"What a wicked game you played to make me feel this way."
Jo Jameson doesn't need help. At least that's what she tells everyone.
Following the disappearance of her best friend, she's made a lot of changes - be it from the hair dye or the...
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"You move in circles hoping no one's gonna find out."
"Why are you smiling?"
Hanna, Spencer, Aria, and Jo were huddled in the pristine kitchen of the Hastings' home. Textbooks laid open in front of them, completely untouched; they had been invited over to study. But they were more focused on one another as they discussed the day. Aria had a lazy smile on her face as she looked down at her lap.
"A saved my relationship," she breathed.
Hanna snorted, not buying into her childish happiness. "Yeah, well, A tried to kill me."
"Because A thought you saw her," Spencer clarified, flipping through her chemistry notes, mindlessly. "A knows now you didn't."
Jo's phone rang, making all of the girls jump. They looked at her with a spooked expression as she fished her mobile from her pockets. She checked the caller ID, relaxing slightly when she realized it wasn't their tormentor. "I should take this. It's my dad."
The other girls let go of the breath they were holding as Jo stood from her stool and walked outside. She took a few steps to be safe from eavesdropping before accepting the call. "What the hell do you want, sewer rat?"
"You owe me." He deadpanned. There was a loud clank on the other side of the line, resembling the sound of a dropped soda can echoing off the walls. "And thanks would be nice, minus the name-calling. It was I doing you the favor, not the other way around."
She watched as the barn door opened, Melissa and Ian walking out. They were dressed exceptionally well for the standards of this town as they made their way to the main house. From across the yard, Ian paused to look at her. He smiled slowly before waving, following Melissa inside. Jo grimaced and waved back, returning her attention to her phone call. "Thank you."
She rubbed her temples. Dealing with him any longer would result in an aneurysm, she was sure of it. "You'll get your money at the dance if you never call me again. I have a reputation to uphold."
"Yeah, it's real spotless, I hear." He scoffed while the sound of a wrapper being torn open filled the speaker of the phone. Jo pulled it away from her ear as the loud sound pained her. "It was a pleasure doing business with you."
Jo rolled her eyes as he ended the calling, stuffing her phone in her pocket and heading back into the house.
The girls were sleuthing through the mountain of cardboard boxes holding Ian's belongings. Spencer looked up as Jo closed the door behind her, twisting the lock back into place. "Who was that?"
"Riley," Jo told her. "He wanted to know the password to the family desktop. What's that noise?"
Spencer wouldn't let it go. "I thought you said it was your dad."
