Pretty Little Liars: Paying the Cost
Chapter 3 of my Pretty Little Liars story, enjoy.
Reviews
Boris Yeltsin: Yes indeed :)
Parent12D: Thanks, yeah, it's been tricky. Well, for Spencer it's more the fact she's clearly ignored and overshadowed. Aria's thing is more, why does he need to be making those calls. The others, yes, it's all taking shape. Yeah, it's worrying for Ryan, in more ways than one and for Hanna, it's clearly a hint to something in her past ;) Yes, we can only wait and see :)
Wolfgirl2013: Thanks :)
Now onto the story.
Disclaimer: I don't own Pretty Little Liars or its characters.
Season 1: Episode 3
Making her way around to the DiLaurentis' old house Emily did her best to shake off the uneasiness she felt.
'It's just new neighbours, right…' She told herself. 'New neighbours, in the house that Alison grew up in, Alison who I…?'
She shook her head and tried to focus again. She reached the home to find the usual chaos of people moving in, even in the midst of all the, just seeing the DiLaurentis house again left her feeling a strong sense of melancholy, as if this really hammered home the fact Ali was truly missing and her family left. Unable to stay around the memories, even thought not everyone had given up hope just yet. Her gaze landed on the gazebo and she bit her lip, recalling a certain event there.
'That's...that's the very same place where Ali and I first, where we shared our first-' She thought, colour creeping up her cheeks, not really visible with her olive skin tone after all.
"Oh hey, someone come to welcome us to the neighbourhood already?"
She started and turned at that and saw a girl around her age approaching, about five foot two with long black hair which curled near the base, deep brown eyes and a light brown skin tone, she was slender and clad in pretty casual jeans and a tank-top with strap sandals on her feet.
"Maya St. Germain. Nice to meet you." The girl continued with her warm smile still on her face.
Biting her lip, Emily held out the basket her mother had prepared.
"Um yeah, here, my mom sent this." She greeted her as calmly as she could. "I'm Emily, Emily Fields."
Maya nodded and seemed at ease, gratefully accepting the gift. Emily meanwhile was rather startled and shocked at what she suddenly found herself feeling, feelings she hadn't felt for some time and she was rather anxious about it.
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Returning home after being out for the day, Anthony was almost ambushed in the doorway by his mother.
"Anthony, there you are, honey. Hurry, we need to get ready, you need to shower." Connie said briskly.
Anthony was startled, blinking. "Whoa, whoa, mom, what-?"
Connie shook her head. "Our dinner event being hosted by the Hastings family, remember, we need to get ready."
Anthony grinned and nodded. "Ah, yeah, yeah. I'll, I'll get a move on."
He hurried up to get to the shower, but as he did so, he stopped.
"Mom, dad...were either of you in my room?" He asked.
"No, of course not." Carlo said as he exited the bedroom, fixing his tie.
Shaking his head Tony went over and closed the door. "I could've sworn I closed it, ah, must've imagined it."
Hurrying to the bathroom, ready to shower, Tony put the matter out of his mind and went to get ready for the dinner.
XXXXX
"Aria, Michael, dinner's ready!"
Quickly getting up from the desk where she had been working on one part of her English project, one of the few parts that could be done solo, Aria left her bedroom and exited into the hall. Just at the same time Mike left his room and Aria couldn't help but smirk and raise an eyebrow as she noticed her brother trying to quickly slip his phone into his pocket.
"Oh, what's this, got a secret girlfriend, Mike?"
Mike started and then groaned. "Oh, don't start Aria."
She just laughed and they headed down to the dinner table where their mother was already present, having set up the table. That was when Aria stopped, her mouth drying up as she noticed her father. He was on his phone and seemed furtive which raised her anxiety greatly. She didn't say anything however, doing her best to act as normally as possible.
'Calm down, calm down Aria.' She told herself firmly. 'It doesn't mean anything, just because he's on his phone right before dinner doesn't mean that he's...talking to…'
She pushed the thoughts away and instead focused on dinner, making small talk with her family and everything seemed to be going well. So they talked casually about the kids school, Mike's lacrosse team's latest win. Everything just seemed normal and that was what Aria hoped for, at least until dinner was finished and as soon as they were done, her father stood up.
"Well, I gotta go, late night work, you know." He said.
Ella sighed. "Again Byron, they've got you working too hard."
Byron gave her a small smile. "It's okay, I'll manage."
With that he left while Aria watched him go, her anxiety spiking again.
'You'll manage dad, manage what? HER?'
She was fearful that her dad was indeed leaving to see 'her'.
XXXXX
"Well thank you Anthony." Veronica Hastings said with a smile. "You have impeccable manners."
Anthony smiled and nodded, resuming his seat and enjoying the dinner. There were a number of other people present but the Hastings and the Bruno families were indeed the centrepiece of this dinner.
'Wow, dad is really well-connected huh?' Tony noted. 'This could bode well for all of us I hope.'
He had his doubts however as he glared over at Peter and Melissa, namely the rather cold way they had been treating Spencer the whole time.
'Seriously, that's just messed up, they don't have the right to treat her like that.' He thought angrily.
"Are you alright?"
He started and quickly schooled his features as he looked up to see Spencer there, looking at him in confusion and worry.
He quickly cleared his throat. "I...Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry, excuse me a moment."
He then stood and quickly left, not wanting to say anything, worried that if he did so, he would not control what came out of his mouth. Watching him go, Spencer bit her lip.
What the hell was that about, I…?'
Spencer shook her head and decided to just go and talk to him. But before she could her phone buzzed. She turned away from the group and check it.
"Poor, poor Spencer, always last and least amongst you family, everybody talking about your parents family deal or your sisters engagement. Must be hard, being so invisible. A"
She froze, eyes wide and looked around, worried, but couldn't see anyone out of place. Which made things so much more confusion for her, how could A have seen and known all this.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Spencer, Tony had stepped out to get some air and try to calm down. As he was waiting he began to feel himself getting dressed and began to feel worrying.
'Don't think like that, remember, you already dealt with this, it-'
He flinched as his phone went off and then sighed and checked it. It was a text, he opened it and his eyes widened.
"Tony Bruno, better calm down before you start drinking...don't wanna drink/drive and maybe kill a friend again. A"
Anthony shifted, now very uncomfortable and worried, wondering just who this A person was and most important, how on earth did they know about that terrifying incident.
XXXXX
Late at night, after her own busy day, Hanna let out a tired sigh, pulling her tank-top off over her head, exposing her pale pink bra, she reached down to begin unzipping and pull off her skirt, unaware of the blinking light on the webcam on her laptop.
XXXXX
At the start of another day at school, the girls faced their most awkward moment as always, ever since they'd drifted apart. Since their lockers were still in close proximity, they still ended up having to pass close to each other. They all shared awkward looks, Hanna in particular knew Mona was watching her intently. Meanwhile they all wondered if any of them would talk first. But then they heard something which distracted them and made them startled, the sound of tapping. The four turned and froze at the sight, two people. The first was a tall young man, pale with medium length messy brown hair and light blue eyes, lanky and he was holding the arm of and guided the shorter girl next to him, slender with long wavy brown hair and lightly tanned skin. They knew her eyes were green despite being covered by large black glasses. It was Toby Cavanaugh and his half sister, Jenna Marshall.
End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.
