Pretty Little Liars Season 4B

Chapter 2

The next day was rough. They all had to get out of their beds and go to school, knowing that Alison was somewhere out there. It would be hard to focus in class due to their minds being drifted to thoughts about Alison, and that was especially critical to Spencer, because if she wanted to get into uPenn, she would have to step her game up. She got a rejection letter for early admission, and if she didn't recompose herself, she wouldn't be getting into uPenn any time soon.

Spencer

After brushing her teeth and getting dressed and ready, she headed downstairs. She grabbed some coffee from the machine in her kitchen, and poured it into a cup. She sipped her dark coffee slowly as she glanced at the clock on her cell phone. It was getting late. She finished up her drink, and rushed to her car. When she arrived, she found her friends at the front of the school.

"Hey," she greeted quietly. "Are you guys feeling ok after what happened last night?"

They all were planning on nodding, but there was no reason to lie. None of them were feeling good after the chaos that took place the prior night. Knowing the dark secret that Alison was alive was haunting all of them. They didn't even know what they should have been feeling anymore.

"From Alison to Ezra, everyth—" Hanna began, but was cut off by a glare from Aria. The blonde squinted her eyes and said, "What?"

"You know what! Hanna, he's my boyfriend, not a maniac," Aria said, folding her arms. "This is about Alison, not him. When did this become about him? I'm not going to stand here and let you accuse him. You guys also thought my dad was involved with Ali, but he's clearly not. Sometimes, you need to be reasonable!"

"And we are, Aria," Hanna said, sighing. "I know you love him, and you don't want to hear any bad news associated with him, but let's not be biased. Think about it... wasn't it at least a slight bit creepy that he knows where each and every one of us lives? Spencer asked a good question last night."

"I'm not going to believe that Ezra has anything to do with Alison, not even for one minute!" Aria yelled. "It's called trust. And my relationship with him has that."

Hanna decided not to argue with her. Fighting with her wasn't what they needed. They needed to stick together if they wanted to figure out anything about what was happening with Alison.

"So," Emily began, changing the subject, "how are we supposed to feel about this? I mean... Are we supposed to be happy that Alison's back? Or pissed that she's playing this game with us?"

"What we need to do is disregard our feelings for her," Spencer said, folding her arms. "I know she was our friend, but that's not the point. It's not about our joy or sadness that she's back, it's about figuring out what the hell happened. What the hell had been happening to us? The truth is what we should be worried about... not our feelings about her coming back."

"She's right," Hanna said, nodding. "But I'm angry. I'm tired of Alison playing with us like this is some twisted board game. Because of her, we're suffering. We're paying for her mistakes!" The blonde crossed her arms. "You know what? I'm going to go call Caleb." She stormed away.

They were all expecting Emily to say something, but she didn't. Her eyes were focused somewhere else... A truck. A tan truck. Both of the other girls turned around to see what Emily was so focused on. And Spencer smiled. Seeing their brunette friend smile made the rest of them smile. Spence returned away from her friends and approached the young man, who was exiting his truck and proceeding towards her. It was Toby.

Aria and Emily smiled at each other, knowing to give their friend some privacy with her boyfriend. The two girls walked off together, leaving the couple alone.

"Hey," Spencer joyfully greeted.

"Hey," he greeted back.

"Hold me right now before I die," Spencer joked, and he laughed quietly. It was her first genuine smile since what happened in Ravenswood. He held his arms out and pulled her in for a hug. He could smell the scent of her shampooed hair. He loved it. He loved her. "I missed you so much," she continued.

He laughed as their hug ended. "It was only a week."

"No," she said, sighing as she gazed up into his eyes. "It felt more like two." He grinned at her. She went onto her tip toes and placed a short and gentle kiss on his lips. He wrapped his arms around her and cherished the fact that he got to see her again. "Did you find any answers about your mom?"

"Some," he answered, thinking about his mother. "But, not enough..." He rubbed her back as he tried to embrace her again. She placed butterfly kisses against his cheek and jawbone, looping her arms around him while she was at it. He was tensing up at the subject of his mother, but Spencer knew just how to calm him down. He smiled at her efforts. "So, what's been going on while I was gone?" Toby asked.

"Well, we've just been trying to find out more about what happened to Alison," Spencer said, not wanting to reveal the big thing that they knew. "Hey, weren't you only supposed to fly in tomorrow? I don't get why you're back so early, even though I love it that you're here with me."

He chuckled and explained, "I grabbed an earlier flight as soon as I saw that one was available. I had to see you as soon as I could, and I wanted to surprise you."

"Consider me surprised," Spencer said, and placed another short kiss on his lips.

Hanna sighed as she stabbed her meat loaf with a fork. It's not like the cafeteria food was usually appetizing, but she wasn't even hungry that day. She didn't even want her cake, which she usually loved to eat. She looked up at her friends. They all looked like they felt like dying, too. It wasn't just her, and that felt assuring to know. Spencer was the only one who wasn't at their lunch table yet.

"Why does it feel like everything has changed just because of that one night in Ravenswood?" Hanna asked. "I mean, we were guessing that Alison is alive, and now that we know that she really is, it's become like a life changing shocker or something, and I want to know why."

"Because things have changed," Emily said, pushing her own tray away from herself. "I wish they hadn't, but they did. There's so much we don't know, and our lives are not going to be the same again." Her chocolate eyes stared at the floor. "Alison's alive... So why am I not jumping for joy?"

"It's been two years since she left, Emily," Hanna told her. "This isn't some game anymore. This isn't some thing where she can just pop back into our lives, and we all cheer because we have our best friend back. It's different now. She is the reason that we have been suffering for years! She doesn't get to come back here and act like a saint. Dead or alive, she's caused us so much pain, and I don't think she even understands what she's doing to us."

"Hanna, don't get carried away," Aria warned, squeezing her blonde friend's hand. "Spencer's right, we shouldn't be letting our emotions get in the way of our search for answers. But I agree. After all she's done to us, I don't think she deserves to come back here and act like a saint. She's done a lot of bad things in her life, and I would say everyone makes mistakes, but she's made so many, and all those mistakes have been intentional."

Ezra came strolling by their lunch table. He leaned over, and grabbed Aria's hand.

"Miss Montgomery, may I speak with you in my classroom?" he asked, squeezing her hand gently.

"Um, sure, I guess, Mr. Fitz," Aria said. "Excuse me, guys. I'm sure this won't take long." Her friends nodded their heads. The short girl followed her teacher slash boyfriend into his classroom. He locked the door and sat behind his desk. Aria stood in front of his desk.

"So... what's going on, Ezra?" she asked. "I don't think now is really the time for us to be kissing and all, so if you just brought me in here so we could be alone, I think I should go back. We can't risk getting caught. It's back to our forbidden relationship, and you know that both of our lives would be ruined if anyone caught u—"

He stopped her little speech halfway and said, "Aria, I'm not here to be alone with you. Well, I need to be alone with you, but not for kissing. You need to tell me what happened in Ravenswood. Your friends and you yourself have been acting like there was something big that happened, so tell me what. Who is it that you're running from?"

"I... I can't talk about this," she said, sighing. "Please, I can't. Just let me go back to my friends." She began to leave, but he grabbed her hand.

"You need to tell me right now, Aria," he said sternly. "You know that this relationship will not work if you keep secrets from me."

"It's not like you haven't kept secrets from me, Ezra!" Aria yelled. "For every secret I've kept from you, I bet you've kept a thousand more. So stop hounding me down. Do I not have any privacy? I give you your space, so you need to give me mine." He sighed and stood up.

"Come on, you know that I would tell you anything," he said, staring at the floor. "You know I would..."

When he looked up, Aria was gone.

It was finally passing period. For once, the girls wanted lunch to end. Emily rushed to her girlfriend's locker as soon as the bell rang. She looped her arms around Paige's waist and kissed her cheek from behind.

"Hey there!" Emily exclaimed, standing in front of her now. "I haven't seen you all day. Where have you been?"

"Around," Paige responded, biting her lip.

"Paige..." Emily started, and cupped her cheeks. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, Emily!" Paige yelled, which startled her girlfriend. "God, can't you just give me some privacy? There's nothing wrong, but I don't need you questioning me like I'm being interrogated by the police!" Emily just stood there, surprised by everything her girlfriend was saying.

"Okay. Fine, Paige," Emily said, crossing her arms. "You want me to give you some space? I'll give you some space." The dark haired girl stormed away, leaving Paige to fall against her locker sadly.

Paige didn't even know what she was doing anymore.

After school, Hanna walked up to Emily.

"Hey Em," the blonde said. "What's wrong with you?"

"I'm just a little down," the swimmer responded, sighing. "I went to talk to Paige during passing period, and she totally bitched out on me. All I did was ask her what's wrong, and she yelled at me and told me to give her space! I was just trying to be a good girlfriend!"

Hanna put her arm around her best friend.

"Trust me, you're not the only one with a failed romance at the moment," Hanna said, chuckling. "At least you can fix the problem with Paige any time you want. Caleb and I got into an argument over the phone last night, and he hung up on me. Now I can't fix it, because he won't answer my calls. It sucks. I wish I could see him and fix it."

"Maybe sending Caleb to Ravenswood wasn't the best idea," Emily told her. "You're only making your relationship with him harder for yourself. As if it wasn't hard enough with A parading around and messing with your relationship... Now you have to have a long distance relationship, too. Why did you make him go?"

"He needed to, and I let him. I love him, and that's all that matters," Hanna said, trying to assure herself that it would be okay. "He needed to help this girl named Miranda. She seemed like she could use a guide, and I knew that Caleb's the kind of man that can protect her. He never failed to protect me." She grinned to herself as she thought about all the great things Caleb did for her.

"And what was the date?"

"1786."

"No Spence, it's 1776, but you were close."

The brunette groaned and got up from the couch.

"Tobes, this is getting way out of my hand!" she cried. "I have big exams on Monday, and this studying is just hurting my head. I wish there was a way to make it easier. Is there anything that can just make this easier?" She sighed and leaned against her boyfriend's chest.

"Hey, it's Friday night, Spence," Toby said, caressing her cheek gently. "You don't have to fret out about studying tonight. You have the whole weekend. Why don't you relax tonight, and study tomorrow? You deserve a break. Plus, it's my first day back, and I want to spend it with you in a better way than helping you study." He chuckled and kissed her lips gently.

"Yeah, you're right, I'm sorry," Spencer said, sighing. "I'm forcing you to help me study American history, when we should be having a little more fun." She giggled and looped her arms around his neck. She leaned closer and pressed her lips against this. "How much fun is that?"

"It's very, very, fun," he responded, and closed the distance again. Pulling back, he asked, "So, what anti-educational thing should we do tonight?"

"Movies are always against education," Spencer said, pushing herself up so she could sit on his lap. "How about some cheesy romance movie?"

"How about an action movie?" he laughed.

"Fine, just this once," she said, touching his nose with her finger. "Next time, it's romance."

"Fine." He said, and kissed her cheek.

After Toby had gone home, Spencer had something important to do. After her recent mishap with studying, the question stayed in her head: Is there anything that could make studying easier? She was determined to find out the answer to that question. She grabbed her laptop and went to Google.

How to make studying easier