Pretty Little Liars

Chapter 13: It's a... Date? But Not Really

Sabrina sits on her porch steps the morning after Ali's funeral, gnawing on her bottom lip as she once again finds herself reading the message she and her old friends received yesterday outside the church:

I'm still here, bitches. And I know everything. -A

She wants to scream. Not only that, she wants to scream, chuck her phone off a cliff, and then hide under her blankets for all of eternity. With the texts and Alison finally being laid to rest, Sabrina's nerves have been bouncing around all inside of her, desperate to break free. And there's nothing she can do about it.

"Hey," Zoe calls out from the sidewalk in front of Sabrina's house, her school bag slung onto her shoulder. She's wearing a leopard print blouse and leather black mini skirt. "How're you doing?"

Sabrina musters up a smile that isn't too fake. The sight of Zoe makes her heart skip a beat. "I'm okay, thanks for asking."

"The whole town was there yesterday, huh?" Zoe asks when Sabrina joins her on the sidewalk so they can head off to school together. "At the funeral, I mean."

Sabrina looks at her curiously. "Did you go?"

Zoe shakes her head, her thick brown bangs shaking above her eyes. "No, it would've felt wrong, I guess. Since I didn't know her, know her, even though I'm living in her house and sleeping in her old room..."

"I get it," Sabrina replies honestly.

"Am I talking too much?" Zoe sighs. "I do that a lot."

"No, not at all," Sabrina reassures. "We've progressed from cats and we're not talking about the weather so these are all good signs."

"Guess we're moving in the right direction, then." Zoe playfully bumps Sabrina's hip with her own. "I found a secret getaway we should go to after school. Unless you already know about it, then that would be the bummer of the year."

"I've lived here awhile so if you manage to surprise me with a cool new place, color me impressed." Sabrina smiles at her, all of her worried thoughts about A and Ali going out the window.

"There's this lake under the bridge on the towpath trail," Zoe explains excitedly, like she's sharing top-secret information. "The one that's graffitied and stuff?"

Sabrina knows it. A little too well. Two summers ago before the sleepover Ali went missing during, Ali and Sabrina dangled their legs off the bridge over the greenish blue water below. It was Ali who wrote their initials in a heart with nail polish on the bridge, among other engravings and initials and pornographic sketches.

"There," Ali said, smiling proudly at her work. "This bridge has stood for like, a million years. Which means it'll stand for a million more. Like you and me."

"I thought maybe we could take a dive," Zoe goes on, breaking Sabrina from her memory.

"Yeah, that sounds like fun." The words are forced, as Sabrina is more than absent from this whole conversation but she's pretty sure Zoe doesn't notice.

"Then it's a plan." Zoe shyly smiles as they cross the street. "Meet me in front of the school after last period. I know a shortcut."