CHAPTER 5
"Where do you think you're going?"
Arabella had been halfway out the door when Spencer all of a sudden sat up in bed and raised an eyebrow at her curiously, her head tilted to the side in a teasing manner. There was a smug grin on her face, having caught Arabella in what appeared to be an attempt at sneaking out to do something she probably shouldn't be doing.
"Well, Spencer, you caught me," Arabella explained, sarcasm evident in her tone. "I was on my way to do some pretty irresponsible things."
Spencer crossed her arms, disapproval practically stamped on her face. "You're not even supposed to be going out on your own, it's dangerous. Plus, what the hell are you wearing?"
Arabella rolled her eyes, giving her Hello Kitty pajamas a once over, "I think I can manage eating some cereal without dying."
"How do you even have an appetite this early?" Spencer glanced at the clock on her nightstand which showed it being five in the morning.
Spencer swung her legs off the bed, just about ready to follow her temporary roommate wherever she was headed.
The brunette standing by the door sighed, "I'm going downstairs to get a glass of water since you hid everything in the house that I could use to make coffee."
"You make it sound like I did something wrong," Spencer stepped off the bed and pulled her plush pink slippers on. "You're not supposed to drink coffee after your head injury, doctor's orders."
"No," Arabella denied as she walked out into the hallway, expecting Spencer to follow. "The doctor said that an overconsumption of caffeine can restrict the blood flow to my brain and cause it to become dehydrated. He never said I wasn't allowed to drink any."
Spencer shrugged, following her down the stairs. "Oh well, better to be safe than sorry."
They had reached the kitchen, Spencer taking a seat on one of the stools while Arabella reached for the cereal in the cupboards. The doctors had instructed her to rest, stay hydrated, reduce caffeine intake, and avoid eating anything that was high in sugar. Resting was easy enough, but the girl barely had an appetite for anything other than cereal these days. Ian was still out there, and she was quarantined inside of Spencer's house, although hiding was a better word for what she was doing.
"Oh please, you practically have caffeine running through your veins," Arabella snorted, serving herself some Cocoa Puffs. "You want some?"
Spencer shook her head. "No, I'm alright. I take it you're not going to school today?"
It wasn't just Ian that Arabella was avoiding, it was everyone else too. She had barely spoken with Aria because it always ended in an interrogation over when she would be coming home. Spencer's parents had graciously allowed her to extend her stay even after all of the parents prohibited the entire group from even speaking to each other. Arabella was spared because of her injury and the fact that she was too jacked up on meds to contribute to the "Ian is dead" story the rest of them were sticking to. Maybe if she had been there and believed it she would sleep better at night.
"Nope, I'm staying here and watching TV all day. The show I'm watching is getting crazy interesting," Arabella said as she poured milk into the bowl, Grey's Anatomy having been her only source of entertainment for the last week.
"Have you talked to your parents at all?" Spencer asked curiously, having dodged enough questions from Aria about her sister.
"Yeah, I called my mom last night and told her I needed more time," Arabella told her, giving her as little information as possible. She wasn't in the right headspace to talk about this yet.
"Alright, well I'm gonna go shower," Spencer said as she turned to leave. "Don't do anything drastic while I'm gone."
Arabella laughed humorlessly, watching as Spencer retreated upstairs for her shower. Ever since she'd left the hospital, everyone had been treating her like she was made of glass. She supposed it was expected after her head injury, but it's not like she had a concussion. There was minor memory loss and severe headaches here and there, but nothing too drastic. At least that's what she was telling herself.
It had been but 5 minutes when a knock on the door brought Arabella out of her reverie. She groaned, eating the last spoonful of cereal before setting the spoon down and getting up to answer the door. The brunette hardly had to do anything the past couple of days. She'd only left Spencer's house once to go home and pick up some extra clothes and other toiletries. Besides that, she barely left Spencer's room. If she did, it was to eat, watch TV, or shower.
Once Arabella reached the door, she swung it open expecting to see Melissa but getting Jason DiLaurentis instead. He was standing with both of his hands in his pockets, his expression blank of any emotion. He looked different from the last time she had seen him, better even. Maybe he had finally gotten his life under control.
Once she overcame the initial shock of seeing him, she mustered up enough courage to speak. "Jason, um, hi."
The boy had been staring down at his feet before the door swung open, but when he heard Arabella's voice he looked up immediately. "Oh, hey. I wasn't expecting you." His eyes widened to match his surprise, the corners of his lips twitching upwards into a faint smile as he took notice of her girly pajamas. "Is Melissa here?"
The girl shook her head awkwardly, her grip on the door loosening as she tugged on the hem of her tank top, suddenly feeling self-conscious. "No, sorry, I haven't seen her."
"Oh, okay," Jason bit his lip, running a hand through his dirty blond hair. "Well, she usually comes over and brings me my mail. She didn't yesterday, so I was just coming by to pick it up. You wouldn't know where she'd leave it, would you?"
"No, I wouldn't," she mumbled quietly, shaking her head.
Arabella was fiddling with her fingers, something she did when she was nervous. Seeing Jason for the first time in over a year was taking its toll on her. It was easy to pretend her feelings had disappeared when she was thousands of miles away. Even when she moved to Rosewood again, Jason was nowhere to be found. And when he did eventually come back to town, he was so focused on Alison's memorial that there was no room for any awkward encounters or reconnection. Clearly avoiding him this time around would be much harder.
After a moment, she spoke again. "I'm sure Spencer knows, though. She should be down any minute. Do you want to come in and wait for her?"
Jason hesitated for a second before nodding. Arabella stepped aside to let him walk through, closing the door behind him. He took a seat on one of the couches as she walked back into the kitchen to put her now empty bowl in the sink. Jason watched as she grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and dug through the cabinets for her medication. Arabella had to take her pills every morning after eating, and while she usually had trouble keeping up with her prescriptions, Spencer was not having it. In the Hastings household, everyone was an early riser, and Arabella feared she would adapt to their lifestyle and never sleep in again.
Once the girl had found the pill bottle, she joined Jason on the couch. She wasn't really sure what to say to him. At the very least, she was glad that he wasn't being hostile towards her. From her perspective, he didn't really have a reason to, but after the way things ended, she was surprised he would even want to be around her. Arabella supposed by now she should have been over it, but Jason wasn't just some crush she had that turned into something more. When they broke up, she had to figure out how she was going to fill the void he had left. It wasn't easy.
"So what brings you back to town?" Arabella figured small talk was the way to go considering they weren't about to have a deep conversation in the Hastings' living room.
Jason shrugged, "I guess I just thought it was about time to come find answers myself."
It seemed everyone in Rosewood wanted answers to things they should probably just leave alone. Ever since Alison's disappearance, secrets have been unraveling like never before. And with A breathing down all of their necks, their search for answers seemed to be endless.
Arabella was trying to twist the cap on her water bottle open and was visibly struggling. Some of those bottles seemed to have the caps glued onto them. She blushed at how weak she must seem to Jason, who was now eyeing her as she kept trying to open it.
"Here, let me help," Jason suggested, reaching over to grab the water bottle. His hand was warm over hers, causing Arabella's breath to hitch and her hands to let go of the water bottle completely.
Jason quickly leaned in further to catch the bottle before it fell and rolled onto the floor. His face was mere inches from Arabella's, so close that he could feel her breath on his cheek. The bottle was now in his hands, so he twisted open the cap with ease and turned back to face her. His warm gaze on her awakened feelings she didn't know she was capable of still having for him. His eyes shifted focus to her lips for a moment, but then they flicked back up and concentrated on a spot on her forehead just above the arch of her eyebrows.
Her head injury after Ian attacked her was not as severe as it could have been. She graciously evaded a full-blown concussion, but she still suffered enough damage for the doctors to be wary of letting her be discharged before they could monitor the wound for internal bleeding. There was a gash on her head from the impact of hitting the bench at the church. Wren had been the one who stitched up her forehead because she was too nervous to let anyone else get near her. He had thanked her for the practice.
Three of the stitches were peeking out from under her hairline. Typically her hair covered them just enough that they weren't visible unless you were looking for them. Her hair was now up in a messy bun and the stitches were on full display.
She cleared her throat and shifted her position on the couch so that there was more distance between them. She had recovered from her momentary daze, now hyper-aware of how close they had been and the goosebumps rising on her bare arms due to the way he was looking at her.
Worry was etched on Jason's face as he asked, "What happened?"
"It happened at the church. Ian didn't just try to kill Spencer, he almost killed me too," she frowned at the memory. "The doctor says I need to take medication until the headaches go away, and that I'm lucky it wasn't a concussion, or even worse."
Jason's eyes flashed with worry and anger, a notion that went unnoticed by Arabella who was avoiding eye contact. "I'm sorry, he shouldn't have taken things so far."
Arabella furrowed her eyebrows, "Why are you sorry? This wasn't your fault. Ian's been terrorizing me since I met him, it's honestly nothing new."
"Well, yeah, but he wouldn't have been terrorizing you at all if it weren't for-"
Arabella wished that he had gotten to finish whatever it was that he was going to say. Melissa walked into the house at just that moment, looking stressed out and tired. Jason and Arabella both stood up, acting as if their previous conversation hadn't even happened.
"Melissa," Arabella greeted the eldest Hastings. "Jason here was looking for his mail, and I didn't know where you put it."
Melissa nodded briefly, "Yeah sure, it's right over here."
Arabella figured now that Melissa was here, she wasn't needed any longer. The brunette smiled politely at Jason and walked towards the staircase, ascending it and disappearing from his view.
It was when she reached Spencer's room that Arabella's phone went off with a text from where she had left it on the nightstand. The brunette walked towards it in confusion, opening the text.
Careful, Bella. Remember what happened the last time you and Jason got that friendly?
Kisses, A
Arabella looked at the phone in shock, resisting the urge to toss it. A had been so silent lately that she didn't expect herself to be a target of anything, especially when it had to do with Jason. The only thing that scared her about this was A finding out about why Jason and Arabella broke up, a secret kept hidden for over a year now. No one knew yet, and Arabella was sure that whoever A was, if they didn't already know what happened, the bitch would make it their mission to find out.
this is just a preview of what's to come if i do decide to rewrite the series. i have many things planned. hopefully, you will all be happier with the changes.