Whispers in the Dark
- Chapter Seventeen – Playing With Fire
Cory stood in Hanna's kitchen talking to her friend while Hanna started a pot of coffee and they waited on everyone else to arrive.
"What are you doing today?" Hanna questioned as she leaned over the island in the kitchen as Cory sat down across from her.
"Later tonight I'm going to see a movie with Jason." She admitted, smiling then her eyes widened slightly as she added, "So if my dad happens to call-"
"Don't worry, I know the drill." Hanna said with a small laugh, "You know your dad's going to find out eventually though right?"
"Yeah, I'm just hoping I'll be packed for college by then."
"I get that he doesn't like Jason… I don't think anyone besides you likes him, but what's the big deal? You'll fight for like a week and he'll get over it." Hanna said as she walked over and got the creamer out of the refrigerator.
"It's not about fighting with my dad –even though if he finds out about me and Jason it's going to cause a war. It's that-" Her voice trailed off, which only interested her friend more in what she was holding back from saying.
"Go on!" She exclaimed.
"When we moved away from Rosewood, I made a deal with my dad that I wouldn't ever talk to Jason again. I'm just worried about the repercussions if he finds out I'm back together with him." Cory admitted, avoiding the fact that her attending rehab was part of that deal. She still wasn't ready for any of her friends to know that yet.
"Repercussions?"
"Yeah, Han. Think about it… Jason is older than us, he's always been older-" She tried to explain, but her friend cut her off as she laughed, "Not maturity wise, not back then at least."
"Right." Cory agreed, "But I was like 14-15 and when my dad found out about me and Jason he threatened to call the police. My mom kind of talked him down and I swore I'd never talk to him again as long as my dad didn't call the cops."
"Ah." Hanna breathed nodding, "I see why you don't want your dad finding out."
"Finding out about what?" Emily questioned as she entered the room and went straight to the cabinet for a coffee mug.
"About her and Jason." Hanna admitted causing Cory to shoot her a look when Emily groaned, making it know she didn't want to hear about it.
Cory looked over her shoulder to the doors when she heard a light tapping on the glass, and smile as Spencer and Aria walked in.
"Morning." Aria greeted everyone.
"Good morning." Emily groggily said back before she turned and reminded Hanna that she still needed her to move some of the clothes in her closet so she could hang her own stuff up.
It had been a couple days since Emily had officially moved into the Marin household and her mom had made the move to join her dad in Texas.
"Wait, I thought you were getting your own room?" Spencer questioned with an appreciative smile as Hanna handed her a steaming hot coffee mug.
"I am, but that was before a pipe went off behind the wall." Emily explained.
"Ugh." Cory sympathized, "At our house in Ohio we had a pipe burst behind the wall in the guest room and it made a huge mess."
"Well it's not all bad." Hanna beamed, "We get to be roomies until the pipes are replaced and they get the wall put back in."
"Yeah, it's gonna be fun." Emily agreed.
"I know. It's gonna be like a sleepover that never ends." Hanna bounced excitedly as she spoke, causing Cory and Spencer to exchange looks. Both of them knowing as much as Hanna and Emily loved each other, they were still very different people and living out of the same room might get challenging.
The room fell silent for a little while, all five friends sipping on their coffee and thinking they'd agreed to meet up a little too early for it being a weekend.
Finally the silence was broken as Spencer turned her attention to Emily and asked, "Has Garrett called you about Ian's messenger?" They were still waiting on him to check into the lead they'd given him.
"Not a sound."
"Guys, we dragged Garrett into this… we've gotta just trust him." Aria reminded the group.
"Yeah, but we're trusting him with a lot of money." Cory shrugged, still feeling like she couldn't fully put her trust in him.
"Ten thousand dollars, and honestly I could have used some of that to replace Melissa's ring." Spencer said, thinking back to how when she went to the pawn shop to buy it back, her ticket had been returned with an old rusty horseshoe.
"What if they traced the money from Ian back to you?" Hanna asked with raised eyebrows.
Hopping up on the counter, Spencer scooted back some as she admitted, "I just don't like waiting… and if we're too quiet A's going to get bored and stir the pot."
"And if we say something A's just going to smack us down." Hanna argued, "I don't want to walk into another A-stravaganza –like the fashion show."
"God, the look on Mrs. DiLaurentis' face…" Emily breathed and Spencer questioned, "Should we send her a card or something? I haven't tried to talk to her since the fashion show."
"I sent her a card and some flowers along with the disk of actual tribute so she could see what it was supposed to be like." Cory told them, when she saw Emily's jaw drop she added, "Don't worry. I signed all of your names to the card, said it was from us all."
"And that is why we keep you around." Hanna called over her shoulder with a laugh as she left the room when the doorbell rang.
Migrating across the kitchen, Aria took the last of the coffee as she realized, "This isn't just about making us look like bitches anymore is it?"
"No, it's about keeping us quiet." Cory pointed out.
"A might really be the one who killed Ali. I mean that's what we're all thinking right?" Emily asked and spencer nodded in agreement. The game had changed from months ago when it was a cryptic text here or there and a not left in a locker. The game had changed and the stakes were raised; both Alison and Ian were dead and it was looking like A was responsible for it all.
"You guys!" Hanna interrupted them as she returned with a large basket full of chocolate candy, "Look at the card."
Picking the card up, Emily read it out loud: 'What fun. Two little liars under one roof. You're making it so easy. –A'
Looking one of the boxes over Hanna sighed, "It's not even good candy." With that she dropped it into the trashcan and the group all stared at each other, each fearing what might happen next.
~()~
Cory had spent most of the day feeling like she had to look over her shoulder at every turn. The basket of candy with the note from A earlier that day was one of the only things they'd head from their invisible threat that seemed to exist everywhere and nowhere all at once and now besides that she apparently had someone else targeting her too.
She was trying not to think about any of that as she waited on Jason to pick her up for their date that night, which also had her as nervous as it did excited. Spending time with him seemed to be about the only time that her stomach wasn't in a constant knot of tension.
The only downside was, after their dates she'd started getting twice as worried about who'd seen them and if anyone would mention it to her dad. Clearly, that hadn't happened or her dad would probably have them on the next flight out of town with the way he seemed to feel about Jason.
Tonight she was trying to not worry so much, he was actually getting to pick her up from her own house since her dad had picked up a shift at the hospital that night. Which, she had to admit was a nice relief considering when she'd have him pick her up from a friend's house she got nothing but judgmental stares in the mirror behind her when she was trying to get ready.
She was shaken from her thoughts when the doorbell rang and couldn't help but smile as she neared the closed door, knowing it was Jason waiting on the other side for her.
"Hey." She greeted as she pulled the door open.
"Ready to go?" Jason asked, smiling as he leaned down to kiss her.
"Yeah." She smiled at how he'd come to the door to get her instead of just waiting in the car. Of course she didn't blame him with the way her friend's looked at him, she wouldn't want to go to their doors either. Especially after the night he'd dropped her off to a very protective and worried Emily pacing the porch when she wasn't on time.
The drive to the theater was mostly quiet with them making small talk and him asking her a few times if she was alright, he'd always been able to tell when something was bothering her.
She'd smile and nod, before quickly changing the subject to something else. It wasn't like she could tell him about A and she wasn't even sure where to being when it came to her other problems, especially since she'd already lied to him about it being some random mugging when someone had tried to abduct her. If she opened up that can of worms would only expose her lies, something she wasn't willing to do.
"Still worried about someone seeing us?"
"Hmm?" She hummed in question as she looked to Jason when he placed a hand in the center of her back and guided her closer to the snack counter in the crowded theater when the line moved but she'd been too distracted to notice.
"I asked if you're still worried about someone seeing us?" He repeated, giving her a questioning look.
"Sort of." She sighed, rubbing her forehead before asking, "Why?"
"You've been looking over your shoulder since we stepped out of the car." He pointed out, again scooting her forward when the line started moving.
"I'm sorry." She was quick to apologize but it earned a small sigh from Jason when she didn't offer up an explanation.
"Are you sure you're okay?" He pushed, leaning in speaking quietly as he also looked around them trying to see what had her so on edge.
"Yeah, I'm just…" Her voice trailed off, and this time he didn't notice the line had shrunk even farther until someone cleared their throat in line behind them.
They both stepped closer to the counter and she questioned, "Do you ever just have the feeling like it's the calm before a storm? You know, like… things have just been too quiet and if you get too comfortable all hell's going to break loose?"
He turned sideways to face her completely, wondering what she was talking about and if she was thinking things had been too good between them lately and she was waiting for it all to crumble down.
"Can I help you?"
Both of their gazes snapped up to the worker at the snack counter who was giving them a strained, tight smile. With it being such a busy night she didn't have time for people to be holding up the line.
"Uh, yeah… sorry." Jason apologized, as he and Cory stepped up and ordered their tub of popcorn and drinks.
After he paid for the food, he picked up the popcorn and his drink and nodded towards one of the self-serve butter pump stations for the popcorn; she grabbed her drink and followed him.
Setting the popcorn down next to he pump, he asked, "Do you mean with us?"
Her forehead lined with confusion as she asked, "What?"
"You said you're waiting for all hell to break loose, that things have been too calm… do you mean with us?" He clarified.
With wide eyes she started to explain that what she had going with him was one of the only things in her life she actually trusted but the conversation was interrupted as Mona loudly greeted, "Hey Cor!"
"Hey Mona…" She greeted back. Not sure why the other teenager always talked to her like they were good friends and had been for years. When she saw Mona look between her and Jason expectantly she said, "Oh, Mona this is Jason. Jason meet Mona."
He gave a half smile and a nod, trying not to be rude but she'd interrupted them during an important conversation.
"Oh!" She nodded smiling, "Alison's brother, right?"
"Uh, yeah." Jason agreed as he looked around them and Cory knew exactly how he was feeling. There had been so many times she'd been solely identified as 'Alison's friend'. No one in Ali's life shined quite as bright as she had, even after her death people still identified her friend's and family by their relationship with her.
The group fell into an awkward silence for nearly a minute until Mona chirpily asked, "What movie are you guys seeing?"
"Mona, I'm not trying to be rude or anything but we were kind of in the middle of something." Cory said with a tight smile at the teenager.
"Say no more." Mona said, moving her free hand as she spoke, "I understand completely."
The couple smiled appreciatively at her and she beamed a smile back, but made no effort of walking away or showed any signs of intent to leave them alone.
"It's kind of private." Jason added, not sure how much clearer it could be that she wasn't welcomed in that moment in time.
"I totally get it." Mona said.
When she didn't move again, Cory sighed, "Mona."
"Yeah?"
"If you understand, why are you still standing here?"
"The other butter station is out. I'm just waiting for butter." She laughed, holding her popcorn box up and shaking it.
"Oh." Jason realized out loud as he picked up their stuff from the counter and stepped back allowing Mona the room she needed to get up to the counter and add the butter to her bucket of popcorn.
"See you later, Cor." Mona cheerfully said, bouncing on her feet for a moment before walking away in search of the correct screen for her movie.
Cory blew out a heavy breath and rubbed her forehead, she didn't have a clue how Hanna was able to be around her so much. Most days she was lucky to force a smile in the high-energy teenager's direction.
Turning back to Jason she started to explain that she wasn't worried about things falling apart between them, but before she could, he said, "I get it. I used to think like that too… afraid to just let myself be happy because I was always waiting for the next thing to go wrong. But you know what? Eventually I realized that when I spent all my time just waiting for things to fall apart –I forgot to live in the meantime."
"And what happened? Once you stopped worrying about things falling apart?" she softly asked him, her voice so quiet he could barely hear her over the crowded Rosewood Theater.
With a small laugh he admitted, "Sometimes things still went to hell, but other times things went exactly like I wanted."
Seeing the worried look still in her eyes he clarified, "For example; you're here with me."
Cory smiled as she looked at him, wanting to believe what he said but he had no idea what she was dealing with right now and she couldn't tell him.
"So, for tonight at least. We've got tickets to a movie you've been wanting to see for weeks and popcorn –so stop worrying about things falling apart, because right now I don't know about you… but I'm pretty happy." He said, as he took a step back to allow someone else access to the butter station.
Once they walked away, Cory stepped forward and raised up pressing a kiss to his lips as she admitted, "I'm happy too." He smiled and leaned down, stealing a kiss before grabbing her hand as they headed towards the right screen for their movie.
She looked down between them at their connected hands and smiled again, she was telling the truth. She was happy with him, but she still had a sinking feeling in her stomach that the worst was yet to come.
Shaking her head, she hoped it might shake loose some of the anxiety she'd been living with and just live in the moment, enjoy her time with Jason.
~()~
After the movie, they were headed out of the theater when she realized she'd left her jacket inside. Hoping it was still there, she told him she'd be right back and jogged back inside.
Cory checked where they'd been sitting but it wasn't there. After checking at the counter for lost and found she gave up and started back outside, if her jacket being stolen was the worst thing that happened that night she'd gladly take it.
The movie was great and she was trying to take his advice on choosing to just live instead of thinking about everything that could go wrong. The pessimism she'd been suffering from earlier that night had given way to a new sense of hope, that maybe she could handle everything that was happening in her life. She was even considering trying to talk to her dad about Jason again.
There was an unwavering smile on her lips as she crossed the quickly emptying parking lot towards where she saw Jason standing facing his car.
"Hey, I guess someone else grabbed it before I got back inside." She admitted, but when he didn't respond she questioned, "Jason?"
His continued silence immediately jumpstarted the nervous feeling she'd chased away and she stepped up beside him to see he was staring at a flat tire on his car. "Flat tire?" she questioned.
But he shook his head back and forth, "Slashed tire… four of them to be exact."
Her eyes widened as she now saw the full picture of what was in front of her with the four slashed tires. Pulling out her phone she checked it for an A message, but the only thing she had was a text from Hanna asking to borrow one of her shirts.
An eerie feeling washed over her entire being as she looked around, feeling like they were being watched but she didn't know by who. She knew this wasn't an A move, most of the stuff that had been happening to her lately didn't appear to be coming from A. But she still wasn't any closer to knowing who else could be targeting her.
After Jason called someone about the car, he walked over and sat down on the cement curb next to Cory and told her she might want to call someone to come and get her because he'd be going to the shop with his car to get the problem fixed that night.
She tried Aria, but she didn't pick up. Next she got a hold of Hanna who agreed to come and pick her up.
Ending the call, she nervously played with the phone in her hand as she blew out a breath and apologized, "I'm sorry, Jason."
"For what?" He asked with raised eyebrows.
"Your car."
"Nothing to be sorry for, probably just some stupid kids… a prank or something." He excused the incident, but she knew there was a reason that this had happened and that reason was most likely her.
"What if it wasn't?" She mumbled.
Turning sideways farther to get a better look at her he questioned, "Do you know who did this?"
Quietly, she shook her head back and forth but everything about the way she was acting appeared to him like she felt personally responsible for what happened to his car that night.
"Cory?" He questioned, his voice a little louder causing her to turn her head and face him finally, "What's going on?"
"It's just… what if this wasn't so random? What if someone did this on purpose because of me…" She tested the waters with her question, trying gauge his reaction and see how he'd take the news.
He was silent as he watched her closely, wondering who could possibly be out to get her.
"Does this have anything to do with what happened at the fashion show?" He finally asked.
"What?" A confused expression graced her features in the yellow streetlight glow of the parking lot until it dawned on her that he'd seen her fighting with Noel. "Oh you mean, Noel? No, he's pretty harmless… he's actually kind of a friend." She admitted shaking her head.
Jason's eyebrows raised in question, he'd only caught the tail end of the conversation but he'd heard Noel pretty much threaten Cory, "That's how your friends treat you?"
Sighing she rubbed her hands over her face and breathed, "Just forget it."
"No, I'm not letting this go. Is someone threatening you or something?" He pushed, trying to get her to open up to him.
Taking a deep breath she offered a weak smile and shook her head back and forth, "No, I've just been on edge lately…"
Jason stood up and started for his parked car, leaving Cory worried and confused as she jumped up so fast she nearly fell over trying to catch up with him. "Jason, what's wrong?"
Turning to face her, she saw his jaw tense in anger for a moment before he said, "If there's something going on that you don't think you can tell me about, than at least own up to that. But don't lie to me, okay?"
Crossing her arms over her chest her gaze dropped down to the pavement as she tried to plot out her next move. The more she told him, the more involved he'd be and now she wasn't just worried about A, but also the other nameless enemy who'd been targeting her.
He'd somewhat given her an out by giving her the option to admit something was going on that she couldn't tell him about, and that's what she intended to do.
But to her own dismay, when she opened her mouth she lied, "There's nothing going on! I'm just still really shaken up from getting mugged the night before the fashion show, okay? I just haven't been sleeping a whole lot and it's making me paranoid I guess."
Turning around she put her back to him as she shook her head at herself, still not sure at what exact point it became normal for her to lie and manipulate people instead of just owning up to the truth –even when they'd given her the chance to just be honest. It was times like this that started to make her wonder if she had changed at all.
Jason's face fell into a guilty expression at her words and he didn't blame her for being paranoid after something like that happened.
Taking a deep breath she promised herself that she was going to turn around and take back what she said, that she was going to tell him that she was sorry but she couldn't tell him everything that was going on.
Before she could, she felt his hands land on her upper arms as he gently rubbed up and down, trying to calm her down. He thought she'd turned away from him because of how upset she was: not because she'd just lied to his face.
"I'm sorry." He apologized, "I just dealt with so many secrets and lies before… I promised myself that I'd moved past that and I just jumped to conclusions."
A pained look spread over Cory's face as she continued to face away from him.
Gently, he turned her around to face him as he asked, "Are you okay?"
She nodded, but her face showed otherwise. Clearly, she was upset. He thought she was still upset about what he'd said and she was disappointed in herself and felt guilty for lying to him.
Leaning down he kissed her before pulling her into a tight embrace. Remaining silent, she tightly held onto him and rested her head against his chest.
She'd lied and manipulated him into feeling guilty for just pointing out the truth to her and even though she felt extremely guilty she also realized this is exactly why she'd done it. Because of his own guilt, he felt bad enough that he whole-heartedly believed her lies and because of that he wouldn't bring it up again.
She swallowed hard and let a sense of numbness over the situation set in and over power the guilt. It had been a long journey for her since Alison disappeared, and once the drugs and alcohol were out of her system she'd been left with a chaotic mess of emotions that she had to sort through on her own.
She'd realized that Alison was the best and the worst friend that she'd ever had and Cory had done everything she could to distance herself from the person she'd turned into through her years of friendship with the blonde. Yet, at times when she least expected it she'd revert back to her old ways.
"I'm sorry." Jason repeated, when she stayed quiet.
"It's okay." Cory assured him, as she held onto him tighter and stared blankly out into the parking lot.
Turns out Alison was right –you're always better off with a really good lie.
A/N - Thanks so much for reading! ^_^
Not sure how many of you watch The Originals, but for anyone who is interested I thought I'd let you know that I'm currently working on a Klaus/oc and Kaleb/oc fanfic with a friend. The story is titled 'Dark Paradise' and is on another account -it can be found under my story favorites.
Thank you to RHatch89, Lucy Greenhill, xxxRena, smilin steph, Momsen-xxxx, Cassie-D1, SmellYourScentForMiles, Libra, Nizzle, LittleLiar98, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Louisa, and Guest for reviewing chapter 16.