☪︎⋆｡˚ ⁀➷｡˚
𝑩𝑨𝑪𝑲 𝑻𝑶 𝒀𝑶𝑼
chapter three: the jenna thing.

𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟎

          THE FIVE GIRLS SAT IN THE APPLEROSE GRILL, still dressed head to toe in black, the sun had officially set. They had ended up there after the funeral, all still trying comprehend the events that happened early that day. Belle felt both odd and at home to be hanging out with the girls again.

"Why was Jenna there?" Aria spoke in a hushed tone, breaking the silence.

"I guess she's back," Spencer shrugged her shoulders as she held her cup between her hands, just as confused as the rest of them.

"Fun," Belle mumbled under her breath before taking a sip of her own drink.

"That cop acted like we were suspects or something," Hanna said as she stirred her straw around in her drink.

"Do you think we looked guilty?" Emily questioned nervously.

"Why would we? We haven't done anything wrong," Aria stated.

Belle sighed, "you know, except lie about the Jenna thing. Lying is a serious crime to an investigation," she informed them.

"We promise to never bring up the Jenna thing again, remember?" Spencer said in a hushed tone.

"Have you found a way to forget? I still wake up sometimes in the middle of the night," Aria exclaimed as her eyes widen, leaning forward on her seat.

"Aria, it was an accident," Belle stated as she placed her hands in front of her on the table.

The silence started to build through the group once more, the girls hadn't quite adjusted to being around each other, without Alison. Emily looking down at the friendship bracket and nervously played with it as Hanna puts the last of her booze from her flask into her diet coke, though was spotted by the older man behind them, "it's medicinal." She told him but he still wasn't convinced, "cramps!"

"I don't get it. How does 𝐀 know something about me that only Alison knew?" Emily asked in confusion.

"Ali knew all of our secrets, but we didn't know any of hers," Aria spoke quietly, and it was true.

Alison knew everything.

Or at least that's what she thought. Belle had kept one secret from her successfully.

"I knew some," Spencer piped up after a moment of silence.

"Go on," Aria prompted.

"Spill," Hanna demanded, giving the Hastings girl a pointed look.

"I can't."

Belle sighed as she leaned back against her chair, raising her eyebrows at the brunette and shrugged her shoulders as to say, 'I have no idea how to help you.'

"She'll so kill me if I told you," Spencer sighed as she placed her mug down on the table.

"She's dead," Hanna deadpanned.

"Ali was seeing someone that summer," Spencer finally admitted.

All the girls seemed to lean forward on their chairs, Belle's eyebrows knitted together as slouched farther in her seat.

"I knew she was keeping something from me!" Emily exclaimed with a small smile on her lips. The dark haired girl's eyes widen when she realised what she said, "from us." She corrected.

"Why didn't we know?" Aria asked in confusion.

It wasn't Spencer who had answer Aria but the raven haired girl.

"Cause he was older, and had a girlfriend," Belle mumbled, the other girls glanced over towards the Carter girl.

"You knew?" Spencer questioned. Belle shrugged her shoulders in response.

Emily furrowed her eyebrows, "Who was it."

"She never told me his name," Spencer replied.

Belle nodded in agreement, "never got his name either."

"That's only half a secret," Hanna butted in, breaking the weird atmosphere surrounding them.

Spencer rolled her eyes, and then replied, "it's more than you ever got from her."

"How is it Ali told us nothing, and we told her everything," Aria questioned.

"Because she made us feel like were part of something special," Emily frowned as Belle grabbed her hand across the table to comfort her.

Hanna smiled, "we were."

"I miss that," Aria commented.

"Me too," Spencer and Belle spoke in unison.

"I miss Ali," Emily muttered, fingers playing with the fabric of her bracelet as with her name on it.

"I can't believe you still wear that," Hanna said pointing at the purple bracelet.

"Ali still wears her," Emily shrugged and corrected herself the second time that night, "wore."

"When Ali didn't come home that night, I knew something terrible must have happened, I guess I just hoped she would come home," Spencer has lowered her voice slightly as she confessed.

"I used to think maybe Ali had run off with some guy," Aria added.

"Well, that is very Ali," Belle commented.

"That she was laying on a beach somewhere-" Emily continued.

"Getting a tan with that hot lifeguard who worked at the pool," Hanna finished.

"What was his name?" Aria asked the table as she tried to remember.

"Who cares? Save me!" Hanna mocked. They laughed as Spencer leaned her head on Belle's shoulder and fanned her smiling face.

"I can't believe she's gone," Spencer said as if reality had just finally hit her. Belle just smiled sadly as she held onto her hands.

The sound of rythmic taping of a cane grew closer and louder to their table. The girls looked in the direction of the sound and saw Jenna, wearing dark sunglasses, as she stood in the doorway of the restaurant.

Aria, Hanna, Emily, Spencer and Belle practically held their breath as they watched Jenna find her way to a seat at the counter. The girls exchange silent looks. Soon Spencer was the first to stand followed by Belle and so on. they didn't utter a word as the walked past Jenna.

▂▂▂▂

         AT SCHOOL, everyone was in the hallway going to their next class. Belle was at her locker making small talk with Spencer as she pulled out her AP Biology book.

"Would the following students please come to the office," the secretary in the office announced, "Belle Carter, Emily Fields, Spencer Hastings, Aria Montgomery and Hanna Marin."

All gathered together as Aria's phone went off, the others had just started walking in the direction of the office.

Aria stopped, "wait, it's from 𝐀," the girls went towards aria to take a look at the message. "𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 — 𝐀," Aria read.

▂▂▂▂

          DETECTIVE WILDEN LEANED AGAINST THE DESK as he waited for them. Directing the girls to have a seat on the lone leather sofa. Flipping through the case file, "so let's see. You thought you heard her scream." He read from the case file as he looked to Spencer for confirmation.

"I said that," Spencer answered nervously.

"And when you three woke up in the barn, Alison was gone, and so was Spencer and Belle."

The detective was now looking at the raven haired girl, who furrowed her eyebrows at him.

"Yes, I woke up before them. And I realised that Ali was missing so—," Spencer continued.

"So you went looking for her," Wilden finished for the girl.

"That's what happened," Spencer nodded her head, confirming the statement.

"And what about you, Miss Carter? Where'd you go?" His hard stare was glued towards the raven haired girl.

Belle's eyebrows knitted together, "I had to pee," she stated, "I have a small bladder." The raven haired girl shrugged her shoulders.

"I got that." Wilden said as he closed the folder and placed it down on the table, "so, what's up? Was this a slumber party, or?"

"Is this an interrogation?" Belle retorted in a snappy tone. Spencer place her hand on top of hers.

"No, just a routine follow up," he insisted with a fake smile, "why did you guys fell asleep?" He asked before chuckling softly.

"We were tired," Hanna stated, rolling her eyes.

"Tired? Really," he said while looking at the girls, turning towards to face emily. "Is that how you remembered it, Emily?"

Emily simply nodded.

"Okay, you guys were tired," Wilden pressed on.

"Look, we've told you everything we know. Just like we did the night she went missing," Spencer commented, as she sat forward giving Wilden a stink eye.

"I know, and you see, the thing is, it's almost exactly what you said last year — almost like it was rehearsed," he told them, eyeing each one of the girls.

"Like Spencer said, we've told you everything we know," Aria said clearly.

Wilden mutely nodded at the girls, lips pursed. He gave each of the girls a once over, giving them a chance to say something. but they didn't. He opened the door, monitoring for the girls to go, they exited out off the office.

the Hastings girl reached forward, grabbing Belle's hand, "Where'd you actually go?" She asked.

Belle shook her head, "I told you," she stated, "I went to pee." Spencer loosen her grip on the raven haired girl's hand. Watching as the Belle made her way down the hall.

Belle's pink painted finger nails wasn't like the were before, painted perfectly, through out sitting on the couch, she couldn't help but pick at the paint. Her phone buzz from inside her bag, brought her back to reality. Her breath hitched in the back of her throat as she pulled her phone from her bag.

𝐈𝐟 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐚 𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭. 𝐈 𝐝𝐨.

— 𝐀

"He knows we're lying," Aria was the one to break the silence, her brown eyes widen as she glanced at the other girls.

"Lying is not a crime," Hanna responded, shrugged her shoulders.

"Lying is a crime. If you're giving false statement to the police," Spencer reminded the girl.

"It's called obstruction of justice," Spencer and Belle both said in unison. The two girls glanced at each other and smiled, even from their year apart they still had it.

"Oh, please!" Hanna exclaimed, "we lied about drinking. But the truth is that we don't know anything about what happened to Ali that night."

"We also know about someone who might have wanted to hurt her," Spencer pointed out.

"We should have told the police the truth about Jenna's accident the night it happened," Emily frowned.

"I wanted to, remember?" Hanna reminder the girls.

"We had a chance to do more than just tell the truth. we had a chance to stop Ali," Aria stated.

"But we didn't," Belle spoke as she poked her food around the plate.

"Telling the police now about what happened to Jenna isn't going to make her see again," Spencer told them.

Aria looked passed Emily, spotting Jenna standing alone with her lunch tray in hand. The sound of her cane tapping against the floor as she tried navigate through the cafeteria which cause the rest of the girls heads to turn to see her. "Oh, my god, she's back in school, too?" Hanna asked.

Aria suddenly got up and silently walked over to her, "Jenna? Hey, it's — it's Aria. Do you want to come sit with us?" She asked her.

"Sure," Jenna answered, Aira grabbed her tray and Jenna held onto her arm and they walked over to the table.

"So, you're gonna be between Hanna and Emily, and Spence, Belle and I are arcoss from you," she told her as she place Jenna's tray down on their table.

Aria sat back down in her seat down in her seat, "so, this would be Alison's chair, right?" Jenna questioned.

"No," Emily said, shaking her head, "we're not even sitting at the table."

"You know, she came to vist me in the hospital after the accident," Jenna confessed.

"She did?" Belle questioned as she glanced over towards the Hastings girl, both wearing the same look of shook.

"Mm-hm," Jenna nodded her head, "everyone misunderstood Alison, but I knew exactly who she was."

"When did you get back, Jenna?" Spencer blurted out the question. "We heard that you were in Philadelphia, a school for the. . . Visually impaired."

"You can say 'blind' Spencer. It's not a dirty word," Jenna chuckled. There was a silence before Jenna spoke up, "wow, it's so quiet. You guys used to be the fun table. What happened to you girls," She chuckled.

𝐅𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 — 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟗.

𝐄𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲'𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦.

The girls threw clothes around Emily's room, with music going on, their laughter mainly filled the room. They were trying on different clothes they had all brought during that day.

"I see you!" Alison yelled as she went over towards the window."Oh, my god, I can't believe it!"

"Who was it, Ali? What did you see?" Emily asked repeatedly as all the girls swarmed around the DiLaurentis girl.

"He was in that tree, spying on us! I am so creeped out!" Alison exclaimed, furiously.

"Who was it?" Spencer asked.

"It was that prev, Toby Cavanugh," Alison snapped harshly as she turned on her heels.

"Are you sure?" Aria asked softly.

"Yes, I'm sure! He was right there! I bet he saw us all naked."

"Should we tell someone?" Aria asked nervously.

The Carter girl nodded as she wrapped her arms around her body, "we could tell Emily's mom?"

"I mean, we could," Alison shrugged her shoulders, "but I have a better idea," a smirk that found it's way onto her face.

...

The six girls moved quickly through the short path that connect Emily and Toby's houses, the girls were huddled around Toby's garage.

"Are we sure he's not in there?" Aria asked concerned.

"He's not, okay?" Alison whipped her head and her eyes landed on the Hastings girl. "You got the lighter, right, Spencer?"

The DiLaurentis girl reached out her hand to get the lighter from Spencer. "Let's wait a second," Emily said, holding a tight grip on the blonde's wrist.

"What, Emily!"

"I don't want to do this," she answered.

Alison shrugged her shoulders, "fine. Go back. You're on your own."

"Okay, maybe Emily's right," Belle said, "we should just call the cops. They'll take care of it."

"Where's the fun in that?" Alison questioned, "girls, Toby Cavanugh is a freak, and we need to teach him a lesson," she persuade the girls, "if he thinks he can come and spy on us while we're in your bedroom, Emily, he needs to know that his little domain is no longer a safe little hideout. Who knows what he does in there all day that little freak."

"Alison, are you sure that it was Tody?" Spencer questioned the DiLaurentis girl.

"Yes!" Alison insisted, "and it's a stink bomb, for god sakes! We're not nuking the place."

"Now, let's do this," she walked over towards the window, "give me the lighter," she demanded. Spencer hesitates before walking over to her and handed the lighter over. Alison lit up the stink bomb and threw it inside and her eyes widen, grabbing into Emily's hands. "Let's get out of here."

Spencer's hand automatically grabbed the Carter girls hand as the started to ran away from the scene. An explosion erupted behind them. They girls turned around, "Ali, what did you do?" Spencer questioned the blonde as her eyes widened.

𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭 — 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟎.

𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐂𝐚𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚.

In one moment as if by faith, all the girls phone chimed, causing all the girls to flinch. None of the girls went to answer their phone, causing them to go off again. Jenna reached out blindly, hand gliding messily around the table until it bumped into a phone. "Aren't you going to get that?" Grabbing Belle's phone, holding it out for her to take.

Hesitantly the raven haired girl grabbed her phone from Jenna's hold, "thanks," she whispered softly.

All five girls peered down at their phones, their eyes widen at the message.

𝐈𝐟 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤
— 𝐀

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*