Welcome to chapter 4 :). This is gonna be a good one, I hope. Oh, and thank you for the reviews – they were lovely. A lot of you guessed who this chapter's quote will be by, and as promised they were given a 'prize' (they chose spoilers), and now here we are. I've also been asked a question that I see no harm in answering...
Will Spencer have a drug problem? This chapter will answer that question. But someone will later.
A few of you also wondered if Mr. Osment will be recurring. I have no answer for that. He might. But now, let's begin chapter 4 ;).
Disclaimer; I still haven't bought to the rights to Pretty Little Liars. I was going to, but then I found a pen with Disney Princesses on it, and I bought that instead. Expensive pen, huh? I do, however, own any song mentioned in this chapter, except for the song Monster (Eat Me) which is briefly mentioned – that one is by The Charlies.
Shooting Stars
Chapter 4: Is Slapping Still A No No?
Alison barged into the apartment, belonging to two of her bandmates; Spencer Hastings and Blair Overstreet. Spencer sat on the couch, almost spilling her cup of coffee when Alison interrupted the peace. Blair stepped out of the bathroom with a toothbrush hanging out of her mouth.
"Band meeting!" Alison screeched as she marched past Blair, grabbing the sleeve of the amber haired girl's pajama top, yanking her into the living room where Spencer was. "Band meeting, right now!"
"I don't mean to put a damper on your little episode," Spencer said, clearly unimpressed by the blonde's antics so early in the morning. "But we're two members short at the moment. Wouldn't such a meeting require all of us?"
Alison narrowed her eyes. "Don't be such a bitch, Spence. I already woke Dez and Tash up before I went in here."
"I didn't realise that pointing out two fifths of the group aren't present made me a bitch?" Spencer retorted, smiling fakely. "My bad."
Alison was about to respond with a few choice words, but decided against it when Tascha and Desirée stepped into the apartment, with their arms linked and feet dragging across the floor. They were used to early mornings, but there was such a thing as too early.
"Nice of you to show up, ladies." Alison drawled, without a shred of sympathy. But if she didn't show sympathy when Tascha collapsed and had to be rushed to the hospital, why would she now?
"Buzz off, Ali!" Desirée snapped, plopping herself onto the couch, dragging Tascha with her in the process. Tascha rested her head on Desirée's shoulder, struggling to keep her eyelids open while she muttered something along the lines of 'too damn early'.
"Not that it isn't lovely seeing Dez and Tash again since last night, but do you mind getting down to business so we can get you out of our apartment already, Ali?" Spencer questioned, her arms folded firmly over her chest. She hated the fact that Alison thought she could just barge into her and Blair's apartment whenever she pleased. Tascha and Desirée, sure... but not Alison!
Alison narrowed her eyes again, giving Spencer a dirty look. "I'm here to talk about the thing we've all been worried about!"
"The upcoming fourth Toy Story movie?" Desirée asked, unaware what the hell Alison was going on about.
"They're making a fourth one?" Tascha questioned, gazing up into Desirée's blue eyes, to which the latter nodded in response. "Wow, freaky!"
"Not the freakin' Toy Story movie!" Alison interrupted, looking rather annoyed (which made things all the more fun).
"The possibility of throwing a rager on Jupiter?" Tascha wondered aloud, trying the look as innocent as possible so Alison wouldn't know they were doing it on purpose. "Because it's a gas planet, and helium is the majority of those gasses. Imagine the voices! I know the word gas should have us worried, but seriously!"
Alison bit her lower lip – a sign that she was getting slightly irritated.
"Is the moon really made of cheese?" Blair interjected. "In which case I'm never going."
"The fact that some numbers don't have a square root?" Spencer added. "I mean, what's the conspiracy?"
Alison's right eye began to twitch. She had officially become irritated!
"No, you stupid bitches!" She shouted, and she received odd stares from her bandmates. She called them bitches often, and got offended when that angered them. So they remained quiet, and simply glared at her. "I'm talking about those bitches from Pretty Little Liars!"
Spencer furrowed her brows, and intensified her glare on Alison. "So we're bitches, and now they're bitches? Ever stop to think that maybe the problem is you, Alison?"
Alison scoffed. "I'm just about the only damn talented person here."
"Then go solo!" Spencer challenged, and her fellow bandmates sat on the edge of their seats, desperately hoping. But never such luck, and it wasn't like either of them could leave...
"Please..." Alison rolled her eyes. "You'd flop without me and be out on your asses. You need me, don't forget that. I'm the reason we're successful!"
"You're the reason our sales have dropped, and if..." Spencer started to argue, but Alison immediately cut her off.
"No, it's those bitches from Pretty Little Liars. They've been trying to steal my spotlight ever since they started their laughable career!" Alison maintained stubbornly, and her bandmates each suppressed an eyeroll. She was like a broken record when it came to the other girl group. "We need to put them in their places!"
Spencer let out a frustrated sigh. "We don't need to do anything. Seriously, Alison, if you keep up with this damn vendetta against the Liars, you'll flush our careers down the toilet. The only thing you've been doing in your one-sided feud with them is making us look bad. Give it a freakin' rest!"
Alison ignored Spencer's rant, and began pacing back and forth in the living room of Spencer and Blair's apartment. "You know, they told us at the NMA's that we should speak through our music like they do. They keep repeating it over, and over, and over, and over that we should speak through our music."
Alison was acting borderline crazy. She was paranoid, manic, highstrung, and muttering to herself in a deranged sort of way. Sure, there were cases where those were traits that one would be able bear with because of mental issues, but the only incapacity Alison had was that she seemed an awful lot like a sociopath, and had no interest in other people's feelings – only how to break them (and she was good at that).
When she finished pacing and finally looked up, her eyes were bulged into a crazed expression. It was a look her bandmates had seen before, and it could only mean one thing; here comes crazy Ali.
"I know what we have to do!" She exclaimed, while the rest mentally prepared themselves. "I've made the Ugly Little Bitches very aware that we have a new single coming out very soon, so they can't act like they don't know anymore... What we should do is release our new single the same day they release theirs. We'll go head to head in the charts, and finally those bitches will realise that their entire career has been one big fluke when we crush them. They'll see that we're the only good group around, and they shouldn't have tried to steal our crown!"
"Calm down, Ali." Blair tried to be helpful, but received the dirtiest look from her dominant bandmate.
"Are you on something?" Alison changed tactic, determined to embarrass Blair now for challenging her.
"Leave her alone!" Spencer came to her best friend's defense, glaring icily at Alison. "Blair, it's not worth it."
Alison smirked devilishly. "I'd listen to your snow buddy, B!"
Tascha and Desirée shared a concerned look. "Snow buddies? We thought you weren't doing that anymore?"
"Of course not!" Spencer quickly reassured them, and no one saw that Blair's eyes shifted briefly. Then Spencer decided to get the focus off of Blair, and returned her attention towards Alison again. "We're not picking the same release date as Pretty Little Liars. First of all, we share the same label, and it wouldn't be morally right. Secondly, neither of us want to be roped in to your stupid vendetta. Why can't we all just co-exist?"
"Why can't we all just co-exist?" Alison repeated in disbelief. "Are you serious right now? They have been messing with our careers from the get-go. I will destroy them for it, and I won't stop until they have nothing left!"
Desirée huffed. "Good luck with that, Alison. None of us are willing to help you."
"We're not picking the same release date as them!" Spencer backed up Desirée, and the other two quickly made sounds of agreement to that statement.
Alison planted that infamous evil smile on her face. "I think it's sweet that either of you actually believe that you have a choice. Tash," The mean blonde turned her head, and blue met green, "What are you gonna tell all of those girls who look up to you for overcoming your eating disorder when they find out that you've been skipping meals?"
Tascha stared at Alison, shocked that she'd go that far. "I don't eat breakfast because it upsets my stomach, but I don't have anorexia anymore!"
"I know." Alison smirked. "But how won't that look?" Tascha said nothing to argue with her, and the blonde then turned to look a her fellow blonde bandmate. "And Dez, the wild flower of the band, it would be an awful shame if racy photos of you should be leaked to the press."
"Said photos don't exist." Desirée pointed out, unfazed by Alison's threats.
"They easily could." Alison countered, not caring if it took destroying her bandmate with fake photos to get her way. "Photoshop is a gift, my friend, and who would know the difference?"
Desirée was a wild child in the sense that she didn't have restrictions or cared about the right or wrong place to say or do something. She was more of a free spirit, really. However, she wasn't the type to snap naked shots of herself, and she'd hate if her fans thought so. So she sighed in defeat.
Alison turned to look at Spencer, but the smart girl stopped her before she said something. "You've got nothing on me, Alison. You can't scare me into obeying your wishes by threatening to expose my secrets. I won't play."
"I know." Alison said with a toxic smile playing on her lips. "But what about your Snow Angel's secrets? I'll tell the world about her drug abuse. Would you really let your best friend's name get dragged through the mud? I could take her down with a single blow."
Spencer met Blair's gaze, an apologetic look in the latter's hazel eyes (she always felt like such a screw up). Spencer knew she couldn't let Alison destroy Blair's reputation, and she was forced to throw the Liars under the bus.
"You win, Alison!"
Hanna, Emily, and Aria sat on the floor of their regular studio, lyric sheets scattered around the floor. Toby sat in his usual chair, ready to play a contending track if requested. Picking songs for an album was a long process, especially since three girls who didn't exactly see eye to eye had to agree on the entire tracklisting.
They could be there all day...
"So, obviously Almost Over, Two Lovers In Love, Taller, and Afraid are gonna be on the album, with them being our singles." Emily said, picking up the lyric sheets that belonged to the songs in question, and tossed them in the yes pile. Then she picked up another sheet, flipped it over so the girl could read the title. "Last Goodbye is mandatory since it's the album's title track, but either way it would have been a no brainer. It's one of the strongest songs we've recorded this year."
"Definitely!" Hanna agreed as she watched Emily place the lyrics in the approved pile. "I wish we'd recorded it earlier so it could've been a single, but then again, I don't know which one it would have replaced."
Aria remained quiet. Song picking day had never been her favorite, since it meant discarding a lot of songs that she'd worked very hard on. It wasn't easy when they were tossed to the side, but she knew that it was a necessary process. They had an album to finish.
"Remember, if there's a song you're on the fence about, I'm ready to play it." Toby reminded them, but they were so wrapped up in the task at hand that they merely gave him a thumbs up.
"We've got ten slots left to fill." Emily picked up another sheet, and showed it to her bandmates. "What about No Shame In Goodbye?"
Aria thought it over for a second before she responded. "Well, that would be two songs with the word Goodbye in the title. We don't want to seem repetitive. It's a good song, but maybe we should look over our other options first."
"But they are different types of goodbyes." Emily reasoned, not ready to give up on the song in her hand. "In No Shame In Goodbye, the girl is okay with the goodbye. In Last Goodbye, it broke her. They're the complete opposite of each other. I know we all have to agree, but I really believe in this song. Please consider it?"
Aria nodded in agreement. However, Hanna did not.
"I don't know. It's not as great lyrically as some of our other contenders. Frankly, it's a lightweight." The blonde picked up a different set of lyrics from the floor. "This one is really strong, though."
"Purple Face?" Emily read aloud, surprised since she was under the impression that Hanna hated that song.
"Didn't you ridicule the song the other day?" Aria recalled, certain that the blonde had had some comments on the song.
"I had my doubts." Hanna shrugged. "What can I say? It's grown on me, and the message is strong. No Shame In Goodbye is based on a generic topic that's been done to death."
"Wow, thank you. Why don't you spill some more sunshine on us?" Aria responded sarcastically, taking personal offense.
"A, sarcasm still doesn't suit you." Hanna counted each point she made on her fingers. "B, it's not about you. C, I know you wrote the song, but it's weak. That my honest opinion. And don't we want to make the best album possible?"
To provoke Hanna, Aria then smiled sarcastically. "I don't think Purple Face will work on the album. It doesn't fit."
"Which is exactly why it should be on the album!" Hanna insisted passionately, believing fully in the song. "It stands out. It's different from anything we've ever done. Even the title stands out, and it has a really powerful message to boot."
Aria shook her head defiantly. "Nope!"
"You're just saying no to annoy me, aren't you?" Hanna challenged, but her shorter bandmate merely shook her again and contradicted herself.
"Nope!"
"Yes, you are!"
"Nope!" Aria smirked, only to annoy the blonde. "Doesn't ring a bell. At all."
"Aria, stop it." Emily interrupted when Hanna looked to her pleadingly for help. This fighting had to stop. "You were practically the advocate for Purple Face the other day, and now that Hanna is on board you suddenly don't like it anymore? It's not only childish, and you're not just hurting Hanna – you're hurting me, too. So be honest from now on, and don't dismiss songs just to provoke Hanna. You should only do it if you honestly don't like a song."
Aria sighed in defeat. "Fine. Purple Face is in."
Hanna's face lit up when Emily gave it the thumbs up as well, and then she neatly placed the song in the yes pile.
"How about Please Buy It?" Aria asked the girls, picking up a sheet and showing it to them. "We've never had a song about cheating on either of our albums. And if we want a diverse album, shouldn't we?"
Hanna and Emily contemplated it for a minute, and then gave their approval. Another track for the album determined, eight left to go. It wasn't going to be easy.
The girls kept picking up sheets of paper, reading through the lyrics, and tossing them back on the floor when it didn't spark anything in them. Toby watching them intently, wondering if they'd be choosing some of his favorites for the album that they hadn't already considered.
"Hey, Tobes?" Emily broke the silence, showing Toby a lyric sheet. "Can we please hear the first verse and chorus of Take It Back?"
"Of course, Emily." Toby smiled, and quickly found the song amongst the contenders. He pushed play, and they all listened carefully to the melody and words of the track.
"Forget about what you saw
Forget about the tears I cried
I saw the look in your eyes
When you slammed the door
I keep believing in things that shouldn't be believed
And I'm not receiving what I should have received
You take it back
You take it back
You take it all back."
"Thank you, Toby." The girls said in unison, and then Emily took the word. "So what do we think?"
Hanna was about the reply when their manager, Grant, burst into the room. He looked rather displeased about something, and it could only be something urgent.
Aria groaned when she saw the distressed gleam in his eyes. "What did I do now?"
This briefly put a smile on Grant's face. "I don't know. Is there something you'd like to confess to?"
"Not without my lawyer present." Aria smirked. She loved the banter she had with their manager, and she was going to miss it when things were over.
The look from before returned to Grant's face, and the girls looked at him expectantly.
"I have to talk to you, girls." He started nervously, mentally preparing himself for their reaction. "You remember that Afraid is being released November 10th?"
Aria stared at him oddly. "We vaguely recall personally picking that release date, yes."
"And you remember that you and Bittersweet Destiny are signed to the same label?" Grant continued, sounding quite uncomfortable.
"Grant, we don't appreciate that kind of blasphemy in our apartment." Hanna said indignantly.
"We're at the label." Grant pointed out.
Hanna waved her hand dismissively. "Irrelevant!"
"What are you trying to say, Grant?" Emily cut in, trying to get the conversation back on track.
Their manager cleared his throat nervously. The tough part was indeed coming up. "As you may know, Bittersweet Destiny has a single coming out soon."
Aria huffed exasperatedly. "Monster (Eat Me), we're aware."
Grant sighed deeply, closing his eyes as he revealed the next part; "They're releasing it the same day as Afraid."
The girls' jaws dropped, and their reactions were delayed by the briefest of seconds, but then it came full throttle.
"How could you let that happen?" Aria exclaimed, jumping to her feet.
"We share the same label, surely our bosses wouldn't want us to go head to head in the charts?" Emily questioned, trying to make sense of the situation as she, too, stood up (though in a calmer manner than her friend).
"More importantly," Hanna interjected, standing as well. "Is slapping still a no no?"
Grant ignored Hanna's comment, and addressed the issue at hand. "When you told them to speak through their music at the Nova Music Awards, they took that as a challenge."
Aria let out a frustrated sigh. "What we meant was that they should focus on their music, like we do ours..."
"Instead of that incessant one-sided mudthrowing they continue to aim at us through the media." Emily finished, nodding her head in agreement.
"You just keep doing what you're doing by not responding." Grant informed them, internally proud that they'd never stooped to Alison DiLaurentis' level in the press and other places. They were doing great, and he believed they could come out on top in the battle. "The feud is in their heads, and when they attack you they put themselves in a bad light, and when you take the high road by not responding, the public will continue to prefer you over them."
He stared at them with that expectant fatherly look in his eyes, and Emily gave in with a sigh, identically followed by Aria soon after.
"Okay."
"Okay."
A silence fell upon the room which Hanna quickly broke with an, if she did say so herself, important question; "So where are we on the slapping?"
"No no." Grant responded, shaking his head.
Hanna sighed. "Okay."
"It's going to work itself out, girls." The manager tried to reassure them, and then he excused himself with a nod of his head, and as soon as the studio door closed behind him everything escalated.
The girls had responded with okay, but that was the furthest from what they were feeling at the moment. Hanna was pissed off, and attempted to contain her frustration. Emily was concerned, carrying an expression that could bear into a person's soul if you looked directly at it. Aria... had a vacant look in her eyes, staring blankly ahead.
"There is no way Alison misunderstood what we meant." Hanna exclaimed angrily, turning to Emily for support. "She threatened to destroy us, and this is just the beginning of her handy work!"
She waited for Emily to respond, but the taller girl remained quiet, her eyes fixed on the youngest member. Hanna didn't think anything of it at first, and continued ranting.
"She has a lot of nerve, picking the same release date as us, but then again... why should we expect anything less from the Bitch of All Evil? And Spencer Hastings? I thought you said that the two of you had become friends, and that she disagreed with how Alison was handling things, and now this? Spencer is a freakin' liar! She's probably Satan's right hand for all we know." She paused to catch her breath. "I'm so mad, it isn't even funny!"
"Being mad rarely is." Emily responded absentmindedly, her gaze was still completely focused on Aria.
Emily's distance finally registered with Hanna. It annoyed her. "Why are you ignoring me?"
"I'm not ignoring you." Emily defended, eyes still firmly on her younger friend. "I don't have to look at you to be listening."
Hanna crossed her arms and huffed indignantly. "It just seems like I'm the only one who cares about this. At all. I'm seriously pissed off right now, and I have half a mind to go and slap Alison across the face this instance, but all you care about, all you've ever cared about, is Aria – even when she's the one causing trouble with me. It's all about Aria. Screw me, screw the group, screw what Alison is doing to us right now!"
Emily finally met Hanna's eyes, her brown pools piercing with anger. "How dare you say that to me? Of course I care! I'm just as mad about this as you are, but this is neither the time nor place for hissy fits. Frankly, you're making things worse at the moment. Can we talk about it later?"
"Fine, I'm going home." Hanna shouted angrily, and stomped out of the studio, slamming the door behind her.
"Uh," Toby broke his silence, having witnessed the entire ordeal quietly. He seemed shaken by the incredible tension still left in the room. "So I'm assuming that we're picking the rest of the songs another day?"
Emily chuckled half-heartedly. "That would be a safe assumption." She sighed. "Look, Tobes, I'm sorry about all of this."
"It's okay, Emily. We all have our days, right?" He smiled kindly to let her know that there were no hard feelings, but then it faltered when he noticed Aria's demeanor. "Is she alright?"
"She's fine." Emily lied. She wanted nothing more than to reveal the truth, but she had made her friend a promise. A promise that tied her hands daily. A promise that forced her to be a liar. "I'll see you around, Tobes."
"See ya."
He left the studio, and now it was just Emily and Aria. Emily had seen the look in Aria's eyes a few times before. The first time had been when Emily discovered Aria's secret. It had been bad. It was always bad, especially since neither could ever really be certain when it would happen.
"Aria. It's okay. You're okay." Emily tried to console her friend. However, she wasn't given a reaction. She carefully placed her hands on the shorter girl's arms, forcing Aria to look up at her. Their eyes met, and Aria's were no longer vacant. They were sad, almost tortured, which meant that it had gone a step further. "You're okay."
"I'm..." Aria struggled to speak, to get the right words out of her mouth. Her breathing was slowly becoming irregular, every time she tried to inhale or exhale she lost more and more control. Often times, Emily had to remind her, almost force her, to breathe.
"Breathe, Aria, breathe." Emily reminded her, and Aria struggled to take in a short, ragged breath, and held it in before it came out even more broken. Emily never broke the physical contact between them, she knew it was the only chance to keep Aria's focus. "Say something, please?"
"I need..." Two words. Progress. But still, tears surfaced in Aria's eyes. "I need to... to... get... out... of here."
Aria managed to get out of her protective bandmate's grip, and then she bolted as fast as she could in the given situation.
"Aria!" Emily shouted after her, concerned. She chased after Aria into the halls of Paragon. She needed to help her friend. She saw Aria stumbling down the hall, and of course there had to be an audience; Ezra Fitz, Tascha Coleman, and Spencer Hastings. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Spencer approaching, but her focus was on Aria. "Aria? Aria!?"
Emily ran after her friend, reaching her at the exact same time as Ezra. Emily wasn't sure she liked this Ezra person, which was probably due to the fact that she had no idea what his intentions with Aria were.
"Have you finished selecting songs for your album?" He questioned, but received no reply. Aria wasn't looking at him so he couldn't see the expression in her eyes. He couldn't tell that something was wrong. "Are you ready to talk about our song?" Still no reply. This irked him a little. "Are you mad at me, Aria?"
Emily rolled her eyes, deciding then that she wasn't a fan of this guy. "She can't hear you." Ezra looked at her sceptically, and she knew she had to find another believable lie. "Too much bass. Should be fine tomorrow."
What. A. Stupid. Lie! She wasn't sure if Ezra believed it either.
"Well, I'll see you around, I guess." He shrugged, and when he went to pat Aria on the shoulder she looked at him, and he could instantly tell that she wasn't okay, but before he could say another word she stumbled away.
"She's just a little rattled today." Emily offered as an excuse, and he looked at her suspiciously for a minute before retreating into his studio. Emily was about to chase after Aria again, but Spencer caught up to her. "I don't have time now, Spencer."
Spencer seemed taken aback by the hostility in Emily's words. "I just came to apologise. What's the matter?"
"Apologise?" Emily scoffed. "You got anymore left? Well, save it. I told you I don't have time for this. Aria needs me."
"Why are you like this? What happened to understanding?" Spencer wanted to know, hiding the hurt from her features. "What happened to us being friends?"
"Yeah, what happened to that?" Emily challenged, stepping closer to Spencer. Had she been any other person, the action might have been threatening. "What happened to keeping Alison in check? Was it just lies?"
"N-no..." Spencer stuttered. She'd never seen Emily angry before.
"Or were you playing us?" Emily continued to question, making no attempts to hide how upset she was. "I'm betting you and Alison are all buddy buddy, and she elected you to deceive us, to get close to us, so she could gather all the information she'd need to take us down. Is that it, huh? Were you just an undercover bitch, sent to destroy us?"
"NO!" Spencer yelled when the initial shock of Emily's current attitude had subsided, and she had decided to defend herself from those accusations. "Of course not. I would never do that to you!"
"Really?" Emily shouted in disbelief. "Then why do you guys suddenly have the same release date as us? Why is Hanna pissed? Why is Aria a mess? Why are we arguing right now then? You agreed with me, so why are things like this?"
"I need you to understand!" Spencer tried to get through to Emily, but the Liar didn't seem to want to listen properly. "I couldn't stand up to Alison this time. I didn't want this, any of this. She threatened my best friend. I had no choice."
Emily snorted in an irritated manner. "Well, if you have to throw other people under the bus to protect said friend, then you were never mine."
"Emily..." Before Spencer could say more than that, Emily had spun around and begun to walk away. Spencer called out to her; "I'm really sorry about this, Emily. I tried to stop her, I really did. I'm so, so sorry!"
"I don't care." Emily shouted, refusing to turn around to face Spencer. She'd already wasted too much time on her when she had a friend in need. "I have to find Aria!"
And then she left, like her bandmates had earlier, leaving Spencer stunned and upset by what had just happened.
Hanna had called Caleb immediately after she'd left Paragon Records. She needed to vent, and thankfully he had some free time on his hand, and had rushed right over. He'd listened patiently while she'd ranted for the last fifteen minutes. She was that angry, and she needed to release the steam.
She was pacing back and forth in the living room area of the apartment. Caleb sat on the sofa, watching and listening.
She stopped and faced him, an intense look in her eyes.
"I just want to slap that bitch really hard!" She exclaimed as she took a step closer to him, continuing her rant. "Or just be nearby when she gets slapped by someone. I have a feeling that happens a lot, and I think that hearing a hand make impact on her face would be extremely satisfying for me." She groaned loudly in annoyance. "I can't believe that bitch stole our release date!"
Caleb had listened to her for the past fifteen minutes, and finally decided to pipe in; "Don't you think that you're overreacting?"
Which was the wrong thing to say, he realised that right away. Hanna glared at him, and if looks could kill...
"You're taking Alison's side?"
"Not at all," Caleb assured her, standing up in the process. "But they are a quintet!"
Hanna's anger subsided, and was replaced by a confused frown. "What's the symphony got to do with anything?"
"Quintet, Hanna." Caleb corrected with a chuckle. "Not string quartet."
"Big diff." Hanna waved her hand dismissively, and refound her anger. "I still want to slap the bitch!"
"Fair enough." Caleb shrugged. "As long as you keep in mind that she has four bandmates."
Hanna scoffed while suppressing an eye roll at Caleb's naivety. "Who all aren't the spawns of Satan, unlike the Bitch of All Evil."
"I'm sensing a strong sense of dislike here." Caleb acknowledged, failing to hide his amusement which annoyed Hanna.
"You're not being funny." Hanna exclaimed, determined to make Caleb understand. "She's been trying to destroy our careers ever since we arrived at the scene. She's even threatened to take us down one by one."
"Come here, Hanna." Caleb outstretched his arms, and Hanna did as she was told, and stepped into his open arms. He wrapped them around her, giving her a comforting hug. "Alison did this because she's scared of you. She's desperate, and desperate people do desperate things. Besides, their music isn't even all that."
Hanna gazed curiously into his eyes. "How would you know?"
"Grey, the guy who plays Seth in the Apocalypse franchise, is a surprisingly big Bittersweet Destiny fan." Caleb responded with a shrug, and that caused Hanna to giggle.
Didn't Caleb have to do more to cheer her up? Apparently not. And what reason did Hanna have to worry? Pretty Little Liars were better than Bittersweet Destiny, right? They should be able to beat them in the charts, at least Hanna hoped so.
Caleb kissed the top of her head, and released her from his grasp. She was just about to propose that they should go to the tropical resort with a great view, but she was interrupted by Hurricane Aria, quickly followed by Emily.
It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Aria wasn't alright, and although Hanna and Aria never got along, the blonde became worried at the sight of her stumbling into the living room with a pained expression etched on her face.
"Aria, I can't help you if you don't let me." Emily came into sight as well, her only focus was Aria because she was worried too. She placed her hands on Aria's shoulders, forcing the shorter girl to hear her. She knew Aria hadn't been able to before. "Please, talk to me. Aria?"
Aria's lips quivered, she had tortured look in her eyes, and her breathing was ragged. Emily knew that she struggled to respond. "I'm..."
"Breathe, Aria." Emily reminded her. "Breathe. Like this."
Emily took in a deep breath and released it. Took in a deep breath and released it. Over, and over, and over again until Aria could mimick her. Or at least try.
"I'm... So... Sorry." Aria cried in between breaths. She felt dizzy, and her vision was blurry. "I need... Sit."
Emily led Aria to the sofa, and helped her get seated. She looked pleadingly at Hanna and Caleb. "Can one of you please get a bottle of water?"
Caleb hurried into the kitchen, and grabbed a water bottle from the fridge. He handed the bottle to Emily when he returned, and she made Aria drink a big gulp immediately, but it didn't seem to help much.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." Aria kept repeating those words over and over again, and Emily knew they had two different meanings. One was related to their profession, and the other was related to Aria personally. "It's... All... My... Fault... I'm sorry."
"What's she apologising for?" Hanna enquired, feeling rather confused by the situation.
Emily sighed. This one was going to be difficult to explain. "She thinks she's to blame for Alison's stunt because she wrote Afraid. She thinks that if we lose to Bittersweet Destiny, it'll be her fault because she writes our songs. She's apologising for letting us down, even though she hasn't."
"That's ridiculous!" Hanna exclaimed, making exasperated gestures with her arms. This whole thing was infuriating, but everyone seemed to veto her every time she proposed physical violence. Making Aria feel that way, though the two never got along, was crossing a major line. "Aria, this isn't your fault. Afraid is an amazing song. You won't let us down."
But Aria said nothing in response. Hanna's face fell. Emily noticed, and decided to do some damage control. No need to let the wedge between her bandmates get bigger because they were in a delicate situation at the moment. She had to be able to do that without breaking her promise to Aria.
"She can't hear you." Emily simply said, making the youngest Liar take another sip of water, mostly to make her stop mouthing the words 'I'm sorry'. Emily placed her gentle hand on her shoulder to make her listen. "Hanna says you have nothing to apologise for. Afraid is amazing."
But all they heard were ragged breaths, and "I'm sorry" as Aria kept looking at the ground, but in between Emily could have sworn she heard a thank you.
Aria's head snapped up suddenly, and she stared into Emily's eyes with a tortured expression in her own. The tears were travelling uncontrollably down her cheeks. She had been in this situation many times throughout her life, and she knew that if she didn't lay down or if some drastic miracle didn't happen soon, she'd pass out. It had happened before. She couldn't get control over her breathing, and it had been a while now.
"Room." She whispered as she stood up carefully from the sofa. Emily set down the water bottle, and quickly grabbed a hold of Aria to guide her to the youngest's bedroom.
When they reached the door, Emily threw a brief glance over her shoulder. She knew Hanna had to be confused, and she knew that the secrecy between Aria and herself had to make the blonde feel left out. Yet again. Hopefully Caleb would be able to comfort Hanna because right now Emily couldn't leave Aria.
They entered the petite Liar's room, closing the door behind them. Aria stumbled towards the bed, but Emily grabbed a hold of her arm. The taller Liar had thought they had gone in there for some privacy, not so Aria could give up and go to bed.
"No. You do not get to do that." Emily spoke firmly, trying to prevent her concern from getting the upper hand which she knew would only make things worse for her friend. "You can get past it. You've done it before. Just sit down and take deep breaths."
Aria had been gone for several days before, just laying in bed – unable to get up. Emily knew that there was a risk of that if Aria wasn't able to fight through it... Then she saw the pained expression in her friend's eyes, and she had to let her go. But there was no way Emily would let her stay gone for days.
"Fine," Emily sighed, and released Aria from her grasp. Aria immediately went into bed, and pulled up the covers until it felt like she was hidden in a cocoon. It hurt Emily more than anything to see her bandmate like that. "I'm yanking you out of bed first thing in the morning, though. I won't let you do this to yourself for God knows how long."
But Aria was already gone.
So that was the end of chapter 4, and the quote was obviously by Hanna. So what do we think of the chapter? I hope it was worth the wait. Random confession here; I don't know why, since they're somewhat minor characters, but I sort of ship Desirée and Tascha together after this chapter. Tell me if I'm the only one?
I also have an update about my hand. It does indeed have something to do with nerves. A nerve has gotten stuck, but the doctor says that there isn't much they can do. This particular nerve is stuck in the elbow, and it's messing up my hand. The doctor said that if it had been in the wrist, they could operate and easily fix the damage, but since the nerve is stuck in the elbow it is a more difficult task, and could ultimately do more harm than good. The chances of getting the right nerve would be slim. So I'm hoping with time, the condition will resolve on its own.
Anyway, next chapter will be called 'We Should Throw Holy Water'. Who will say it? Well, thanks so much for reading this chapter. Let me know what you think?
Laters,
AK-tutti :)
