Pretty Little Liars belongs to Sara Shepard and ABC Family.

I do not take credit.

The reunion didn't start to bad. We sat around in the Kitchen so Aunt Ella could cook and talk at the same time. They asked me questions about how school was, what I've been up to and how it was moving back. Then I asked them basically the same questions. Apparently Iceland isn't a place with much sunlight. How did they handle that? They apologized for not keeping in touch much after they moved. It was nothing to be sorry about. I already knew why they didn't. They rarely called 'cause of how much money it cost internationally. They would try to get a call or two in every month or so to keep the bill from being high. Eventually they got busy. Aria and Mike started going to school there so that even got in the way of internet communication as well. I'd hear from Aria through Facebook maybe once every other week. If I was lucky we'd even see each other through webcams. But after about a year mine broke so there went that idea.

"Oh jeez!" We all look at Mike as he got to his feet. "I'm gonna be late for tryouts."

He starts running up the steps. "What sport is he playing?"

"Lacrosse." They all say.

"Wasn't tryouts yesterday?"

"It's a two day tryout session." Aunt Ella says from the stove.

"Oh." I look at the time. It was almost three. "I could take him if you want. I have my car."

"You're driving?" Uncle Byron says.

"Mhm."

We could now hear Mike running around upstairs. "Who's car do you have? Mommy's or daddy's." He said it in a baby voice.

Just that sentence alone made the convo go from good to shitty. It felt like my heat broke a bit as he said it becaue I realized that I had completely forgotten the reason I came over. I half smile. "Neither. Dad's got totaled and I had to trade in mom's for a car I could afford." It got quiet. By their faces I could tell that they forgot that mom and dad weren't around. I felt guilty myself, because so did I. Being with them felt so normal that I thought it was like any other day of me spending time with the Montgomerys.

"Jessie. I'm sorry I..."

"Don't worry about it Uncle Byron." I get up. "I'll take him." I look at Aria. "Wanna come?"

She looks at her parents then nods. "Sure."

"Let Mike know we'll be in the car." I walk away.

From behind me I hear Aria. "Good one dad."

"I...I wasn't thinking."

The rest of their convo I didn't hear. I already walked out of the house by then. I wasn't mad at Uncle Byron. He just found out, it's understandable to forget. I on the other hand shouldn't have been that forgetful, I saw them everyday. Forgetting shouldn't be an option because I think about them all the time.

I practically throw myself into my car, slamming the door behind me. I take out my phone and start looking through some pictures and conversations I still had from my family. I went through them every time I felt down. I couldn't bring myself to delete the texts. They really weren't anything special. Just normal convos, but I couldn't do it. They were all I had left of them. It always seems like a bad idea to do this to myself because it just makes it worse. At the same time it helps a bit.

My eyes start to swell up with tears. There's rage going through me and out of frustration I punch the wheel. "Whoa! Jessie chill out." I didn't notice that Aria had opened the door in mid punch. I tried not to look at her as pain rushes through my hand. It hurts like hell but at this point I don't care.

I breath in and out as deeply as I can to keep myself from screaming out. I hadn't felt like this in the longest time. The whole day sucked. Problem after problem as they were all I could think about, trying to figure out how to tell Aria. Obviously I should have seen this coming once I saw her walk into my English class. I just wish that I was able to handle it better. I feel how I did the day it happened and that was the worst day of my life. Feeling all those emotions again was never part of the plan.

I close my eyes from Aria's hand closing on my shoulder. I wanted to look at her but I couldn't. It just made everything more real to see her right now. Then I hear the door and Mike jumps in. "Thanks for the ride Jessie."

I collect my feelings and smile at him through the mirror. "Not a problem."

"I owe you."

"Treat me for pizza the next time we hang out and I'll call it even."

He laughs. "You got it."

Before I take off I give Aria a quick look. She has concerned written all over her face. Could I blame her? No. It's a normal reaction, especially in a situation like this. She doesn't even know the story yet, so this must make her even more worried about me. Once she finds out she's probably never gonna be able to look at me the same. Even more so when she hears how much I've changed since then.

I drop Mike off at school. "Thanks!" I smile. "If I need a ride would you mind picking me up?"

I shake my head. "Just call if you need me."

"No matter where you are?"

"No matter how far." I see Aria trying to hold in a laugh. I wasn't sure if he noticed that we just had a conversation in song lyrics. But all I could assume was he didn't because he just nods and starts to walk away. "But you'll owe me ice cream as well as pizza!" I scream out.

He laughs. "That I can handle. See you guys later." He runs off to the front doors.

Aria let's out her laughter as I watched him to make sure he got in okay. I was smiling myself but then she looked at me and it seemed that she changed her mood real quick. I was now trying really hard to ignore the fact that she was looking at me like a hunter would to their pray. I know this is a weird comparison but I can't think of any other way to describe this moment.

Once Mike walked inside there was no way to ignore her. "Aria. Will you stop?"

"Being concerned?"

"No. Looking at me like a creep."

I see a smile starting to come from the corner of her mouth but then it fades just as quickly. I knew this look too well. I could never keep eye contact for long 'cause it felt as if she was staring into you, trying to get into your head to see what your thinking. This is the look she has when she's either about to give you a lecture or wants to get something out of you. I obviously knew which one she was aiming for. But luckily we were interrupted when a loud bang came from my window, followed by "Brant!" Being yelled at the top of his lunges.

This scared both of us. I saw Aria jump so high she almost hit her head. Unfortunately for me, I did hit my head. I grabbed it and start to turn. When I get all the way around my eyes narrow in annoyance. Noel Kahn was laughing his head off outside my window. He was turning so red I was sure he would pass out.

I lower the window. "Noel. You ass."

He starts to wipe the tears from his eyes and smiles. His blue eyes were glittering from the sun and his smile. My God his smile. I swear it's so big you could see it a mile away. He has one of those smiles that goes from ear to ear. It could probably get him out of trouble. Even now he can still make me melt. I'm not into him like that anymore but he has that type of affect on people. Which is a problem considering I have a boyfriend.

"Jessie Brant." He says slowly. "It's been awhile."

"What do you want Noel?"

"Now is that any way to talk to a friend?" I don't answer. "Look. I'm sorry I scared you. Just thought I would come say hi."

"Last time you wanted to say hi my ex boyfriend and his girlfriend tagged along."

"You're still mad about that?"

"She punched me in the face." His face goes into a realization moment. We were at a party. When I saw him he had a beer in his hand. So all I can think is he probably didn't remember much of that night from drinking too much. How he could forget about us almost getting into a fight though is beyond me. "So how is that being a friend?" I add.

"Okay...that wasn't planned. We were at a party and I thought I was the only person they knew. Then I saw you and they followed. How was I supposed to know she was going to hit you?"

"By knowing that me and her aren't on good terms because she's Amber's cousin and hates me since she does?"

"Oh yea."

"Oh and also because she stole Zander from me."

Before I go any further, I want to let you know that we weren't talking about Riley. It was her cousin Carly. She goes to school in a different town and is about a year older than us. I met her when my parents sent me to a softball camp a couple years before I moved. I had no idea they were related but it happened to be that we were the only ones who had no one we knew at this camp. So we kind of became friends and took things from there. I didn't find out that she was her cousin though until I moved back here. I only kept in touch by phone and when I went to camp the next year. Then of course I moved and never saw her again till I had ran into her one day when she came to pick the twins up from school. Things had went from celebration and shock, to awkward and anger as soon as we noticed this.

Amber and Tommy walked over in the middle of us talking. Amber of course didn't waste any time to be mean. When she got to me she shoved me to the side and called me names. Carly told her to leave me alone. Then that's when Amber had a fit. Telling her that we've been enemies since kids and hated my guts. I honestly never considered her an enemy. Just a bully who bothered everyone.

This was in November. Not to long after I made Tommy look like an idiot in front of his crush. They had told her about it, so once she found out I was the one who did that to him she didn't see eye to eye with me anymore. I tried to reason with her, letting her know all the things they've been doing to people and even me since little but she didn't want to hear it. She got pissed and told me to leave her and her family alone. Despite being friends for awhile she basically scrapped me aside like garbage and never talked to me again. Until a few weeks later when I found out that my ex boyfriend Zander dumped me for her.

Zander's two years older, so at the time he was a Senior. He was someone who I was decently close to before I moved. We kept in touch through my time in Jersey. Eventually he was brave enough to ask me out and we tried out the long distance. Luckily for us though I found out not to long later that I was moving back. When I got back he was mister big shot Captain of the Baseball team and tried to fit me into his popular life as much as possible. Because as I already told you, a lot of people had a problem with me. So things between me and him were a little bit harder to handle than we planned. Especially him being a Senior his friends thought dating a Sophomore was weird.

Now apparently he met Carly at his friends wedding. Which he invited me to, but I couldn't go. Then one day I'm waiting for my mom to get her coffee at the Brew and she walks in with Amber. When they saw me it was like they couldn't contain themselves. They let me know how they saw Zander at the wedding kind of bummed out and Carly practically swooped in and made his night. I wasn't worried until about a week or so later when he told me it wasn't working anymore. Next thing I know Amber is rubbing it in my face that he's with Carly. I was pretty ticked off and wanted nothing to do with him. Then not too long later Spencer introduced me to Andrew and changed my view on boys.

I look at Aria, her eyebrows were raise. She knew about Carly and Zander because I told her after it happened. I just never got the chance to let her know that she almost broke my nose at that party.

"Right..." Noel finally gets out. Then trails away. "I'm really sorry." I eye him for awhile. "Please forgive me?" He rests his hands on the window. "I wouldn't do something like that on purpose. I know I can be mean but I'm not a complete douche." I tried not to laugh, because not too long ago he had no idea what a douche even was. This was a word that many people had a problem with me saying since it wasn't known here. And here he is, a popular kid no less is using a word that I can say I created in this town. "You're my buddy." He continues. "My partner for pong. Who else is gonna be by my side?" It didn't convince me much so he pouts his lips "Pwease Jessie." I try to hide a smile. "Pweaseeeee." This time a smile came through. "Ah, there's my girl."

I laugh. "Okay fine." He smiles. "Only because I can't stand hearing you talk like a baby."

He starts laughing. "You know you love it."

"Oh shut up." I say in a joking voice.

He smiles. "Okay. So I gotta go to Football practice. If I'm late you have to talk to Coach Stuart."

"Hey. Don't blame me for you being late."

"You're talking me to death Brant." I smile. "Plus you know him. He'll listen to you."

"Oh no." I shake my head. "Nuh uh. Don't use me as an excuse to get out of stuff just because I know Mr. Stuart."

"Jessie..."

"Noel...I'm about to open this door and give you a real reason to be late."

He backs away and puts his hands up. "No no. That's okay. " I half laugh and he starts to walk away. I turn to Aria, ready for her questions. "By the way." We look back at him. "My parents are going to be out of town in a couple weekends." I raise an eyebrow out of curiosity. "So I'm having a party at my cabin. You're welcome to come."

I nod. "Sounds like fun."

"You can bring your boyfriend. And..." He looks through the window. "Aria right?" She gets caught off guard but then nods. He smiles at her. "You're invited too."

"Oh...I uh. Okay."

He smiles. "I'll text you the details."

"Sounds good."

"Later." He says.

"See ya."

I roll up the window and wait till he gets inside. I wasn't up for him scaring me again. When he does I put the car in drive and take off. It's quiet, except for the radio. Then I pull up to a red light and look at her. "I need to stop at my dad's store. Do you mind coming with me?"

She shakes her head. "What do you have to go there for?"

"I gotta do the inventory. I haven't been opened in a week because I was getting ready for school. I'm a bit behind now." The light turns green and I turn the corner. There's the store down the block. She's quiet and I already know why. So I take a deep breath and say. "Go on."

She looks at me. "What?"

"I know you got things on your mind. So spill before I go into silent mode again."

She seems stunned but then she starts. "Do you own the store now?"

"It is my dad's store." I say.

"No. I mean..." She hesitates. "Did your parents leave it for you in the Will?"

I pulled up to the store. My dad was the type of person who wanted to do anything to make a good living for his family. He became a cop first but at the time he wasn't making enough 'cause he was only behind the desk, not getting out in the field much. So one day he passed by this building that had a sign saying it was for rent. It had been an out of business Sports Store for years. So what does he do? He gets the idea to buy it. Not even taking a second thought about what if it didn't work out. But luckily it did. It's been ours since I was six and has always done well. This town is very into their sports.

The store is in the corner of the block by a stop sign. There's a building filled with apartments next to it. If you turned this corner to start the next block there was a Flower store. The only thing that divided my dad's store with both buildings was an alleyway. The alley next to the apartment building has a door that leads up to the apartment that's above our store. No ones lived there in years. It needs a lot of work. That's the only reason why I haven't moved in myself. I can't afford to fix it up yet.

"Yea." I nod "They did."