"Spencer!" Mona called as she practically chased Spencer down the hallway. "Spencer, wait!"
Spencer sighed and waited for Mona to catch up. "I'm going to be late for class, Mona."
"So? You've skipped class, and school all together, more than once." Mona reminded her. "What difference will a few minutes make?"
"I can't afford to miss anymore." Spencer argued. "I've missed enough already because of you…"
Mona appreciated the slightly embarrassed look on Spencer's face. At least she wasn't trying to hate her. "It's okay, Spencer. I know you aren't that crazy about me, and that's okay."
Spencer stopped and looked down at Mona, trying to decide if the sincere look on her face really was sincere. "I'm sorry, Mona. I know Aria trusts you and I really don't have much choice at the moment, but…"
"I get it." Mona insisted. "You don't trust me yet. If the tables were turned, I would feel the same way."
Spencer felt the corner of her mouth turn up in a half smile. She sighed and pushed her hair away from her face. "Okay. What did you want?"
"I just wanted to make sure you're doing alright." Mona said, reaching out on impulse and touching Spencer's arm. She smiled sweetly. "I know A's making an already difficult situation worse for you, and I wanted to make sure you're holding up."
"I'm fine." Spencer said. "I haven't heard anything else from A since that text the other night."
"And you're still not going to tell anyone what happened?"
"I told them what happened." Spencer corrected. "I just told them that I had no idea who did it."
"There wasn't any DNA when they did the rape kit." Mona reminded her point blank, lowering her voice so that their fellow classmates couldn't hear her. "How are they supposed to figure out who did it if you don't tell them?"
"I don't know, but I'd rather it go unsolved and just forget about it than even try to imagine how A could possibly make it worse."
Mona flashed a sympathetic smile. "Okay. Well, even though you don't trust me, I'm here if you need me. For anything. I am on your side, Spencer."
"Thanks Mona." Spencer wasn't sure either of them actually meant what they said, but she wanted to believe that Mona really was on her side. She felt like she could use as many allies as she could possibly find. Especially if A got mad at her.
She watched Mona walk away, wondering if she had some ulterior motive. The bell rang and she turned to run to her next class, crashing into Ezra as she did so. Her books and his coffee flew to the floor and she lost her balance, flailing her arms in a vain attempt to regain her balance.
"Whoa!" Ezra said as he reached out and caught her. "Spencer, are you okay?"
She waited until she was certain she wouldn't topple over and nodded. "Yeah. Are you?"
Ezra crouched down to retrieve his now empty coffee mug and help her gather her coffee splattered things. "Yeah. Sorry about the coffee."
"It was my fault." She said quickly. "I wasn't looking where I was going." She paused and looked up at him, blowing a stray lock of hair out of her face. "I don't suppose you have a towel handy, do you?"
"Sorry." Ezra said. "I can write you a pass though, if you want to stop by the bathroom before class. I doubt sticky books will help you learn."
"Probably not." She agreed, smiling gratefully.
Ezra noticed that even though she was smiling, she looked frazzled. He had seen her talking to Mona and wondered if that had anything to do with it. "Is everything okay, Spencer? I know you were having some problems with your college applications. How is that going?"
"Um, fine I guess." She said as they stood up. "Everything's fine."
"Are you sure?" he asked, unconvinced. "You can tell me if it's not. I might not be able to help, but I do know that A isn't gone."
She had forgotten that A had sent him texts recently alluding to Aria's pregnancy. "I can handle A. How are you doing with…everything?"
Aria had decided not to tell Ezra that she was pregnant because they were broken up and she didn't want him to jeopardize his career or his life. She has opted to have a medication abortion, with Wren's help and support from her friends. Even with A threatening to expose her newest secret everything had gone smoothly until she had aborted in the middle of Ezra's class. Spencer had seen the look on his face when Aria had started throwing up and basically collapsed on her way to the bathroom. He had been terrified. So had Spencer and she knew what was going on. After she had been released from the hospital and talked to her family Aria had explained everything to Ezra. She had told Spencer that he had been freaked out and mad at her at first, but had accepted her actions in the end.
"I've been better." He said truthfully. "But I guess I'm okay. How's Aria?"
"You haven't talked to her?"
"Not really. Our whole relationship is touchy now."
Spencer understood that. "Well, she seems to be doing alright. She's been seeing our old therapist again. It seems to be helping."
"I wish she would talk to me about it." Ezra admitted as he signed a pass for Spencer.
Spencer took the slip of paper, fighting the urge to reach out and touch his arm even if the halls were empty. "She will, Ezra. When she's ready."
He smiled. "Thanks."
She smiled back and turned to go try to clean her books up a little before heading to class. She was a little miffed that she would be late, but she would rather be late than have sticky books.