As Paige and Hanna contemplate their feelings for each other, some very upsetting news comes out of the police investigation.
A/N: This chapter is a little darker than previous ones. And seriously, if you're an Ezria shipper, please for the love of Mona don't read this.
Hanna knew her mom could tell. She tried to avoid eye contact as she ate her cereal. Any look would just give things away.
After all, she had been gushing over Paige the last few days, telling her mom what a great friend Paige was, how excited Hanna was to see her, what great arms she had… Oh God, she may as well have just told her mom she wanted to get into Paige's pants.
How had she been so unaware? She was falling for Paige and hadn't even noticed. Instead she'd made a goose of herself.
"Hanna, I know you have an aversion to mornings, but usually I get at least one word out of you," Ashley observed.
"I just had a weird dream last night," Hanna responded.
"Not the one with the giant rabbit again?" Ashley asked.
"No," Hanna replied.
Hanna kept eating. She loved cocoa puffs.
"You still haven't told me what happened at school yesterday," Ashley pointed out.
"Nope," Hanna agreed.
"It was all over the news," Ashley said, sounding worried. "I mean, you knew him, he's been to this house. Did your friends think you had said something…"
"They're not my friends anymore," Hanna cut in, abruptly.
"Did they say anything?" Ashley asked. "Do anything?"
"Look, it doesn't matter," Hanna replied. "They hate me anyway."
The whole thing was so annoying. Why did they have to talk about it?
"Hanna, I'm sorry this is tough on you, but you did the right thing," Ashley said in a lame attempt to console Hanna. "You know you can talk to me, don't you?"
"Yeah," Hanna replied. She knew her mom was trying, in a mom sort of way. How could parents get it, though? They're so old.
"So why don't you?" Ashley asked.
Hanna rolled her eyes. Because she was eating her breakfast, that's why.
She put the spoon down.
"They think I told them about Aria and Ezra," Hanna explained.
"Ezra?" Ashley responded. She looked confused. "You mean Mr Fitz? What about Aria and Mr Fitz?"
Oh shit.
"They were…" Hanna began. A look of shock was taking over her mother's face. "You know."
"Mr Fitz was involved with one of his students?" Ashley asked.
She was freaking out. Shit.
"Yeah, but Aria was totally into it," Hanna explained, trying to calm her down.
"She was still his student, though," Ashley exclaimed.
This wasn't going well.
"But she wanted to…" Hanna began.
"She was still his student," Ashley interrupted. "I'm glad they arrested him. I hope they lock him up."
Hanna couldn't work out why her mom was losing it. Hanna was kind of used to it, but her mom probably needed some time. Ezra was OK, though. The thing with the cameras was kind of weird, and it was a bit annoying that Aria was always disappearing into his apartment, and maybe all that having to lie for them was a pain, but Aria loved him. You do stuff like that when you love someone.
Ashley was composing herself. Hanna knew the routine. She would look in another direction, change her face for a moment, then look back, pretending she was OK now.
"OK, now I understand," Ashley said. Hanna knew better. If she really understood she wouldn't have that look on her face. "If the others say anything, if Aria says anything, tell them it wasn't you, but that it's a good thing the police found out."
"Sure, Mom, that'll work," Hanna scoffed.
"Maybe not," Ashley agreed. "OK then, I guess you'll just have to wait it out."
"That's the plan," Hanna confirmed.
"Let me know if there's anything I can do," Ashley suggested.
"OK," Hanna agreed.
"And if you want to invite Paige around again, she's welcome anytime," Ashley added.
She knew.
As she rode her bike to school, Paige's mind kept going back to Hanna. So many other things were going on, things she should be focusing on, but she couldn't help it. It was always Hanna.
Maybe Caitlin was right. Maybe Hanna did, well, possibly… No, it was just wishful thinking. Hanna and Paige were friends. They had been through a lot together, and had become close. They cared about each other. But that was all it was, at least from Hanna's side. Paige knew Hanna didn't have feelings for her, not like that.
But Paige had to admit she was falling for Hanna. How could she not? Hanna was beautiful. She had a positive energy about her. She was thoughtful and caring. And there was that smile. Paige's heart raced when she saw that smile. It was like looking at actual happiness, as if it could be manifest in a radiant face, with shining eyes and dazzling teeth.
All Paige could do now was keep her feelings to herself. Telling Hanna anything would just ruin their friendship, and Paige knew they both needed that now. Paige had to be there for Hanna, not make her feel uncomfortable. Paige just had to hide what was going on inside of her.
Who was she kidding?
Did she really want to spend every day wondering whether she was passing up the opportunity to find love again? This was a chance to move on after losing the girl she thought she would love forever. Could she really not take it?
If she said nothing she would see Hanna almost every day, and go to bed at night pining for her. She would be miserable. And she would never know if it could have turned out different.
Paige arrived and dismounted, chaining her bike to the bike racks.
She took a deep breath.
She would be seeing Hanna in Spanish. Then they would go for lunch. And she would talk to Hanna then, talk about how she felt. She had no idea what she would say, but she would say something.
And then she would know.
Paige could tell something was different. Usually she had to go out of her way to avoid Emily and her friends, but today they were nowhere to be seen. Emily wasn't in Biology, Spencer wasn't in Math. Paige even walked through the courtyard between classes to see if they were at their usual table, but there was no sign of anyone.
And then came time for Spanish.
No Hanna.
It took a moment for Paige to realize that she felt relieved. She wouldn't have to tell Hanna anything, because Hanna wasn't there. It was just a normal, uneventful, day at school.
There was still a buzz in the corridors about Fitz, with rumors flying around about why he'd been arrested. He'd been dating a student, everyone knew that. But who? Maybe there was more than one? Had he made a video with her? Someone had told someone that the police had found a video of Fitz, his girlfriend, and two of her friends. Someone else had heard it was three.
Paige just ignored it all.
She texted Hanna, but got no response, so she ate lunch alone then went to class.
Hanna was on her way to Spanish class. She was nervous because Paige would be there. She wondered if she should go to the toilet again, but she knew this was just what always happened when she was nervous. She felt like she needed to pee, but if she did it would all happen again five minutes later.
There was no need to worry, anyway. It was just another class, and there was no way Paige would know that Hanna had been dreaming about her lest night, dreaming about kissing her, dreaming about…
Focus, Hanna Marin.
She would just sit next to Paige, as they always did these days, and talk about stuff, and Paige would remind her that class was on, and the teacher would glare at her, and it would be fine. Maybe Paige would be wearing one of those sleeveless tops she sometimes wore, showing off her arms. Those guns of hers, like, damn.
Hanna froze.
What if Paige did know? Like, she was gay, so she must have a gaydar. She could probably hear Hanna having gay thoughts. How did they do that, anyway? Hanna was new to all this. Maybe she should ask. No, that would be such a giveaway. She just had to not think about Paige's face, or her hot body, or her…
Hanna's phone blooped. That's what Hanna called it, the notification noise. It was, it was a bloop.
It was an SOS from Spencer. Someone had obviously got back into old habits.
She dialed.
"You sent the text to the wrong number," she said as soon as Spencer picked up. "I'm not part of the gang anymore."
"No, it's for you too," Spencer replied. "You need to come over."
That was weird.
When Hanna arrived Spencer and Emily were there. They kept looking between each other, and Emily seemed to have been crying. Hanna felt so out of place here, even though it wasn't that long ago that she was part of all this. So here she was back in Spencer's kitchen and she had no idea why.
Where was Aria? And Alison?
"Thanks for coming," Spencer said.
Hanna was relieved that they didn't seem to want to kill her, which was an improvement.
"What's going on?" Hanna asked. "It must be something bad if you've brought me here."
Spence nodded.
"It is," she confirmed.
Spencer could hardly speak. The old Spencer would be ordering them all around by now, but this Spencer just looked… broken.
"Well?" Hanna asked.
"I've just been with Aria at the police station," Spencer began. "It's OK, we know it wasn't you who tipped them off about Ezra now."
"I told you," Hanna pointed out.
"I know," Spencer said.
"We're sorry," Emily added.
She'd definitely been crying. Being proved right wasn't nearly as much fun as Hanna had hoped for.
"We're guess it was the Principal," Spencer explained. "The cops can't really tell us."
"So is that what he got arrested for?" Hanna asked.
"Not quite," Spencer replied. "Because Aria's not testifying they need to build a case. But they searched his apartment, then the shed where he stored his equipment, and they found some of his surveillance footage."
"Is that illegal?" Hanna asked. "I mean, it was just for safety, wasn't it?"
Spencer and Emily looked at each other again. Every time they did that Hanna just got more edgy.
"Tell me what's going on," Hanna demanded.
"There was more of it than we knew about," Emily said.
"It wasn't just trying to find A, like he claimed," Spencer added. "This morning the police were searching Aria's house."
Spencer stopped again. This was infuriating.
"Why were they searching there?" Hanna asked.
She could see Spencer swallow before answering.
"They found a camera in her room," Spencer eventually responded. "Somehow he'd hidden it in there. That's where he got some of his footage."
"What?" Hanna said. She couldn't think of anything else. She could barely think of anything.
"He's being charged with a lot of things," Spencer continued. "The cameras were illegal by themselves, but they need to determine Aria's age in the earlier footage."
Hanna was in a daze. She walked over to the couch and fell down on it like she'd just been dropped.
Ezra? He'd seemed so… he was just Ezra. He was their English teacher. He'd helped them out when they needed it. He was almost part of the gang.
"Do you need anything?" Emily asked.
"A bucket," Hanna replied.
"I know this is hard to take," Spencer said. "We only found out today too. But there's something else…"
"What?" Hanna snapped. She could feel the word coming out of her, hear it in the air. She didn't want to be angry, but she was. Her entire body was tense. If Ezra had been there in front of her she would have punched him, but he wasn't, there was only Spencer and Emily.
"It wasn't just footage of Aria," Spencer explained. "At the moment the police are over at Emily's looking for cameras. Then they'll come around here. Then…"
It was all of them. That fucking bastard.
Emily sat down next to Hanna and put her arms around her friend. Hanna responded in kind, though she was shaking now, and it was hard to hug, however much she wanted to.
"I'm sorry," Emily whispered, and the two of them cried together.
