***Chapter 66***
**Aria's POV**
"My mom is all good with us camping out in the barn for a sleepover tonight." Spencer announced lowering her phone from the call. "No plans for dinner tonight, but if we do takeout she wants us to order her something as well."
I looked up from my own phone, where I had just finished sending my dad a text that I wouldn't be home tonight and was staying over at Spencer's with the girls. He hadn't been at home when I had run back for a bag of clothes after we had gotten out of the hottub. It didn't exactly prove the whole I felt safe in our home to sleep, but I needed the chance to feel normal again. Feeling safe and comfortable with my friends again instead of shutting them out was more important right now. I'd talk with my parents again if anything came up.
"Hanna is on her way over, and Emily will be here soon." I read out their responses from the group message, honestly surprised that Emily had answered that quickly, since she'd been so tied up with Sarah the last few weeks.. "So what's the plan for dinner tonight?"
"Not pizza." Spencer declared, probably dismissing it so quickly since that was what she and I had at our last night movie night, her face turned thoughtful as she looked vaguely upwards. "How does Chinese sound to you?"
"That sounds good, so long as we can get some spring rolls." I answered, though Spencer was already moving over to the kitchen drawer and pulling out a takeout menu from the collection they had.
I came up beside her looking at the small doorhanger that already had a collection of ticks next to menu items. I guess it was a habit for them to mark preferences, as Spencer pulled out a pen and added a few more marks to the menu. It was frankly surprising that it wasn't color coded by each person's preference. I leaned my head to rest on her shoulder as I tried to spot any vegetarian options, which there were at least a few.
"Let's add some hot and sour soup too." I pointed to the item on the menu, knowing that it wasn't exactly soup season.
"Fine." Spencer nudged me off her shoulder, and grabbed for her phone. "Anything else?"
I glanced over the items marked on the menu, it was way too much food for the four of us to eat in one night, even leaving some for her mom. But there were several options for me to eat, so I passed it back with a nod.
"Looks fine to me."
"Will you see if there's a movie you want to watch? Maybe we can get something good ready before Hanna gets here."
She was dialing the restaurant by the time I made it over to the tv. I decided to start with what was on tv, to see if there was something outside of her families movie collection for us to watch. Hanna was the biggest one to avoid some of the older movies, while Emily would put up with Spencer and my picks. So I tried to find something that we hadn't already watched a dozen times, that she wouldn't complain about.
I scrolled through what TCM had on available to watch, seeing if there was maybe something that Hanna would be up for. But that maybe Spencer wouldn't have seen before. It was a hard line to walk, but the second movie we watched tonight would probably be a newer teen drama. I skated right past the newer rom-com 'classics' ignoring The Lakehouse and Sleepless in Seattle before finding the older titles.
"There's no way Hanna will watch a movie about nuns setting up a new nunnery in the mountains." Spencer's voice sounded from the kitchen, as she hung up the phone. "Food will be here in the next half hour."
I almost wanted to argue, but moved away from Black Narcissus on the screen. I hovered over Bonnie and Clyde, it wasn't one that I had ever watched but it seemed like the right level of crime spree and love story to satisfy both Spencer and Hanna. She looked at me skeptically for a moment, clearly questioning my decision.
"Alright, though I haven't heard the best things."
I shrugged, it wasn't worth arguing that. It should be a fun watch anyway. Or at least interesting. "We can always watch something else later."
"Do you want anything to drink while we wait?" she asked, heading for the fridge and moving on from the movie selection.
"Just some water."
There was a knock on the door as she was pulling glasses out of the cupboard, so headed for the door. Letting Hanna in, she had a large purse thrown over her shoulder, undoubtedly with all the things she needed for a sleepover tonight.
"Cute shorts." I commented, noting her tight fitting but very soft looking booty shorts and oversized shirt.
"Thanks, you look all cozy." her eyes trailed over my fuzzy pajama pants and hoodie.
I gave a shrug as I head back over to the kitchen, bare feet against the hard wood flooring. Spencer passed me a glass of water as I walked past.
"Hey Han, want something to drink?" Spencer offered her, as she took a drink from her bottle of juice.
"Do you have any fizzy waters?" Hanna headed for the fridge as she walked in, way more ready to grab her own drink over my settling on Spencer's couch.
"I think we have the lemon flavored ones." Spencer answered, leaving Hanna to it and moving over towards the couch where she could sit on the back.
I saw Hanna make a scrunchy face, clearly not her favorite. But she still pulled a can out of the fridge anyway and cracked it open. I noticed that she didn't go for the glasses as she dropped her bag on the counter and moved to where she could see the tv.
"Bonnie and Clyde?" she asked, quirking an eyebrow. "I feel like Thelma and Louise would be the more appropriate ride or die movie for us tonight."
"That could be fun, I'll see if that's available instead." I reached for the remote, slightly surprised that Hanna was so willingly going along with the classic movie vibe.
"So are we doing inside or the barn tonight?" Hanna questioned, clearly evaluating whether she wanted to slide onto the couch with me now or not.
"The barn, we were just waiting inside until you and Emily got here." I answered, typing out the name in the search screen.
"Yeah, my mom apparently needs to use the living room to work through some files tonight. She has a court date coming up."
"Where's your dad?" Hanna asked, giving in and sliding onto the couch next to me, tucking her feet up beneath her.
"He is currently with Melissa in London, apparently something came up that she needed some help with."
"Wait seriously?" I nearly dropped the remote in shock. "Your dad left the country to go help your sister with something, despite Charles still being out there?"
"Please it's Melissa." Spencer deadpanned. "Of course he did."
"That's unbelievable." Hanna voiced, sipping loudly from her drink in a clear sound of judgment.
"Seriously." I echoed, it was ridiculous that Spencer's dad wasn't prioritizing her right now. He had always been results focused and seemingly favored Melissa, but it begged belief that he hadn't thought about the fact that Spencer needed support right now, as she was in actual physical danger still. Whether or not he was actually living with her mom right now or not.
"We're having Chinese, by the way." Spencer informed Hanna, neatly changing the subject away from her lack of parental supervision.
No wonder Spencer felt so lonely, with Toby icing her out and her parents giving her way too much space, we were really the only ones around for her. I hoped that she had found a new support group, she needed more people to talk to that would be able to support her, especially on the things that we weren't the best suited for. It was astonishing the independence that she was dealing with. My parents had made sure there was at least one of them at the house if I needed them, even on nights when I didn't stay over. Not to mention the increased family time that they had been pushing for since I had been back, like they were scared to let me out of their sight for too long. It made it harder to move on from what had happened, but at the same time kept reminding me that they worried and cared about me. Glancing over at Hanna and seeing the surprise and anger on her face that Spencer's family was leaving her alone to deal with our time in the dollhouse, I knew that her experiences were closer to my own. Especially considering the fact that Caleb had put a tracker on Hanna's car when we first got back, so he would have a better idea if something happened to her again. I shook that train of thought away, not wanting to get too dragged down into this right now. We had all night to get melancholy, we didn't have to start now.
I turned my attention back to the tv, focusing back on finding a movies for us tonight. Sure enough, Thelma and Louise was an option, so I brought that up to start once Emily was here.
"That is so messed up." Hanna muttered, clearly unable to let go of it.
"I did tell you guys that it was like I was never gone when we came back." Spencer dismissed with a shrug. "Aside from a couple of nights of my mom staying up with me watching movies to try and get me to sleep regularly again."
"How has that been going? The sleeping that is?" I glanced back at the faint circles that were under her eyes, so much better than they had been just a few days ago.
"A bit better. More back to my old sleep schedule." she shrugged again, and it hurt so much to see since I knew the level of stress beneath that.
"So a couple of hours a night and studying when you can't sleep?" Hanna voiced my thoughts.
"Yeah, but I'm making great progress on my assignment backlog. If I keep this up, I should be done next week." if I didnt know her better, the light tone would make it sound like she was actually happy about that. Instead of the mixture of sarcasm and annoyance.
"Maybe you can help me with mine then. I don't know why they're making us do it all anyway." Hanna teased, though I doubted she would actually take the help.
"What happened to Miss I want to go back to school?" I asked, knowing that Hanna hadn't so much as skipped a class since we had gone back, at least before we all got banned from attending classes for safety concerns.
"I was banking on those attendance points to help boost my grades for the work that I dont want to turn in." Hanna defended calmly, causing Spencer and I to crack up. Hanna joined us in laughing, clearly joking. Though I knew she wouldn't be doing all her assignments, that just wasn't going to happen.
The doorbell ringing broke off our laughter, causing my to raise up from where I had sprawled on the couch.
"Hanna, I love you." Still chuckling, Spencer got off the back of the couch and started heading for the door, to let in whoever was there.
"How are you doing, Aria?" Hanna asked once we were alone, her eyes were going over me again. "We haven't really talked since the other day."
I felt like the color drained instantly from my face at the sudden reminder. I had been trying to ignore everything related to the dollhouse, despite my difficulty to do so much as walk outside in just my swimsuit. I didn't want to talk about it really, wanted to get away from the fear and bruises that had marked me. Go back to feeling normal for a few minutes, like I had just now.
"I'm doing alright." My voice strained slightly, betraying my lie as clear as day. "As alright as I can be."
Hanna for a moment looked like she wanted to say something more, ask me something else. But her mouth closed as footsteps sounded down the hallway and Spencer came back into the room with Emily behind her.
"Hey Em, how's it going?" I asked, taking the pause as an opportunity to start a new conversation.
"I'm good. Glad to get a chance away from schoolwork and my mother." Emily immediately dropped onto the couch, sitting between Hanna and me.
"She smothering you?" Spencer asked, returning to her seat on the back of the couch, settling down next to my head.
"Yeah, especially since Sarah moved out. She's clinging tighter like she's worried I'm going to follow after."
"You're not though, right?" Hanna asked, blunt as always.
"No, Hanna. I'm not running away to Courtland anytime soon." Emily laughed it off.
"How has it been? Sarah being gone?" I asked, knowing that Emily had been using taking care of Sarah as an excuse not to deal with her own shit. It was a tactic I recognized well.
She shifted on the couch so she could look at me more easily. "It's been a little weird, she's still texting me and we sometimes do lunch, since she is still working at Caleb's apartment. But I kind of miss having a roomie."
"Even though you no longer have to compete for your shower?" Hanna asked, drawing a laugh from the rest of us. "What you said she took a lot of showers."
"I don't miss that. It's nice to be able to hop in anytime I want and not have to wait for someone to get out." Emily admitted.
"Kind of jealous on that actually." I commented, nudging her playfully with my foot. "I still have to split a bathroom with Mike."
"Yeah, but he's a teenage boy. Do they even shower?" Spencer joked.
"More often than he used to. So progress is being made." I replied, unable to keep from cackling along with the girls.
"So what movie are we watching? And did you already decide without me?" Emily asked, turning her attention to the tv which had gone dim from the lack of activity.
"Yes, we picked already. We're watching Thelma and Louise." Hanna informed.
"But we are doing it out in the barn." Spencer got up from the couch heading towards the cupboards in the kitchen. "I'll get the popcorn going if you want to head out there."
"Did Melissa get a fridge put into the barn yet?" I asked, moving towards the one standing in the kitchen. " Or will we need to come in here for drinks?"
Spencer pulled a popcorn maker and bin of kernels from the cupboard and I shook my head at how ridiculous that was. At least she wasn't going to make it on the stove, that would be too much.
"There is a minifridge out there now. I think it's currently empty."
I pulled open the fridge, grabbing out a couple of the flavored sparkling waters and putting them on the counter, there were also a couple of juices, but no soda in the house. I glanced over at Spencer, wondering when her family went on such a health kick, but gave it up with a shrug. I pulled the juices out and figured that would be enough for us for the night. When I glanced at the counter, Emily had already collected the fizzy waters and was taking them towards the barn.
"Anything else we want to take out there?" I asked Spencer, knowing that we hadn't done a grocery run for the impromptu movie night.
"Not unless you want rice crackers or carrot sticks to go with the popcorn."
I looked over at her with a raised eyebrow, wondering when this change had happened that there weren't really snacks for Spencer to have in the house. "My mom has been hitting the gym more recently, and that means no junk food."
"Good thing we at least get to keep popcorn then." Hanna replied with a smile, grabbing the juices from my hands and following after Emily.
"Do we want to grab pillows and blankets? Or did those move out to the barn as well?" I raised my voice to be heard over the loud whirring of the popcorn maker heating up and spinning the kernels wildly around.
"There's a little chest next to the couch in the barn that should have enough blankets for everyone." Spencer practically shouted back, struggling to be heard over the sound of the kernels starting to pop.
I nodded, not wanting to fight with the machine to be heard. But I waited, since we would have at least one more large bowl to go out to the barn. Spencer eyed me, as though wondering why I wasn't heading out with the others.
"Aren't you worried they're going to change their minds on the movie?" she asked, as the popcorn started filling the large bowl beneath the chute.
"Hanna seemed pretty into Thelma and Louise, I think it'll be safe." I answered. "Besides, I didn't think you'd be able to manage two bowls and the doors on your own."
"I appreciate that. You want to keep an eye while I get the salt down?" she pointed at the machine and when I moved over she opened another cabinet, pulling down a container of popcorn salt that was vibrantly yellow.
As the last of the kernels came swirling up from the machine and cascading down into the bowl, I reached behind it and unplugged the cord. The noise from the machine dissipated in a whining noise, a few unpopped kernels still whirling around the machine clanking sharply until they finally dropped silently to the bottom. I shook the bowl of popcorn, levelling out the pile that had built up in the center to fill the rest of the bowl. A piece of popcorn fell out onto the counter, and I popped it into my mouth, unsalted and hot enough to scald my mouth.
"Here." Spencer moved in next to me, tipping the salt container over the bowl and shaking it back and forth.
The popcorn salt was brightly colored, some level of color added to it, and it smelled like butter as it hit the hot popcorn. It dusted the popcorn nicely, though I was sure there would be a little pool down at the bottom the excess collected and would be the best to swirl the last dregs of popcorn through for flavor blasting.
"I'll take this out." I bumped Spencer's arm with my shoulder as I collected the bowl, and she moved over to grab another large bowl down and place it beneath the chute.
The sun was starting to sink lower on the horizon as I stepped outside, the air warm against my skin, and thick with the humidity of the early days of a Pennsylvania summer. My bare feet moved through the warmed grass headed out to the barn. They had set a trail of river rocks to walk across so you didn't have to walk through the carefully cropped grass and wear a path down. But I liked the way the grass tickled at the sides and tops fo my feet and the slight grit of the dirt beneath me. I moved through the open door, instantly the air cooling as I left the sunshine behind. Hanna was trying to find the movie on the tv, while Emily placed a couple of drinks on coasters along the coffee table.
"Do we need to grab blankets from the house?" Emily asked, looking up at me as I came inside.
"No, Spencer said there was a chest with blankets out here." I spotted the chest Spencer had mentioned sitting to the far side of the couch. Leaving the bowl of popcorn on the table I moved over to it. "Here."
There were multiple packed down into the small space and I started pulling them all out, placing the first one of the arm of the couch. The next that was a soft blue fleece blanket I tossed over Hanna, covering her head and earning a shriek.
"Hey, I'm trying to get the movie up." Hanna complained, pulling the blanket off her head as her hair stood up slightly from the static.
"I thought you would like that one." I replied innocently, continuing to pull blankets from the trunk.
Looking at Hanna as I moved to the basket of pillows that was sitting next to the pile of boxes, undoubtedly Melissa's stuff that was staying here instead of in a storage unit. "Throw me a pillow."
I tossed one of the overstuffed decorative pillows to Hanna, which immediately went behind her back and she squirmed more into the couch. I tossed a couple more to the couch, managing to not hit Hanna with them. Then gathered the last ones together in my arms and moved to join her on the couch. It was a larger couch than the one in the house, the sectional had enough space for several people to spread out across it. So it would have enough space for all four of us, so long as we weren't too precious about personal space. I settled into one of the end sections, dumping the remaining pillows on the couch and sprawling out.
"Okay, I've got the rest of the popcorn. Do we want to start the movie now or wait until the food gets here?" Spencer asked, walking into the barn and pulling the door closed behind her.
"What are we having?" Emily asked as she sunk back onto the couch, taking the opposite end from me.
"Do we need to be able to hear the doorbell?" I couldn't help but wonder, seeing as we had moved into the backyard and wouldn't be able to her anything.
"Chinese. And they are going to call me when they get here. So we're fine back here." she answered us both, plopping down on the couch between Hanna and Emily.
"If the food is going to be here soon, we can just wait to start the movie until after we've got it." Hanna suggested, dropping the remote onto the coffee table in front of her. "Besides, I wanted to know what made you text us for a sleepover tonight? It's pretty sudden."
I met Spencer's gaze, letting the question hang in the air. The look on her face plainly leaving it up to me, if I wanted to dismiss it or share the truth, it would be up to me. Hanna looked back and forth between the two of us. With a sigh, I relented. "I wanted a night of just beng normal teenagers. I feel like we never get to do that."
"So watching old movies does that?" Hanna questioned, head tilted in judgement of my claim.
"No, hanging out and not worrying about other things does." I argued.
"What you didn't want to break out doing each other's nails?" Emily teased, looking to Spencer. "Or is that after the movie?"
"Oh no, if we're doing nails we're going to see Martha at the salon, she's the only one who has done my nails in the last three years." Hanna was insistent, and I couldn't help the laugh that bubbled up. "We can just put another movie on, maybe have a pillow fight."
She barely got that out before laughing, it was so ridiculous. I couldn't believe that she had managed that with a straight face. My eyes closed from laughter, before a sudden soft smacking to my face. The pillow that had struck me was cool to the touch, and I could feel my mouth dropping open as it fell to the floor.
"Seriously?" I asked, collecting the pillow. I looked over the girls, deciding that Spencer was absolutely looking the most guilty, she had her legs crossed and her hands tucked under her thighs, as though she was demonstrating it wasn't her.
A phone ringing kept me from throwing the pillow back her way. Spencer got up from the couch, immediately answering the phone, as she unfolded her long limbs and headed for the door. Instead of throwing the pillow at her retreating form, I tucked it under my head. Turning to face the others on the couch.
"So you're doing better?" Emily asked me, her brow furrowed as she watched me adjusting on the couch to get comfortable. "You've been pretty distant lately."
I shifted a little more, as though it was the position on the leather that was making me uncomfortable. With a smile, I nodded. "Yeah, sorry about that. I hadn't consciously noticed that I was pulling away."
"I mean, we get it. Things have been weird since the dollhouse, and we've all had stuff going on." the way Emily worded it made me feel less guilty, like we just all had our problems, and that was okay. Even if I had been the main one to pull away.
"Spencer told me how ridiculous I was being, but I couldn't help but think that we tend to get more threats when we're all together." I admitted, rolling onto my stomach and hugging the pillow to my chest and face.
"I don't think that's ridiculous." Hanna disagreed, she shifted on the couch moving the fleece blanket to cover her bare legs. "What? We do get more messages together. And Charles has clearly shown he wants to break up our friendship."
She looked to Emily, as though looking for her to back up that statement. It was true, that was probably the most obvious thing from the games in the dollhouse was that he wanted to break us apart. It was the same theme that Mona had played on when this whole thing started, trying to get us to turn on each other to protect ourselves. One girls gain being another girls loss.
"We just can't let him win." Hanna said it with such conviction that I couldn't help the smile spreading across my face.
"Don't worry. I won't let him split us apart." I reassured, reaching my hand out to rest on Hanna's knee.
She looked at me and gave a nod of acceptance.
"So now that we've got that covered. What is going on with you and Jason?" Emily asked, making my mouth drop open in surprise.
"What about Jason now?" Hanna asked, shifting so that she was laying down on the couch, her head on a pillow next to Emily so she could look at me.
"He showed up at Aria's house the other day after you left. Seemingly to apologize to us about the NAT club." Emily explained.
"That does explain why he showed up at my house and apologized to me. I guess since he missed me there." Hanna mused, surprising me that Jason had followed up with her independently. I had almost expected him to ask for me to go with, or for him to talk to her with the rest of us there.
"Yeah, but he seemed surprised to see the rest of us there when he arrived." Emily continued telling Hanna, as though catching her up, before turning her attention back to me. "So I want to know what he was coming over for. Is there something going on there?"
"No we had just made plans to go to a movie festival together that day." I tried to dismiss their interest. "They were doing all of Kubrick's movies over a weekend."
"Ooh, Kubrick movie marathon? I'm game." Spencer's voice sounded from the doorway, where she was virtually overloaded with a couple paper bags of Chinese food.
I could smell the spices and oils drifting out from the bags and my mouth watered. Leaving the pillow behind, I stood up to help her get the bags onto the table. The heat radiated out from the bag, instantly warming my hands before I could put it down. Spencer pulled the bags open, starting to set container after container on the coffee table, way more food than we needed.
"Aria was just telling us about the movie festival she went to with Jason the other day." Emily filled Spencer in on what she had missed when getting the food. "Which now I'm thinking is the reason she skipped checking in that night."
I could feel my face turning red at the way they all looked over at me. They were making a big deal out of nothing. It felt so unfair, especailly as Spencer turned an appraising look on me. Even though she already knew that Jason and I were friends and spending time together.
"That's a long day of movies." she held my gaze for a few moments. "See anything good?"
Relief filed the space that anxiety was taking the moment before, and I released a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. I slid back down onto the couch, resuming my sprawled position.
"So you knew about this?" Hanna asked, tone accusing as she turned her gaze on Spencer.
"That she and Jason hang out, yeah. I didn't know he was a Kubrick fan, but I can't really say I'm that surprised. Not as much as the gallery opening." Spencer said it so nonchalantly, it made it hard for me to realize I should be upset that she was over-sharing with them.
"Wow, okay. Gallery opening, movie marathon. Anything else we're missing?" Hanna prompted, way too into this.
"There's nothing to tell, we're just friends." I started, then saw the matching eyebrow raises from Hanna and Emily. "Okay, so we do lunch or breakfast pretty regularly."
"Oh, I knew it." Hanna shimmied in her seat, clearly thrilled with the minor admission I made.
"It's not like that. I get coffee with Clark too." I tried to argue, feeling like it was pointless to put up a fight but trying anyway.
"Anywhere near as often?" Emily questioned, tone too full of implication for me to be comfortable with.
"Seriously, it's not a big deal." I hoped that would end the conversation.
"Denial is more than just the river in Egypt, Aria." Hanna tried, her voice taking on that sing song tone.
I threw my pillow at her, not managing to hit her since she caught it out of the air with a laugh.
"That was terrible, Hanna." Spencer groaned, before she stood up with a container in her hands. "I'm going to take this to the kitchen for my mom. And then we can start the movie. Don't start the pillow fight without me."
I grabbed one of the containers from the coffee table, and a set of chopsticks before settling back on the couch. It was a chow mein and smelled amazing.
"I can't believe you two." I shook my head at them before starting in on the food.
"You said you wanted a normal girls night." Hanna justified. "Pretty sure that means we get to tease you about boys."
I shrugged, it was a fair call out.
"Should we have invited Ali?" Emily asked after a moment, seemingly apropos of nothing.
"We said we wanted a normal girls night." Spencer's voice cut in from the doorway. "If we don't want to worry about that stuff, it's easier without Ali here."
**End Chapter**
So more time with the girls in this one, for a little light fluff. Hope you all enjoy this one, let me know what ya think.