Perfect Little Lies
Chapter Five: Flashback to Senior Year
It's the Spring of Michaela and Melissa's senior year of high school and the best friends are ready to celebrate, they were about to be graduating high school and entering the real world, as adults. Technically, Michaela was an adult because she turned 18 in January, but Melissa was still seventeen and needed some parental permission, the girls were planning a trip for Spring Break. They were going to go to Miami with Ian, Jason & Garrett, and have some fun for their last big getaway together. Jason and Michaela were dating, they got back together before her birthday and she was happy with him but something about it just seemed boring. Ian and Melissa were dating, and Garrett would be the only one going solo on the trip. Michaela was hanging out at Melissa's house, sitting on the couch with a notebook and pen working on a homework assignment. Melissa is in the kitchen looking for some kind of snack. "Do you want pretzels?" Melissa asks her, when she notices them in the cabinet. She says drawing Michaela's attention away from writing something down. "Uh, sure, and water, too," she says, as Melissa grabs the bag of pretzels and two bottles of water and walks back to the living room, she sits down next to her friend, handing her a bottle. "Thanks," she says as she places the notebook and pen down on the left side of her, opens the bottle, and takes a sip. "Something on your mind?" Melissa asks her, when she realizes that she's acting a little vacant. Michaela doesn't really know how to tell her what's going on in her head but opens up to her. "My parents are fighting, all the time," she tells her. Melissa can understand, her parents would fight a lot too.
That was one of the things the Marin and Hastings household had in common, the parents would argue a lot. For almost the same eerily reasons. "Do you want to sleep here tonight?" Melissa asks her, trying to be there for her, knowing that she would do the same if it was the other way around. Michaela looks at her friend, as she places the water on the coffee table. "Thanks," she says. "I say we finish our homework and invite the boys over to hang out in the barn," Melissa suggests, and Michaela agrees. Veronica walks into the house with a few grocery bags in her hands, Melissa looks at her. "Do you need help, Mrs. Hastings?" Michaela asks her, as she placed them on the counter. "That's ok, I didn't get much," she lets her know as Melissa stands up and walks closer to her mother. "Mom is it ok if Chaela sleeps here tonight?" she begins to ask, then whispers to her. "Her parents are fighting again," she adds. Veronica looks at Michaela, a little worried for her, she doesn't like it when she hears that Tom & Ashley are fighting. "She can stay the night," Veronica agrees to let her spend the night. "We're going to hang out in the barn for a while after dinner," she lets her mother know of her plans minus the boys. She was going to get them to come sneak over, her mother wouldn't like it if she heard about them coming. Besides she wasn't even sure if they would show up or not, but Jason lived next door and he usually hangs out with Ian and Garrett all the time.
Veronica looks at her daughter. "That's fine, but you know the rules," she informs her daughter who knows what she shouldn't do, but will Melissa listen, no she's not. She's going to invite the boys and she plans on having them bring beer. "I'll have dinner done in about an hour, I'm doing baked chicken with some vegetables," she tells the girls. "Thanks for letting me stay the night, Mrs. Hastings," Michaela says and picks up her notebook and pen again and works on the assignment.
After dinner the girls headed to the barn, it's nice inside, Peter had it converted into a place for him to hang out with friends he has a pool table and a big screen tv for games and other guy stuff. Melissa sits on the couch with a bottle of vodka she snuck from her dad's stash in the kitchen. "I can't believe you got out of the house with that," Michaela tells her friend as she sees Ian and Jason come through the window on the side close to the DiLaurentis lawn, so Veronica or Peter couldn't see them. "No fifth wheel tonight?" Melissa asks as she opens the bottle and takes a swig. "He said he had other plans," Ian said cozying up next to Melissa and Jason sitting down next to Michaela, placing his arm around her waist and pulling her in for a kiss, she kisses him back for a quick peck. She loves Jason, she always had, it just didn't feel the same anymore. Jason was her first. He was her first kiss. He was her first love. He was even her first sexual partner. When she dated Ian, they had sex but it just didn't feel the same as it did with Jason, she always felt that it was because Jason was the one. Ian pulls out a beer and hands one to Jason and one to Michaela, she passes she wasn't in the mood to drink tonight. "No thanks," she tells him, "Alright more for me," Ian says opening the beer and taking a sip, Jason does the same to his bottle. They begin drinking and talking and then Ian suggests they play truth or dare. "Jason, your first, truth or dare," Ian calls out his friend. Jason takes a sip of his beer and then answers. "Dare," he says. Ian thinks about what to dare him. "I dare you to go to school tomorrow with a dick drawn on your face," Ian dares Jason to do, Jason looks at him. "Dude, no," Jason replies, "No ink is going on this face, just give me a different dare," he tells his friend. Ian thinks again. "I dare you to grab Michaela's boob in front of us," Michaela looks at Ian, giving him a look of disgust and then Jason. "You have better luck grabbing your dick, don't even think about it," she tells him. "Different dare," she tells Ian. "You guys are lame, I'm leaving," he says, trying to stand up and leave but Melissa stops him. "Why don't we go to the bed and make out?" she asks him, he agrees and they head to the bedroom in the barn.
Jason looks at Michaela, he wants to do something but she is feeling tired. She doesn't want to hurt his feelings but she looks at him. "I'm sorry if tonight was boring," she begins to tell him. "I'm feeling tired, I think I'm going to head in and go to sleep," she says, looking at Jason. "It's getting late, I'm just going to head home," he says, they both stand up and walk to the barn door, they share a quick kiss and then head outside and their separate ways.
When Michaela walks into the house, she sees Peter sitting on the couch sipping on some coffee. "Hi, Mr. Hastings," she says and sits down next to him on the couch. "What are you up to?" she asks being curious about what he's doing, he's going through some court cases that are coming up. "This is just a case I'm working on," he places the papers on the coffee table and looks at her. "You two had fun with the boys out there?" he asks her, knowing about what they do. She's shocked that he knew about them. "You knew?" she asks, looking at him, he looks at her. "I also know that Melissa took my vodka, I just hope she puts it back," Peter says making her smile, with a little laugh. "My father senses kick in, there's somethings that she thinks I don't know, that I know," he adds. He then wants to know why Michaela was here late, so he ask her about that. "What brings you here tonight?" he asks, she looses the smile and feels sad. "My parents are fighting again, this time about Spencer," she tells him, he looks a little shocked. "They don't know I know, Veronica doesn't know I know," she informs him, he knew. "You know?" he asked her, she heard them arguing about an affair her dad had years ago with Veronica, and another time she heard them arguing about him finding out about Spencer being his daughter. "I heard them," she confirms that she knows. "Your secrets safe with me," she says and grabs Peter's coffee and takes a sip. It's pure coffee with little sugar or any kind of sweetener. "Yuk," she says after swallowing and then placing it down. "I don't see how any one drinks it black," she says. "I like the taste of the roast," he tells her, and they start talking about coffee.
They talked about coffee, about what her plans are for after college, about a lot of different things. Melissa never came in, Michaela assumed that she fell asleep in the barn with Ian. Michaela looks into Peter's eyes and realizes she's feeling something and goes in for a kiss, he wants to push her away but gives in and kisses her back. He leans closer into her and she feels the passion, they begin to make out on the couch when Peter pulls away. "I'm so sorry," she tells him, wiping her mouth. "I shouldn't have done that," she adds, he looks at her. He felt a connection with her as well, and that's why he kissed her back. "I hope no one saw us," he says, basically admitting that he was into this. Michaela felt a feeling she never felt before, it was different than Jason than with any other guy she dated, maybe because it felt forbidden because not only was he older but he was married, and her best friend's father. She touched his face, passionately. "Kiss me," she says and lets him lean in close to her and Peter kisses her. They kiss passionately for a little while. "Not here," he says stopping her. "If we do this, we can't do it at the house," he tells her, she looks at him and realizes he's right they can't do it at the house. Michaela turns her body away from him and then the back door opens, and Melissa is standing there looking at them, they're sitting apart just talking, being quiet. "What's going on?" she asks her father and friend, as she walks into the house. "I couldn't sleep," she tells her. "We just started talking," she adds, trying not to sound so suspicious. "I'm heading upstairs," Melissa tells them and heads towards the stairs. "I'll be up in a minute," she says watching her friend walking upstairs and waiting to hear the door shut when she looks at him. "Good night, Mr. Hastings," she says going in for one last kiss, getting off the couch, and walking up stairs. They didn't know, but that night was the start of something life-changing.
The next morning when Michaela woke up, she took a shower and borrowed an outfit from Melissa's closet, something simple, she didn't put any makeup on, and she let her hair air dry to her natural wavy hair. She walked downstairs to Veronica, Peter & Melissa downstairs. Spencer had already left for school. "Good morning," she tells them. She was ready for school and still reeling over the fact that she kissed her best friend's father last night. She loved how it felt. They all said their version of good morning, and Veronica looks at Melissa and Michaela. "Do you girls need a ride?" she asks them, as she takes a sip of coffee, she has in a to-go mug. Part of Michaela wants Peter to bring her to school, the other side of her is thinking about getting caught. "Thanks, mom," Melissa says grabbing her bag, as Peter and Michaela lock eyes. "Have a good day girls," he tells them and picks up his coffee and takes a sip. Michaela grabs her bag and walks out of the house with Melissa and Veronica, she slides into the backseat of Veronica's car, and her phone beeps. She opens her messages on her flip phone and sees one from Peter. 'Today. 4 o clock. I'll send you the address.' She smiles as she thinks about it, closes her phone, and then smiles as she thinks about him.
She thought about him all day, she kept imagining kissing him again and doing other things that she's only done with two other people. During one of her classes, he sent an address to a motel on the outskirts of town, so she knew where to meet up. When Michaela asked about her plans after school, she lied said she was going home and studying, her mom and dad were at work, Hanna would be hanging out with her friends at one of their houses so she didn't have to worry about Melissa calling the house or her cell phone. After school Michaela took a bus and walked the rest of the way to the hotel, a small place, and she saw Peter's car in the parking lot. He texted the room number, it was 209, so she walked to the door, took a deep breath and she doesn't remember to exhale. When he opens the door, he realizes what she's doing. "Breathe," he says, she exhales and walks into the room. "It's a bad habit," she tells him as she walks and sits on the bed, he closes the door behind her, locks it and she notices some peony flowers on a table by the door. Peter picks them up and hands them to her. "These are for you," she takes them from his hands and smells them, she's surprised he knew her favorite flowers. "How'd you know?" she asks and places them on the table near the bed. He walks closer to her, pulling her close to him. "I remember you telling me you loved them," he says and Michaela pushes herself closer. They kiss and start making out. No one has ever bought her flowers before, Jason picked a few from his mom's yard before but that was the closest its ever gotten. Michaela starts unbuttoning Peter's shirt as they stop kissing, she stops unbuttoning and Peter starts undressing, Michaela starts taking her clothes off. When they're undressed, they get on the bed and begin to start making love, passionately.
After an hour of making love, Michaela and Peter are sitting up, their backs against the bed frame, she has on his shirt, and they're talking. "Veronica hasn't touched me in months," he tells her, she doesn't want to hear about it, she just wants to be in their own little world. She kisses him and he kisses her back for a few seconds. "This hotel will be our world," she tells him, they know they can't do anything in public, that this relationship will be there secret. "Every time we're together, it's just going to be us," she looks at him and he likes the thought of that. "I love the sound of that," he agrees and holds on to her.
Whenever they were together in that hotel, they talked, they hooked up, and they became closer. They both knew it was wrong in so many ways but they made it work secretly. Michaela continued seeing Jason like normal and Peter went home and acted like a normal husband and father.
A few weeks later, Jason and Michaela are hanging out at his house in his room, talking about school and stuff. She's laying on his bed while reading a book, he's sitting at his desk, looking at the Hastings house from his window. He sees Peter walking to the barn and Spencer is practicing field hockey in the yard. It was Friday afternoon and Ian's parents were out of town this weekend so he was throwing a party tonight, Jason turned around and looked at Michaela. "Are you going to Ian's party tonight?" he asks her, he knows Michaela and she likes to have fun but she isn't that much of a party person. "It's Ian's party, so Melissa's dragging me," she tells her boyfriend. Jason gets off the chair and lays on the bed next to her, she puts her bookmark into the book and closes it, places it next to her on the bed. "You know, I could've dragged you there," he says making her smile. She does feel guilty about cheating on him, because he's always been a good friend and always been there for her. They look at each other, and he can tell she is pulling apart from him but he still loves her and vice versa. She pushes his hair behind his ears and looks him in the eyes. "You know your my real best friend," she begins to say, "I even like you more than Melissa," she adds and she kisses him, Jason kisses her back after breaking apart he looks at her. "I like you more than Ian," he says, remembering they are in the house alone right now. She is feeling the heat between them right now, it's something she hasn't felt in a while with Jason. "You know we're alone," he tells her, she flips him over on his back and gets on top of him, and begins to kiss him passionately. He sits up with her on his lap and kisses her again, takes off his shirt and she takes off hers, she takes his hands and puts them on her breast. They continue making out, getting undressed, and then hooking up.
Michaela and Jason were feeling good after having sex, it's been a while since they've done it and they were both happy about it. She lays on his bare chest and holds on to him. "I haven't felt this good in a while," she tells him, he looks at her and kisses her. "I love you," he tells her, she looks him in the eyes. "I love you," she says with a little guilt but it was the truth.
Michaela made plans for Jason to pick her up around 7 for Ian's party, so she went home took a shower and got dressed for the party, she put on a knee length black skirt with a fitted black one shoulder top with sunflowers on it. She put a little bit of makeup on with her favorite nude lipstick, Ashley walks into the room and looks at her daughter dressed for the party. "You look nice," she tells her, while Michaela looks for her phone, ready to leave. She looks at her mother after picking up her phone and seeing Jason texted he was outside. "Thanks, Jason's here," she tells her mother. Ashley stops her by the door for a second. "Your father and I are going to be out late tonight, so be home no later than midnight," she says and lets her daughter walk past her. "I might go to the Hastings after," she says as she walks downstairs and out the door to Jason, who's leaning against his car waiting on her, when she walks close to him they share a kiss and he opens the door for her, she slides in and he shuts the door. Jason pulls up to Ian Thomas house and people are everywhere, outside on the lawn, in the house, there's people standing near a keg that Garrett Reynolds is standing near. Michaela and Jason get out of the car and walk to the keg, she was going to have fun and was going to drink a little tonight. Garrett hands her a drink when she walks up. "Here you go, Chae," he says as she grabs it. "Thanks," she says taking it and taking a sip. He then pours a cup for Jason and hands one to him. "I'm going to find Melissa," she says trying to talk over the loud music. Ian Thomas lived in the middle of nowhere, his parents had money and it was a nice house with neighbors miles a way, so they never complained about the noise. Michaela then takes another sip and walks into the house looking for Melissa, she bumps into someone, a guy with dark hair and beautiful eyes, someone she doesn't recognize. They turn around and look at her. "I'm sorry," she tells him, he grabs her attention for a second. "It's ok," he tells her. "Do you go to Rosewood High?" she asks wondering why she doesn't know this face. "No, but a friend dragged me to this party," he tells her. "Well, if you want someone to talk to tonight, my name is Michaela," she tells him, noticing Melissa arguing with Ian by a window. "It looks like my friends having a crisis, but maybe we'll find each other tonight," she says and walks away. "Sounds nice," he says as he watches her walk off by Melissa.
Ian walks away when Michaela comes over, Melissa's crying, she's pissed off with Ian they've been fighting almost all day. "Are you ok?" Michaela asks her, touching her friend's shoulders and trying to comfort her. "Ian's pissing me off," she begins to tell her. "We've been fighting all day," she adds. "It's ok, you can vent to me," Michaela stands there trying to comfort her friend.
After listening to Melissa talk and complain about Ian, Michaela finished off her drink, she looks at Melissa. "I'm going get another drink, do you want one?" Melissa asks her when she notices Michaela's empty cup. "Sure," Melissa stands up and leaves, Ian sees Michaela with an empty cup, he has one. "Here take this one," he hands it to her. The first beer is making her feel tired but she takes that one and sips it. "Thanks," she says, looking at him. "You know you're being an asshole to Melissa," she tells him. She feels a little weird, she's only had one beer and she's feeling drunk and dizzy. He looks at her, knowing what he's doing. "Yeah, well she's being a bitch," he says, noticing she looks tired. "You look tried, you want to go lay down in my bed?" he asks her and she looks at him. "Have you seen Jason?" she asks Ian, he looks at Garrett who's standing in the corner of the room chatting with someone. She looks around the room for Jason, she doesn't notice him anywhere but she stands up and can't keep her balance, so Ian helps her upstairs to his bedroom, Garrett walks behind them. "Thanks, I think I just need to rest," she says when she walks into his room. When she turns around she sees Ian and Garrett standing there. "What are you doing guys?" she asks, while Garrett locks the door to the room. Ian walks close to her and kisses her, she pushes him off weakly, whatever was in her drink is kicking in some more. "Michaela," he says pushing himself on her. "You know you want us," Garrett starts pulling up her skirt. "STOP", she screams and starts crying but no one can hear her over the music, she tries to go to the door to leave but Garrett pushes her onto the bed. "I want her first," Ian says, as she tries to push him off but Garrett holds her down, Ian takes off his pants, he then takes his hands, brings them up under Michaela's skirt, and pulls down her underwear and then forces himself on her, "JASON," she screams, Garrett takes a scarf from off the ground and ties her hands to the bed behind her head. She screams again but he then finds a sock and gags her, she's pushing through the drugs they gave her and trying to fight back but she then feels touching on her breast. Ian continues to force himself on her as she passes out, when he's done he stands up and pulls up his pants and looks at Garrett, they hear banging on the door and then hears Jason's voice. "Is someone in here?" he asks, trying to open the door. Ian looks at Garrett, "She's yours now," he says while walking to his bedroom door, unlocking and opening it but to where Jason can't see inside. "Hey, Ian, have you seen Michaela, I can't find her anywhere," Jason asks his friend, Ian shuts the door behind him as he walks his friend away from the door. "I saw her earlier, she mentioned something about going home," Ian tells him. "I wish she would've found me and told me, I would've taken her home," Jason says as they walk down the steps. After Garrett had sex with passed-out Michaela, he untied her hands, ungagged her, and left her underwear down by her ankles. He stood up, zipped up, and left her passed out on Ian's bed. He turned out the light as he exit the room and that guy who Michaela bumped into was by the door. "Hey, my man, have you seen a cute red head named Michaela? I've been looking for her all night," he asks Garrett and walks with him down the hall. "Michaela, she's got to be around here somewhere," he says making it look like he's going to help him look for her.
Later that night around 3 a.m. Michaela wakes up to darkness and silence. The music is off and there are some lights on out of the room, she feels her underwear is pulled down, she pulls it back up and finds her phone, it is on the ground. She stumbles out of the room, and into the hallway, her face is stained with tears and mascara. She walks downstairs and sees Melissa passed out on the couch and everyone is gone. She leaves the Thomas' house and starts walking down the side walk, she continues walking not knowing where to go. Her parents would be pissed if they saw her like this. Then she remembers some parts of what happened. She starts heading to Jason's house, but when she gets to the street she heads to the Hastings instead. She starts crying again. She walked to the front door and starts knocking, really hard. "Peter," she cries out, "Veronica," she bangs and when the door opens, they both are standing there frantic. "Michaela, is something wrong with Melissa?" Veronica asks but she rushes into Peter's arms and embraces him, he holds her. "What's wrong?" he asks her.
She didn't want to let go of him, he felt safe. She's remembering the pain, how Ian and Garrett took advantage of her. "Ian and Garrett…" she's crying into his arms. "They raped me," she says her bottom lip trembling, the pain in her voice when she said those words. Peter feels anger inside of him. "They what?" he says as she pulls herself away from him, Veronica is noticing their reactions. "You two are sleeping together?" she asks her husband. "She's the person you've been fucking?" Veronica is getting pissed. She's noticed her husband pulling away from her more, the phone calls in different rooms, and the interactions with Michaela around the house. "I have every right to call the police right now, she's a kid," she tells her husband as she walks into the kitchen area and starts getting angry. "I'm 18 and I have all right to go to Spencer and tell her what I know," Michaela stands up to Veronica. This was the first time she's ever stood up to an adult like that. Michaela is more concerned about what happened tonight, not her relationship with Peter. "Can we please focus on what I just said? Ian and Garrett sexually assaulted me tonight, I need your help," she's crying. Peter walks by Veronica, and looks at his wife. Michaela and Peter has had the conversation about their relationship before, so he tells her. "This thing with me and Michaela is only for a few more months, we're breaking up when she leaves to go to California," he tells her. "We've talked about it, it's not that serious but we love each other," Michaela tells Veronica. Veronica looks at the both of them, she can see they truly do care for each other. She's feeling a mix of emotions and looks at Michaela. "How do you know about Spencer?" she asks her, concerned about her secret. "I over heard my parents fighting about her," she informs her, pissed off that. Peter looks at his wife, he's getting pissed. "She said she was raped and all your worried about is your secret, Veronica, we need to go to the police," Peter begins to tell her. "And tell them what? That my husband's mistress who is in high school was raped, how does that sound, Peter?" He's getting angry, he wants to punish them somehow, but Veronica looks at Michaela with attorney eyes. "Did you have anything to drink tonight? A beer or two?" she looks at her, trying to make her feel guilty. "You, you think I'm lying? Why would I lie? They…" she remembers they both handed her drinks and it didn't take long for her to feel tired. "They drugged me," she says tears falling down her face. "Peter, you need to do something," she holds onto him again. "We'll do something," he says while Michaela looks at Veronica. "Why don't you go lay down in Melissa's bed and we'll figure out what to do," he says to comfort her. She looks at him, lets go of him, and begins to walk upstairs to Melissa's bedroom when she walks upstairs Peter grabs his coat to leave the house. "Those little bastards are dead," he says, Veronica takes his arm and stops him. "Peter, she's not worth going to jail over, she was probably lying anyways," she tells her husband, trying to get him to calm down. "What if she wasn't lying? I know her, she's not like that," he tells his wife, trying to convince her. They stare at each other for a second, unsure of what to do next. "Let's just go to bed and figure it out in the morning," Veronica says and then heads upstairs, Peter begins to calm himself down so he doesn't do anything stupid, anything else that could ruin his life.
The next morning Michaela awoke in Melissa's bed, as soon as she woke up her head hurt and she was still reeling from what happened last night. She sits up on the bed, regretting going to that party last night, when Melissa walks into the room. "Hey, you left early last night," she tells her friend, feeling a little less hung over. She looks at Melissa, not sure if she should tell her. "Ian and I got back together this morning, he was such a gentleman taking care of me last night when I had too much to drink," she says as she walks close to the bed and sits down. Michaela is in shock, she doesn't know what to say. "I… Ian's an asshole and deserves to go to hell," she says and gets off the bed and storms out of the room and downstairs, Melissa gets pissed at Michaela for saying those things. When she's downstairs Michaela doesn't know what to do, so she heads home. She needed to get last night off her mind, she told two adults, she should let them handle the situation. She exit the Hastings house and walked home, she needed to be in her bed. She walked into the house Ashley noticed her coming into the front door. "Mommy, I need you," she hugs her mother. Ashley's a little confused but holds her daughter. "What's going on?" she asks her daughter, she doesn't want to tell her, she just needs to be held by her. "Just hold me," Ashley holds her daughter, making her feel better. This is the feeling that she needed if only for a moment in time.