CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
Aria knocked on the door to the Hastings' house, but no one answered. The door was unlocked, so she just let herself in. Maybe Spencer forgot she was coming over tonight. But Spencer doesn't usually forger things. When Aria got inside she heard screaming coming from upstairs. Spencer was screaming for her sister, but Melissa was nowhere to be seen.
Aria dropped her purse and the food she had brought on the kitchen counter and ran upstairs to look for Spencer. She eventually found the girl in the steam room. Aria could barely see through the steam, but she saw Spencer on the floor behind the glass. A toilet plunger was being used to jam the door, so Spencer could not open it and the steam was on the highest setting.
She quickly pulled the plunger out from between the bars and opened the door. She pulled Spencer out and onto the floor of the bathroom.
"What happened?" Aria asked.
"I just went to sit in the steam room for a little bit and it started getting hotter and hotter. I went to turn it down, but it wouldn't. It kept saying there was an error or something. I tried to open the door, but the plunger had it jammed closed," Spencer told her.
"It's a good thing we made plans tonight and I got here when I did," Aria said, "I heard you calling for Melissa, but I didn't see her anywhere. Who locked you in there?"
"This was revenge," Spencer told her.
"For what happened with Mona?" Aria asked.
"For hooking up with Wren," Spencer told her.
"You…?"
"It's a long story," Spencer said.
"Why would Mona care about you and Wren?" Aria asked.
"Can you call Emily and Hanna? I need them to come over here," Spencer told Aria.
"Sure. Why?" Aria asked.
"I know who's helping Mona," Spencer replied.
"Oh. Yeah. I need your phone, though," Aria told her. Spencer handed Aria her phone from her dresser and Aria sent out and S.O.S. text to Hanna and Emily, "Uh, are you hungry or anything? The food is downstairs," she said.
"Maybe later," Spencer told her, "I don't think I can handle any food right now," she said.
"Okay," Aria said. They sat in silence while they waited for Emily and Hanna to arrive. It wasn't long before Emily arrived.
"Oh, my god, are you okay?" Emily asked hugging Spencer.
"Yeah," Spencer replied.
"Thank God Aria got here when she did," Emily said, "Where's Hanna?" she asked.
"I don't know. She's not answering any calls or texts," Aria replied. She had been texting both Emily and Hanna from Spencer's phone since Spencer had asked her to, but only got replies from Emily.
"So, who is it?" Emily asked, "Who's whelping Mona?"
"We should wait for Hanna," Spencer told her.
"No, this is too important to wait," Aria said, "We can tell her later."
"Okay, but you guys need to know that I have been warned not to tell you," Spencer told them."
"What's else is new?" Aria asked.
"Wait a minute. You've known who it is before tonight?" Emily asked.
"Yeah. I've known for a few weeks," Spencer said.
"Why didn't you tell us any sooner?" Aria asked feeling deceived.
"I wanted to be sure," Spencer said, "I didn't want to believe that it could be true. But after tonight happened, I can't keep this to myself anymore," she said. Spencer took a deep breath before looking at Aria and Emily, "Toby is 'A'," she told them.
"What?" Emily asked now understanding why Spencer didn't want to say anything. She didn't want to believe Toby could be 'A' either.
"So, what Alison wrote in Emily's notebook is true? Toby has hate us since she threw that firecracker in is garage?" Aria asked.
"Yeah, I guess so," Spencer replied.
"And the whole time you two were together he was just pretending?" Aria asked, "That can't be true," she said.
"We all know how much Toby loves you. It can't be true. There has to be more to the story," Emily said. Aria wanted to believe that there was more to the story, but they had seen so much over the past few years. She wasn't sure what to believe anymore.
"If he loved me, he would not have let me sit outside his loft and bawl my eyes out for hours," Spencer said, "He wouldn't have taken everything out of 'A's lair when he knew I had the key. He would be trying to hurt me…Us!" she exclaimed.
"I am so sorry, Spence," Aria said.
"Mona must have something over him," Emily said.
"Trust me. I have tried to come up with every possible explanation as to why he could be doing this, and it all leads back to the same conclusion," Spencer said.
"The Toby I know would never do anything to hurt any of us," Emily said. Spencer laughed bitterly.
"What's so funny?" Emily asked.
"You. You trying to make sense of all this," Spencer said, "You need to stop thinking of Toby of as the person you thought you knew and starts looking at him for who he really is."
"And how do I do that?" Emily asked defensively.
"You look at the facts, Emily!" Spencer shouted, "Mona was in New York City with the Decathlon Team. She couldn't have locked me in the steam room. That leaves Toby," Spencer said.
"How do you know they're the only two?" Aria asked, "Mona told me there's and 'A-Team'. Usually, a team is more than two people," Aria said.
"I mean, it's possible, but they're the only two I know of. So, as of right now, they are my choices. And Toby is the only choice right now since Mona is out of town," Spencer said, "The quicker you wrap your mind around this, the better!" she snapped.
"He built you a house?" Hanna asked as she and Aria drove out to the house Jason had 'bought her' according to Hanna. She hadn't yet told Emily or Spencer about it. She didn't know why, she just hadn't. Aria found the blueprints for the house in Jason's bedside table. It showed the layout of the house, which would make it a lot easier for her to figure out how she wanted to decorate it. She decided to bring Hanna along because she was good with decoration and designing things, mostly clothes. But she thought a house couldn't be too much different.
"No, he did not build me a house. He bought himself a house that needed some work done and renovated it," she told Hanna.
"Oooh! Like The Notebook when Noah renovated that house for Allie. I love that movie," Hanna said.
"I think I watched that one time, because you made me watch it on your birthday, so I couldn't say no," Aria said, "And I hated you for it because it made ma cry at the end, I hate crying at movies."
"It's a good movie. It's right up there with Titanic," Hanna told her, "Just a tiny bit below," she said.
"I made Jason watch Titanic a while back. He was so pissed at the end when she wouldn't let Jack on the door when there was clearly plenty of room for him. He went on a rant about it," Aria said, "He said if I ever did something like that to him we'd have issues."
"I know! That was so stupid!" Hanna shouted, "I demand a remake," she said, "And are we almost there. We've been driving for hours."
"It's been 12 minutes," Aria told her, "Now I know why Jason kept mocking me," she said, "They're just long roads so it seems longer than it really is. Plus, Jason likes to be secluded if you haven't noticed. The next turn is the driveway. That's when the GPS will tell us we've arrived at our destination, but don't get excited, because the driveway is like, five miles long," Aria said.
"Really?" Hann asked sounding dejected.
"No, but it's pretty long," Aria told her.
"Well, I'm excited anyway. I can't wait to decorate your new house," Hanna said.
"It's Jason's house, not mine," Aria said.
"But you'll basically live there," Hanna told her. She wasn't exactly wrong.
"Still keep in mind that it's Jason's house, not mine. We have to make it…like I don't know a word to describe it," Aria said, "But not girly."
"He said you can do what you want. We won't do girly. Just…laidback? That's a 'Jason' word, right?" Hanna said.
"That sounds good," Aria told her, "Like a homey, laidback place," Aria said, "If he doesn't like it we spent all his money for no reason."
"We'll make it perfect. Stop worrying," Hanna told her, "So, are you gonna move in with him when you graduate?" she asked.
"Well, I do plan on going to college, Han," Aria told her.
"Why don't you just do this design thing for a living?" Hanna asked.
"You make a lot more money if you have a degree," Aria replied turning onto the driveway. The very long driveway. It had to be at least a mile and a half long.
"This is a long driveway," Hanna said voicing Aria's thoughts, "It's like the whole drive to school and back."
"Maybe not that long," Aria said.
"Oh! I see it!" Hanna said, "Is it one story or two? I can't tell from here."
"You have the blueprints with you, right?" Aria asked. She had asked Hanna to keep them in her purse for her.
"Yeah, but then I would have to take them out of my purse and unfold it and all that," Hanna said, "Too much work."
"One story. Three bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms. Kitchen, living room, dining room, laundry room, finished basement. Two car garage. Awesome, covered, porch."
"Why so many bathrooms?" Hanna asked.
"Well, there is one en suite in the master bedroom. Then there is one full-bathroom connecting the other two bedrooms. There is a half-bathroom in the hallway, and a full-bathroom in the basement.
"Dang," Hanna said.
"Yeah," Aria replied.
"Maybe have one made for his birthday or something, "When is his birthday?" Hanna asked.
"July 10th," Aria told her.
"Aw, you're both born in the same month," Hanna said, "Now, when you have kids, you just have to plan it out, so they are born in July too. It would be perfect."
"You do know he broke up with me, right?" Aria reminded her, "I haven't even spoken to since he did," she said.
"But he wrote you a letter and gave you the key to his house, his credit card, and his car key, which, why aren't we driving instead of yours?" Hanna asked, "Oh! And he bought you a phone."
"Is Caleb done with my phone yet?" Aria asked.
"Is that all you took from that?" Hanna replied, "But, yes it's in my purse," she said. Aria parked the car in front of the garage. She put the house key on her keyring for the time being. Hanna handed Aria her phone and started talking, "So, I hope I get this right, if not, Caleb can tell you what I messed up at school tomorrow," Hanna said.
"Got it," Aria said.
"Okay, he said he tried to track where Jason was by the phone plan he is on, thinking that you would be on the same plan, but your phone is on a separate plan and he is paying with a different card that he is having a hard time tracing. Caleb put some kind of chip in the phone that he has in all of out phones, so they can't be traced or hacked after he did his sleuthing with Paige."
"Nice word, Han," Aria said.
"Thank you," Hanna smiled, "I've had it charging all day, so it should be good for a while. And I have the charger so keep all that in your purse," Hanna told her.
"Awesome. Thank you," Aria said, "Let's go," she said, and they walked up to the house.
"You don't want to call or text Jason?" Hanna asked.
"I'll call him when we're done here," Aria told her. Before Aria was even able to unlock the door, she got a text.
UNKNOWN: Hanna was right. Why aren't you driving Jason's car? -A"
"And why did I want my phone back, again?" Aria asked showing Hanna the text 'A' had just sent.
"I don't want to be right this time," Hanna replied, "What does that even mean? How long ago was that sent?"
"I'm guessing they're using some reverse phycology thing and want me to keep using my car because they did something to it. Or they did something to mine and want me to use Jason's car and want me to use his," Aria said, "I think we're fine right now. We got here fine and I didn't see anyone following us."
"Maybe we could call a cab to take us home later," Hanna suggested.
"I can't leave my car out here, Han," Aria said, "We'll just worry about it later," she said unlocking the front door of the house.
"Okay," Hanna said. They walked inside and started working on the house, completely forgetting about the text.
Unlike Hanna thought, Aria's car was fine when they left later that night. They had gotten a pretty good start on what they wanted to do with the house; mostly just the kitchen and the living room. They had a basic plan for every room but knew exactly what they wanted for the kitchen and living room. They were going to go back tomorrow and work on the bathrooms and dining room. They were going to save the bedrooms for last since nobody would be sleeping there for a while.
About halfway down the very long driveway something, an animal of some sort ran in front of the car. Aria swerved, and Hanna screamed. Aria tried to hit the brakes, but the car wouldn't stop. She steering wheel was jammed and her car crashed head on into the trunk of a large Oaktree.
AN: New chapter!
So…Jason wasn't in this one, but there was some Hanna/Aria time and Spencer told them about Toby. I kind of left you with a cliffhanger there. What do you think is gonna happen?
Is this what will make Jason join the A-Team? I know I want him on the A-Team, but not out there doing bad things like Toby was. IDK I'll figure it out.
I think I'm gonna have him play the Truth game with Noel or Eric or CeCe…any ideas other than them. Maybe Ezra or Wren?
I never understood if Ali was part of the A-Team of if she just ran around in the red coat and sometimes the black hoodie.
PM me with ideas or review ideas you might have. I love reading your reviews!
