Hello Liars! Hope you all enjoyed the new episode from today.

Here's a new chapter for you guys.

I do not take credit for PLL.

Sara Shepard and Freeform own.

This time I'm able to go to the dance dressed comfortably. I mean I still can't wear a t-shirt but I am wearing a plaid button up collard long sleeve with black jeans and black sneakers (that I'm hoping no one notices the jeans and sneakers part). Then my hair will be in a ponytail, but straightened and not pulled over my shoulder. It'll look a bit nicer than I usually have it in.

I feel better this time around since I won't be in a dress. But before I could even think about the dance I had practice after school and it left me completely exhausted by the time I got back to the house. Aria had found me crashed on my bed when she came up to see what I was doing after not coming back downstairs a half hour later. So when she woke me up I went to take a shower and now we are getting ready for tonight.

"Ay!" I yell as Aria burns my ear with her flatiron.

"Stay still then!" She says. "Stop reaching for your phone. Leave it where it is."

I rub my ear. "It's not my phone, it's yours."

She stops mid straightening. "What?" She puts it down and goes for her phone on the other side of her bed.

"Spencer is texting you. You know how she is."

She grabs it. "Yea I know. But if I don't finish we are going to be late to meet up with her. You know how she is about that too."

"True. Plus she lost her laptop yesterday, so she's gonna be in a bad mood. Don't want to see that."

She slowly nods and puts her phone down. "Right."

"Ria." She looks at me. "What's going on with you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know. There's just something off. Like you're distracted or paranoid." She goes to say something. "I mean..." I say before she could interrupt. "You're always distracted and stuff but you seem a bit more than usual. Lately you've gotten better at hiding you're emotions, but at the moment you suck at it."

"I'm fine." She simply says.

"Mmhm." I say in a way that's mixed between a yea right tone and just sounding completely exhausted to say anything else.

"Don't give me that attitude, Jessie."

"Then give me a straight answer for once."

She just shakes her head. "I don't know what you want me to say."

"How about the truth?"

She watches me for awhile. I can see the wheels turning in her head, the emotions in her eyes. Then just as she's about to say something her phone goes off. She hesitates like she always does to look at it but eventually she does. The look on her face went straight to scared and I did not like that at all.

"Aria?"

She slowly looks at me and changes to a half smile. "I promise that I'm okay. I've just been worried about you."

"But..."

"Spencer is getting on my ass now. Let's get your hair done so we can get dressed and go."

She goes back behind me and starts straightening again. For a few minutes we're both quiet. So I break the silence with. "Is someone bothering you?"

"What?" There's a scared tone in her voice.

"The look on your face when you got that text wasn't normal. It was you being scared. Who was it? Because I know that it wasn't Spencer."

"It's complicated."

"Complicated." I say a bit annoyed. "Why can't it ever be a simple straight answer."

"Because life isn't simple, Jessie."

"No shit, Aria. But that doesn't mean that you have to keep it to yourself."

"Stop." She says as she finishes up the last piece of my hair. "We are not going to keep getting into this argument."

"It's not an argument."

"Yes it is." She leans over to her nightstand and grabs a brush. "It's always an argument." I don't say anything so she continues. "I hide something from you, you get mad at me. You hide something from me and I get mad at you. It's a never ending cycle of back and forth arguments of yelling and trying to convince the other that we should start opening up to each other. Except it never happens."

It gets quiet. As she brushes my hair back into a ponytail I can feel her breath a bit heavy on the back of my neck. She clearly is heated about this and talked way too fast to get out what she felt. Which I guess is progress from not talking about her emotions at all.

When she finishes with my hair I turn around and look at her. "Look, Ria. It's not like I argue on purpose."

She nods. "I know. Me either."

I half smile. "We are obviously very stubborn."

She half laughs and nods again. "We've changed in the last few years of not being around each other. It's not a bad thing, but it is going to take a bit to get used to talking to each other like we used to."

"I don't think we are doing such a bad job."

"I agree. But as you can see there are things that we can't talk about."

"Except that you can talk to the girls about whatever you're going through."

"Yea." She says. "And you can talk to Luna and Spencer about what you're going through."

I nod. "True." I get up and walk to the closet to get what I'm going to wear. "But I have always come to you when I was upset. I want to be able to do that again."

"Me too. We'll get there one day." She walks over next to me. "We just aren't used to being around each other 24/7 anymore. I think we've gotten to the stage where being teens is harder than we thought, so the problems we are going through aren't as easy to talk about with one another like it used to be."

I walk away from the closet and throw my stuff onto my bed. "Looks like it."

What I've always hated about these types of occasions is that rushing is always part of the action. This is why I prefer simple jeans, sneakers and a tee. It's easy to put on and don't have to go through the hassle of getting prettied up. Or at least that's my normal everyday way of getting dressed, because it's easy to slip into and I'll just keep my wavy hair in a pony tail and then split. Aria putting on something as simple as what I wear still takes forever. Now she wears makeup and takes her a million years to get ready. Add that to the fact she is actually wearing a dress today, I was ready to go way before she was.

HONK! HONK!

"You text her didn't you?" I ask Aria when Spencer still hadn't come out after five minutes of being outside her house.

"Yes, Jessie."

"Never fails that when we are on time for once she's the one running late."

She smiles at me. "Then she can't blame us for anything."

I nod. "This is true." Her gates open up and we see her car pulling out. "Ah. There she is." I move up my car so she can get out and she follows behind me.

When we get to the school it's actually already pretty packed. So it takes a bit longer to find parking. When we head inside we see Emily and Hanna just getting in line to check in. So we go over and stand in line behind them.

We are just saying our hellos when I hear "Jessie!" I look towards whoever said my name and see Aunt Ella at the check in table. "I need you!"

I look at Aria. "Any ideas what your mom needs me for that she couldn't ask you?"

"Maybe it has to do with height and you're taller than both of us?"

I start to smile and a laugh comes out. She starts laughing too but gives me a weird look.

"I have no idea why I laughed that hard. I apologize." I say.

"Maybe it's because you're barely getting any sleep."

I nod. "Could be. But oh well."

She smiles. "Go, before mom has a fit."

"I'll be right back then."

I head over to her. "What's up, Aunt Ella?"

She smiles. "Hey, babygirl."

I smile back.

"Okay." She says. "Do you see that guy over there?"

I look over to who she's pointing to. A tall guy is standing with his back to us by the DJ. "Yea?"

"He told me to let you know that he needs to talk to you. So I'm going to let you sign in now and go over there."

"Do I know him?"

"Mhm." She hands me the sign in sheet and scoots me over towards the door when I'm done.

I don't rush to go over to this guy, because I have no idea who it is. But when I get there, I tap his shoulder and he turns around. My face brightens up in excitement almost in an instant. I must have the most ridiculous smile on as I recognize the tall, light skinned, freckle faced, red haired boy with bright green eyes right away.

"Bobby!" I yell.

He smiles down at me. "Hey there little cuz."

I start turning red. "I'm not little anymore."

Bobby, as has been mention, is my cousin. He's my first cousin from my aunt (dads twin sister). He's only two years older than me, but he loves to joke and remind me that those two years makes me younger than him. We've always been really close growing up. If I didn't see him when we went to visit then him and his mom (his parents divorced when he was five) would come around to see us. They're part of the few to visit Rosewood. We had gotten even closer when his mom had let us stay with them when we lived in Jersey for those couple years till we came back to Rosewood. But his mom was one of the ones who got upset with me when I stayed here when they died. So this is the first time I'm seeing him since the funeral.

I always forget how much Jeff looked like Bobby. The only difference besides their age was that Jeff was a slightly darker skin tone, had light brown eyes and no freckles. Other than the fact that he got those details from mom, you could still see the resemblance he had from dad's side of the family.

He gives me a hug. "You've grown a bit since the last time I saw you."

We pull away and I smile. "That's the beauty of not growing fast as a kid and still having more years to grow."

He laughs. "That it is."

"What are you doing here?"

He smiles. "I decided to transfer to Hollis after Christmas vacation. I need to check out rental spots for apartments."

"You're moving here?"

He nods.

"Against your mom's orders not to be around me?"

He smiles a bit and nods. "She'll get over it."

I laugh. "Well, that's great. We'll get to hang out more."

He smiles. "Have any recommendations on where to stay?"

"I'd offer you the apartment above the store but it's not really that livable at the moment."

"What's wrong with it?"

"It's a bit moldy. The walls and ceilings are starting to crack. Not very safe."

"Oh I see."

"Yea. If it was okay to live in I'd be staying there myself instead of bothering others with offering me to stay with them."

"Hey. Everyone here loves you. I doubt they mind."

I nod. "I know." I half smile. "But anyway. I know they have apartments for the Hollis students around town. There's a building next to the store that I think they rent some of the apartments for them. Check there."

He nods. "Sounds like a plan."

I smile. "And if you need a job then I got that covered."

"Sports store?"

I nod. "Sports store."

It got quiet for a minute.

"Good to see that what Katie did to you is gone."

I half smile. We talk once a week if we are lucky, but I had told him what happened. He was pretty pissed. "Yea." I look away. "You know she was here yesterday?"

He nods. "Mom told her to try to reconnect with you when she thought that you could handle seeing her again. I guess she thought it was the right time."

I roll my eyes. The fact that she thought it was a good idea to come see me three weeks after she hit me is a bit demented. She got abusive with a family member. Does she really think I'll forgive her after barely any time has passed? Apparently she did.

"Was your mom as mad when she found out?" I ask.

"She definitely wasn't happy. But she tried to keep calm."

The girls then come and find me.

"There you are." Spencer says. She catches sight of Bobby and smiles. "Hey."

"Spencer, right?"

She nods. "Nice to see you again."

"You too."

Then I see someone tackle him from behind and I start cracking up.

"Hi, Bobby!" Aria yells.

He turns to her and his face lights up. "Shorty!"

Everyone starts laughing and she turns red. "I hate that name."

He laughs. "I know. That's why I say it." He puts a goofy face and it makes her laugh. "I didn't know you were back from Iceland. When I saw your mom it shocked the hell out of me."

"Yea. I got back just before school started."

"Nice to know that my cousin tells me things."

"It slipped my mind. But hey, we talk like once a week."

"I've been busy with school."

"Then whose fault is it that I can't remember to tell you everything that happens in my life?" I raise my eyebrows with a bit of a smile.

He just smiles. "Fiiine."

I laugh. "How did you know I was here anyway?"

"I went to the address you told me you were going to be living at after the acc..." He stops and curses in Spanish under his breath. He's kind of like my big brother in a way, always looking out for me. So when he slips on bringing the accident up he always feels bad. "Sorry." He says, giving me an apologetic look.

I see that the girls are watching my reaction as well and I half smile. "It's okay."

He has a concerned look, but when he sees I don't react badly he continues. "The Hastings had taken you in right?" He looks at Spencer "Your parents?"

"Yea." We both say.

"But I moved out not too long ago." I add. "I'm living with Aria and her family now."

"Yea they told me. Again. Nice to know you tell me things."

"Sorry!" I smile. "I didn't think you'd be coming here. Especially without letting me know first."

"There's such thing as a surprise."

I nod. "True that."

He smiles. "Anyway. They let me know that you weren't going to be at the Montgomery's till later 'cause there was a dance here. So I thought I'd come see you, then I ran into Mrs. Montgomery and it just made it easier to find you."

I give Aria a quick look when he called her mom Mrs. As we all know we have no idea how long it will stay that way if things don't change. Luckily she's either too distracted with Bobby being here to notice or she's playing it off very well.

When I look back he's staring at me with a slight smile on his face. "What?" I ask.

He shrugs and shakes his head a bit. "Nada. Estoy muy feliz de verte."

I smile. "I'm happy to see you too." I hug him. "Te extrane."

"Missed you too, kiddo." He lets go. "Makes me happier that this time I'm seeing you smile."

Before I can react to that I feel a finger tap my shoulder. I turn and smile. "Hey babe."

He leans in and kisses me. "Sorry to interrupt."

I shake my head. "No. It's okay." I look at Bobby. "This is my cousin, Bobby. Bobby, this is Andrew. My..."

"Boyfriend." Andrew cuts in with his hand out for a shake. "Nice to meet you."

Bobby shakes his hand but he has a straight face. "Boyfriend huh."

Andrew nods.

"You treating my cousin right? Making sure she's okay after everything she's been through?"

Andrew nods. "Yes. Of course." He has a bit of a shaky tone to his voice and it makes me smile a bit to see that he's reacting that way. Usually boys who are like that around family members mean that they actually care.

I look at the girls and they all give me a smile, or are trying to hide a laugh. Spence adds a wink to her reaction.

"Good." Bobby says. "Now if I find out you hurt her like her last boyfriend did, don't expect to have your balls intact when I'm through with you."

"Bobby!" I yell.

He looks at me and I'm sure he can tell I was trying not to laugh. The girls all turn their heads to keep their faces out of view. I know for a fact they're cracking up.

"Knock it off."

"Hey." He says. "I'm looking out for my little cousin. You're like a sister to me."

I smile. "I know. But chill."

"Oookay."

I smile. "You sticking around?"

He shrugs and gives me an Eh I don't know look.

"What? Mr. College man is too old to be hanging with high school kids now?"

He laughs. "I'll hang around for a bit. Then I'll go check into the Rosewood Motel."

"You can probably stay with us." Aria says.

We both look at her. "Seriously?" He says.

"I'll have to ask my dad, but I'm sure he'll be fine with it. He knows you pretty well."

"Isn't that your dad now?" Bobby says, looking over at the entrance.

Uncle Byron is standing at the check in spot, talking to Aunt Ella. They look like they are actually getting along for once in a long time.

"Oh." Aria says in surprise. "Yea. I'll go talk to him now." She smiles and walks away.

I feel a nudge of an elbow to my arm. "Dance?" Andrew says when I look up at him.

"Uhh..."

He puts his hand out, like gentlemen do. Bobby has that I'm watching you look while the girls have the Go on look. Which ends with Spencer giving me a bit of a shove from next to me.

"Hey." I whisper.

"Go!" She whispers back.

I half smile and grab his hand. "That's why we are here right?"

He nods and kisses me on the cheek. "That's what I thought the point of a dance was for."

He pulls me to the middle of the dance floor as a slow song comes on. "I hate dancing."

Andrew grabs my hands and sets them in place around his neck, leaning down from our height difference. Then he wraps his arms around my back and puts his forehead on mine. "Don't think so much about it."

I look over to the group and see Sean grab Hanna and leads her to a spot next to us. Emily had taken off to talk to a friend. Then I see Spencer give a sideways head movement towards the dance floor to Bobby. He look like he's in the middle of saying no, but she pulls him into the crowd of dancers and gets on the other side of me and Andrew. Bobby's face is priceless.

"I can't dance." He says.

"Suck it up." I say to him. He glares at me and I laugh. "Love you!"

He smiles. "Love you too, chica."

It felt like forever as Andrew had me stay on the dance floor for about five songs. The first two were slow ones. Then it picked up and I was tripping over my own feet trying to figure out the rhythm for the others. Aria eventually got on the floor with us and everyone, including Sean were trying to help me out.

"That was embarrassing." I say when I go to get a drink with Aria.

"You did great."

"Liar."

She half smiles. "Okay. You have two left feet."

"See!"

She laughs. "But that's totally fine, Jessie. You'll get there."

Bobby walks over. "Hey."

"Hey." We both say.

"I'm gonna take off. Your dad said it was cool to stay at the house, so he's gonna give me a lift so I can settle in."

"Sure you won't stay?" I ask.

He shakes his head. "Nah. I'm not in high school anymore."

I look at Aria. "They grow up so fast." Then I look back up at him and lightly punch him in the stomach.

He clutches his stomach and laughs. "I'll see you at the house. Don't have too much fun." He looks at Andrew, who's talking to Lucas. "Seriously."

"You're disgusting."

"I'm being protective."

"You're being obnoxious."

"Obnoxiously protective."

I smile. "Go away."

He gives me a hug. "See you later."

"Yea." I let go. "Later."

I stood on the side for awhile with Aria and Spencer. For some reason Hanna had started to dance with Lucas. Which was fine, but she came with Sean and knows the situation between them. Then Emily went MIA. That seems to be her thing at dances.

"Hey, Aria."

We turn to the voice. "Simone." She says and gives me a look. I'm not sure what it meant but she doesn't look happy to see her. Which is weird because she was fine yesterday. "I thought you left."

"I was going to, but then your mom invited me to come here so I could stick around longer." She looks at me. "Oh my God. Jessie, is that you?"

I smile and nod. "The last time I checked."

She laughs. "Still have that sense of humor." She gives me a hug. "Man, you got so big."

"That's what they tell me these days."

She smiles. "Oh by the way." She says looking over to the chaperones. "Your English teacher thinks my writing is pretty good."

"You're talking about Mr. Fitz?" I ask and she nods. "Didn't know you knew him."

"I just met him yesterday. Ella set up a meet between us. Then we went for coffee earlier today. He's sweet."

"I guess?" I say.

She smiles. "Oh right. He's your teacher. Never give them the cool card."

Aria has a look of being upset, but also concerned about me at the same time because I was trying to put as much of a smile as I could. But the memories filled my brain and I wound up saying. "Bit more to it than that."

She gives me a weird look, like she wanted to ask what I meant. But it's too late as Andrew came over and asks me to dance again. It was either that or having to answer that question I stupidly put on the table.

It's now about an hour later and everyone disappeared. Well everyone as in the girls...as usual. So I take that opportunity to head to the bathroom and realize that was just as bad of an idea as trying to get myself to dance with two left feet, because when I get out, Mr. Fitz walks out of the boys room.

"Uh oh." Is the first and only thing I think of.

"Jessie."

I hesitate for a second. "Mr. Fitz."

It gets awkwardly quiet for a few seconds.

"Can we chat?" He asks.

My first instinct is to say no, but I've really haven't given him much of a chance to have any type of conversation with me. It could have been him trying to tell me how bad my essays were or how to give me props for a test. But no matter what I'd always leave class as soon as the bell rang or dodged him in the halls.

I look at him for a minute then nod. "Yea. I guess we should."

His face goes into pure shock. "Really?"

I nod again.

He slowly nods. "Okay. Um...my classroom?"

I shrug. "Sure." Then I follow him to his class.

He unlocks his door and turns on the light. I head over to one of the students seats in the front and sit in it. He pulls over his wheeled chair from behind his desk and sets it next to the one I'm in. For a bit I avoid his eyes as the silence grows. Then he clears his throat and I slowly look up to him.

"So." He says.

"Here we are."

He nods. "I know you like to avoid me, that's pretty obvious."

My face goes into an I'm sorry expression.

"Which I understand, I do. But I thought you avoided me long enough. We have to talk about this. I'm probably the only one you can talk to."

"I have my friends. Some family too." I say in an attitude without really noticing it.

"I know." He says. "I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that I'm the only one who was actually there that you can talk to." He watches me. "Your friends and family are great, but they didn't see what happened like I did, I saw it with my own eyes. I'm the one who saw how you were while trying to get you out, and after. Your friends can only guess from what you tell them and the emotions you give them while getting out your feelings, and even then they might not truly get it."

He was right after all. No matter how many times I share my feelings, not that I do it often I will admit, but when I do it's like they don't know how to react. Of course they are upset about the situation, especially since most of them knew my family or are close to me. But unless they were there and saw how it went they would know how to help more. Right now all they do is nod, give me hugs and say everything will be alright. That's great and all, but it doesn't help as much as someone who actually knows what to tell you. If they had things to say after the conversation then I'd be fine with my talks with them. But they literally have nothing to say at the end. I don't know how to handle that.

"What made you decide to go to the car when no one else did?"

His face goes into a thought process for a second. "I guess because I would have wanted someone to do the same for me,"

I watch him, waiting for more.

"I was sitting at the bench around the Brew that day." He says. "I didn't see exactly when the dog ran in front of the car because I was reading, but I heard the screeching of the car as it tried to avoid it. By the time I looked up, your car was already flipping over."

I gulp as the memory swarms my brain.

"It took me no time to dial 911, but the shock of what was happening in front of me took a minute or so to react once your car stopped. Especially when I noticed that the people around me weren't moving, I knew I had to. I needed to make sure that the people in that car were okay."

"Why was I the first person you went too?"

"Because you were the only one moving around at the time."

"Did you check my family?"

He nods. "I did. As I was getting to my knees I was able to see your parents. I couldn't tell if they were alive but you were freaking out so bad that I had to be sure you were alright. Which allowed me to see your brother too, but you were my focus at the time to calm you down."

"You could have saved any of them before me."

He nods. "I could have. But you had that look in your eyes like you didn't want me to leave because of how scared you were. So once I heard the sirens I thought everything would be okay."

"But it wasn't."

He nods. "I know. I'm sorry."

My mind slips into a flashback of that day. Seeing as he bent down to look at me. The fear that I can so clearly now see on his face was enough to know that he wasn't trying to be a hero. It was human instinct.

"Mr. Fitz?"

He watches me, raising his eyebrows in response.

"Why didn't the papers mention you?"

His face goes into surprise.

"When the article on what happened came out in the Rosewood paper." I continue. "You weren't in it. It had my family's names, the cause of the accident and who survived. But not once did it say anything about the man who saved my life. That's another reason why I always doubted someone really saved me. You were just never mentioned again and I eventually believed that my eyes tricked me for all that time till you told me otherwise."

He has a hard time giving me eye contact for a minute, darting his attention around the room instead of at me. Then he says. "I told the cop who questioned me to keep me out of it."

"Why?"

"Because I wasn't about to let the press turn this horrible accident into a heroic story." He watches me. "That's what the press does. Something bad happens but they always twist it to make it into a happy one. Yes I saved your life. That's for sure a happy ending when it comes to your life. But you lost your family. That's horrible and they would have turned it into something totally different. I didn't want you to go through that knowing they made your worst day into a Lets celebrate the man who saved your life story. To me, that's worse than not telling it at all."

We both got a bit quiet. I can hear the music from the dance flowing through the room. "You're different from most people who live here." I finally say.

He gives me a confused look. "Meaning?"

"Anyone else would have jumped at the opportunity to get their name plastered on the front page. That's basically how things work around here."

"Well. I don't have the typical Rosewood personality."

I smile a bit. "Yea. Me either." I watch him for a minute. "Were you serious about being friends if we stayed in contact?"

He nods. "I did."

"Do you think that could happen if I stopped avoiding you?"

He's a bit shocked. "It's possible. But I didn't think you would want to befriend a teacher. Especially me."

"I didn't at first. But you're not as bad as I thought."

He smiles a little.

"Plus you're right. You are the only person I can fully talk to about this and will understand what I'm talking about."

"Really?"

I nod. "Yea."

Then his phone makes a noise and he pulls it out of his pocket. "Look, I have to go." He says and looks up from his phone to me. "Let me see your phone."

I raise an eyebrow but then give it to him.

"If you need me for anything, I mean anything at all." He hands it back to me. "You can call me, or text me. Whatever you want."

I watch him, my mouth half open. "You don't think that's weird?"

He shakes his head. "Not at all. Had we stayed in touch from the accident till now then we would have had each other's number anyway. Plus I'm sure you have both of your coach's numbers. That's the same situation because they are also your teachers."

"I guess."

He leans in, resting his arms on his knees. "Look. You don't ever have to dial my number if you don't want. But if you need me at any time that we aren't in school then you have a way of contacting me."

I half smile. "Thanks, Mr. Fitz."

He smiles and nods "And just for the record. I live in the complex of apartment's right next door to your store, if you ever need anything."

My eyes widen in surprise. "You do?"

He nods. "Yea."

"Shocking we haven't run into each other."

"I've kept my distance because I know you feel awkward. But I thought I'd let you know just in case."

I slowly nod. "Good to know."

He smiles a bit. "Well I'll see you on Monday." He stands. "Don't forget to bring me your rough draft for Macbeth."

I nod. "Okay."

From there he left and I went back to the dance. I couldn't find anyone for awhile so I just hung around the side for a bit. Then I spot Aria dragging Em outside so I walk over to see what's going on. She tells me that Em stole Hanna's liquor flask that was in her checked bag and is now drunk. Em starts mumbling something about not letting someone get away with it while everyone blamed Toby. I have no idea what she means by that and Aria looks to be as stumped as I am.

By the end of the night, Spencer and Hanna took Em back to Spencer's house so she wouldn't get in trouble for drinking by her mom. Uncle Byron and Aunt Ella connected for the first time in what seemed to be forever by having a few dances. Me and Andrew had a nice talk out in the courtyard while I waited for Aria to help her mom clean up a bit after the dance was over and then head home.

In total I had ten dances all together. So that added up to two hundred dollars worth for the D.C. trip. I must say. The night wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.