𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐆
𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐋
𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑
𝐈𝐕. 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐣𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠.
𝐍𝐎𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐄 𝐋𝐄𝐓 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐀 𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐄𝐓 sigh as she walked into her home. Between the funeral, to the text message, to Jenna Marshall at the Grille, everything was just catching up to her at once and all she wanted to do was cry. As she placed her keys in the bowl next to the door, a voice called out to her. "Noelle? Is that you sweetie?"
The kind voice of her mother nearly made her want to cry then and there. "Yeah mom, it's me!" She called out, her steps quickening as she made it to the kitchen where her mother sat at the kitchen table, her head in her hands as she looked over the day's newspaper.
"Oh sweetie." Naomi Call cooed as soon as her eyes landed on her youngest child. Her heart nearly broke in two at the heart-broken look on her daughter's face. "I'm so sorry." She whispered as she stood up from her chair, meeting her daughter half-way. As soon as she made it to her mother, Noelle broke out in loud, body-shaking sobs. Naomi gently ran her finger's through her daughter's hair as she cried.
"She's gone mom. She's really gone."
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆, 𝐍𝐎𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐄 acted as if the night before never happened. As much as it hurt Noelle to actually face that her best friend was really gone, she knew she needed to continue. It had been nearly a year, and she knew deep in her heart that she was never going to see Alison again. It nearly broke her, especially with how they last saw each other, but that was the past.
The Noelle she was today, was not the Noelle she was a year ago. She was stronger, but she was still in pain, and that's what hurt the most.
"Morning sweetie." Naomi Call smiled solemnly at her daughter as she walked into their lavish kitchen. Naomi sat, just like last night, at the kitchen table, watching the small tv they had in the kitchen. Two large mugs sat on the table, one filled with dark, black coffee, and the other with a ginseng tea. "How are you feeling?"
Noelle shrugged as she took the mug with the tea in it, her cheeks were still puffy, and had a slight redness from when she cried herself to sleep. "As best as I can be, i guess?" Naomi nodded with slight sympathy. Noelle smiled slightly as the warm tea slid down her throat, warming her entire body up. "What are you doing back? I thought you were supposed to be in New York for a week."
Naomi sigh as she brought her cup up to her lips. "We were supposed too, but once we heard about Alison and the funeral . . ." Her mother trailed off at the slight flinch of everything that's happened in the past few days since her family left. "I knew I couldn't just leave you here alone with everything that's going on." Naomi tried not to let her sympathy show as she spoke, gripping her daughter's hand in hers.
"Thank you." She whispered as she gripped both her cup and her mother's hand.
"Always, my darling, always."
"Detective Darren Wilden held a press conference this morning." A news reporter spoke from the tv, bringing their attention to it. Noelle turned to look at the tv to see the same detective who talked to them after the funeral yesterday.
"'The coroner did release his findings this morning, and although Alison DiLaurentis' body did show signs of a blunt-force head trauma, the cause of her death was suffocation.'"
Noelle sucked in a large breath at the news, her hands digging into themselves as her mother stumbled for the remote. "That's enough of that this morning." Naomi whispered as she shut the tv off, neither of them needing to hear about Alison's death any longer.
"I think I'm just gonna go get ready for school." Noelle stumbled over her words as she slowly stood up from her chair, suddenly feeling nauseous.
"Are you going to be okay with going to school?" Naomi questioned as she leaned forward, her voice soft as she stared, concerned for her daughter's mental health.
"Yeah, yeah. I'll be fine." Noelle waved her off. No, she won't be. "Thanks, mama."
𝐍𝐎𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐄 𝐊𝐄𝐏𝐓 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃 down as she slowly walked through the school hallways. She didn't want more attention being brought to her than she already had. More attention was one the four girls more than lately, especially with the funeral happening only the day before. It was suffocating.
Noelle had just gotten to her locker, when a voice on the loud-speaker spoke out to the school. "Will the following students please come to the office?" Noelle let out a sigh as she stuffed her face into her locker as she had a feeling she was going to be one of the students. "Emily Fields, Aria Montgomery, Noelle Call, Spencer Hastings, Hanna Marin."
"Of fucking course." Noelle cursed as the final bell rang. She removed her head to be met with the four other girls. She shared a small smile with Hanna as they stared to walk towards the office.
"Wait," Aria called out as her phone stared to ring. The other girls shared a look as Aria looked at them in alarm. "It's from A." Noelle's heart dropped as they got closer to look at Aria's phone.
"'Dead girls walking.'" Hanna read off Aria's phone. There was a silence that hung between them as they exchanged a look before continuing on to the principal's office.
𝐍𝐎𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐄 𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐋𝐄𝐆𝐒 one over the other as she sat in a chair next to the couch that the girls were on. The five of them passively stared up at Detective Wilden as he read through most likely Alison's file. "So let's see." He spoke as he came around the desk in the room to stand in front of them. "You thought you heard her scream?" He spoke, pointing to Spencer.
"I-I said that, yeah." Spencer nodded, stumbling lightly over her words.
"And when you four woke up in the barn Alison was gone, and so was Spencer?" He asked, asking the same questions they were asked the year before.
"Yes, I woke up before them, and I realized that Ali was missing, so I- . . ." Spencer nodded not even missing a beat as she answered his questions.
"So you went looking for her." Wilden finished for her, as he sat on the desk.
"That's what happened." Spencer smiled.
"I got that." Wilden nodded. Noelle subtly shared a look with Hanna who sat on the other side of the couch. None of them knew where this was going. "So, what's up? Was this a slumber part, or - " He continued, but was quickly cut off by Noelle.
"Is this an interrogation?" She questioned as she leaned forward in her chair. "Because I'm sure you know you can't interrogate minors without a parent involved."
"No, just a routine follow-up." He shook his head, sending a small glare towards Noelle. He watched their faces for asking more questions. "Why did you guys all fall asleep?"
"I guess we were really tired." Aria spoke, a small smile on her face.
"Tired? Really?" He questioned, tilting his head as if he didn't believe them.
"Yes, really." Noelle glared at him. "We're teenagers, it happens." He nodded, though he still didn't believe them.
"Is that how you remember it, Hanna?" Noelle furrowed her eyebrows as she turned to her friend, wondering why he decided to target Hanna of all people.
"Yeah." She nodded, lifting her eyes to see him for the first time since she entered the room.
"Yeah, you guys were tired." He nodded, with a sigh.
"Look, we told you everything we know." Spencer spoke up, an edge to her voice. "Just like we did the night she went missing."
"I know, I know, and you see the thing is, it's almost exactly what you said last year." Noelle furrowed her eyebrows as she looked over to Spencer, to already the girl looking at her.
"Yeah, well not much changes in a year when your best friend suddenly goes missing." Noelle spoke bitterly, her nose scrunching up as she stared at the man. "It happens."
"That's the thing, Noelle." Wilden shook his head, fake sympathy seeping through his voice. "It almost sounds like it was rehearsed."
"Like Spencer said, we've told you everything we know." Aria shook her head.
"𝐇𝐄 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖𝐒 𝐖𝐄'𝐑𝐄 𝐋𝐘𝐈𝐍𝐆." Aria spoke hurriedly as they five girls sat in the lunch room. All five girls were shaken after their encounter with the detective, all of them going their separate ways after they were dismissed, only meeting up now at lunch.
"Lying is not a crime." Hanna shook her head.
"It is when you're giving false statements to the police." Spencer leaned over to whisper. "It's called obstruction of justice."
"Is that what it's called?" Noelle asked as she twirled a banana in her hand. Spencer turned to look at her with raised eyebrows. "Had no idea." All the girls rolled their eyes before going back to their conversation.
"Oh, please!" Hanna scoffed as she shook her head. "We lied about drinking." Noelle shrugged at the look Emily gave her. "But the truth that matters is we don't know anything Ali that night."
"We also know about someone who might have wanted to hurt her." Spencer put in.
Noelle shook her head. "Yeah, but at the time we didn't know that. We should be fine." Noelle took a deep breath as she tried to avoid the looks of her friends. "I hope." She whispered, before taking a long sip of the 'water' in her water bottle, the burning feeling making her slightly better.
"We should have told the police the truth about Jenna's accident the night it happened." Emily spoke up, a look of regret on her face.
"Are you crazy?" Noelle whispered, surprise on her face as she stared at the girl in front of her. "If we did, we'd be in a cell along with Toby freaking Cavanaugh." She shook her head as she leaned back.
"I wanted to, remember?" Hanna spoke as she glared at Noelle.
"We had a chance to do more than just tell the truth." Aria said as she searched the faces of the other girls. "We had a chance to stop Ali."
"But we didn't." Spencer snapped, her voice tense. "And telling the police now about what happened to Jenna isn't going to make her see again." Noelle sighed before taking more of her 'water', knowing that if she said something in the next few seconds she's regret it. "It'll just ruin our lives."
The five girls fell silent as they processed Spencer's words. Though their heart's dropped once the tapping of a cane reached their ears. "Oh my God." Hanna breathed, her eyes wide. "She's back in school too?"
They all turned to see Jenna Marshall walk into the cafeteria, a desperate look on her face as she stopped in front of a pillar. "Wait, wait. Where are you going?" Noelle called out to Aria who suddenly stood up, a determined look on her face. "Aria!" She hissed.
"Jenna?" Aria questioned as she went up to the girl. "Hey, it's- it's Aria. Do you want to come sit with us?"
Noelle's eyes went wide as she looked over at the remaining girls. "What the hell is she doing?" She whispered.
Aria shrugged their way as Jenna hesitated for a second before speaking. "Sure." She nodded.
"Okay." Aria grinned as she gently took the tray from Jenna's hands.
"Thank you." Jenna spoke as she placed her hand on Aria's shoulder to let her guide her to the table.
"So you're gonna be between Hanna and Emily and Noelle and Spencer are right across from you." Aria spoke as the two girls made room for the girl to sit in between them. Aria shrugged as she put her tray down in front of Spencer. "And here's a chair for you."
"Thank you." Jenna commented as she pulled the chair out. "So, this would be Alison's chair, right?" Jenna asked causing the girls to still, while Noelle choked on her drink.
Spencer patted her back as Emily answered her. "No." She shook her head, as Jenna finally sat down. "We're not even sitting at that table."
"You know, she came to visit me in the hospital after the accident." Jenna spoke. Shock filled their faces as they all exchanged a look.
"Alison did?" Spencer questioned, disbelief on her face.
"Mm-hmm." Jenna confirmed. "Everyone misunderstood Alison but I knew exactly who she was."
Spencer watched the girl across from her before speaking. "When did you get back, Jenna?" Spencer sat up more as she continued to talk. "We heard that you were in Philadelphia. A school for the . . ." Spencer trailed off as she tried to think of an appropriate term.
"Visually impaired." Noelle finished for her, not seeing why Spencer had to drag it out.
"You can say blind, Spencer." Jenna nodded. "It's okay. It's not a dirty word." The girls stayed quiet as an awkward silence stayed between them, not knowing what to say to the girl. "Wow. It's so quiet." Jenna spoke up. "You guys used to be the fun table." She leaned over to Emily as she spoke. "What happened to you girls?"
"Our best friend is went missing and is now dead." Noelle spoke, making the space more quiet than ever.
Right after Noelle spoke, their phones went off in record time. Five out of the six girls instantly froze as they tried not to answer it. But that was quickly ruined as Jenna picked up Spencer's phone and held it up to her. "Aren't you going to get that?" She asked with a smile.
They each looked at their phones with thudding hearts. Noelle tightened her grip on her phone as she read the text message, once she realized it was from A.
'If only she could see how guilty you look . . . -"
Noelle clenched her jaw as her eyes darted around the cafeteria, her heart beating faster than humanly possible. She shared a look with the other girls, each and everyone of them had terrified looks on their face. Noelle looked over at the oblivious Jenna Marshall.
Someone knew what they did.