"Well, I got a finger you can use. It's not the nice kind." -Aria Montgomery
(A/n: these next few chapters are probably gonna be really short. I apologize beforehand.)
The girls were at the Brew, ordering coffee from Isabel, when Emily tapped Isabel on the shoulder.
"Guys," she whispered, and they turned around to see Shana talking on the phone with someone in a phone booth.
"Have you heard her from since?" Spencer muttered to Emily as Shana got out of the booth, pulling her actual phone out. "Can we trust her now?"
"If Ali does, I guess that means we should try," Emily shrugged. They all watched Shana walk out with suspicious looks on their faces.
"Shana has too many faces to trust," Hanna scoffed.
"I've been keeping count and running out of fingers," Isabel agreed.
"Well, I got a finger you can use," Aria replied, raising an eyebrow. "It's not the nice kind."
They walked over to their favorite spot.
"So is your dad going to be okay?" Aria asked Emily.
"They'll monitor his heart for a while to make sure, but in the long run, he should be fine," Emily nodded.
"Except the part where Shana gave him a heart attack," Isabel pointed out, raising an eyebrow.
"It wasn't a heart attack," Emily replied. "The doctors said his chest pains were caused from anemia. Besides, I don't think it was her. I mean Shana led me to Ali. Why would she turn around and punish me for trying to find 'A'? And we know that 'A' is a dude." Isabel and Spencer shared a look.
"Maybe Shana's helping this dude," Hanna suggested. "Wasn't she seen sneaking around Wren's apartment shipping boxes to Melissa?"
"Sure, but let's say it's not Shana, you know," Spencer sighed as Isabel stirred her coffee thoughtfully.
"Could be somebody else," Isabel agreed. "Maybe it's somebody who's working on the play with Mr. Fitz."
"I was the first crew member he brought on," Emily frowned, and Spencer muttered under her breath.
"And he asked you to meet him after school, right?" Spencer asked Emily.
"Yeah, he asked me to copy audition scenes while he was out running an errand," Emily nodded. Isabel got where this was going and shared a worried glance with Spencer. "He said he'd come by if he could."
"What about you, Aria?" Spencer asked. Isabel saw that Spencer's leg was bouncing up and down, making her heart drop. No, she recognized those signs.
"What about me?" Aria blinked, pulling her cup away from her lips.
"I was just wondering if maybe since you and Jake broke up..." Spencer went on.
Aria lowered her cup down. "Yeah, that doesn't mean we're back together. Look, look, I've been taking some time for myself. Ezra and I haven't talked in a really long time."
"Do you think you could ask him?" Isabel pressed so that Spencer wouldn't. She was monitoring her behavior, and it was just as she feared.
"No," Hanna said quickly. "No asking, no following, no taking a look. 'A' gave us an order in my mouth."
"I'm just trying to help Emily figure out who was chasing her," Isabel shrugged, leaning back onto the couch.
"Yeah, but Emily already said that Ezra wasn't there," Aria pointed out. "I don't know what kind of help he would be."
"Yeah," Spencer nodded, her foot now bobbing up and down. "No. You're right."
"I'm cutting you off. You're over-caffeinated," Hanna scoffed, snatching the coffee from Spencer, but Isabel knew it wasn't caffeine that was doing this to her.
"What? It's herbal tea," Spencer replied.
"Spencer, I'm about to have a breakdown, okay, and your floppy foot is gonna push me over the edge," Hanna snapped.
"So go sit over there, okay. We're all really tense," Spencer argued.
"Tense?" Hanna huffed. "'A' knocked me out, shot me up and played post office between my teeth. 'Dead girls can't smile.'"
"If we don't keep trying to help Ali, she'll never be able to come home," Isabel pointed out.
"Yeah, and the longer that she's out there on her own, the easier it is for 'A' to get to her," Aria agreed as everyone glanced at one another nervously.
"We're not doing anything," Hanna replied. "We're just gonna wait for her to contact us again."
"Yeah, if she contacts us," Spencer scoffed. "I mean, I might have biffed that one permanently."
"We don't know that for sure," Emily said gently.
"Can we just all agree on this to keep us safe?" Hanna sighed.
"Yeah, of course," Aria nodded.
"Sure," Isabel shrugged.
"Yeah, of course," Emily added. They all looked at Spencer.
"Yeah, absolutely," she finally said.
Later, after everyone left, Isabel pulled Spencer aside.
"Isabel? Are you okay?" Spencer frowned. "Look, if this is about Ezra, we'll tell Aria-"
"You're stoned," Isabel stated plainly. Spencer looked so taken aback by her comment, that she couldn't protest for a second.
"Wh- what? No, I- What makes you say that?" she sputtered.
"Spence, you have that same look in your eye that Jason and I had after some party back when Ali was here," Isabel scoffed, crossing her arms. "I know how a person who's high looks, so don't argue with me."
"You took-?" Spencer gaped.
"Spence, I was a drug dealer," Isabel sighed. "And no, I don't do that stuff anymore. Sure, I'll mess around with alcohol, but drugs? That's a very dangerous game you're playing, Spence."
"It's only speed," Spencer said.
"It's always 'only' something," Isabel snapped. "First, it's 'oh, it's only weed.' Then, before you know it, you're shooting yourself up with heroin."
"Isabel, I wouldn't," Spencer promised, but Isabel raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"That's what they all say," she replied. "Please, for whatever reason you're doing this, it's not worth ruing your body over."
"I could say the same for you," Spencer shrugged before walking off.
-
A few days later, the girls filled her in, and supposedly, Spencer had shared her Ezra-is-'A' theory.
"Wait. He has a surveillance camera?" Emily blinked. They were at Spencer's, gathered around her bed. "What if the building manager put it there?"
"It was hidden," Spencer scoffed. "And most honest people put up a sign saying you're being recorded. Who else do we know who likes to hide cameras and spy on people?"
"But Mr. Fitz?" Emily asked skeptically. "Mr. Fitz isn't..." She paused. "You're saying that you think he's 'A'?"
"I know. My head feels like it's full of hot ice cubes," Isabel nodded, sitting down. "He was so nice to me about Jason, and I..."
"Yeah, he was so sweet when my mom was in jail," Hanna agreed.
"He helped me with my college essays," Emily added.
"He was probably trying to get close to us so we'd let our guard down," Spencer shrugged, and Isabel sighed.
"Have you called Aria?" Emily asked, a huge pit growing in their stomachs. Aria. "We have to call Aria."
"No, not yet," Spencer replied hastily. "I don't think we should tell her until we're 100% sure."
"Well, she's in Syracuse with her dad," Hanna sighed. She spotted the coffee bag on Spencre's bed. "So she's safe for now. Oh, thank God you brought coffee."
"Here, do you want me to make some?" Spencer offered, taking it from her.
Emily snatched it from her. "Yes, but not with that. That's for Shana."
"What does Shana want with a bag of beans?" Isabel scoffed.
"And why are you still talking to her?" Hanna added.
Emily sighed as she took out an envelope from the bag. "She needed me to help her with this." She handed the envelope to Spencer, who opened it. Inside was a huge sum of cash.
"Shana give you this?" Spencer asked incredulously.
"No. It belongs to Alison," Emily explained. "Shana was supposed to meet me at the Brew, but she never showed up. There's contact information there, maybe for other people who are helping her or places to stay. All I know is that Alison's running out of money and Shana's the only one who knows how to reach her. If she can't deliver it-"
"Ali can't keep on the move," Isabel interrupted.
"And she's vulnerable," Spencer added as she stared at the hundreds in her hands. "When was the last time you talked with Shana?"
"This afternoon. Why?" Emily frowned.
"You said that Ezra never came home today," Hanna repeated, turning to Spencer.
"Do you think he's got her?" Emily added.
"I think maybe he wants Shana to lead him to Alison so he can finish what he started," Spencer said darkly.