Spencer nervously earmarked a page in her book as she waited for Emily to come back into the room. All the girls had rushed over to her apartment as soon as she was done with swim practice, but none of them knew why. "Em… I really have to get back and study. I have like four chapters to read before tonight".

Hanna rolled her eyes and she picked at the chips on the table, "Spenc, you haven't even started school yet. You do realize that right?"

Spencer looked over at Hanna and shrugged, "so? I'm already behind. You realize I am going to the best law school in the world, right? I'm going to school with kids who have studied law since they were in utero."

Emily walked in just as Hanna had opened her mouth to answer back. "Guys, we have a problem". She closed her bedroom door, even though she lived alone. "I ran into Ezra again today, and he said he got a text from A".

Aria immediately turned red as Spencer interjected, "well we all agreed it was a psycho. I mean, it's not unlike Ali to ignore us all for weeks and we've gotten these prank texts before, right?"

Emily shook her head and her hair made the room suddenly smell like chlorine, "No, I saw the text. I think Ali might be in trouble. I think WE might be in trouble." She looked over to Aria and blushed, "I went to his apartment after practice and he showed me the text."

Aria suddenly snapped back into reality and glared at her friend suddenly feeling betrayed. "You went to his apartment? Why?" She stood up and tucked her hair angrily behind her ear.

"Aria, he asked me too. I was in a room full of swimmers and he was rushing to meet with Mr. Tamborelli." She held her hands out in a surrendered motion, hoping her friend realized it was all perfectly innocent.

Spencer put her book down on Emily's bed and shook her head at Aria, "Aria we'll deal with that later. What did the text say, Em?"

Emily wrung her hands and sighed, "It was really personal, and it's not my place to tell his secret to everyone. Either way, he said it was something only he and one other person knew about. No one else."

Hanna shrugged and started to type on her phone, "so maybe that other person is screwing with him and A isn't really back. Did ya think of that?" She barely even looked up, she was busy answering emails and half listening to Emily's panic attack.

"Yeah, I thought that too, except well the other person wouldn't blackmail him. It's just not likely." Emily gave Aria a small look before she looked back at Spencer. "Lets think about this as the worst case scenario. What if A wasn't really Mona and…"

Spencer interrupted her, "and my sister?" She shook her head, "no they both admitted it, remember? They both detailed how they stalked us and how they tried to kill us. And, my parents went to see Melissa last week, she's still locked up in Philly Max". Spencer had long become numb to the fact that her sister had tried to kill her multiple times, it was just a back story for her now. The other girls tried to tiptoe around it, but what was the point? Facts were facts. Facts were things Spencer could deal with.

Hanna put her phone down and gave her friend a sympathetic look, "Listen, we're al overreacting. We're gonna get a call from Ali in like a week, she probably forgot her plan to come back here and went to some super exotic location with some super stud she met on a movie shoot."

They all nodded nervously wanting more than anything to believe that, but somehow they all couldn't force themselves too.

"I uh… I got a text from A last night" Aria said quietly, "It wasn't anything secretive or prying, just said, 'I know your secrets and I'll unbury them if you talk". She looked down at her clunky heels as Spencer repeated the line a few times.

"I wonder why they used unbury. I mean, we all know you killed Shana in self defense, hell the whole world knows. So A can't possibly mean that". Spencer took out her ipad and began to type on the screen. "Listen, I have to get back to studying, but I definitely think that if we get any more texts we need to tell the group. We've been through this before, there is no power in hiding our secrets."

Hanna shrugged as she tossed her designer bag on her shoulder, "Well I'm an open book, just read my blog for secrets". She casually strolled out burying her face back into her texts.

"Read your blog? Oh jeez, this I have to see". Spencer called after her as she walked out. "Em, I'm sure Ali is fine, just to be safe text me if you get anything else from this A, and I'll have my mom do a check to make sure Mona is still staring at rubber walls ok?". She gave Emily a reassuring hug before she too followed Hanna out and shut the apartment door.

Emily sat down next to Aria and sighed as she looked at her, "why didn't you tell us?"

Aria looked at Emily as tears flooded her eyes, her lip quivered as she tried to find the right words, "I don't know. It happened so suddenly. I just, it was easier to bury it away inside and never think about it." She wiped her tears before she laid her head on Emily's shoulder, "Thank you for not telling the girls about what was in Ezra's message."

Emily nodded and put her head on Aria's head and sighed, "You're welcome. Did you want to know what it said?"

Aria took a deep breath in and nodded taking her head away from Emilys and rested them on her knees as she hugged them, "yeah I might as well."

Emily got up and walked over to her gym bag and rummaged around until she found her phone before she pulled up a photo of the text. She couldn't even bring herself to read it out loud so instead she handed it to Aria and left the room to give her a moment of privacy.

Aria closed her eyes for a moment already having an idea what was in the message. She took one last deep breath before she glanced down at the screen and saw a photo of a tiny headstone with the engraving, "Nathanial Scott Fitzgerald, barely lived, deeply missed".