"Was your mom angry at you for destroying Sean's car." Emily asked Hanna. The night of the party Hanna had wrecked Sean's car after they got into a fight and of course Wilden hadn't missed a beat in threatening to arrest her for drinking and driving, which is another thing Hanna could never know I protected her from.
"I didn't destroy it and everyone was very mature about it." She said.
"Oh"
"There is no Oh, we're grownups that's all."
"Okay, so the town is gonna put in a new bench. We'll plant the flowerbeds. And there's gonna be a pathway of art tiles." Aria explained.
"Art tiles"
"Yeah messages, photos, memories of Alison."
"Oh like little headstones." My sister joked.
"Hanna!" Reproached Aria as I laughed.
"What!"
"We should each do a tile." Suggested Emily.
"You know I had Alison's bracelet since the day we found it in the woods and I don't want the responsibility." Hanna said.
"I'm not taking that thing." I said.
"Somebody take it, I'm serious."
Spencer took the bracelet. "Look at us, bunch of babies! There is nothing that A can do or say to get us in trouble without making trouble for herself."
"You sure it's a "her"? My sister asked.
"She, he, it makes no difference." Spencer snapped. She takes out her computer computer.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"I'm gonna block all messages from people that I don't know. IMs, texts, e-mails, everything. Screw A. There. Who's next?"
"Are you sure this is a good idea Spence?" I asked. "This could backfire. Texts aren't the only way A can send messages."
"I don't care, I'm done with the bitch." We all block the messages, but I do so reluctantly.
I have a bad feeling about this.
<><><><>
The next day at school we were talking in the cafeteria. "Why didn't your folks take you to New York with your sister? You deserve a little retail therapy too." Hanna asked Spencer.
"Not as much as Melissa."
Hanna's phone rang and she furrowed her brows looking at it.
"Answer it. At least we know who it can't be from." Aria said.
"You okay Han?" I asked.
"It's Dad!" She said picking up the call.
"You okay Cassie?" Aria asked me.
"What? Oh yeah I'm fine."
Hanna came back with a big smile. "He has to be in New England, but he's making a special trip out to see us." She told me.
"It's ... it's great Hanna!" Aria said a bit unsure.
"What?"
"It's just, do you think he came because of the thing with Sean's car?" Emily asked. To be honest, I was thinking the same thing, I don't care if he comes to see us, he stopped being my father when he cheated on my mom, divorced her, left and didn't give two fucks about his daughters.
"No of course not, we talked about it and it is not at all because of that. And even if it is, all that matters is that he is coming to see us."
"I think I forgot something in my locker, I'll see you guys later." I said suddenl walking away.
After class Hanna dragged me to Spencer's. She wanted to try clothes that would make her look more serious and were definitely not her style.
"I wish I had a sister to steal papers from." Hanna said referring to the fact that Spencer stole an essay from Melissa. That's another thing that bothered me. I mean I knew Hanna didn't think I was dumb, but no one ever thought of me as smart. Despite everything I had good grades and I considered myself smart, but no one expected it from me.
"Using Melissa's paper was supposed to be a stopgap. If I ask Sheldrake to withdraw the essay, he'll know something's wrong." Spencer said.
"Well maybe you won't win." I said. She gave me a look. "Right, I forgot the terms and conditions of the Hastings' DNA."
"Here, try this one." She said handing Hanna a jacket.
"This has to be the perfect outfit." My sister said. "My dad hasn't seen me since I lost the weight."
"That jacket's really not you." I said.
"Then it's perfect." Hanna said.
I furrowed my brows. "I don't understand why you have to change yourself to see dad."
"I'm not changing myself, I just want to show him that despite what happened with Sean's car I can take responsibility for my actions and be mature." I didn't respond. "What are you going to wear?" She asked me.
"I'm not going."
"What? Why?"
"I just don't want to see him. I have no intention to forgive him for abandoning us."
"I'm not asking you to forgive him. But please go to the diner. I can't face dad alone, please do it for me."
Damn it. "Fine." I caved. "But I'm not changing. If he has an issue with what I'm wearing then he can go screw himself."
<><><><>
Mom and Hanna were standing in front of the mirror getting ready for dinner. Normally I would be right there with them but both Hanna and mom wanted my father's attention. However I had decided that since he left, he didn't want my attention and therefore now that he was back I would not give it to him.
The bell door rang and Hanna went to open the door.
"Hanna!"
"Dad!"
"Oh, my God, there's barely enough
left of you to hug." Dad said.
"I missed you." Hanna said as they hugged.
"Missed you too." He said. "Come here Cassie, I've missed you."
"Can we just get this over with?" I replied walking
"Okay I probably deserved that." Dad said. "Aren't you going to change so we can leave? I would appreciate it if you wore something a little bit more... conservative. It would be better for where we're going."
"Well I would have appreciated if you'd stayed with your family, but I guess we can't always get what we want." Without giving him a chance to respond I left to get my purse.
"Hello Tom." Mom said.
"Ashley. How are you?"
"Good"
"Good. So you ready to go?" He asked us.
"Yep."
"Uh, Ash." Dad said. "Think maybe we got our wires crossed about tonight. My idea was that this would be a good time for me to talk with the girls."
"Oh. I guess I must've misunderstood." Mom said and I could tell she was hurt. "My mistake."
"Does that work for you, honey?" He asked us.
"Um, yeah." My twin said.
"Bye, Mom." Hanna and I said.
"Bye." She said. "Have a good time."
As we walked outside my dad spoke. "It's a new car, so I hope you don't mind if I drive, do you?"
"This is about Sean's car." Hanna realized. "Mom did call you."
"It's a little more complicated than that."
"Let me uncomplicate it for you." Hanna said. If you came here to yell at me, let's go back and get it over with. Or yell at me here so all the neighbors can watch me take my medicine." She snapped at our father. I've never been more proud.
"I didn't come back to yell at anybody." He sighed. I came back to help you through a rough spot. Both of you." He explained.
He was trying to be good but all I could do was laugh humorlessly. "What?" he asked.
"Help us through a rough spot?" I asked incredulously.
"Cassie—"
"No. You left when we needed you, when I needed. But guess what. I adapted, and I don't need you anymore." I snapped. "So let's just get this diner over with so you can leave again."
At the restaurant, things were tense to say the least.
"I was hoping we could talk about what happened with Sean." He said breaking the silence.
"I was wondering when you were going to bring that up." Hanna murmured.
"I wonder if, uh, all this has a little less to do with Sean and more to do with something else."
"Something else?"
"How are you about what happened with Alison?" He asked us.
"I don't know. I mean, sometimes I just wanna get away. You know, be somewhere else for a while." My sister answered.
"Somewhere you can clear your head, maybe get a new perspective on things?" Our father suggested.
"Yeah, that's exactly what I mean." Agreed Hanna.
"What about you Cassandra?" Dad asked.
"I'm fine." It's all I said and thankfully he didn't push any further. I don't know if he was afraid to ask for the real answer or if he simply didn't care. Either way it didn't matter.
"Girls, there's a couple of matters
that we have to discuss."
"Really? What matters?" Hanna asked as a woman and a girl about our age arrived.
"Hey. Here you are." Tom said.
"Hi." Replied the woman
"Mm, hi Tom." The girl said.
"Hanna, Cassie, this is Isabel, my fiancee." He explained.
"Fiancee?" Our eyes went wide, so that's why he came back.
"I am so happy to meet you, Hanna and Cassie." Isabel said.
"Um, and this is Isabel's daughter, Kate.
Kate, this is Hanna and this is Cassie." Tom presented us. "I, uh, thought it was time we all met."
As diners passed I regretted more and more not getting high before dinner.
Kate was telling us a story, I think it was about sailing? I don't know, I stopped paying attention halfway through.
"Do either of you sail?" Isabel asked. Yep definitely about sailing.
"No." Hanna answered for the both of us.
"Oh you should. Kate would give you lessons, this is an excellent teacher." She said.
"Especially with beginners." Kate said, but I knew that if she ever tried to teach me she would not make it back to shore.
"It might be fun for the three of you, go out by boat." Isabel continued.
I snorted. "Definitely. And see which one of us comes back."
"This is a joke?" Kate asked.
"You can take it however you want." I replied.
"Cassandra." My dad scowled at me.
"Of course it's a joke. I'm already under a murder investigation, I don't need another." I said and Hanna muffled a snort.
Tom pinched the bridge of his nose. "Anyway, Just so you know, Hanna, I had a chat with Sean's father and everything's gonna work out."
"You talked to Sean's dad?" Hanna asked.
"He, uh, gave me an estimate on the damage you did to his car. We agreed to settle things without getting the insurance companies involved. I'll write a check, and you will work of the cost of repairs in Sean's mother's office." He explained.
"Sean's mother is a dentist." Hanna said confused.
"Well, you won't be drilling teeth. You'll be cleaning up, doing light clerical work, answering phones. After school and on weekends." Tom said.
"That could be interesting." Kate said.
Stuck up bitch.
"You know, I am fascinated by dentistry,
aren't you?" Hanna told her. "Plaque, cavities, fake-Iooking veneers." I laughed and Hanna's phone rang, it was an SOS message from Spencer. "Sorry. We have to go" She said.
"I'll meet you at Spencer's." I told her.
"Thanks for staying Cass—" Dad started.
"I'm not staying." I said. "I just want to make something clear. I don't know if you had some sort of dilution where we could be one big happy family, but that's not going to happen. You don't get to show up after months of silence and hope that we will be okay with you getting a new family. No offense to you Isabel, I'm sure you're a decent woman. But he worst part is Hanna will forgive you and she'll try to make things right, but I don't care. You're the one who walked away, so I suggest you stay away." I stood up and left. I could hear my father calling my name, but like I said I don't care. Maybe I was too harsh and there was a part of that regretted it, but I had enough problems to deal with my father's new family.
<><><><>
I left for Spencer's when I got a call from Theo. "Hey."
"Hey. Can we please meet?" I was about to tell him that I couldn't because the girls were blowing up my phone, but there was something broken in his voice that made it impossible for me to say no. 'A' will be tomorrow's problem.
"Where?"