FIVE MONTHS LATER
MUSIC played softly in the background over our chattering and laughter, it was a Rihanna song, S&M to be exact; a song that could get me up and dancing if I'd drunk to a certain extent.
"Em, you and I are the only ones who did anything worth talking about this summer." Hanna smirked, my eyelids had started to droop slightly but I felt the most sober out of all of us. Aria looked pissed as hell, and do not get me started on Emily, the girl could hardly form a sentence without sounding like she was speaking gibberish.
"I mean, Aria took some boring picture class, Spencer went to college, and Quinn spent most of her days banging the hot-Doctor-boyfriend." Han giggled, "Hey! We did more than just 'bang'!" I scoffed with a grin tugging at my lips, Hanna raised her brows.
"So, how many houses did you build?" Han asked Emily, I reached over for the bottle of disaronno I'd brought with me and poured some more into my cup, Aria held out hers to me to which I poured a slightly less amount in hers than I did in mine.
"Uh, I think we finished about six." Emily slurred, closing her eyes briefly.
"And in poor countries, one house is like a home for fifty." Hanna beamed over at us, "okay, miss productive, how much of your list did you actually do?" Spencer smirked.
Hanna pulled out her notepad and begun to read through it, "Let's see...cooking class with Caleb, done! Volunteer at the animal shelter for pocket dogs-" "-Wait that exists?" I interrupted, "-Did not do." Hanna retorted.
"Expand my vocabulary, effectuating! Intern for Vera Wang-" "-You got an internship for Vera Wang?" Em asked, "Yeah, I changed my mind, turns out they want you to work for free." Hanna shook her head slightly, I giggled.
Em grabbed her flask and poured an excessive amount of the liquor into her cup, "Woah! Careful Em they're already pretty strong." Aria laughed.
"Maybe for you, you're a pixie, I've gotten really good at this." Em mumbled, lifting her cup up slightly. Suddenly a phone pinged, then one by one each of our phones pinged. Spencer picked up hers first.
"'Show me your boobs, -A'" Spencer read out with a small smirk, I scoffed a laugh, "does Mona have a ten year old brother?" Aria asked sarcastically.
"Are these ever gonna stop?" Han mumbled, "eventually we'll be old news" I shrugged, "yeah and then Garrett will go on trial and we'll be news again, or Mona will start talking and we'll be news, again." Aria lifted her cup up to her lips and sipped slowly.
"Or I'll show someone my boobs and we'll be news again!" Em chirped up, I burst out laughing, "Okay!" Spence reached over and grabbed Em's flask, "Uh, hey I thought this was a party!" Em deadpanned and gestured for her to give it back.
"You know what? You're right Em, welcome home!" Hanna cheered, we each raised our cups in the air, "And you're never allowed to leave for an entire summer again." Aria smiled at her.
"To making it to senior year!" Spencer toasted, "Not me! I completed mine centuries ago, but cheers to you all for making it!" I laughed lightly.
"Not all of us made it." Emily's face dropped slightly, I glanced down at my lap and sighed heavily. "I'm sorry Em, I didn't mean it like that." Spencer whispered.
"To Maya." Emily tipped her cup up once more.
"To Maya." We each retorted, less energetic as the first toast, my heart bled for Em everyday.
༄
I was awoken by someone pushing my arm back and forth, then the hiss of a whisper ricocheted in my ear.
"Quinn! Quinn." Hanna whispered, shaking me awake. I stirred and groaned before rolling on my back and peeling my eyes open to reveal the blonde hovering above me.
"What?" I mumbled, rubbing my eyes with the backs of my hands and slowly sitting upright.
"Where's Em and Spencer?" Hanna asked, I furrowed my brows and glanced to the sofa beside me where they'd both last been, only to find it empty, and the backdoor wide open.
Aria stood up slowly and glanced around the room, "They're not upstairs in Spencer's bedroom are they?" I asked, stretching my back slightly as I stood up.
"Emily!" Aria called out the open backdoors.
Suddenly Spencer came bounding down the stairs, "She's gone." Spence said firmly, we all turned to look at her.
"What do you mean 'she's gone'?" Han asked.
"I've looked everywhere." Spencer shrugged.
Hanna reached over and grabbed her phone, dialling Em's number before lifting the phone up to her ear.
After another three tries of calling her she finally answered, stumbling over her words and barely getting out where she actually was, we dived into Spencer's car and raced to her location.
༄
My stomach churned as we approached her, in front of Alison's grave, but it was all dug up, the casket was open. And as my eyes cast downward even more, Alison's body, was gone.
"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god." I paced, clasping my hands together and placing them under my chin, Emily had sat down with Spencer comforting her, Aria and Han stood together mumbling to one another.
"What the fuck?" I whispered, my eyes kept panning back to the empty grave. I couldn't believe this, what the hell was going on?
I moved over to where the girls stood and hugged my arms around myself, the flash of lightning seemed to be only sense of light we received around us.
"You guys look." Spencer mumbled, she'd grabbed Em's phone and had gone through it. "Em, you got a blocked call at 11, who was it? Do you remember who you talked to?" Spencer asked.
Emily's eyes weighed heavy and she could hardly face us, "Um, I think I remember...leaving your house, and the next thing I know you guys are calling me and I'm here." Em slurred.
"What? That can't be right." Spencer hissed as she continued to look through Em's phone. She then pulled her own phone out of her jackets pocket. "What is it?" Aria asked quietly.
"It says that at midnight she got a call from my phone." Spencer furrowed her brows, "You were asleep right?" Aria asked. "Oh my god, somebody called Emily from my phone...somebody was in my house." Spencer's eyes widened.
"You guys, this is a setup." Spencer rushed out, a twig snapped loudly nearby, "What was that?" Han asked anxiously.
"We need to get out of here, now." Spencer urged, I bent down in front of Em and grabbed one of her arms, Spencer grabbed the other and we both slung one over our shoulders to help her stand.
Spence and I took Em back to the car while Hanna and Aria took care of the shovel. I seriously wanted to breakdown because all this shit was terrifying.
Once we all met back up at Spencer's, she made Em a coffee and instructed her to change her clothes and burn the muddy top she had on, as it was a form of evidence.
Aria and Hanna arrived back shortly after and were rambling on about seeing Lucas all suspicious, wandering around the streets of Rosewood. Spence scribbled down a note on a piece of paper, chucked aload of clothes into a duffle bag, we grabbed our bags and we all piled into her car.
The plan was to head up to her lake house and that was our alibi, that we'd been there since yesterday afternoon.
At around 10am that morning the phone rang to which Spencer answered, it was her Mom telling us about the news; Spencer acted like she had no idea and our whole plan was to act as if last night never happened. The only one we struggled to convince to take part in that lie was Emily, but she got the hang of it finally.
༄
Although I'd seen him almost everyday during summer break, Ledger had been kind of distant every now and then; Clara, his ex-girlfriend and Diem's Mom, had been really mean to him, trying to limit his days seeing Diem and she'd been nasty to him about me because of everything I'd been through and the things I was involved in.
So when I showed up to Ledger's today to surprise him with some lunch I'd got from the Brew, the last person I expected to see open the door was a slim, model-looking blonde.
"Oh, hi?" I questioned slightly, her eyes thinned slightly before her lips upturned, "You must be Quinn, Ledger never told me how young you are!" The woman gushed, firmly shaking my free hand.
"Um...I'm twenty." I laughed lightly, she bounced her brows up and down once before moving backwards to reveal Ledger holding Diem up on his hip.
"Hey, uh, I didn't think I was seeing you today?" He mumbled slightly, opening the door more for me to come inside, he softly pecked my hair line and his eyes ran over my face in a sense of concern.
"This is Clara, if you didn't know already." Ledger grimaced slightly as he gestured towards her. I sent her a small smile, to which I didn't get one in return. Pussy-bitch.
"Yeah, I just, had no plans today because it's Saturday so I figured I could get us something to eat from the brew." I lifted the bag up slightly, he nodded in realisation.
"Quinn!" Diem lunged for me but Ledger kept her firm against him, I beamed at her before leaning down and doing our usual Eskimo kiss where the tips of our noses would brush against one another; that was our little thing we'd been doing for ages now.
"Anyways, I'll send you over the stuff I need you to get for her, we're only going for three weeks, so yeah." Clara hummed, Ledger kissed Diem's cheek softly and hesitantly handed his daughter back over to her Mom before leaning back and stuffing his hands in his pockets.
"Bye Daddy! Bye Quinn!" Diem gave us a toothy-grin and waved, although a few of her front teeth were missing as they'd started to come out over the summer. Ledger shut the front door behind them and sighed heavily.
"Away for three weeks? What's going on?" I asked, trailing behind him as he made his way into the kitchen.
"Clara's taking her to Disneyland for a week, and then they're staying there in Florida for two more weeks." Ledger mumbled unhappily, he's never gone that long without seeing Diem.
"That's kinda long, why's she got to take her away for such a long time?" I asked, unloading the food from the bag and grabbing some cutlery out the drawer. Ledger leant his elbows up on the island counter and ran his hands down his face.
"I'm not sure, Clara asked if I could go to, just for the sake of Diem, but I can't..." Ledger groaned, "Would you have gone? If you could've..." I asked quietly, in all honesty it had upset me a little, I understand the whole co-parenting thing was hard and that having both her parents on holiday with her would've been a dream come true for Diem, but Ledger on holiday with his Ex? It sounded funny in my head but not a laughable funny.
"Yeah I would've..." Ledger shrugged, my face dropped slightly and I had to turn around to grab plates out the cupboard behind me so he didn't notice my change in demeanour.
"But I can't get work off, so it doesn't matter."
As I turned back round I should've internally smacked myself as I still had that miserable expression plastered on my face.
"What's up?" Ledger asked, normally he would ask me that sweetly, and it would make me melt in his arms, but the way he said it just then was almost impatient; like I was a bother to him.
"Nothing..." I shrugged. Ledger shot me a deadpanned expression, I met his eyeline and sighed heavily, "I just...I didn't think you'd be so comfortable with going on holiday with your ex-girlfriend." I confessed.
Ledgers face twisted into one of confusion, "I would be going for Diem, not for Clara." He spat, I didn't mean to rile him up, I was only being honest with how I felt.
"I know, I'm being silly, ignore me." I forced a smile but Ledger huffed and threw his arms up.
"Is this how it's gonna be now?" He asked sharply, I stopped loading food onto the plates and placed the fork down to look at him. "What?" I asked quietly.
"You, jealous of my ex-girlfriend, and taking it out on me?" He snapped, my brows knitted tight together.
"Jealous? What? I'm not..." I retorted back quickly, Ledger raised a brow. "Quinn, my life is a fucking mess sometimes, and with you adding in this petty shit, isn't helping." Ledger folded his arms.
We hadn't argued like this before, my stomach dropped so low I felt sick. "How am I being petty? I'm just expressing how I feel about the whole situation, because that's what we do, we're honest with eachother!" My voice raised slightly.
"I would go on that holiday solely for Diem and for Diem only, what you think just 'cause Clara's there I'm gonna fuck her behind your back is that it?" Ledger almost-shouted, I flinched at the tone in his voice, my throat tightened.
"I'm sure you wouldn't be thrilled if you were in my shoes Ledger." I gritted my teeth slightly, his eyes burnt into my own and right now? I didn't even recognise him.
"Enjoy your food, I'm leaving." I grabbed my bag off the counter and made a beeline for the front door, I heard Ledger huff from behind me before his footsteps echoed throughout the house.
"Quinn! I didn't mean to get so annoyed, I'm just pissed about this whole situation." He justified as I slipped my denim jacket on and slung my bag over my shoulder, trying so hard to drown his voice out.
"Damn it Quinn, what the hell? Why are you so fucking annoyed about this?" He snapped, I turned to look at him as my eyes pooled with tears.
"Instead of making everything about you Ledger, you should take a step back and think about how your shitty-moods, and your fucked-up attitude affects others...especially those who love you." I snapped before rushing out the door and slamming it behind me.
It only took me two steps down the path until the tears begun to profusely spill from my eyes, I'd walked to his from the Brew so that meant I cried the whole way walking home. Yet when I got home and slumped myself up against my bedroom door, I still had so many tears waiting to fall.
༄
I had spent the rest of my weekend moping around, ignoring the endless calls from Ledger and telling Mom to not let him in whenever he showed up at the front door; the lie was that I was 'sick' and didn't want him to catch anything.
"Hi darling," Mom slinked into my room and shut the door behind her, I hate Sunday nights because they were purely a reminder that it was back to school/work the next day.
My bed dipped slightly as my Mother perched herself on the edge of it, I was curled up on my side, covers up to my chin, hair matted, makeup was all cried off and my nose was red and sore.
"Do you really feel unwell? I'm sensing something else." Mom softly rubbed a hand over my side on top of the covers. How did Mom's always know when something was up?
"Ledger and I had a huge fight, that's why I don't wanna see him right now." I mumbled, sniffling shortly after.
My Mom deflated slightly and placed her hands into her lap, "I guessed that was the reason, but sweetie you need to know that couples fight, look at your father and I!" She smiled a little and it mirrored one on my own face.
"You and Ledger have been together for a year now, maybe even longer, so these things are gonna start to happen...they're just bumps in the road and little plot twists for your story together, but it doesn't mean it's the end of anything."
"In reality they make couples stronger than before, now you know eachothers weak-points and know how to work on those with one another." My Mom softly brushed hair off of my forehead and trailed her fingertips soothingly through my hair.
"I'll let you get some rest, I'll call you when it's dinner mi amor, I don't like seeing you down Quinn." She leant down and kissed my temple before pulling away and sauntering out of my bedroom.
༄
It was Monday evening when we finally got called into the police station so they could question us about 'that night'.
The lie we'd all agreed on had burnt itself into my brain and rolled off my tongue like honey; I was always a good liar, maintain eye contact, don't fiddle with anything, sit up straight and whatever you do, don't stutter.
All of the questions were a big blur in my mind, the answers came easily: 'We spent the evening catching up after spending the summer apart'
'Spencer lit the fire, we roasted marshmallows and talked until around midnight, then fell asleep'
Heading out of the station I visibly gulped as I watched Ezra stood with Aria's Mom, it was strange seeing them stood together. My dad wrapped an arm around my shoulder and didn't say a word as we sauntered towards his car, I think he understood that talking was the last thing I wanted to do right now.
"I'll try call her one more time." Hanna rushed into Spencer's kitchen and lifted her phone to her ear. "Why wasn't she at the police station with us?" Aria questioned. I slumped down on a barstool and rested my elbows up on the counter.
"Do you think she told 'em the truth?" Aria glanced over at me, I shrugged slightly.
"If she told them the truth we wouldn't be standing here..." Spencer mumbled, heading over to her fridge just as a knock at the back door rang out. I jumped off my seat and sauntered over to Hanna whom answered it, revealing a disheveled looking Emily.
"Where have you been?" I asked, she sent us all frantic eyes and my heart dropped immediately.
"It's okay, if you told them the truth we understand." Aria started. "-No! I wouldn't do that to you guys." Emily gasped.
"The cops were waiting for me back home last night but I told them everything we agreed on.." her eyes pooled with tears. "I remembered something...from that night."
She told us about a convertible car, a light blue one to be exact, an old make or somewhat of another. I furrowed my brows. "That's it? That's all you can remember?" Hanna asked, I nudged her leg with mine.
"'I bet you remember me.'?" Spencer read out the message Em had received from an Unknown number.
"Guys is it starting again?" I asked quietly, linking my hands together anxiously. "No! You guys Mona is A and she's drooling in her bed at a nut hospital." Hanna retorted harshly.
"We don't know that for sure." Aria suggested, "Yes we do." Hanna sent her a stern look.
"I've been visiting her..." the blonde shrugged.
"What?" The four of us snapped our heads over to Hanna and said simultaneously.
"I didn't tell you guys 'cause I knew you'd think I'm crazy." Hanna mumbled.
"Uh, yeah!" Spencer snapped, "She tried to kill you Hanna!" Emily justified. "Hello? The fact she went complete psycho and practically ruined our lives Han?" I called sarcastically.
"She's locked up in a room with bars over her windows, trust me, she doesn't know anything about what happened that night." Hanna retorted.
"Well someone does..." Emily whispered.
My phone vibrated in my pocket and I pulled it out, the caller ID being Ledger. I hadn't seen him since Saturday morning, since our argument, so it had been three days. I figured I needed to suck it up and forgive him.
"There's something...I need to show you guys." Spencer stood slowly, "Can you show me tomorrow? I'm sorry...somethings just come up and..." I sighed heavily, the girls all glanced at me and shared a confused look.
"Everything okay?" Aria asked softly, "Ledger and I got into this huge fight and...he wants me to go see him so I figured, I might as well do so now instead of dragging it out longer." I mumbled and stood up.
"Okay, we'll call." Spencer nodded at me, I sent her a small smile before heading out the backdoor.