A/N I probably won't update again this week . I am finalizing a presentation for an undergraduate research symposium.
Paige dropped Hanna off at her house and proceeded to her own. She desperately needed a hot shower and sleep. She ran into the house and went right for the bathroom. She let the water warm up and inspected herself in the mirror. As she peeled each layer of wet clothing off, she could see more and more of her recent battle scars. Her arm was healing nicely but the extended period of water exposure made it look fiery red. She turned to the side and traced the outline of a bruise that went from her rib cage to her shoulder. She assumed that was from throwing so many people over her shoulder recently. She extended her right leg out and wiped the dirt off that was covering a fresh mark from gripping the saddle to hard when the horse bucked. The last thing she examined was her face. She put her hands over her neck and cheeks and tried to spread out her skin to see any damage. Overall, there weren't any cuts or bruises but there was definite wear and tear. The bags under her eyes were worse than ever before and her skin had a pale dryness to it from inattentiveness. She stepped into the shower and let the hot water wash away all the physical and emotional dirt she had been building up. She didn't even want to begin the process of washing her hair. Fifteen minutes passed and the water was beginning to turn, forcing her to do something.
Across town, Hanna was finishing the same battle. She sat on her bed, with her hair half hazardly thrown into a wet bun, starring at her phone. She had multiple calls from Caleb that she was ignoring but that wasn't why she was transfixed with her phone. She hadn't a single message from any of the girls since she left Emily that morning. She couldn't remember the last time she had gone a whole day without a message about A or Ali. What was more worrisome was that they had pursued a lead without even telling her about it. She desperately wanted to send out an SOS or something but deep down she knew she probably didn't want to know the reason they were avoiding her. Recently, she had been off her game and she might have been a little loose with alcohol but they had never cut her off completely. After a silent war with herself, she threw the phone from her bed and curled up for sleep.
The next day, Hanna got to school early and waited by Paige's swim locker. She knew the girl would probably do an extra work out in the morning to make up for the last week. She was right and Paige came walking thirty minutes before eight, soaking wet. She was slightly startled by Hanna's presence but she didn't send her away.
"Good morning." She greeted. She rang her hair out over one of the drains and put her towel down as she got her bag out of her locker. When she did this, she revealed the scores of bruises and cuts that traced over her body.
"Holy shit, Paige! You look like you got in a fight with a ninja." Paige looked away self-consciously.
"Nope, just your average week in Rosewood; I cut my arm saving a girl I hate that my ex-girlfriend now has chosen over me. I bruised my ribs and back saving a clutz from a fire and my legs look like they were beaten because a horse almost threw me off it's back. All in all, I would say it's been a pretty easy week." She grabbed her clothes and went around the other side to change. Hanna continued to talk though.
"I think the girls are avoiding me." She admitted.
"Why would they be doing that? You guys are basically glued to the hip." Paige was struggling to get out of her suit with her muscles aching.
"I had no idea Spencer and Emily were going to be there yesterday. None of them told me anything. And on top of that, you said Spencer was really hurt. They didn't even call me to tell me about that." She threw her bag down on the bench and sat down next to it frustrated. Paige had finally gotten her suit off and was attempting to get dressed as quickly as possible.
"You are over thinking this. They are going to come in today and tell you all about it." She was balancing on one foot trying to put her leg through the pants hole. It was hard keeping up a conversation and trying to get dressed.
"What are we going to do about what we found out yesterday?"
"Well I have a date tonight so we…"
"What?!" Hanna giddily screamed. This scared Paige but she was already committed to putting her leg through the hole. She tried to balance herself but ended up falling backwards over the bench. Hanna heard the crash and quickly ran behind the lockers. Paige was sprawled with her pants halfway up with one leg straight in the air. Paige recovered and managed to slide the other leg in and arched her back off the floor to pull them all the way up. She accepted Hanna's hand and pulled herself up.
"Are you okay?" Paige threw on her shirt and picked up the towel now on the floor.
"I'm fine. I'd like to say that's the first time that's happened but I would be lying." She threw everything in her bag and walked around to her locker to put it in there.
"I'm going to meet up with Kara tonight and I'll try to get something out of her. You need to go talk to your friends and make up. This is not the time for the Scooby Gang to be at odds."
"I agree. Can we meet up tomorrow for a team meeting?"
"Team meeting?" Paige laughed.
"Now that I am officially team HP, I feel like an organized meeting might be useful."
"We'll see." She walked past the girl and headed for the door.
"Oh Paige, I forgot to show you what else I found yesterday." She pulled out her phone and scrolled to one of the pictures.
"This was hanging in the office." Paige took the phone and looked at the photo. It was a group shot of a few horses with 3 girls on the them and their parents standing to the side holding the reigns. Paige instantly recognized Kara in the middle and she assumed it was her father standing to her side. She used her fingers to zoom on the other four people. One girl looked vaguely familiar and the man standing with her had a hat covering his face. The girl looked older than the other two by at least three or four years. She scrolled to the left again and was met by a smiling face. The girl didn't look more than 14 and had blonde hair and a blue riding cap; the same riding cap Paige had been wearing the day before. Standing next to her was Mrs. Dilaurentis, who had a matching grin on her face. A passerby would see this photo and think it was a nice bonding experience between children and their parents but Paige knew there was something darker there.
"I only know half of these people."
"No, you know all of them." Paige gave her a quizzical look. "I do?" Hanna took the phone and situated herself beside Paige. She scrolled from left to right pointing out each person.
"That is Bethany Young. Next to her is Mrs. D. In the middle is Kara and her dad. And I'm almost a hundred percent sure this is Melissa Hastings. If that's true, I would bet anything that is her dad standing with her." Paige looked at the face to the right and it did look a lot like Melissa.
"This whole thing just got even more complicated, didn't it?"
"And I didn't even think that was possible." Hanna replied. Hanna and Paige both walked out together and towards the front hall. Hanna walked with her to her locker and then separated when she saw the girls down the hall. Spencer had big sunglasses on but Hanna could still see the mark on her face.
"Why were you talking to Paige?" Allison questioned.
"She let me borrow her notes and I was giving them back." Hanna was actually disappointed in herself at how quickly she could lie.
"What class do you two have together that we don't have with you?"
"No one seemed to want to talk to me yesterday so I reached out to whoever I could." Her voice dripped with disdain. When she woke up this morning, she didn't know how she was going to broach the topic of them ignoring her but Spencer just made it easy.
"What happened to your face Spencer?" She tried to make is sound like she didn't know what happened.
"I got hit in the face with a ball in field hockey practice." Hanna had given her the opportunity to come clean but she didn't. With that, Hanna decided to play with them.
"Wow that must have hurt. I'm surprised a ball did that…" She pulled the glasses slightly off of Spencer's face, running her finger over the bruise. "…it looks like you got kicked in the face by a horse." With that, she walked away towards her first class.
"Hanna wait." Spencer ran after here and pulled her into the nearest classroom. The other girls followed closely behind.
"How did you know I got kicked?" She said, almost accusingly.
"Obviously, it wasn't from you, my best friends, telling me." She folded her arms and tried to walk away. Aria and Emily formed a blockade and Hanna was forced to face them. She had to make something believable up.
"I got a text last night from our friend HP. Told me the whole story." Everyone seemed to believe her.
"Your turn, why didn't you tell me any of this?" She looked to Emily first because she was usually the easiest to crack.
"Han you have been acting weird lately and then Spencer noticed something with that picture and we thought you might have…" Emily could barely finish her statement.
"What Emily is trying to say, is that we thought you joined Mona to get rid of me. I know you haven't liked me since I've been back. On top of that, your obvious identity crisis kind of tipped us off."
"First of all, how could you ever think I would do anything to hurt any of you, ever? Second of all, what do you mean Spencer noticed something? Did I start wearing a black hoodie around and texting you threatening messages?" Hanna couldn't believe they would go behind her back instead of just talking to her. Everyone had gotten so used to lying that the truth didn't really exist. The lines between reality and fiction were so blurred they were beginning to live in a state of complete paranoia.
"The picture you sent me from Noel's party." Spencer started.
"What about it?"
"There is a person's thumb at the top corner of the page but it isn't yours. That means somebody had to of been holding the paper for you." Hanna was really backed into a corner at this moment. She either told the truth about Paige or try to say something remotely believable. She had learned from her years of experience that the perfect lie had to be specific and non-verifiable. It was also important to sell it, which she was about to do.
"Are you serious, right now? All you would have had to do was ask me and I would have told you. Caleb saw me sneaking into Noel's room and asked me what I was doing. I couldn't lie to him so I asked him to help. I know think he is a bad influence on me so I didn't tell you about it. He is the one holding the sheet for me." Hanna could tell the other girls were feeling guilty.
"I'm so sorry, I just thought…you never know who to trust." Spencer didn't know how to apologize.
"From now on, complete honesty, even if we don't like the questions or the answers." They all shook their head in agreement.
"Now why were you around horses yesterday?" Spencer began to fill her in on the events of the day before, starting from when Emily left Hanna at the coffee shop. She had called an emergency meeting at her house to discuss the mysterious thumb in the picture. When they met up, Aria also had news she had gotten from Radley. Mrs .Dilaurentis had spent a great deal of time and money with Bethany. The ranch was a pace they frequented almost every weekend since Bethany was at the institution.
"We thought that the owner might remember something but he didn't. We stuck around a while longer and looked around the stable but someone locked us in one of the stalls. It was storming out and this horse almost trampled us. I don't even know how but this person came up on this huge black horse and saved us. I tried prying the door open which is when I got kicked. We got to our car and they left. Twenty minutes later we got a text telling us to be careful around wild animals."
"If A is the devil then HP is our guardian angel." Aria added.
"Something like that" Hanna mumbled under her breath. The first bell rang which meant they had 5 minutes to get to class. Everyone left but Hanna was stopped by Emily's hand.
"Are we good?" Hanna smiled weakly and nodded.
"Of course, Em. If you want to finish that talk, we can meet later." Emily gave her an unexpected hug and Hanna melted into it.
"That would be wonderful."
"The brew?" Hanna asked.
"No, I want to go someplace else. Meet me at my house and we'll take my car. I owe you a fun night." They all dispersed from the classroom to their first periods.
Paige pulled out her phone after school to confirm her plans. She hadn't saved the girls number yet so it just pulled up with the Pennsylvania area code.
I'm still picking you up, right?-P
She thought it would take a few minutes for a reply but the response was instantaneous.
Yes please! I hope you drive a car better than you ride a horse ;)-K
Paige laughed at this. This girl was practically perfect in every way and was potentially going to her college. The pros column was severely outweighing the cons. But she knew, for now, the scale would be tipped the other way. She tried to think of a witty response but all of her ideas were either corny or over bearing. She decided not to respond at all and to get ready. She told the coach she needed another day of rest, which wasn't entirely a lie. When she got home, she rifled through almost every outfit she had. She knew she was going to wear her jeans and boots but the shirt was extremely important. She had no idea what Kara would be wearing which threw her off. She could always prepare for a date with Emily because she knew her style. Emily wore comfortable clothing that was never over the top. For all Paige knew, Kara would be coming out in a dress and stilettos. She also didn't want to come off as any particular type of person. If she wore her suspenders she might seem like a hipster gay. If she wore the button up, it might be too butch. Even her cut off shirts, sent off a weird sporty vibe. She didn't want to scare the girl away based on her clothing. When it came to lesbian stereotypes, Paige didn't think she fit into any category. She just dressed in what she liked at the time. For some people, clothing is an extension of their sexuality. For her, clothing made sure she didn't embarrass herself in public. She really didn't even know why she was worried about this. She didn't expect this to go farther. Still, in the back of her mind there was this "what if" voice playing with her emotions. It's not even dinner, it's cheap bar food and crappy music, she thought to herself. She finally grabbed a red v-neck and her leather jacket. It was simple, comfortable, and attractive. Looking at the clock, she realized she would be late if she didn't leave that moment. She had the perfect place to go that was unknown to 90 percent of all of Rosewood. She pulled into the same parking lot she was in the day before and shot a text. Moments later the front door opened and Paige was absolutely blown away. The girl had her hair down and curled, with torn jeans, cowboy boots and a blue blouse that plunged right at the neck line. Paige quickly scrambled out of the car and opened the passenger door.
"M'lady." She bowed chivalrously.
"Thank you kind ma'am. I do say the carriage service round these parts has been mighty fine this evenin'." Kara added a thick southern twang to her already country accent. Paige sincerely laughed and jumped in the driver's side.
"So where are we going? I usually am wary of people when they say it's a surprise, especially since I met you less than 24 hours ago."
"I was thinking I would take you out by the old mill and sacrifice you to the harvest moon." Paige tried to act serious but it didn't take long for her to start cracking up.
"Seriously, Paige!"
"We will be there in ten minutes, you'll just have to wait." The car ride was filled with music and little conversation. Paige pulled into the gravel parking lot of the bar and shut her car off.
"You really are going to kill me."
"Shut up and get out of my car." Paige went around and opened the car door for her and led her into the highway bar. It was loud and bright. There were practically no tables open because happy hour was about to start. Paige spotted a couple leaving and quickly dragged Kara in that direction. They slid into the booth and Paige waved down a waitress for drinks. They just got water but Paige had her fake ID if they wanted anything else.
"So this place is…interesting." Kara began.
"Just wait, the real fun is about to begin." The girl didn't understand what she was talking about until she heard the MC begin to speak.
"Ladies and Gentleman welcome to Karaoke night! I hope you brought your singing partners and to kick it off as always, we have Donnette singing a little Faith Hill." The aforementioned woman broke out into a pitchy version of This Kiss.
"You brought me to karaoke. You definitely are getting bonus points. So what are we going to sing?" Paige slid out of the booth and grabbed a copy of the song list they had to choose from.
"I'm usually more of an alto but if I need to hit those Kelly Clarkson notes I might be able to."
"Dually noted." Kara flipped through the pages and kept going back and forth between a few songs.
"Any winners?" Paige had basically memorized the song list but was willing to let the other girl pick.
"I'm torn between 'Oh What a Night' by the four seasons and 'So What' by Pink. I know totally different genres but both so good." Paige did not want to bring up her past in front of the girl so she would have to veto Pink.
"I am a big Frankie Vallie fan. And it's a pretty good song for our current predicament."
"Oh really?" Kara wiggled her eyebrows and started to lean in closer. Paige pulled away though and went to submit their name. Luckily, no one had picked their song yet except them and the pitchy Faith Hill, who always went first.
"Can I get Paige and Kara to the mics please?" The MC shouted. Paige put her arm out and let Kara go first. They each picked up a mic and waited for the screen to come up. The song wasn't really meant to be a duet but they made it work. The first few drum measures started to play and Paige started dancing with the music, eliciting some cheers from the crowd. She could tell Kara was nervous so she started it off.
"Oh What a Night, late December back in 63…what a very special time for me, as I remember what a night." She started singing directly to the other girl, causing her to blush. She started to get into it and began the second verse. "Oh what a night, no I didn't even know her name, but I knew I'd never be the same, what a lady what a night." Paige turned her attention to the crowd. Everyone seemed to really be enjoying themselves. She looked to the back and the door opened to even more people. The lines started to come down the screen and she almost missed it. "Oh I…" She paused seeing exactly who had just come through the door. Kara gave her a slight nudge and she kept going. "…got a funny feeling when she walked in the room. And I, as I recall it ended much too soon." Kara came in with the next chorus hitting all of the high notes perfectly. Paige couldn't take her eyes off the back of the room. She waited for the girl to look up. She halfheartedly kept singing trying to engage Kara as much as possible. Neither the girl or the crowd could tell that her attention was pulled in another direction. Emily set her coat down and slid across from Hanna. The voice playing the background sounded unbelievably familiar. She turned her head to the stage and couldn't believe what she saw.
TBC
