she was back in Rosewood for good and it felt nice to finally be having conversations with them face-to-face.

It was already a few months into the school year, but she was adjusting nicely and she had to admit it felt pretty amazing to be back with her friends, even if one of them wasn't there. She missed Alison every single day, some days were harder than others –being back in Rosewood made it especially hard because every place she drove past held memories of her and Alison. But she knew with other four besties she'd be able to make it through.

Aria came back into the room dressed in her pajamas and Cory jumped up offering to make them some hot chocolate.

She returned minutes later and handed her friend the warm glass mug, which Aria smiled appreciatively for and immediately took a drink.

"Thanks for staying over." Cory said, taking a sip from her own glass.

"No problem, I know what it feels like after A strikes… you just don't feel safe." She sympathized before asking, "What was the text you got about?"

"Oh, uh… it's kind of personal." She whispered, taking a drink as an excuse to not use her mouth for talking.

"So was the stuff that happened with me… but you know about that now." She reasoned, looking at her friend as she raised her own glass to her lips.

"It's different… if my secret got out, I could be in a lot of trouble." Cory argued, refusing to spill anymore details.

Aria looked around the room before quietly whispering, "If everyone found out about me and Ezra… he could go to jail."

"Yeah, but Aria… if my secret got out, I could be the one who goes to jail." She whispered back, tears stinging her hazel eyes as she tucked her brunette hair behind her ears.

Aria's entire face twisted with confusion as she nodded and decided to not push her any further, but now she was also dying to know what her secret was.

"I wish you could have seen Ali's memorial before it got destroyed." She said, trying to change the subject.

Cory nodded, "You guys sent me all those pictures of it… but I would have loved to have seen it in person." Clearing her throat and trying to act nonchalant about her next question she asked, "You said Jason came back for the memorial right? How was he?"

"As good as someone can be after losing a family member, I guess. None of us really spoke to him much." Aria filled her in, as she looked around wondering what color her friend would paint her walls in her new room.

"Did he seem… different?" Cory pushed.

"Well, he finally gave up the weed." Aria laughed, then shrugged, "Not that I have much to compare it to… I mean none of us really ever knew Jason, we barely even knew he existed. He was just Ali's big brother down the hall."

"Right." Cory agreed with a laugh, but it wasn't the truth.

What happened to her little brother wasn't the only thing she'd kept from her friends. She also had a history with Jason DiLaurentis –a complicated, messy history that almost destroyed her at one point.

Aria continued to talk about the memorial and Cory smiled and nodded but her thoughts were no longer in the room. She was thinking back to her first real encounter with Jason and wondered if she'd known how much it would have changed her life, if she'd have done something different. Avoided him at all costs, or at the very least never started going to the crazy parties he threw.

At the time she thought she could stay in control, but the more her world got turned upside down the more she relied on the drugs and alcohol to make it through the days. Her bad habits and addiction followed her long after her family moved away from Rosewood and it had been over a year since she'd had any contact with Jason.

Drinking down the last of her hot chocolate, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and swallowed hard. Pinning her eyes shut, she tried to focus on the sound of her friend's voice, but it was useless all she could think about now was the moment that changed her life –possibly for the worst.

~(Flashback)~

"Wow…" Alison breathed as she stood back and watched Cory turn from side to side seeing how the new shirt looked on her.

"Good wow or bad wow?" Cory questioned spinning around to face her.

"Good wow, definitely. I know I bought that shirt for me but you should just keep it." Her eyes fell down to where her friend's cleavage was on display in the tight, revealing shirt as she added, "You actually fill it out better than me."

Cory's eyes widened as she caught the glimpse of jealousy in Alison's eyes, quickly pulling the shirt off her hair fell messily down onto her shoulders as she nervously laughed, "No way, Ali. You were a total bombshell in this shirt, I can't keep it."

"What's wrong, Cor? Don't you like my taste in clothes?" She asked, her head cocked to the side and her eyes intense as she waited on a response.

"Of course I do…"

"Then what's the problem, hun? Keep it. I'll just borrow something of yours." She asserted as she spun to face her bed where the shopping bags from their mall trip were scattered, her blonde ponytail bouncing with her every movement. Glancing over her shoulder she looked at her friend standing there in just her favorite destroyed denim jeans and her bra. "I love shopping with you the best."

"Really?" Cory asked with a smile as she continued to hold the new shirt down at her side.

"Of course. We buy such similar styles and we've got the bodies to actually fill the clothes out." Alison said, causing her friend to shift uncomfortably as she added, "Spencer always dresses like she's going for a job interview and let's face it, about the only thing she has going for her are her Hasting legs. Hanna's clothes would swallow us whole-"

"Ali!"

"What? You know it's true and Aria's going through the that whole goth phase." She paused for a moment before continuing, "Emily sort of dresses tom-boyish, don't you think?"

"I, uh… I guess." Cory breathed, afraid if she said the wrong thing Alison would go tell their friends, but equally afraid if she didn't agree it would anger her. It felt like a lose/lose situation.

After dumping the last bag of new clothes out on her bed she sighed at not seeing anything to take in exchange for the shirt she was giving to Cory. Then her eyes drifted over to the vent cover in her room that she used as a hiding place and a smirk took over her pink glossed lips.

Seeing her friend's irritation with their shopping haul Cory quickly walked over and offered out the shirt as she reasoned, "You should keep it, it's not really my color…"

"Are you kidding? It's exactly your color."

"Yeah, but you didn't find anything else in my bags that you liked."

"Put the shirt back on." Alison ordered, before she smiled and continued, "You can keep it, I have another way for you to pay me back…"

After the shirt was back on, Alison stepped forward and smoothed her friend's hair back down as Cory complained, "I really don't like the sound of this…"

Rolling her eyes she argued, "It's not a big deal, I just need to look in my brother's room for something and he probably wont even come upstairs, but if he does… distract him for me."

"Wait, what?" Cory gasped, grabbing onto her friend's arm as Alison started to head for her bedroom door.

Laughing she turned and nodded to the revealing shirt her friend was wearing and said, "He spends like 95% of his time stoned, drunk or both. Keeping him distracted for a few minutes in those clothes, shouldn't be too hard."

"I don't want to do this." Cory argued, violently shaking her head back and forth as she wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans and begged, "Please, don't make me do this."

"Oh my god!" She practically yelled in her face, "What's the big deal? I'm not going to be in there long and the last time I saw him he was glued to the couch in front of the TV, chances are he wont even come up here. Come on, I'm giving you a brand new shirt that you look hot in… can't you do this one little thing for me?"

"Ali, I'd do anything for you but… I don't even know how to be distracting."

Stepping closer Alison gripped the sides of her friend's shirt and pulled it down so far that even her bra was now showing with the low cut neckline.

"Alison!" She gasped, pulling it back up to where it had been in the first place as her friend let out an almost menacing laugh and innocently asked, "What? You asked how to be distracting."

"Yeah, but this is your brother we're talking about!"

"Which means I know that it barely takes something shiny on a piece of string to hold his attention. You can do this." She assured her, as she grabbed onto her hand and pulled her out of the bedroom and into the upstairs hallway.

Seeing the brunette starting to open her mouth to protest again, Alison held up her phone and said, "Just stay near the stairs and if you see him, keep him distracted until I text you that it's clear, okay?"

Cory begrudgingly nodded but didn't argue anymore as her friend disappeared into Jason's room. Sighing she pulled her own phone from her pocket and sent Ali a text begging her to hurry with the search, before crossing the fingers on her free hand in hopes that Jason would remain planted in front of the TV.

But crossing her fingers for good luck seemed to have an adverse effect as she heard footsteps on the stairs and knew that the only other person home was Jason. She rushed forward before she had time to talk herself out of it, Alison had given her a small task; distract Jason.

"Hey…" she greeted as she stalled him about halfway up the stairs.

Giving her a once over he nodded before stepping to the side to try and let her by but she made no attempt to pass, and when he tried to walk past her she blocked him.

"I was, uh, looking for…" Cory stammered over her words, she couldn't remember ever feeling this nervous before in her entire life.

"Alison's not down here, she must be upstairs." He assured her, trying to get past her again but she stepped in the way and argued, "I wasn't looking for her… I was actually looking for you."

"Me?"

"Yeah…"

"Why?"

Her eyes widened and she knew her cheeks had to be about twenty shades darker than usual from the amount of blood rushing to her face. But she tried to play it cool as she flipped her long, wavy brunette hair over her shoulder and leaned forward slightly mimicking the way she'd seen Alison act when she spoke to guys.

"Uh, well… I wanted to know what a girls got to do to get an invite to one of your parties?" She said the first thing that came to mind.

Whenever Alison's parents were out of town the house turned into party central, so loud and crazy that even Alison didn't want to be home when it was going on and always crashed with a friend. She wasn't even sure why she asked that, she didn't want to go to one of those parties –or at least she didn't think she did.

"You." He said motioning to her with raised eyebrows and a disbelieving expression, "Want to come to one of my parties?"

"Yeah." She said, nodding as she tried her best at a flirty smile.

Slowly he nodded, looking like he was on the verge of laughing as he pointed out, "You know it's not your usual party right? Not like the freshman parties you and your friends go to?"

Clearing her throat she nodded, "I'm aware, but that's the point. I don't want some little high school party." Stepping closer and even taking herself by surprise, she continued, "Maybe I'm sick of playing by the rules… maybe I need some danger and excitement in my life."

He looked her over again, remembering out of his sisters friends, Cory was the one who always seemed to stand out to him the most. Maybe it was because she looked and acted a little older than her friends, or maybe it was the fact he'd caught her staring at him several times when she was over at the house, possibly a combination of both.

He was also aware that she might have been there as some kind of distraction, trying to hold him downstairs while his sister no doubt went through his stuff again. Either way, the longer he stared at her the less he cared about what his sister was doing.

She almost jumped when her phone buzzed in her hand, breaking eye contact with him she checked the message to see it was Alison telling her she could come back upstairs, but now she wasn't so sure she wanted to.

Tucking her phone in her pocket Cory pulled out a pen and flashed him a sultry smile as she grabbed his hand and began to write her number down, "I have to go but you should text me the next time your parents go out of town and you throw a party."

Jason looked at the number written on his flesh before he raised his head and smiled at her, almost causing her legs to go weak as she reached behind her to the stair railing incase her knees really did buckle.

"I'll let you know, but I doubt you'll actually show up." He admitted, his voice low since she was just in front of him now, mere inches between them.

"I'll be there!" She laughed as she capped the pen and slid it back into her pocket.

"I don't know…" He teased, looking her over as he said, "I'm betting you don't show, it doesn't really seem like your scene."

Her voice came out in a breathy whisper as his eyes locked with hers and she managed to say, "Well, I have a habit of surprising people."

Managing to swallow and strengthen her voice she added, "It wouldn't be smart to bet against me…"

"Is that so?" He asked folding his arms over his chest, as his eyes dropped to where her glossed, red tinted lips where curved up at the edges.

"Mhmm…" Cory hummed, crossing her own arms and mimicking his expression.

"Alright then." He said running his tongue over his bottom lip as he continued to watch her closely, "If you don't show up… you have to pay for the beer for the next party."

Smiling she nodded, pulling in a deep breath as she gained the confidence to arch a brow and counter, "Okay… but what do I get when I show up and win the bet?"

He smiled back, leaning in closer and opening his mouth to give her a response but the moment was interrupted when Alison appeared at the top of the stairs and loudly cleared her throat before saying, "Cory, come on."

Nodding she turned and followed her friend but looked over her shoulder to give Jason one last smile before the girls disappeared into Alison's room

~(End of flashback)~

A/N- Thanks so much for reading! ^_^ I really hope you all enjoyed the opening chapter. The next one will start with the events from 'season 1, episode 18' in case you were wondering where my story was starting at timeline wise on the show.

As you can see, much like Pretty Little Liars, I'll be doing several flashbacks throughout the chapters to tell back stories and show the relationship Cory had with Jason along with her friendship with Alison. I'm really excited for this story, not only is it my first PLL story but I also have a lot planned out already.

I really hope you all liked the chapter and I'd really love it if you'd take the time to leave a review and let me now if you're interested in seeing more.