Trigger warnings: In this chapter, there are snide comments about weight. There is also language relating to binging/purging.
Hanna was an unexpected one. I was sitting with Spencer and Aria at lunch at our usual table when Hanna came over and sat down next to Spencer. We all stopped talking to look at her, we thought she was crazy. No one just sat at someone's lunch table like that, you had to be invited.
"Excuse me?" I said.
"Hi, I'm Hanna." She smiled and started to dig into her lunch. Her tray was loaded with food served in our canteen. It was usually pretty nasty.
"And?"
"I wanted to sit with you guys at lunch."
"Well, that's cute but not just anybody can sit here and have lunch with us."
"What is this? Mean Girls?" Hanna laughed.
"No, this is real life and Sweetie with the way you eat you're probably not going to get far in it. So, go find someone else to share your carbs with."
Aria and Spencer stayed silent, not knowing what to say. I continued to stare down Hanna until she finally picked up her tray and went to sit down on the far side of the cafeteria.
"Wow Ali, that was harsh," Spencer said, going back to her sandwich.
"Whatever, we can't have just anybody sitting with us and making friends. That's not how this works."
"I think that's exactly how high school works," Aria replied, refusing to look up at me.
"It might for most people but not for us. Looks ladies, we are way better than all these other high school losers okay? We have standards and that girl does not meet them."
"Sounds like Mean Girls to me," Aria mumbled and Spencer laughed.
"Say what you want but I'm just trying to maintain our reputation."
"Why does that matter? Are you trying to be Homecoming Queen or something?" Spencer asked.
"Maybe, I mean I was thinking about it."
"Really? I didn't think you were into that kind of thing."
I didn't care much for Homecoming Queen, but it was a nice title to have. Homecoming Queen was one of those titles people carried for the rest of their lives in a small town like Rosewood. Plus, it would go a long way when getting in with cute boys and college and basically anything in life because people like to hire people who were popular in high school. If you were popular, it meant people liked you, and aspired to be like you, and who doesn't want that?
"It's not really my thing but it wouldn't hurt to have the title of Homecoming Queen."
"I suppose it would go along with your other title of Queen Bitch," Spencer smirked.
I shoved her, "very original, but I'll take it; there are worse titles to have."
The bell rang and we began to clear things up and go our separate ways to class. As we left the cafeteria I looked over at Hanna, she was throwing her half-eaten lunch in the trash and looked upset. I was impressed with her confidence to try and sit with us but at the same time; she wasn't strong enough to stand her ground. Though I think I could see potential, someone with that kind of bravery could be useful.
"You didn't humiliate me enough earlier?" Hanna asked, lifting her bag and walking up to me.
"Please, if you had a backbone, you would have stood your ground."
"You made it pretty clear I wasn't welcome."
"Well, I saw something in you earlier so I'm going to extend an invitation to you."
"For lunch? No thanks."
"Not lunch, a sleepover."
"A sleepover?"
"Yes, tomorrow night, Spencer's house."
"I'll think about it."
"Don't think too hard, it's not like I give out invitations to just anyone."
"I'm late for class."
Hanna pushed past me and went on to her class. I took out my phone to send a text to Spencer to let her know about the sleepover she was going to be hosting.
(***)
"Ali, you can't just be inviting randomers to my house!" Spencer snapped on the phone. She had called me immediately after school because she was not happy about the sleepover.
"She's not a randomer! She is a potential new friend. Calm down." I explained filing my nails. I don't know what it was, but Spencer had been on edge lately. I suspected some kind of drug use but when I confronted her, she said she was fine. Though, a girl under that kind of pressure from her family to be perfect had to be on something.
"I thought you didn't want us to associate with losers like her."
"She might not be a loser, after all, I think we are underestimating her."
"We? We didn't have a chance to do anything, you made the decision for us."
"And I'm making this one too,"
"So, what is it that you see in her?"
"I don't know yet, that's why we need this."
"Well lucky for you my parents said it's okay, we can even use the barn."
The barn was the building at the back of the Hastings residence that used to house horses. A few years ago, the Hastings renovated it into a little apartment, fitted with a working bathroom and kitchenette. It was a present for Melissa for doing so well in high school and she used it for her senior year. Spencer was hoping that she too would get to use it for her senior year of high school and had been dropping hints but her parents had said nothing about it yet. Probably because we still had a few years until we were seniors.
"I thought Melissa was still living there with Ian."
"No, they are moving out, they found a place near Hollis."
"Ah so that's what's going on with you, you're going to miss Ian."
"No way am I going to miss him. Besides I told you nothing is going on between us anymore."
Spencer had told me that she and Melissa's boyfriend Ian had shared a kiss once before. She promised me that she would tell Melissa, only so that I wouldn't tell her instead. I had no evidence that Melissa knew about the kiss, but Spencer insisted she'd told her, and they'd work things out.
"If you say so,"
"So, what's the plan for this impromptu sleepover?" Spencer changed the subject.
"I don't know yet, but it'll be something fun. I'll keep you posted." I hung up the phone and started to put my mind to work.
Sleepovers were fundamental to a friendship, they bonded us and allowed us to get into all kinds of trouble. Well, Spencer called it trouble, I called it fun. The last time we had a sleepover, we snuck out to a party that Noel Kahn was throwing, and Spencer got drunk and threw up in the bushes outside her house. She wasn't happy about her hangover the next day, but I know that she still had a good time.
Now all I had to do was find out what fun we could get up to with Hanna.
(***)
The next day at lunch, Hanna showed up at our lunch table, she made a point of dropping her tray and bag down and sitting next to me, Spencer and Aria were sitting opposite.
"Hey guys," She smiled. I noticed that today her hair wasn't naturally blonde, it was dyed, and she was also wearing clothes that were similar to my own. My very own mini-me, except she wasn't smaller than me, she was bigger .
"Hi, what are you doing here?" I asked.
"Having lunch,"
"Did I ask you to have lunch with us?"
"No, but I thought about what you said yesterday and now I do have a backbone so I'm staying."
I nodded. She was learning. "Girls this is Hanna, Hanna this is Aria and Spencer."
Aria and Spencer mumbled their 'hello's surprised that I was letting Hanna stay after yesterday's scene.
Lunch was spent listening to Hanna talking at us, she didn't talk about anything, in particular, just anything that came into her head. I guess she was nervous about actually being allowed to stay, she never really thought I would let her. The rest of us pretended to listen, every so often we would text each other wondering when she would shut up.
"I'm super excited about this sleepover guys, thanks so much for inviting me." Hanna picked up her pudding cup. "Do you need me to bring anything?"
"Just yourself, maybe something cute to wear. Nothing so..." I looked Hanna up and down, her clothes looked like they were struggling to stay together. "Fitted? Think loose and flowy, we might go out."
"Go out? Where?"
"I don't know, a club, a college party, you never know what will come up."
"Wow, you guys are so cool."
"Just a typical Friday night you know?" I smiled, the bell rang, and I was relieved. I was done listening to Hanna talk for the day.
Once we had left the table Spencer and Aria followed me to class wondering what I was thinking, inviting her to hang out with us.
"She's so annoying Ali," Aria whined.
"So were you when you first sat with us at lunch." I reminded her. "Look, the sleepover will be her test, if she fails, she's out, but if she succeeds, I will put her in line."
"What kind of test?" Spencer asked.
"I don't know, I think she's got a fight in her. We need to push her to her limits. So, I need you to raid your parent's liquor cabinet for goodies."
"I'll do my best, but they are still suspicious after the last time."
"Anything is better than nothing, I'll see you, girls, later."
(***)
When I showed up at Spencer's house, I walked straight in without knocking, I had basically become part of the family now that I didn't need the formalities. It's not like I was going to walk into something shocking, though I always hoped that I would.
What I found was Ian scrolling on his phone sitting in the living area, so I went over to say hi.
"Hey lover," I smiled sitting down next to him.
"What are you doing here?" He seemed annoyed.
"Spencer is having a sleepover, what are you doing here? I thought you didn't live here anymore?"
"Melissa needs help lifting some boxes, but she hasn't even finished packing them yet."
"Typical, so where is Spencer?"
"I haven't seen her, she usually avoids me."
"Why because you guys kissed?"
"Alison..." I had told Ian that I knew about him and Spencer long ago because I needed to make sure he knew who was in control of this relationship. He couldn't end it because I threatened to tell Melissa about us and even worse, about him and Spencer.
"What? It was a genuine question."
"Just mind your own business for once and go find Spencer."
"Fine but just know I'll miss you when you are away." I kissed him on the cheek before heading upstairs.
When I reached the top of the stairs; I almost crashed into Melissa who was carrying a box and looked like she was struggling.
"Watch where you're going!" She called.
"I'm sorry I was just looking for Spencer," I replied.
Melissa lowered the box so she could look at me. "Oh, Alison, Spencer is out in the barn with some girl with pink stripes in her hair. You guys will be staying there tonight."
"Okay cool, thanks." I turned around and headed back downstairs. As I was going towards the door; I heard Melissa calling Ian for help. I hoped he would get used to being called as a slave whenever she needed, that seemed to be their entire relationship.
I opened the door to the barn and found Spencer and Aria sitting on the stools at the kitchen counters gossiping about something.
"I've arrived," I announced, throwing my bag down and jumping up onto the counter between the girls. "How long have you guys been here?"
"About half an hour, my dad said we should stay out here to not disturb his work," Spencer replied.
"This is great, makes it easier to sneak out." I winked.
"So that's the plan?"
"It might be, gotta see what's happening tonight."
"When is Hanna supposed to be here?"
"No idea,"
"Does she even know where I live?"
"If she wants to be here, I'm sure she'll figure it out. Let's order pizza."
I grabbed my bag and headed to the bathroom to change into my pyjamas. When I came back out Spencer was already on the phone with the pizza place and Aria was searching for something to watch on Netflix.
"So what do you wanna watch?" Aria asked, flicking through the movies.
"Whatever as long as it's not a weird art thing," I said sitting next to her.
Spencer hung up the phone and sat down too. "So, you think she's actually gonna find her way here?"
"It's not like you live on Mars, Spence, give it time."
"I can't believe you didn't tell her the address." Aria shook her head.
"You gotta make her work for it, otherwise it's not worth it."
(***)
An hour or so passed, and we were halfway through our pizza and movie when Hanna arrived. She was towing a huge bag with her and was wearing a onesie.
"Hey, guys!"
"Sit down, you are missing a good part," Aria said.
Hanna dropped her bag and sat down. I was surprised that she didn't talk, she just watched the movie and inhaled the remainder of our pizza.
"This isn't what I pictured when you said sleepover," Hanna said when the movie was over.
"What do you mean? This is peak high school sleepover." I said turning the TV off.
"Sure, but when you were talking earlier it sounded like we'd be drinking and sneaking out."
"Is that why you chose to come in that onesie?" I raised an eyebrow.
"I couldn't let my mom get suspicious." Hanna stood up and went over to her bag. "I brought some cute outfits and some drinks." She pulled out a couple of bottles of vodka and gin.
"Nice, okay girls, I think we should get this party started." I pulled out my phone and began to ask around to see if there was anything happening tonight.
Spencer turned on some music and Aria went into the bathroom to change; Hanna began to pour way too much vodka into some cups with Coke.
"Just so you know, if we do leave or anything we need to wait until after ten. That's when my dad usually goes to bed after taking his sleeping pill." Spencer said while looking through all the clothes Hanna brought.
"Nothing good happens before ten anyway," I was helping Spencer go through all of Hanna's clothes. It was clear that she wasn't much of a party girl and didn't own anything cool. Most of the nicer clothes looked like they were her mom's and too small for her.
"What do you guys think?" Aria came out of the bathroom wearing a black mini dress, fingerless gloves that went to her elbows and fishnet tights. It was a very Aria look.
"Oh my God, you look amazing!" Hanna gushed. "I wish I could look like that I know I never would though."
"Of course, you could, you just need to lose weight." I patted her on the shoulder. "But eating pizza and marshmallows probably isn't the way to go. Also, these clothes are trash."
"They are the best I have," Hanna picked up a pink sparkly top and sighed.
"Well, then we need to take you shopping." I took the top from her and threw it to the back of the room.
"Right now?" Her eyes lit up.
"No, you idiot. Now we need to find something that will pass as an outfit. However, I have nothing that will fit you. Maybe we can just throw a sheet on you and belt it."
"I think I might have something," Spencer said getting up and heading towards the door to her house. "I'm sure there are some old clothes in the attic or something."
"I'll go with you," I say, grabbing my slippers and following Spencer out the door.
(***)
An hour later, we were all dolled up and ready for the night ahead. We managed to find Hanna an old dress of Spencer's mom's that made her look a little less frumpy than before. And Aria insisted on giving us all makeovers, so we all had matching smoky eyes which were far too dark, but we at least looked a little older.
"Okay, so I just got the word from Noel that there's a gathering happening at his cabin tonight and we are invited," I said looking up from my phone.
Spencer groaned. "Not Noel's again. My mom still hasn't forgiven me for ruining her rose bushes."
I laughed, "well then don't drink so much this time silly. Now come on, we have to get going if we are going to arrive at a decent time."
When we got to Noel's cabin, the party was in full swing. High school seniors were spilling out of the cabin and onto the lawn, music was blaring, and I could even spot a few college guys milling around with Noel's older brother. Perfect.
The Kahn family cabin was infamous in Rosewood, it was where all the biggest parties were thrown when the Kahns' parents were out of town. There hasn't been a legendary story that hasn't started at the Kahn residence, and even though he won't say it, I feel like Noel's dad is secretly proud of the legacy he has built here.
Spencer and Aria headed straight into the party making themselves comfortable, but Hanna stayed at the doorway looking very insecure.
"Where's all your confidence now?" I asked coming up behind her.
"What are you talking about?" Her voice was shaky, but she tried to act like it was nothing. "I was just scoping out the man candy."
"Why don't you go over and introduce yourself? Guys love a girl with confidence." I smiled and pushed her towards Noel and a bunch of other guys playing beer pong. "Hey guys, this is Hanna."
"Hey Alison," Noel came over to give me a hug. "Hi, Hanna."
"H-hi," Hanna said, blushing.
"So, is this the new recruit?" Noel looked her up and down, he wasn't a fan.
"She might be, but we need to put her through her paces," I said, grabbing a cup off the beer pong table and handing it to her. "Drink up Sweetie."
Hanna took the cup and took a sip before spitting it out, "what is this?"
Noel laughed, "Beer, pumpkin. She's not gonna last through the night Ali, make sure she doesn't throw up on the carpet." He patted my shoulder before heading out to the back where the lake was.
"I can't believe I just spat out my drink in front of Noel Kahn." Hanna said, wiping her mouth.
"Well next time just swallow it and be polite." I snapped, grabbing another cup. "Clearly you need to learn how to build tolerance, so drink these and I don't want to see you with an empty cup tonight. Alright?" Hanna nodded and began to gulp down the beer. "I think we should play a game."
"Ooh like what?" Hanna said, setting her empty cup down and picking up another one.
"Truth or dare," I smiled and stood up on a coffee table to get everyone's attention. "TRUTH OR DARE ANYONE?" I yelled.
Soon we had a group of people gathered around to play the game, although I was only interested in one player, the rest were just for show. Aria and Spencer joined in too, knowing they didn't really have a choice.
"I'll go first," I volunteered.
"I dare you to…kiss that guy." Hanna said pointing to a stranger in the back of the room.
"Easy," I made my way through the crowd to the tall, dark stranger in the corner. I tapped him on the shoulder and smiled, it was Noel's older brother Eric. Lucky me. "Hey you,"
"Hey Ali, I see you've already started the games." He nods to the group watching us.
"Of course, what's a party without any games?" I pull him down and kiss him on the lips. Noel's brother Eric is a known bad boy of Rosewood and he wouldn't let just any random girl kiss him, especially a freshman in high school. Though I think he had a soft spot for me because he didn't immediately pull away.
"Oh, so it's that kind of game, count me in." Eric said when we broke apart.
"As if," I stepped back, "just some harmless truth or dare." I winked and went back to the game.
"Oh my God, I can't believe you just walked up to the Eric Kahn and kissed him!" Hanna squealed when I came back to the circle.
"Oh please, we all know he's a player. He would kiss anything that moved." I rolled my eyes. "Who's next?"
The game went on for a few rounds, including Hanna, who had decided to go with truth, which was boring, her biggest secret is that she used to have an imaginary friend 'til she was 11. Embarrassing but not the kind of dirt I was hoping for. Spencer chose a dare and impressed the group as she managed to flirt with a senior and get his phone number. Though really, he was just a guy on the football team she tutored. Aria decided to go truth and revealed that she had her bellybutton pierced without her parents knowing. We did that together, but Spencer was too chicken to get hers done too.
Eventually we went around everyone until we ended up at me again. This time I chose truth.
"Who is your biggest crush?" Hanna beat everyone out again.
"I don't have one." I replied and everyone booed.
"Oh, come on, there has to be someone." Hanna pressed.
"Okay, there is someone. But he's dating someone else." I reveal thinking about Ian. I know the girls are going to be desperate to know more, but I won't let them have it.
"Omg is he older?"
"I'm not telling, you only get one question. Now Hanna, it's your turn again. But you have to do a dare."
"Okay fine, but I'm so not kissing any boys!" She laughed.
"Fine, then I dare you to strip tease for everyone. On that table." I pointed to the beer pong table in the middle of the room.
"What?" Hanna looked terrified.
"Get on the table and strip." I demanded. "I'll even pick a cute song for you. Spencer, Aria, help her onto the table."
The two girls looked at me unsure of what I was planning but I just pointed to the table again. So they took Hanna by the arms and led her to the table and helped her up.
"Everyone, Hanna is about to put on a little show for us!" I yelled and asked some of the other people who were playing with us to gather the crowd from outside, this was one they shouldn't miss.
A few minutes later, everyone was gathered around the beer pong table yelling at Hanna to "take it off" as I played a sexy Spotify playlist over the sound system.
Hanna was standing in the middle of the table with her knees locked together and her arms covering her chest, still fully clothed but I could tell she wanted to cry. I decided to get up on the table to see if I could help her out.
"What are you doing?" Hanna asked.
"Helping, now give the people what they wanna see!" I said undoing the belt on her dress and beginning to unzip it.
"Stop it Ali! I don't want to do it!"
"Then why are you on the table?"
"Because you got your friends to put me here!"
"You could have come down at any point."
"No, I couldn't! Everyone is yelling at me!"
"So? There's nothing wrong with admitting defeat, you can crawl off the table and all the way back home. No one is going to miss you, and you can forget about sitting with us at lunch. It's such a shame for you to have come so far only to bail out now. I knew the confidence was all an act, if you can't stand with us then you'll fall. Hard." I pushed her on the shoulder, and she took a couple of steps back. "So, what's it going to be then? A show? Or running back home to mommy?"
Everyone in the crowd started chanting 'mommy's girl'. "Your choice, don't let the door hit you on the way out," I said kissing her on the cheek before coming down from the table.
"O-okay, give me a better song than that," Hanna said, bending down to grab a cup off somebody and gulping it down.
Someone else put a slow, seductive song on and Hanna began to shake her hips from side to side and wave her arms around, I suppose it was her version of dancing. The crowd cheered and Hanna removed her belt and threw it into the crowd. Next, she began to unzip her dress and let it fall to her ankles, revealing her old, tattered sports bra and huge underwear with pink zebras printed on them.
Everyone started to laugh. "Oh my God, what are those?" Someone yelled.
"They look like my little sister's pants" Someone else started.
"Look at her body jiggling that, that's so gross!" Another person called.
And the comments kept going. The crowd turned nasty pretty quickly and soon people were throwing cups of alcohol around Hanna, and she was grabbing her clothes and running out of the room.
"What the hell was that?" Aria came over to me while Spencer ran after Hanna.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Are you kidding?" Aria looked furious. "That was the worst thing you've ever done."
"Trust me, I've done way worse. Besides, she needed this."
"No one deserves to be treated that way, Ali."
"It was a test; you can't just expect to be my friend and not go through some hardships."
"Who even are you right now?" Aria stormed off and I went to get myself a drink.
After the crowd had dispersed back to their regular party activities, I decided to go looking for Hanna. Spencer came and told me she and Aria couldn't find her and that they were going home. She also told me not to expect to be let into the barn when I returned later to collect my things. I was annoyed that the girls had decided to turn on me; but I shook it off, they were not the priority right now.
"Hanna?" I poked my head around the door of the bathroom. Hanna was curled up in the corner of the bathroom with a plate of brownies.
"What do you want?" She snapped, stuffing another one into her mouth.
"I just wanted to check on you, are you okay?"
"Obviously not."
"Oh honey, you should not be eating after that performance," I said moving the plate away from her.
"Fuck you."
"I bet you feel pretty awful right now. I mean how many of these things have you eaten?"
"What does it matter? I know I'll never be part of your group anyway, why would I need to be skinny?"
"You completed the dare, didn't you?"
"I guess…"
"Then you're in." I smiled. "So, let's see if we can make you feel better."
I pulled Hanna off the ground and stood her up so she could look at herself in the mirror.
"Look at this girl," I said, pulling her hair back to show her face. "She's a mess, she's overweight, and not doing herself any favours by dressing like a tramp."
"You said I looked nice in this dress!" Hanna stepped away from me.
"Well, that was your mistake in believing me. But seriously, you could be so much better. You just need to take the first step."
"What's that?"
"Getting rid of this weight. You know that no one is going to take you seriously until you look the part."
"I've tried all those diet things they aren't for me."
"Then I'll show you how I get rid of all the food after an awful day of binge eating. We all have those times when we feel bad, and food is the only thing that will make us feel better."
That night I helped Hanna throw up for the first time. She was hesitant at first, but she did admit to feeling better afterwards. Once she had been cleaned up, I walked with her back to Spencer's. The other girls were still not happy with me after what had happened, but I explained to them that everything was fine, and Hanna confirmed that she was okay, and she was happy to be there.
Things were pretty tense for the remainder of the night, but I knew I just needed to give Aria and Spencer some time to cool off. They could never stay mad at me for long, I knew all the right buttons to push to get them back on side. But the main concern was still Hanna.
The next day, I offered to walk her home to see how she was feeling; the last thing I needed was for her to tell her mom about the awful mean girls at her very first high school sleepover.
"So how are you feeling?" I asked as soon as we stepped out of Spencer's yard.
"Kind of gross," Hanna said, blowing her breath out onto her hand and sniffing it. "And my breath is disgusting, no amount of mouthwash is going to disguise the sick from last night."
"Don't worry about that, have some chewing gum." I pulled a pack of gum from my pocket.
"Thanks, so does this mean I passed the test?"
"You have and so you're in. For now, there's still a lot for you to learn if you want to be officially part of the friend group."
"Of course, I'll take all the help I can get."
"You just need to build the confidence; you have flashes of bravery, but they don't last long. You just need to believe in yourself a little more, you know?"
"Yeah, I get you, I think the first step in that is losing weight. I feel like it holds me back a lot."
"Well, we can work on that, and you can always do what I showed you last night. It can help too."
"I don't know if that's something I really want to rely on, but I'll keep it in mind."
"Good, well you know I'm here to help." I smiled.
Hanna and I continued to talk as we walked to her house, it turns out she lived further away than I thought, and I was fed up with the polite chit-chat by the time we reached her gate. Just as we were saying goodbye, a man came storming out of Hanna's house and a woman was yelling after him. I assumed they were her parents.
"…AND DON'T COME BACK!" Hanna's mom was about to slam the door when she saw us standing by the gate. "Oh, hi Hanna, did you have a good time at the sleepover?"
"Yeah, mom it was great," Hanna said watching her dad get into his car and drive off. "Where is dad going?"
"He is going to be staying at a hotel for a couple of nights. It's nothing you should be worried about. And who is your friend?"
"I'm Alison DiLaurentis." I said, reaching out to shake Mrs Marin's hand. "Nice to meet you."
"I'm Ashley, Hanna's mom, it's nice to meet you too, although I wish you hadn't seen us making a scene. We are usually a lot more pleasant than that."
"No worries, my parents fight too. It's no big deal."
"Yes well, even so it's not ideal for us to be airing our drama out for the whole street to see. Hanna, you should probably come inside so we can talk."
"Sure mom, let me say goodbye to Alison first, okay?"
"Okay, don't take too long," Ashley took Hanna's bags and headed back into the house.
"So that was awkward," Hanna said when her mom had gone.
"Don't worry about it, parents fight all the time."
"I don't know, this time it's different. I think my dad is having an affair."
"I'm sorry Hanna, that must be awful." Another parental affair? First Aria's dad and now this, interesting, I guess boring suburban life isn't for everyone.
"Yeah, I think my mom's known for a while, but I guess she finally got her proof. Anyway, I should probably get in there before she drinks a whole bottle of wine or something."
"Of course, well just know you can call me anytime if you need me." I put my hand on Hanna's shoulder.
"Thanks, Ali, I'm glad I have a friend like you." Hanna pulled me in for a hug.
"No problem," I said, detaching myself from her quickly. "Meet us before school on Monday? We can get coffee at the Rosewood Grille?"
"Sounds great. Text me the time?"
"Sure,"
After the sleepover, Hanna was integrated into the group. Spencer was surprised that I let her stick around and wondered what dirt I had on her. I told her it was nothing to concern herself about and that she should mind her own business. Hanna's little purging secret stayed between me and Hanna. Plus I enjoyed having someone like Hanna in the group, she was fun to torture.
Hanna never complained when I was rude to her because she thought I was just trying to help her be the best version of herself. Which, in some ways I was but most of the time I was just bored, and she was an easy target.
And so, the threesome became a foursome, and I was content with how our group was coming along. Yet there was still something missing…I just wasn't sure what it was yet.
