Hanna groaned and banged her forehead down on the book in front of her. She fumbled for her latte and knocked it off the edge of the table – of course, because it was that kind of a day.
She tensed for a splash and burn, but the cup never hit the ground.
Hanna raised her head and looked to the side. A hand had reached out and snagged her cup just as it went over the edge. A hand with perfectly manicured burgundy nails that could scratch your eyes out in a heartbeat.
"Mona?" Hanna said, finally looking up to see her standing there. "How did you – are you a ninja?"
"Adrenalized hyperreality, my darling," said Mona. She casually deposited Hanna's drink back on the table and crossed her arms, regarding Hanna coolly. Hanna could see Emily at the counter over Mona's shoulder, watching them with wide eyes – but she'd been slammed all evening with a constant stream of customers, and couldn't come over to intervene.
"What are you doing here?" Hanna said.
"Well, I'm clearly not here for the coffee – or the service," said Mona, looking around The Brew. She had a look on her face that was halfway between a sneer and a smirk – a snirk? thought Hanna absently. Then Mona fixed Hanna with her piercing gaze. "I was walking by and I saw a familiar blonde head flopped morosely on the table. Thought I'd see how my 'bestie' was doing."
"Mona, we haven't been besties for a long time."
The mask slipped for a split second as Mona said softly, "I know." Then it was firmly back in place. "So, Halloween Train this weekend. I assume you and Caleb will do some disgustingly cute couple's costume?"
Hanna rolled her eyes. "We both know you're a lot of things, but stupid isn't one of them, Mona. You know Caleb and I aren't together anymore."
"Ah yes, he'll probably bring that dark-eyed little firecracker of his. Will you be bringing Mr. Tattooed-and-Taciturn, then?"
Hanna smiled to herself a little – this whole thing was just so Mona. The wordplay, the subtle attempts at manipulation – it must be killing her not to get a rise out of Hanna the way she used to.
She decided to take the upper hand, aggressively steering the conversation away from her love life. "What will you be going as, Mona? Trying to find out what my date will be dressed as, so that you can wear the same costume and feel me up a little? Or will you go with the classic Allison-mask-under-baby-mask combo? Or – what if you and Allison both wore masks of your own faces, on top of masks of each other's faces?"
Mona's expression was unreadable as she said, "Actually, I was thinking about going as a Teletubby."
Hanna couldn't help herself: she burst out laughing. The corner of Mona's mouth twitched, and she lost her inner battle too, erupting in un-Mona-like guffaws that Hanna hadn't heard since eighth grade.
They were wiping their eyes and catching their breath when Spencer walked up, fresh from field hockey practice and looking bemused. "Is . . . everything all right?" she asked hesitantly.
Mona quickly composed herself and whirled to face Spencer. "Han and I were just catching up. But three's a crowd, so I'm leaving now." She paused and gave Hanna the tiniest of smiles before sashaying out the door.
Spencer gestured to the chair across from Hanna. "Mind if I sit down?"
Hanna said, "Be my guest." She was suddenly jolted back to academic reality and heaved a big sigh, running her hand through her hair and tapping her pen absently with the other.
Spencer's expression softened. "Hey – are you okay? I haven't seen you around much lately." She reached across the table, laying a comforting hand on top of Hanna's and stilling her pen tapping.
Hanna looked up at her. "Well, your new bestie is besties with my ex's current girlfriend, so it's a little weird for us all to mingle in one big happy group. And my mom is super busy with work and the Safety Committee, so my house is starting to feel like yours. I've been hanging out at the gym a lot after school, but today Lincoln had a family thing and I had to work on this damn trig homework, so here we are."
"You are looking super ripped these days," said Spencer with a grin, sitting back and sneaking a drink of Hanna's latte.
"I love that that's the only thing you picked up on in that whole rant," said Hanna.
Spencer shrugged. "I think the Caleb and Octavia and Clarke thing is only as weird as you want it to be." She changed the subject. "What were you and Mona talking about?"
Hanna said, "The Halloween Train, mostly."
"Are you going?" Spencer asked.
"Actually, I thought I might hang out with Aria," Hanna said. "She's kinda skeeved out after the whole 'being-locked-in-a-coffin-with-a-dead-crooked-cop' thing. Plus Ezra won't be around that weekend, he's at some conference in Boston. And the Halloween Train isn't really Lincoln's scene."
"That's cool of you," Spencer said with a smile. "Speaking of Lincoln . . . how are things going with the two of you? Has he taken you 'camping' yet, or is that just a Caleb move?"
"We're taking it slow – well, actually, he's taking it slow," said Hanna. "Not, like, Sean slow," (Spencer chuckled at that) "but still. I'm starting to worry that it's me." She looked at Spencer hesitantly. "Do you think it could be . . . the money thing?"
Spencer thought for a moment. "It doesn't seem that way from the outside. I had a little of that situation with Alex, do you remember him?" Hanna nodded. "But ultimately I messed it up by being pushy, not because I had more money than he did." She grinned mischievously and added, "Besides, don't you keep your money in pasta boxes and paper towel dispensers? He really shouldn't find that super threatening."
Hanna smacked her on the shoulder, then looked up as the door opened. Her face fell a tiny bit. "Oh. Your friends are here," she said. Spencer turned and saw Clarke and Octavia. Clarke waved, and Octavia nodded as they went to order their drinks from Emily.
When Spencer turned back, Hanna was packing up her books. As she went to stand up, Spencer put a hand on her arm. "Hey. Hang out for a little?"
Hanna softened and sat back down. "Only for you, Hastings," she said with a little smile. It had been a long time since they'd hung out, and she could get through a few awkward minutes with Caleb's girlfriend. She was Hanna frickin' Marin, after all.
But as Octavia made her way over to their table, Hanna frickin' Marin realized that she still needed a minute. "I'm going to refresh my latte," she said, standing up. "You want anything, Spence?"
"I'm good," Spencer said. Hanna acknowledged Octavia with a little wave as they passed, and Octavia gave her typical unsmiling nod.
When she got to the counter, she overheard Emily saying ". . . so you can't hang out at all? I was about to take my first break of the afternoon."
Clarke sighed, lacing her fingers through Emily's. "I just came by to grab a chai latte to go – Safety Committee meeting tonight, remember?"
"Want to hang out afterwards, then?" Emily said. "My shift ends around the time you guys will be done, right?"
Hanna noticed Emily's downcast look as Clarke said, "I'd love to, but . . ."
". . . you're meeting with Paige and Lexa to work on that project, aren't you?" Emily finished for her. Clarke nodded.
"Hey. It's cool," said Emily, patting Clarke's hand and pulling hers away. She saw Hanna and said brightly, "Hey, Han! You ready for a refill on that?"
As Hanna handed her cup over, Clarke mumbled goodbye and headed back out. Emily's eyes lingered on her. Guess I'm not the only one feeling a little neglected, Hanna thought.
"Em. You okay?" she said.
"Hm? Oh, yeah, I'm fine," Emily said, with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "Here's your drink." And she turned to help the next customer.
Hanna walked sort of aimlessly back over to the table where Spencer and Octavia were laughing about something. Probably something field hockey related, or about how they were practically in-laws. Hanna mentally rolled her eyes as she sat down.
"So, Octavia was just telling me that she started going to the gym where you and Lincoln work out?" Spencer said.
"Yep," said Hanna. Like Octavia hadn't moved in on enough stuff in her life already – her ex, her friends, now the one thing that she and her current boyfriend had in common.
Spencer must have been able to read some of that on Hanna's face, because her eyes narrowed in that calculating way all the Hastings women had.
Luckily, Octavia broke the tension, saying, "Hey, what's the deal with this Halloween Train Paige told me about?"
"Typical Rosewood fun," Spencer said, shifting her focus to Octavia. "People get dressed to the nines, in an enclosed environment, and inevitably something goes horribly wrong." She grinned. "Should be super fun, though – you want to go?"
"Yeah, let's ask Caleb about it when he gets here," Octavia said. Hanna stiffened and got up to leave, gathering her stuff again. "Hey guys, I really need to finish this trig homework somewhere . . . quiet," she said. "Have fun planning your night at the Halloween Train." And she left them so quickly that not even Spencer Hastings could get a word in.
As she walked out, Hanna waved at Emily, looking sad behind the counter. She overheard Octavia saying to Clarke, like neither of them had a care in the world, "So tell me about the weird shit that went down on the train last year."
And she realized for the first time that having the Arkadia kids join Rosewood was causing more problems than it was helping.
Next chapter: Lexa!
And coming soon (hopefully sooner than this update, eek): The Halloween Train, starring Everyone!