Aria's eyebrows furrowed. "You got Spencer to agree? Wow, that didn't take much at all," she said, slightly shocked. Holden always sort of had a thing for Spencer, but the girls never took him seriously. Something about him just screamed 'gay', and he wasn't exactly Spencer's type. But the idea of Spencer actually giving him a chance, made Aria question what Spencer could possibly be up to.
Hanna shrugged. "She knows that she has to have a date to go to Noel's party, and her dad is refusing her from going with the one person she wants to go with."
"Toby?" Aria asked. The whole Spencer and Holden date situation was finally beginning to make sense, but why would Spencer's dad refuse Toby going as her date?
Emily sucked her bottom lip as she walked behind the two girls. She had nothing to worry about if Spencer went to the dance with Holden. The dude was clearly gay, at least that's what Emily's gaydar suggested. Besides, Spencer had absolutely no interest in him so the two wouldn't be all over each other all night, had she gone with Toby or Caleb.
"Ha! Toby! Are you crazy, Aria?" Hanna shook her head, laughing. "Caleb Rivers—the dude Spencer likes."
Hearing his name made Emily cringe. Something about Caleb was just off.
As the girls continued their walk through the mall, passing stores without even taking a glimpse, a man's voice appeared, shouting out to them.
"Hi, Noel," Hanna said, blushing, turning back in his direction. Aria rolled her eyes with a smile upon her face. But Emily couldn't care less. Even when Aria and Noel were together, Emily never cared for the guy. Just like with Caleb, something about Noel Kahn was off.
Noel moved closer to the girls, wearing his confident smile. "Well, ladies, what brings you to the mall today? Looking for a sexy costume for my party?"
"Are you sure you wouldn't rather just have us show up nude?" Emily responded, letting out an annoyed sigh.
"Actually, that's not a bad idea. You in, Aria?" He joked, winking at her.
"You're disgusting," Aria replied.
No one understood the relationship between Noel and Aria. But it was definitely a playful one. It was the type of relationship most people could only dream of. Nothing between the two was ever something serious. It was all jokes all the time. But, underneath all of that joking, the two had some underlying chemistry, which everyone else was completely oblivious to. Especially the girls in Aria's circle of friends.
"We better be on our way," Hanna said, cutting off any further communication between Aria and Noel. Hanna would never admit it, but she was slightly jealous of the unique bond between Aria and Noel.
"Before you go," Noel spoke up, "who's Spencer coming with?"
"Holden," Hanna responded quickly, turning her back to Noel and lacing her arms with Emily and Aria. "We better get a move on. There's only a few days left before his party, and I want to look hot."
The girls eventually arrived outside of Halloween Town, a costume shop inside the mall. The girls separated as they went on their search for a costume, and only met up with each other when they were questioning a costume they had just picked off the shelf.
"Hanna, I have a question," Aria mumbled, putting a hideous costume back onto the shelf.
"What?" Hanna asked, her fingers lingering across the costumes on the bottom shelf. This store usually had the best costumes, but with Halloween only a few more days, it was no surprise that there weren't many options.
Aria cleared her throat. "Um, why is it so important to you that we go to this party?"
Hanna's eyes widened, biting down on her bottom lip. What was she going to say? There were two options: lie or tell the truth. But there was no one Hanna could tell Aria about her feelings for Noel.
"Because it's Halloween, and we need to get Spencer out of the house to take her mind off of Toby," She went the safe route. Some truth, but her response consisted mostly of lies. "Why do you ask?"
Aria shrugged, picking up a Britney Spears costume. There were two costumes for Britney: one from her 'Hit Me Baby One More Time' video and the other was from 'Slave 4 U.' "Hey, Han. Remember this?" Aria said, waving the 'Hit Me Baby One More Time' costume in front of her face. She laughed as Hanna pushed it away.
"That's not funny, Aria," Her voice had a serious tone to it. It wasn't that it wasn't really funny, but Aria had caught Hanna off guard. Her thoughts were still focused on Aria's previous question about Noel's party.
"What do you guys think?" Emily appeared just in time to break the underlying tension between the girls. It was a nurse costume, completely out of the ordinary for Emily's style but she needed something to do to catch the attention of other people.
"Hot!" Aria and Hanna said at the same time, making direct eye contact and giggling.
Emily's soft smile appeared. Lately, she wasn't the same. Although Paige treated Emily like she was a goddess or a queen, things just weren't the same between the two girls and Emily was much to blame for that.
"I should probably just go in my birthday suit since this store hasn't got anything," Hanna sighed. After she lost her weight and gotten her bikini bod, she promised herself that she would always try to wear the hottest clothes. More so, the hottest costumes. But that wasn't happening this year.
Just like Hanna, Aria couldn't find anything interesting to wear either. After giving her costume a second look, Emily was no longer interested in the nurse costume. It just wasn't fit for her.
The girls walked out of the store, starving.
"Emily, is Paige all set to go? Maybe you could have matching outfits or something. Well, not matching but couple-like outfits." Aria suggested.
"Or," Hanna interrupted. "If she already has a costume, you could ask her what she's going as and then you do what Aria had suggested."
Emily forced a laugh. Hanna and Aria were Paily's biggest fans. The girls always pushed Emily and Paige together, but they only did it because they wanted Emily happy.
"Let's not go overboard, okay? Besides, you two are too caught up in mine and Spencer's lives that you haven't even bothered to find dates," Emily reminded them.
"Actually, I do have a date," Aria responded.
"You do?" Emily and Hanna responded with such excitement. Out of four girls, relationships came hardest for Aria. Not because no guys were interested, but because she wasn't really interested in dating. But with Aria's life being so intense at home with her parent's constant bickering, she's forced herself into finding a date so that she could get out of the house and be a carefree teenager for once.
"Yeah, it's Jason," She calmly responded.
Hanna's face scrunched up as if she were disgusted—which she, in fact, was. Ever since Hanna entered high school and met Jason, she's always had a strong dislike for him. He wasn't cocky or arrogant, but just weird. He used to spy on her when she lived next door, but after her parent's split up, they eventually moved away. However, Hanna decided to give Aria the benefit of the doubt. Aria didn't even know Hanna didn't like him. But Emily knew.
As Emily looked over at Hanna after Aria mumbled his name, Hanna shook her head. She didn't want Emily to mention anything.
Emily was confused. What was up with Hanna's obsession in wanting all of the girls happy when she wasn't even happy herself? She had to be up to something.