The TV continued to play in the background, forgotten by the four girls sitting on the floor. The school week had been particularly stressful for all of them so they had planned a sleep over. It was a Saturday and they were all seated in the living room, waiting for the pizza they had ordered to arrive. Emily and Hanna were both seated on the couch while Aria and Spencer sat Indian style on the floor. They had decided to have the sleep over at Hanna's since her mom was going to be away for the weekend. It gave them a chance to discuss A without having to worry about someone overhearing them. None of them had received any texts from A lately and they knew it was only a matter of time until something bad happened.
"What do you think A is planning?" Hanna asked the others while nervously tapping her foot on the floor. Hanna had always been the person in the group who worried the most. She was always looking over her shoulder, waiting for something bad to happen. She hid her anxiety well from everyone one around her but, her three friends always knew when she was upset. They knew her better than she knew herself and could see right through her facade. But, she felt a lot safer ever since Caleb found out about A. When he found out about the four girl's dangerous stalker he vowed to do whatever he could to help protect them. So, whenever her and Caleb were together she felt like she could let her guard down. Even if it was just for a little while.
"I don't know. It's not like A to just leave us alone for no reason." Spencer stated and picked at her purple nail polish. She had been trying to come up with a reason for A's silence all week but couldn't come up with anything. None of them had done anything out of the ordinary for A to be plotting against them. The last text that had been sent, three weeks ago, was just some snarky comment to Aria about her relationship with Mr. Fitz. Spencer did not like the feeling of being helpless. She always liked to be in control of her situation, no matter what. Even if the situation included a demented person trying to ruin her and her friend's lives. Lately, Spencer felt like she wasn't in control of anything in her life and that scared her the most. Toby had run off to some job in Philly for a few weeks. Her grades were dropping and it felt impossible to bring them back up. A could be plotting her death right now and she wouldn't even know it. She just didn't know what to do anymore.
"Spence, I'm sure everything is fine. There's no reason for us to get all worked up over nothing." Emily said, not really believing her own words of advice. All three of them looked to her with knowing expressions on their faces. They all knew that A was plotting something whether they wanted to except it or not. Emily hung her head, looking away from the three other girl's stares. She wanted to believe, more than anything, that A had finally got bored and was done tormenting them. But, she knew that was just wishful thinking. A had messed up so many things in Emily's life that she didn't know what else A could destroy. Lately, swimming felt like her only relief, something even A couldn't ruin for her. Yesterday at practice her coach had told her she was becoming the best on the team. She didn't even care that Paige McCullers had glared at her for the rest of the day.
"We all know that there is something bad happening that we don't know about yet. We shouldn't be walking around acting like everyone will be ok, cause they won't be. You should know that more than anyone, Em." Spencer harshly whispered, loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. Tears brimmed at the corners of Emily's eyes and she gave Spencer a heated look. Aria and Hanna stayed quiet, waiting to see what Emily was going to do. The two girls just continued to glare at each other as tension filled the room. Finally, Emily snapped out of the staring contest first and clenched her fist at her side.
"Don't bring Maya into this, she..." Emily was cut off when the doorbell rang, signaling the pizza's arrival. Before Emily could finish what she was saying Aria stood up and clapped her hands together.
"I'll get the pizza, I'm starved." She said while making her way out of the living room and to the front door. Hanna looked between Spencer and Emily. They both had their arms crossed and were staring in opposite directions, avoiding eye contact. She sighed and decided to just sit in silence while waiting for Aria to get back. This always happened, every time A decided to play mind games with them. They would just end up snapping at each other instead of sticking together as a team. If they didn't start to work together they may never figure out who A is. When Aria walked back in with the box of pizza she rolled her eyes at the three girls still sitting in silence. She put the square box down on the table and straightened back up, crossing her arms.
"We're never gonna get any closer to figuring out what A is up to if you guys keep this up. I know that we're all a little on edge but we have to stick together." Aria pointed out as Hanna nodded her head in agreement. Spencer had the decency to look sorry as she glanced back to Emily.
"I didn't mean to bring Maya into it like that. I just don't want any of us to let our guard down and get hurt." Spencer sighed when all Emily did was nod and look back at the ground. Aria sat down on the couch next to Emily, leaving just Spencer on the floor. She wrapped her arm around Emily who looked like she was holding back tears. After a few seconds of silence Emily finally looked back up and smiled slightly at Spencer. Emily then began to giggle and all three girls wore surprised expressions.
"What are you giggling about?" Hanna exclaimed while raising her eyebrows. She had thought that Emily was going to be quiet for the rest of the night, drowning herself in thoughts of Maya. Aria and Spencer just continued to sit there with confused expressions on their faces. Waiting for Emily to explain her sudden amusement.
"Well, I was thinking over what you said about not letting our guard down. But, it made me remember that time you zoned out in the middle of your field hockey game. The ball hit you right in the forehead." Emily said beginning to laugh again at the memory. Spencer rolled her eyes at Emily but couldn't fight back the smirk on her face.
"Oh my god, I remember that day! They had to drag you off the field because you were stumbling all over the place!" Hanna yelled, smiling, which made Spencer blush and chuckle a little. Spencer knew her friends would never let that moment be forgotten the second it happened. All she remembered was daydreaming about going home to take a nap. The next thing she knew she was wacked in the head with a ball and falling onto her butt. She tried to stand up quickly but it just made her head spin more. After stumbleing all over the field her team mates finally dragged her into the locker rooms. She eventually recovered fully from the injury, but never from the embarressment.
"I'm still upset over the fact that I was grounded and missed that game." Aria said as she continued to laugh. Spencer didn't really care that they were laughing at her expense. She was just happy that Emily was smiling and not angry with her anymore. She knew that Emily blamned herself for what happened with Maya so it was always a touchy subject. Even though Maya has been out of Emily's life for quit sometime now she knew that the swimmer still felt guilty. None of what happened was Emily's fault, she had no control over who A was going to target next. But, that didn't stop Emily from apoligiesing to Maya constantly or always offering to push her wheelchair everywhere. When Maya recovered she decided it would be best to end the relationship and moved away from Rosewood. Emily had taken it roughly. She refused to leave her room for school and had to be reminded to eat for three weeks straight. Eventually, Pam planned an intervention with everyone and they managed to snap her out of it. It now has been about two months since Maya left and Emily seemed to be doing a lot better. But, all three girls knew that Emily would never believe what happened that night was her not her fault. She would always blame herself.
While the rest of them recovered from laughing Hanna was reaching for the pizza box. She opened it and that seemed to grab the other girls' attention. As the box was opened the smell of pizza was mixed into the air. Aria was the first to reach in and grabbed the chessiest peice she could find. As they all grabbed a slice none of them bothered to go get plates from the kitchen. It was a comfortable silence as they all enjoyed thier pizza, lost in thier own thoughts.
"How's swimming going, Em?" Aria asked after she finished off her first slice. They all looked to Emily who was reaching over to the box on the table. She reached in, grabbing a slice and then leaned back into the couch.
"Really good, coach said that we're deffinitly gonna be hard to beat this year. I just hope that Paige McCullers doesn't try to kill me before the season even starts." Emily rolled her eyes, thoughts of the other girl filling her head. Paige was always trying to intimidate her. It never work though, Emily refused to back down against the competitive girl. Hanna let out a snort next to Emily, remembering all the times Emily had come over after swim practice complaining about the other girl.
"She was on my field hockey team last year and we ended up naming a penalty after her. She was crazy, competitive,violent, and that was just with her own team mates. Most of that season was spent with me thanking god that I wasn't playing against her." Spencer said while shaking her head at the memories. "I'm just glad she didn't come back for a second season, the whole team is, too. I guess she just gave up on it and decided to stick with swimming."
Emily seemed to think over Spencer's words as she ate her second slice of pizza. Paige acted the same exact way towards her and the other swimmers on the team. She knew that Paige was a bit of a handful but Emily always saw something else inside the girl. Paige wasn't very liked because of the way she acted so her team memebers usually ignored her attempts at friendship. Whenever Paige would try and be friendly with someone on the team they would usually just ignore her. Every time Paige got rejected by someone her eyes would just get this look of complete sadness. You wouldn't even catch it if you weren't looking but Emily always noticed.
"From what I've heard about her she is a very mysterious person. No one really knows anything about her, except that she's a little crazy. Some girl in my math class told me that she saw Paige talking to a wall before." Hanna mumbled, the pizza she had eaten making her feel tired. The other three girls rolled their eyes at Hanna's comment. They all knew that the blond girl loved to gossip and would believe almost any rumor she was told.
"Would this happen to be the same girl that told you I was going to fight Aria after school?" Spencer asked grabbing a from a pile of napkins that came with the pizza. "There was a swarm of people at my locker by the end of eighth period. They were all asking me why I was going to beat up my tiny friend." Aria laughed at the memory. She remembered walking out of fifth period and everyone asking her why team 'Sparia' was fighting.
"Shut up Spencer, you're just mad because I..." Before Hanna could finish her, probably childish, statement Emily had slapped her hand over the other girl's mouth.
"Hanna don't start fighting with Spencer. It never ends well with you two." Emily said sternly. Spencer didn't even bother retaliating because she knew Emily was right. Her and Hanna could fight about practically anything and it usually could go on for hours. Hanna seemed to agree, too, because she removed Emily's hand from her mouth and grumbled out a 'sorry'. Before anyone else could say anything Spencer gasped.
"Wow, did Hanna actually use the word sorry?" She said while acting like she was shocked. Hanna let out a sarcastic laugh and picked up the pillow next to her. The other three girls were to busy laughing to notice her getting ready to throw it. She pushed her arm back as far as she could and flung the pillow, hitting Spencer right in the face. Hanna broke out into loud laughter as Spencer fell backwards in surprise. She quickly recovered and picked up the pillow trying to aim it at the blond. The pillow jerked to the side and ended up hitting Emily instead.
"Oh, you are so going to be sorry you started this war!" Emily yelled, smiling, and trying to find more pillows to throw. The other three girls began to look for cover knowing the living room was about to turn into a battle ground. The rest of the night was spent by them just trying to be normal teenagers for once. But, they all had the same thought in the back of their minds, nagging at them. A was up to something and they knew that it was only a matter of time until the texts started again.