A tall blonde with makeup smudged around her eyes answered the door. My mouth snapped shut and eyes widened.
"Um, is Jason here?" I asked sheepishly, the girl eyed me suspiciously before nodding slowly.
"Who is i-" A familiar deep voice came from behind the blonde, Jason soon came into sight, his voice trailed off when he his eyes met mine.
"Quinn....w-what are you doing here?" Jason mumbled, his hand coming to rest up on the doorframe beside the blonde girls head, she folded her arms over her chest and sent me a smug look.
"We need to talk." I said firmly, not glancing a look at the blonde whom scoffed and turned her head to face Jason.
"You should go." He mumbled to her, her mouth dropped agape, "You're fucking joking right?" Her voice came out bristly and...bitchy.
"Go, now." Jason gritted out, she huffed and moved out of the way to grab her stuff I supposed.
I glanced down at the floor and pretended I was day dreaming because Jason fell silent and the thought of small-talking with him made me want to pluck my hair out with tweezers.
"Kiss goodbye?" The blonde came back into view, holding a bundle of clothes, Jason scowled at her and nodded his head out the door.
"Fuck you." She hissed before storming out the door and smacking my shoulder on the way past. Someone has their panties in a twist.
"Come in." Jason nodded into his house and pulled the door open further for me. My eyes casted to the digital clock on the kitchen counter as I stepped inside.
"I didn't know whether you'd be up or not, I didn't realise how late it was sorry." I said softly, clutching the folded paper tightly and turning to face him.
Jason shut the door and shrugged, leaning his back up against it and nodding at me to say what I needed to.
"Spencer, was sent this..." I mumbled, holding out the paper to him, he sauntered forward and slowly took it from my grasp. I watched in curiosity as he unfolded the paper and eyed it carefully, trying to read his expression was extremely hard. He was stoic.
"Looks like it was taken in Ali's bedroom." Jason whispered under his breath, so quiet I hardly heard him. "Do you know who could've taken it?" I asked him, rocking back and forth on my heels impatiently.
Jason lifted a hand up to his head and ran it through his hair, sighing heavily and keeping his eyes fixated on the photograph.
"Look, I don't know," Jason mumbled, lifting his head up so his eyes met mine, "We got sent a lot of shit when she disappeared, pictures, letters from random people with conspiracy theories, so this.." he held up the picture and waved it slightly, "Is probably fake."
I scoffed and turned away from him, "It's clearly Ali, and it was taken in Spencer's yard." I said sharply.
"I'll take it to my PI, see what he can find out, okay?" Jason suggested, I turned around and nodded forcefully. He clearly never thought it was him that took the photograph, probably too drugged up to even remember that night.
"Thank you for stopping by and showing it to me though." He said almost sweetly, I nearly choked on air.
"Yeah, I'll see you around." I swiftly moved past him and headed to the front door."Quinn!" Jason called, my hand tightened on the handle eager to flee out of there.
I heard Jason shuffle closer behind me, turning slowly I kept my hand on the handle and gazed up at him with a look that said 'what?'
"What's it gonna take for you to stop hating me?" He asked. My eyes widened slightly.
"A lot." I mumbled before spinning round quickly and heading out the front door, letting it slam behind me as I scurried down the steps and off into the dark town to meet the girls.
༄
"Bull-Shit! He is so lying to you." Hanna groaned as I stood in front of the girls and explained what Jason told me, Spencer's grandfather clock chimed softly behind us, informing us it was one am.
"Well if Jason didn't take it then who the hell did?" Aria asked, I glanced back down at a newly printed photograph of Alison In the backyard, as Jason took the other picture off of me to show his PI.
"Let's just figure it out tomorrow, come on, I'm so tired I could scream." Emily huffed, yanking the blanket off of her and dragging it up the stairs behind her.
"Yeah me too." I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose before sauntering up the stairs, the other three following up behind me.
"Night guys." Spencer whispered as we all shuffled about trying to get comfortable. "Goodnight." I retorted, rolling onto my side and knitting my eyes shut.
"But you told me that you cared about me?" My bottom lip trembled. Hold it together Quinn, he cannot see you break.
"It's called lying Q, the basketball team made a bet I couldn't get into your pants and I proved 'em wrong." Jason's grin made me shudder, how was he proud of this?
"You are disgusting, I hope you fucking rot in hell when you go there." I seethed, brushing past him and heading for the stairs.
A warm hand grasped my wrist and snatched me into another room. I gasped before turning to face the blonde, eyeing me suspiciously.
My tear-streaked face and bloodshot eyes from all the crying, she knew what was going on.
"This is why you don't get involved with Jason, he's an ass." Ali sighed heavily, lightly brushing my tears away with her thumbs.
"I'm sorry, I know he's your brother and you can hate me all you want Ali but I really thought we had something." I choked out another sob after speaking, Ali clasped my shoulders and pulled me into her.
"Oh sweetie, you're right, I am going to hate you for sleeping with my brother," I pulled back slightly at her words but she reeled me back in tightly, "But, I think you've learnt your lesson."
As she let me stand back, her sinister smirk was like salt rubbing into the wound, why did the Dilaurentis' have to be so subtly horrible?
Beads of sweat aligned my forehead as I gasped and sat upright. "Nightmare, you're okay, you're okay." I whispered quietly to myself.
I hadn't had a nightmare of Ali in a long time, but those memories forever haunt me, her words saying that she'd hate me forever, what was to come next, will haunt me for a lifetime.
༄
I awoke to Aria nudging my rib with her foot mumbling 'wake up! Wake up' peeling my eyes open to look up at my cousin, she smiled sarcastically down at me.
"Unless this is major and life threatening, can I go back to sleep?" I yawned, sitting up in the make-shift bed on the floor and rubbing my eyes.
"Help me wake the others up, please." Aria said softly, moving over and tapping Spencer until the girl shot upright ready to spring into action.
"Oh, baby Hanna-banana." I whispered against the blondes ear, jabbing a finger in her side causing her to squeal and fling the back of her hand at my head.
"Ow!" I gasped, half-laughing half-shocked she backhanded me, "Natural reflexes, god I thought you were Ian or someone." She gasped, sitting up and pulling her hair back into a low bun.
"Ian? Seriously? My guns are way bigger than his." I joked, lifting my arms up that did in fact, hardly have any muscle in them.
"Keep telling yourself that." Hanna laughed.
"So what's this about?" Em asked as we all followed Aria downstairs.
"Hey, where even is Ian?" I asked curiously, jumping up onto the stool by Spencer's kitchen Island.
"Don't worry, he went to Philly to be with Melissa." Spencer huffed, moving round to the counter and flicking the kettle on.
"I didn't realise life existed at this hour." Emily groaned, perching herself on the stool beside mine.
"Come on guys you need to see this." Aria moved over to Spencer's laptop and begun tapping away on the keyboard.
"You know I always thought my first sunrise would have tequila in it." Hanna scowled, I let out a snort and shook my head laughing at the girl.
"I'll make coffee." Spence mumbled.
"Okay well, when it's ready just pour it down my throat." Hanna sighed.
Aria brought up the picture of Ali walking in the yard on the computer, I rested my elbows on the countertop and leaned in closer to try and see what she was doing.
"I thought we were done looking at this?" Spence asked softly, Aria shot her a deadpanned look. "I mean, we know the shadow is Ian, right?" Spencer added.
"You woke us up for this?" Em groaned, leaning down and thumping her head on my shoulder. Aria stood to grab the printed photograph out from the printer.
"It's important, I've been thinking, Ian's big right? Like buff?" Aria suggested, my brows knitted together.
She handed us the printout of the photo and pointed towards the shadow behind Ali. "That isn't a big shadow, looks like a smaller, thinner one to me." She shrugged.
We all looked closer and mumbled our somewhat agreements.
"Could just be a bad angle?" Spence suggested with a small shoulder-shrug.
"No it's definitely a smaller person than Ian behind Ali." I said softly, trailing my finger over the shadow.
"But who could it be?" Emily asked worriedly, my eyes cast up as I glanced at the other girls, each holding the same look on our faces.
But for some weird reason, one I couldn't quite put my finger on, Spencer looked on edge about something. Not on edge but, suspicious even.