Nothing.
Nothing moved, nothing made a sound, nothing even seemed to breathe. Nothing looked alive. The cemetery was cold and the sky was grey. Aria couldn't look down. Spencer just kept her eyes on her string bracelet. Hanna studied her feet. Emily shifted her weight uncomfortably. while wipping away a small tear. Alison Lauren Dilaurentis, read the headstone's epitaph. It's funny that they hadn't changed it yet.
Maybe that was for a reason.
"Well, now's as good a time as any," Spencer's voice, though still strong and velvety, cut the three other girls like nails. The still silence was somehow…comforting. Why would Spencer take that away from them, especially now? She fixed her blonde-brown hair and stepped forward, the mushy ground crumbling under those somewhat sacred silver flats – Ali's lucky shoes.
"Goodbye, Alison," She whimpered, her steady, confident voice failing to be anything to the extent of steady or confident, as she untied her fateful SPENCER wristlet. Of course, Ali wasn't Ali…she was Courtney, but even if she was just the result of an identity crises and two anger-crazed twins, their Alison would always be Ali to them. "I'm sorry about Ian. I'm sorry we were always competing, I'm sorry, well, for a lot of things. I'll miss you, Ali. Goodbye." Spencer didn't flinch when she dropped the friendship bracelet under the shadow of Ali's – Courtney's – gravestone.
The girls still wondered how she didn't flinch.
"I guess I'm next," Hanna whispered, following in Spencer's footsteps. She untied her HANNA bracelet, too, and took a deep breath. "Bye Ali," she whispered. "I'll miss you. I'll miss the days we had together, all five of us, as friends. But…we were never really friends, Ali. Sure, maybe on the surface we were, but when you look deeper…" She stopped for a beat…two beats…three, and looked at the faces of the three girls near her. "We were liars." Another bracelet fell onto the cold grave.
This time, tears followed.
"Goodbye, Ali," Emily tried to fight the crystal tears from falling down her rosy cheeks. She lost. "I'll miss y-you s-s-so much. I'm s-sorry. W-we all are." She sniffled, closed her hazel eyes, and paused for a moment. The other three girls were afraid she was going to have a full blown conniption, or go into cardiac arrest or something they'd seen on Gray's Anatomy last Thursday. She didn't, though, and without her lip quivering, without tears falling, Emily dropped her EMILY wristband next to Hanna's. "Goodbye, Alison. Goodbye."
"Bye Alison," Aria whispered, stepping into the footsteps of the other three girls next to her. "It was fun while it lasted. And, Ali, I really should thank you. You boosted me up, you gave me confidence. All of us. Not when you were alive, but after you were dead, Ali. We fought for ourselves and got along without you. So, thank you, Alison. It was fun while it lasted." The ARIA bracelet now lay next to the other three. "Goodbye."
And, there they lay. The four string bracelets that tied together their friendship…there they were, above Ali's body. And, finally, it all made sense. Even if Ali was above them, they were above even Alison now.
There was but a moment of silence…
And the four girls when their separate ways.
"Goodbye, girls," I said even though they could not hear me. "I'll miss you, too. I'm sorry, I'm sorry for a lot of things…" I untied my ALISON bracelet, laying it next to theirs. But now, that was just a grave. I was above that now, and, evidentially, so were they.
The girls, my girls…
But, now,
They weren't my girls anymore.
"Goodbye."
And, with that,
The five of us went our separate ways…
And never looked back.