Years after High school had ended, and Hanna had separated herself from all her old friends she ran into one and something new began. For ten years after high school Hanna tried to be someone she wasn't, she tried to ignore the past, she pretended all the bad stuff she had been through wasn't real. She acted like a girl who had never been stalked, tortured and kidnapped, she pretended she wasn't scared. She didn't jump when her phone buzzed or when she saw a black jacket walk past her. She didn't cry when she saw the scars on her body from the dollhouse and the letter A didn't scare her. Hanna wasn't scared, she was brave..or was she.
Ten years after she left her friends behind, when she was twenty-eight years old she was walking down the streets of Rosewood for the first time since then. She had promised herself she wouldn't come back, and until now her promise was kept. Her mom moved away the year after she did, and Hanna was happy to stay away from her friends..because they were her scary past, but then she got an invitation to a wedding that she couldn't ignore. It was Emily's wedding , Hanna and Emily were best friends most of their lives and she couldn't ignore her wedding, or she would regret it. So Hanna made her way from New York to Rosewood and when she got there her braveness seemed harder to keep. She couldn't look at the church without feeling sick, the hospital made her gag, the camp ground were the car hit her wasn't even somewhere she wanted to go, and then there was her old house. That was the street she was on, her eyes watching the house that she once called home.
"Hanna!" A familiar voice exclaimed, Hanna turned around to put a name to the voice and then her eyes widened as her lips curled up into a smile when Mona stood before her.
"Mona" Hanna took a step closer "Why are you here?"
"You must not keep up on Rosewood news" Mona laughed "I live here, Mayor of Rosewood."
"Wow, that's amazing!" Hanna exclaimed, pulling her old partner in crime into a tight hug.
"Thanks" Mona smiled as they came apart "So..what brings you to Rosewood?"
"Emily's wedding" Hanna smiled widely
"Oh yeah, I heard that was tomorrow" Mona responded
"Do you know if-" Hanna started only to be cut off by Mona
"If the others are here?" Mona laughed "Well Emily and Alison are obviously here since it's their big day, I saw Aria a little bit ago at The Brew so she's here, I have not seen Spencer but she wouldn't miss her sister's wedding. I'm sure she is here."
"Thanks" Hanna smiled slightly
"Taking a walk down memory lane?" Mona asked
"Um...maybe" Hanna looked down "It's been ten years"
"I know" Mona smiled
"Keeping track of how many years since I left?" Hanna giggled
"Well, it is something you do when you lose your best friend" Mona responded
"I'm sorry" Hanna took Mona's hand, but Mona dropped it
"Han, don't be. We all wanted to escape the past. I left for five years but then missed everyone and everything here. Aria still doesn't live here and Spencer only comes on holidays, we all needed a break from hell."
"Yeah, well you aren't hell Mona, I shouldn't have cut off all ties with everyone." Hanna let a single tear escape her eye.
"I was your evil past Hanna. I was A, I made you scared of your own shadow." Mona wiped Hanna's tear away and then let out a small smile.
"But I forgave you" Hanna smiled back "I wasn't scared of you anymore. I just thought that if I ignored my past it would go away, but now I see that it was only gone because I was lying to myself...now I am telling the truth, and it hurts." Hanna cried, letting all the tears trace her gentle face.
"Don't cry Han" Mona took Hanna's hands in her own. "I know you are scared, but I am here to protect you."
"From what?' Hanna cried, barely making the word escape her lips.
"Nothing, there is nothing to be afraid of anymore. I will protect you, and then maybe you will see that there is nothing you need protecting from."
"Is that how you lost your fear?" Hanna asked
"I wasn't scared" Mona smiled "I have nothing to be scared of, and I know that so I don't fear anything anymore."
"Ok" Hanna smiled back "So you will protect me, how?"
"I will be there for you, hold your hand when you need it and let you hold me when you are scared."
"So be like my boyfriend?" Hanna laughed
"I'm a girl" Mona giggled "So, girlfriend." Then Mona leaned closer to Hanna, pressing their lips together, the taste of salty tears and bubblegum lip-gloss filling them as they kissed softly, and suddenly Hanna wasn't sad or scared or worried...maybe because Mona was her scary past and when your scary past tastes like bubblegum and kisses like a god, they don't seem so scary anymore. They just seem like a person, who makes you smile.