AN: this chapter briefly covers the girls lives in the five year gap and their view of alison becoming an untouchable rising star. these first two chapters are really just here as a prologue from either side so you can gauge where everyone is coming from, chapter three will be where the story starts to actually take off and there will be a more even division in each chapter between ali and the other liars.
If you have any questions or feedback I'd love to hear your thoughts! thank you to those who reviewed the last chapter I really appreciate it! xx you can also feel free to contact me on tumblr ( .com ) if you wanna talk about this / have a prompt or etc you'd like me to write on / just wanna fangirl with me bc i desperately need more PLL friends!
In five years much had changed for Rosewood's most notorious teen's. Having all moved on to different cities and all sought out counselling to various extents, they were doing all they knew how to to try and leave -A and what happened to them in the past. Spencer went to school at Columbia, Hanna moved to New York to try and make it in the fashion industry, Aria found herself in Boston and Emily in California.
Talking to Ali was hard on the girls for different reasons. For Hanna it was a combination of having never gotten over how her friend treated her before she disappeared and struggling with her own identity when Ali was around, knowing much of who she was now she'd taken on from the other blonde. Not to mention Ali and Rosewood represented everything she was trying to put behind her in her attempt to start fresh. With Aria it was thinking about her back in Rosewood bonding with the woman that had tormented them for years. The petite brunette did feel for Charlotte and the suffering she had to endure but her tragic backstory didn't take away the nightmares she was so often plagued with. It didn't undo the trauma of the dollhouse or make her forget all the times she'd nearly died or lost the ones she loved. It was easier to just avoid her than have to think about it. Talking to Alison only got harder and harder for Emily the longer she was at college. Talking to her and not being with her started to weigh on the girl, especially with her college experience not being what she'd hoped for. Despite all her attempts to move on she couldn't deny deep down that she was still hopelessly in love with her best friend and having convinced herself that she'd missed her chance, that Ali didn't see her that way anymore, even hearing her voice was just too painful. For Spencer it was more about being busy and distracted but she spoke to Ali the most out of the girls, texting or calling her whenever she had a break and wasn't completely exhausted. They had always had similar interests and when she needed someone to rant to she knew of their little group Alison was the only one that could keep up with her as she ranted out her frustrations.
When they were notified of Charlotte's funeral, they all knew they should go. That they they should be there to support their friend. But Aria couldn't bring herself to go and pay respects to their tormentor and Hanna, after hearing that Aria was going to make up an excuse not to go decided to do the same. Spencer did her best to try and be there but she had finals the same week and Alison had assured her she understood the need to focus on school. Emily felt terrible that no one else was going and she too was going to pull out but she couldn't do it. She'd just gotten back with and was finally figure out a life for herself that didn't feel like it had some giant gaping Ali shaped hole in the middle of it. She didn't want to throw away all the progress she'd made the way she knew she would the minute she got back and saw Ali in need of comfort. All it would take was a few tears from the blonde and all the walls she'd built around her heart trying to put her first love behind her would come crumbling down.
So, like the others she sent a lame excuse over text and tried not to let the guilt eat away at her when she thought about how she knew if the tables were turned, Alison would never have made go through something like this on her own.
After the funeral Spencer and Aria had sent a few texts to check in on their once fearsome leader but they went unanswered. The smaller brunette hadn't thought much of it, expecting the blonde was probably hurt and likely even a little mad at them though she'd put on her usual mask of indifference when they hadn't made the effort to come home for her.
For a while Spencer had accepted that was probably the case and as school picked up for her and she started yet another internship, she forgot about Alison for a while. Forgot about her social life all together really. But when summer break hit and she finally had a moment to herself, she found herself missing all the late night talks she used to have with the blonde and picking up her phone to see what she was up to, she realised it'd been months since she last spoke to her. Feeling guilty, she went to check on Alison's social media to try and update herself on the blonde's life before giving her a call.
But there was nothing. Her accounts had all been deactivated.
The familiar feeling of worry crept into her bones at the discovery and she cursed herself for not being more diligent in keeping touch, especially after Ali had just lost yet another member of her family. Checking the timezone in Rosewood quickly before calling her, Spencer urged the blonde to pick up under her breath as she picked at her cuticles.
It only rang for a moment before an automated voice informed her that the line had been disconnected and her worry morphed into panic.
What reason would there be for Alison to go completely off the grid? She could understand a social media blackout if she was feeling depressed or something but disconnecting her phone number? Was she in trouble again?
Flashes of Alison being held hostage or tortured or on the run all over again raced through her mind. No, if she were on the run again she'd find one of them wouldn't she? It wasn't like before, they were older now and all spread out, she'd be safe enough to get to one of them if she was in control, Spencer reasoned with herself.
And if she hadn't come to her, her next bet would be Emily.
"..Spence? Do you have any idea what time it is?" The swimmer asked, still half asleep as she picked up her phone.
"Emily! Have you seen or spoken to Alison in the last 5 months?! Has she contacted you at all?" Spencer's panicked voice rang through the other end and Em shot straight up in bed, instantly wide awake, filled with a familiar sense of dread and anxiety. The fear that something might have happened to the blonde so strong she almost felt like she was going to be sick.
"I haven't spoken to her since before Charlotte. Why? Spence, what's happening, is she okay?!" She asked, doing her best to keep calm as she silenced Paige's attempts to get her to come back to bed.
"I have no idea. I've been so busy I forgot to check in with her for a while and then tonight when I realised how long it's been I tried to get in contact with her but all her social media is shut down and her phone is disconnected."
"Oh god." Emily sighed, instantly fearing the worst after all they'd been through.
"I don't know anything for sure but I don't have a good feeling about this, Em. I figured if she was on the run again and she didn't come here then she'd go to you." She explained and Emily felt her chest tighten. What if she was on the run, why wouldn't she come to her? Had she made such a mistake not going to the funeral that Ali didn't think she'd want her to?
She couldn't help but wonder, if only to push away the thought that maybe she couldn't. Maybe she was dead. Or maybe Charlotte wasn't and she was trapped in some new dollhouse the psycho built just for her. She couldn't let herself think about that, because if it were true they may not ever find Ali.
"Have you tried Jason? Or her dad?" Emily suggested desperately, hoping the ex queen bee was just trying to drive them crazy with worry to get them back for abandoning her and was really safe with her family.
"My next call."
"I'll call Hanna and Aria and let you know if they've heard anything." Emily offered, though she doubted Alison would seek solace with either friend, and if she did it was unlikely they wouldn't have heard about it.
Spencer thanked her and hung up and they both instantly started dialling the only other people in the blonde's life they thought she might run to.
When they found everyone else was just as clueless about what happened to Alison, Spencer decided it was time to put on her Nancy Drew hat and head back to Rosewood with her friends in toe to see if they could find any clues there.
They had been hoping to find her there wallowing alone in her house drinking at noon or even sleeping with some loser or some other depressing way of avoiding her feelings whilst safe at home but instead they found the Dilaurentis house as vacant as it was in the year after Ali had disappeared.
It was then Hanna and Aria had started to share Spencer and Emily's concern.
After asking around a little they found out Alison had moved out the week of the funeral and left no forwarding address. Hanna had called Mona hoping she could put some of her old reckon skills to use helping them track her down, which given there was no love lost between her and Alison and she still had the suspicion Ali was holding a grudge over the time she spent in jail and was planning something long term revenge.
Eventually she agreed and it took her longer than expected to go through every database she could think of but she couldn't find a thing. It seemed Ali didn't have a cell phone or anything else for that matter in her name, a fact that left them all with a feeling of dread but Spencer had no intention of giving up any time soon, giving Mona a list of possible aliases she could be using, hoping they'd eventually get lucky.
In the meantime the liars couldn't help but ask questions.
What the hell was happening? Why hadn't she spoken to any of them? Weren't they past the point of Ali going rogue by now? What if something really bad happened to her? What if she was in the ground somewhere and that's why there's no record of her owning something.
They stayed for almost a month, rummaging through the stuff that was left in her house looking for any sort of clue, any trace of -A. Suddenly wishing they'd come back for the funeral and seen the body so they could stop worrying Charlotte was still gonna pop out at any moment.
When they found nothing and had no where left to look, they decided it was time to stop handle it like their teenage selves would have and enlist some real help. They had been about to head to the police station and report her as a missing person when all their phones went off at once.
Staring at each other with wide panicked eyes, they all paled considerably. Was it really starting all over again?
Letting out a collective breath of relief when they realised the text wasn't from a blocked number but rather was a group text from Mona. Though relief quickly turned to confusion as Aria read the text allowed and Hanna reached for the remote.
"Turn on your TV."
Gasping as for the first time in almost a year they saw their blonde friend, they all stared in disbelief.
She was stunning, perhaps the most beautiful than they'd ever seen her and Emily almost felt faint. She was on some promo for an upcoming movie set in the 1920's she was staring in along side Dave Franco. They were setting her up as some sort of femme fatal and she was teasing him, luring him into some sort of trap with an all too familiar trap and that laugh. That amazing laugh.
"No fucking way." Hanna breathed, the rest sitting in a stunned silence.
"We've been worried sick about her for months thinking she's in some fucking basement somewhere and she's off becoming a star." The blonde went on incredulously, though in truth, she wasn't that shocked. This was exactly the kind of thing she'd have expected of Alison. Not the Alison that had come back from the dead trying to be better but the Alison they'd all fallen for when she first decided to make them her friends. The Ali that was a movie.
"Well at least we know she's okay?" Aria offered after a while. Though she didn't say anything something about the way she laughed left Spencer unsure that was entirely true. It sounded hollow to her ears, it wasn't the same as it once was.
The rest of the night was filled with nothing but talk of Ali, in part excitement and happiness and equal part anger and resentment for the time and energy wasted thinking she was in danger.
In the days after they all returned to their seperate states and for the most part things went back to normal. For some at least. Aria was satisfied in the knowledge that her friend was safe and where she wanted be, Hanna was much the same, her only further attempt to contact her coming when she unsuccessfully tried to drop her name to get ahead in the fashion industry but without having any way to contact her to get a confirmation, she only made herself seem like a lair or a fool. For which she of course blamed Alison being a bitch and 'cutting them off now that she was famous'.
They all organise to go see Ali's movie together in New York when it premiers a few months later and they're surprised by how great she is considering to their knowledge she's never acted before. Though Spencer reminds that if anyone knew how to put on a good show, it was Alison. She was a born lair and therefore a born actress.
The overachieving brunette remains suspicious and does her best to make contact with Alison every couple months to no avail. She'd once found her manager but to her frustration, the woman refused to put her through to the blonde which only served to further the youngest Hasting's concern. Emily on the other hand was on a downward spiral, seeing Alison everywhere the more popular she got was like torture. She already saw her every time she closed her eyes and now she was on billboard's and buses and there wasn't anywhere she could go where there wasn't at least one person talking about her. How great she was, how sexy she was, how much they'd love to have one night with her. It was driving her insane.
And then her father had died and it had only gotten worse. It was the only time she'd ever tried to contact Alison herself, she got her manager's number from Spencer hoping she might have more luck. She could hear Alison talking in the background and tried to get the woman, Michelle, to hand over the phone but as Emily raised her voice she'd been promptly hung up on. Spencer had tried to convince her that Ali probably didn't even know it was her calling, that she likely didn't know any of them were calling. That if she knew about Wayne she'd have caught the next flight to Rosewood. But Emily had only retreated further into herself, calling it karma after they'd abandoned her to deal with Charlotte's death alone and citing that if she'd wanted them to be able to reach her she wouldn't have gotten rid of her phone.
In the coming months she distanced herself from her friends, she didn't want to have to explain her excessive drinking or her new habit of ditching all her classes. Her relationship with Paige deteriorated as well, she could barely kiss her without thinking about Alison. She could barely breathe without thinking about Alison and it was killing her.
She tried to pretend that she didn't care about the blonde or her career but she'd seen all of Ali's movies ten times over, she watched every re carpet appearance on repeat trying to gauge whether the rumours of relationships with her co-stars were true. She'd watch her smile coyly as she held hands with different on-screen lovers and Emily tried to imagine herself there. Tried to imagine it was her hand she was holding.
But none of it felt real. Alison wasn't like a person anymore, she was a character. She didn't do interviews or interact with people over social media, she was completely out of reach.
Or at least she was.