The cellphone rings in the morning and Spencer goes to pick it up, her mom telling the story as the news picks up on Alison's lost body. Spencer asks the appropriate questions, trying to find out our real question. Did anyone see us? When she hangs up the phone she turns around and explains to us.
"The caretaker called it in this morning. The place is crawling with reporters, but the police don't have any leads." Some weight comes off my shoulders, but I'm still feel guilty.
"So we're okay, nobody saw us," I exhale.
"Yeah." I lean back in the couch and try to relax.
"I'm so sorry guys. This is all my fault." Emily says, still a bit drunk from last night and whatever was in her drink.
"No one's blaming you," Hannah tells her.
"Yeah Em, somebody took you there to make it look like you dug up Ali's body." Spencer tries to make her feel better.
"And I made it so easy. If I wasn't so wasted-"
"Em. Last night never happened." Hannah says, saying it slow so it gets in our heads.
"Are we sure about that? We could still go to the police," I offer, not wanting to go down this road again.
"We tampered with the evidence," Spencer shakes her head. "Last night we roasted marshmallows, and talked about senior year and went to bed early."
I look to Emily who was staring at the floor. "Em?"
"Last night never happened." My phone starts to ring and for the first time in a long time all of the girls jump at the sound.
I get out my phone and see Jason's smiling face staring back at me instead of a blocked number. "It's just Jason." I stand up and answer the phone walking away from the girls a little even though they'll still listen.
"Jason?" I ask, not sure if he has seen the news yet and what his reaction to it is.
"Have you seen it?" Jason grounds out.
"Spencer's mom called us, we're at the lake house and haven't seen the news but we've heard about it." I explain, turning my back to the girls. "Are you okay?"
"They stole her body." Jason says in monotone, I turn around and meet Spencer's gaze and shake my head. Jason was not okay. In the back ground I hear glass being thrown against the wall, which makes me wince.
I grab my purse and wave goodbye to the girls as I run out to my car and start driving back to Rosewood. "I'll be there in 20 minutes, Jason. Just stay on the phone, okay?" I ask him, hoping the glass he threw was just a fancy cup and not a beer bottle.
"Who would do this? A is locked up at Radley and Garett is in jail, is this someone's idea of being funny? Are they going to use it as blackmail?" Jason starts asking a million questions that I can't answer, getting angrier and angrier. By the time I reach his house he hung up on me and I can't hear him inside, though I don't know if him being quiet is a good thing.
The front door was partly ajar so I walk in and call his name. "In here." I run into the kitchen and almost fall when I slip on liquid on the floor.
"Woah!" Jason catches me and helps me onto the counter. "Sorry, I haven't wanted to clean it up yet." I look down on the floor, and see glass and bubbly liquid covering most of his new tiles. The increasingly familiar smell of liquor hits my nose and I look at Jason with a worried expression.
"Jason-" I start, but he interrupts me.
"There was a six pack on the back porch when I woke up today, with a note saying I would need it. I turned the news on and when I saw what happened I got angry." I continue to look at him , trying to tell if the smell was coming from him and the floor or only the floor. "I didn't drink any of it, Aria," Jason promises taking my hand and laying his head on my shoulder, moving in between my legs so he can lean against the counter too.
"I'm so sorry, Jason," I whisper, wrapping my arms around his shoulders. "They'll catch whoever did this." Jason doesn't say anything, we just stand there holding each other for a few minutes until the smell of liquor starts to give us a headache and we clean it up. "I'll get the mop."
"No, this is my mess," Jason stops me from helping. "I'll clean up in here and in the backyard, you can go into my room and go to sleep if you want."
"The backyard?" I question, glancing out the window.
"I had kicked the six pack when I read the note, the mess in here is just from the bottles that didn't explode in the back yard," Jason explains, sounding ashamed of his temper. I raise my hand to his face and kiss him lightly.
"Someone was trying to get you drunk and you were strong enough to stay away. Don't be ashamed of that." I follow what he tells me and go upstairs to take a nap in his bed.
"Aria!" I jolt awake when I hear Jason yell my name, and then become aware of him shaking me trying to wake me up. I sit up straight and look around the room, my heart racing as the image of Mona laughing over Alison's dead body still burned into my head. Jason's arms wrap around me and I'm pulled to his chest. "I thought you said the nightmares were over?" Jason whispered, brushing my hair out of my face and leaning against the wall next to his bed.
"I thought they were," I whisper, shaking and trying to catch my breath.
"You're safe Aria," Jason assures me, tilting my chin up so I'll look at him. "A can't hurt us anymore."
"Are you sure?" I ask, my voice cracking slightly as tears fill my eyes and I continue to shake. "Someone worse could steal the game from Mona and be the one behind Alison's stolen body, what if a new A-"
"Aria," Jason stops me, pulling me back against his chest and rocking us. "We can't live in a constant fear of the what if's. Mona is in a catatonic state at Radley and can't get out. There is no one else except the ten year olds that think they're funny." I give a small smile at all of the ridiculous texts I've shown Jason over the summer.
The girls and I had such a filled summer that we didn't see much of each other until last night, but since Jason owns part of his father's company, he took off most of the summer and we took the time to let our relationship mature. My family was thrilled the first night Jason showed up at the door to take me into town on our official date. Mike had made fun of me as I left and the moment I returned while my mom focused on keeping my dad from giving Jason the talk; Jason had taken it all amazingly. Over the summer we learned more about each other, like Jason didn't like roses so he always gave me big and bright flowers or that Jason liked to watch action movies when he has a bad day but when he has a good day he watches classic movies and only watches Horrors in October, and had he an imaginary friend named Charlie when he was a kid but his father made Charlie 'go away' when he thought he was too old to have imaginary friends. It was a summer that had no lies, I told him everything A did to all of us, and what we had to do to protect ourselves, and he listened without judgment. We didn't have any lies, but now I have to lie about last night and we're back to the beginning.
I go into the bathroom while Spencer and Hannah finish their registrations, Emily was still MIA and wanting her space to deal with the event of last night and Maya's death. The stall I go into has a bad lock and won't open properly. The door to the bathroom slams open while I mess with the lock.
"Hello?" I ask, but no one replies even though I hear footsteps. I peak through the crack and see a black outfit pass by my stall and I can hear my heart start racing faster. The footsteps stop in front of my stall and I can see black leather boots. "HELP!" I scream, backing against the wall and watching the boots walk away.
I bust out of the stall and run to the other side of the bathroom and fall to the floor, my chest feeling like it's caving in, my breath was shallow and I couldn't stop shaking.
"Aria!" Hannah yells as she and Spencer run into the bathroom and Hannah pulls me into a hug.
"I had a panic attack," I croak. "I thought I saw A."
"No it couldn't have been, A is locked up at a loony bin," Spencer tells me, but I know this, Jason said the same thing.
"I know what I saw. I saw the black hoodie and boots but not the face. Mona was smart she could just be faking it so she doesn't get arrested." I was still shaking and tears were gaining in my eyes. "I saw A. I know A is back." A tear escapes so Hannah pulls me up and tries to get me to calm down but their words keep making me more frantic.
Finally Spencer gets out her phone and calls Jason, who was already headed to school to bring me lunch. He arrives a few minutes later and busts into the bathroom, ignoring the rules and manners about boys being in the girl's bathroom. Hannah and Spencer go outside to guard the door until I'm more composed. Jason doesn't ask what happens until after we've left school and I've stopped shaking, but when I tell him he says the same things as this morning. I don't care what the girls and him believe though, I know my instincts and I know A is back.
"You're mom thinks I'm a nut basket case," Emily says as we walk out of my mom's classroom, referring to yesterday's freakout when A managed to slip a necklace into Emily's bag that seemed to have real or fake bones in it. A wasn't kidding when they sent us the text "Mona played with dolls, I play with body parts."
"My mom loves you, Em. She knows everything that you've been through." I make Emily feel better, something we've all been trying to do since Emily has decided to hold all of the blame for the evidence A has on us being there the night Alison's body was stolen.
"Could she spread the love around the faculty room? I have to take four make up exams or I'll fail eleventh grade." Emily complains.
"I'll help you study for them," Spencer offers. "I've taken them all."
"You're gonna get through this." I say, I turn a little to look down the hall but catch sight of a blonde head. Emily and Spencer follow my gaze when I don't look away.
"Who is that?" Emily asks, catching on to my sudden change of atmosphere.
"Meredith." I say through clenched teeth.
"The Meredith?" Emily asks.
"Wait, that's your dad's Meredith? That's the skank you and Ali caught him lip-locking in the car?" Spencer puts in perfect words.
"If my mom sees her here..." I shake my head and glare at the bitch. "What's she doing here?" I demand, Meredith turns away from the teacher she was talking to and I walk up to her, feeling braver than usual. "Excuse me." I bite out. "Are you looking for someone?" I sneer, Meredith just smirks when she sees me.
"Hello, Aria. I forgot you were still a student here." Meredith sneers back, looking at me the way Jackie use to.
"Yeah I am. What are you doing here?"
"I'm applying for an open teacher position," she answers, straightening up like that makes her the shit. "Oh don't worry hun, I won't put you down as a reference." She smirks and then walks away.
"Bitch," Spencer mutters under her breath.
"Isn't your mom moving out again?" Emily asks.
"Her and my dad are getting a divorce, it's mutual and Mike and I agree it's for the best because they don't agree on anything and the only time they aren't fighting is when we are in the room." I explain, not as torn up about is as I was the first time the split up.