season 1, episode 1
✦✧✦✧
Sophie Langford let out a long sigh as she let herself flop onto her bed in her childhood bedroom. She looked around the room wondering how she could feel like such a stranger in her own home. Her eyes scanned across the familiar pictures hung up on the walls that were still painted the same pastel yellow color they were last year.
She vividly remembered how long it had taken her and Alison to hang those pictures earlier on last year. Sophie had made the decision last year to redecorate her entire bedroom, her and Ali had spent months planning and decorating the room.
Her old pink walls were now a light yellow and there were various different framed photos hanging on the walls. She and Ali had spent the entire afternoon putting them up, dancing along to random music that blared through the speakers of her pink radio.
A sad smile formed on her lips from the memory.
She allowed her eyes to move across the room and stop as she looked at the various different framed photos that were placed on her make-up vanity. The girl got up and walked across her room towards them and picked up one of the many photos of her and her friends.
It was one of the girls stood outside of the Hastings Lake House on one of their many trips up to it last summer. The photo was one of her personal favourites. She spent almost every day with her best friends. That summer, she was truly at her happiest. Before things got ugly anyway.
Sophie wiped a couple of fallen tears as she gently ran her finger over the blonde girl stood in the middle of the girls, next to Sophie herself. Her heart ached as she looked at her best friend.
One year had passed since anyone had seen Alison Dilauretis, and still to this day no one knew what happened to the teenage girl. No one knew where she was, or even if she was still alive. Of course, there had been various different rumors about what happened, some probable some, not so much. However, the vast majority of people seemed in agreement that the 15-year-old girl was dead.
Sophie herself didn't know what to think, apart of her thought she knew that Alison was dead. But there was another pet inside her that wished Ali had just run away and was currently living up with some mysterious boy in a foreign country. Apart of her was waiting for Alison to walk through the door, and come back to them. To her.
Not long after the girl went missing, Sophie's step-father received a job offer in England, and the family felt that it was best if the family moved, in order to distract Sophie from her best friends' disappearance.
Usually, Sophie would have thrown a fit if her family told her they were moving half way across the world, however, after the recent events surrounding her, Sophie was more than happy to get out of Rosewood and leave everything behind.
She had obviously tried to keep in touch with her friends at first, but soon enough she lost communication with almost everyone back home in Rosewood.
Being away did help the girl at first, as she wasn't constantly reminded of Alison. Being in England acted as a distraction for her because in England there was no 'Missing Girl Posters', there was no awkward stares, there was no gossip. There she was just Sophie Langford - the new girl, not Sophie Langford - the dead girl's best friend.
But of course, good things don't tend to last for the girl, as a year later her step-father's business in Rosewood had had a couple issues which couldn't be fixed over a phone call or a skype meeting. So, her and her family had moved back to their home in the states. Back in Rosewood.
She had dreaded moving back. It felt alien to be moving back to Rosewood without Alison. A town without her best friend was something Sophie didn't want to get used to.
Now here she was, back in her old room, exactly as she left it a year ago, surrounded by everything that made her think about exactly everything she had tried to forget.
Sophie was broken from her own little world when she heard a knock at her door and she turned to see her older sister stood there.
"Hey, mom said I've to give you and Blake a ride to school. We're leaving in 10" Nova said before walking back out of Sophie's room.
Sophie set the picture back down on the desk and grabbed her school bag. She paused in the doorway of her room, her eyes lingering once again on one of the many framed photo's of her and Ali. She fought back the tears as she gently closed the bedroom door behind her and walked away.
She walked down the stairs of her family home, to find that her mom and step-father had already left for work, and two of her siblings were nowhere to be seen yet.
Daniel - the oldest of the four Langford children - was seated on the kitchen island sipping a cup of coffee whilst reading the latest edition of the newspaper. As Sophie crossed her brother to get her own cup of coffee, she caught glimpse of the front page of the newspaper. She looked as she saw the familiar face on the page, and her heart once again sunk as she read the words 'STILL MISSING' that were printed in bold letters above the face of Alison Dilaurentis.
Daniel looked up to see his sister staring at the paper, "Hey, I'm sorry" he said as he folded it away.
"No, it's okay, you all don't have to get so awkward whenever Ali's mentioned" she smiled as she grabbed her flask and began pouring herself some coffee from the jug. "I just can't believe it's been a year and the police have nothing"
The boy shot his sister a sympathetic smile as he opened his mouth to say something when he noticed his other sister walk down the stairs, her phone in her hand - as always. He never understood the girls, Sophie was the same - glued to her phone 24/7. Sure, he was too, but he was a business man, it was practically in his job title to be on business calls all the time.
"Come on, we have to go" Nova said as she passed Daniel and Sophie into the kitchen to get her own coffee, and of course, not looking up from her phone.
"You know, it wouldn't hurt to look up from your phone once in a while" Daniel joked, only to stop smiling almost instantly when nova shot him a glare.
Before things could get anymore awkward, the youngest Langford child, Blakely came down the stairs, his lacrosse gear in his hand.
"Morning grumps" he said as he walked past Nova and dodged her slap.
Blakely grabbed his coffee, and as the three made their way towards Nova's car he raced past Sophie, knocking her on his way, as he shouted shotgun and climbed into the car.
Sophie chuckled at her brother's childish behavior as she too, climbed into her sister's car.
"I don't get why you're taking us, I do have my own car you know" Sophie said.
"Mom and Chris don't trust that you're going to skip, and I don't blame them to be honest" Nova replied as she started the car up.
The car ride to Rosewood dragged on for Sophie, the usual 10 minute trip felt more like and hour. As they neared the school, Sophie felt her heart rate speed so fast she felt as though it was going to beat right out of her chest. They familiar sign of 'Rosewood High' came into view as Sophie's hands started to tremble slightly.
She had never been one to experience anxiety. She was known for her carefree attitude and confidence. However, since that night Sophie had been experiencing more and more panic attacks, her hands shaking more often than they weren't.
Usually she would have been exctited for the first day of school. Her and Ali had often made a full list of agenda's they wanted to accomplish that year. But now everything she did felt so wrong. She hated the fact she had to continue on with her life without her best friend.
The car rolled to a stop as the girl let out a long sigh, opening the car door and slowly climbing out.
"Soph?" she heard a girl's voice say, as she turned around and saw the familiar brunette girl a few feet away with her other friend.
"Emily! Aria!" Sophie exclaimed as she rushed forward to hug the girl. "I missed you!" she continued as she turned to hug Aria.
"When did you get home?" Aria questioned.
"Saturday. You?"
"Yesterday"
The two girls looked at their blonde best-friend, almost not recognising the girl in front of them. She was skinnier than she had been when they last saw her. The girl was always naturally skinny, it was something that they had envied for years, Sophie had the perfect figure without any exercise. But now she looked almost unhealthy, the baggy clothes she wore almost helped disguise her figure, but the girls weren't stupid. Her once shiny and healthy blonde hair was messily tucked away in a ponytail. Her eyes were also a lot darker than they were the previous year and lacked her infamous mischievous sparkle. Aria and Emily didn't miss the dark circles and eye bags under her eyes. To be quite honest, she looked like she had been through hell. And she had.
Noticing their concerning stares, the offered them a reassuring smile and bid good-bye to Blake as the three girls set off towards the entrance of the school.
"Have you seen the paper?" Aria asked.
"Yea, it feels wrong, everybody's making it seem like some sort of celebration" Sophie replied as they walked through the doors of the school.
"It's awful. I mean we all know she's dead" Emily commented as she turned to see the other two girls staring at her "Right?"
"Yea I just, I never heard anyone say it out loud" Aria admitted.
The girls continued their small talk as they walked into English together. Sophie took a seat next to Aria as Emily sat down behind her. Sophie began unpacking her things when she notced a familiar blonde girl walk into the room.
"Oh my god - is that Hanna?" she heard aria ask.
"Shes the new 'it' girl now" Emily explained, "And when there's Hanna, theres Mona" she continued as a smaller brunette girl walked into the room.
"No way! That's loser Mona?" Sophie explained as she gawked at Mona. The mona Vanderwaal she knew wore child-like colourful tops, and knee-length skirts, not designer tops and skinny jeans - never mind heels. She noticed how her brown hair that was always in high pig-tails was now curled and framed her face.
"Jesus christ talk about a make-over" Sophie said.
Just as she was getting over the shock of Hanna and Mona's transformation, another one of her old friends entered the room and shot Hanna a small, friendly smile. Spencer Hastings.
"Okay did I miss something here?" Sophie questioned.
"We didn't just fall out of contact with you two, we all fell out of touch" Emily explained as the new teacher walked through the classroom doors as everyone quietened down and took their seats.
Sophie payed attention to the man, and watched as he wrote 'Mr Fitz' on the chalkboard at the front of the room.
Once he turned around, he glanced around the room before his eyes landed on Aria.
"Holy crap" he said as his eyes stayed on Aria.
The girl awkwardly looked up and saw her classmates all staring at her, along with her teacher.
What the hell? Sophie asked herself.
The Langford girl felt her phone buzz as she quickly picked it up to see a new message on her screen. Sophie's brows furrowed with confusion as she read over the text.
Unknown ID
'Uh oh! Looks like you're not the only one with a type Soph. Little Aria seems to want men she cant have -A'
Sophie stared at her phone in confusion. What was the text about?
Who was the text about?
Who the hell is A? Alison? Surely not, for the text was very obviously referring to the relationship she had with Jason last summer, and only two people besides the couple knew about the relationship, and Ali wasn't one of them.
━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━
word count - 1792