"Are you sure you girls are old enough to travel alone?" The bus driver looks at us concernedly. "You look young." I'm about to freak out and cry when Ali- no, Courtney, I keep on messing up, flips her hair, looks him straight in the eye, tilts her head to the side and asks "Would you like to see our driver's liscences?"

He turns away from her, clearly seeming embarrassed. "God, short girl problems, huh Em?" Courtney says to me with a playful wink. "Yeah," I say back with a laugh.

We walk to the back of the bus and I sit down. Courtney sits next to me. There's no one else on the bus. That actually isn't surprising, seeing as it's something like four in the morning. "You seriously think no one will look for us?" I whisper to her. She puts a finger to her lips and points at the bus driver, but I point to the glass divider. He can't hear us.

"I'm sure people will look for us," Courtney says. "But they won't be able to find us."


Later in the bus ride, Courtney has fallen asleep, her head on my shoulder. I'm sure it's a complete accident- she hasn't wanted to touch me ever since I kissed her in the treehouse.

She's got her hand on top of an envelope. I wonder if it was a letter she was going to send to her parents but decided not to, or something like that. But when I lean over closer, I see the bubbly writing reads EMILY.

That's pretty much an open invitation to read it, I surmise, because if she didn't want me to read it she probably wouldn't address it to me. But it feels like cheating to read it while she's asleep. I slowly pull it out from underneath her hand and slice open the envelope with my fingernail and slide the note out.

Dear Em,

I'm sorry how horrible I've been to you lately. I completely understand if you'd hate me for blackmailing you about your secrets and not telling you the biggest secret of mine. I get that you'd hate me. But for some reason you still seem to love me. To quote Walt Whitman "I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends." Em, you're my best friend. You're the one who I feel like I can talk to and be myself with. That's why I asked you to come with me. But there's also another reason.

I've thought about what happened in the tree house for a few weeks now, and I realize how close we are, and how much I really care about you. I wouldn't go as far as to say as I love you, but I definitely think I have some feelings for you.

I completely understand if you want to turn around, go back home and leave me, because I can probably do this myself. But I don't want you to leave me, Killer.

-Courtney DayDiLaurentis (That's my full name. Our parents removed the Day part so our old neighbors wouldn't find us after we moved.)

I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding. She doesn't hate me. She likes me. She trusts me the most of our friends, enough to tell me about her crazy sister. She says she has feelings for me!

"I forgive you," I whisper, even though I know she's asleep and can't hear me. "I forgive you...Courtney."