It was great to get such awesome feedback on the last chapter - thank you to everyone who reviewed! This one's a tad shorter, but I felt it was an appropriate stopping point. I hope you enjoy, and please keep letting me know what you think!

Chapter 4

Hanna had been doing a lot of thinking.

Sure, most of that thinking had been done during English class, but this was far more important than listening to a droning discussion on the significance of the name of Hester Prynne's daughter.

She was thinking a little about what movies she should bring when she went to visit Aria, who was out of school for the rest of the week. And a little about grocery shopping for the dinner she and Caleb were planning on making for her mom that weekend.

Mostly, though, she was thinking about Mona.

Something had been bothering her since she left the hospital two nights ago, and it had taken her over forty-eight hours to figure out what it was. It was no secret that Hanna's relationship with Mona was more complicated than her friends'. While they looked at Mona and saw nothing but a threatening stalker in a black hoodie, Hanna saw an endless amount of sleepovers, hours spent gossiping at the mall, and the amazing glow of finally having a friend again after her entire world crumbled at the start of her ninth grade year.

It wasn't so easy for Hanna to turn completely against Mona the way that her friends had. They had been too close for that.

But that also meant that it was even harder for Hanna to get over what her former best friend had done to her. Not just hitting her with a car, but months of making Hanna live with a feeling of constant, terrible dread. Wondering every time she opened her mouth if A was listening, if her own words were going to be twisted and used against her.

It was the irrational jolt of her stomach that Hanna felt when Ezra drew a large red letter A on the board, signifying Hester Prynne's branding symbol, that made her realize what it was that was bothering her so much.

Nothing I do is ever going to be enough, is it?

Hanna had seen the incredulous looks on her friends' faces as soon as Mona had said those words. And she had to admit, she couldn't blame them. As much as she couldn't bring herself to just throw away the friendship they'd had, it bugged her that Mona seemed to expect that they'd be willing to embrace her with open arms after…what? Two days off of the A team?

Regardless of what she'd done to help them in that time, it was going to take a lot longer for Hanna to learn to trust her again – if that really was what Mona wanted.

The least Hanna could do, though, was tell her that. Directly this time, not in some roundabout, "I know you know I'm just pretending everything's fine" kind of way. And she had to do it alone.

"Hey." Mona's eyes crinkled in obvious confusion as soon as Hanna pulled open her front door.

"Hey," Hanna replied, and stepped aside so she could enter.

Mona didn't meet Hanna's eyes, instead gazing around the entryway like she'd never seen it before. "I was surprised to get your text. Is everything okay?" She suddenly turned to face Hanna, raising her eyebrows. "Don't tell me something happened to that chip."

"No. No, of course not," Hanna insisted – at least she didn't think so. Admittedly, she hadn't checked her hiding spot in the makeup case since she'd dumped the computer chip in there the other day. "I just…I need to talk to you about something."

The words sounded awkward coming out of her mouth. If Mona noticed, she didn't comment, following Hanna into the kitchen silently. She slid onto one of the seats at the island. "So what's on your mind, girlie?"

There was a forced cheerfulness to her voice that wasn't lost on Hanna. She leaned against the counter, clasping her hands together. "I keep thinking about something you said the other day. In the hospital." When Mona didn't respond, she cleared her throat and went on, "You know, about…nothing you do ever being enough."

Mona's expression darkened so slightly that Hanna wondered if she'd imagined it. "What about it?"

"It's just…" Hanna resisted the urge to start picking the nail polish off of her brand-new manicure. "It's only been a couple days, Mona. You can't really blame us for not lining up to be your best friend."

She'd tried to phrase it as gently as possible, but her former friend still looked wounded. "I let you search the RV. I gave you that computer chip. I saved Aria's freaking life. What else do I have to do to prove to you four that I'm on your side now?"

"It's not really about that," Hanna insisted, even though it was, sort of. "You were A for a really long time. Not just once, but twice. We can't just forget about all of that."

Mona shifted in her seat. She was starting to look uncomfortable. "Han, I'm sorry about everything I did. I would take it all back if I could. But I can't change the past."

She sounded genuine, even looked a little near tears, but Hanna closed her eyes and pictured Mona taunting Spencer in the woods, beside what was supposedly Toby's dead body, just a few weeks ago. Her stomach twisted. "You did horrible things," she practically whispered. "To all of us."

"And I'm sorry!" Mona cried again, jumping up. A tear actually did roll down her cheek now. "Am I ever going to be able to prove that?"

Hanna desperately wanted to give her the answer she craved. That she'd talk to her friends, and within a few more days all would be forgiven, water under the bridge. But she couldn't get the words out. They both knew that wasn't true.

"I don't know," she said finally. She couldn't bring herself to meet Mona's eyes. "But I know that if you can, it's going to take time."

Such a long silence followed that Hanna become uncomfortably aware of her nails beginning to dig into the center of her palm. She pried her hand open and lifted her gaze. Mona was staring down at the countertop, her expression indecipherable. Hanna shifted. "Mona?"

"I get it," her old best friend said quietly. "I was stupid to think that things could ever go back to the way they used to be."

It was no sentiment that she hadn't expressed before, but something about the tone of her voice, despite everything, sent a wave of sympathy running through Hanna. Mona's actions as A had been horrible – some even approaching the line of unforgiveable – but it wasn't like she'd done it all for no reason.

This time, Hanna pictured the humiliated girl standing beside their lunch table as Alison dismissed her with yet another degrading comment. Then she pictured that same girl sitting, catatonic, in Radley, years of embarrassment and rage and self-loathing finally having bubbled over.

As awful as Mona's response to Alison's bullying had been, it wasn't like she was the only totally guilty party here. Hanna reached over and touched her arm briefly. "I'm not saying that. You just need to give me – and especially my friends – more than two days. Building trust takes time."

Something in Mona's expression softened. She even gave Hanna a small smile. "That was actually pretty insightful."

Hanna smiled back, and for just the briefest moment, the tension between them dissipated. It almost felt like old times, before broken legs, before bodies in backyards, before A.

And then Hanna's phone chimed with a text from Caleb, and the spell was broken. Mona grabbed her purse and stood. "I should probably go."

"Caleb's not coming over until tonight," Hanna blurted without thinking. "Want to stay and hang out for awhile?"

The words hung between them awkwardly. They both knew it was more of an olive branch than a genuine offer. Despite the one pleasant moment they'd just shared, they were far from that point.

But still. It was something. And Mona seemed to realize that at the same time as Hanna. She smiled again and moved toward the door. "I'll see you at school."

Hanna sunk down heavily onto one of the island stools as she listened to the sound of the front door clicking shut. Her stomach felt queasy with unease, and for a moment she couldn't put her finger on why that was. That conversation had gone much better than anticipated, and though she couldn't speak for her friends, she had a feeling that her relationship with Mona was eventually going to be okay.

But her brain kept cycling around to one thing Mona had said. Don't tell me something happened to that chip.

It was a ridiculous thing to worry about. That computer chip was buried so deep in Hanna's biggest makeup case that it was practically more secure than Fort Knox. A might have been good, but they couldn't be that good.

Could they?

Hanna started up the stairs. Just for peace of mind, she assured herself. After all, she didn't want her movie night with Caleb to be ruined by her irrational worrying. She crossed her bedroom, her eyes on the makeup case on her vanity. She opened it slowly, sliding aside rows of eye shadow and lip-gloss, until she reached the innermost compartment. Every fiber of her being expected to see that small, black drive sitting there. She was so sure it would be there that she could practically see it.

Practically, but not quite.

The empty compartment, built to fit an entire eye shadow palette that Hanna had removed for this purpose, stared up at her. The chip was gone, and in its place was a plain, folded piece of white paper.

It took Hanna a moment to wrap her head around this. The computer chip, which contained the biggest piece of evidence linking Hanna and her friends to Rosewood's most recent murder, was gone. It was gone.

"No," Hanna whispered, her heart skyrocketing into her throat. She grabbed the makeup case and shook it, desperate for the chip to magically come sliding out of another secret section. She yanked out other drawers and compartments, her breath quickening as she felt herself begin to panic. This was not happening. How the hell was she going to tell her friends?

Her confusion and shock was so overwhelming that she barely even noticed the paper until she turned the entire case upside down and it fluttered out, coming to rest on the vanity.

It was like Hanna's hand was moving in slow motion as she reached for it. Part of her didn't even want to open it. She already knew what it was going to say. Some mocking, mean-spirited note from A, probably about how stupid Hanna was to think she could get away with hiding an important piece of information in such a trivial place.

She unfolded the note, her fingers shaking slightly. And, just as she'd predicted, she was met with A's large, blocky handwriting. But the message was far more than just a snarky taunt.

Eenie, meenie, miny, mo. You're it, Hanna-kins. You're welcome for leaving all of your makeup behind, even though you won't need it where you're headed. Kisses, -A