Sorry, It's late, but my laptops almost completely broken. Hope you guys enjoy it, hopefully the next chapter will be up soon!
Aria POV
Some people say that ignorance is bliss. I used to agree with them; but now I've come to realize that there's little truth in it…barely any actually. Because, when you live constantly in denial and pretend not to care, the truth still catches up to you eventually and hurts you harder than ever…wiping the fake smile clean off your face and laughing at your misery.
We stood and held each other for as long as we could, forgetting the world momentarily. It was good to let go, to lose ourselves, to forget about school, college and A. about Emily's injuries and everything we were struggling with. Our reality caught up to us very severely in that moment, as if punishing us for being happy. Knock knock. The repeated sound that brought us crashing back down to earth. I turned to the others and cocked my head to the side in question as I opened the door. No-one. The hall was entirely empty, as was the stairway, whoever it was had vanished. I looked around and spotted an envelope laying on the floor, it was plain white save the black, printed label 'BITCHES'. I shivered ever so slightly as I picked it up and showed the others, Spencer nodded at me and I opened it. Inside were two things, I pulled the slip of paper out and read it aloud,
'Nowhere is safe- A' was typed on the card which I passed to Spencer as I reached for the other thing. I made my blood run cold. Enclosed in the envelope with the message was a Polaroid shot of the four of us. A Polaroid of us three seconds before; hugging and smiling in Emily's hospital room. Alongside the picture as a drawing done in black marker pen; it was a picture of a girl with curly hair, drawn as a stick person, the sort of thing a three year old draws when they're just learning what people actually look like. The girl was smiling and holding a knife. On the back A had written 'Remember me?' as if it were a question, with the way A stalked us we were hardly likely to forget.
Spencer POV
What exactly does it mean to be best friends? Is a best friend the person who you share your most private thoughts with, your deepest and darkest secrets, or maybe just a simple inside joke? Maybe a best friend is someone you can count on no matter what happens- wherever and whenever.
We sat on my bed that night in total silence, the picture had messed with all of us, especially Emily. She lay in my arms shaking, flinching whenever I moved away. We'd tried letting go, playing games and drinking, but no one felt right doing that.
"Alright, I don't know about anyone else, but I for one am sick of A controlling us like this. Honestly, it's pathetic. I say, we put this bitch to the back of our minds for tonight and we actually try to have some fun." Hanna stated confidently, I nodded and squeezed Emily's shoulder and she nodded too, Aria smiled,
"Okay, Hanna, truth or dare?" Aria asked, playing along with Hanna's charade of normality,
"Dare," she responded predictably, Aria thought for a second before a smirk played on her face,
"Flash," she laughed, Hanna raised her eyebrows,
"at you guys?" she asked, "That seems kinda pervy," Aria laughed again,
"No, out the window Hanna," she said, grabbing Hanna's shoulders and steering her toward the window, she didn't argue, but meekly opened the curtains and flashed before turning around and sitting down on the bed.
"Alright, Aria, truth or dare?" she asked, Aria pressed her lips into a thin line, not wishing to be subjected to one of Hanna's dares as they usually involved experimenting with lesbianism or nudity.
"Truth," Hanna smiled and responded immediately,
"Are you still a virgin?" she asked, "Cause you keep that aspect of your life very, very quiet." Aria blushed and looked down,
"Half?" she whispered, "Well, we've pretty much done everything but, you know it's never you know…" she trailed off,
"It's never quite gone the whole way in?" Hanna finished matter of factly. Aria blushed again in response, and the attention turned to Emily,
"Em, truth or dare?" she asked gently, Em smiled,
"Dare." I raised my eyebrows in shock but Em sat up, stronger now and seemingly excited,
"Kiss Spencer?" Hanna asked teasingly but tentative at the same time, I was pleased that she was being so gentle with Emily, I looked Emily straight in her beautiful brown eyes, and this would be our first kiss, well, when she was conscious. She leaned in slowly and I pressed my finger to her lips,
"Em, if you don't want to, if you're not ready we don't have to," I whispered breathlessly, but she shook her head, moving me finger and lacing her hand through mine, I gently cupped the back of her head as she titled it to the left and our lips met in the embrace of my life. Some people say when they kiss their true love they see fireworks. I saw lightening. Hot, intense, life changing beautiful lightening. The sparks of a new beginning. When we broke apart, all I wanted was to do it again. To press my lips to hers and to never, never ever break apart. I knew in that moment that it was Emily- 'the one', my soul mate, the girl of my dreams, my everything.
"Wow…" Aria whispered, I wrapped my arms around Emily and pulled her close to me, she settled with her head on my chest and almost instantly fell asleep, a deep, happy sleep. Soon after that, Hanna passed out too, lying flat across the bed in between myself and Aria, she looked at me and smiled.
"So, how long have you felt like this about her?" she asked sweetly, I looked down at Emily where she was lying in my arms and gently brushed a stand of her perfect hair from her beautiful face.
"A while now, I guess, I mean, I've always felt stronger emotion towards her. I mean, I love you, and I'd never want to see you hurt. But with her? I's like, a burning desire to destroy anyone who causes her to shed a tear, and when she lets me hold her it makes me want to cry. Every time she touches me, my skin burns at the connection. The passion, the fear, the longing and desire, everything's just so much stronger with Emily. All the colors are brighter, clichés are truer, every song has a meaning and every minute of my life just seems to be better because I know I have her. It's like living in high definition, everything's just richer and better. With Emily, I know that I don't have to be perfect. That if I don't get into an Ivy League school or get a great job, I'll be happy, just knowing that I can come home at the end of the day and hold her in my arms. That's enough to get me through everything. She's the one I want to spend the rest of my life with." I hadn't realized until now that I was crying, but happy tears.
"Wow…that soliloquy was just beautiful, it just-oh God," Aria was interrupted by a beep coming from her phone. Followed by mine. Then by Hanna's and finally, Emily's. Emily rubbed her eyes slowly she woke up and Aria dug Hanna hard in the back a simultaneous message always made trouble.
Sharing secrets still? Ooh…let me play! You have ten minutes to tell each other your deepest, darkest secret or I will. Don't play dumb, I know everything –A
Hanna POV
"This is stupid right?" I asked the girls, looking blankly around at the three of them, "We tell each other everything right? We know everything?" Aria nodded slowly but then stopped,
"Do we? I mean, how do we know that we know everything about each other?" she asked, sometimes it's really hard to figure out what Aria's point is, but I think I got it,
"Are you accusing us of lying to each other?" I questioned her incredulously, "What is your problem?" she just shook her head,
"No, no not like that, not like that at all, what I mean is, we were separated for a whole year right? And even before that, we were never as close to each other as we all were to Ali, except for you Spence, so what is there to show that maybe, just maybe, there are some pretty big secrets that we haven't necessarily meant to keep secret, but that we just never got to tell each other?" Spencer's eyes widened,
"I get it, oh my gosh, Aria, that's genius!" Spencer exclaimed, I swapped a smile with Emily and she cuddled closer to Spencer, "So, does anyone have anything?" she asked expectantly, I took a deep breath,
"I don't know if It counts, but Ali started my bulimia. I thought it was her being nice, but then, one night I realized it was killing me, and I called her on it. We argued. We screamed and it got physical. She slapped me, so I hit her back, she slipped and fell. I felt back, but when I helped her up, I tried to apologize, but she pushed me against the wall and…"I took my shirt off and turned around, showing the girls a long, thin scar on my back, reaching from my right shoulder blade to my bra strap. "She said she wanted me to remember never to disobey her again. I swore I would never speak to her again as long as I lived. The next day, she went away, to her Grandma's or to be with Ian or wherever she actually was, and the day she got back…she disappeared. I never told anyone this. I thought that would just prove some sort of motive to the police but…I don't know, in some sick way, making myself sick was like being close to her," I felt hot tears running down my face and Aria's hand in mine.
"My turn." Emily whispered. She looked apprehensively at the scars on her wrists, "It wasn't the first time. "Since I came out, it's been something I've been leaning on. When things got hard, when my mom didn't accept me, it was what I did to help myself, it just made me feel like I could control something, when I couldn't control anything else." Spencer was crying now, she kissed Emily's hair soft, curly hair and held her, "And I don't know how I can stop this, I can't I just feel so, so incredibly weak and I can't stop it…" she curled herself into Spencer's chest and started to sob, painfully.
"It's okay Em, I'm not going to tell you that you have to stop this immediately, all I'm going to say is that I'm here for you, and I'll support you. I just want you to know how much I love you."
"You don't hate me? You're not disappointed in me?" she asked gently,
"No baby, I'm not mad, and I could never hate you," she kissed Emily's hair again as Aria prepared for her turn.
"I really don't know what to say to be honest, I don't know what a secret in my life is. The Jenna thing? You guys know that, things that happened in Iceland, well, I don't know how much you know about that, but, if we're being completely honest, none of that is important to me anymore. I don't care about that, or anything. So, if you guys want to know anything, then go ahead, ask away, but I don't know what to tell you." She said, articulate as ever.
"I have one," I stated, turning towards her, "Sex." She raised her eyebrows, "I just know like, nothing about your sex life, you either Spence, but Aria, are you a virgin?" she rolled her eyes and smiled at me,
"You don't know anything cause you guys don't ask, but I think A is more important to talk about than my sex life. But sadly, yes, yes I am." She sighed theatrically, we were shocked, I think we all assumed that at some point, either in Iceland or with Ezra, Aria would have, well…
"Nope, sorry to disappoint Hanna," she chuckled. The tension in the atmosphere lessened for a moment and the dark swirling emotion was drowned out by harmonious laughter.
"This isn't a secret, but it is something that I need to say." Spencer declared in her usual fashion, "In case you hadn't noticed, Emily and I are well…we're not labeling it. We're best friends, we're girlfriends, we're closer than anyone on the planet and I love her very very much. I'm in love with her. Truly, madly, deeply, in love with her. I want you guys to know that. I want everyone to know that. I want the world to know how I feel about her and I want the world to understand that, if the want to hurt her, and only God knows why anyone would, it'll be over my dead body. Because I will stop at nothing to protect her. She's mine now, she's mine." She rambled breathlessly, the mark of somebody well and truly lost in love. She looked down in to Emily's eyes, her own wet with emotion and whispered, "You're mine." As she sweetly kissed her on the forehead. I exchanged a look with Aria and we grinned at their cuteness.
Aria POV
"Hey, Spence, when did you open the window?" I asked curiously, feeling the draft against my back and looking round to see the drapes fluttering in the light breeze, she looked at me quizzically,
"I didn't, I've been sat here all night. Remember, I've had Emily in my arms all night?" she asked sarcastically, she tried to sound patronizing and demeaning but she couldn't say Emily's name without smiling. Reluctantly she lifted Emily off of her and crossed to the window with me. Emily and Hanna followed and I saw Emily snake an arm around her waist as she peered out. Suddenly a flash of light exploded in the darkness, illuminating the danger and I could tell we'd all just experienced the exact same flashback. The Jenna thing. When I looked round I saw that Spencer had stepped clear in front of Emily to protect her whilst Hanna was crying on the floor.
"Hey, Han, what's wrong?" I asked gently, kneeling next to my best friend, she held up a shaking hand clutching a note.
"This, this was on the window ledge, I-I grabbed it as the explosion went off." She murmured, I took the note gently and realized why she was crying.
Déjà vu, huh bitches? Wondering who your victim is? Think about last time, you'll know. This won't be a secret though, you will get caught. I warned you. A
Thanks for reading, next update after ten reviews :) let me know if you have any ideas you would like to see in this story xx
