For the record, this takes place after 'What Becomes of the Broken-hearted' and before 'Hot Water' and is canon up until the start of this story.
Spencer's POV
Drama Free? Rosewood? HA!
"You don't want to know," I said, grimacing at just how not drama-free Rosewood truly is.
"I do, though," Quinn said. "I want to know you."
"Okay," I said, giving in instantly, "But don't say I didn't warn you."
She wanted to know. And even though I worried about putting her in danger by telling her, I couldn't not tell her everything now. The girls were going to kill me when they found out.
"Alison was the Queen Bee when we were younger," I told Quinn. "Back in middle school she was at the top. She was beautiful and mean and manipulative, but at the same time she could be kind and fun. She was the girl everyone loved and hated."
Quinn nodded, she obviously understood that, after all it had essentially been her once upon a time.
"I guess I used to be part of her posse or whatever you want to call it. The five of us, me, Alison, Emily, Aria and Hanna, we used to be inseparable."
Quinn just waited for me to continue. Quinn had probably had her own posse, or maybe it was just the whole cheerleading squad back in Ohio.
"One night, we had a sleepover, and Alison disappeared. Nobody knew what happened to her."
Quinn's eyes went wide. She clearly hadn't been expecting that. She was likely expecting normal high school drama. Not death and murder and stalkers like we had here.
"About a year after she went missing, we all started receiving strange messages from somebody calling themselves A. Alison's body was found not too long after the messages started."
Quinn intertwined our hands, squeezing my hand gently as I had done earlier.
"That was over two years ago and it's been…"
I wasn't sure how to finish that.
"A has done a lot of things. Bad things. And last year we found out that Mona was A, only to find out that she wasn't the only one. Mona was going to try to kill me."
Quinn's hold on my hand tightened, as if she couldn't bear the thought.
"She got sent to Radley, which is a mental institution around here, she actually got release recently."
I felt Quinn shiver. I felt bad for burdening her with this information.
"I can stop," I said. "I don't want to freak you out."
"No," Quinn said. "I just can't believe, I mean I believe you're telling me the truth, I just can't believe that these things have happened here, to you."
I nod. I know the feeling. I can't really believe these things have happened either, but they're real as day.
"People have died because of A," I tell her. "My sister's husband, Emily's girlfriend, Officer Garret Reynolds. Aria was shoved in a box with his dead body and they tried to push it off the Halloween Train this year."
I felt Quinn shudder again.
"And I recently found out that my ex-boyfriend, Toby, is part of it. I mean, he wasn't my ex-boyfriend at the time. I found out on our anniversary."
Quinn hugs me suddenly and tightly. "I'm sorry all this stuff happened to you," she whispers. I can feel a tear that must have fallen from her eyes onto my neck.
I recognize that this is surreal, but my main thought in this moment is I hope she never lets go.
"I don't know why," I tell her, "But you make everything better."
What do you think?