TW—Unconsented Sexual Advancements.
✧
ARIA AND SPENCER HEAVED THE LARGE wooden crate labelled fragile into the Hastings living room. Positioning it in the biggest area of space for them to get a good look at its contents while Brooke stared at the floor where they had been pulling it to make sure they weren't scratching Peter and Veronica Hastings expensive wooden flooring.
"I was afraid she wouldn't get it done in time for the memorial," Aria admitted in a strangled explanation as she used most of her weight to push along side her friend while Emily remained seated at the stools around the island and Hanna lounged on the sofa, watching the pair but in the heavy grunt work despite one of them being the most athletic and thus the strongest.
The blonde on the sofa rested her head on the arm, "And this was someone from your mom's gallery?" She asked, only standing up when they had pulled it to a stop and now the group were pulling the nails from the lid with an array of tools that Spencer had gathered from her garage.
"Right." Aria nodded, using the particular tool she was allocated—a screw driver—to dig the nail from the ply wood.
The division of divorced had been heavy in the group with now three out of the five friends parents separated. They treaded lightly around the topic, what with Brooks father leaving without reply, Hanna's binging that came about as a result and Arias mother living above the gallery, none of them were living in particularly stable house holds.
That's why Emily's next words were spoken cautiously and with worried glances as she spoke them. "Where is your mom?" She asked causing Aria to look up sharpishly. Brooke gave Aria a small smile when she caught her eye, given she had seen the family's situation first hand. There was no doubt that the Montgomery and the Bentley were the closest—which only made the situation with Mike all the more difficult.
Aria swallowed thickly before replying, dropping her gaze so that it appeared to be focused on opening the lid of their crate. "There's an apartment above the gallery, so she's staying there," She explained.
"Brooke where did your dad go?" Emily then asked, hoping that since Aria had taken it so well, she would too. And surprisingly she did too.
Brooke shrugged. "No clue. My mom won't tell me and every time i ask she goes on some tangent about how we should be grateful to have her instead of dwelling on our dad leaving." She explained, to which they all silently nodded. "She's on a trip in New York this week so it's just me and Mason."
"Kind of weird isn't it? Your mom and your dad moving out." Hannah said, not looking up from the sketches of the model that was on the box they were having a hard time opening and so not noticing the unimpressed faces that the girls pulled upon her question.
Aria scoffed, dropping down her screw driver onto the marble of the kitchen island with a clank. "Yeah, like my dad should have left. That's what you'd expect." She said sarcastically, her hand on hip and an unhappy glare on her features. But upon seeing the guilty look on Hanna's face shortly after that showed she didn't mean it to come out like that, she sighed. "Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that." She said with an apologetic smile.
"The whole thing just sucks." Brooke defended, turning the screw on the opposite side to Spencer with the fork she had ben given by Spencer when she could only find three tools. But she didn't have to tell Hanna that, she understood.
In a quick attempt to fill the awkward silence with something before Brooke blurted out something about whatever she ate that morning or the weather to change it herself, Emily spoke. "Did anyone call Shelley Lenard?" She asked, turning their attention back to the memorial.
Brooke nodded, "Done." She smiled, laughing to herself at the interaction she had with the musician. "I told her if she plays anything depressing, I will kick in her cello and she's been sending me music sheets to pick from since last Tuesday." The other girls laughed at her, glad to be finding some amusement in something that was going to rehash all of the pain they had buried since Alison's funeral.
"Oh, what about the programme?" Aria asked after the small spew of laughter had escaped her lips and the other girls had died down too, although smiles rested on each of their faces still.
Spencer had been in charge of the programmes despite them all picking the photographs together, most of which had been taken by Brooke herself. "Almost done, but we should finish it before Ali's brother gets here," She insisted, not wanting to caught any unnecessary stress for the boy and the rest of the Dilaurentis family who was already struggling with the death of their daughter and sister.
At the mention of Jason, Brooke's gaze snapped up to Spencer and she paused her digging with the fork. She didn't realise how nervous she was to see him until now. He too had left as soon as Alison went missing, although she understood why. And at that point she had committed entirely to Mike. But that didn't mean that it didn't hurt losing both of them within a matter of months. "When is that?" She asked, keeping her voice steady.
"Tonight." Brooke's stomach lurched. "And he wants to see us in the morning." It lurched again and Brooke tried to not show it as Spencer spoke.
Hanna still remained on the sofa, watching with amusement as her four friends struggled to open the box with their varying tools. Particularly Brooke who had been picking away at the woods around the nail with a fork and was still no closer to getting it out than she was when they started. "God, you know what? I barely remember Jason." The blonde admitted and Brooke wished that she could say the same.
"We didn't know him. He was just Ali's older
brother down the hall." Aria shrugged, leaning against the counter now that she had retrieved her nail. Brooke was quick to grab her screwdriver to replace her fork and soon retrieved her own nail too. The digging distracting her from the lies she was sure to be telling soon. "How did he get into an ivy league school?"
Spencer grinned before she spoke, finding her comment funny before she had even spoke it. "I don't know. It must have been affirmative action for goths and emos." Now that Brooke had finally retrieved her nail they could remove the lid.
Hanna finally stood from the sofa to help as they lifted it off and placed it on the coffee table, staring down at the bowl inside the box, crowded in a nest of wood shredding. "Wow, It's beautiful." Aria gushed happily, gazing at the carved bowl with six, tiny wooden statues on it to represent their group.
"Pedestals already out there, next to the bench." Spencer gazed, picturing what it would look like in her head. "This goes up Friday morning." Friday morning would be their last and final goodbye to their friend.
Despite thinking the piece was beautiful, Emily was still apprehensive. "Do you think Jason will like it?" She asked wearily. On any other occasion she was sure she wouldn't care this much about what he thought. But considering he was Alison's brother she wanted to make sure everything was perfect. After all he would be saying goodbye to his sister and after all that was no easy job.
Brooke understood where Emily was coming from, if she lost Mason she would want everything to be perfect. "Of course he'll like it," Hannah assured—the same thought process occurring in her mind, only she didn't have a sibling to compare it to.
Despite knowing Jason for a long time, Brooke honestly couldn't tell how he would react to what they had prepared. Half the time she knew him he was off his head on drugs and the other half she got to see who he actually was. An avid reader with a guilty conscious that was often what lead him to the need for inebriation. "Who wouldn't?" Brooke spoke none the less. The piece was perfect.
"Years from now people are going to see this memorial and...that's all they'll ever know about Ali." Aria pointed out. "She'll be the girl they dedicated the bench to. And we'll all be gone but, Ali will still be remembered." She sighed and Brooke couldn't help but think those people lucky, although by the look on Spencer's face she thought the same thing. Ali was a force to be reckoned with, equal parts love and hate, a complete fifty fifty. They never knew what kind of Ali would be arriving to their hang outs.
"That's immortality, my darlings," Spencer said, mimicking the exact words that Alison had said to them a few summers back when they had been sat at the lake sunbathing. She had spoken about the fact that the only way to stay the same age you want to forever is to die young. None of them expected that that would happen. And it raised questions in all of their minds that she could have been planning this the whole time. Or it was a coincidence. A horrible coincidence.
"Where did she get that from? A movie?" Aria pondered.
"Ali was a movie." Brooke scoffed.
✧
"YOU'VE DONE A GREAT JOB. MOM, DAD and I are really grateful." Jason spoke, hands rested and clasped together on the programme that they had given him, along with the original drawings of the bowl they had curated. He barely looked at them, brushing to them a side before he began to give his opinions.
This wasn't the same Jason that Brooke remembered from a year ago. The business get up, the polished shoes and slicked back hair, smart watch and the only thing that remained the same. His piercing blue eyes that bore straight into her as soon as he stepped onto the threshold of the Hastings kitchen.
"I might have done one of two things differently but we can adjust that along the way," He coughed to clear his throat while Spencer's polite smile dropped completely while her eyebrows shot to half way up her forehead at his criticism.
He reached into his brief case with a blatant disregard for whatever the girls wanted, "Here's a copy of the programme for the dedication," He said handing out a completed programme but not the one that Spencer had emailed him, nor the one that was long forgotten beneath the other sheets they gave him.
"Oh, I emailed you the programme that we worked up." She explained, trying not to be rude since it was his sister after all, but in some ways they knew Alison far better than him. He barely paid attention to her unless she had something he wanted. But Brooke knew that that was because he was the shame of the family. She was the golden child and he was the bastard.
He nodded, but he still didn't show any care. "Right. I saw the draft. This just fine-tunes it." He assured. "Uh, let's see." He sighed scanning through everything else. "If Shelly Leonard's going to play something, I don't think we can give her more than three minutes." He added with a shrug. "I remember she's somewhat of a showboat with that Cello."
Brooke snorted, making him look up. "Trust me, i've made that quite clear." She chuckled to herself while Jason tried to push down the grin that pulled on his face. Nobody could ever know.
He moved on quickly after that, clearing his throat again. "Then, uh...oh. Is this...the picture for the programme?" He asked, holding up the same image from the funeral that Brooke had taken months before her death, finally acknowledging something from the pile they had given him.
"Yes. It's everyone's favourite." Emily assured defensively with a small smile at Brooke.
Jason nodded, "It's the one I would've picked." He explained with the same smile to Brooke as Emily, that calmed them all down, relieved that he agreed with them for once. "I thought I was going to be able to get my whole family out here, but...you know at the last minute, my mum um, it's crazy talking about this isn't it. When I think about her I think about you. The five of you are in her bedroom laughing, keeping secrets. A long time ago." He reminisced. "I want each of you to speak. I'd rather hear from you than Mrs Slocomb from the PTA." He insisted suddenly, it was clear to each of them that he had rushed through his words and quickly changed to the topic to avoid showing any emotion. He had always been like that, never wanting to show weakness under the stereotype that it made him weak.
"The PTA was a lot of help." Spencer defended but her defence went over deaf ears as Jason continued with his bundle of questions despite it.
"What about the rain? Forty percent chance before the weekend." The boy asked, the five teenagers in front of him suppressing their mutual groans. They genuinely wondered if he though they were still the naïve thirteen year olds that would giggle in Alison's room about pictures of the sports teams at their school, gushing over the boys who swam and the boys who scored goals.
Brooke was the only one of the group of friends that couldn't suppress her irritation. "They said that we can use the school's multipurpose room if we have to move the ceremony inside." She said in a bitter voice that came out as a groan of annoyance amidst her words.
Jason looked past her attitude, the one that she always had. She might not be 'bitchy Bentley' anymore, but that didn't mean she didn't know how to stand up for herself. She had not lost her back bone. He also considered that they weren't on particularly good terms upon his sisters death, what with their last conversation regarding their old relationship that had not ended well.
2009
"We've been over this, Jason." Brooke groaned, burying her face in her hands and sighing from where she was sat on the end of his bed, the boy in-front of her pacing up and down the width of the room with his arms crossed. "I'm fifteen and you're twenty. You go off to college next year and i'm just starting high school!" She stressed, finding every reason for them not to be together.
Jason scoffed, stopping in front of her and leaning against his cabinet at the end of the bed. "No, because that's not what this is really about. This is about you and that kid—" He spat the word with such disgust that it made Brooke even angrier.
"Kid? He's my age, Jase! If he's a kid then so am I." She stressed, narrowing her eyes and standing up, moving towards the door, sick of his shit. Sick of the drink and the drugs and his constant interference with what she really wanted. "It's just not working and you're making that abundantly clear."
"It's not working because you're lying!" He shouted, moving towards her, the height and heaviness of her words making her jump and feel nauseous. He knew about Mike, how she wasn't sure but he did. That meant it was only so long until everyone else did too, she doubted Jason would keep it a secret. "This isn't about age, or school. This is about him."
He was right about that. She had been lying. It wasn't about school or age, it was about Mike Montgomery and his stupid smirk and his stupid smile and all of his stupid quirks and features that made the brunette crazy. A feeling she didn't get with Jason Dilaurentis.
"And what if it is? It's just more proof that we shouldn't be together." She muttered, looking down at the floor so she didn't have to look up at him and his bloodshot eyes.
He was smirking down at her, not that she was looking at it. "Yeah? Well what's everybody going to think when they find out you've been screwing both of your best friends brother?" He snarled, but the thought quickly dawned on him that that could never happen. And it was confirmed by her next words.
Brooke might have been slightly scared of an inebriated Jason, simply because she never knew what he was about to do. She never knew whether his next actions would be, anything from throwing a glass at a wall, to screaming in her face, or throwing that glass at her. But she wasn't nearly scared of him as he was of her when she spoke. "What's everybody going to think when you get arrested for having sex with a minor?" She snapped back, her eyes narrowed, enjoying the surprised look that etched onto his face, never expecting her to actually say it. "And the same thing will happen if you say anything about me and Mike. Don't forget, I have far more shit on you than you have on me and a lot of that could get you into more trouble than a slap on the wrist by your mom." She added before walking out of his room and closing the door behind him.
Jason cleared his throat, the thoughts of their last big fight regarding their relationship finally drifting from his mind. It definitely hadn't been their last fight, but it was certainly the last regarding them as a couple. "Great." He said shortly, sharing one last glance at Brooke before turning to the others. "People think this dedication is about closure." Jason explained, now eying up the tile that the four girls had made for the pathway. It had a flower in the centre that said 'Love, Honour, Friendship, beauty and Remember' inscribed on the edges of each of the petals. At the bottom it said. 'The love of a friend has no end...xoxo' followed by the girls names across the top. "There won't be closure until they find out who did this to Alison. The cops in this town have been jerking my family around for more than a year. No more of that. I'm here to get some action and this memorial is going to help me get it." He said strongly. "Oh, and I'm adding one speaker to the programme." He said abruptly, sliding over a sheet of paper to the girls. A name was written in red and circled, a name that made all of the girls eyes widen.
"Jenna Marshall?" Emily was the first to spit out the girls name, an evident distaste on her face that was mirrored on each of the others.
"You want Jenna to speak at the dedication?" Hanna asked, completely caught of guard, worry spread across her features. It wasn't exactly a secret that all of the girls thought she was going to say something to either get them in trouble eventually, but even they didn't think she would go as far as to ruin the whole memorial.
Jason's eyes clung to Spencer despite her not being the one to speak. "That's right." He nodded. "She asked me if she could." He shrugged like it was obvious, and to someone who didn't know the vendetta between Alison and the Marshall girl, he didn't understand why whatever speech she was going to give could be potentially detrimental.
"Jenna asked to speak?" Emily asked once again, to truly confirm that their worst fears had come true. She could get on that stage and out them all for what really happened, and with everything that the girls had been doing and saying to incriminate Toby—most of which he was aware of—Brooke doubted he would cover for them again.
"Is there a problem?"
Swallowing the bike that had risen in her throat because of sheer panic, Spencer spoke while the others were stunned to silence. "I-it just didn't occur to us that Alison and Jenner were that close," She explained cautiously, trying to cover their guilty faces with a flat out lie. It didn't need to occur to them when they were perfectly aware.
"Yeah, I didn't know either. Jenner called and...said my sister was a lot of help to her after her accident." He said with a sour smile. "Well, concentrate on what you're going to say. Leave the rest of it to me. Now I'm... I'm going to have a talk with detective Wilden and find out why they haven't located Toby yet." Jason said packing up his stuff and leaving, walking out of the kitchen like it was his own.
He had only been out of sight for a few seconds before Hanna spoke. "Did we just get fired?" She asked, Arya launching forwards to press a hand against her mouth to shut her up, her stool scraping against the floor behind her.
"Shh! Keep it down!" The brunette scolded, Hanna held her hands up in defence as she sat back down on her stood from where she had previously been leant on the counter.
"Why is he talking to Jenner?"
"I don't know."
"What does she have to say?"
"This is turning into a nightmare."
"It already is a nightmare."
The girls broke into a fit of conversation, asking each-other questions that had no answers—at least not ones they could give themselves. That was all up until Spencer walked back into the kitchen with her arms crossed and a displeased scowl on her face. "What else did he say?" Hannah asked, all of their heads turning to see what the Hastings had to spill.
Spencer dropped back into her original stool with an evident attitude of displeasure. "Nothing. He just kept smiling like he was running for office." She scoffed and rolled her eyes at his demeanour.
"Spence, why does Jenner want to speak at the dedication?" Aria asked, hoping that Spencer would have any other ideas, but none came to mind, other than the ones they had already thought of.
"We can't let Jenner speak." Emily huffed, burying her head in her hands.
"Well, how are we going to stop her without looking like bitches?" Aria queried their predicament. They were constantly in predicaments and it was crazy to realise that most of those amounted from one girl that they were friends with.
"How are we going to stop her at all?" Spencer corrected.
A grin pulled on the brunettes face as she spoke while Aria looked at Brooke questionably, wondering why she was smiling in a time like that. But then she realised. "We could always trick her into going into the supply closet and then lock the door." She shrugged, some what joking.
"Brooke!" Emily snapped and she held her hands up in defence but she didn't feel remotely sorry.
"Only kidding." The brunette grinned at the swimmer before turning to the other girls and mouthing, 'I'm not.' to the other girls. The laughter dies down shortly after when it was realised that they truly had just been patted on the head and sent off to play by a boy turned man who previously couldn't pat his own head because of his constant inebriation.
✧
HANNA LEANT AGAINST THE WALL beside the lockers with Sean leant over her shoulder, an iPod in hand while the pair shared the headphones that were connected with it, chatting over one of the few things they had in common. "But this is Band Of Horses. Noel got tickets to the Band Of Horses?" Hannah asked excited and some what shocked, after all, Sean had made an attempt at getting tickets and had only managed to sign onto the webpage by the time all of the tickets were gone.
"Yeah. Strictly VIP." Sean nodded equalling her enthusiasm. It was no secret that Noel Kahn was rich, well, Sean Kahn his father, was rich. Noel was simply an entitled teenager with a fat trust fund that got him whatever he wanted.
As far as Brooke was aware, he had acted the same way for years. She remembered him driving around in his shiny new car and pulling up onto the sidewalk whenever he saw one of them, she also remembered him dropping a hundred dollar bill as a tip on the single date they had been on three years ago when Alison set them up. And as a sixteen and seventeen year old that was a lot to carry round, but as a fourteen year old it was like a kid in a candy shop.
Sean clearly took full advantage of that, despite having a very similar situation himself. His parents thought he was gods gift to earth it's self and gifted their precious son with whatever he wanted. His dad was also minted, not quite as much as the Kahn's, but still a considerable amount. That was clear enough when the boys completely disaster of a car (thanks to Hanna) was shiny and new less than a week later.
Still, the boy took every chance to mooch off his
friend. "And we get to go." Hanna asked, bouncing in her heels, knocking out the single headphone that she had in her ear and subsequently taking Sean's with it.
The boy chuckled at her excitement as he replied. "Yep. You and me...with Noel." Sean made sure to make clear, wrapping the strings of the headphones around the iPod and tucking it away in his jean pockets.
Hanna frowned, wondering why the boy would want to third wheel them. "Well, who's Noel bringing?" She asked hopefully because spending a night alone with Noel and Sean would be awful, even if one was her boyfriend. It would be a repeat of the cabin party and that didn't end well at all.
"That's the thing. He wants to ask Brooke but she's got this, like, anti-boy zone around her since she disappeared at homecoming. So Noels at this place where he wants to ask her, but not if she's going to say no." Sean sighed, holding his two hands up to refer to the ultimatum. Hanna hadn't realised that Brooke had disappeared at homecoming and she felt somewhat guilty for not realising, when Spencer had asked the girl where she had been for the duration of her search when she retrieved the file, the girl had completely avoided the question.
Hanna nodded slowly, thinking about the many ways she thought she could convince Brooke to go."So all I have to do is get Brooke to go, and we get to go." She double checked, a grin on her face.
"You got it." Sean smiled. He would have attempted to persuade her himself, be his best friends wing man. However, he had seen the piercing glare that she specifically sent him yesterday when he pinned Mike against the wall and the same ones he had received at the cabin when he had left Hanna on the sofa, so ultimately he had deduced that she didn't particularly like him and so wouldn't be inclined to do him any favours.
Hanna was sure she could make it happen, whether that was misplaced confidence, she wasn't sure. "Perfect. I can make it happen." She guaranteed none the less, grabbing her phone to message the girl to arrange the conversation but suddenly stood straighter when she saw the time. "I have to go do yearbook now, but I'll grab her later." She excused, kissing his cheek.
He grabbed her hand before she could quickly depart and avoid his inevitable comments. "Wait, the yearbook? Are you working with meta-geek?" Sean asked disapprovingly, causing a displeased frown to settle on Hanna's features over his blatant dislike for the boy she was friends with.
"If you mean Lucas, yes," Hannah said with a scowl and narrowed eyes. She liked him and she felt somewhat guilty knowing how good a person he is when Alison treated him so poorly.
She also felt particularly guilty that his entire bad reputation was because of Alison too and all of her false rumours. "Well, watch out. Cooties are contagious." Sean joked, clearly being one of the many that continued on with the comments even after Alison. Hanna wished that those comments had died with her.
Hanna played it off as a joke, forcing a laugh that she hated herself for. "I cannot believe you just said 'cooties' Your such a goober."
✧
BROOKE WAS LEANT AGAINST HER locker, replying to her brothers text asking whether she had plans after school that required a lift before he headed over to Jakes house when a presence appeared beside her, approaching silently and standing with their hands in their pockets and a cheeky smile on their lips.
At first the brunette had been so absorbed in typing that she hadn't noticed the presence, not until a cough from beside her made her jump, so dramatically that she almost dropped her phone. "Always scaring you." He chuckled since their last interaction had lead to her jumping and dropping the A note she found in her pocket.
"Sorry." She breathed out, a hand on her chest. She had been jumpy since way before the first A message appeared on her phone, a while two months at least. Since Spencer had appeared back at the barn that night, without the blonde beside him, after hearing a scream, Brooke had been forever shaken.
She hated not knowing what was behind doorways anymore. Wondering if that was the last one she would walk through. Wondering what the last one Alison walked through was, whether it was that of her killers. "So, I was thinking about Homecoming." He hummed, leaning against the locker with a click that broke Brooke from her thoughts. She looked up at him swiftly, catching his piercing blue eyes. "It was fun...right?" He asked, hope in those eyes boring down at her. He was wary of what her answer would be and it was clear in his expression.
Brooke nodded, caught off guard by the question. She hadn't enjoyed the evening at all. Between not wanting to attend in the first place, then the fight with Mike, then the file and then Toby attacking Emily, the evening had been a disaster. "Yeah, yeah, the first part was." She laughed awkwardly.
She only said that because the first half of her evening had been spent with him, and Noel knew how the night ended, half the school did. She really just wanted to make him feel better, better about the evening that she wanted desperately to enjoy, that she wanted desperately to feel something good about. But truthfully, every whisper and touch that he gave her, felt numb. She didn't feel anything for him no matter how much she wanted to. He chuckled in response too, "Of course. I can't believe someone could do that to Emily." He sighed, attempting to be reassuring.
Brooke still wasn't entirely sure what happened. She believed Emily, of course, she was one of her best friends. But from what she knew of Toby, he didn't have the capability to hurt someone viciously, let alone murder them. Something didn't add up. In reply to his, she nodded awkwardly, waiting to see what he had to say.
"Yeah, so, I just wanted to make sure you had a good time." He said, breaking what had been the longest awkward silence in history. Brooke had been desperate to fill it, but she could not think of anything to do that, unless Noel wanted to know about what she had for breakfast.
"Yeah, I'm glad we went together." She hummed, him nodding and muttering his agreements. Before leaving, he wrapped her in a hug...one that caught Brooke of guard and was so fleeting that by the time she had the chance to even register what he was doing, he had winked and walked off.
She looked up with surprised written on her face and across the hallway, met the eye of the person she had practically done the same thing to the day before. Only she had actually wanted the kiss he was leaning in for, but she had ran, like she always did.
✧
BROOKE QUICKLY WALKED OUT OF HER history lesson, as soon as the bell had rung. She wanted to get away from not only Mike but Mr Stein too. That and she had been avoiding the multiple questions that Spencer had been hounding her with all day. She was desperate to not worry about Jenna's speech at the memorial until she had to, otherwise wanting to attempt to juggle the other things going on in her life.
She turned the corner when a hand grabbed onto her shoulder and steered her over towards the wall, out of the way of the mass of students that were rushing to their next lessons. Brooke should have been one of them, but when she saw that it was Mason who pulled her over, she figured she had a few minuets to spare to talk to him.
"Moms coming home tonight on her way to New Jersey and no doubt she'll be in an awful mood after he conference, so I was thinking we could go out for food and avoid her as much as possible." He suggested and it took very little convincing for Brooke to agree.
She was rifling through her bag for the text book for her english lesson while she was talking to him and quickly noticed she didn't have it. "Yeah, that's fine—wait, I thought you was going to Jakes house." She realised almost at the same time.
Mason shrugged, "Yeah, I just figured he'd come with." He said, waiting for her usual face of annoyance that appeared any time she was required to see, talk or even acknowledge the presence of her brothers friend.
"Oh, then it's fine. You go and i'll go out with one of the girls." She said quickly, indeed with the face of irritation.
He looked at her with raised eyebrows, silently asking her if she was okay, to which she nodded. "Okay, well, i'll see you later, alright?" He asked, kissing her head after she had nodded.
"Yeah, I've gotta go grab my English text book." She hummed, hugging him and rushing off towards her locker where she was met with Hanna Marin leant against it, an excited smile on her lips that didn't reflect Brooke's tired mood—especially after the mention of Jake and the strangely awkward conversation with Noel, but even more so because her mother would be returning with her bitterness soon enough and would be there to implode all of their moods none the less.
She greeted the girl with a confused "Hi?" As she did the combination on her locker and rifled through for the text book she needed while Hanna exploded with the explanation that Noel Kahn wanted to go on a date with her to a concert and that herself and Sean could go too if she managed to convince her to accompany him. Of course she also added in the guilt trip that the band was her favourite and she had been so upset when she hadn't managed to get tickets. "Okay, it is time for you to get back to the land of the living." She pressed upon Brooke telling her about the awkward conversation they had previously had and that ultimately she wasn't interested.
Brooke scoffed and rolled her eyes with a smile, "Please, You just want me to go so you can go with Sean." She laughed, pushing her English book into her bag and taking out all of the other useless History information that she would never know, even if she tried.
Hanna gasped as if that wasn't a major factor in her trying to persuade her, feigning outrage. "That's not true! And...even if it is a little bit true, even more a reason for you to come." She insisted, pulling pleading eyes at the brunette who was looking at her with doubt.
"I don't know." She sighed ultimately, closing her locker and leaning against it so she could talk to Hanna before she had to leave for her lesson. She hoped she could shut her down completely so she wouldn't be pestering her about it for the rest of the day.
Hanna groaned, throwing her head back dramatically, "Brooke, what's not to know?" She grumbled impatiently. "It's not like I'm setting you up with my dud cousin Raymond who makes miniature furniture for a hobby." She reasoned, but that only made Brooke frown given she had never heard about this person before and she was wondering if making miniature furniture could even be classed as a hobby. "This is Noel Kahn. He's most people's biggest crush—including yours in fourth and eighth grade—and he's asking you out. So stop pining for the fjords and Scarpe hottie."
"It's not about the 'fjords' or whatever the hell that is and it was you who fancied Noel in 4th grade. Not me. And I didn't—" Brooke rolled her eyes,
Hanna stopped her before she tried to deny anything else. "Then what's the problem?" She asked desperately.
"The problem is...I just can't do this right now." Brooke sighed hopelessly.
"Well, now is all I've got." Hannah pressed.
"Maybe another day." She grumbled.
"Can't you at least get over whatever it is by tomorrow night?" She whined.
Brooke sighed, running her hands down her face and tugging on her sleeves. She wished she could just shout that she didn't like Noel because she was still hung up on Mike but she couldn't and that was the burden of a secret relationship, even if it did end so long ago. "Look, Han, I'd love to get over everything going on in my life. But Noel really isn't going to help me do that, If anything, it'll make it worse." She grumbled.
"Why? Are you already dating someone?" She asked excitedly, but Brooke remained silent, she didn't want to let anything slip. She almost had yesterday.
Shaking her head, Brooke pulled her sleeves down her hand, luckily the next bell came at the perfect time. "I've got to go, Han. We'll talk later." She smiled weakly at her friend before walking off towards her lesson.
Then she caught the eye of him of all people. As of her day wasn't already rushing downhill. She sent him a weak smile, one full of guilt because of what she had done the night previous. But he seemed to be taking it harder than she was. He offered her nothing more than a glance before he walked past her, a scowl on her face.
It annoyed her to no end, knowing that he was treating her so coldly when he was the reason for it. If annoyed her so much that she grabbed her phone and clicked on Hanna's contact. 'Sorry, Han. Count me in.' If he was going to ice her out, then she would do exactly what she said she had already done. Move on.
The Bentley girl pressed send before continuing with her quick walk to the English lesson that would shortly be starting. She was three steps closer when her day finally plummeted to a dead end, all because of the appearance of Detective Wilden who had stepped out in front of her with a smirk on his lips.
She had to suppressed another groan. "Do you need something?" She sighed, sick of him constantly showing up to question them about irrelevant things.
Wilden could see her irritation, she was sure of it and she was sure he used to go get to her. "I was just wondering whether Emily had received any messages for Toby Cavanaugh?" He said with a forced smile.
Brooke scrunched her eyebrows bitterly. "Do I look like Emily?" She snapped, making an attempt to walk around the detective, only for him to block her mid step.
"No. But you are all friends."
Looking at her phone she saw that her lesson had now already stared and he had officially made her late. That only wound her up even more. "Yes, and I'd appreciate it if you stopped harassing me and my friends." She snapped.
"I'm not harassing anyone. I was just doing my job. According to Jason Dilaurentis, i'm failing at that. Did you know that he dropped by the police station the other day, shouting about how he wasn't seeing progress?" He said cocking his head to the side, taunting her with what he knew from that stupid summer that always hung over Brooke's head.
Bored with the conversation, Brooke crossed her arms over her chest and sighed. "No, I don't know why I would either?" She snapped back at his obviously aimed comments.
"If you or your friends have any clue what happened to Alison that night, I suggest you inform the police." He did the same back, gritting his teeth and grabbing her wrist harshly when she tried to walk past him for the second time. She had no interest in reiterating what she had told him dozens of times.
Just in time, Mason rushed over, spotting the rough interaction between them. "Is everything okay, officer?" He asked with narrow eyes. While Noel and Mike amidst the few others in the hallways that were also on free periods had their eyes fixated on the girl talking to the officer—particularly the strong grip he held on her arm with his callused hands, both feeling the strong urge to go and remove it from her fair skin. Had Mason not stepped in, Mike most certainly would and he wouldn't have cared about anyone finding out.
"Everything's fine. I was just giving your sister some advice." He lied, not sparing a glance at Mason, his eyes entirely focused on Brooke.
Neither of the Bentley siblings were convinced by his obvious attempt at lying. It was difficult to tell anyone that everything was fine when the hand on her wrist spoke differently. "Didn't sound like advice. I'd say it sounded more like a threat." The girl glared, speaking up for herself.
"If that's the case, then I suggest you let go of her arm—before i give you some advice." The older brother growled at the officer, standing between him and his sister protectively. He didn't care if Wilden was in a position of power, he was touching his sister and he didn't have the right to do that.
Wilden evidently didn't appreciate the boys interjection, and it became quickly clear with his next actions. "Miss Bentley, I'd like to have a chat with you, privately, if you'll follow me." He said with a smirk, removing his hold on her arm which now held a bright red mark for the whole of the hallway to see and he replaced it with a hand on her lower back.
Brooke stepped forwards to removed the hand and Mason interjected once again. "I don't think so." He insisted implicitly.
Brooke scoffed. "Yeah, no way, I have to get to class." She shook her head, gesturing to the door that was only a few feet away. The classroom that she wished she was in at that current point in time.
"You've been excused, now please follow me." He insisted, grabbing a hold of her upper arm again and leading her toward the principal's office, earning a death glare from Mason as he did so.
"This is ridiculous," Brooke mumbled taking a seat on the very same couch she had been sitting on with the other girls almost over a month ago once they arrived at the principals office. "Why am I even here?" The girl groaned and the officer leant against the desk with his arms crossed.
"You're here because I was looking over the statements from a year ago and I have a few more questions for you." He excused staring at her uncomfortably long and in all the wrong places. She saw it's his gaze drifted from her ankles and up to her thighs that were only slightly revealed in her skirt.
Feeling sick, completely uncomfortable and on the verge of dry heaving, Brooke swallowed the bike in her throat. "I'd suggest that if you want to get any answers, you stop staring at my thighs." She snapped leaning forwards and lowering her voice for his sake though he didn't deserve it. Instead, he cleared his throat and continued the questioning.
"You know, that mouth of yours could get you into trouble one day, even more so than it already has." He snapped and she didn't even want to know what he was implying and she didn't want to find out. She quickly stood up and moved towards the door—but it became quite clear by the way his hand suddenly traced down her waist to stop her what he was implying.
"What are you implying, Detective." She snapped, slapping his hand off of her, trying to ignore the tightening of her airways.
"Nothing. But you do have the power to get yourself out of this." He smirked. "You just have to work out how to do it." He added, looking her up and down, that was the final straw for the brunette, before she heaved and was sick on his shoes—though she wouldn't have minded ruining his outfit.
"These questions don't seem to be at all helpful for anyone, so if you'll excuse me. I have class." She snapped storming out of the room and to the toilets to take a calming breath so she didn't break down in a panic attack. She held a brave face and exterior in-front of the detective but she had truthfully never felt so scared in her whole life, not even after the Jenna thing, not even her first interrogation.
Only moments after, the door swung open and Brooke suddenly panicked and was ready to jump up to avoid whoever it was, but not when she saw that it was Mason. Then she dropped back against the wall that she had been leaning against from where she was sat on the floor and buried her head back in her hands. Mason looked fuming as he walked in and over to her, with no regard for it being a girls toilet.
"Wrong bathroom, Mase." She joked shakily, pulling at her sleeves so they could cover her just as shaky hands, but he saw through her facade that she was just fine. She was pale and cold and trying to force air into her lungs on the floor of a bathroom, she was not okay.
He shook his head at his sister, a face of fire as he sat beside her. "I came to make sure you were okay." He told her, letting her rest her head on his shoulder. "What happened in there?" He asked cautiously, placing his hand over her own and squeezing it gently.
She shook her head with a humourless laugh, "Just Wilden, once again, trying to make us admit to something we didn't do," Brooke explained with a scoff, she couldn't believe how unprofessional he had been, how creepy he had been. There was no wonder nothing was getting done with him in charge.
Mason leant away from the wall, causing her to lift her head off his shoulder. He squatted down in front of her, looking at her face and thus saw clearly the state she was in. "You look like your about to have a panic attack. What happened, what did he say to you?" He stressed, taking her hands again to stop them from shaking in her lap.
"Nothing, he's just touchy and he just stares a lot." She shivered and Mason clenched his jaw in anger.
He shook his head knowing that his frustration was not what she needed. "Next time he tries to question you alone, I'm coming with you." He said sternly and she nodded embracing him in a much-needed hug.
✧
Part 1 of Episode 8
Sorry! The chapter was up to like fifteen thousand words so i've split it in half to make it easier to read <3