So, in this chapter, we rewind. (And to Guest, please look up what the hell fanfiction means. Thank you.)
rewind
(and then pause)
i don't wanna think about it now
is there something you said?
all these secrets that you keep
but i don't wanna think about it now
— of verona
"So all this time, you've been lying to me?" Three steps – three steps was what she took, towards him, then one backwards as he started to speak, then one advanced as she interrupted him. Catching people out on a lie – it wasn't meant to feel like this, it was supposed to make you feel salient, and good, but this played out the opposite effect. Aria just wanted to go down, and down, and down, and just disappear from the face of the earth. She felt powerless. She felt trod on, all over again.
"Aria—"
"Don't!" she exclaimed.
"Don't what?" he intercepted. "I'm not doing anything."
"Yeah, well, you lied."
"And so did you."
Silence. Pause. Pause.
Aria looked at her boyfriend, examining his face – was he bluffing, or did he know about A? This wasn't happening – no, Jason couldn't have found out.
"When were you going to tell me A was back?" he asked defiantly.
"When were you going to tell me you were trusting these stupid Rosewood frauds," she shot back, with equal defiance. Currently, she resembled a fire cracker – one wrong move and she'd explode. Jason had already made all the wrong moves, lost all the points, but looking over, she'd done just the same.
"Aria, A—"
"How do you even know about A?"
earlier
Aria sniffed into the hem of her sweater, hoping to, in any way, be soothed by the faint smell of her mother's perfume. With Meredith around and about the house, Aria had seen her mom lesser and lesser as the time went by.
"Aria, are you okay?" Spencer asked from beside her.
Quickly, she nodded. "Yeah. I just… Hanna and Caleb broke up, and it's because of me. I'm the one who told her to—"
"It wasn't your fault," Emily but in.
"Yeah," nodded Spencer. "If anyone's, it's Caleb's."
Aria, too, nodded, but the sick folding feeling at the pits of her stomach only increased – it was her fault, and she knew it. They walked down Emily's road in silence, until they caught sight of a large ambulance parked by the end of the avenue.
"What the hell is going on?" questioned Aria. "Is that Jenna's?"
"'No idea," said Spencer.
They rushed to the scene, and were just able to catch sight of a woman being wheeled by a few paramedics, onto a stretcher, into the vehicle, and then away, and away. The liars exchanged a quick look as they tried to edge closer – who was she? Did they know her?
"It's Mrs Reynolds," spoke Emily. "She's the woman."
"…And the world's biggest bear claw…" Aria smiled at her boyfriend as she passed him a packed lunch.
"What's in here?" Jason asked slowly.
"They had that Turkey baguette on the menu that you love," smiled Aria. "I got you two – you know, just in case," She handed him yet another brown carrier bag filled with food. "And—"
"You got me roasted veggies and pickles," he finished.
"Uhuh," Aria grinned. "Pickles come with!" Aria passed Jason the coffee. "And here's your latte."
"Th-thanks," Jason started. "But let me—"
"No!" Aria shook her head. "I'm paying. I insist."
Reluctantly, he agreed, and they took their seats in front of the café, watching each passer-by, enjoying the sweet, sweet silence.
"Did you hear about Mrs Reynolds?" said Aria, breaking the placidity.
Jason nodded solemnly. "Yes. I did. She was a nice mother, she really was. I guess it was the whole stress with Garrett, you know? I don't blame her."
More stolen moments passed, both too scared to say the wrong thing – Mrs Reynolds could, for all they knew, be dying in hospital, and bringing up Garrett and Ali was going to bring up only more stress. Aria was almost relieved when her phone buzzed (aside the possibility of A being the one to text her, of course).
Where are you?
—Spencer
Aria inwardly rolled her eyes, and looked up at Jason, who still seemed to be looking out into nowhere. School was starting in about twenty minutes, and prim, prissy, immaculate Spencer was obviously already there, wasn't she?
"Hey, Jase," said Aria.
"Yeah?"
"Let's go," she laughed. Jason nodded, and took off walking with her, only stopping as they heard a large commotion coming from behind them. There was a boy, possibly her age, banging recklessly onto the window of the photography studio at the end of the street.
"Give me back my stuff! Please! Just let me in!"
"That's Lucas," said Aria suddenly. She exchanged a quick look with Jason. "What is he doing here?"
Jason shook his head, bewildered, and they both walked away from the scene with ringing heads. Aria glanced at her watch at groaned at the time – she got into Jason's car, still groaning, and they drove on.
"That was weird," Aria said.
"I know," agreed Jason. "First Mrs Reynolds, now that Lucas dude – Rosewood's getting fishier by the minute."
Alarmed, Aria suddenly turned to him – that answer, it seemed like an answer from someone who would know what was going on – about A, about all the lies. But she shook it off, not wanting to revisit that yet again.
I'm coming
—Aria
Aria turned her phone off, and leaned against the seat until they pulled into the Rosewood car park.
"How many kids are you counselling today?" asked Aria, as he opened the boot to pull out a set of yellow files.
Jason shrugged. "I'm not sure… six? Something like that," He leaned in for a quick kiss. "Well, I'll see you later, then, Ar."
"Mhm," she nodded, and watched him leave. She pulled out her phone in search for any replies.
I just saw Lucas at the photo studio… being kind of, um, crazy.
—Aria
Pause.
And I'm at school now.
—Aria
Pause. Pause. Another pause.
Aria gave up waiting, and proceeded into the school building, having an eye out to try and look for Spencer, or Emily, or Hanna. Giving up completely, Aria walked to her first lesson, which was American History – Spencer was probably off on a different block, doing Stage Fifteen Algebra or something; Hanna was probably at home, still a wreck; Emily was probably doing a few makeup tests.
Aria took her seat, right at the back, and tuned out.
The door creaked magnificently, and in came yet another student – hoping it would be one of the girls, Aria looked up, only to see it was just another boy – a boy she could not put a name to.
This new boy took the empty seat beside her, and turned to her, as if he knew her, and then turned back to the front.
Strange, she thought, but who the hell is he?
"Hi," he spoke suddenly. "Can I borrow a pen? I completely forgot to bring one."
"Oh," Aria said. "Yeah, um, of course," She handed him the pen in her hand, and turned to examine his face – to say he wasn't attractive would just be a lie, but on top of all of that, something about him was just so familiar. It was as if she had seen him before, once upon another time, or at least, seen another version of him (if that was even possible).
"Thanks," He took it with a smile, before stopping. "I'm Wes, by the way."
Aria nodded. "Aria."
He gave her a smile, somewhat triumphant, and then they both turned back to work.
"Where were you?" asked Aria blankly as she entered the Hastings' household.
"Hey, that was my question!" Spencer laughed.
"No, but I was at school, and you weren't," Aria crossed her arms.
"Oh, I was at school," nodded Spencer. "But I had a headache, and after receiving that invitation from Jenna, it turned into a blown-out migraine, so I bailed."
"What invitation?" Aria propped up an eyebrow. In response, Spencer passed her a small beige envelope sealed with some red wax – she opened it up, only to see a birthday party invitation. "Well, sorry, Jenna, but I'm not going."
Spencer laughed. "Yeah, me neither."
"And Jason won't answer my texts – it's not like he's mad at me for buying him grocer—"
"You bought Jason groceries?" asked Spencer incredulously.
"No!" exclaimed Aria. "I just bought him… a few packed lunches – two sandwiches. I mean, you should have seen the look he gave me!"
Spencer tutted, "Well, he's your boyfriend, Aria, he's not a baby squirrel."
"Just trying to do the right thing," mumbled Aria
"Nuh-uh – totally wrong. Trust me, I've been there, done that," said Spencer. "Every time you baby squirrel Jason, you're taking away his nuts." Spencer seemed to regret what she said the moment the words were out, and she winced, as if something sour had exploded on her tongue.
"You did… not just say that," Aria started.
"I did," Spencer said, and she looked down at her nose. "But I don't think I meant to."
Aria's phone rang, and she checked to see who the caller was: Jason.
"Is that Em?" asked Spencer, from behind her laptop.
Aria shook her head, and mouthed, "Jason."
Spencer laughed. "Did he find his nuts?"
Aria rolled her eyes. "Ha."
"Hello?"
"Hi," Aria said. "Everything okay?"
"Well, yeah… but I got… an invitation," Jason paused. "From Jenna Marshall, I think. I mean, I was just walking out of my office, and she handed me an envelope, telling me that she 'hoped I would come'. Okay, so what do I do now, Aria?"
"Um…" Aria started – she really, really wasn't sure. "Just bear with me – I'll talk to you later," She heard Jason mumble an "okay", and she hung up and turned to Spencer, panic arising in her throat. "Jenna invited Jason to her party. What. On. Earth?"
Spencer, too, seemed speechless, and she slowly raised her eyebrows. "Well… I am officially scared of what this party will come to."
"I'm not going," declared Aria. "Repeat: I am not going."
Jason had finished his counselling at school, and was walking to his car, when he first got the message (later on, he'd call this moment 'the sheer shock of life', because what this would come to would mark the end of a lot of things).
It was a call, harmless in all, from Caleb.
And so, still harmless in all, he answered it.
"Hello? Caleb?" Jason asked.
"Good, you answered, because I need to tell you something," Caleb replied. "Urgently. Can you… can you meet me at my cabin. Now?"
Jason nodded slowly, and drew his next words out slowly. "Sure, I'll be over right away."
(Yes – very, very, very harmless.)
He arrived at Caleb's in a matter of minutes, and knocked on his door, hoping to seem patient. (He wasn't, evidently.)
Caleb didn't waste a minute to start telling him what he needed to – "A. A's back."
Jason opened his mouth, before immediately shutting it again. The he opened it – "Wh-what? How… how do you know this?"
"Simple, isn't it?" Caleb closed the door behind Jason, and gestured him to move on forward. "This – this is what I managed to get off Mona when I visited her, and she went all wham on me." He passed him a small note of paper.
M. A. Y. A K. N. E. W.
M. A. S. S. S. U. G. A. R.
There were red circles around the A's – Jason stared at it in disbelief. Perhaps he was just overwhelmed by the feeling of A still out there (the person who murdered her sister), or maybe it was just because he'd realised that Aria had been lying to him for… one bloody hell of a long time.
"It's what Hanna was going to tell me," Caleb said. "A ran my mom off my road."
"A's got Ali's body," Jason said, and he buried his face in his hands. "This is so messed up."
"So Mona – she's still A," Caleb said.
"Is she?" Jason asked rhetorically. "But she's been locked in the nuthouse for so long – and if anything, she'd have gotten help. Radley's locked pretty tight, and I doubt she can just… jump out the window whenever she wants to send these… cryptic… messages," He stopped again. "I gave $50,000 to help A. I thought… damn it."
"Wait, what?" Caleb looked at him with crossed eyebrows. "You mean, you went ahead with the poster regardless of what the girls told you?"
"Yes," Jason nodded. "And… fuck." Pause. "Does Toby know about this?"
"He won't answer my calls," sighed Caleb. "So do you know what to do?"
"Nope," Jason answered immediately. "We're just stuck in a hole, with no freaking way out."
More pauses. Pause. Pause. Pause.
Each day passed, getting more unbearable by the second – he wanted to confront Aria, he really did, but if he did so, then everything would blow up in their faces, because he lied, too. He wanted to confront Spencer, but the result, it would be the same.
It all seemed so much clearer now – when Aria was talking about something, and she carefully avoided anything going down the A path – Jason knew what she was going on about, and it scared him, it really did.
It was the same with Spencer – this new April Rose she was talking about – how she seemed to want him to know who she was – Jason knew that it wasn't because she was just interested; it was obviously because of something that A or even Garrett left her as a tip.
No, he didn't know who or what April Rose was, but he knew that A was back.
Jason examined his list – his sudden invitation from Jenna (which he ever so politely declined) had made him maybe think that the blind-not-blind girl was part of it. And Lucas' little fiasco only the week before had made him reconsider, too.
"The N.A.T Club," Spencer suddenly brought up as they sat in their normal seats on the bench. "April Rose – was she a girl you maybe fil—"
"Look, I never filmed anyone. I never made any of those vide—"
"Yeah, but you watched them," she interrupted. "No? No one called April Rose you remember?"
Jason shook his head. "You know how high I was most of the time – there's no way I would remember," He paused for a second. "But if I do remember anything, I'll call you as soon as possible." And then he was off, his head spinning – he got into his car, his head still going on walk-abouts as he tried, genuinely tried to remember an April Rose.
"You two are like peas in a pod," Jason remarked as he saw his girlfriend huddled up in the corner with Alison. "Really – exactly the same."
Alison rolled her eyes, wept her blonde hair back, and picked up her handbag. "We're going shopping."
Jason raised his eyebrows. "CeCe, remember not to buy the whole of Belgium for her this time. The girl's spoiled enough." Alison only crossed her arms, and walked straight past him, tugging CeCe with her.
CeCe gave him something in between an apologetic look and a smirk. "Chill, Jason – we're just going down to the old April Rose – all they sell are old hankies and figurines." And then they were off.
April Rose wasn't a girl; April Rose was a shop. Jason opened his car door to get out, but saw that Spencer was no longer sitting on that bench. With his heart racing with something quite undistinguishable, Jason started the car again, and drove down the high street, all the way to Spencer's.
He knocked on the door a few time, simultaneously searching up April Rose on his phone.
"Jason! You found something?" Spencer asked as soon as he arrived – she, too, seemed to have only come home a few minutes before, for she was still in her coat, holding her car keys. "Jason? Jason? Hello?" She waved her hand in front of his face.
"April Rose is a shop, not a girl," was all Jason said. He then showed her what he had searched up: April Rose, 5 Burden Grove, Pennsylvania.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Spencer exclaimed, and she pulled Jason towards her car, driving on the moment they were in. It was so silent; the sound of a heart beating was the loudest thing in the car. They stared out in front of them in more silence, because they knew that this could very well be the end of this mess, and they didn't want to ruin such a moment.
"We're here," Spencer started. "I think."
"Yeah," Jason nodded, and slowly, they got out, walking down the grove, looking for April Rose.
When they finally found it, they were reluctant to enter, but with two quick breaths, they bust the door in, only to be welcomed by the sweet, sweet smell of the elderly. An old grandma was rocking silently on an armchair by the counter, and Jason and Spencer wondered if she was the shopkeeper. The place was more or less deserted, but they looked around all the same, even if they had not the faintest idea what they were looking for.
Jason and Spencer parted, looking into the shop with a more artful eye – Jason looked back at his half-sister, and as he passed the china plates and old sewing machines, he wondered if she – or anyone else, for that matter – would tell him the truth.
"Jason!"
Jason whipped his head around, and saw Spencer pointing towards an old mannequin by the entrance. Nodding, Jason swiftly made his way to the front, seeing Spencer holding a bracelet in her red handkerchief.
"This is it?" queried Jason.
Spencer nodded vehemently. "I'm sure of it," She held the bracelet up high for better lighting, and that's when Jason saw each charm dangling, a moon, a star, a rose – and that's when he realised how desperate his sister was, grasping onto answers and evidence like it was her life-blood. That was what A made them do – Aria, Hanna, Emily, all of them – and he didn't blame them, he really didn't, because deep inside, he was exactly the same, thriving for answers, living on questions and dirty, dirty lies.
"Excuse me?" Jason called out to the old lady still in her slumber. "Hello? Hi?"
"'Afternoon," An old man bustled through, a broom in his hands. "Sorry about her."
"No problem," Spencer said lightly from beside him.
"So we were wondering," started Jason. "how much this bracelet would be."
The man took it from Spencer's hands and took at inspecting it. His confusion was fairly evident, his eyebrows creasing, his mouth twitching. "I – I can't sell this to you, I'm sorry."
"Why not?" Spencer said, beating Jason to the punch.
The shopkeeper only shook his head. "I've never seen this before in my life. I'm awfully sorry, but it's not… it's not for sale."
"$200," Jason challenged, and yet the man shook his head in a hopeless manner. "Then… four hundred dollars," He ignored Spencer's incredulous stare. "We'll pay four hundred dollars for that bracelet."
He seemed hesitant, but delighted all the same, and he held out his hand for Jason to shake. He nodded, and gestured to the counter.
"Four hundred dollars!" Spencer exclaimed as they left the shop, the charm bracelet packed safely away in bubble wrap. "Have you gone mad? We didn't just pay $400 for a stupid charm bracelet."
Jason shrugged. "Techinally, I bought it. I bought it because this might actually be an end to things."
Spencer opened and closed her mouth in a goldfish expression, and sighed loudly. "You're right. Maybe this will be the end of things." The scariest part was that Jason could hear that double meaning through her words.
"We should turn this in," Jason spoke.
"You're right. We should," Spencer nodded, and they made their way to the Rosewood PD. It was already quite dark, for searching took longer than expected, but they arrived all the same. "I'm not going to go in."
"What?" Jason exclaimed. "Well, neither am I."
"Don't you get it, Jason?" said Spencer, and she placed the bracelet wrapped tightly in bubble wrap and paper in the post box in front of the station. "A tip. An anonymous tip."
Aria walked down the high street with a bag of Lucky Leon's in her hand, on the way back home. It was rather dark – too dark for her liking, so she decided to hurry her pace just a little bit.
"Taking a study break?" a voice from behind said, causing her to stop her tracks.
"Wh-who is it?"
"Me," the voice carried on.
Aria turned around, only to be left face to face with the guy she lent a pencil to, a few days back. "Wes. Hi. What are you doing here? Were you—" Aria stopped, and looked around at the emptiness. "—did you follow me here?"
"I wouldn't put it that way," he said. "I just wanted to say hi. Couldn't miss the opportunity, you know."
"Oh," Aria said. "Okay then, so... hi."
"Hi."
"Um… bye?" Aria asked, more herself, than him.
Wes nodded, and walked off, leaving Aria to stare down at the ground, more than just puzzled. Shrugging it off, Aria walked home as if nothing had happened.
Buzz buzz. Buzz buzz.
"For fuck's sake," Aria muttered under her breath as she flipped out her phone to check the message. With attachment. Wide-eyed and utterly chilled, Aria clicked on the open option. The picture, the picture is blank – it was still fucking loading. Aria groaned, half a mind to throw her phone down the drain.
Finally, it had loaded.
Aria squinted, and moved towards the lamppost to see the picture more carefully. It was the poster, as Aria could see, from maybe a week or so before, when Jason went all crazy about finding Alison's body. Right on top of that picture of her, there was a pad of notes – from the inner eye, Aria could see that it made up a fair sum.
She shook her head again, wondering what it meant, and instead opened the text message.
Thanks, J. Really appreciate it.
—A
No. No, no, no. Jason wouldn't…
Aria turned back around and ran to Jason's house. Thoughts were all over the place – A had a lot of money up his/her/the bitch's sleeve, and this was just purely a joke… right?
"Jason?" The house was dark, and Aria knocked on the door several times, hoping this wouldn't be like before, when he blown-out blanked her. She knocked again, until she gave the conclusion that he wasn't home.
She wasn't sure how long she waited – for a long, long time, at least.
"Aria?" Jason walked into the front porch. "Why didn't you go inside?"
Aria could have face palmed herself – of course, his selective memory – his key was where she was directly sitting, so why didn't she? She was too nervous, obviously – nervous for what he did, what he knew.
"Did you give anyone fifty thousand grand?" asked Aria suddenly as she regained herself. "Did you?"
"What the hell—"
"Just answer the question, Jason," Aria said, and she flinched as he came near. "Did you, or did you not give someone that reward in return for information on the whereabouts of Alison's body?" The way she was talking, she thought she was quite like Wilden, or some other interrogator.
"Aria."
"So you did," Aria said. "You did."
"Aria, I was going to—"
"So all this time, you've been lying to me?" Three steps – three steps was what she took, towards him, then one backwards as he started to speak, then one advanced as she interrupted him. Catching people out on a lie – it wasn't meant to feel like this, it was supposed to make you feel salient, and good, but this played out the opposite effect. Aria just wanted to go down, and down, and down, and just disappear from the face of the earth. She felt powerless. She felt trod on, all over again.
"Aria—"
"Don't!" she exclaimed.
"Don't what?" he intercepted. "I'm not doing anything."
"Yeah, well, you lied."
"And so did you."
Silence. Pause. Pause.
Aria looked at her boyfriend, examining his face – was he bluffing, or did he know about A? This wasn't happening – no, Jason couldn't have found out.
"When were you going to tell me A was back?" he asked defiantly.
"When were you going to tell me you were trusting these stupid Rosewood frauds," she shot back, with equal defiance. Currently, she resembled a fire cracker – one wrong move and she'd explode. Jason had already made all the wrong moves, lost all the points, but looking over, she'd done just the same.
"Aria, A—"
"How do you even know about A?"
"It doesn't matter," Jason said quickly.
"It doesn't matter," she mimicked. "Yes, Jason, it matters. It matters. I—" Aria sprinted off, and Jason tried to catch up, but he, too, was too angry, and let her go.
She wasn't sure how long she'd been running for, but she panted as she reached the end of yet another street, at yet another buzz of her phone.
Don't you know that my brother isn't the forgiving one?
—A
That's right – say hello to Wesley Fitz. That's a nice love triange, isn't it?
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