Chapter 3

"Slow down there, slugger. You're gonna have some serious regrets in the morning." Ali slipped the cup of tequila out of Saige's hand and wrinkled her nose.

Saige lunged to grab it back, even though the cup only contained a few more droplets, but she missed and stumbled forward. "I'm f…fine," she slurred, holding onto Ali's arm for support. "And this – this party was your idea, 'member?"

"The party was, but downing three shots of vodka wasn't," Ali said with an eye roll, as poised and graceful as ever despite the beverages she had consumed. "Now will you sit down before you puke on my shoes?"

"I'm not gonna puke," Saige muttered, but collapsed in a heap on one of the bar stools anyway. She did feel kind of dizzy, but in a good way, just like she always did at parties nowadays. Once she'd gotten wasted at one party, two months ago, she'd found it impossible to stop.

She didn't mind the buzz, or even the crash that followed the next morning. But Ali seemed to.

"People are staring," Ali hissed in her ear, and Saige clamped her mouth shut, suddenly realizing that she'd been laughing out loud at nothing.

She crossed her legs and scowled, the exhilarated drunken feeling dimming for a moment. Ali never snapped at her or treated her like anything less than equal…except at times like these.

"Ladies." Noel Kahn sidled up to them, leaning against the kitchen bar. He and his older brother were throwing this party, and he was clearly in his element. He held out two red cups and grinned slyly. "You two look thirsty."

"No thanks," Ali said with a flirty smile, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "You know I don't like to drink and dive."

"I'll take it!" Saige cried, clumsily grabbing one of the cups from Noel. A bit of warm liquid sloshed over the side and onto her hand.

Noel grinned wider, nudging her shoulder. "Now that's what I like to hear. S knows how to live." He leaned closer to the two girls and added conspiratorially, "You guys should come out back to the pool."

Saige took a gulp of beer. "Swimming?"

Ali smirked and widened her eyes in faux innocence. "Oh, we would, but we didn't bring our suits."

Noel laid his hands flat on the table and raised an eyebrow. "You don't need suits," he said in a suggestive voice, then disappeared back into the crowd of kids.

Saige laughed, intrigued, but Ali rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I'm so over boys our age, aren't you? Older guys are so much more appealing."

Saige couldn't particularly relate – all she saw when she looked at Noel Kahn was appeal. But she wasn't exactly in a coherent enough state to argue her point, so she set her now-empty cup down and got to her feet unsteadily. "I think it sounds fuuun. Come on!" She tugged on Ali's hand insistently. "Puh-leeze?"

Her best friend looked mildly annoyed, but glanced around and hopped up as well, linking their arms together. "Well, this is a party, isn't it?"

The taste of alcohol burned Saige's throat, and she swallowed hard, willing herself not to get sick. The text ran through her head on a loop. Her "little problem" could only be referring to one thing: Her drinking. But she hadn't had that issue since long before Ali's disappearance. And there was only one person who'd known about it.

"Ali?" she whispered in disbelief, staring down at her phone. The tone of the message had certainly sounded like her. But that was impossible. Ali was gone – dead. She was sure of it. And you can't send texts from beyond the grave.

And anyway, the message from the mysterious A referenced more than just Saige's old drinking problem. You know what happened the last time…

Not even Ali knew about that part. But someone did.

Saige's heart rate quickened. No one could know about that. There was just no way. She had been so careful. And if Ali hadn't known, no one had.

She got out of her car and took a deep breath, forcing herself to stay calm. Maybe the text was just a prank. Maybe whoever sent it didn't really know anything at all. But she still didn't think she could deal with this alone.

She knocked on the front door, and it opened a moment later. Aria looked at her in surprise. "Um…hey!"

"Hey," Saige replied, suddenly self-conscious. Aria had been friendly in school. Saige figured she was her best bet. "Can I…do you mind if I come in?"

Aria's confused expression morphed into one of concern. "Yeah, of course. What's up?"

"I just needed to ask you some – " Mr. Montgomery wandered into the room, and Saige clamped her mouth shut. She didn't want any adults knowing about the text. If her parents somehow found out that she was getting creepy prank messages, they'd definitely want to see them. And that couldn't happen.

"Saige," Aria's dad said in obvious surprise. "Wow. It's good to see you around again."

"Hi, Mr. Montgomery," Saige replied, forcing a small smile. "Welcome back."

He smiled in return and glanced at Aria, but she turned her head away, her mouth twisting into a frown. Saige furrowed her brow, waiting silently until Mr. Montgomery exited the room. There was a time, long ago, when she would have been able to ask Aria what that weirdness was all about. But not now. She missed that closeness that they'd all once shared.

"Let's go up to my room," Aria suggested, seeming to get the message that this needed to be a private conversation.

Saige's breath hitched in her throat as soon as she stepped through Aria's doorway. Despite the moving boxes stacked against the walls and the lack of décor in the room, she almost felt like she'd been transported back in time. The wooden paneled walls were exactly the same, and so was the arrangement of the furniture and the comforter on the bed.

"What's going on?" Aria asked, a little uncomfortably. Saige wondered if she had been thinking about old times, too.

Her hand closed around the phone in her pocket, but she hesitated. Suddenly she wasn't so sure if confiding in Aria was the best idea. What if she didn't think it was a big deal? What if she thought Saige was crazy for even worrying about it?

What if she asked to see it?

Terrified by the thought, Saige shook her head and took a step back. "You know what? It's no big deal. I should go."

"Wait." Aria grabbed her arm gently. "This is about A, isn't it?"

Saige's blood ran cold. "You…you got a message from A, too?"

"A text." Aria folded her arms. "During first period today."

Ah. So that must have been why Aria had been acting so squirrely when they discussed Fitz's class at lunch. "I got one right after school. Do you think it's a prank or something?"

Aria sat down on the edge of her bed, and Saige joined her, a wave of déjà vu washing over her. "I don't know. I mean, I don't know what yours said, but mine got kind of…personal."

Saige squirmed, suddenly unable to sit still. She could convince herself that the message she'd received hadn't really meant anything, but if Aria was getting messages that alluded to secrets, too…

"Mine was personal, too," Saige admitted, picking at the chipped purple polish on her fingernails. "But that's not all. There's only one person who could have known."

"Alison," Aria said immediately, meeting Saige's eyes.

Saige nodded fearfully, her nerves spiking. "There's no way anyone else could have found out…my secret," Aria added, shaking her head vehemently. "And the text just…it just sounded like her. Didn't yours?"

Relieved that at least Aria wasn't asking to see the message she'd received, Saige pulled her bottom lip into her mouth. "What are you saying? You think she's still alive?"

"She's been missing for a year. Why would she…" Aria shook her head and changed tactics, adding comfortingly, "Someone must be impersonating her. Just to mess with us."

That didn't do much to ease Saige's fears. "But how does someone else know all our secrets?"

Saige remained completely on-edge over the next few days. Every time her phone beeped with a new text or email, she nearly jumped out of her skin, only to find a message from one of her parents or a classmate. She hadn't heard another word from A.

Finally, as she stood at her locker at the end of the school day on Friday, she let out a breath. It had been three full days since the text. Maybe Aria was right. Maybe the messages meant nothing. Maybe someone had just wanted to mess with them on the anniversary of Ali's disappearance.

For the first time, she let herself relax a bit, putting her books away slowly instead of rushing to get home. There was nothing to worry about. It was just a fluke. Nobody knew her secrets.

Her phone chimed in her purse, and she shut her locker door, completely unperturbed until the sound of two other cell phones ringing followed.

Hanna and Aria turned around from their own lockers down the hall, glancing over at Saige. "Okay," Hanna said with a light, nervous-sounding laugh. "That was weird." Aria met Saige's eyes, her expression worried.

Before any of them could check their phones, Spencer and Emily rounded the corner, clutching their own cells. Spencer's brow was furrowed, and Emily's face was pale white. Saige glanced between them. If she and Aria had both received messages from A, it wasn't a stretch to think that the other members of their old group had, too.

"I don't think that was a coincidence," Aria said darkly, walking over with Hanna following. The five of them formed a loose circle in the center of the otherwise empty hallway, glancing at each other warily.

Saige broke the silence, feeling like she was about to burst. "You guys have gotten messages from A too, haven't you?"

Spencer cut her eyes away, but nodded reluctantly. Hanna grimaced and Emily pressed a hand to her mouth. Saige took a breath and opened the text, and her four old friends did the same.

Think I ever really left the sleepover? I'm closer than you think. Come and find me, bitches. –A

Saige lowered her phone, staring blankly at the ground. "Oh my God."

"It really is Ali," Hanna breathed.

"She's back," Emily added, her eyes shining. She wore a look of excitement that seemed fairly out of place.

"I don't know about this, you guys," Spencer protested, crossing her arms and looking at everyone but Saige. "This doesn't seem right."

Not about to be left out, Saige cut in, "I thought A was Ali from the second I got the first text. Maybe she really didn't die that night."

"There's only one way to find out," Emily insisted, heading for the front doors. "We have to find her."
"The sleepover," Aria mused, staring down at her phone. She looked up in realization. "Spencer, your barn. Come on."

It took ten minutes for the girls to get in their cars and speed to Spencer's house. Saige pulled crookedly up to the curb and slammed the door, not even bothering to lock her car as she ran to meet the others. What if Ali really was back? She'd survived a year without her best friend by her side, but she wanted nothing more than to have her back in her life.

They raced around Spencer's house until they reached the towering barn out back. Saige felt another pang, deep in her heart, as she stared up at it. Memories of that terrible night rolled through her head. It felt like just yesterday.

"Ali?" she yelled out desperately. Spencer pulled open the doors to the barn and peered inside. Hanna and Emily ran around and cupped their hands over the windows, trying to get a look in.

But Aria stood frozen in the center of Spencer's backyard, not looking at the barn at all. She was staring toward the DiLaurentis' old house next door, her face white with fear. "What is it?" Saige asked finally, her heart pounding. Ali could be anywhere.

She was going to see her best friend again.

But Aria shook her head. "You guys," she called, and Spencer, Hanna, and Emily walked quickly over to join them. "Look." Aria pointed a shaking finger toward the DiLaurentis' – or, rather, the St. Germains' – backyard.

Saige followed her gaze, as pained as she always felt when she had to look at Alison's old house. There was the same wraparound back porch. The same big, open backyard. The same unfinished gazebo plot from that summer.

Then she saw it. "What the hell is that?" Spencer gasped at the same moment.

The five old friends ran across the yard. Saige's breath came short and fast with panic as she stared at what was painted in bright red across the flat gazebo plot.

A large, vibrant letter A.

The sound of five phones chiming simultaneously broke the girls out of their stunned silence. Emily let out a wail as Saige shakily held hers up. "Please, no."

"Oh my God," Hanna whispered.

Aria shook her head. "This can't mean…"

But Saige read the four words silently, and didn't see what other meaning they could have.

A marks the spot.

...

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and followed! It means a lot to me to hear your feedback, so please keep letting me know what you think! Next up, Saige gets to deal with a funeral...and someone from her past.