Chapter 2.

Rosewood Park.

Aria, Hannah, Emily and Spencer walked through the beautiful, but quiet park, moving far past the actual park until they were sure they'd be alone. Aria stopped at the edge of a small river and looked up at her three best friends, "Is this ever going to end?"

"Once we find out who is sending those messages it has to end, doesn't it?" Emily asked, looking at each of her friends for some reassurance.

"No, it doesn't end there." Spencer said, opening up her purse and pulling out a picture, "I just found out some things about Alison that I didn't know about before and then I remembered this picture here and at the time I didn't think anything of it, but look at it." Spencer held the picture up for her friends to check out, "This is dated at the end of 08' and there's Jenna smiling and looking all friendly with Alison. The picture isn't even about them. It's supposed to be about the team from our field hockey party in November, but it proves that Jenna knew Alison and they sure look close to me."

After the girls had taken a long look at the picture, they looked at each other in disbelief. Hannah let out a sigh and kicked a rock into the river, "What does it mean though? I thought we spent all our time with Alison, how could she have any time to spend with Jenna? I don't get it."

"Alison loved to be the center of attention and I don't think she could get enough from us. Believe it or not we did do things away from Alison, so yes, I think she had plenty of time to hang out with other people." Spencer said, taking the picture back from Aria, "The problem is what she might've been telling them."

"What could she tell anyone?" Aria asked, "Aside from the Jenna thing, what have we really done that's so bad? We didn't kill anyone or commit any crimes, so what are we so worried about?"

Spencer stuffed the picture back into her purse and leaned up against a tree, "Alison got us to do things that might not be illegal, but they were supposed to be private. I for one don't want the whole world knowing some of things she talked us into."

Emily gave Spencer an annoyed look, "Just what things are you so embarrassed about?"

"I'm not embarrassed about anything, but that doesn't mean I want the whole world to know about it."

"Okay, let's not fight about this." Aria said, turning her attention to Spencer, "How do you know that Alison told Jenna anything?"

"Apparently my sister has become friends with Jenna and she told me that Jenna has been telling her things about us, things that only Alison would know." Spencer added. Smiling as her friends all looked at her with the same surprised look, she happily added a bit more, "Well for starters, she told Melissa intimate details of some of our slumber parties for example."

"You're kidding?" Aria asked, shocked and a little afraid at the truth getting out.

Hannah couldn't help notice Aria's reaction, "At least they don't know about you and our teacher."

"Hannah." Aria yelled.

"What about our teacher? What teacher?" Spencer asked, trying to figure out what the bickering was about.

"That's really nice Hannah." Aria said, lowering her head as she felt Emily and Spencer staring at her intently. After a few moments she lifted her head, gave Hanna a very evil glare and then tried her best to explain, "I did something stupid. I met this guy, an older guy and he seemed to like me and we kind of made out a bit and then I found out he was our English teacher, Mr. Fitz."

"OMG." Spencer said with a surprised smile, "Just what did you do with him?"

"It doesn't matter." Aria yelled, glaring right at Hannah, "It's over now. He left."

"Maybe that's good." Emily said softly, "Cute or not, he shouldn't be doing anything with his students."

"I couldn't agree more." Hannah said, happy that Emily said what she thinking.

"Well, that's obviously why he left." Aria said, still feeling a need to defend him, "He felt it was wrong and he didn't want to be around me anymore."

"Did you do more than just kiss him?" Emily asked.

"I told you it doesn't matter. I've moved on." Aria turned towards the river and

"No, he moved on. You'd still be with him if he were here, so don't lie about it." Hannah said, her bitterness evident in her tone.

"Why don't you shut up." Aria yelled.

Spencer took a step forward, looking closely at both her friends, "Is anyone going to tell me why there's so much tension in the air?" She turned to Hannah first, but when she turned away she looked over at Aria, "Why is Hannah so upset about this?"

"Ask her." Aria said, turning away from her friends.

"Hannah, would you like to explain why Aria's love life is upsetting you so much?"

"I'm not upset." Hannah growled, "I could care less who she screws around with."

"Why don't I believe that?" Spencer added, watching the interaction between the two girls, "Okay, I'm going to go out in a limb here and tell you what I see. I see two girls having a fight, but not the kind of fight two best friends might have. It seems a lot more like a lover's quarrel. Is that what's going on here?"

Aria and Hannah looked at each other in unison, just adding to the guilty expressions all over their faces.

Emily finally caught on to what was going on and she turned to Hannah who was standing beside her and gave her a tap on the shoulder, "Is Spencer right? Are you two together?"

"No we're not." Hannah said loudly, directing her anger right at Aria, "She'd rather be with old man Fitz."

"He's not that old." Aria yelled back, "He's just a lot more mature than you are."

"Oh really?" Hannah laughed, moving down towards Aria, "Is that so? I guess it's mature to sneak around and screw your teacher? Hmm, something tells me that's not what the word means. I guess if Aria says it then it must be true."

"Let's stop this okay?" Spencer said, pushing the two girls apart, "Obviously there is something going on here and I'm a little disappointed you didn't feel you could tell us about it?"

Hannah let out a sigh, "It's really nothing. We got caught up in Alison's games. She was always pushing things on us, you know that. She liked to push the boundaries and make us feel uncomfortable, but you have to admit, she sure made things more fun."

"Yes, but that was more about Alison showing us she was in control." Spencer said, remembering back to some of Alison's mind games, "We played along because we wanted to please her and because it was fun, but watching and listening to you two just now, that sounded very serious, so are you going to tell us what's going or not?"

Aria took a quick look at Hannah, who gave her a quick shrug and she knew it was time to come clean, "After one of Alison's parties, you and Emily went home and Hannah asked me to sleep over at her place. Her mom was out of town so I said sure. We were both pretty worked up from everything that Alison had us do that night and we just continued on with it."

"Are you saying you had sex together?" Emily asked, giving both girls a chance to reply, but the looks on their faces gave her the answer she was looking for, "Alison said we should never hook up together, because it would ruin our friendship and I guess she was right judging by the sad looks on your faces."

"We didn't plan for things to go any further." Hannah said, still avoiding eye contact with Aria as she turned to Emily, "It was just supposed to be fun. Neither of us thought we could feel this way about each other."

"If we've learned anything in the last few months it's that secrets have a way of coming out." Spencer said, walking slowly down towards Aria so she wouldn't feel alone, "Anyway, can't you find a way to work things out?"

"I want to, but she's too mad to listen to me." Aria said, looking up at Hannah.

Hannah glared back at Aria, "I have good reason to be mad."

Spencer walked over and put her arm around Aria, "What would you like to say to Hannah right now?"

"I don't know." Aria shrugged, taking a quick peak over at Hannah, who was still giving her the evil eye, "It's hard to talk to her when she's like this. I don't blame her for being upset, I know what I did was wrong, but she doesn't know why it happened. It's not why she thinks."

"Who cares why. It won't change what you did." Hannah growled, holding onto her anger as long as she could.

Spencer let out a sigh and looked over at her friend, "Hannah, could you please just let Aria have a chance to explain her side of things?"

"Fine." Hannah groaned, "Speak, but it won't change anything."

Aria walked up and stood in front of Hannah, "You have no idea how sorry am for what I did, but you need to know that I was becoming very confused about everything that was happening between us. I thought it was just sex. That we were just having fun, but when that started to change I got scared. I admit I should've talked to you about what I was feeling, but at the time you were kind of the reason I was feeling this way."

"What way is that?" Hannah asked, not quite sure what Aria was talking about.

"Don't shoot me, but I was afraid I was falling in love with you." Aria said, looking up at the beautiful blonde.

In a flash Hannah's walls came down and a brief smile covered her pretty face, "Why would you be afraid of that? I felt that same thing, but I loved it. I loved how I felt and I wanted to tell you, but I could see you weren't ready for it and I was right."

"Yes, you were right, but what I'm trying to tell you is that I didn't seek out someone because I was unhappy, it was the opposite." Aria said, taking Hannah's hand in hers and looking deep into her eyes, "I'm still not sure what any of this means. It's all new to me, but the things we did because of Alison were all just about fun. It was about pushing things to the limit, but with you it was real. We might've started out just having sex for fun, but we both know that changed almost instantly. I guess when I started thinking about what it meant I panicked. I'm sorry I'm not as strong as you or as politically correct, but I was scared I was you know... gay."

"That's just silly." Hannah said, putting her arms around Aria, "There's nothing to be afraid of. You don't have to put a label on yourself or us."

"I know that now, but like I said I panicked and needed to prove to myself that I was straight. I don't know why, but it seemed deathly important at the time. I went to the diner to think and he was there and, well, he didn't end up proving anything, except that I felt horrible for what I'd done to you. Because of my fear and stupidity I may have lost the best thing that ever happened to me."

Hannah smiled at Aria, "Well, I may not be happy right now, but I'm not ready to give up on you forever either."

"Does that mean you forgive me?" Aria said, her pretty smile lighting up her face again.

All four of their cell phones went off in unison and they each grabbed theirs and one by one they read the text and looked at each other, with Spencer being the first to speak, "Who the hell could know about last night? We were alone in my house."

"If it's not Jenna and Tobey than who else is there?" Emily asked

"I haven't ruled them out." Spencer said shaking her head, "Jenna seems to know everything we did with Alison, so why wouldn't it be her? She has motive. I think being blind gives her a very real reason to want us to suffer."

"I think the fact she knows everything and is happily telling your sister makes her seem less like a suspect." Hannah said, once again proving she wasn't afraid to be brutally honest, "If she were doing this she wouldn't be telling everyone about it, because it makes her look guilty.

"Then we're back to who else could it be?" Spencer wondered

Emily stayed focused on Spencer, "And how could they know what we talked about last night? The only person who has access to your bedroom is your sister."

"No, she can be a bitch at times, but this is way beyond what she's capable of." Spencer's eyes lit up and she looked at her friends, "I think my room is bugged. I know it sounds insane, but how else could someone know what we talked about last night?"

"Not many teenagers would have access to that kind of thing, so maybe it's not someone from school." Hannah said, checking her watch and showing her friends the time.

"We need to be much more careful about what we say from now." Spencer added, gathering her things from the ground, "I'm going home and I'm going to search my room and see if I can find something and if I find one, then we can control what this person hears, that might be helpful."

"I don't think it's smart to mess with some psycho." Aria said, "Let's hope this texting is the closest we get to them. It might be uncomfortable, but I sure don't want to deal with some psycho with a knife or a gun, so I don't want to provoke them.'

Spencer nodded at Aria's concerns as she led the way back to the main part of the park, "I know that, but I meant we could tell them we were going somewhere and then we could be the ones waiting for them to show up. We could say we were going to the park at 7, but get here an hour early and see if anyone shows up."

"That's not a bad idea." Hannah said with an intrigued smile.

"I agree." Emily said, "It might be our best chance to find out who's behind all this."

"Well, I'll call you once I've searched my room and we can talk about what to do then." Spencer smiled and walked towards her car as the other girls split up and went their separate ways as well.

End of Chapter 2.