( the jenna thing )
AFTER the funeral, the five girls decided to go to the Apple Rose Grille. It was now nighttime, and they sat quietly. Josie glanced around, sipping from her straw before speaking up, "Why was Jenna there?"
Spencer shrugged, staring into her coffee cup. "I guess she's back."
"That cop acted like we were suspects or something," Hanna told them, frowning.
"Do you think we looked guilty?" Emily asked worriedly.
Aria furrowed her brows. "Why would we? We haven't done anything wrong."
"Except lie about the Jenna thing," Hanna stated.
Josie narrowed her eyes at her. "We promised we'd never talk about the Jenna thing again, remember? The Jenna thing never happened."
"Have you found a way to forget?" Aria asked her. She glanced between them."I still wake up sometimes in the middle of the night."
"Aria, it was an accident," Spencer reminded her, trying to calm her down.
Hanna pulled out her flask from before and poured the alcohol into her cup, catching the attention of an old man sitting across the room. Hanna looked up, seeing him staring.
"It's medicinal." She told him with a tight smile. He continued to stare skeptically. "Cramps!"
Josie pursed her lips to hide her smile as Emily continued their conversation. "I don't get it. How does A know something about me that only Alison knew?"
"Ali knew all of our secrets, but ... we never knew any of hers." Aria said.
Spencer stared at the table, holding her cup. "I knew some."
When she didn't say anything after, Aria said, "Go on." Spencer glanced around but stayed quiet.
"Talk." Hanna snapped.
"I can't." Spencer told them.
"You can't drop a bomb like that and then shut your mouth again," Josie exclaimed, wincing when she realized she said it too loud.
"She'd so kill me if I told you!"
"She's dead." Hanna deadpanned.
Spencer hesitated before sighing. "Ali was seeing someone that summer."
Emily looked up with a gasp. "I knew she was keeping something from me! ... From us."
"Well, why didn't she want us to know?" Aria asked.
"He was an older boy," Spencer told them. "And he had a girlfriend."
"Who was it?" Josie asked, wanting to know more.
The Hastings shrugged. "She never told me his name."
"Okay, that's only half a secret." Hanna said in disappointment.
"It's more than you ever got from her," Spencer defended. Josie rolled her eyes, leaning her head into her hands.
Aria shook her head. "How is that Ali told us nothing, and we told her everything?"
"Because she made us feel like we were part of something special," Emily said sadly.
"We were," Hanna stated with a soft smile.
"I miss that," Aria confessed, thinking back to when times were different.
"Me too," Spencer agreed. They didn't notice how Josie stayed silent, like she didn't miss Alison as much as they did.
"I miss Ali," Emily said, fiddling with the bracelet on her wrist. The bracelet Alison had given each of them with their names engraved in them.
Hanna noticed. "I can't believe you still wear that." She said. The other girls had taken theirs off a long time ago.
"Alison still wears hers." Emily defended. "Wore." she added after.
"When Ali didn't come home that night I knew something terrible must have happened. But there was always some part of me that imagined someday she'd just show up," Spencer admitted to them.
"Yeah, I used to think that maybe she'd just run off with some guy," Aria said with a smile.
"She was laying on the beach somewhere," Emily added.
"Or getting a tan by the pool with that hot lifeguard," Hanna continued with a laugh.
Josie gasped, smiling at the memory. "Hey, what was his name again?"
"Who cares?" Hanna chuckled. "Save me!" she added dramatically causing them to laugh.
Their laughing stopped when the door opened and the sound of a cane tapping the ground filled their ears. Josie narrowed her eyes on Jenna, the other girls looking up at the blind girl. They quickly and quietly got up, making sure that Jenna didn't know they were there. Then they went their separate ways, not saying another word to each other.
JOSIE sat with Jeremy in the kitchen, finishing up the reading she was supposed to do for English as the news played behind her. "...over the area right now with a lot of warm air, but we've got a cold front moving in from the west right here beside me. In other news, Rosewood Detective Darren Wilden held a press conference this morning."
Josie looked up, hearing the familiar name and turned the volume up, causing Jeremy to look at her in confusion.
"The coroner did release his findings this morning and although Alison DiLaurentis' body did show signs of blunt-force head trauma, the cause of her death was suffocation."
Whatever else he said was interrupted by her mother walking in, pulling out a bottle of pills. "Okay, Josie, you have to start taking what the doctors prescribed you."
"I don't need anything," she answered, causing Julia's eyes to narrow. "I'm not sick."
"I believe doctors over an unstable teenager," Julia remarked, opening the orange bottle. "Take one."
Josie rolled her eyes before closing her book, swallowing the pill with a glass of water and forcing a smile at Julia.
"Good. You need to take one or two everyday." she told her daughter.
"Whatever."
"You two ready?" Robert asked, sipping his coffee mug, ready to leave. Jeremy got off his stool, following their dad out.
"Oh, and you have to start seeing a therapist."
Josie looked up at her mom angrily as she packed her things. "I hate you." she snapped, then slammed the door.
JOSIE was still fuming when she got to school. She also quickly realized that the rivalry between her and Hanna was still going on, noticing the looks mostly Mona were shooting her from down the hall. She shut her locker loudly, frowning when she noticed Carson Thatcher a few lockers down glancing at her.
She stared at him for a moment before turning away, then hearing him call her name.
"Josie?"
"Yeah?" She said, turning around again. For most of her life, she'd grown up around Carson. But they had stopped talking a while ago, which was why she was surprised he was talking to her.
"I'm sorry—about Alison," he told her, and she gave him a small smile.
"Thank you, Carson," she said quietly, feeling a warm feeling in her chest. Before they could say anything else, a loud voice from the intercom called,
"Will the following students please come to the office. Emily Fields, Aria Montgomery, Spencer Hastings, Josette Tate and Hanna Marin."
The rest of the students had cleared the hall to go to their classes. Josie looked back at Carson who said a quick goodbye. Now the five girls were alone. They shared nervous glances.
Aria's phone began to ring. She pulled it out, heart dropping when she read the text. "Wait. It's from A."
They crowded around her, reading the text. Dead girls walking.
THEY squeezed together on an uncomfortably small couch in the office, watching Detective Wilden's pace back and forth with his files in hand.
"So let's see..." He looked up, finally stopping. Then he pointed at Spencer. "You thought you heard her scream."
Spencer nodded, agreeing with him. "I—I said that, yeah."
He continued, staring at the other girls seated beside her. "And when you four woke up in the barn, Alison was gone, and so was Spencer."
"Yes," Spencer answered instead. "I woke up before them and I realized that Ali was missing, so I—"
"So you went looking for her," Wilden interrupted, sitting on a desk.
"That's what happened." Spencer told him with an innocent look as the other girls sat beside her, watching in discomfort.
"I got that." He nodded. "So what's up? Was this a slumber party, or...?"
"Is this an interrogation?" Spencer asked, her expression hardening.
"No, just a routine follow-up." Wilden answered. Then his voice changed back to casual and friendly again. "Why did you guys all fall asleep?"
Josie glanced around before speaking up, shrugging casually. "I guess we all just got tired."
"Tired? Really?" He repeated, cocking his head to the side. Then his eyes set on the blonde. "Is that how you remember it, Hanna?"
She looked up with wide eyes, but answered annoyed, "Yeah."
Wilden nodded, but still didn't believe them. "Yeah, you guys were tired."
Josie pursed her lips, her anger from that morning coming back. "Are you going to ask again? Because the answer is still the same. We stayed up late, we got tired and we fell asleep."
Wilden narrowed his eyes on her, but before he could say anything, Spencer quickly interrupted. "Look, we told you everything we know, just like we did the night she went missing."
"I know, I know," He slightly nodded, looking back at them with a hard look. "But you see the thing is, it's almost exactly what you said last year—almost like it was rehearsed."
"Like Spencer said, we've told you everything we know." Aria replied.
"HE knows we're lying." Aria whispered to them at lunch, panicked. After their talk with Wilden, they made their way to the cafeteria, discussing what happened.
"Lying is not a crime," Hanna replied.
"It is when you're giving false statements to the police." Spencer argued. "It's called obstruction of justice."
Josie groaned running a hand through her hair. "We lied about drinking. It's not like any of us actually killed her. And we don't know anything about what happened that night."
"We also know about someone who might have wanted to hurt her," Spencer said, and they all knew who she was talking about.
"We should have told the police the truth about Jenna's accident the night it happened." Emily stressed.
"I wanted to, remember?" Hanna snapped.
"We had a chance to do more than just tell the truth," Aria said. "We had a chance to stop Ali."
"But we didn't." Spencer said firmly. "And telling the police now about what happened to Jenna isn't going to make her see again. It'll just ruin our lives."
As they thought about what she said, the familiar sound of Jenna's cane tapping filled their ears and they turned their heads, seeing her holding a cane in one hand and a tray in the other.
Hanna groaned. "Oh my god, she's back in school too?"
"She's everywhere." Josie muttered, watching Aria approach Jenna with wide eyes.
"Jenna," she said to the blind girl. "Hey, it's—it's Aria. Do you want to come sit with us?"
"Sure." Jenna replied, sounding a little surprised, and Josie couldn't blame her.
Aria took her tray and led her over to their table. "So you're gonna be between Hanna and Emily, and Spencer and Josie are right across from you." She set the tray down, ignoring the girls uncomfortable looks as Jenna thanked her. "Yeah, and here's a chair."
"So, this would be Alison's chair, right?" Jenna asked, sitting down with a small smirk.
"No." Josie answered, trying to hide the annoyance in her voice. "We're not even sitting at that table."
"You know, she came to visit me in the hospital after the accident." Jenna told them, causing them to stare at her in surprise.
"Alison did?" Spencer repeated in shock.
Jenna nodded. "Mm-hm. Everyone misunderstood Alison, but I knew exactly who she was."
"When did you get back, Jenna?" Spencer asked, changing the subject. "We heard that you were in Philadelphia, a school for the... visually impaired."
"You can say blind, Spencer. It's okay. It's not a dirty word." Jenna assured her. They watched her silently. "Wow. It's so quiet. You guys used to be the fun table. What happened to you girls?"
THE girls were blasting loud music in Emily's room, a pile of clothes laid out on her bed for them to choose from. Josie grinned at herself in the mirror, replacing her shirt with a cropped blue one. Alison stood beside her and tried on a pink one and after a few moments, her smile dropped. "I see you!"
Alison marched to the window, pushing past them, gaining the girls attention. "Oh my god, I can't believe it!"
"Who was it, Ali? What did you see?" Emily asked.
"He was in the tree, spying on us. I am so creeped out!" she shrieked in disgust.
Josie and Hanna stared at her with wide eyes, linking arms. "Who was it?"
"It was that perv, Toby Cavanaugh."
Josie frowned at her. She knew Toby Cavanaugh since she was little. Her father even started his interest in carpentry. She knew that Toby didn't have a mean bone in his body.
"Are you sure?" she asked quietly. "Because Toby wouldn't—"
"Of course I'm sure, he was right there." Alison sneered at her. "I bet he saw us all naked."
"Should we tell someone?" Aria asked concerned, looking at the blonde for confirmation.
Alison thought about it for a few seconds. "I mean, we could." Then she smirked. "But I have a better idea."
They watched her in confusion as she reached into her purse, but didn't ask questions as she guided them outside. Fireworks were erupting outside, as it was the 4th of July. It illuminated their way as they crept towards the Cavanaugh house.
"Are we sure he's not in there?" Aria asked worriedly, referring to Toby.
"He's not, okay?" Alison reassured her slightly harshly. "You got the lighter, right, Spencer?"
"Let's wait a second," Emily stopped Alison, reaching for her arm. "I don't want to do this."
"Fine." Alison shrugged it off. "Go back. But you're on your own."
"OK, Emily's right." Josie spoke up anxiously. "Toby wouldn't do that, but even if he did, shouldn't we let the cops take care of it?"
Alison narrowed her eyes, smirking slightly. "Where's the fun in that?" They stood silently, still unconvinced. "Girls, Toby Cavanaugh is a freak. And we need to teach him a lesson. If he thinks he can come and spy on us while we're in your bedroom, Emily, he needs to know that his little domain is no longer a safe little hideout. Who knows what he does in there all day, that little freak."
"Are you sure it was Toby?" Spencer asked again.
"Yes! And it's a stink bomb, for god's sakes! We're not nuking the place. Now let's do it." She held her hand out for Spencer. "Give me the lighter."
Spencer gave her the lighter and Alison lit the end. They watched as it sparked, probably a little more than it should and Alison threw it in the shed. She stood there for a few seconds, catching a glimpse of something before she turned away.
"Run." She told them, and they followed her out to the driveway. Something inside exploded and they turned back, gasping. Then they saw the fire break out.
"What did you do?" Josie breathed out.
"We have to get out of here," Hanna panicked.
"Come on, let's go." They took one last look before running off.
JOSIE was snapped back into reality once their phones went off together. Her heart dropped, knowing who it was from.
Jenna reached forward, picking up her phone. "Aren't you gonna get that?"
Josie reluctantly took her phone from back, the others doing the same.
If only she could see how guilty you look...
— A
THE bell rang loudly. "Okay, people, let's take our seats." Mr. Fitz said, his back turned to them as he wrote on the board in chalk. The students scrambled around into their seats.
Josie glanced to the empty seat beside her. "Hey, Em, where's Aria?"
She shrugged, not having a chance to answer as Mona entered the class, tapping her heels loudly. "Am I late?"
"It—it's Mona, right?" Mr Fitz asked.
"That's right, Mr. Fritz." she smiled at him. The class chuckled at her mispronunciation, and she looked around confused. "What?"
Mr. Fitz only smiled, holding back a laugh. "Take your seat, Mona, please."
Mona went to her seat beside Hanna. Hanna grinned, leaning to her, "It's Fitz, not Fritz."
Mona chuckled. "Oops."
Mr. Fitz began the lesson. "If the mockingbird represents the idea of innocence, what characters are innocent? Take a second—jot down your ideas." He handed the students in the front row the stacks of paper, and they passed them down. "We'll discuss."
Aria walked into the classroom, causing Josie to look up. Aria put a piece of paper down on his desk, and all she could see was the big word, declined on it.
Josie narrowed her eyes at the two, watching them glance at each other, Ezra's eyes falling once he saw her suspicious look.
AFTER school, Julia escorted Josie to her first appointment, much to her dismay. Josie stood outside the door, hesitating.
"Go on," Julia insisted, practically pushing her in the room. Josie rolled her eyes and knocked softly on the door, catching the therapist's attention.
"You must be Josie," she said cheerfully, standing up to greet her. "I'm Anne Sullivan," she held her hand out to shake and Josie eyed her reluctantly, glancing back at Julia and saw her firm look. Josie plastered a fake smile and shook her hand. Dr. Sullivan led her to the couch and sat down in her own chair before glancing at her mother who looked out of place in the large room.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Tate but parents can't stay—"
"Oh." Julia cut her off, looking taken aback. No one ever said no to her. "I'll just wait in the waiting room, then." She closed the door behind her.
"So, Josie," Dr. Sullivan began, scanning her clipboard. "It says here that you were diagnosed with bipolar disorder?"
Josie stared blankly at her, thinking of a response but decided against it and crossed her arms silently.
Dr. Sullivan noticed her hesitation and leaned forward a bit. "I want you to know this is a safe space, Josie, just for you."
She rolled her eyes. "Are you just gonna tell my mom everything I say?"
"No." she shook her head. "Everything between us is private, unless I have a reason to think that you're a danger to yourself or someone else."
Josie didn't want to admit it, but she felt slightly better after hearing that. Only slightly.
"So... how do you feel about your diagnoses?" Dr. Sullivan asked, trying to form a conversation.
"Like it's bullshit." Josie stated. "My mom's only doing this so I don't act out again. She can't have anything ruining her perfect self image."
"You seem to resent your mother, why is that?"
"Because she's insane." Josie replied. "She wasn't before—we actually got along really well. But now, she's been acting crazy. And she says I'm the one who needs help."
JOSIE realized that therapy wasn't as bad as she thought it would be—not that she'd admit it. Dr. Sullivan was easy to talk to, and she actually listened and didn't judge her.
In the morning, Josie saw Maya, Emily's friend, exit Ben's car. Emily had told her about Maya sleeping over that night and figured they'd gotten a ride from Ben. She made her way over to the car, ignoring the multiple boys banging on his car when they caught him and Emily kissing.
They threw multiple comments at the girl, taking pictures of the two. Emily exited the car, blushing in embarrassment.
"Em!" Josie called over them, grabbing the girl's arm. Emily smiled gratefully at her as they walked away.
"Looking good, Em!" one of the boys called. "And you're looking good too, Josie."
They shared annoyed looks before Josie turned to him. "I'm sorry, who are you, again?"
He scowled at her. "Whatever..."
"Are you OK?" Josie asked as they walked towards the school.
"Not really," Emily admitted.
"You know, I didn't really think of you as someone who was that comfortable with PDA," Josie comments jokingly.
Emily shrugged. "Maybe I'm not the person everyone thinks I am."
"Who is?"
The two separated, Emily wanting to be early for her first class. As she was walking down the hall, she heard someone call her name.
"Hey!" To her surprise, it was Noel Kahn. Josie had never really talked much with Noel, other than when their parents would meet up or when Alison would force them to. "It really is you."
Josie laughed awkwardly, unsure how to respond.
"Is Josie Tate really back in Rosewood?" he questioned playfully.
She fought back the comment 'i never left' and only smiled at him. "Yeah. It's been a while, how are you and your family?"
"They're fine," Noel dismissed her question. "You know, you look different than I remember."
"Good different or bad different?"
"Definitely good."
LATER that night, Josie was searching through her drawers to find a spare pencil. She'd been having a hard time finding anything since she came back. She felt around her desk, furrowing her brows when something got hooked onto her sweater.
Josie pulled out a purple bracelet with her name on it, frowning when she realized what it was.
The six girls sat at a table at the Apple Rose Grille, laughing at something Alison had said.
"I got you guys something," Alison told them, pulling out small pouches from her lap, handing one to each of them.
"What's the occasion?" Spencer asked.
"You'll see. Open 'em." Alison smiled, watching them pull the bracelets out of the pouches. "We'll be friends forever."
They attached their own bracelets. Alison stared at Emily before leaning forward, holding her bracelet out. "Can you put mine on for me, Em?"
Josie eyed the two before admiring her bracelet, the other girls doing the same.
Josie untangled the old bracelet from her sweater, staring at in for a few moments before throwing it back, deep into the drawer.