Chapter 3

Hanna departed the hospital anxious to find out what Aria couldn't possibly tell her over the phone. Many theories raced through her mind, but the most prominent one is that maybe they found out who "A" is. That could be the only logical theory, right? She knew that she shouldn't get her hopes up, but she couldn't help it. Hanna couldn't stop thinking about the possibility of finding out who "A" is when she hit a ton of traffic on her way to Spencer's house. Instead of waiting for her turn to get through the unbearable traffic she decided to take a detour.

Though she knew that this was longer than the original route, she knew it would also be quicker considering the heavy traffic on the original route. This specific way went through the backwoods of Rosewood, opening her up to the wonderful beauty around her. Tall, leafy trees crept along the road, just barely missing the black pavement. Hanna didn't even notice the beautiful forest surrounding her as she was more preoccupied with the imposing theories in her mind.

As she continued down the long stretch of road her car began to act different. As opposed to keeping a normal correlation between the amount of force she put on the pedal and the actual speed it went, it began to slow down unexpectedly. In a minute or so, the entire car came to a stop. Hanna stomped on the pedal repeatedly hoping to get the car going again, but she had no luck. The car was dead and there was no one around her for one and a half miles.

Despite her lack of knowledge for cars, Hanna decided to get out of the car and look under the hood to see if she could detect the problem. When the hood of the car was completely open, Hanna peered inside. She had no idea what she was looking at, in fact; it looked like a distant land to her.

Frustrated, Hanna walked furiously to the front seat, leaving the hood open, and searched for her phone.

"Of course." She said to herself, realizing that of all the things that could make this day even worse, her phone battery was dead as well. She quickly jerked her head back against the headrest of her seat and began contemplating whether or not she should walk back to the hospital. After realizing that that would mean walking one and a half miles, she dismissed the idea.

She tried to start the car up again, but once again it failed to start. She took a deep breath followed by an exhausted sigh; she closed her eyes and succumbed to her exhaustion.

"Where the hell is Hanna?" said an angry Spencer. Spencer usually never swears, but on this occasion it seemed to slip her mouth. It was understandable given what was going on. The girls finally found some news about "A" and what they get in return is a lie from their best friend.

"It has been over an hour. I'm calling her again." Spencer said while pulling out her phone.

"You have already called her five times." Aria interrupted. "Lets just drive to the hospital. She is most likely still there."

"Okay. Fine" Spencer finally agreed.

The three girls quickly grabbed their purses and jackets and headed for the car. They drove fast, but safely to the hospital where they thought for sure their friend would be. As mad as the girls were at Hanna for lying on the phone by telling them she was coming, but then staying at the hospital, they tried not to hold it against her. They knew that if it was Paige, or Toby, or even Ezra, they would not leave their side either.

As the pulled up to the hospital and filed in one by one, they made their way to Caleb's room. Without knocking they all stormed into his room immediately looking for Hanna.

"Uh…Hi." Caleb said wondering why Spencer, Emily, and Aria just burst into his room unannounced.

"Where's Hanna?" Emily said quickly after she noticed Hanna was not in the room.

"I thought she was with you." Caleb said while making a perplexed expression on his face.

"She was supposed to be with us, but she never showed up. We figured she just stayed back with you." Aria said.

"No, she left a couple minutes after you called."

A worried expression plastered on all the girls faces as well as Caleb's. There was a long pause before Spencer said what was on everyone's minds, "Then where is she?"

After another long pause Caleb said, "Have you tried calling her?"

"Of course we did." Retorted a worried Emily.

Silence surrounded the room. Where could Hanna be was the question everyone was thinking about.

"Alright. Lets go to her house. Maybe she stopped there or…I don't know, but we could at least wait there until she calls." Aria said and everyone immediately agreed.

"I'm coming with you." Caleb said as he began to get up from his bed.

"What? Are you insane? You need to stay in the hospital and rest!" Emily said, practically screaming.

"Say all you want," Caleb continued to get out of bed while wincing in pain. "I'm still coming. This is Hanna we are talking about."

The three girls looked at each other. Knowing full well that Hanna would be beyond pissed if they let Caleb come, they reached a decision and in unison they all said, "Fine."

Caleb smiled. "Thank you. Now can you try to convince the nurse to let me leave while I get dressed?"

They waited a couple of seconds then they all walked out of the room to try to convince, what probably will be a very stubborn nurse, to let Caleb leave the hospital.

"Hanna…Hanna….Hanna!" said a familiar voice.

Hanna, startled from the sudden noise, moved her head toward the window to see who it was that just awoke her.

"Wren?" Hanna said, very sharp and confused.

"Didn't mean to startle you. Your car? Is it not working?"

"Yeah….Wait, how did you know I was here?"

While Wren opened her car door to have a more direct conversation then just through the window he answered, "I didn't. I was on my way home from the hospital when I noticed your car on the side of the road." Hanna, accepting Wren's gesture, got out of the car to talk to him.

"Do you happen to know anything about cars?" asked Hanna with a small smile and head tilt.

"I think so. Maybe all you need is a jump start." They then walked to the hood of the car, standing next to each other; Wren began to take a look for the problem as to why her car was not working.

"Well your battery level seems full….Ah. It looked like one of your cables is missing." Wren stated even though he knew Hanna probably had no idea what that meant. "That means that there is nothing I can really do without breaking my car in the process. Sorry."

With both of them looking at each other, almost touching, Wren moved his hand over Hanna's. She looked down and bit her bottom lip. Not wanting to be rude to the guy who is helping her in her time of need, she slowly pulled her hand away. As Hanna began that motion, Wren followed knowing that he was being rejected once again.

"Well um….Thanks for help. I guess I'll just walk back to the hospital or something and get a hold of triple A." Hanna said, trying to be as polite as possible considering she just rejected him not even a minute ago.

"Nonsense, I'll take you home and you can call them there." Wren said with a smile. He knew it was hard for Hanna to do what she just did. She had only been broken up with Caleb for a month and a half so he had to give her some time to recover.

"No, no. You don't have to do that."

"Please, the pleasure is mine." They looked at each other, smiled and then walked over to his car right after closing the hood of Hanna's car and locking it. They headed home in complete silence.