Please, Fix Us

CHAPTER 4: Pools

Shake my little soul for you now, toy
And I settle up into a world of noise
I'm a man of many tricks and tools and joy
With a battery of guilt on which to poise

POOLS BY GLASS ANIMALS

Toby shook his head and said, "This can't be true. How can Hanna be Mona's killer if Alison is?"

Linda Tanner gave him a half smile before saying, "That's the thing. I'm starting to think Alison isn't as guilty of this as she seems. I'm sure she's guilty of something, but a little thing called intuition is telling me that she's not responsible for Mona's death. And that's why I'm not going to stop until I have the full truth. That's my job. To find out the truth."

"Don't you think it's a bit far-fetched?" Toby asked. "Hanna killing Mona... they were best friends, and if anyone loved her, it was Hanna."

Tanner raised her eyebrows and told him, "You're awfully defensive of Hanna, but I'll explain myself anyways-"

"I've known Hanna for years. I went to school with her. She's one of my girlfriend's best friends. You could say we're friends, and that let me get to know her at least a bit, because I don't think she's capable of murder," Toby cut her off.

"Officer Cavanaugh, you never know what people are really capable of. Some people have a different side, and knowing her isn't enough to determine she's not a killer," Tanner said. "There's already a bit of evidence against her. Why would her fingerprints be on a site that is reportedly storing Mona Vanderwaal's dead body, and her bloody clothes? It's got to be Hanna, and we're going to find out the truth."

Toby sighed and asked, "Well, when are we going to get to it?"

"The search party will be ready in about half an hour," Tanner told him. "Get ready, officer. If Mona's body is in there, or has been in there, then we're going to find out. I won't stop under we've uncovered the truth."

Aria stopped by the Brew to visit Ezra and Emily. When she walked in, she first searched for Ezra, but he wasn't there. She finally found him in the employee's only room, even though she technically wasn't supposed to go in there. She was the owner's girlfriend, so she could, right?

"Hey!" Aria exclaimed, kissing his cheek quickly. "What's up? You didn't text me back last night."

"I had work to do," Ezra told her blankly, shuffling around with papers.

"That's it?" Aria asked, furrowing her eyebrows. "Are you all right, Ezra?"

"I don't know," he responded emotionlessly. "Aria, this is a room for employees of the Brew. You don't work here."

"You want me to leave?" Aria asked, shocked.

"I think that would be best for now, since you don't work here. I don't want customers getting the wrong idea... that they can come in the employee's only room without permission from an employee," Ezra explained, turning away. "Besides, I have more work to do, anyways."

"Did I do something wrong?" Aria asked. "I know you're upset. I can tell."

"Aria, I'm not upset with you. I'm just stressed with all the work I have to deal with. The opening has been killing me, and I have limited employees around here. It's just Emily and Talia, and sometimes Jonny," Ezra told her. "I can't juggle you in the mix right now. So, can we just talk later? I'm too busy to deal with this right now."

"Fine, call me when you take the pole out of your ass," Aria snapped, and turned away.

He was about to apologize like the good guy he was, but he knew he had every right to be mad. She wrote a letter of regret about their relationship! Did he mean nothing to her? He knew they would need to talk about it at some point, but he was just too freaking pissed and stressed out to deal with it, so he was planning on leaving it for now, and getting back to it later. It wasn't the smartest choice, but he didn't feel like talking about it with her.

When Aria went outside, she caught up with Emily.

"Do you know what's wrong with Ezra? Is something wrong with the Brew?" Aria asked. "He's totally stressed about it."

"No, nothing's wrong with him," Emily lied. "So, I've been working with Talia a lot lately, and I think she sort of likes me. I told her I'm gay recently, and she was fine with it, but she didn't get back to me about herself. I don't know if she just doesn't want to, or..."

"Emily, I'm pretty sure she's into you, but stop changing the subject!" Aria cried. "What's wrong with Ezra?"

"Fine... I don't think he would want me to tell you, but -A sent him your letter to Jackie at Talmadge," Emily confessed. "He's devastated, more than angry. He just can't believe that you would say that about your relationship."

"I was desperate to get into at least one college!" Aria cried, defending herself. "I can't believe he knows."

"Personally, Aria, I would be pissed if I was going out with somebody who told a college they regretted dating a gay girl, or something like that, even if they claimed they didn't mean it," Emily told her. "You have to ask yourself, 'was it all a lie?', because I don't think all those feelings came completely from your imagination, just saying. He has every right to be pissed at you. And I don't think telling Talmadge that you regret dating Ezra was the way to go about trying to get into their school."

"I thought that was the only way to break Jackie, and get her to feel my level of emotion!" Aria defended. "I didn't mean what I said. I mean, I guess a part of me wishes that I didn't get involved with a teacher, because it caused so many problems, and he sort of lied to me for years about how we met, and everything, but..."

"Aria," Emily said, raising her eyebrows. "It seems like you know exactly how you feel about this."

"Yeah, okay. Bye. I'll talk to you soon," Spencer said, hanging up the phone.

It was funny how phone conversations could go from "I love you" to "I'll talk to you soon". It felt weird. Honestly, she was pretty used to telling him that she loved him before ending their phone calls. Or at least, some kind of sweeter goodbye. It seemed so tense. It felt that way, too. She knew they were still on thin ice, but she didn't know how to fix it without giving up her search for answers.

"What happened?" Hanna asked, biting her nails nervously.

"The search party is going back to the storage room in a couple of minutes," Spencer responded. "Toby's going with them. They're going to search for clues, Mona's body, or any other evidence. Tanner's focusing on you as the suspect."

"Damn it!" Hanna yelled. "Do we have time to go get that crap out of there?"

"Hanna, I don't think distorting evidence is the way to go right now," Spencer said. "Besides, you know how Toby feels about that. And I think that he's right about it. We can't keep destroying all the evidence. We have to let things go."

"Not when Alison is trying to clear her name by having her minion frame me!" Hanna angrily said. "I swear to god, if this is Holbrook's doing, I'm going to freaking kill him the way they think I murdered Mona!"

"Hey, baby," Caleb said, kissing Hanna quickly. "I was trying to track down the text location, and it's gone now. The storage room isn't the location of the text from Mona anymore. It's blank, and it's gone. I think -A made it seem like the text came from the storage room, knowing that we'd go, and set ourselves up for trouble."

"I'm the only one with my ass on the line!" Hanna cried. "Tanner's trying to take me down, and it's all because of Alison and Holbrook!"

"We don't know it's them for sure," Spencer reminded.

"It has to be," Hanna said. "Who else?"

"We can't ever find out if Toby won't let us do our investigating," Caleb said. "Spencer, did you talk to him?"

"I did, but it was tense. He's still mad at us, I know it," Spencer told him. "I want this fight to go away. I want my boyfriend back. He said he did this cop job for us, but it doesn't feel that way. Things were better before he was a cop."

Later that day, Jonny came over to Spencer's house when she went back home.

"Hey, are you moping around like you were the other day?" Jonny teased. "Because I could really use some company.

"No," she said with a quiet laugh. "I just got back from my friend's house. The fight with my boyfriend hasn't gotten any worse."

"Can I be honest with you?" Jonny said, glancing at her chocolate eyes for a moment.

She bit her lip before saying, "Okay."

"Well, to be honest, what I'm thinking is that he's no good for you," Jonny confessed. "We don't know each other too damn well, but I sure as hell believe that you deserve better than that dude. No girl deserves a guy that ignores them, and never has time for them. And I know how you're going to justify it. Yeah, I don't know Toby at all, and you guys have been through hell together. But does the past really define the present? Just think about that. You shouldn't feel forced to be with him just because you have a long history with him. That's my take on it, from how it looks to me."

"Looks can be deceiving," Spencer told him, biting her lip.

"Spencer, I know you want to believe that you're doing the right thing by staying with him through this, but maybe there's a way to find out if it's truly worth it. Confront him. Find out if he cares enough to resolve these issues. If he doesn't, then I don't think it was ever worth it, and maybe it's just time to walk away already."

"I can't walk away from him," she quietly said, shaking her head. "I love him, Jonny. He's not this devil that you think he is. We're going through one rough patch. That doesn't take away from all the happy moments that he's given me. I do love him."

"Things can go from perfect to wrong quickly," Jonny reminded. "Call him. Fix this. Fix your relationship. That's what I would do."

"You're right. I don't plan on breaking up with him, but the only way I'm ever going to get him back is by calling him and making us fix it together," Spencer said with a smile. She got her phone out, and glanced at Jonny for a second. "Thank you, by the way. Your advice really does mean something to me, even if I don't take all of it. It is helpful."

"No problem," Jonny said, nodding his head with a smile back.

He cocked his head to the side as Spencer found Toby's number and called him.

PHONE CALL

"Hello?"

"Hey, Toby. It's me. I think we both know that things have been rocky between us, and I want to resolve it. We need to resolve it together. I want things to work, but they're never going to unless we spend a little time together and work on fixing the issues. What do you say?"

"Ugh, Spence. I know, and I want to. But now isn't the time for that. I don't have time."

"What are you doing?"

"I can't talk about it. But I'm busy. I'm working, okay?"

"Toby, you're always working!"

"It's a part of the job I took."

"Since when did your job become everything to you?"

"Spencer, I can't do this right now."

"You're right, you can't. But it seems like you never can anymore."

With that, she hung up the phone immediately, tossing it onto the couch. Jonny gave her an apologetic look, but all she did was turn away. How could Toby be this way? He wasn't the same guy that he was when they first started dating. He was a good guy, and he still was. But when he took that job as a police officer for the Rosewood PD, it became his priority. It was like he forgot the reason he joined in the first place, which was to protect the girl he loved.

"I don't know exactly what went down, but judging based on that phone call, it didn't go too well, did it?" Jonny said, sighing.

She gave him a look before rolling her eyes and saying, "Obviously not."

"I'm sorry," he told her. "I'm sorry I made you do that, too."

"It's not your fault. I thought he would cooperate with me," Spencer explained. "I didn't think it would end that way, and I'm sure you didn't, either."

"Are you going to break up with him?" Jonny asked, intrigued by the situation.

"Not that I know of. Not yet," Spencer responded. "Not until I know where we stand. It's clear that there are a lot of things that he and I have to talk about, but I'm not making any big decisions about our relationship just yet. I want us to work, that's all I know. I want us to be fixed."

"You can't always fix everything," Jonny reminded.

"Well, I'm counting on this one to be fixed," Spencer said. "Can we not talk about him anymore? It's making me sick. I miss him."

"I get it," Jonny said, nodding his head. "How about we go on a little trip to get your mind off of your boyfriend?"

"What kind of trip?" Spencer asked, intrigued. "Nothing too far."

"I was thinking a museum. It's only about half an hour away. It was the first place I went to when I got back from my travels," Jonny explained to her. "This places means a lot to me. It inspired me before I left, and after I came back, so maybe you can pick up some inspiration about what you want to do with your life. You don't have to go to college. I didn't."

"College has always been everything to me. I've spent my whole life working for these grades to get into college," Spencer said. "But I don't even know what I want to do with my life right now. How can I pick a college if I don't know what I want to be? My parents want me to be a lawyer, and I always thought I did, because my whole family went into majoring law, so I thought I would have to do that, too. They made me believe it's what I want to do."

"You don't have to do anything," Jonny told her. "Nobody runs your life except you. Life isn't all about college. It's about becoming who you truly are, and how can you ever figure that out if you take a job you don't want? Right now, it's your chance to become one of those lucky people who get to fulfill all their dreams of a job. Figure it out, and make it happen. If you don't like law, don't take law. That's the way I look at it."

"Well, it's not the way my parents look at it," Spencer said, sighing.

"You're going to have fun today," Jonny demanded, pulling her up out of her seat, and he had a wide grin on his face. "I'll make you have fun, and I'll make you realize all the possibilities there are out there. We don't just have to go to a museum. We can do any damn thing we want."

Spencer smiled, and followed him to his van outside. She was going to let herself have a fun day, just this one time.

Aria paced around her room quickly. She had so much on her mind, and so much to worry about. First of all, Ezra was obviously pissed at her about the letter. She didn't know what she was supposed to do. Assuring him that it was just to push Jackie off of her case for Talmadge seemed like a cheap move, and she wasn't sure if he would accept that lame excuse. Second of all, she didn't even freaking want to go to Talmadge! Sure, it was a decent school, but that wasn't where she wanted to go to after high school was over. She needed something, and Talmadge was her only option. She needed to get into something else, but how was she supposed to tell that to Ezra? That was her third problem. Telling Ezra that she didn't want to go to Talmadge even though she just wrote a letter about how much she regretted their relationship, only to sway Jackie into letting her get into Talmadge.

The only way she could calm Ezra down about rejecting Talmadge's offer was if she got a better offer. Something that she could slyly say, 'Oh, I wanted to go to Talmadge, but then my dream school accepted me!'. Then, maybe if she got Ezra to calm down about the letter, they could work things out, and she could happily go to a college she actually wanted to go to. The only problem with that was that she didn't get into any school except Talmadge.

She panicked when her phone buzzed. She looked over at it, and just as she thought, it was Ezra that had texted her.

I think we need to talk urgently. Call me when you can. -Ezra

She sighed, switching her phone off, not wanting to deal with his message at the moment. Suddenly, an idea sparked through her head. It wasn't all that brilliant of an idea, but she needed some advice. Someone to tell her how to deal with this, and there was one guy she knew that was so smart that he was getting into every damn college he applied to. She switched her phone back on, and dialed his number.

Andrew Campbell.

"Hey, Andrew," she said into the phone. "I know this is super crazy and unexpected, but I really need your help right now, so can you meet me at the Grille in fifteen to thirty minutes? It's really important."

Jason was surprised he even decided to go to the Marin house, but he did. Sighing, and mustering up all the courage he could, he knocked on the door. He was happy to know that Ashley opened it, rather than Hanna, because he didn't need another awkward encounter with her. They had already had enough for a lifetime. She looked shocked to see him, and it was so obvious why. Jason found out why in about a minute after his arrival, too.

"Hey... Ashley... Ms. Marin," he said, choking on his own words as he spoke.

"Jason. Hello. What a pleasant surprise," she said, biting her lip. "You can call me Ashley, you know."

"I didn't really know what to say after what happened," Jason confessed. "But what I do know is that we need to talk about what happened, because I can't keep myself under control. I need to know what's happening with the proposal, because Hanna told me a little bit about it. I need to know what's going on."

Right then, Ted made his way to the door.

"Hello, young man!" Ted exclaimed. "You must be one of Hanna's friends, right? I'm Ted Wilson, Ashley's boyfriend."

"Yeah, I'm just one of Hanna's friends," Jason lied, staring at the floor. "If I recall, you're Ms. Marin's fiance, right?"

Ted laughed quietly and said, "We're working on it. We'll see what happens. Ashley, Hanna isn't home, right?"

"No, I'm afraid not, so sorry, Jason," Ashley choked, biting her lip hard. "It was sweet of you to stop by, though. I'll let Hanna know you dropped over."

"Alright. Cool, thanks," Jason said, sighing as he walked out the door.

When the door was closed, Jason felt a lump grow in his throat. He came over with the intention of persuading Ashley to accept Ted's proposal, and not let their one-night-stand get in the way of her marriage, but when he saw her with the pastor, he felt himself get just a little bit more than disappointed. All he knew was that he didn't want Ashley to marry him, or to say yes to his proposal, or to be with him at all, for that matter! Jason had chased after younger women, women of his age, and even some older women, but he never thought he would be falling for the mother of his sister's friend. It felt wrong in so many ways, but so right in so many other ways.

He was going to find a way to win Ashley over. He had to.