Whispers in the Dark
- Chapter Eighteen – Sooner or Later
Cory walked through the door of her house after Hanna dropped her off. What had started out as a great date with Jason had quickly taken a turn for the worst and now all she wanted to do was take a hot shower and climb in the bed for the night.
But something needed to be done first, she needed to tell her dad about her relationship with Jason and stop sneaking around. Not only was she always worried about getting caught, but Jason had made it clear that honesty was now important to him and in her mind she thought maybe if she owned up to things with her dad –it would somehow cancel out the lies she'd told Jason earlier.
"Hey, dad… can we talk?" Cory asked as she softly knocked on the open door of the study where he was sitting at the desk.
"Yeah, I wanted to talk to you too." He said, as he closed his laptop and took his reading glasses off.
Nodding she walked into the room and sat down in the chair facing the desk. She pulled in a deep breath and crossed her fingers down at her side for good luck, but once she saw the expression on his face she lost her nerve.
He already looked angry, actually he looked pissed.
"Dad?"
"What did you want to talk about?" He questioned, giving her a hard stare as if he already knew the answer.
Adjusting in the suddenly uncomfortable seat she let out a nervous laugh and said, "That sounds more like an accusation than a question…"
He raised his eyebrows but remained silent and the weight of the room felt like it was crushing her chest; she had a hard time catching her breath to be able to say, "Maybe you should go first."
"Fine." He said, as he opened the drawer to the desk and pulled out an empty whiskey bottle. Sitting it down on the wood surface with a loud clank he asked, "What is this?"
"Uh…" She breathed, "Is that a trick question?"
Shaking his head in disappointment he gestured towards the bottle again, wanting an explanation.
But she shrugged in response, not understanding what he wanted from her.
"Damn it, Cory." He breathed, shaking his head, "I'm giving you a chance to explain here, so you'd better start talking…"
When she still didn't say anything he admitted, "I found this in your room."
Her jaw dropped and her eyebrows furrowed in anger, "You went through my room?" shaking her head she added, "And that isn't mine."
"I didn't go through your room." He asserted, "I was walking by and the door was open, I saw this poking out from under your bed."
"It's not mine!" She yelled louder, seeing he wasn't buying a word she was saying.
"Then who does it belong to? Go ahead, Cory. Tell me who drank this and dumped the bottle under your bed. I'm really dying to hear what excuse you've got for this one." He shot back at her.
Biting down on the side of her tongue and shaking her head back and forth, she was glad she didn't go first with their talk because her dad would have found some way to blame this on Jason.
"I thought we were past this. I thought you were past this."
"I am!" She helplessly argued, "Dad, I'm telling you the truth that isn't mine."
The room fell into an uncomfortable, heavy silence as they stared at each other until he shook his head back and forth and in a softer tone said, "I really thought we were past the point of you sneaking around and lying."
Her mind drifted back to earlier that night when she'd lied and manipulated Jason's feelings to get out of telling him the truth.
"Why are you doing this? Is it to get back at me for keeping you away from your friends? Is it because I told you to stay away from Jason? I know I've been working a lot of overtime but-"
"I already told you the truth." She cut him off, "You just don't believe me."
"I don't know what else I can do to make you understand that every decision you make right now is going to affect your future. It already looks bad enough that you've had one stay in rehab, imagine how it's going to look if you have to go back into treatment."
Her gaze snapped up to meet his and she gasped, "Go back into treatment? For what? I'm not drinking, I'm not smoking pot anymore, I'm not taking pills or anything else."
"Look at it this way… you've been bugging me about wanting a car of your own. How am I supposed to trust you with your own car if I can't even trust you to tell me the truth about this when I found the evidence that you've been drinking again at the very least." He pointed out and her shoulders dropped as she sunk farther into the chair, feeling trapped.
It wasn't her empty bottle. She had no idea who's bottle it was or how it got in her room, but it was clear he wasn't going to believe her.
Shaking his head, he stood from the desk and left the room. Looking over her shoulder she made sure he was gone before she picked up the bottle to examine it. Noticing the label was slightly torn and sitting eschew on the front of the bottle she pulled it off and flipped it over to reveal a small note stuck to the underside of the label.
'Still feel like reminiscing about the past? You can't pick and choose what you remember and what you forget… not when I know everything. Kisses –A'
Crumpling the label up in her hand she dropped the empty bottle on its side on the desk and played the message over in her head again.
Reminiscing about the past; the only thing she could think of was her last session with Dr. Sullivan. Clearly A was still listening in on everything there and wasn't happy about her starting to open up to the therapist.
~(Later that week)~
"Morning." Cory announced as she walked into the kitchen and greeted her dad who was standing in front of the coffee pot waiting for it to finish brewing.
"Good morning." He said with a smile.
Since the fight they'd had over the empty alcohol bottle he'd found in her room, things had been surprisingly well between them. He'd apologized for blowing up and not listening to her and she apologized for the way she'd acted too –but still denied the bottle was hers.
Austin hadn't picked up any extra shifts that week so he could be home for dinner at night, which Cory did love getting to spend a little extra time with her dad who she normally barely saw when he worked at the hospital around the clock –not to mention the 2 days a week he gave medical lectures at Hollis College. But on the other hand it had made it hard to sneak around with Jason, so she'd barely seen him since their last date.
They made small talk for a few minutes, while Cory got their bottles of coffee creamer from the refrigerator out and Austin moved the sugar canister closer to where their cups were waiting to be filled for the morning.
"Oh, I won't be home right after school today. I'm going to the library." Cory explained.
Nodding her dad said, "Alright, just don't forget that tomorrow we've got that thing at the Montgomery's."
"Ah, right." She laughed, "Where you sit there and pretend to like the Scotacs?"
Giving her a look from the corner of his eye he said, "I never said I didn't like them."
"No one likes them dad." She laughed, then nodded, "I won't forget… Aria's been reminding me about it all week –seeing as how we're normally the only ones there under 30, she wants to make sure I remember to show up."
~()~
Cory was at her locker after her English class to change out books for her next class when she saw Jason walking down the hallway.
"Hey!" she called out, waving to get his attention.
Flashing her a smile he moved through the crowded hall towards her.
"What are you doing here?" She asked smiling as he leaned down and gave her a quick kiss.
"I was talking to Mr. Ellis." He explained, watching her with a small laugh as she messily shoved some folders and a binder into her already cramped and messy school locker.
"The guidance counselor?" She questioned, earning a nod from him as her eyebrows lowered in confusion.
"Why?"
"Yeah, I'm going to start talking to some of the at-risk students here a few times a week." He explained, looking down to see her digging through some papers in her disheveled book bag.
Not raising her head, she asked, "At-risk of what?"
"Stoners in training." He clarified, "Like I was."
She looked up at him with raised eyebrows, thinking that they had both been way past 'stoners in training', with a slightly confused expression she asked, "What are you going to talk to them about?"
"About how there is life after high school. Who knows, maybe I'll actually be able to help someone." He shrugged, thinking it would be a nice change from normally seeming to break everything he touched.
When he was met by a slightly blank expression on her end, he thought out loud, "You think it's lame, don't you?"
"No!" She quickly answered, "No, not at all. I think it's really great. I'm just surprised is all, you didn't mention you were thinking about doing this."
"It was kind of a spur of the moment thing. I was driving around yesterday and passed some of the places I used to hang out at when I was teenager, I saw some kids there and it just got me thinking that maybe if I'd had someone tell me that this world is bigger than Rosewood, Pennsylvania at that age… I don't know, maybe things would have turned out differently." He explained then pointed out, "Not that I've heard from you since the movie."
"I know." She apologized for not taking his calls, "My dad's kind of stepped up the parenting game this week and I just feel like he's watching every move I make."
Declining to bring up the empty bottle found in her room she added, "I know I need to tell him about us, and soon… I just don't know where to even start that conversation.
He watched as she continued to pick through her bag, until she turned her attention on her locker and pulled out a text book where there were some notebook pages crammed between the pages of the book.
"Come on, come on, come on." She chanted under her breath as she pulled the papers out and exclaimed, "Ah-ha!"
Shoving the book back in her locker and slamming the door shut she excitedly explained, "I found my homework."
When she pushed the wrinkled pages directly into her bag without finding a folder for them, she heard Jason stifle a laugh from beside her.
Looking up at him, she tried to keep from smiling as she playfully whined, "Don't laugh at me."
"I'm not." He lied as a laugh broke though, "It's just… as big of a mess as your locker is, I still think it somehow looks a million times better than mine did when I was here."
Shaking her head at him she smiled, thinking maybe him talking to people at her school was a good thing. Not only because he could really help someone, but also because she'd get to see more of him.
Groaning when the bell rang, she said, "I have to go."
"It's okay, I need to get going anyways." He said, smiling at her as she slowly walked backwards away from him. Not wanting to leave but knowing she couldn't be late.
"Oh!" He realized, walking to catch up with her, "I ran into Aria's mom, Ella and she invited me to some dinner thing tomorrow night. She told me to bring a date, so I was thinking if you didn't have anything planned…"
"What? No… you can't go to that." She cut him off, her hazel eyes widening as she spoke and came to a stop.
"Why not?"
"Because I'm already going to that with my dad… he'll be there and if you go then he'll see us together and he'll know there's something going on and-" She started to ramble nervously at the idea of imagining how her dad would react. With the way things had been going between them, she didn't want anything to mess it up and she knew the minute he learned she'd been around Jason again, her dad would go back to not believing a word she said.
"Well…" He loudly said, speaking over her to get her calm down and take a breath he added, "You said you wanted to tell him anyways, right?"
"Jason…"
"It's going to make things worse if he finds out on his own and knows you've been hiding it from him, you said that yourself." He reminded her.
"I know I did… but-"
Her voice trailed off, leaving the last word hanging helplessly in the air. For Jason to understand how big of a deal it was, she'd had to admit to the agreement she'd made with her dad about going into rehab and also about A and the bottle left in her room recently –none of which she was willing to do.
"What's going on?" He asked, seeing the look in her eyes. When she didn't answer he slowly nodded, thinking the reason she was so hell-bent on him not going to this dinner event was because she didn't want her friends parents finding out about them either, and probably not the other party guests either. The only reasoning he could see for that was that she must have felt embarrassed of him and/or their relationship.
The bell rang to signify the start of class and she blew out a heavy breath, realizing not only was she late for class but now he was giving her a pained look like she'd just physically slapped him.
"What?" She breathed, confused.
"Look, I'm not exactly proud of my past but I've come a long way from where I used to be and who I was. I know not everyone realizes that or they just don't care because they've already made their mind up about me but I'm not going to hide from people –and I don't want to hide what we have either." He said taking a few steps closer to her as he spoke quietly, now they were the only two left out in the quiet hallway.
Slowly what he was saying sunk in and she realized he thought she was worried about what other people would think about them, which couldn't be farther from the truth. She could handle people talking about them, and she was so proud of him and how far he'd come.
"That's not it at all. I'm not worried about other people or ashamed of us or anything. I'm happy with you and Jason, I'm really proud of you." She assured him, which earned a small smile from him but he still didn't appear to believe her entirely.
"I gotta go and you need to get to class." He pointed out, "I'm going tomorrow night and I'd really love for you to come with me, but even if you show up with your dad… I'm not going to pretend like we aren't seeing each other."
Leaning down he pressed a kiss to the top of her head as she continued to stand like a stone in the middle of the hallway. She didn't move until she heard his footsteps disappear around a corner.
Jason had every right to be acting the way that he was, they'd both worked really hard to get clean and be the people they were now. She knew from her own experience that anytime she started hiding things it made her feel like she'd taken several steps backwards.
He was refusing to hide what was between them, even in front of her dad and that would have had her smiling ear-to-ear if it wasn't for the fact that she had no idea what would happen when he did find out.
It seemed like her only choice was either to completely fess up to everything that was going on, get Jason to not attend the dinner event or not show up herself.
~()~
"Hey…" Cory greeted as she found Aria at her locker at the end of the school day.
"Hey yourself." Aria greeted back with a smile as she grabbed the last textbook she'd need for homework and shut the door.
"I need your help with something."
"Okay." Aria nodded, waiting for her to explain.
Cory glanced around them for a moment before she sighed, "Apparently your mom invited Jason to the dinner thing tomorrow night and as you know my dad is going to be there!"
"You think that's bad…" Aria asked with a laugh, "My dad invited Ezra and told him to bring a date!"
"Oh crap!" Cory blurted out.
"Right?" Aria quietly said as she tucked her hair behind her ear and checked their surroundings to make sure no one was listening in on them, "This is a disaster."
"We could just skip the whole thing?" Cory suggested with a slightly hopeful expression with a small grimace knowing her friend would shoot it down.
"It's at my house, I can't skip it! Plus… I'm not going to leave Ezra to fend for himself with my parents and do you really think it's a good idea for you to leave Jason alone there with your dad?"
"No…" Cory shook her head as she explained, "But Jason made it pretty clear that if we're both there, even with my dad being there… he isn't going to pretend like we're not together."
"What are you going to do?" Aria questioned with a sympathetic look on her face.
"I don't know… what are you going to do?" She retorted and Aria shrugged. If things turned out right, then this would be the first step towards her parents at least viewing her and Ezra as friends and not just teacher-student.
"I guess we'll both be there and just try to play damage control the best we can."
Cory slowly nodded, thinking she might have one other option to try before it came down to that.
"I gotta get going. You need a ride home?" Aria asked her, trying to ignore the ball of nerves in her stomach.
"No thanks. I'll see you tomorrow." Cory smiled and tossed her hand in a wave as she watched her friend walk away.
After visiting her own locker, she made a stop by her English class and was relieved to see Aria's mom was still there.
Softly knocking on the door frame to announce her presence she asked, "Mrs. Montgomery?"
"Oh, hi Cory." She greeted with a smile then asked, "Is everything alright?"
"Yeah." The teenager nodded, before quickly shaking her head back and forth and changing her answer, "I mean no… yes… no. I mean… I just have a favor to ask you."
With a laugh she laid her pen down from where she'd been grading papers and with a friendly smile said, "If you're going to ask me to postpone tomorrows test, sorry."
"No, it's not that at all. I, um… I just wanted to make sure my dad and I didn't need to bring anything tomorrow?" she skated around the point of what she was really wanting to ask.
"No, just yourselves. It's just a small get together, you know like we used to do."
"Yeah, I remember." Cory nodded, nervously playing with the strap on her bag before she shrugged and said, "I was also going to ask you if you could maybe, possibly uninvite Jason DiLaurentis…"
With a concerned look Ella asked, "Why?"
Before Cory could respond she continued her line of questioning, "Has he done something to make you uncomfortable?"
"No, no… not at all. It's just… don't you think it might be kind of weird? He's never really been to one before…" Cory continued to try and sell the idea.
"Oh, I don't know. It might be interesting to have some new faces there. Plus, at this point it's the more the merrier a few people cancelled… including the Scotac's which, I know your dad will be happy about." She said with a laugh.
Cory laughed with her, thinking how funny it was that her dad was convinced no one could tell how much he disliked the family –when really it was no secret at all.
"Um, why did you invite Jason in the first place?" She curiously questioned.
"Well, honestly… his family has been through a lot-"
"Is this about what happened at the fashion show?"
"Partly… and I thought he could use some human companionship. Don't you?" Ella asked, turning the line of questioning around on her.
Cory nodded, besides herself, she hadn't really seen Jason talking to anyone else. He seemed to just spend his time in his family's house by himself.
"Yeah, I guess so." She nodded, blowing out a heavy sigh before she said, "I should probably get going."
As she started to turn around, Ella admitted, "I kind of feel like I'm not getting the whole story here, Cory."
Looking over her shoulder and giving her friend's mom a smile she said, "Like you said… tomorrow night should be interesting."
A/N - Hey guys! Thanks so much for reading, I really hope you all liked the chapter! ^_^
I owe a very special thank you to RHatch89, LiLuLo12, Lucy Greenhill, SmellYourScentForMiles, Momsen-xxxx, xxxRena, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, BloomingBlueMoon85, smilin steph, EmisonLvr4ever, Alexandria and to Hanna West for reviewing chapter 17. I appreciate the support so much!