I do not own Pretty Little Liars.

All credit belongs to Sara Shepard and Freeform.

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RING! RING!

The sound of an old fashioned phone comes to my ears, jerking me awake. I have my head resting up against the back cushion of the sofa and lift it up, rubbing my eyes in exhaustion. One of my arms is still around Aria's shoulders from last night when she had been laying up against me before we both knocked out. But when the ringing comes she sits up as it wakes her up too.

"Hello?"

My blurry vision comes but I'm able to see Spencer at the phone in her lake house. The others are sitting on the couch and armchair, watching her.

"Were there…any witnesses?" It gets quiet. "No…mom I understand." She gets quiet again. "Okay. Bye." She turns to us when she gets off the phone and starts to walk over. "The caretaker called it in this morning. The place is crawling with reporters, but the police don't have any leads."

Before I go more into that conversation I'll tell you that someone went into the cemetery last night and dug up Alison's body. Yea, you heard right. Someone unburied a dead Alison DiLaurentis. How gross is that? But to top it off, someone brought a drunk Emily to the burial spot and basically threw a shovel in her hands to frame her. The girls went looking for her while I was sleeping and when they found her she didn't remember how she got there. They realized it was a trap when they saw that someone called Em from Spencer's phone while she was asleep and got out of there as fast as they could. Being here at the lake house is a cover up…naturally.

Last night while Spencer drove us over to her lake house I was told what happened, of course I was freaked out. I mean, someone dug up a dead body and then tried to pin the blame on my friends, who have gone through enough for a lifetime. Wouldn't you be scared if you knew someone was out to get your friends….again.

My first question asked after they told me was, "Who could have done this?"

"We don't know." Aria answers from the back seat, making me turn around in the passenger's seat to look at her.

She looked so terrified that I was about ready to jump back there to give her a hug. As a matter of fact, Em and Hanna looked just as scared. Emily a bit more dazed out because she was still drunk.

"It's not Mona though, right?" My breathing was getting a little frantic thinking she could have gotten out.

"Mona is in Radley. So no." Spencer tells me.

Coming back to the present, Aria gives me my glasses and I watch them all talk for awhile without really hearing a word they're saying. I can't believe I'm getting into their mess again. Last time that happened I almost got killed. If they tell me to stay out of it this time I'm listening.

"Okay." Spencer says when she sits down on another armchair, getting my attention back. "We got up here yesterday afternoon. We roasted marshmallows. We all talked about how fun senior year's gonna be and we went to bed early."

"Em?" Hanna looks to her right to look at Emily on the sofa.

She looks at us. "I understand." She says and nods. "Last night never happened."

I look at all of the girls in disbelief as Spencer and Hanna are nodding in encouragement about what she said. Aria on the other hand has her mouth hanging open, looking away from them and into the distance. She doesn't even look at me as she gets dazed out and looks scared.

I shake my head in frustration. "Last night never happened?" I say and they all look at me. "Are you guys seriously going to start this all over again? Telling lies and not telling adults. That bit you in the ass last time."

"What else do you want us to do? How can we explain what happened without getting ourselves in trouble for ditching the site." Hanna asks.

"Maybe you should have thought of that before you split and buried the freaking shovel."

"Jessie…" Hanna starts.

"No." I shake my head. "I've had it with the lies. Last time I kept your secret I got kidnapped by a lunatic."

"Whose fault is that?" Spencer says.

Not only does my face drop in shock, but the girls all give her a look. Spencer's face softens as soon as she realizes what she said.

"Wow, Spencer. Thanks." I say in sarcastically mad tone.

"Jessie, I…"

"You're right. It is my fault."

"No, Jessie, I didn't mean that."

"But you know what?" I say in an attitude, not even bothering to let her explain. "I will not make that mistake again."

"You can't say anything." Emily says quietly, trying to hold back tears.

"Watch me."

"If you tell you'll be considered obstructing justice for lying too." Spencer says.

"On your orders!" I yell, now pissed off. "I have nothing to do with this."

"You have everything to do with this as much as us if you tell that we lied, because you split too." Spencer continues.

I shake my head. "I can't believe you, Spencer." I get up and storm to the door. "You guys better not get me into anymore blackmailing business just because you won't say anything." I open the door and slam it behind me.

I'm not sure why I walked out since I can't go anywhere without them. Spencer was the one who drove so she's my ride home. So my only thought is to go over to the lake and sit on the dock. I sit down at the end of it and hang my legs over the edge. The sun makes the water twinkle as I stare down into my reflection. Looking back is me of course, but I look exhausted. Tends to happen when I'm around their nonstop drama it seems. How are they always in the middle of something that gets them into trouble? I get Mona was crazy and took out her anger on them but she's not around. Why is this starting all over again? Who is trying to get them caught doing something they had nothing to do with?

I sit in that spot for awhile, just dangling my legs over the water and kicking them back and forth like I'm a little kid. I watch the horizon in a daze, not paying attention to anything in particular. All I can do is think about this whole mess. If I hadn't fallen asleep I could have kept Emily from wondering off. Why did I drink so much?

I close my eyes as I lean back onto my hands and take a deep breath of the fresh air. It's starting to get hot now and the heat of the sun hitting my face triggers a memory that I haven't thought of in I don't know how long.

"No, Mona, please don't."

"Or, I could take this and burn your face off just like Two Face from Batman."

"No!" I yell, "What the hell!"

She smiles. "Jackpot."

"Mona." I say as calmly as I can. "Stop."

She presses the button to the torch and it lights up. It's so close to my face that I can just feel the heat.

"Mona! Don't, please don't."

She smiles and starts to raise it up and down.

"Jessie."

I slowly open my eyes as I hear someone call my name, my breathing starts to rapid a bit. Then a hand goes onto my shoulder and I flinch so bad that I lean to the side and almost fall off the deck.

"Whoa!" Hands grab my arm and keep me from heading head first into the lake. "It's okay."

I'm shaking a bit as I look to the side and see Emily. "Thanks." I take a deep breath and watch her sit next to me, crossing her legs.

"You okay?" She watches me in concern, which I hate because I should be the one looking at her in concern after what happened last night.

I nod. "I'm fine." I raise my eyebrows. "Are you okay?"

She half smiles and shrugs. "No, but I can't really do anything about not remembering what happened." She looks out to the water. "What got you so freaked?"

I turn to the water myself, taking another breath. "The uh…the sun burning my face reminded me of the torch Mona had to my face that night." I see her look at me from the corner of my eye. "The memory flashed in my head."

"When was the last time you had a flashback?"

"Last night when I got that text from whoever was messing around with us, but this was the first one I've had in a few weeks that I full out freaked from."

"What about the nightmares?"

"That I woke up screaming from or just had?"

"Both."

"Waking up screaming was last week. Not waking up screaming, a few days ago."

"You want to talk about it?"

I shake my head, still looking to the water. "Seems silly to talk about this when you're going through a lot more than I am."

She touches my arm and I look at her. "It'll help keep my mind off of everything."

I watch her as she waits patiently for me to start. Eventually I just shrug. "I don't really know what to say, Em."

"Just tell me what you are thinking right now."

I shake my head in frustration, not really knowing how to even start. "I just…" I think for a few seconds, "I don't know how to handle it anymore." I shift my eyes to looking down at the deck. "I got kidnapped and have to deal with the nightmares, flashbacks and being scared to go outside half the time. How do I get passed that?" I look back at her.

We stare at each other for a few seconds. I see she's struggling a bit with an answer, but she never takes her eyes off me. "Well..." She finally says. "I think you are doing a good job. I emailed the girls a few times throughout the summer and I asked how you were when I felt you were holding something back from me whenever we talked."

"Didn't trust me I see." I half smile.

She slightly smiles back, "After what happened I had a feeling you weren't doing the best." I didn't answer that so she adds, "Aria told me that it was obvious that you were struggling with everything, but that you did your best not to show it. That you would go out whenever someone asked even if you didn't want to. I'm proud of you, because even though you are having a hard time you are putting the effort to keep your life normal."

I half smile. "Normal in Rosewood is still not normal."

She laughs. "True."

I smile a bit and look away. Making it get silent for a few seconds as we watch the water.

"I'm sorry that I tried to convince you to stay quiet for us." She gets out.

I shrug, not taking my eyes off the horizon. "I shouldn't have acted like that. You're my friends. I wouldn't throw you under the bus."

"Maybe, but it still wasn't right of us to get you involved. Spencer certainly had no right blaming you the way she did about getting kidnapped."

"She was frustrated."

"She was being mean."

"She's mean when she's scared. But I won't say anything. I promise."

She shakes her head. "I don't want you getting hurt again because of us."

"You guys are my best friends. I'd jump in front of a bullet for you. I literally almost died for you guys."

I see her watching me, but I can't bring my eyes away from where I'm looking. Not until I feel her hand go to my chin and turns it to her. Her eyes are watering a bit. "We didn't tell you what was going on for you to get kidnapped and almost killed for it. That was our problem. You were not supposed to get involved that deeply."

I grab her hand from my chin and hold onto it as I set my hand back onto the deck. "It's my fault that it happened. Spencer wasn't wrong about that. I made you guys keep me updated and that was obviously enough to piss Mona off. If I hadn't begged to be part of the search I wouldn't have been in that mess."

"Don't you dare blame yourself, or justify Spencer's action to make it seem like it was. Just because you are our friend does not mean you should risk your life for us."

"Em, you'd all do the same for me." I watch her for a second. "You have done it for me. All of you have. Every time you guys tried to keep me away from what was going on was you literally risking your own lives to keep me safe, to keep a lot of people safe."

She watches me for a second, her breathing getting a little fast. "Not enough for Maya."

"Emily…" I open and close my mouth a couple times. "I'm…I'm sorry about Maya. I wish I could make your pain go away. I get how you feel and I want to say that you will feel better soon. But I don't want to lie to you, it's going to take awhile, but you will get through it."

She looks away, her eyes still watering. Then she takes her shoes off and lowers herself into the lake.

"Em. You have your clothes on."

She shrugs. "I can never stay away from the water. You know that."

I laugh a bit and nod. Then without me even having time to react she grabs my feet and pulls me right in too. As pissed as I was that she did this I'm glad she's able to find a way to still have fun and keep her mind off of things.