To my Pretty Little Liars fans. It's been many years since my last intro to my stories of My Life in Rosewood based off of my OC Jessie Brant when she was in her junior and senior years of high school. Since then I've made 2 more stories based off of her. One is a remastered version of her junior year, which is already being updated and can be checked out now. Then there is this one, where I finally decided to get back into writing a continuation after Jessie's senior year perspective and try the flash-forward episodes. I only got a few chapters into this story so the updates may be slower than it used to be. However, I wanted to give a glimpse of the first chapter just to see if my past readers (and new ones) enjoy it. If you haven't read the 2 previous stories than you'll be confused to what has happened since I base it off of my OC in the world of PLL, so if you're up for some background stories I'd recommend starting over.

Keep in mind that if new readers decide to go back to those 2 stories this was from years ago, and I was still figuring out my writing style and how to tell a story. So compared to this one it'll be more cringy and not as fluent, so be gentle on the feedback.

Let me know what you think of the 3rd installment to Jessie as we flash-forward years later. Thank you and enjoy.

Also, who has watched the HBO Max spinoff, Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin? What are your thoughts? Leave a comment or PM me if you'd like to chat about it!

It's been a little over five years since I graduated high school and a few months since I graduated college. But it's been ten years since the biggest news in a small town occurred, that the most popular girl in school, Alison DiLaurentis, had gone missing at the age of 13. This news had turned the town of Rosewood, Pennsylvania into a hurricane of emotions, and mysteries that no one could explain. Then six years since the four best friends of Alison (losers turned popular girls) named Spencer Hastings, Hanna Marin, Aria Montgomery and Emily Fields started to be stalked by a mysterious person calling themself A when the discovery of Alison's dead body turned up three years after her disappearance. But then, PLOT TWIST, it turned out that Alison had been alive all those years when she finally came back a year and a half after this stalker started bothering these girls, and it turns out that someone else's body had been buried in her place.

Yeah, if you think that is insane, wait till you hear the rest. It had turned out that this stalker started a "game" that would change everyone's lives involved, and not for the better. This included me, my life was already in a downward spiral when my family died, and this person did not make it any better. My life changed even worse than it had been from being involved in A's thinking that I'd be a good pawn in their revenge on my four friends. I was apparently one of the best options to make them realize that popularity and being loyal to someone who hated anyone beneath her was a no go. Now, when I say I was part of this, I mean unwillingly of course. Or, at least I was when A known as Mona Vanderwaal took me hostage. Because my need to help my friends was out of the goodness of my heart and Mona took advantage of that. Despite this I've grown to love her as a good friend even though her unhealthiness to cyberbully my closest friends back in high school almost got me killed. She scarred me physically and mentally because in her mentally ill mind, she was doing the right thing. I forgave her as time passed, because it wasn't her fault, but my brain still flashes back to it every once in a while. Except, that wasn't the end of this craziness.

Mona wasn't as bad as it had been when CeCe Drake took the mantle though. This A had been discovered to be Alison's long lost transgender sister formerly known as Charles DiLaurentis. She decided months later to take over Mona's "game" and CeCe managed to put my life into a bigger near death experience for her own personal reasons against my best friends. These two things scarred me in more ways than could be imagined. My last two years of high school were hell and I won't get that time back.

Despite all that, and with a lot of help from the people who love me, I've managed to show myself that I can still be the same girl I had been before these events took place. But at the same time it haunts me so bad that sometimes it makes me afraid of a lot of things and that includes my own shadow. But till this day I'll still parade around and act like I'm okay for the sake of the people who love me, still being me. Still Jessie Brant, the kid who loved sports, skateboarding, protected everyone I cared for over my own needs. That hasn't changed in the slightest. What has changed is how I started to process things after it all happened. Almost every time I'd get home I'd lock myself in with double locks at my front door and an alarm system, afraid that CeCe or anyone like her would come for me again. Walking, skateboarding, even driving around on my own made me skittish on thinking someone was following me. But as time passed my fears have died down enough to not be as noticeable to others outside of myself. Now I only use one lock rather than both, and doing simple tasks I'm not always looking over my shoulders with the intention of somebody sneaking up on me. On occasion I can still get this way, assuring my friends and family that I'm okay. But the people who know me well still keep an eye on me, knowing that there are things that can trigger me even after all these years.

In the hopes of keeping it all behind me I do my best to be busy. At the age of 23 I still have the sports store I inherited from my parents, so the majority of the day I'm either hiding out there, or going into other towns or cities like Philadelphia to find inspiration for my drawings for an agent who took notice of my art in college. Luckily my store is still booming after all this time since coaches for Rosewood High's sports teams and parents for their recreation kids teams come around pretty much daily. I've even had people from out of town come in. Sports have kept me in business from the age of 15 till now. It was a miracle that I had been able to keep it afloat while I was in high school and college, but I made due. Even hired some help after all my time of arguing against it because I've always been as stubborn as my dad.

...

As time went by the scary nights turned to nicer days, while the long days of fear came and went, and soon enough things got easier to cope. Now it's years after all the chaos and the sun rises, seeping through my window when my eyes open swiftly to a nightmare of my past that tends to spring up every once in a while. I take a breath, noticing the time being 9 in the morning but see it's a beautiful day as the blurry mess of my horrible eyesight comes into view. I shift my eyes to the ceiling, panting a bit from the moment of panic, feeling like I'm back in my senior year of highschool, prom night when we found out that CeCe was actually A all along and couldn't control my fears.

A flash of the dream I just had pops into my head from what happened five years ago, seeing one of the Rosewood cops pulling CeCe out of the old closed down sanitarium called Radly while in cuffs, her eyes landing on me and her insanely demented smile creeps up on her. That night all of my memories lost from the day she took me came rushing back, the way she kidnapped me after a car accident, the torture she did to make sure she had evidence for the girls to see how serious she was for days, then the seizure she caused that made me lose chunks of time swarmed into my brain so quickly that I could hardly handle any of it after not knowing what happened for months. She looked satisfied with herself as she praised the fact that losing my memories allowed her to continue what she was doing as A without having to worry I'd spill the beans, because the night I had that seizure was from her torturing me so badly with a taser that it caused me to convulse and almost killed me. In that moment of weakness on her part she had panicked because it "wasn't part of the plan" and revealed her face under that creepy dark mask she wore behind the hooded shadow seeing her as the one who had kidnapped me. But with the memory loss after waking up from a coma days later I had no idea what had happened and it ended with being no help to anyone while my best friends were trapped for a month in this crazy person's bunker of torture.

After I catch my breath and force myself to relax, to remind myself that CeCe isn't around anymore I stretch and make a soft noise of being disturbed, rubbing the exhaustion out of my eyes and I yawn deeply. Once I'm a little more awake I roll onto my other side and see that one of my guy best friends is lying beside me, Noel Kahn. Back in high school he was the most popular guy in school, the one everyone wanted to be friends with, to be noticed by. This is the same guy who gave me the chance to be his girlfriend for a few years, even though I was not the most liked girl at school. I was popular in the eyes of playing basketball and softball for the high school teams, but growing up unpopular is the reputation that stuck with me even when I started to make a name for myself. I was still bullied despite being a jock and somehow he never saw me as anything less than his friend and eventually, girlfriend. That is until we started college and things got a little rocky between us. By then we started on and off dating for those few years, too long in fact this went on for. We tried to make it work but it ended up being a lot for us because we went to two different schools in towns hours apart while still trying to date each other. But in the end we called it quits. I had stayed here in Rosewood when we graduated, while he headed off to a school in Philadelphia and this eventually made us realize that it was too hard to be in a long distance relationship. So we decided to stay friends and just to live the rest of our college time without being held down by one another. Now we are comfortably single while living our lives out of college the best way we can without feeling like we have to date again, wanting happiness wherever it can be found.

I watch him for a few long seconds beside me, so proud of the person he's become. Growing up he was a popular rich kid and had a reputation to keep up his appearance as one, but he wasn't the boy people thought he was in school. I saw a side to him no one else did. I saw right past his "badboy" act, and now as a man he still seems to surprise old friends on how different he is. He still has his times where he acts like a badass with his friends, but I will always see past that knowing he's not that man.

For example, I had a rough night and he was at my door in seconds. Most people in this town wouldn't bother, feeling as if all the torture myself and the girls went through was enough "attention", but he's been with me every step of the way. He saw my good and bad days while I saw his vulnerable states, and this made us a lot closer. I never expected it from anyone, especially since I'd gone through something like this a few times before and people would leave from not being able to handle my back and forth emotions for longer than a few months. But he surprised me, he stuck with me through it all.

Once my head is clear my smile grows a little more as I take a breath and lean forward to kiss him gently on the cheek, not wanting to wake him I sit up and slowly get out of bed. I grab glasses and my phone off the nightstand before heading out of my room, closing the door behind me. I walk through the hall towards the bathroom, staring at the two bedroom apartment I've been living in since I was 17. Being in college I wasn't able to afford to live anywhere else besides the place above the store I own. Not much has changed other than upgrading the apartment to make it more modern instead of beat up looking.

Once I reach the bathroom I close the door behind me, rubbing my sleepy face as I look in the mirror. I'm years older, yet still look like I could be in high school. I get called 16 all the time, carded for liquor constantly. But as every older adult has been telling me since I reached the legal age to drink, I'll thank God when I'm older that I still look young. I just smile at the thought as I brush my teeth, comb my red hair and as I've been doing forever, put it in a side ponytail. My green eyes shimmer behind my dark blue square glasses, the scar hiding slightly beneath my side bang visible from the car accident that occurred when CeCe took me. Even the half moon scar curving around the temple part of my eyebrow still haunts me from when I got it. As I touch them I flash back for a second to the sound of the crash the day that the girls got framed for a murder, and then to the night when Mona hit me with that crowbar in her mentally ill state of mind on the night she took me.

Then speaking of the devil, my phone starts to ring and I stare down at it on the sink and see that it's Mona calling me. We've been thick as thieves since I forgave her for what she'd done. She became one of my best friends at the end of senior year of high school till now. Even though we were in different states for college we never lost touch. We are even partners in a campaign she came up with for her work in politics. The person she works for is having a fundraiser and Mona vouched for me to be able to set up a sports fair in town for all the kids. Her boss's way of getting the votes she needs to be the next Senator of Pennsylvania. This of course made me feel awkward considering that Spencer's mom, Veronica Hastings, is actually doing the same to run for Senator.

Veronica Hastings and her husband were my guardians after my parents passed away, and before I went to live with my best friend and her family when they adopted me on my parents wishes. She and her husband were lawyers and they did their magic to keep me in Rosewood so I didn't have to go back to New Jersey. I grew up in this town not long after moving away from New Jersey when I was around 3 years old. Both of my parents' family all wanted to take me away from my hometown in Pennsylvania while I wanted to stay here with the people I grew up with. Thank goodness the Hastings helped me, otherwise I would have been miserable in another state. Not that it was any better here because of the A drama, and all the bullying I was put through. But I wouldn't change being here for the world. My best friends were here and my memories of my parents and brother are here.

I smile softly at my phone as I see her name and set it to my ear, "Hello?" I turn away from the mirror and head back into the hall, heading over to the kitchen.

"Good morning, Jessie!" She says in her chipper sing-song-like voice, making me close my eyes to how loud she always seems to be over the phone because of it.

"Morning, Mona. Someone is very happy at this time of day." I go to the pantry and grab a box of my favorite cereal, Smacks, and set it onto the island with a bowl and gallon of milk.

She laughs, making me smile to myself that even though our high school years were rough I can still enjoy having her in my life. "I'm going to be in town later and I wanted to run some ideas for the fair with you."

I sigh a bit as I pour my cereal and grab the milk, she's still the same control freak she was as a kid. Always changing plans at the last minute. "Mona, it's in three days. What could you possibly have to add to it? We had everything accounted for and finished last week."

"Yes, I know. I'm sorry, but I woke up this morning and it just popped into my head." She says with excitement.

"Okay, I'll bite." I say curiously as I sit at the island with my bowl and a cup of orange juice, "What's your idea?"

"A tournament for the adults!" She says with more excitement, as if she's smiling just by the way she's talking. "Once all the kids have their time from the morning till early-afternoon, we get the adults to join."

I blink to myself for a second, thinking it through. Having the adults play would give their kids a nice way to bond with them for sure. So I nod and smile, "That actually sounds awesome, Mona."

She makes a squeaking sound, "That includes you! Can't skip out on playing, being the sports buff you are."

Now my heart sinks a little, not really playing sports the way I used to now that I'm older and had a lot of injuries from not only sports, but from the A messes. "I don't know. I'm a little rusty." I watch my bowl for a few long seconds.

In high school I was so into sports that my initial reaction was to go pro, planned on that being my main focus for college. But then the A stuff ruined things for me and that's when my artistic side got more on the surface, leading my high school teacher to help me get a scholarship for it. Now my passion is more for drawing than playing sports. I make time for basketball and softball on occasion, but it's more of a hobby now to play whenever my friends come back into town.

"Oh come oooooon." she begs and it makes me laugh, smiling with a shake of my head. "You were a badass in school, you can't not play."

Still with a smile on my face I roll my eyes and nod to myself, seeing movement from the corner of my eye I turn my gaze and see Noel pop out from the hallway. He has a sleepy face as he shuffles his feet towards me. "Okay, okay. I'll do it." I say with a light in my voice, definitely missing the athletic side of my life. "Count me in."

"Fantastic!" she yells, making me pull the phone from my ear. Noel kisses my head and whispers if that's Mona. This makes me smile as he knows us so well and I nod, leaning my head into his kiss. We may not be dating anymore, but his vibe, his presence is still strong for me. He makes me feel better, feel safe.

"Let's meet tonight for dinner, we'll talk more about it." I tell her as I pull out a chair for him.

"That sounds wonderful, Jessie. How does 7pm at the Grille sound?'"

"Perfect. I'll see you later then."

"Tell Noel and Andrew that I expect both of them to be there! I'm sending out emails to the alumni from our graduating class too."

I laugh gently, staring at Noel. He's still in great shape for football, that's for sure. As for Andrew Cambell, he's an old flame from when I was in high school. He's the one who wasn't able to handle my bad days when Mona messed me up. We still keep in touch, but he's a lot busier than he used to be so we don't see each other often. Now he's a professional baseball player for the Philadelphia Phillies, so he'd definitely be up for this tournament if he's able to get away from his career.

"Of course I'll tell them. Talk soon." I hang up as she says bye and then look at him. "Mona has asked you to be part of the sports fair."

He grabs an apple and sits beside me, biting into it. "Be part of it in what way?" he asks curiously.

"One that involves both of us playing sports with other adults." I say while eating my cereal.

He half laughs, resting an elbow onto the island and watches me, biting into his apple again. His eyes shine at me as he stares, they seem to be admiring me. This has always been the same look I've gotten ever since he started standing up for me in school. Against Alison, against anyone. He just never made it known he had a crush until we got to 12th grade, because by then things were more mellowed out on our dating lives with others. So it doesn't surprise me that his gaze hasn't changed even if we are broken up.

"Because I was a jock in high school?" he asks gently, with a still sleepy tone.

I shrug and nod softly, finishing up my cereal and chugging down the milk. "Most likely. 'Cause she wants me to play in it too."

He smiles and rubs my cheek, "Well, it is for a good cause."

I smile back, goosebumps filling my arms and lean into his touch, sighing softly. "It is." I say gently, nodding and closing my eyes. "Guess we're in."

He smiles, agreeing with my statement and then says, "Do you want me to stay until you meet with Mona? You were pretty freaked out last night."

I half smile and get up to go to the sink, turning on the water to wash my plate. The night before was rough. I had locked up the store for closing time and then walked over to the local coffee shop down the block formerly known as The Brew but now called Ezra's Books. My friend Ezra Fitz owns it now as a bookstore/coffee place. When I got there I grabbed my usual coffee and a chocolate chip cookie before heading back down the block to get home, and that's when I saw someone watching me. Someone in dark clothing right across the street just staring my way and the flashes of memories came flooding back to me. How Mona and CeCe wore all black from head to toe when they were A. Seeing Mona kidnap me and leave me locked in a bathroom drugged up. Then the following year when CeCe did the same thing and tortured me with a taser till I had a seizure. All this to make four girls miserable..for revenge.

One glimpse of someone in what looked like all black made me freak out and I bolted down the block to my apartment, hoping this person wasn't following me. It turned out they weren't and my brain tricked me into thinking this. That's when I called Noel in panic and he came to my house on his own terms, not because I asked him to. For some reason I didn't think of anyone else. Not Ezra, who has been like my big brother since he saved me from the car accident that killed my family. Not Toby Cavanaugh, who has been my ultimate best guy friend since I first met him because he understood me more than Aria or Spencer, or really anyone ever could. And especially not Aria or Spencer, my two childhood best friends who haven't bothered coming home since they finished college once they got their jobs.

"No..that's okay." Is what I go with, trying not to think of the night before knowing it wasn't CeCe or Mona.

He gives me a soft look, knowing that he can tell I'm still on my toes. "Jessie, I know it's still hard to figure things out. I understand that and I'm here for you." He tilts his head gently, "Let me be here for you."

I press my lips together and take a soft breath. It's hard to say no to him. "I'm probably going to be at the store all day. And I know you have to work."

"I don't mind." He says gently as he comes closer and wraps his arms around me from behind, holding me close. "I'll call out."

His touch makes me shiver slightly, holding in my impulse to kiss him, missing him in this way. But I just lean into him and smile instead, sighing as I say. "Well then you'll be working your ass off at the store in that case." I laugh gently, feeling his breath on my neck as I close my eyes and listen to the sound.