Queen Bitch Reigns

A whole year later, and it feels like everything is different. Part of Eisa feels so alone, because even though she's the top of the social food chain, Mona and Hanna her popular picture perfect lackeys, or as some plebeian normal person would call them, her friends, she feels more alone than ever. Without Alison here, her closest friend since birth, Eisa feels like she's floating through life. She knows what Ali would want, so instead of moping, she pulls down the mask of Queen Bee perfection.

In other parts of the small town of Rosewood, Aria returns, and Hanna approaches Spencer at the mall.

"I can not believe Spencer Hastings actually has time to shop. I mean, you're interning for the mayor, taking classes at Hollis and redoing the barn. And in your leisure moments, you Facebook and Tweet."

" You know me, I like to stay busy."

Both girls have changed in certain obvious and subtle ways. Spencer's style has gone from awkward nerd to preppy rich girl, and her vibe is much more calm, as if she's comfortable in her skin. Hanna, likewise, has taken the leap in to growing up, going from wannabe popular girl to a real one, all confidence and beauty.

"It's called a summer vacay Spence. You know, when normal people chill the fuck out."

"And spending your entire summer shopping and tanning is a much better use of your time."

"Yes, it's called a life," Is Hanna's only admission of guilt.

"Did you see the paper today?" The mood sours slightly with Spencer's questions, which Hanna answers monosyllabically with a nod and a 'yeah'. "She's gone but she's everywhere."

"Especially when Eisa's around. I can't believe it's been a whole year."

"Do you remember what Ali said that night? Something about our secrets keeping us close? Well I think it was the opposite. I think they drove us apart."

"Don't say that around Eisa, she stills preaches every single Ali-ism, like she's got them on a tape recorder," Hanna jokes with the tall genius, smiling as she mentions her only remaining close friend from those days.

"Where is your illustrious leader? I can't see a head of red hair and her usual impeccable style any where."

"Like she'd be caught dead here. You know her."

"If it wasn't bought one of a kind at Paris Fashion Week, then it's not worth owning," The two chorus words that clearly were once repeated to them often, making them both laugh at the reminiscence.

"So, what's the occasion?" Hanna gestures at Spencer's search for clothes among the racks as she asks the question.

"Family dinner. We're meeting Melissa's Fiancé," Hanna doesn't miss the bitter undertone to Spencer's words.

"Did Miss Perfect find a Mr Perfect?"

"He's a med student so everyone's thrilled," Sarcasm drips from every syllable. Hanna takes a look at the top she's chosen, and every lesson of Eisa's fashion advice whips through her head in an instant, all about self confidence and stunning with fashion at every opportunity.

"Then that's not the right top. You need to turn heads. And we're talking at breakneck speeds here. Give 'em whiplash."

"Away from Melissa? Please."

With a brandish of a beautiful dark purple top, she turns back to her friend. "She doesn't always have to win. Eisa would agree, tell you to steal the show. See you on the playground."

"See you."

The next day, it's the first day of school for the year, summer officially over, and after reuniting at the front of the school, Emily gives Aria the low down as they sit at the back of English.

Eisa walks in, trailed by Hanna and Mona.

"Is that Hanna?"

"Yeah, she's the Old Eisa, where Eisa is the New Ali. And where they lead, Mona tends to follow, like a third musketeer. They're the 'It Girls' now."

"That's Mona?" Aria's voice full with disbelief.

"Can you believe it?"

"Wow. Talk about a makeover. For the both of them."

"Eisa was a big help to them both, teaching them how to be popular, healthy dieting methods, choosing their wardrobes, the whole shebang. They make you wanna scream 'wake up sheeple' right?"

While Hanna deigns to give a sassy finger wave hello, Eisa looks, squints, and sits at her desk, not giving them another thought.

"Woah, whats up with them?"

"We didn't just fall out of touch with you, Aria," Emily says, like it's totally obvious. "We fell out of touch with each other."

Spencer enters next, giving her old friends a polite smile as she adjusts her book bag on her shoulder, crossing the room to her desk.

"They're not so close any more either. Or, well, they're as close as they were a year ago, which was not at all."

"So they're friendly, but they're not friends. Eisa hasn't changed at all! I mean, we always knew she was more Ali's friend, but..."

The bell rings, causing all of the students to come to attention at their desks, their new teacher writing his name on the board with his back to them. The only two not paying attention is Eisa and Aria. The latter opening her English binder and getting a pen out of her bag, the former texting her boyfriend. When their teacher does finally turn, he looks up and two words escape his mouth.

"Holy crap."

Everyone, even Eisa, looks back to realise he is staring in shock at Aria, who has yet to even look up. When she does, Aria's look of surprise communicates more than Eisa really cares to know. She assumes that, having bumped in to each other, they engaged in a simple flirtation, because no two people look at each other like that without some mutual attraction. But given it serves her no purpose, Eisa no longer pays attention. The awkward moment is broken by the ringing of Aria's phone, which she answers with a quiet 'sorry'.

"Uh, I'm Mr Fitz, your new English teacher. One and only warning to everyone now, especially you two girls, phones away."

While Eisa puts her phone away with little fanfare, Aria takes a moment, staring at the text she'd gotten.

Maybe he fools around with students all of the time.

Lots of teachers do.

Just ask your dad.

- A

English, after their brief dramatic stare down between teacher and student, is relatively boring, as is the rest of the girls' school day. Eisa takes a jog after school, like she does most days, using it to keep her fitness up and help her sort through the events of the day. As usual, she jogs past the Hastings house, incidentally just as Spencer and her older sister Melissa appear to be getting in to yet another of their typical arguments.

"I'm moving in for junior year Melissa. That was the deal that I made with Mom and Dad. I got the grades, I did the internship, I gave up my summer because I wanted this."

Melissa, in her usual snooty tone, comes back at Spencer's as if she's a child. "Well you'll just have to wait."

"Why can't you just stay in my room."

"Hi Spencer... Melissa," Eisa's greetings are, by and large, ignored by the two sisters.

"We're a couple Spencer, we need our own space and Mom and Dad agree."

Immediately jumping to her old friends defence, Eisa snips back at Melissa, feeling no shame given the two have always clashed.

"Did they also agree to have you dress like a Stepford divorcée because let me tell you, it's not a great look. Try less headbands, and something that at least resembles fashion."

Melissa's snotty retort is cut off by the appearance of a British man in a blue jumper.

"Is everything ok?"

"Besides the fact that you and Blair Waldorf here are taking Spencer's hard work for your own like you did a single thing to deserve it. Or like you even bothered to ask."

"Shut it, Eisa, this isn't your business. And Spencer. I'd hoped you'd be happy for me."

"Well you know what they say about hope. Breeds eternal misery."

Eisa starts dragging Spencer to her own home next door before she can retreat to her room. As they both walk away, Eisa makes a final biting comment.

"I hope you have eternity together."

When the two girls are firmly behind Eisa's front door, Eisa immediately leads the way to the kitchen, beginning to make a pot of coffee as strong as she remembers Spencer liking it.

"You can stay here till you cool off. Or they're not invading your personal space."

"Thanks for that. I can never think of comments the way you can. Or, well, not as good as yours are. I'm surprised you didn't leave me to the wolves, we've never been friends."

Eisa shrugs a shoulder in a show faux humbleness. "It's a talent. She's being a bitch by the way. And so are your parents. If you did the work, and you redid that barn yourself, then you deserve to reap the reward," She completely skips over the friend comment, because even she knows that was abnormally kind for her.

"Yeah, well, that's the way it's always been. Melissa gets whatever she wants, and I occasionally get her scraps."

"Maybe, it's time you make them give you your due. Take what's yours, rather than wait for it to come to you."

"Not all of us are you Eisa," Spencer pours a cup of coffee for herself, now that the pot is done. "Damn that is good coffee. Don't you have cheer practice after school?"

"No. I had try outs yesterday, which was just a lot of crying girls. Practice is on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you, our illustrious decathlon captain, have yet to tell us when practice is for that."

"Right. That's on my to do list. Which reminds me. I do have to go home, all my stuff is still there, and I still have to go to a stupid dinner for the two of them," Eisa smiles a kind, rare smile as she takes the now empty cup. "Thanks for the coffee. See you at school."

"See you."

Careful Bitch,

you start being too nice to your old friends,

I'll start to think you've moved on from me.

- A

Eisa's phone buzzed, causing her to pick it up and stare at the message in surprise.

"No way..."

Mourning Blues

Days pass with their usual mundanity, or as much as can be expected when you're a teenage girl who has the entire school wrapped around her finger. Eisa spends her days studying for classes, running her cheerleading squad with an iron fist, and causing chaos in the lives of her fellow students for amusement. Eisa is trying hard to shake off the creepy feeling of that text, but it makes her nostalgic for her best friend. While snippy comments and cruel nicknames were Ali's game, messing with the lives of others was much more Eisa's style, and for the first time in a year, she wants to meddle. It's late in the evening on Thursday, and Eisa is pulled from her post practice TV break by the sounds of sirens coming from down the street. Walking towards the ruckus, she soon meets up with her old friends, sans Hanna and Emily, in front of the old DiLaurentis house.

"I heard the cops took Hanna to the police station today."

"Wait you don't think she'd ever talk about-"

"The Jenna Thing?" Hanna cuts in to Spencer's sentence as she approaches. "We made a promise."

"I still don't know what you guys mean when you say that," Eisa raises an eyebrow sassily as she inspects her perfect manicure.

"Right, you were off with the mysterious older boyfriend you had that summer, that you still refuse to tell us about. Alison never told you?" Hanna, even now, is fishing for a little fresh gossip, and there's a hint of venom in the Alison comment, a reminder of the us and them mentality there had always been before.

"No. You were all determined to keep it from me." 

The four girls stare at the house, surrounded by people and cops, wondering what could possibly be going on. The next night, as she's watching the news, Eisa has her question answered. They found Alison's body. Part of her wants to shake apart. Cry and cry and cry, until her soulmate comes back to her. The other part of her wants to call the only person who could truly understand how she feels right this second. But she knows she can't, so instead, she calls her boyfriend for company. When he arrives, she opens the door to immediately collapse in to him.

"It's okay baby, I'm here. Everything is going to be fine," Noel comforts his crying girlfriend, shepherding her up the stairs of her house, in to her room.

"I-I-I don't know what to do. I mean, she's been missing so long, I guess a part of me really thought she'd be found alive. But now she's gone. Half of me is gone."

"Hey. At least we know, finally. Now you can grieve. You can love her, miss her, and maybe, move on."

Noel doesn't really understand, no matter how hard he tries to grasp the concept. Ali was her sister, her best friend, her soulmate. And nothing will ever be the same again.

That Saturday, Eisa perfects her hair before leaving for the funeral, dressed all in black, a dress Ali herself had picked the year before. She steels herself for seeing him again, walking in to see Mrs DiLaurentis greeting mourners as they enter.

"Mrs DiLaurentis. I'm so sorry. Even that doesn't seem apt enough."

"Eisa, sweetheart, it is Jessica to you, always has been. You look beautiful."

"Of course I do, Alison picked it out, nothing else felt right. How are you doing with all of this?"

"They say the odds of finding them alive go down every week once they go missing. A part of me knew it would end like this."

"It doesn't make it less hard, at least it hasn't for me."

"Oh sweetie," Jessica draws her into a tight, familiar hug. "The rest of the girls are seated together at the front."

"Exactly as Ali would have wanted it."

The two give each other a sad smile, hugging again before Eisa joins her friends at the front of the church pews. She's stopped by the brutality of it all. Seeing the casket, and a beautiful picture of Alison, the one she'd seen on missing posters for a year now sat in full colour. Aria grabs her hand in a parody of the comfort Hanna had given her in a similar moment just seconds ago, all of them moving over to give the red head room to sit.

"I don't know if I want to say poor Ali, or congratulate her for all this."

"Can you believe what a scene this is?" Hanna's comment rings so similarly to Eisa's thoughts, as do all the girls that continue on.

"Ali would have adored all this attention."

"Popular in life, mystery, and death."

"God, there's even media coverage. She'd adore this."

Hanna notices the particular abysmal look on Emily's face, Eisa does too, sympathising with it, feeling it herself, though fully aware it isn't for the same reason not for the same reason. Hanna offers her flask, which Emily tries to decline, but Hanna insists, for good reason. Lack of fortification would be brutal for the events of today.

All five girls flinch at the ringing of Aria's phone, which thankfully, is just her mother. However, their reaction tells a much more interesting tale to the short spitfire.

"Emily and I aren't the only ones who got creepy messages from some freak calling themselves A are we?"

The revelation of epic proportions is distracted by a different, equally surprising revelation, called the entrance of one Jenna Marshall.

"Oh my god," Spencer gasps out a surprised blasphemy at her entrance, helped along by her step brother, Toby Cavanaugh. "It's Jenna."

They're all joined by the DiLaurentis family, Jason sitting next to Eisa, and though her hand aches to hold his in comfort, she knows she can't even acknowledge his presence. Jessica leans over him to talk to the girls.

"I didn't know Jenna Marshall and Alison were friends."

Eisa levels here with a serious look. "They weren't."

"The lord giveth, and the lord taketh away. " The funeral service begins, causing the whole church to fall silent. Eventually, it's all over, and the girls exit the church together, clinging to each other for support in pairs, except for Eisa who leads the pack. They're stopped by a voice.

"Eisa. Emily. Spencer. Aria, and Hanna."

"Those are our names. I'm sorry, do we know you?"

"I'm Detective Wilden. I understand you were all good friends with the victim."

"Yeah, we were."

"I've known her... Had known her my whole life." Eisa's slip up causes her voice to break and a single rogue tear to slip.

"I'm going to need to talk to each one of you."

"We talked to the police when Alison went missing." Spencer looks down at the card he's given her and back up a few times.

"Well I'll need to go over every single one of your statements, as this is no longer a cold missing persons investigation, but a fresh homicide." Wilden's bluntness makes Eisa begin to cry all over again, but he seems not to care. "And rest assured, Miss Janusson, I will find out what happened that summer."

"Do you think he knows about-"

"No, how could he."

Even though the disjointed conversation makes no sense to Eisa, she certainly does jump with the others when all their phones buzz with a text at the same moment.

"Oh my god."

"It's from-"

"I got one too."

I'm still here Bitches. 

And I know everything. 

-A

"Oh god. I might be sick. I think I left my purse in there. I'll meet you at the Grill, we'll talk about... All this there, okay?" Eisa speaks with her hand to her mouth, already walking back in to the church. Before she can make it in, she sees Jason gesturing to her, beckoning her up in to the stairwell, clearly holding her purse in his hands.

"Jason, we can't be seen together," She snatches her purse from his hands.

"I don't care, I had to see you. We're leaving Rosewood again tonight."

"You should care Jason. If anyone ever found out about us, you'd get in serious trouble."

"I had to talk to you. Make sure you were okay."

"Okay as I can be."

Jason steps closer to her, a soft hand on her cheek to bring her eyes up, connecting with his stunning blues. He leans in to kiss her, but she turns away just in time, though haltingly, revealing to him she doesn't really want to.

"I have a boyfriend Jason. You... You should go." Eisa turns fully away from him, and with a heavy sigh and a kiss dropped on her cheek, he does as she asks. Even then, her phone buzzes, and she reads it immediately.

You've always been the sensible one. 

But how long can you really protect him for? 

Better be careful,

or everyone will know where you really spent your summer vacay. 

- A

The Jenna Thing

Finally having caught up with the girls at a table in the Apple Rose Grille, Eisa spikes her diet lemonade alongside Hanna, todays difficulty catching up with her.

"Why was Jenna there?"

"I guess she's back," Hanna quickly changes the subject. "That cop acted like we were suspects or something."

"Do you think we looked guilty?"

"Why would we, we haven't done anything wrong."

"Except lie about the Jenna thing." Hanna's comment makes everyone but Eisa tense up.

"We promised we'd never bring up the Jenna Thing again, remember?"

"Okay, I'm sick of the vague references, any chance I could get the low down on what the hell you guys are talking about?"

The rest of the girls look to each other, and seem to come to an agreement to tell Eisa and Eisa alone.

"It was that night, we were all sleeping over at my place, trying on clothes, Ali had shown up, said you were off with a 'secret boyfriend' and wouldn't be joining us that night," Emily begun the story, but soon, Eisa's mind could paint it perfectly from their retelling as if it were a detailed flashback.

The girls are all giggling, some pop song on in the background as they all dance and throw clothes around, holding them up in some mock up of actually trying them on. Suddenly, Alison's face falls as she spots something in the reflection of Emily's mirror.

"I see you!" She storms to the window, the girls in shock, not understanding what is happening. "Oh my effing god, I can't believe it."

"What, Ali? What did you see?"

"I saw somebody outside your window Em! He was in that tree, spying on us! I am so creeped out!"

"Who was it?" Spencer asks the most important question question, and trusts the answer she gets.

"It was that perv, Toby Cavanaugh."

"I-I... Are you sure?" Aria haltingly questions her friend, not even, really, checking for a lie, but nearly stumbling upon one nonetheless.

"Yes I'm sure," Alison talks down to Aria, regarding more than just her height. "He was right there! I bet he saw us all naked."

"Should we tell someone?" Aria, being the reasonable one at the moment, gestures in the direction of Emily's Mom, Pam, who is doing adult like things somewhere else in the house.

"I mean, we could..." Alison suddenly gets her distinct evil smirk gracing her beautiful face. "But I have a better idea."

The girls walks the 10 feet to Toby's place, him being Emily's neighbour and all, Spencer in charge of the lighter, Alison in charge of the stink bomb.

"Are we sure he's not in there? I just really don't want anyone to get hurt."

"He's not! God you're such a little bitch," Alison is vicious, clearly missing the devil may care attitude of her best friend in this moment. "Spencer, you've got the lighter right?"

"Let's wait a second." The blonde is held back a moment by the ever calm and collected Emily.

"What now, chickening out?"

"No, I- I just don't want to do this."

"Fine. Go back. But you're on your own, and that's not just for tonight."

"Wait, maybe Emily's right." Aria joins Emily very quickly, especially given Ali's harsh dismissal and clear threat. "Maybe we should call the cops, they'll take him in, they'll take care of it."

"Well, where's the fun in that?" Seeing she's losing their popular opinion, she tries another tactic. "Girls, Toby Cavanaugh is a freak, and we need to teach him a lesson. If he thinks he can come 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."

Spencer's final resistance is a weak little question. "Are you sure it was Toby?"

"Yes! And it's a stink bomb for god's sakes, we're not nuking the place! Now let's do it. Give me the lighter."

Alison sets the stink bomb alight, throwing it into the shed, waiting just a moment longer to gasp at something she saw before telling the girls to run. The girls follow behind their friend as they always have, and even Ali is surprised when an explosion goes off behind them. 

"So Ali blinded a girl?" Eisa is surprised at the end of their story, she never thought Ali would do something like that.

"She didn't mean to. It was meant to be empty. And whatever she saw in there shocked her." Emily defends Ali even now, after she's gone, after she's done something like that.

"Look, can we just go back to pretending it never happened." Spencer is clearly uncomfortable with the whole conversation.

"Have you found a way to forget? I still wake up sometimes, in the middle of the night."

"Aria, it was an accident, okay? It's not like we tied her down and poured acid on her eyes! We let Ali stink bomb what we thought was an empty garage."

Hanna adds a shot or two from her flask to her drink, causing a sassy conversation between her and some random nosy guy two tables over. The others ignore it after she blames it on cramps.

"I don't get it, how does A know something only Ali knew?" Emily's question makes Eisa squirm in her seat.

"Ali knew all of our secrets but... We never knew any of hers."

"I knew some," Spencers statement surprises her, but Eisa remains silent. The other girls poke and prod though, and get nothing. "I can't"

"Spence, no, you are not gonna drop a bomb like that and just clam up!"

"She'd kill me if I told you."

"She's dead," Hanna's inherent bluntness, while normal for her, still makes Eisa start crying again, which makes her feel really, really sick of crying. Emily comforts her while Spencer finally spills the beans.

"Ali was seeing someone that summer."

"I knew she was keeping something from me," Emily quickly corrects her slip of the tongue, shying back in to patting Eisa's back. "From us."

"He was an older boy. He had a girlfriend."

"Who was it?"

"She never told me."

"Okay, that's only half the secret."

"Well that's more than any of you got from her," Spencer's snippy response causes their eyes to fall on Eisa. "Unless you knew more."

"I never knew any of her boyfriends' names from that summer."

"Boyfriends? As in more than one?"

"She was dating more than one older boy. But when it came to Alison and I, it was a secret for a secret, and she never knew who I was dating. Therefore, she never told me who she was dating either. We never told anyone our secrets, ever."

"How is it that Ali told us nothing but we told her everything?" At that, Eisa's phone buzzed again, and when she looked at it, it revealed a new message.

 

Here's your one and only chance. 

Tell them how much you really know. 

Or I'll tell them for you. 

5...4...3... 

- A

"Is it from..." Hanna makes a stunted query.

Eisa breathes for a moment, contemplating, before showing them her phone.

"The second one that you guys likely haven't gotten today. God, whoever this is, they really want to make my life miserable."

"Eisa... What do you know?" Aria gently prods at the girl across from her.

"It's not about Ali. It's about all of you."

"What do you mean about us?" Emily, who has the most to worry about in this instance, begins to panic.

"Ali, whenever she found out any of your secrets, would always tell me. Anything Alison knew about you, I can guarantee, I know it too," Eisa looks down in shame. "I'll get if you guys are mad, but given we haven't gone around the table, sharing what each of our secrets are to the others, this might have to be four separate conversations we have later."

"God, I can't believe. She always made it seem like we were part of something special."

"We were."

Even with this revelation, Hanna's words make the girls happily reminiscent of their time with Alison.

"I miss that."

"Me too."

"I miss Ali." 

"So do I. Every single day."

Both Emily and Eisa pick at their name bracelets, because even though for the others, it was a mark of their secret about the Jenna thing, as far as Eisa knew, it was just about being special to the whole friendship group.

"I can't believe you both still wear those things."

"Ali still wears hers," Emily is quick to defend the both of them against Hanna.

"Wore," Eisa sadly corrects her.

"When she didn't come back that night, I knew something terrible must have happened, but there was always some part of me that imagined, or hoped, that someday she'd just show up."

"Yeah... I used to think that maybe she'd just run off with some guy, or that she was waiting for the perfect moment to make another grand entrance."

"That maybe she was laying on a beach somewhere."

"Or getting a tan out by the pool with that god damn she was so into hot lifeguard."

"Oh, yeah... What was his name?"

"Who cares. 'Save me!'" All the girls giggle at Hanna's recollection of the memory. The moment is quickly ruined by someone walking in the door, said person quickly identified by the repetitive tapping of a cane on the floor. They all exit quite quickly, immediately going their separate ways. As she leaves for home, Eisa gets her final text of the day.

Good Girl. 

I'll make a pet out of you yet. 

- A

Paws and Claws

A day later, the Sunday after Alison's funeral, Eisa walks out of the nail salon on the phone to her mother for the first time in two months.

"The funeral was Saturday Mom, you've already missed it, don't worry, I sent flowers straight to the DiLaurentis' from you, told them Dad was unreachable because he was at the cabin. They understood, Jessica especially, you've been friends for years."

"Thank you sweetie, honestly, I don't know what I'd do without you. I am such a scatter brain. I don't know how they're even surviving, I'm sure I'd just die if that happened to you," Eisa, while in full disagreement with her mother's dramatic statement, musters the sincerest 'I'm sure' she can. "Well, you're okay right? I wouldn't be able to make it home right now, and your father has asked for zero disturbances while he finishes this novel, but you could see Dr Sullivan again, if you needed to?"

Eisa rolls her eyes at the suggestion, because of course her mother wouldn't prioritise her daughter over her work. "I'm fine Mom, I just got my paws and claws done, Noel is picking me up soon, and if I actually needed someone to talk to, I've always got Hanna and Mona."

"Right... Those two..." For all that her mother often gave the visual impression of a laid back mother, Etta Janusson nee Fitzgerald was raised with money among the upper class, and often considered Hanna and Mona more charity cases than friends of her daughter. "Maybe you should try talking to Spencer again. Maybe, someone who knew Alison, who understands a little better, might be of some help."

Noel rolls up in his car, Sean in the passenger seat, at just the right moment. Eisa motions for him to move, which he does, as she takes his spot with a roll of her eyes. "We've actually been catching up a lot. Aria is even back, so seems like the whole gang is back together."

"Oh, well-" Whatever Etta intends to say, someone asks her something obviously important because she hangs up with a quick "Love you, stay safe," Giving Eisa no chance to respond.

"Mom just got one of my voicemails about Alison, called to check up on me."

Noel, not much of a fan of her parents' brand of absenteeism, rolls his eyes, kissing her briefly before taking off towards the Janusson residence. Sean, the self involved man child that he is, doesn't notice the deeper meaning, and instead butts in.

"Hey Eis, would you mind terribly if the guys and I stole your boyfriend. We wanna play a game of pick up and the teams are uneven without him and-"

"And I'd happily ignore these bozos if you want company," Noel, for all his cool guy act, has always been there for Eisa whenever she needed, but sometimes, a little bit of her soul would peek through and she'd feel the need to make sure he's living his own life.

"No need baby, Spencer asked to hang out today and I said I'd have to ask if you'd made any plans, so this works out perfectly. Besides, I have to get some choreography done for the squad."

They finally pull up to her home, both boys smiling, their joy at getting to play sports together, something so simple making them ecstatic maybe warms up her cold dead heart just slightly. She gives him a solid kiss, both letting their tongue's slip just slightly. They both look equally dazed when they pull away from each other.

"My girl, always working. I'll pick you up for school tomorrow then babe?"

"You know it," Eisa calls back to her boyfriend as she opens her front door, taking a breathe as she texts Spencer to hang out, covering up for her earlier lie to her boyfriend. Thankfully, Spencer is happy to spend some time in the same space, so Eisa jogs up stairs to change in to her workout clothes, grabbing her portable speaker and making her way to Spencer's place.

"Hey! I thought Sundays were your Kahn days?" Spencers greeting is humorous, wiping sweat from her brow as she re-lines several field hockey balls in front of a goal in her own backyard.

"Usually, yes, but Sean invited him to play pick up with the guys and I didn't want him to think he's ditching me."

"Ooh, the Wicked Witch does have a kind bone in her body."

"Tell no one," Eisa mock-threatens her friend as she sets up her speaker.

"Y'know, you and Noel are a lot nicer to each other than you are to anyone else. I mean, he's our very own Obligatory Jackass, and people still call you the-"

"Wicked Bitch of the West, I know," Eisa leans down to tighten her sneaker for a moment. "He was there for me a lot after Ali... And I guess somewhere along the way, I kind of... Fell in love. He melted the ice queens heart."

Spencer looks at her friend, remembering that, even at 15, she'd been cold and closed off, and though the loss of their leader had been and always would be something they'd all wish they could have lived without, she sees all of the good changes that it brought about in Eisa's life. Without her best friend, she'd become softer, nicer, more vulnerable, and to be completely honest, much more likeable. When Eisa turns on her music, now focussing on practicing her choreography, Spencer turns back to her field hockey goal, hitting each ball with vicious precision. The two are soon disturbed by their friend, Emily, and a mystery tag along.

"Nice! So, I hear you're gunning for varsity captain."

"Well I have a shot, so..."

"If a Hastings has a shot, she takes the shot," Eisa's contribution to the conversation causes a quip to fall from the new girl's mouth that actually makes Eisa laugh.

"Is that a drinking game?"

"Yeah, it should be."

"Spencer, Eisa, our varsity cheer captain, this is Maya."

This makes the whole group tense, as the girls realise what this means with a quiet 'oh'.

"Yeah. New girl, who moved in to dead girl's house," Maya's bluntness makes Eisa harden visibly. "I can't believe I just said that."

"Yeah, I can't believe you just said that either."

"I think Brad Pitt and I are missing the same sensitivity chip."

"Entirely possible. My Mom says he's kind of a dick. I'm your other neighbour, by the way, you're between Spencer and I."

"So now I know where to borrow my sugar from."

"And it's fine," Eisa thinks Spencer is too nice about it, but she's always been a lot more congenial than the red head. "We're all trying to find a way to deal with it."

Emily, quick to change the subject, offers for the girls to join them for some caffeine, but both decline, citing the importance of self driven practice. Both girls bid their goodbyes, Maya making comments about them as they walk away.

"Spencer's really intense."

"If you met her parents you'd understand."

"And what's Eisa's excuse?"

"She's always been that way, but Ali was her best friend since birth, before any of the rest of us met her."

"So I just offended her?"

"Yeah, but I'd be careful, she kind of runs the school."

"Oh so she's the Queen Bee type."

"More than you know," Emily checks behind them as they walk away, ensuring Eisa is now ignoring them and has gone back to working on her choreography. Even though she's sure she can't be over heard, she still lowers her voice to a whisper to tell the story. "Eisa never really liked any of us, just put up with us for Ali, but we were, technically, friends. I mean, we still are, but truth be told, I never liked her. I remember, once, this girl, Ellie Macaffey moved back after two years at boarding school, and we didn't find out any of this until later, but Eisa found out from Ali that Ellie had gotten a ton of plastic surgery. The official summary was boobs, ass, tummy, nose, lips, cheekbones, and... Honestly, there could be more, I don't remember. But Eisa used this to blackmail Ellie in to gathering proof of some stuff her best friend was doing, this other chick Kaycee. When she was done, she sent their parents, the cops, everything, made posters and stuck them up all over town. She never got caught but those girls went down hard for what she did."

"Wait, the cops? What was it the other girl did exactly?"

"Dated a college boy. She was 15, so the boy went to jail, and then she got pregnant, and an abortion, and her parents were really strict Christians. She didn't even hate these girls. She thought it was funny. I remember her and Ali telling us all about it, it was a game to them."

"Geez, imagine what she would do if she hated you." 

The two look at each other, a thousand words passing between them, all of them horrified and a little afraid of the mean girl with a penchant for chaos.

Spencer and Eisa, meanwhile, have gone back to concentrating on their practice with no idea of the harsh truths being discussed. They're both soon interrupted by the arrival of Wren and Melissa, the former of which immediately makes a polite scathing comment about them.

"Do either of you girls ever take a break?"

"Breaks are for ugly untalented people," Eisa's quick reply actually gains the eyebrow raise of agreement from Melissa. "And on the note of no breaks, we have AP Russian History to work on. You mind helping me Spence?"

Eisa drags her friend away before any snippy comments can be shared between the two sisters, walking straight up to Spencer's room so they can commence studying. Spencer pulls out her Russian History notes, ready to start helping her friend who is more math and science inclined. They end up having a sleep over at Eisa's,  and they finally have a talk about the secret Ali shared with her.

"So Ali told you about..."

"You and Ian, yeah, the same day she found out," An awkward silence falls on the two. "If it would make you feel better, I'll tell you who I was seeing that summer?"

"A little, yeah. It's so childish, but knowing something Ali never knew. It feels..."

"Exhilarating right?"

"So?"

"I was dating Jason..." Eisa waits for the explosive response from her friend.

"As in DiLaurentis?! Oh my god, he was like 21! You were 15! Not only is that illegal as fuck, but Ali would have kicked your ass! I mean, her own brother?" The revelation throws Spencer for a moment as she wraps her head around it.

"Hence why no one could ever know. He'd go to jail, probably, and she hated him with a passion."

"I still don't get how it even happened."

"Ali invited me over, and forgot when she got the offer to hang out with one of her many suitors I guess. Then Jason and I got to talking and... He just understood me. He understood how it felt to be completely ignored by your parents. That, and the sex was amazing."

They both laugh, the mood lightened considerably.

"You know I'll never tell anyone about the Ian thing, and I'll never judge you for it. Maybe make one comment about how you are and always have been way too hot for a guy like Ian, but otherwise..."

"That's sweet. I will judge you for Jason though. I mean, a stoner? Really?"

The rest of the night is spent giggling, discussing the specifics of their relationships with older boys and laughing about how young they once were. In the morning, they both get a ride to school from Noel. They separate to each of their respective lockers, Eisa meeting up with her two minions who lurk as she puts her books away, first getting out her Chemistry textbook and notes for first period.

"Okay, I am all for boob jobs, but when I see those, I wanna 'moo'," Mona mocks a passing girl, causing Eisa to pay attention to the girl as well.

"Y'know, she really should have found someone with a slightly better reputation. What's the point if even a blind man could see they're fake."

All three girls giggle at the random students expense, though Hanna's heart is clearly not in it. Mona notices, and hoping to cheer up her friend, points out an approaching blonde boy.

"I spy a Sean."

"I'll see you girls at lunch," Hanna leaves to meet up with Sean, both kissing and walking off to their shared class.

"Not if I see you first Hanna-Banana. Come on, Chemistry awaits us Mona dear," Eisa links arms with her short fashionable friend, walking in the opposite direction of the couple. Before they can get more than a few steps, the bell goes, making the hall empty out, and a P.A announcement leaves the five girls standing alone together.

"Could the following students make their way to the front office. Emily Fields. Aria Montgomery. Spencer Hastings. Eisa Janusson. Hanna Marin."

Immediately, all of their phones go off, signalling another message, which only Aria checks.

Dead girls walking. 

- A

Officer Krupke

Spencer, Aria, Hanna, and Emily are all squished on the couch, Eisa sitting on a chair beside it, refusing to squish in with the already guilty looking girls. Detective Darren Wilden paces in front of the girls. 

"So let's see..." He points at Spencer first. "You thought you heard her scream?"

"I said that, yeah," Eisa snippily think to herself that Spencer already sounds like she's worthy of suspicion.

"And when you four woke up in the barn, Alison was gone, and so was Spencer."

"Yes. I woke up before them and I realized that Ali was missing, so-" Even Eisa can hear the robotic lie that Wilden cuts off sharply.

"So you went to look for her."

"That's what happened."

"I got that," he nods, clearly not believing the girls. "So what's up? Was this a slumber party, or?"

"Is this an interrogation?"

"If it was, our parents would be here, and he wouldn't be asking leading questions, which would make any information gained inadmissible," Eisa cuts in to the conversation, paying more attention to her manicure than the detective.

"Good thing it isn't. Just a routine follow-up," he stares the girls down smugly. "Why did you guys fall asleep?"

"I guess we were tired," Aria's response sounds flimsy, even to Eisa.

"Tired? Really? Is that how you remember it, Hanna?"

"Yeah."

"Look, we've told you everything that we know, just like we did when she went missing."

"I know, I know," his mock pity annoys Eisa, so much so, she's tempted to do something, but chooses not to. "You see, the thing is, it's almost exactly what you said last year."

"Like Spencer said, we've told you everything we know," Aria holds her ground, while Hanna is mysteriously uncomfortable, and Emily clearly looks guilty for lying. The girls are let to leave, but before they can get very far, Eisa gets a text from their not so favourite mystery friend.

Gee babe, sure seems like you could help. 

So here's your choice. 

Help your friends and give up your ex. 

Or let the cops doubt their alib-lies. 

Choices, choices. 

-A

"Is it A?" Eisa nods, still in shock. "What do they want?"

"For me to cover for your obvious lies."

"They want to help us?" Hanna seems surprised.

"Who knows what this psycho wants," Eisa takes a deep breath, then turns back in the direction they came from. "I'm having lunch with Noel today. I'll see you later."

Even as the girls call after her, she ignores them, already formulating a much better lie before she opens the door back in to the room they had sat in with Detective Wilden. He looks up in surprise.

"Miss Janusson? You have something you want to tell me?"

"You're right. The girls are lying about that night. But it's not what you think."

Wilden raises an eyebrow, gesturing for her to sit on the couch as he leans on the edge of a nearby desk. "Do tell."

"They're covering for me. It wasn't a random sleepover," lie. "We all got together because I had asked them to be my alibi with my parents for my whereabouts that night. My Dad had actually been around at the time, taking a break from writing, and he was wondering where I was going," surprisingly,  not entirely a lie.

"And you couldn't tell him because?"

"I was dating an older guy. Like, college age older."

"You were 15. Age of consent here in Pennsylvania is 16. You were covering for a boy."

"I still am. Our relationship ended that night anyway," another lie. It ended a week later. "And I won't tell you who he was now either. The point is, their speech sounds practiced because it is. They fell asleep because they were tired, they were just there for me to say I was there when I wasn't. And when I left at 10, Ali was asleep with the rest of them," lie. "The rest of their story is true."

"Right..." Wilden moved now to sit beside Eisa on the couch. "So you like to date men, huh?"

Inside, she feels mildly disgusted by the man's tone of voice, but she refuses to show it. "Not exclusively. I've been in a monogamous relationship with a boy my own age for nearly six months now."

"Well... Thank you for your honesty, Eisa, and if that fact ever changes," he hands her his card, which has his private mobile number on it as well as his work number. The hand that gently caresses her back before he leaves may, from most angles, appear appropriate and friendly, but she feels it dip too close to her ass for his meaning to be left in question. Her phone buzzes again.

You managed to help them without ratting him out. 

I'm impressed but not pleased. 

Next time won't be so easy Bitch. 

- A

She sighs in both relief and brand new tension. As far as she could tell, A wasn't targeting the other girls nearly as much. She considers the fact that A is manipulating her, puppeteering her life, in a similar fashion that Eisa usually uses for her own amusement. Her classes go by quite normally, and she meets up with Noel and Mona at a table full of jocks for lunch.

"Hey babe," Noel greets her with a kiss, and when they sit at their lunch table, he pulls her to sit on his lap sideways, facing the rest of the cafeteria and Mona who sits beside them.

"Hanna is sitting with the old group again already? I can't believe she'd ditch us," Mona looks to where Hanna sits with Aria, Emily, and Spencer, all whispering about one thing or another.

"They're probably all discussing the 'interview' we just had with Detective Wilden. They're all a lot easier to shake than a professional liar like me." 

Mona laughs, picking at her salad as the two chat for a while, before Noel cuts in with a surprising question.

"Why the hell are they inviting Jenna Marshall to sit with them?"

"How would I know?"

"Yeah Noel, Eisa doesn't have ESPN you know," Eisa closes her eyes to suppress the eye roll at her friends idiocy.

"It's ESP Mona. Besides, it's not like it's a crime to be nice to a blind girl," Eisa peeks at what is clearly an awkward conversation at the table of her friends and Jenna Marshall. Jenna takes a sip of her juice, and for a while there, Eisa spies, out of the corner of her eye, the fact that the girls are on their own world. Likely remembering what they did. Their phones go off at the same time, and a minute later, so does Eisa's. She checks it immediately, not even registering Mona also being on her phone, given the girl is almost permanently fused to the thing.

Your friends look so guilty. 

Good thing you were somewhere else that night. 

Careful E, give me too much rope and I'll hang you with it. 

-A

Eisa wonders what the cryptic message means for a moment, before she remembers where she was that night and withholds a grimace, and part of her knows that this means A will try to make her do something else soon. She just doesn't know what.

After lunch, all of the girls have lunch together, all taught by Mr Fitz. The bell rings for all of them to settle down, a moment later, Mona makes her entrance, the sound of her heels announcing her.

"Am I late?"

"Uh, you're Mona right?"

"That's right Mr Fritz," the whole class laughs at her blunder, even Ezra has a hard time withholding a chuckle. "What?"

"Take your seat Mona, please."

Hanna whispers a correction to the short fashionista once she sits, in front of her is Eisa. Once Fitz hands out a short in class assignment, Eisa spies Aria dropping a mysterious piece of paper on their teacher's desk. Thinking nothing of it, she pays attention to her own work. The rest of the day passes with nothing more exciting happening to the girls.

The next day is barely cause for excitement, Eisa picking up Hanna in her Chevy Impala with coffee, the two of them chatting when they come upon a bunch of the boys hooting and hollering at Emily and Ben making out in his car.

"Looking good Emily. You two are looking good too."

"I'm sorry, are you talking to me?"

"Yeah, shoo little boy."

Eisa and Hanna's twin responses to the gross boy send him practically running.

"You okay?"

"Not really," Emily's response is unsurprising, as girls who feel comfortable getting caught like she did, don't generally get caught with their 'boyfriend'.

"You know, I never thought of you as someone who would be comfortable with PDA," Eisa wants to hit Hanna for the obviously inflammatory statement, but she withholds it, because it's not like she knows what Eisa knows.

"Maybe I'm not who everyone thinks I am." 

"Who is?" Eisa makes eye contact with the Amazonian bombshell as she speaks, hoping to convey comfort as much as possible as they walk up the steps to yet another day of school.

That afternoon, after a grueling cheer practice, or at least it was grueling for Eisa's underlings, given she's a hard task master, Eisa decides to drop by Emily's place. It's time they had a chat about Emily's secret after all. She jogs up to the Fields' porch, knocking on the door, which is opened to reveal Pam Fields.

"Hey Mrs Fields. Sorry to intrude, I really need to talk to Emily, if that's alright?"

"Eisa! You've known me long enough, you can call me Pam dear. It's good all you girls are being friends again. Of course you can, just be quick, it is a school night."

"Of course Pam," now past the gatekeeper, Eisa turns off her sickly sweet cover personality as she jogs up to her friends room. "Knock knock?"

"Eisa?"

"Yeah. I was wondering if you wanted to talk about... The secret Ali told me," Emily's panicked face causes Eisa to walk further in to the room, closing the bedroom door behind her. "Emily, it's okay. You don't have to worry."

"Yes I do! It's sick!"

"Emily Fields," Eisa turns on her stern voice for this. "You know I've been out for years. I'm bi. Liking girls, only or as well as boys, is not sick."

"You don't get it, my parents... They'd disown me."

"Like my mother reacted at all well when I told her? Look. I get how hard this part is, trust me, and if you need someone to talk to, someone who understands, you know you can come to me."

"I don't want hard. I just want to be normal again! Just, don't tell anyone, don't insinuate it at school, nothing."

Eisa looks sadly at her friend, but recognizes her need to be in denial, and respects that. She kisses her on the cheek, hugs her, and as she leaves, she promises not to say a word.  She then goes home, the house empty and quiet as it always is. Alone, she goes to bed, hoping tomorrow might be a better day.

Emily, left behind, reconsiders her previous thoughts regarding the heartless nature of Eisa, considering the difference between what she broadcasted, and how she acted behind closed doors. Upon this consideration, she think that maybe, just maybe, she likes the secret Eisa that she just met for the first time.

To Remember A Bitch By

Days later, finally the weekend, the whole group goes walking in the woods, and Emily thinks she's found the perfect way for them all to say goodbye together. Hanna, of course, loudly voices her disagreement.

"Whose idea was this again?"

"Emily's Mom."

"The shed was me, my Mom just said we should do something for us."

"Well couldn't we do something without mosquitoes?" Eisa is already annoyed, completely ignoring the group and their bickering by forging ahead towards the shed where they'd often hung out. She intentionally blocks most of their bickering out as she forges ahead.

"So what, are you saying I attract flies?" Hanna's response to Spencer's snippy comment is more than a little petulant, making Eisa roll her eyes at her friend yet again. The fact that she's incorrectly identifying the bugs causes Aria to correct her again.

"Why do I feel like this is the wrong way?" Eisa silently thanks Emily for the subject change, she was seconds away from choking the blonde.

"No, this is it, I remember that tree. It's the halfway point. There's 136 steps left to the shed."

"Have you been out here since... Alison?" Emily's immediate suspicion of Spencer makes Eisa'a hackles rise.

"Me? No, no way."

"But you remember that tree." Aria jumps on the suspicion bandwagon now, but thankfully, Eisa can always trust Hanna to defuse the crazy.

"You guys, it's not that weird. I mean, we came out here in eighth grade like every day. And ninth, though not after."

"That, and it's Spencer. It would be weird if she hadn't memorised it." Eisa finally contributes to the conversation. She goes to continue walking in the direction of the shed, but immediately realises her friends aren't following her.

"I think this is the wrong place to do this, whatever you call it, shrine."

"It's not a shrine, it's just a place to remember Alison. What's wrong with that?" Emily's super pout doesn't seem to have any effect on Spencers grouchy demeanor.

"Doing it way out here makes it look like we have something to hide."

"You're worried what other people think?" Eisa butts in here, because the two are apparently gearing up for a bickering match in the middle of the woods.

"We should be. Even though I explained away the suspicious story to Wilden, he didn't seem particularly pacified."

"Eisa's right Em! Do we really want to give Detective Creep more reasons to question us?"

Hanna makes a face at that, something resembling anxiety and some other mystery emotion that Eisa can't decipher. No matter the emotion, it causes Hanna to walk through her friends, looping arms with Eisa, and the two continue walking to the shed, which causes the girls to scurry after them.

"Hanna? Why aren't you doing your usual constant yammering?"

"I'm trying to keep the bugs in my nose and out of my mouth."

"You're allowed to have an opinion on this."

"Well, fine! I say we hold off and not do this stupid memorial thing until we are sure she's really gone."

Even Eisa is surprised by that, joining the chorus of the rest of their friends that ask her what the hell she's talking about.

"You think she's still alive?"

"They found her body Hanna," Spencer, and the rest, seem not to care that their blunt conversation is making Eisa cry, again, which she's really sick of, so she storms off in the direction of the shed, ignoring their entire bickering conversation. She tunes back in at Spencer's comment.

"Ali wasn't the only one that knew stuff. She told Eis, who knows who else she told."

"Look, Ali didn't even know any of the things A is using against me. So your logic, Han? Doesn't make sense." Eisa wipes at her eyes, and the more Hanna acts like a bitch, the more she wants to throttle her for it.

"Can we stop? This conversation is giving me a hive."

"That's a bite. Mosquito." Eisa isn't sure if Hanna is saying the bite is from a mosquito, or calling Aria one, but Eisa's had enough with her tone, so she pushes the blonde.

"That's enough Hanna. I've fucking had it. I'm sorry that you disagree, but the rest of us are trying to grieve for our definitely fucking dead friend. If you don't want to, no one is forcing you to be here!"

The other girls have to hold Eisa back from going at the very shocked blonde across from her, who seems to have realised for the first time that she's maybe crossed a line. Emily grabs her face, focuses Eisa's light brown eyes on her own.

"Hey... You seem kind of strung out. Are you getting messages?" Eisa deflates.

"Lots. I don't know about you guys, but it seems like A just wants to tell me what to do. And they're threatening to reveal a secret each time I don't. I feel like I'm losing control. And I-"

Eisa's admission is cut off by a rustle in the trees, causing all of the girls to startle, looking towards the origin of the sound. Emily asks an obvious question, causing Aria to bite out a sassy response, as they all stare towards it. Hanna, as if she's never seen a scary movie in her life, does the dumb thing, as per usual.

"Hello? Is anybody out there?"

"It's probably a rabbit you dumbass."

"Hello?"

"It's a rabbit, Hanna, it's not like it can speak," Spencer, ever the realist, pulls Hanna back to the real world. Emily, likewise, isn't in the mood to dally at a random twig breaking.

"Can we just get to the shed?"

Another branch brakes, a larger rustle than the last, and the moment of calm causes the whole group, sans Eisa, to become scared once again.

"Okay, that is definitely not a rabbit. Someone's out there."

"Would you stop being a drama queen Hanna."

"Let's turn around."

The rest of the girls, Eisa not included, turn to start walking away from the sound, when their phones all go off at the same time. All five girls check to find another text message from their not so favorite mystery menace.

Heads up BFF's. 

It's open season on liars, 

and I'm hunting. 

-A

"Great. Okay, I'm equally as creeped as you losers now. I vote we leave now," Eisa runs her fingers through her hair, the thick red curls getting pulled over to one side. Even in her anxiety, Eisa remains fabulous.

After that debacle, the girls leave the woods, going their separate ways, and given that it's a Sunday, Eisa drives herself to the Kahn residence for her weekly Noel time. She casually walks up to their porch in her fresh Louboutins, knocking on the door and plastering on her 'perfect girlfriend' smile incase she's greeted by his parents first. She hears a scuffle on the other side of the door, and when it opens to reveal Eric Kahn instead of her boyfriend, leaning in the door frame to block any entrance or exit, one of his legs in the air behind him. Eisa presumes its to hold back Noel, or maybe kick him.

"You're a sight for sore Eis babe."

Eisa rolls her eyes at the same bad pun Eric makes every time he tries to hit on her to get a rise out of his brother.

"I'll give you sore eyes in a minute. The manicure is specifically to blind annoying boys. Now move, Eric, I'm here to see your brother," She tries to push past him, but given he's a 22 year old man who works out with every second of his free time, she doesn't have much luck. Instead, he takes the opportunity to lean in to her personal space.

"Little bro ain't here tonight. Guess you'll have to settle for the better Kahn for bedroom company tonight," His lascivious wink doesn't show a single second of the struggle that Eisa can actually hear happening behind him.

"Eric. First of all, I wouldn't sleep with you if my very life depended on it. Second of all, move, I'm not an idiot, I can hear you kicking your brother behind you," He gives up grumpily once Eisa brings out her stern bitch voice, moving out of the way for her to pass through, kissing her boyfriend once Eric is no longer in their way.

"Eisa. I know we planned to hang in my room, but given my shithead of a brother is here for the weekend, how about we go out to see a movie instead?" Noel, possessively holding her by the waist in a side hug, says this in to her hair, kissing her temple directly after. He'd been a little more tightly wound after they'd gotten back together a month ago after a two month long break early in the summer. Eisa, determined to comfort him, turns to face him, hands placed on his impressive pecs, kisses him before looking directly in to his eyes to speak.

"I just want to spend time with you. No one else. We could go to the mall for all I care."

"That's practically shouting your devotion from the rooftops. You hate the mall," Noel leans his forehead on hers, Eric snorting at the mushy moment and walking past them to go upstairs to his room.

"Yeah, well, malls are plebeian. I have a personal shopper for a reason," Eisa kisses her boyfriend again, letting herself get into it as she lets the comfort he brings her soothe her anxiety from this morning's excitement. Once they separate, Noel drags her back to his front door, wagging her keys he stole in their exchange in the air with his other hand. Eisa follows behind, slowing when she hears her text tone. Immediately checking her phone, her moment of calm serenity now completely gone once she reads it.

"Who is it?"

"Just Aria. Girl stuff."

Even as she smoothly lets the lie cover her fear, her minds races over the contents of the text.

Hey BFF. 

Wouldn't want him to know about your two month fling huh? 

It would break his heart to know. 

He was so sad about losing you. 

And you were gallivanting with a criminal. 

Guess what they say about you is true. 

You really are an ice cold Bitch. 

-A

The Summer Fling That Maybe Meant Something

Monday morning sees Eisa standing with Mona and Hanna as they apply one of their stolen tubes of lipstick.

"Ah. I totally love this colour. We should have stocked up on a few more tubes."

"Well I only have two hands," Hanna jokes lamely, but Eisa remains annoyed at the two of them. "Keep it."

"Why? Is your Mom asking to see receipts?"

"How about, the both of you are incredibly tacky for stealing from a department store? If you're so desperate, I'll buy you lipstick," Eisa snits from beside them, applying her legally acquired red lipstick. As her boyfriend approaches, she shakes her hair out and places her hands on her hips, confident in her cheer practice uniform. Hanna, seeing her boyfriend approach with Noel sees the opportunity to avoid her friends wrath and takes it.

"Sean! What's so funny?"

"Nothing, Noel's just out of control."

While Hanna and Sean share a perfect, sweet, chaste kiss, Noel and Eisa are on the other side of the spectrum. Eisa's arms wrap around his neck, tongues are involved, the whole shebang. They separate when Sean says something after his kiss with his girlfriend.

"Mm. You smell good."

"We should all save something for tomorrow night," he's breathing a little hard from the energetic greeting. He keeps Eisa close, his hand sliding down her back to rest in her back pocket. Eisa is too busy staring in to Noels eyes to notice the flirtatious way Mona asks what he's talking about.

"Noel's parents are out of town."

"It means the party of the year is officially on." Eisa smiles evilly at this. "Think big, think wild. Think parental units in a different time zone."

While Sean says something or other sweet to Hanna, Eisa is whispering in her boyfriends ear.

"Think of our private afterparty. You. Me. Your Room. No one else," she bites his ear to punctuate the end of her sentence, and she giggles at the look on his face as Sean takes him away to practice.

"So the pressure's on."

"What do you mean?" Eisa tunes back in the conversation at Hanna's question.

"Not everyone has a Sean or a Noel to wear to that party, and I'm not gonna spend the night guarding the bushes so you two can jump your boyfriends bones."

"I'm sorry Mona, since when have I ever even been that tacky?" Mona has the good grace to look contrite at Eisa's response.

"Yeah, we're not gonna be 'doing it' in the bushes."

"Whatever, have you guys even done it yet?" Eisa can see the calculating mean girl look in her friends eyes, and she wants to punch the look right off the girls face. However, she lets Hanna handle it how she wants.

"It's not a race, Mona," Eisa mentally cheers her friend on at Hanna's response.

"Okay Mom, seriously. No one's pushing you to be a Natty Ho but you guys have been going out for, like, months. If you're not together in that way, how do you know you're together-together."

"Hint, he kisses you and calls you his girlfriend. Not that you'd know Mona, so maybe you should keep your ill-conceived dating advice to yourself," Eisa snits at the short brunette again, swanning off to the extra cheer practice.

Eisa makes it to the gym to find her whole cheer squad stretching, and as she walks in, the only girl she'd consider more than a minion, Cat, runs up to her.

"You would not believe what I found out this morning!" Cat is Eisa's most trustworthy gossip-monger, so rather than respond, all she does is raise an eyebrow in question. "Toby Cavanaugh is back. He finally finished up at the reform school he went to, and now he's back, and leading his sister around like a guide dog."

"My god. It's almost like one doesn't go to reform school forever, they, like, reform, and maybe he feels guilty for blinding her. Tell the girls to get ready. If they don't have this chore down, I'm going to devour them whole."

Rather than Cat actually having to tell the others what to do, they all overheard this comment and stand at attention in their positions. 

"Oh good. You've actually turned your brains on this week. I want to see it, so any stunts involving me will be the only things marked in this routine, got it?" Eisa's vicious tone of voice clearly scares the whole squad, so once she turns the music on, she watches them perfectly perform her choreography. "I'm surprised, you all don't completely suck. Tony, Jane, Jim. Go over there and practice the throw until you all can do it without that terrified look on your faces. You look like idiots. We're the Cougars. Alice! Those cheer faces! They're terrifying. Go stare in a mirror and practice looking happy and energetic without looking like you're having an aneurysm. The rest of you. Not completely terrible. That middle dance break is all off. You have to hit those specific motions exactly right to get the right effect. Go get the mirrors from the shed so you can watch yourselves suck. Dani, come here." 

One of her cheerleaders, the latest addition from this years tryouts looks terrified as she goes to her captain.

"I love your tumbling. It's miles ahead of what I usually get from most newbies. What I really need from you is some confidence. When I offered you this spot, I remember you didn't think you would get in. Can I ask why?"

"W-well... I, uh," the brunette stammers, her eyes wide, before she gulps and looks down to gain some confidence. "The other girls who were trying out were really skinny, and they said I was a little chubby for a cheerleader. They also said, that, uh, you were kind of known as..."

"I'm well aware people call me the Wicked Bitch of the West. It's a well earned nickname. And you aren't chubby. Those girls were twigs, and they didn't make it on the team because they had no muscle mass, and it would have taken months of training to get them anywhere near your talent. You are a great dancer," even though it's rare she's nice, Eisa has plenty of talent at being encouraging and kind. It shows when Dani's eyes light up. Eisa's phone goes off, and she immediately goes to check it. "Go practice the chore with the others, I have to check this."

After Dani leaves to join the majority of the squad on the other side of the gym, Eisa checks her text, and again, her anxiety rises at the content.

Your hook up's back. 

Guess you're gonna get in trouble. 

Hey La Hey La. 

If you don't want everyone to know about your summer vacay, 

you'll put a little pressure on dear Hefty Hanna. 

Poor girl is so worried her lack of a sex life means Sean doesn't care. 

If avoiding the reveal of your secrets doesn't motivate you, 

you'll get rewarded if Hefty cracks. 

-A

"Crap," Eisa considers her options, and even though she'd usually put her friends above herself, the explosiveness of everyone finding out about her 2 month reform school stint terrifies the crap out of her. This very second isn't when she's going to make her final decision though, as the warning bell before first classes go off. She dismisses her squad with the wave of her hand, having much more important things to deal with. She scans through her contacts, hoping he has the same number.

We need to talk. Bleachers. 2 Minutes. -E

He's there before her, and she checks for anyone watching before she approaches.

"Hi... You're back."

"I'm back."

He has this goofy smile, that for those two horrid months made her unreasonably happy. Even now, when he uses it on her so casually, it makes her stomach flip.

"Toby. The girls told me what really happened that night. I'm sorry for what they did."

"You weren't there, you have nothing to be sorry for."

"I'm sorry for believing you did it."

"You've more than made up for it," Toby smiles again, wrapping his hands around her waist. Thankfully, her instinct are in the right place, so she immediately pushes him away.

"I'm back with Noel. And no one can ever know about... This," she looks up at him, guilty as he looks so hurt by her words.

"So I'm your dirty little secret?"

"No one can know I went to reform school. And Noel would be furious."

"You were broken up. You said you'd broken up with him."

"I had. But he spent two months moping, hoping to get back together with the me the second I got back. It's not like I could tell him I spent two months finding comfort in another guys arms. It would hurt him."

"But the fact that this hurts me doesn't matter?"

"Toby," Eisa implores him to look her in the eyes with more than just her tone of voice. "Those two months with you, I didn't have to be the girl everyone knows me as. But we're back in real world. And the real me is a bitch, has nothing but her public image held in greatest importance. So don't act as though you didn't see this coming."

"What if she was the real you."

"She wasn't. Look. I'm asking you, as a friend if nothing else, not to tell anyone, because I don't want anyone to know. Can you respect that?" Eisa's face hardens in the perfect picture of a bitch in control, but Toby is one of the few people who knows that that mask always hides her true fear.

"Fine. Stay safe E."

"Always T."

The two bid an awkward goodbye, and Eisa runs off to her Russian History class with Mr Sheldrake, thankful that he likes her so he doesn't even question her lateness as she takes a rushed seat beside Spencer. 

"Hey. Normally, I'd ask why you're late, but we have bigger fish to fry."

"Like the essay due in a week? Normally, like me, you submit that stuff a week early? Is the fall of Tsarism and the subsequent revolution not sparking your writing juices?"

"God, yeah, that's a problem. But no, Hanna got taken in for a private questioning by Wilden."

"What why?" Eisa panics slightly. She thought she'd dealt with him questioning their story from the night Ali went missing.

"We don't know. She's not answering any texts. Aria says she hasn't come to class yet. She'll keep us updated."

Aria does so for the entire hour of class that Eisa and Spencer thankfully have together, the whole group reconverging at Hanna's locker when she finally reappears just as Aria is about to post on her wall.

"We've been trying to get a hold of you! What happened in there?"

"Just the same old stupid questions," Hanna's response is suspicious enough that Eisa frowns and goes to comment, but thankfully, as always, Spencer is there to say what Eisa is thinking.

"You were in there for an hour, Hanna. What else did he ask?"

"Nothing. He just took a couple calls and I sat there waiting for him to shut up."

"Well is he gonna question all of us alone now?" Aria's priorities are apparently pretty straight, but Hanna brushes her off and drags Eisa off to the bathroom. The red head figures this is probably the prime moment to do what she has to to betray her friend and protect herself. 

"Y'know, if you and Sean are thinking of having sex, I could ask Noel to let you guys use the spare room. We'll be staying there tomorrow night anyway, and a bed is better than a bush."

"I thought you were all for me waiting," Hanna fixes her lipstick, but Eisa can see the spark of anxiety in her eyes, and the shake in her hands she barely keeps a lid on. Now she just has to fan it in to a stupid self destructive flame.

"I am, if you want to. Besides, sex is great. Noel and I's first time was so romantic. He was so worried about making sure I knew it meant a lot to him, he was so adorable. It was how I really knew he was absolutely gone on me."

"How long before you guys were ready? Like, how long in to your relationship before..." Eisa withholds a smile, her heart a mix of guilty and pride in her skill at manipulation.

"I think we were just about to celebrate our three month anniversary. How long have you guys been together anyways?"

"9 months," Eisa can see what the time difference between their experiences is doing to her, so she decides to take the final swing.

"Oh... Y'know, it's funny, Alison always used to tell me that if you were in a relationship longer than 6 months then it was stale and boring, and you should dump him for the newer model. I wonder what she would have said about 9 months without sex. Guess we'll never know. See ya bestie," with the barely subtle reminiscence, Eisa gives a fake kiss to either of Hanna's cheeks and leaves to her next class. 

On her way, her phone goes off, and part of her wants to ignore it, but the other part knows she can't. So, like a good girl, she opens her phone and reads her latest text.

I like it when you behave. 

Now we just have to sit and wait. 

Unless you think a bigger push is needed to make sure Hefty Hanna really wrecks her life. 

A little more work and you might just be my favourite doll. 

-A

A Party Girl Kahn't Reform

It's the night of Noel's cabin party, a Tuesday, oddly enough, and Eisa is strutting her way in to the place in a tiny red bralet, denim shorts, and her red leather jacket. Overall, she looks like a hot bombshell in her signature colour. Rather than greeting her boyfriend with words, she kisses him full on the mouth, smiling in to it when his hands reach around to grab her plentiful ass.

"We'll save the rest for later," she speaks only when she's sure he's fully dazed, and that Hanna can see from her spot sulking in the corner. "Hey bestie. Why so glum?"

"Sean. He's ignoring me for foosball. How do you get Noel to moon over you like that?"

"Sex. His mind in always focussed on it, so everything he does is to ensure he gets some."

"Sean doesn't want it! I've pushed, but he's all 'I want it to be special' and it's killing me. I mean, most boys are horndogs but he's been pure and sweet for 9 months! It's like he's an alien!"

"Maybe he's just trying to be sweet and not pressure you. His parents seem like the kind to really drill that in. You just have to give him ample opportunity and be honest about you being ready. Now come on, no more sulking let's talk about something fun," Eisa, having deemed her quest to wreck Hanna's confidence and drive her further towards what A wants, steers the conversation elsewhere. The two chat about different things, girls who got a boob job or a nose job and debating their quality. Hanna remains unenthused, but Eisa is chatty enough for the both of them.

Soon enough, Emily walks in with the rude girl from the other week, Maya, and Hanna immediately beckons her over. They watch the incident between what, as far as Eisa last knew, was Emily's boyfriend Ben, and Emily herself. It's awkward, so Eisa makes the assumption that they're broken up. Once the staredown ends and Emily walks away, Eisa waves politely as they pass, going off to find Mona and whoever she's managed to con in to coming with her.

They talk about many things, including clothes and gossip about Toby, and some snippy things about a girl who apparently gave blowjobs for money that was in their grade. Eisa follows Mona and her boy toy as they wander, talking about nothing and everything, leaving her to her date when they come upon a very put out Hanna. Once Mona leaves, Eisa sees her opportunity to make the final push. She plays the helpful friend perfectly.

"Hey Ackard! I want a game. I wanna see Noel's face when I kick his ass."

"Oh you're on honey bear," Noel takes the bait, completely unaware he's helping with a scheme commissioned by a stranger. Eisa sees Hanna get annoyed and leave, so she follows her. 

"I'll come back in a minute, and then, prepare to brawl Kahn."

Eisa hugs her friend as they walk up to Emily, Spencer and Aria clearly having a heated debate about something.

"Hey guys."

"What's up?"

"Toby Cavanaugh got into a fight with Ben over Emily," when Aria says Toby's name, Eisa has to ignore the urge to tense minutely.

"It wasn't over me. God. Look, he just... Saved me," part of Eisa wants to make a comment about how Toby-like that sounds, but she knows her audience aren't huge fans of his.

"For what? Himself?"

"Ew."

"If we hadn't asked out about Ben, would you have told us about this?" Aria, bringing out the hard hitting questions as per usual.

"Toby is not a good guy, Emily. He could be seriously dangerous."

"If he's such a bad guy, why'd he take the fall for us?"

Eisa struggles to stay silent, and part of her really wants to leave this conversation, but Aria is like a pitbull that just won't let up. She's even more motivated by the look on Spencer's face.

"Is this another secret? Do you know something that we don't?"

"Guys, why don't we just, like, chill, and talk about this somewhere else?" Hanna, thankfully, is on the same wavelength as Eisa.

"I vote we actually attend and enjoy the party we're at, like normal teenagers."

"And talk about this when we're alone."

"I don't even know what 'alone' means anymore, it feels like we never are," Hanna spots Sean and Noel finally separated from the foosball table and quickly dismisses the group.

"Yeah, uh, let's talk about it tomorrow, okay? We're still meeting up at the shed right?" She doesn't even wait for a response before she swans off, Eisa in tow.

Once Hanna drags her boyfriend away, Eisa is left with Noel, who, given how tipsy he already is, is getting a little handsy.

"Where do you think those two are going?"

"Somewhere special, I'm sure. Hanna has been kind of weird about the fact he won't sleep with her, so she's probably trying to rectify that."

"Good, poor guy still gets made fun of for being a virgin," the more they talk, the handsier he gets, to the point that other partygoers are noticing.

"Noel. We're still standing in the middle of the party."

"So?"

"So keep your hands to yourself unless you plan to get slapped," this sobers him up considerably.

"Right. Sorry babe. You know, we could go to my room?"

"Now that sounds like a plan."

Eisa lets Noel drag her up to his room at the cabin, and she enjoys letting loose as they both take off their clothes and mess around more than a little. Thankfully it's only once all the best parts are over, and the two are just snuggling naked under the covers, that Sean interrupts in a grumpy voice to demand more foosball.

"It does not sound like that boy got laid."

"No it does not. You go, I'll get dresses and find Hanna. I'm sure something dramatic happened," Eisa kisses him before he quickly dresses and skedaddles out the door, leaving her to slowly find the pieces of her outfit. After a few seconds, Eisa hears her text tone, and lets herself visibly flinch alone in the darkness of the room. She girds herself and reads.

Mission accomplished. 

You successfully hurt your own BFF. 

I know I promised that you'd get a reward, 

but I need you to do one more thing. 

Dump Noel. 

It's been nearly six months. 

You know the rules BFF.

You have three days.

I've picked out a new boyfriend just for you. 

-A

She reads it over several times to truly process what this psycho wants her to do, and it makes her want to cry. Whoever it is that knows her secrets wants to play with her like a doll, manipulate her life like Eisa used to do with others whenever she was bored. It makes her regret her past, but mostly it makes her furious. But she knows she has to save her misbehaviour with this person for something else, she only has so many secrets she'd be willing to trade before she gets to her worst one.

Let The Dumping Begin

The next morning, the sun barely up, the five girls meet back in the woods, each carrying a bag of stuff, and all looking much worse for wear. Finally, Spencer let's the group in on what she knew that they didn't.

"Alison wanted us across the street so she could have it out with Toby. Ali had something on him."

"Besides being a total perv who peeped in our windows?" Eisa has to stop herself from defending her friend, but she knows that her friends would know something was up between the two if she did.

"Yeah. Something way bigger, and Ali was threatening to tell everybody. That's why he took the fall for us."

"Why are you waiting until now to tell us?"

"I don't know. Ali made me promise, and..." Eisa more than sympathises with Spencer, keeping promises to a dead girl, especially Ali, is like instinct. "I guess I was scared. I thought if we never talked about that night again, it would just go away."

"Well it's not going away. Not unless we toss our phones and join the navy."

"Look, there's five of us, and one freak sending messages. If we just talk to each other like this, I feel like it makes it easier to deal with everything," Emily the optimist doesn't really mesh with Eisa's current attitude.

'That's easy for you to say. I get punished every time I don't do as I'm told. Or I would be. I'm not ready to test the theory. I'd rather save my lesser secrets to cash in at a later date for things worth disobeying over.' Eisa quips in her head, not daring to say any of this out loud. If they found out she was so manipulatable, they might not trust her.

"I think Emily's right. There's way too many secrets. We shouldn't do this in the middle of nowhere. We should do it where we can see it everyday," Aria's contribution does have some merit, Eisa supposes.

"You mean like somewhere in school?"

"No. In town. We should ask if we can put a bench somewhere. Wait, and you know what? Whoever did this to her? If they're still in Rosewood, we should make them look at it everyday, too."

Hanna sighs, which Spencer immediately latches on to.

"What, you hate the idea?"

"No, I just had a rough night," Eisa flinches minutely, guilt stabbing at her for her part to play in her friends misery.

A twig snaps, and this time, rather than running scared, the girls drop their bags and run towards the sound, only to find Alison's name bracelet. After that great epiphany, they walk back to their cars. Eisa decides, even if she can't explain why, she wants her friends help with today's A appointed task.

"Would you guys mind helping me at lunch? I'm dumping Noel and it might get a little... Messy. I want to get out of there as fast as I can."

"I thought you said, on like Monday, that you guys were in love or whatever. I mean, you were all gooey and all over each other last night," Hanna questions her suspiciously. Even Spencer squints. So Eisa falls back on her heartless bitch routine.

"And that was last night. Today? I'm bored with him. Ali and I always agreed, when you're young, more than 6 months is too long for a relationship. Dump them and move on to a fresher model. So will you help?"

All four girls sigh but nod, leaving for their cars to make their way to school, each thinking upon how cruel Eisa is, Spencer wondering what happened to revert her progress, Emily wishing Eisa felt comfortable enough to be her true self. Hanna and Aria still think she's just a natural born bitch. The day passes normally, not even a text from A surfaces for any of the five. Soon, lunch rolls around and Eisa takes a deep breath. It's go time. So with the pure confidence of a hot chick about to dump her boyfriend for no reason, she waltzes in to the cafeteria, clears her throat, and dodges Noel's welcome kiss with obvious discomfort.

"Babe? Is everything okay?"

"With me? Perfect. With us? Not so much," the look of genuine heartbreak on his face almost gets her to break, but she remains stone cold.

"Eisa, what are you talking about."

"Jeez Noel. I didn't think you were that stupid. I'm bored of your puppy dog routine. We're over."

"You don't get to just dump me because you're bored E! I thought that was the old you?" Noel raising his voice at this point draws the attention of the rest of the cafeteria, not just his table of friends.

"Must you be such a childish drama queen Noel? I mean really? Causing a scene? If you really want everyone to know, I'm sick of the fact that you can't stand up to your own brother when he hits on me. I'm sick of you being so clingy since Summer. I'm sick of the fact that I have to spend every Sunday with you, doing what you want, because you're afraid of us 'growing apart'. I'm sick of you."

"God! Don't act like this is all on me! You're dumping me in the middle of the cafeteria. And you're going back to the heartless bitch you used to be."

"No Noel. You've said, multiple times in the last five minutes, how much I've grown and changed in the last year, but have you? You're the same Noel, and I'm bored," Eisa goes to walk away, but her wrist is grabbed by her now ex-boyfriend.

"Don't you dare walk away from me!"

"I'd let go of her arm if I were you," in the knick of time, Spencer is there to threaten him, Aria, Emily, and Hanna there to back her up. He does let go, backing up with his hands in the air. "Come on E, let's go." 

The pack of girls leave the silent cafeteria, an equally silent single tear streaking down Eisa's face. The bell rings, signalling their next class, and she's thankful for the break that classes can give her. Doing that hurt so badly, and it makes her truly hate A for it. The rest of the day, even the rest of the week, goes along quite smoothly, ignoring the fact that her break up is the main source of gossip for that entire time. She's actually quite excited when the weekend comes around and people are just starting to discuss Hanna's freak out with Sean's car. Everybody knows because the cops have been involved, so both are happy when the gang gather at the old park where they plan to put Alison's memorial.

However, the wrecking of Sean's car is exactly what the girls ask about, though they're smart enough not to bring up Noel. They're soon back on task with the memorial bench, spearheaded by the ever present organisation skills of Spencer and Aria.

"Okay. The town is gonna put in a new park bench, we'll plant the flower beds, and there's gonna be a pathway of art tiles."

"Art tiles?" Spencer asks for specific clarification of Aria's artistic vision, which Emily is happy to clear up.

"Messages, pictures. Memories of Alison."

"Aw like little headstones."

"Not fucking funny Hanna," Eisa's bad mood due to the break up has meant she has no tolerance for Hanna's bad attempts at humour, who apparently, has no idea she's being a soulless bitch.

"What?"

"We should each do a tile."

"I've had Alison's bracelet since the day we found it in the woods and I don't want the responsibility anymore," Hanna holds out the cursed bracelet, which even Eisa shys away from.  

"I don't want it."

"Seriously? Somebody take this," Spencer is the one to finally step up.

"Look at us. A bunch of babies," she stares at the bracelet for a moment, before having a seriously great lightbulb moment. "Y'know, there's nothing this A can say or do to get us into trouble without making trouble for herself."

"Are you sure it's a her?"

"Who cares Hanna, he, she, they, doesn't make a goddamn difference," Eisa snips at Hanna for the second time that day while Spencer gets out her laptop.

"What are you doing."

"I'm blocking all messages from people that I don't know. IM's, texts, E-Mails, everything. Screw A. There. Who's next?"

For this first time in days, Eisa actually feels happy at the prospect of freedom, so she's quick to volunteer, and her nimble fingers get it done in seconds to hand off to Emily, who hands off to a very pushy Aria. Eisa does join the conversation about Mr Fitz on a bike, but she's certainly not as enthusiastic as the other girls.

"I guess if floppy hair geeks are what you like he's ok."

"It could be worse. I mean, I would not want to see Mr Gilardi on a bike," The very thought makes most of the girls shudder, except Aria whose mind is elsewhere.

"I don't want to think of Mr Gilardi in motion of any kind."

"Ah, Mr Fitz."

Aria suddenly bursts out with it being Hanna's turn, which it is, and when she finally has it done, it almost feels anti-climactic.

"I wish we had a drum roll for this. Alright, here it goes... We are officially A proofed."

"Listen... All those little messages zipping through the air all around us."

"Yup, and if any are from 'A', we'll never know," Aria leans back, safe and comfortable already.

"This feels like a good thing."

"Of course it's a good thing. It is, in fact, a great thing." 

Eisa makes the final contribution to the conversation with a quippy, "Out of mind, out of sight," the groups joy is hampered by an old missing poster of Alison happening to come towards them.

Aria picks it up to read 'Ding Dong the Bitch is Dead' in a vibrant read, scrunching it up before Eisa can get a good look. All five girls look around, as if expecting to see some bod guy in a black cloak rubbing his hands together like a menacing fly. Evidently, there is no man, just five scared teens. 

Eisa is determined to remain freed from her puppeteer so she just smiles and says goodbye. And she's so very happy, because her phone hasn't buzzed, because she hasn't flinched again. This feels like a good weekend, before a good week. Come what may, this week is gonna rock, she's sure.

The Bitch Of Living

Monday mornings...

The thing about Mondays, for Eisa, was that they were usually her favourite day of the week. She'd wake up, shower, do her hair and make up, make and eat breakfast, and for a small, tiny portion of her life, she'd feel like a normal teenager. Then, Noel would pick her up for school and they'd arrive together. Except, for the first time in what felt like forever, Eisa was starting the week on her back leg.

Sure, she had all her assignments finished and already handed in, her cheer squad was in excellent shape and their routine was near absolute perfection. And yet, everytime she turned a corner, a crowd of useless freshman would be whispering something moronic about her dumping Noel Kahn, who apparently became the hottest guy in school overnight. Or at least it felt that way to Eisa, who could have sworn that Sean was considered hotter by the general public up till the moment she dumped him like a 'cold-hearted bitch'. That's the story going around school at least.

So here she is, parking her red Chevy Impala in the parking lot for the first time in a year, and yet again she feels the ghost of her old regular passenger, Alison. Turning to where she should be sitting, Eisa can feel the coldness of her spirit passing through her, caressing her, reminding her that dumping Noel, even at the behest of some faceless creep, was for the best, and long overdue. With that, she puts on her game face and walks out of her car, carrying two coffees with her, one of which she immediately hands to Spencer the first moment she sees her. The two chat amiably till they happen upon their other friends, sans Emily, whereupon the conversation slides in to being about Melissa being taken to New York to mend her poor broken heart.

"If you ever get freaked out sleeping in that house alone, just call me, my place or yours, I'm always down to have a friend around. I remember how creepy it was when I first kicked out all the housekeepers."

"Yeah, I remember Alison sneaking through my yard to stay at your place every night for like months," Spencer snickered at the memory of the early days of their friendship, when they were all still 12 and 13.

"I seriously don't even get how you had that power. You were, what, 12? And you had the power to fire anyone working in your house?" Hanna's tone of awe, while genuine and sweet, to Eisa, clearly demonstrates her lack of understanding, of how trapped she is by her parents, their money, their expectations.

"Yeah, well, I was the woman of the house, there was no one there to tell me I couldn't."

"So, Spence, why didn't your parents take you to New York with your sister? You deserve retail therapy too."

"For what? She made out with a dude, I'd say she's got all the happy thoughts she needs. Besides, New York is an utter drag and they deserve to be in that kind of hell," Eisa's offhand comment is largely ignored, aside from a halfhearted chuckle from Spencer.

"Not as much as she does," the focus shifts as Emily finally joins the group. "Ooh, hot scarf Em."

"Thanks."

"Is it new?"

Emily tenses minutely before answering. "No." 

The lie makes Eisa inwardly raise an eyebrow, she literally just saw Maya give it to her, but given that's not her business, she lets it go without a word. Besides, she couldn't have mentioned anything anyway, as all attention was immediately directed to the ringing of Hanna's phone. After a tense moment, Aria prods her in to answering it.

"Well go on... We know who it can't be."

"It's my dad," Hanna's smile makes Eisa immediately happy for her friend, she knows how much a call from her dad means to her.

The group watch Hanna as she walks away, talking animatedly on the phone as she does, Emily the first to break the awkward silence, even in the din of the cafeteria.

"Has she... even talked to her dad since he walked out on them?"

"Nope. He promised to call when he could but every scheduled call has been mysteriously 'rain-checked'," Eisa, the only one with this knowledge, gives it up freely and easily, still staring at her friend who has yet to display a single negative emotion during the call.

"Yeah, and Hanna and her dad is one of those 'don't ask, don't tell' situations."

Aria gently tugged on Eisa's sleeve to get her going while she said, "We shouldn't stare at her... Come on."

The group traveled as a pack, chatting about something Aria's baby brother posted on Facebook, when Eisa was slightly knocked to the side before being caught by the same thing, or rather person, that nearly knocked her flat on her ass. Toby.

"What the hell! Would you watch where you're going? And next time, keep your dirty paws to yourself Cavanaugh!" The well acted fake beratement covered the little part of Eisa that leaned in to the comforting, familiar touch. Toby's smile smirk as he replied even made her heart clench a little.

"Whatever, Two-Face."

As Eisa dusted herself off, Spencer and Aria got in to a brief argument about whether or not Toby was A, a possibility Eisa sincerely doubted. As they agreed not to think about it, and to avoid him and his step sister, Eisa found a note in her pocket.

Meet me under the bleachers, I need to talk to you. I miss you. - T Bird

She sighed. Wondering what he wants, she glides through the school halls to catch up with her friends to beg off, claiming to go to the toilet, and instead finding herself under the bleachers, waiting for her fellow miscreant. It doesn't take long before he finally shows.

"Toby? Is everything ok? The way your message was written it seemed like-" Eisa's genuine worry was cut off by Toby's lips pressed firmly against hers, and for a moment, rather than resist, she indulges. Then her senses return to her, making her push away from him. "What are you doing?"

"You dumped Noel."

"Yes, and?"

"I missed you," with Toby's hands on her waist, his thumbs caressing the bare skin underneath her top that he's sneaked his way to, she can't think properly. Especially as he kisses her neck tenderly. "I thought, maybe, at least under the bleachers, we can be what we were."

His mouth trailed itself distractingly up her neck back to her mouth, and just as Eisa finally lost herself in the rhythm of their make out, she heard a familiar voice.

"What in the actual fuck?"

Turning to the voice, her hands automatically reaching to cover her likely smudged lipstick, she finds her ex-boyfriend, Noel.

"Noel, this... It isn't what it looks like."

"Really? So you weren't just making out with a juvenile delinquent who blinded his sister. Well I'm glad. Maybe you could just enlighten me though, as to why it does appear that you dumped me for JD 'freakazoid' Sawyer?" Even as hurt as he was, Noel's sharp quipping nature remained as he lost his cool.

"It was just... It's complicated. We... hung out over summer, while we were still broken up. He's a friend, and that was just... a mistake. A mistake made while high. It means nothing," then, like a hammer hitting her in the gut, she realises she doesn't have to justify shit to him, A having made her finally have the initiative to free herself from him. "And besides, it shouldn't matter to you anyways. We're not together, and the rumour mill clearly states you slept in Delia Kars on the weekend. I mean, there's a rebound, and then there's scraping the bottom of the barrel Noel."

Even as Eisa brushes him off, pulling a compact mirror out of her bag to fix her lipstick with, she worries her calm facade might be shaking at its foundation. Yet Noel clearly has not noticed any sort of problem, the hurt in his eyes blinding him from the truth.

"You're a soulless two faced bitch Janusson, and one day, that'll get you all the karma you deserve."

"Promises, promises. Now shoo, I have private conversations to have, and oddly enough, my pitiful ex-boyfriend lurking nearby isn't at all helpful," Noel leaves them behind with a scowl on his face, and once he's finally out of sight, Eisa turns back to Toby who has a smudge of her red lipstick on his mouth, which she goes about cleaning in a clinical manner. "That can't happen again Toby."

"Why? You're clearly already over him. You clearly enjoyed it. Us."

"Try this one. My friends clearly hate you. They think you want revenge."

"They don't have to know."

"Toby, as fun as the summer was, I'm genuinely not interested in you as anything other than a friend. Why isn't that enough for you?" Eisa, now finished cleaning his face, sits on the seat beside him.

"You never even considered I blinded Jenna. Never mentioned it, never flinched from me. I guess it was just nice to have someone around who wasn't afraid of me."

"You're a giant teddy bear, of course I'm not afraid of you. And you can have me around. Just no more of... that. We're better as friends."

"Yeah, friends who pretend to hate each other in public, passing secret notes, acting like we've never spent more that 2 minutes in the same space."

Eisa sighs heavily. "Look, I gotta go, the girls will be wondering where I am. I'll see you round T-Bird," she kisses him on the cheek and goes to leave, held back by his hand gripping her own.

"Don't bother me Janusson. I can't be bothered with half a friend. Lose my number until you're ready to be a whole friend again."

"Toby..."

"Bye," Toby walks past her quickly, leaving her to watch him walk away, her heart clenching, but she knows it truly couldn't have gone any differently. 

With a heavy sigh and a rough tug of her fingers through her hair, Eisa walks out from under the bleachers, walking with false confidence through the school, her heels announcing her presence to the entire student body, who are still whispering about her. 

Just as she sees her friends down the hallway, Eisa's saunter to catch up with them is stopped by her history teacher, Mr Sheldrake.

"Miss Janusson, exactly who I was looking for. Your essay was superb, and as per usual, I'll be submitting it to this round of essay competitions, one of which is The Golden Orchid. I was supremely surprised on your take of Tsarism and the negligence of the Tsar. To call him a superstitious fool was certainly a strong take, and with multitudinous evidence to back you up, I'm sure it will play well with the judges."

"Thank you sir. What about..." Eisa pauses, wondering if she should, before deciding that her friends academic well being is more important than her pride, and reputation as a heartless bitch. "How did Spencer do?"

"Incredible. I hope you don't mind me saying, but I think her essay is easily on par with yours. I took the liberty of also submitting it to the Golden Orchid competition." 

"Of course I don't, I'm glad to have real competition, and it being Spencer is thousands of times better," Eisa smiles widely at the news, she knew her friend was struggling with writing the essay, and pulling something that good together at the last minute is just so very Spencer-like that Eisa doesn't even feel the smallest moment of jealousy. "She's just over there, if you wanted to tell her."

"I just did. I'll let you go now," the bell rings just on time for Eisa to see her friends go their separate ways. "Academia waits for no great women Miss Janusson."

At that, Eisa leaves for her advanced mathematics class, ready to find solace in her favourite time of the day, but is stopped by her furious looking ex-boyfriend. Before she can verbally eviscerate him, or anything at all, he grabs her roughly by the forearm, and even as she protests, he drags her all the way to his car. Once he gets her situated in the passenger seat, even going so far as to buckle her seat belt, he rounds to the driver side, getting in and locking the doors before she can escape.

"What the fuck Noel? We have school. Where the fuck are you taking me?"

"Back to your house, so just shut up for ten minutes. We have to talk," when she looks, really looks, he looks less mad at her, and more mad at the world. And, weirdly, a little bit scared. So Eisa shuts her mouth like he demanded, and lets him drive them back to her place. Once they're inside, she makes a cup of coffee for them both, hers black, his with milk and sugar, the way she instinctively remembers he likes it.

"Here, take a deep breath, okay? What's going on? 'Cause this is way more than 'you dumped me and then I caught you with a guy under the bleachers' angry?" She hands the coffee to him, and even though he's still mad, her humour, as always, lightens his load. He hands her his phone, already open to his text messages, to one in particular.

Hey Noel, I've got something to tell you, as a friend.

Eisa's lying about a whole lot, and if you want to know what, show her this text.

For Eisa:

Hey Bitch

I'm not that easy to get rid of

I was going to give you a much better reward

But since you decided to ignore me

This is as nice as I'll be

Consider it a warning

If you unblock me right now

And tell him everything

Your punishment won't get worse

But remember, your six months were up

So the only reunion happening today

Is you and me baby. 

- A

"Oh god."

And with that, Eisa slammed her mug to the coffee table and ran from the room to vomit in to her deep sink.

Punishment As Befits The Crime

"Shh, shh, shh. It's okay baby, just breathe," Eisa returns to full consciousness as Noel continues to whisper soothing encouragements in to her hair, one arm wrapped comfortingly around her as the other rubs calming circles into her back.

"I'm back. Sorry," Eisa distances herself from her ex-boyfriend, now fully in control of her own body, and realises they're sat on the floor of her kitchen, and she has tears streaming down her face that have yet to subside.

"You don't have to pretend you're fine around me. I know you."

"No. No you really don't. We shouldn't... We're over, we have to act over, no matter what happens today, that isn't changing," she tried to push herself up, but found her legs still a little wobbly from the panic attack. She slumped back to the floor after her attempt, and quickly and methodically removed her heels, lining them up neatly at the corner of the island bench. She then pushed herself all the way up on her shaking legs, shaking off Noel's attempts at assistance along the way. She leads the way back to her living room where she left her coffee.

"I know enough to know that you haven't had a panic attack that bad since after Ali first went missing. I know enough to know that there is something wrong with that message. Seriously, Eis, what's going on? I can help," she goes to drink the coffee, but finds it cold in her shaking hands. Her bottom lip trembles, and in one instant, she goes from strong and emotionless, to a blubbering mess, sobbing as she blurts out everything. She doesn't get very far, he calms her down so she can explain a bit more lucidly.

"It all starts before Ali went missing. It was... A thing in our friendship group that Alison would collect the other girls' secrets, would collect everyone's secrets, and she'd tell me so we could best utilise them to cause havoc. One of the secrets was, well bad, and I wasn't involved, because at the time, I was dating a much older boy and I spent most of my time ditching them for him," she paused to let him digest, and she could see a flicker of jealousy run through his eyes.

"How old are we talking? Would I know him?"

"He was 21 at the time."

"Jesus E, that's... Isn't that illegal?" His fingers roughly tug on his hair as he anxiously runs them through it. "God, that's my brother's age... Tell me it wasn't my brother!"

"No! God no! I... No, I would never have dated you without telling you if I'd slept with your brother. Plus he's... kinda skeevy. But yes, I was 15, and age of consent here is 16, I checked, back when it was a thing. It's why basically no one knows about him and me. Except Spencer, and now you. All the other girls know is that I was dating someone older that summer, and they covered for the fact that I was with him when Ali went missing."

"So you lied to the police? Had all of your friends lie to the police? For some guy?" She could see the anger rising in him, could feel the dreaded question on the tip of his tongue, and knew she would have to answer with the full truth. "Who was it?"

There it was.

She mumbled out the answer, and even before he fiercely told her it wasn't loud enough, she knew she'd have to gather courage, because this wasn't even the worst part. So she took a deep breath, clenched her shaking hands into fists, and braced herself for impact.

"Jason DiLaurentis."

Silence.

A little scared, she raised her eyes to look at Noel, who is staring at her, a little dumbfounded, and a lot less angry than she'd thought he'd be.

"That stoner weirdo brother Ali had?" At the clear dismissal of Jason as any guy worthy of competition, Eisa started laughing, truly laughing at the disbelief in Noel's voice.

"Yeah, that one," even Noel is laughing now, the entire moment lighter.

"No wonder you wanted to keep your thing with him a secret, he was such a loser."

"Shut up, dork," she shoved him lightly, playfully, the both still happy, but the moment dims quickly.

"There's more isn't there?"

"So much more, and you might hate me way before we get to the end."

Noel breathes in deeply, seemingly steeling himself for whatever is about to come him way and says "hit me."

"So we broke up the next night after she disappeared, I felt it was safest, that if we didn't continue seeing each other, the lie that I was with the girls would hold, and he wouldn't get in any trouble. He was generally too high or drunk to fight me on anything, so he agreed, and he gave me a parting gift. This necklace, a locket, and inside, was this little sample of weed, the kind we first smoked together. It was corny, but sweet, and I kept it in my jewellery box. I couldn't wear it, people would wonder where I got it, but I couldn't bring myself to get rid of it."

"Do you still love him?" Eisa's head snaps up at that. She'd zoned out, staring in to her cold coffee as she speaks up till now, where she makes eye contact with the hurt, dewey eyes of her ex-boyfriend.

"No. I don't think I ever did. What we had was... He understood the feeling of having parents who couldn't give two shits about you, and he didn't care if I was a mess. We just got high, and got drunk, and we tried to feel a little less stressed. I think you two would have gotten along. But no, he wasn't... He wasn't there for me like you were, didn't know me, he was too screwed up all on his own."

"But you cared. You still care. Your primary concern at all times is this secret isn't it? You are always thinking about whether or not people know, thinking about keeping him from getting in trouble."

Eisa sighed, she knew it hurt him, but she had to explain, and the truth was never pretty. "I just don't think he deserves to get in to trouble for something that wasn't that bad. He helped me through a rough time, so I keep people from knowing about a teensie little illegal thing he did. Now, do you want to hear the rest or are you going to fixate?"

"Sure, I mean, what could be worse than finding out my ex-girlfriend was in love with another guy this entire time."

"Was not!"

"Cleopatra, Queen of. Now, continue," he waved her on with her story, ignoring the petulant frown on her face

"Fine, whatever. So nothing happened for a year, basically, and... Do you remember, right before the end of school, dad decided he wanted to be, like, a part of my life?"

"Yeah, and then out of nowhere they were sending you to family in Europe to 'get some culture', and you dumped me. I remember when I showed up after you dumped me over the phone, that your dad was screaming at you about something, and your mum was home. I remember thinking it was weird that she was home at all, let alone that they were in the same place. But they were screaming at each other, and when you answered the door you were crying, and-"

"Ok, we get it, we don't have to go over every detail again. Point is, what really happened was dad was trying to bond with me, happened to bump the jewellery box the locket was in, and he opened it, curious, and found the weed. They basically lost their mind, thought I was a habitual stoner, and they thought sending me to a reform school for minor grievances and post juvie rehabilitation was the way to go. Which was where I was last summer. Not Europe," Once she gets the big lie out, she breathes in and holds, her whole body tense as she waits for his reaction.

And waits.

And waits.

And peaks at him, Noel, who looks utterly perplexed. He's sitting there, staring at his hands as if they have all the answers to the universe, but it's written in a foreign alien language. Eisa has the short thought that 'Daniel Jackson would translate that in a hot minute' but very quickly squashes the nerdy thought.

"You went to juvie?"

"No! I went to a reform school for the children of at least moderately well off people, where kids who just got out of juvie also went to."

"So..." Eisa watches the gears turn in Noel's head, but she's not quite sure what will connect first. "People like, Toby Cavanaugh."

"I... I was hoping you wouldn't make that connection. I mean, I don't know why, I have to tell you everything, but still-"

"Why do you have to tell me everything?"

"The text. Did you not read the whole thing? If I do this, nothing worse will happen, and considering this person knows secrets I don't want to get out, I'm doing what the hell they say," she gestures towards his phone, but when she gets to close, her hand recoils like it's poisonous.

"Fine, then you do this, and I'll go to the police. You're not just gonna get stalked and harrassed by some freak with a skill for sending creepy texts!" He grasps her hands, firmly moving them away from the phone, rubbing his thumbs across the smooth backs of her palms, but she snatches her hands back, hugging herself tightly.

"Besides the fact that, after I tell you everything, you might hate me enough to think I deserve this... If you go to the police, I'm pretty sure either they'll find out the Jason thing on their own, or 'A' will release it into the world as retaliation. Plus the reform camp thing. And the fact that I lied to the cops. I'm sure there's plenty more to be dug up from the numerous skeletons in my closet, and more than enough to bury me with."

"I... So I'm just meant to watch? To know you're being blackmailed and threatened and do nothing about it?"

"Apparently..."

"Who the fuck are you and what have you done with Eisa? Because I know you, and you would never bow down this easy," he grips her face in both hands, forcing eye contact with her as she continues to shrink in to herself, but he finds no defiance there. "I will help you through this, Eis, any way I can."

"For now, I just want to get through the rest of this story, ok?" She waits for him to nod before taking a deep calming breath to continue, each comfortably sat on one end of the couch. "So reform camp. I got there, and Toby was there, and I don't even know how we got started talking but we did. And I guess the fact that I wasn't scared of him, wasn't disgusted by the fact he blinded his step sister, made him like me. And the fact that he was there meant I had to trust him with this huge secret. And it wasn't like I could sink any lower. So, for two whole months, I didn't play the part. I was nice, and laid back, I didn't have a set schedule, I got the councillors to give me nail clippers so I could trim them down, which they had to watch me do. It was liberating. Do you know how hard it is to live life with long nails? Everything is easier when you don't have them. And Toby and I? I guess we just kind of fell in together. Everyone else was way more legitimate, actual criminals, people who really did a lot of drugs, who really were acting out. He was... Safe. And he knew his way around these people."

She watched as Noel calmly took in all of this, not even batting an eyelash, and rather than linger and provoke a possible negative reaction, she just moved on.

"And then I was free to come back, and I settled back into my real life, got my nails redone, dad was already back at his cabin, and mum left just a day after I got back. You showed up, and everything went back to normal with us, and it actually seemed like all the drama was over for another year. But then I started getting texts from A, and in the days leading up to the discovery of Ali's body, I actually thought it was some twisted way for her to make a grand reentry home. Then her body was found, and the messages kept coming. To all of us."

"Us?"

"The girls. Me. Spencer. Aria. Hanna. Emily. This person knows our deepest, darkest secrets, stuff they told Alison, who would subsequently tell me, and stuff Alison never knew, new stuff, stuff I never told her. Anything that could destroy our lives. And the other girls? Their messages seem to be about frightening them. Threatening them with their secrets being outed at every turn."

"But you?"

Eisa took a deep breath. She knew he knew what she was like, that she wasn't a good person, but to explain the things she did out loud was still a daunting task. "They seemed to be more oriented on puppeteering me. When we were younger, that was our scheme. Ali would learn everybody's secrets, and I would utilise them to our best advantage. I had a whole codex of other people's secrets, not the girls, but everyone else's. And when we wanted something from them, we might blackmail them, or blackmail someone else to put pressure on them, or say the right thing. Or if we wanted to create some chaos, we'd just release a secret to see what it would do. Well this 'A' person is using my secrets to make me do things I haven't wanted to do, but did anyway..."

"What? What were the exact things they made you do since the end of summer."

"I... Noel, I... First, they made me tell a police detective on Ali's case that the reason it seemed like they were lying was because they were covering for me, because I was with a much older boyfriend, whose identity I'm still protecting. They originally wanted me to sell out Jason for them, but I got around it. Then, they wanted me to put pressure on Hanna to lose her virginity, to play on her insecurities from when she was still Hefty-Hanna. To make her do something stupid and irrational. Which I did. Which she... did."

"Sean's car? That was what they wanted out of that?"

"I don't know. I guess they knew Hanna's impulsive, and if she pitied herself enough, she'd do something explosive. The thing after that was... They told me that I had to break up with you..."

Silence reigns for a moment, and Eisa refuses to move her eyes from the coffee table, waiting for his reaction.

"Show me the text. I need absolute proof that you're not just using this as a way to get out of the fact that you publicly dumped me."

Eisa slides her phone out of her jacket pocket, scrolling through to find the text, and hands it over, watching him read it with a furrow in his brow.

"What in the hell does any of this mean? Is it in some sort of magical girl code? What rules? What do they mean by six months? And what? They want to force you to date some guy? Why?"

"Noel. Noel!" Eisa has to shout to get his attention back to her. "I... six months was a rule Ali had. Before the age of 21, one should never date a guy longer than 6 months before trading in for a newer model. This person likes to joke that they are Alison, but she's dead, so no, but they know our inside jokes. It's... terrifying. And I don't know why, or who, or when, or anything. I blocked unknown numbers before they told me. Which I guess I have to undo now. Honestly, the why could just be to make me miserable."

"What if you didn't?"

Eisa stopped freaking out briefly to look at Noel like he's lost his mind, which she's pretty sure he had done. Once he realises he isn't going to get a verbal reaction, he just keeps talking.

"What if you didn't unblock it? I mean, what's the worst that could happen? People know about this stuff? It'll be idle gossip for a while and then it'll be over. You'd be free, we would."

"Noel, Jason would get in so much trouble. Like, prison levels of trouble!"

"Maybe he deserves to go to prison!"

They've both leapt to their feet by this point, and when he says this, Eisa recoils from him as if burned by the words. 

"Noel... I have risked everything to protect him. And besides that, I'd get in trouble for lying to the police. You'd be sending me to prison, all for what, because you're jealous I slept with a guy well before we even considered getting together?!"

Noel sighs exasperatedly, as if Eisa is the one being unreasonable. "That's not what this is about. And I'm sure his rich parents would find a way to get him out of it, and so would yours! You'd be fine!"

"God Noel, you're so spoilt! Your parents might forgive you for everything, but did you miss the part where they sent me to reform camp for finding not even enough pot to smoke. They'd let me go down for it!"

"I don't care!" His shout frightens her into silence. "I just... this person will never let us get back together."

"Do you really want me, after everything you've heard today? Look, Noel, I knew this would happen eventually. Your family is new money, mine is old, which is fine for high school, but my parents would never... The point is, we were never going to last, and yes, being forced to do it by some psycho in possession of all my secrets sucks, but I'm not sending Jason to prison just because you want your toy back! Now can I finish the story or not?"

"Fine, but this argument is far from over."

"Whatever, now... Where was I? Right, I dumped you because they made me... And then I got mad and blocked them, and we're here. Oh, and Ali blinded Jenna, not Toby, found that out recently... I can't remember anything else at the moment."

They sat in silence for a while, Eisa's hands shaking from finally saying all of the things that needed to me said, including some stuff she had never said out loud before. And she watched Noel, who sat there, staring at his hands, trying to comprehend the absolute buffoonery that is the pickle she's found herself in. 

"You're right," he speaks in a low tone, almost a whisper, and she has to ask him to speak up, but when she does, that is when he really bursts. "You're fucking right. I don't want you back. I could never want you back. I mean, at first, all I could really think about was the fact that you didn't want to break up, which meant our ride wasn't done, but all I can think now is, what a fucking relief, you know?"

"Noel, wh- what are you talking about?" Eisa's tears are flowing freely again in the face of Noel's harsh words.

"I'm talking about the fact that this person just freed me from a psychotic, self involved, manipulative freak bitch, who can't even remain loyal to her friends. No you'd rather sacrifice anyone and everyone before getting the guy who fucked you and got you high over a year ago in trouble. I mean fuck Eisa. I should find them and thank them. They just freed me, gave me every reason to be grateful, and now you can sink into your own putrid filth, just like you deserve."

And with that, he left, slamming the front door behind him.

Wither And Decay, Lolita Says Hey

The girls, having heard Eisa disappeared sometime during the day, rush to her home the second the final bell rings. They knock and knock at her door, before Spencer, on instinct alone, tries the knob, finding it unlocked. All of them make eye contact worriedly before forging ahead tentatively, quietly, though none sure why they won't speak. Maybe it's a fear of breaking the eerie spell the residence is under. They first come upon the lounge, with two coffee cups, one marked as Eisa's with a smudge of red on the rim. Then the kitchen, remainders of vomit in the sink, her heels on the floor, another smudge of red on the floor, in the shape of Eisa's dainty arch between thumb and forefinger. Aria panics, reaching down to touch the smudge before recoiling in sudden fear.

"Oh god, what if it's blood."

Hanna rolls her eyes, touching the red with a pinkie finger, no fear in her limbs. "It's her lipstick, she wears this shade so often it's burned in my brain. It probably got on her hand after the vomit, and then she... Collapsed on the floor? And touched the ground?"

The girls accept the explanation, but then they hear a thump from the upper floor, and the terror is again instilled in the group. As an awkward clump, they slowly creep up the stairs, and come upon Eisa's room, identifiable as the only one without nothing on it or around it, like a hub of life in the hallway. They creep up to it, and push open the door that creaks. And there's Eisa, dressed to kill, in all new make up, her hair just slightly damp from a recent shower, leaning over to triple check the line on her lipstick, a glossy beige. She sees her friends in the mirror, an evil smirk stretching across her mouth before she whips around, hand on hip as she practically poses for her freaked out friends.

"Well, well, what are you ladies doing here?"

"You disappeared, we were worried! And by the way, your front door was unlocked and there's vomit in your sink and lipstick smudged on your floor. What the hell is going on with you?" Hanna abruptly grouches at her friend who seems eerily nonplussed by the comments.

"Oh, Noel and I had another fight, he caught me hooking up with someone under the bleachers and he decided to have some childish conniption," she literally waves this away as nothing, gliding to her wardrobe to add a stylish jacket to the ensemble and put on a pair of thigh high slouch stiletto boots to finish up her ensemble while she finishes talking. "I got a little stressed after he left, it was a little panic vomit, no biggie. Now if you'll excuse me, I have places to be."

Eisa breezes past her group of friends, down her stairs, gathering her things in a Chanel bag as they follow her.

"Oh, yea, 'cause that's normal. Eisa, what is wrong with you lately, you've been acted really weird."

"Sorry ladies, I've got my head all screwed on the right way now, I promise. No more weird. Now, you mind? I do actually have plans."

Eisa shoos them all out of her house, and they all give her a final weird look before splitting up to go their separate ways. Eisa, now alone, gives a heavy sigh, the events of the day weighing down on her again. She shakes herself back to normal, and checks the newest text she'd gotten after leaving her shower.

What a good little Bitch you are.

Now that that is over,

It's time you met replacement Noel.

I'm sure you remember,

He was particularly enamoured with your half truths.

If that doesn't jog your memory, try this,

Now that you're single, you better follow through,

Because that fact changed.

And hey, maybe he'll keep you out of trouble

Cops are always good allies for repeat offenders

- A

With a shudder, Eisa checks for her friends before walking back in her house, the exit merely a show to make them leave as she heard them coming up the stairs. Once safely inside, she cleans the sink vigorously, scrubbing at it without paying attention. Eventually, she realises it's already clean and stops, a shaky breath escaping her as she reaches for her phone, digging in her bag for the business card she'd gotten from Wilden and promptly shoved in the bottom and forgotten about. Her hands tremble as she dials the number for his personal mobile, determination stopping her tears from welling up in her eyes. The dial tone rings several times before his odious voice answers.

"Darren speaking."

"Hello Detective Wilden, it's Eisa Janusson. You told me to call if my relationship status ever changed?" She's sure to use her most sultry voice, keeping contempt out of it.

"Eisa, it's... Great to hear from you. I assume it did," she can hear the leer in his voice and holds back the temptation to hurl.

"I was sick of dealing with his childish moods, felt like maybe I'd like it better to be with someone more... mature."

"I did figure it wouldn't last much longer. I've found, if a girl likes older men, it's not something they can turn off, not a need that can be sublimated by dating boys. How about, I pick you up in an hour, I take you out to dinner, and we see where it goes from there, hmm?"

She hates him. Hates him. There's fury, violence, absolute disgust, boiling just under the surface of her skin. The fact that he thinks he has her all figured out pisses her off, irregardless of the fact that it works in her favour, somewhat. Even so, she curbs the urge and flirts back.

"Why bother with dinner when we can skip to the good stuff?" She fires off her address easily. "I'll see you later then... Darren," she intentionally whispers his name seductively, the way she knows men like him love to hear from their triumphs. 

She hangs up before he can properly respond to her question, shaking herself off before going to collect the coffee mugs from the coffee table, busying herself with cleaning and meaningless household tasks to pass the time. Before she knows it, an hour has passed, and she flinches at the buzz of her phone. She reads the text, almost fearing what it says. But it's just Wilden, telling her to come to his car rather than actually coming to her door. His lack of gentlemanly manners, while usually annoying in dates, is comforting. The less people see his face outside her house, the less likely it is people will notice her relationship with him. She picks up her bag, triple checks for house keys and wallet before quickly but gracefully exiting the house and moving to get in to his car. After buckling in to the seat, she turns to find him leering, frustratingly attractive, because even though he's a disgusting man, even she can't deny he certainly is pretty. 

"So, dinner or better?" She blinks her eyes at him, sultry and innocent in attitude alone.

He doesn't say anything for a moment, then leans in to kiss her, and when her does so, she considers fighting it, before remembering why she was there in the first place. So she melts in to it, participating as he slips his tongue in to her mouth, moaning just right as his hand slips across the console between to caress her waist. Seemingly appeased, he pulls away, a smirk firmly planted on his face.

"Don't you worry about it, pretty little girls don't have to worry about a single thing with a big strong man around."

The Rare Case Of Sugar And Spice

Another early morning practice is thankfully what gets her out of his apartment at god-awful-o'clock unscathed, and more importantly, without making him think this was a one night stand. After the ordeal that was yesterday, Eisa was sure she never ever wanted to get on her personal psycho's bad side ever again. So she apologizes for having to leave so early, kisses him again, minus the shudder that wants to shake his touch from her, and leaves, taking a taxi from outside his apartment back to her home. Once there, she immediately takes the hottest shower she can, hoping the combination of scalding hot water and intense scrubbing at her skin can get rid of this tight feeling in her ribs like his hands are still there, just squeezing lightly, the press of ownership. Now as clean as she can get, she carefully pins her wet hair in curlers, going for a safer hair curl option, and gets herself into her underwear before sitting at her vanity. She pulls out her makeup, first checking her neck, finding only one mark she has to cover. She sets about colour correcting and concealing the bruise, letting her mind wander to the list of things she has to do in her day. 

She can't quite order her thoughts, everything feeling so wrong, so jumbled. She does her entire makeup routine without even noticing, and when she finishes, she starts, thanking god for muscle memory and her love of routine. Standing, she picks out an outfit, packing it in a spare bag before dressing into her cheer practice uniform. She carries the lot to... Not her car, which is apparently still at the school after Noel grabbed her. 

"Need a ride?" Spencer, thankfully, is there to rescue her with her offer.

"Yes. Unfortunately forgot my car was still at school after everything that went on."

"Yeah... You gonna tell me the truth about that?"

"Any chance I could convince you just not to ask?" Eisa looked hopefully at the stern scowl on her friends face. "Fine... Noel caught me making out with someone and we fought, I told him some harsh truths, he was harsh right back, and... I got over it the way I get over things."

"Vomiting into your sink and terrifying the crap out of your friends? And, more than that, going back to acting like the ice-cold bitch you were before-," Spencer cuts herself off before she says what she means. Before Ali died.

"That was... A panic response in the middle of the fight, but no, I went on a date."

Spencer visibly starts at that, staring at Eisa over the roof of her car before entering the driver's side. "Wow, okay, with who?"

"Just some older guy, but it felt good, moving on, not worrying about anything but having fun with someone. With Noel, it was always a stress. After we broke up and got back together, he was neurotic about everything. He couldn't stand spending a whole day away from me, demanded we see each other every single Sunday, not just the ones we happened to be free on. He had to drive me to school, I had to eat lunch with him 3 out of 5 days. He was jealous whenever his asshole brother flirted with me, and when we were together, he had to constantly touch me, like hands around my waist, touching my hair. Then, on the rare occasions we weren't together, he'd call if I didn't answer a text, like, immediately. Honestly, I didn't notice fully and properly till after we were over but he was so toxic."

"Jeez E, I can't believe you let him do that for so long. I mean, you've always been so strong, independent, a 'take no shit' kind of girl," Spencer's incredulous tone sending a loud and clear message her eyes can't, given they're kind of busy watching the road as she drives them to school.

"Yeah, well, I was kind of fucked-up beyond belief when we started dating and, I don't know, it felt like he saved me from drowning, like he was my lifeline, or whatever."

Spencer frowns, risking occasional glances at her friend whose mind seems to be in a far off place now. The mention of how she was when they started dating, right after Ali's disappearance, is odd. Not that Spencer doesn't believe Eisa cared, merely that everyone saw very little of Eisa at all for the first 2 to 3 months after her initial disappearance. All anyone ever heard was teachers lauding her work in the classroom, berating students for their lack of commitment when someone who wasn't here was constantly getting better grades than them. So with all this contextual evidence whipping through her head, Spencer, the Nancy Drew aficionado that she is, wonders what exactly happened during those three months. She considers asking straight up, but then decides better of it, Eisa's never been particularly open. Her mulling has taken the entire drive to school, and she parks swiftly in a spot near the entrance. 

"See you in English, try not to make anyone cry," Spencer jokes as she waves bye to Eisa, Spencer heading in the direction of the library and Eisa towards the Gymnasium.

Eisa pulls her lightly curled hair into a soft, low side ponytail, taking a deep breath before she walks through the doors of the gym. The whole of the squad silences themselves upon her entrance, stiff in the stillness of their mid-stretch freeze of something like fear. They do manage to unobtrusively continue stretching, their eyes following her through their periphery as she walks to the bench, leisurely setting up before she turns to them.

"Alright sluts, you know what you're supposed to be doing, but for those of you that are morons, let me restate what you should be doing. Over the next 2 hours, you should have done four different stations. In the south, you have the strength training section, arms and legs for stunters and tumblers, core for flyers. West is for stretching, push everything you do twice as far, I want a straight back and legs behind your head, this also a great place to work on your jumps, so Jess, that's you, your hurkies suck, you and I both know you can do better. North is cleanliness and speed, you're doing suicides, sprint to one end, full push up burpee, to the other end, lie down, sit up, lie down, nip up, repeat. East, I want you practicing consistency on your tricks, flips, if you turn, you get that turn perfect, no wobble over and over. Same with your roundoff's into your tricks, Amy, your back tucks have been sloppy, fix that shit. Half an hour in each spot, then you can go, don't be shit, and go!"

Eisa claps to end her set of orders, which set the whole group off, the main bases of all the routine's stunts go immediately to the south, some already going straight to the dumbells and weights. The team's regular tumblers go straight to practice their tricks, the rest spread themselves out. Eisa herself joins those working on their strength, but before she can make it there, Jess herself walks up to her, all meek as can be, and taps her on the shoulder.

"Yes, Jessica?" Eisa doesn't make eye contact or stop from the beginnings of her workout.

"We were, well the whole squad briefly discussed if maybe, well, we could do a dance routine? We're just feeling a little less... Inspired?"

There's tense silence, the whole group isn't surprised by the statement, expecting it, clearly already having discussed it, and yet, no one really thought the words would be said aloud in the presence of the great bitch herself.

"Normally, I'd really consider acquiescing to such a request, but really, I just laid out all the reasons that that is the dumbest question, especially coming from you. But here's the deal, sluts and hoes, if I see genuine improvement in the things you and I know you need to improve, then I will give you some fun chore next time, till then, shut your faces and GET TO WORK!" 

The whole of the squad shrinks into their skin as Jessica rears back to get far away from the shrieking redheaded captain, and all get right to work. Eisa herself falls into the mindlessness of push, of pain, of pull, of strain, of on and on into the work. The freedom of thought gives her no pause, it gives her the unencumbered quality of privacy, where she can think about Toby, about A, about the girls, and the place where her thoughts have inevitably ended up time and again since the Halloween where the world began to fall apart, or maybe fall together. Jason DiLaurentis. The sounds of the raw quality of his vinyl copy of Fleetwood Mac's self titled first album, the dulcet tones of Stevie Nicks warbling out the words to 'Rhiannon' as Eisa lays comfortably on his chest, each of them taking a pull from a blunt. She remembers, with an absurd clarity, how she was wearing his track pants, the drawstring pulled taut round her waist, and his far too large hoodie, an epitome of comfort and lack of care, lying in his messy bed that smells of them, doing what the world thinks she would never be caught dead doing, and she remembers thinking, 'thank fucking god I have him, I might have died'. Which is absurd, but not, she thinks, entirely wrong. She might've permanently died inside when she lost her best friend if she didn't have the tiny lifeline of the person within she suppresses having had an outlet in him. She might have lost all the little tiny parts Ali left behind when she took most of Eisa's soul with her.

But enough of her regularly scheduled melancholia, she sounds like an emo scene kid, all mopey and self pitying. She remembers what Dr Sullivan told her about telling the sad voice to fuck off and listening intently to the little voice trying to tell you all the happy things. So she listens, and she listens well, so intently for this little voice in her head, she's heard him before, the sweet wonder he can whisper, but nothing, it's silent. 

And again, like she's moving through her life asleep, she finds herself finishing the last of her workouts, ten minutes to spare to check out everyone's progress. Everyone performs what they think they needed to improve on, it's a self evaluation that works to show her who is putting their all in, who is delusional, and who is just slacking off. Thankfully, none of the latter, and a lot of genuine improvement. She tells everyone to keep practicing at home and they'll have a pure dance session next time, but it's Amy's back tucks that worry her. So she calls her over after everyone is dressed and going, going, gone, while she puts the finishing touches on her hair and make up.

"Amy, sweets, is something wrong?"

"N-N-No, I, nothing, I don't think," She barely stutters out the beginning before she fumbles on into the rest, a rambling apology about not making enough progress today, that she knows she's sloppy, she'll do better. Eisa stops her with a rare soft voice.

"Hey, hey, it's ok. I'm not mad. I could see the effort you put in. You got a lot more height, it was great work. But at the end, for the last two weeks, I've seen you stumble to your right just after you land. Once or twice, I can put that down as a rare fumble, three to four, some problems with your core and balance, but this many fumbles, going on this long? I'm starting to worry about your leg? This is me, as someone who is regularly a hard ass but cares for you a lot, I promise. Is something bothering you?"

There's a sniffle, then the shaking of shoulders, all while the eyes remain to the ground, and then the dam breaks, and Eisa has an armful of sobbing 15 year old, who is trying to get out something, but her words are just drowned out by her crying. So Eisa rubs her back, and soothes her, gets them both to a sitting position and waits out the worst of it.

"Now, big deep breath for me, and tell me whats going on, huh?"

"I-I... My little brother had a tantrum a couple of weeks ago when I was helping him learn tricks on his scooter, and it didn't seem like much at the time, but the side hit my ankle, and I don't know, I'm used to so much hurting all the time, the good, hard work hurt, that I figured this was fine, but every time I did a trick it got worse, and you started noticing it, and I didn't wanna get in trouble for something so dumb so I just said nothing and I'm so so sorry."

"Amy, it's fine, it's totally fine, I'm not mad in the slightest, a smidgen worried, but not even a little frustrated with you. This stuff happens. Okay? So I want you to go splash some water on your face, I'll call your mum, and we'll get this all sorted out in a jiff, yeah?"

The young girl, relieved, nods and runs off to get a breather, Eisa taking the lonely moment to do the same before pulling out her squad folder, finding Mrs Bandhauser, dialling the number and waiting through the rings.

"Hi, Mrs Bandhauser? It's Eisa, Amy's cheer captain?"

"Eisa, oh god, is Amy ok? Did something happen at practice?"

"Amy is, for the most part, fine, we've just had a discussion that I think needs to be dealt with."

"Dealt with? You didn't catch her with drugs did you?"

"No Ma'am, just a history of a troubling looking fumble on her back tuck, once or twice I'd brush it off, but it'd been happening regularly enough that I was a little worried. Amy explained that her younger brother accidentally hit her in the ankle while she was teaching him some tricks, and she shrugged it off. It later became a problem, but she thought it would go away. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind just coming to pick her up, take her to the doctors, make sure this is dealt with now that we know?"

"Oh thank god, oh, she's still standing though?"

"Yup, she's a trooper, but it's important this gets looked after, the things I'm seeing aren't the result of a sprained ankle. She'll be fine, but the sooner the better."

"I- oh, you don't think it's broken do you?"

"I'm not a medical professional Mrs Bandhauser, but I wouldn't say no way."

"I- oh god, I can't afford- we- I can't afford anything, not right now."

Eisa pauses, breathes, thinks, checks her notes and, yes, Mr Bandhauser is dead, single source of income, they really don't have the money for it.

"Look, I'm going to offer you something I don't offer to everyone, and I'm going to need you to keep it a secret, can you promise that?"

"I- I- I- Okay?"

"I have a spare card I use for girls who really need medical attention, I understand money does not grow on trees, but my parents have too much to look after three people, and I will give you this card to use for this purpose, but you cannot tell a soul. Understood?"

"Well, yes, but I don't understand why? I mean, why can't I tell anyone?"

"Some girls will call it favouritism, other girls will use as a way to bully those without money, and I especially don't want people going around acting as if I'm some sort of magical Good Samaritan. Cheer is a dangerous sport, and it is my job to keep these girls fit and healthy till they decide they're done. That's what I do as captain, I'm not going above and beyond, I'm doing what I have to do, with what I can do."

"Y'know, you are a surprisingly kind young woman."

"Shhh, it's my best kept secret."

"Thank you, Eisa, so much for this."

"No worries Mrs Bandhauser, you have a much better day."

The woman return the goodbye and they both hang up, the weight of the moment leaving Eisa's chest, but not completely. She helps Amy gather all her things she brought for the school day, gets them to her mothers car, gives her mother the card, writes down everything she needs to know, and sends them on her way, at which point, she's already missed half of English, may as well go straight to the Vice Principals office to explain, he's fond of her, or more accurately her parents money, and thus she could get away with smoking weed on school grounds. So once more unto the breach she goes, into the lion's den of life, her happy little corner of purity left behind.

Unrelated And Oh So Separated

Eisa leaves the girls with a wave as she walks to her car, the school day finally over, having finished her dealing with the Vice Principal and gotten the card back from Mrs Bandhauser, along with the news that Amy only had a bruised tendon and needed four weeks of rest. All in all, a pretty good day. And yet, as she goes to start her car, she hears her phone alert her to a new text message. She almost wants to ignore it, pretend it isn't happening, pretend she doesn't need to look right away to confirm her fears of another order from A. But no one has ever thought her to be an ostrich before, and burying her head in the sand isn't her modus operandi, so she puts on her big girl panties and checks the message.

For a moment, she's relieved, its not A, but then she reads who it is from, and what the message pertains to, and a little part of her thinks it might actually be worse.

Hey babe, I think we should have dinner tonight, get to know each other properly, I'll be at your place at 7, see you then.

- D

Great, dinner with Wilden. And this time she actually has to talk to him. She sends an affirmative back to him before driving home, wondering exactly how she's going to pretend to actually want to be dating this Grade A asshole.

Then again, she has long been praised for her outstanding skills in acting, and he isn’t completely hideous in anything other than manner, furthermore, judging by his performance on their first… Well, she’d be remiss to call being picked up in his car, taken to his bachelor pad and having sex with him a date, but she supposes that for this sham it’ll have to do. But regardless of his lack of romance in getting her there, once she was in bed, it certainly was enjoyable, she supposes, though her comparable experiences were gentler, kinder, softer, altogether more reverent. She supposes that she might grow to be content with the whole situation if she gives it a chance. But that’s the kind of lie a girl like her has to tell herself in situations like these.

As she’s driving home, she absentmindedly turns on her radio to fill the air while she thinks about what groceries she has, what groceries she needs, flicks a quick text affirming the ‘date’ and asking if he likes steak, never really paying attention to the song playing in the background of her ride. She hears snippets of the lyrics, peaches and cream, strawberry wine, ribbons and curls, but none of it registers. Instead, she’s too busy checking her phone when he responds with a pro-steak opinion, so she doesn’t notice that in the time since she’s gotten out of the car to go to the store, and gotten back in with the steaks, the same song has begun anew. But none of that matters, because it remains beneath her notice.

Instead, she checks the time, just hitting four o’clock, which leaves her with plenty of time to clean her house, make it look lived in, set the table, cook the food, all the things whirling through her mind to set themselves upon her imaginary checklist.

Meanwhile, where Eisa can see nothing, Hanna arrives to The Grill to a horrid surprise, a father, her father, and a woman and her teenaged daughter. Her new family. And not too terribly far from there, Aria arrives to her beloved beau’s apartment, with a kiss and a cuddle and the wonders of young love… Well young for her at least. It’s starting to get dark, and Eisa is in the midst of cooking while two doors down Spencer is frightened near out of her mind by a rattle. By a thud. By a… Wren? Not fifteen minutes later, it hits exactly seven o’clock at night, and Darren is the timely type.

She hears the knock at her front door, but with a steak sizzling in front of her, she doesn’t really have the option of answering it herself, so she calls out for him, she assumes its Darren’s arrival, to let himself in and find her in the kitchen. He does as much, his large hands expansive where he places them on her hips, his lips in her neck, his height towering over her, looming.

“Smells delicious.”

“It’s not much really, just steak, homemade chips, salad, nothing really fancy.”

“I’m surprised a girl your age knows how to cook at all. Especially a girl like you.”

She wants to be enraged. She is no girl, and she certainly is not the girl he thinks she is. But she blushes prettily, smiles sweetly, and tucks her head away from him demurely.

“I don’t really like people serving me, I’m kind of independent, and my parents are never really around so, there’s really no one but me,” with that, Eisa finishes off the steaks, plating them up and taking them to the table. She nods to where a wine bottle sits on the bench. “There’s a particularly nice Chavel Blanc if you’re so inclined.”

He picks it up and looks at the label, and asks her what any of it means.

She explains all the fanciful aspects, the classification, the where, the when, the price, the taste, the why, and he gains a shark like grin, holding the expense of it in his hands the same way his hands not long ago grasped at her body. He finds two glasses, not one, and fills them both.

“Shouldn’t you be worried about underage drinking?”

“I have a feeling your mouth would look stunning in a sweet dark burgundy, don’t you think baby?”

He words the question in such a way that she knows she doesn’t have a line after this, the scene filled with his words, and she blushes genuinely, surprised by it, because so few people ever truly compliment her, say it without fear. She accepts the wine, his fingers brushing hers and she has to force herself not to recoil, and a little part of her isn’t forced at all.

And while he charms her, he uses his classic blonde blued eyed features against her, her friends continue to face their own dangerous adventures, Aria remains in a similar situation to Eisa, with an older man with all the right words. But she doesn’t know the monster of the deep hunting her in nigh unswimmable waters. And likewise, Spencer is charmed by a disarming older man, each of them not knowing that they remain in the same horrid boat, too young to know the danger they each are truly in. Hanna struggles with the passive aggression of her fathers fiancé and the self involved blonde that reminds her of a dislikeable Alison that he plans to call a daughter. But somewhere not too far from Eisa and Spencer is Emily walking out of her home to put the photo strip in the bin, ripping it between the two figures within, trying to dispose of the evidence of her greatest secret. There stands Toby, and though he says ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’, she knows he’s lying, knows he say her, and Maya, and the kiss, and with fear in her eyes, she tries to trust him with her shame.

But Eisa is starting to get tipsy, the wine is heady, and now, after her third glass, she giggles unreasonably, truthfully, at every second thing out of Darren’s mouth, because he’s Darren now, her boyfriend. Her man. At some point they’ve finished the food, and she stands in her heels, the ones she’s been wearing all day to the point of numbness, and goes to move the dishes to the sink. But its that numbness, and the tipsiness that she does not figure into the equation. It’s the numbness and tipsiness that cause her to stumble as she reaches to take his empty plate, and even for all the disadvantages laid before her, she manages to land gracefully in Darren’s lap. He takes her plate off her, placing it on the table as he cradles the tipsy girl to him.

“I think we should leave those for later,” he says, before kissing the last droplet of wine from her lips. “I was right you know?”

“Yes you were… Come upstairs?”

She stands again, ditching her heels to walk without falling, leading him by his tie up the stairs to her room, with bookcases and locked shelves, her bed dressed in red and black, and she leads him to it as he unzips the clinging dress she wears. She undoes his tie, unbuttons his shirt and on and on the ritual shedding goes, till they’re beneath, till she’s beneath, till he has conquered her again.

Hanna is eventually saved by a Spencer SOS that the others miss, in desperate need of a ride to get Wren where he needs to go, and for the second time that day, A uses the radio to get their point across. And though Spencer returns to the car, her lips tingling from an older mans kiss, it doesn’t take long for her buzz to be killed by the two girls’ realisation that they’re playing a much larger more dangerous game than they know the rules for. A realisation that Aria is just now finding out as she returns to her mother holding a letter of dreaded contents.

A possibly terrible night for Eisa has turned out not awful, and the girls had intended adequate nights that turned dark and horrid. Darren is showering as Eisa pulls her underwear back on, now sober from the events after she entered her bed, when she rushes to check her phone, an awful feeling settling over her pushing her to worry for her friends. That’s when she sees the SOS from Spencer, calling all the girls to her house. She panics for a moment on how she’ll get out, leave Darren here? She sticks her head into the bathroom to speak to him, no exact plan in mind.

“Hey, Spencer just texted me, some sort of boy drama, she needs me ASAP, you good to let yourself out? I promise to make it up to you Sunday night.”

He steps out of the shower then, turning off the water and wrapping a towel around his waist. He smiles condescendingly down at her before leaning to peck her on the lips. “Sure thing, go be with your friends, but I’ll take you up on Sunday for sure.”

She shakes off the way she feels small inside with his dismissal and dresses in a skirt and top, covered with a leather jacket, slipping back into her heels she left downstairs before rushing to Spencer’s on foot. She arrives about the same time as Em and Aria, and Spencer rushes them up her stairs to her bedroom, where Hanna awaits them with the message in the mirror, written in the same shade of lipstick Ali liked to wear. The girls are staring at it but the whole room is starting to freak Eisa out, which she says.

“Come on, lets go downstairs, I need coffee before any of us try to deal with… that.”

The girls follow, Spencer making a pot of coffee that all but Eisa refuse, the two coffee addicts humming into their mugs of inky blackness. Aria is the first to speak.

“A sent my mom a letter about the affair… That my father had with one of his students.”

“A sent Noel a text and made me tell him about my summer, and this guy I slept with… He hates me, well and truly hates me.”

“A dedicated a song to me on the radio.”

“A did… that.”

Hanna is the first to suggest the logical thing. “Time to unblock the monster?”

“Here comes the wave,” is Spencer’s defeated reply.

 

Monday To Sunday, There Are No Fun Days

After everything that had happened that weekend after A’s little break and enter event, spending the night with the girls, waking up to the video filmed inside Spencer’s closet and finding the lipstick there, and the Sunday spent with Darren, unfortunately, Eisa wakes Monday the same way she has for the last several weeks since the world decided it hated her. On the wrong damn side of the bed. Not literally of course, although she might consider that fact debateable given she’s woken up being spooned by the blonde blue eyed asshole behind her way too often for her liking in recent days. And yet, she still has to get up, get dressed, pack her outfit for the day into her workout duffle, ensure she has everything she needs, and leave Darren alone in her home with a kiss goodbye that he requests, nay demands.

Cheer practice, as per usual, is a blissful escape from the terrible land she lives in now, where she is inundated with her secrets, and the ever present fear of her closest friends. Instead, she’s in control, the way she likes to be, holding all the power, and the only fear she knows is fear of her which she wields with a devastating precision and glee. An apex predator in a room full of prey. So she lets her softness reign in this safe space, where she can protect it from the rest of the world, gives them what they ask for, is a kind leader, shows them her hard work, and lets them enjoy it. Lets them dance without rules, lets them express themselves, gives them the freedom of mistakes, and revels in the peace it all brings. In the smiles that fill the room. In this simplicity.

Her joyous perfection is shattered the moment she catches up with her friends, seeing their frowns she assumes yet more terror haunts their lives, and unto the breach she goes to throw herself, violence at the ready for whatever punch A has to throw at her next. She finds she doesn’t want to. She’s so used to trying in utter constancy to be there for them since this all began, but just as she’s about to reach them, just about to greet them and ask for an update on what was likely a terrible weekend, she sees Mona, a friend she chose for herself, and realises where she’d rather be. 

“Hey there mon petite chou, I feel like I haven’t seen you in an age!”

Eisa uses the French endearment as she is want to, a sparkle of joy in her eye she’s been lacking for sometime, and when she finds the same gratifying sparkle in Mona’s responding laughter coloured eyes, she knows she has chosen her day right.

“Well gee, I wonder how that happened?”

“I know, entirely my fault, I think I might have gotten a little confused. Something about Alison and reverting to old habits, I promise, I’m back to being me, no more old Eisa, I swear.”

Even through the joy and the friendship, she sees the distrust hidden in Mona’s eyes, and hopes a show of good faith will wipe it from her, and so faith she will show. So she loops her arm through her friends’ and pulls her down the hall to their class.

“I certainly hope that, while I’ve been out of commission, you’ve been a much busier bee than I.”

“Yes I have, oh great one. So, news is, Karol, with a K, not with a C, is going to spend the rest of this semester and all of the break abroad in the ‘UK’,” she mentions the country in physically expressed quotation marks. “But, and here’s the juicy part, she’s actually going to rehab in Manassas Virginia.”

“Ok? That is not such a whoop Mon’s, lots of rich girls go to rehab, besides, like there’s a girl our age who isn’t a borderline alcoholic or complete and utter stoner? If you’re calling this news, then we’re at a small town radio station with a total of five listeners.”

“That’s the thing, I managed to find out from one of her not so loyal friends that she’s been doing cocaine. Apparently her ‘any party, anytime’ motto was a bit too strenuous and she needed the extra pick me up to get through.”

“Woah… Talk about burying the lead. Coke? That’s… Where do you even get coke in a place like Rosewood. I see why you’d bother, this place is usually a snoozefest, but really, we’re not really a hotspot for hard criminals.”

“The friends don’t know for sure, but she has, like, a way older boyfriend, and he lives in Philadelphia. Cops haven’t heard a word about it, parents found it in her room and are keeping it quiet.”

Eisa wrinkles her nose in distaste. “Well, I simply can’t leave it that way. Weed is one thing, coke is just tacky, and I won’t have anything that tacky in my town. Consider that secret out. Anything else?”

“Nada, the grapevine has been particularly juiceless and lacklustre whilst you’ve been away.”

“Pity, I was looking for a nice piece of fruit to sink my teeth into.”

At that, they part for their assigned seats, forced to do so because of Mr DiCrucio, their chemistry teacher, being the kind who favours the alphabet over free will of students. He is not, however, so attentive as to notice Eisa texting blatantly at her station while he begins his lecture on safety in the lab.

Hey sweetie, heard at school about a girl going to rehab in Virginia. Didn’t think much of it till I heard what for. Cocaine she got from her older boyfriend who lives in the city. Karol Kapochnek. Thought you should know. xx

- E

She sends it off to her… To Darren, and puts away her phone to focus up on chemistry, fully anticipating a perfectly normal day as any had been for the last year.

Her week passes rather normally, or as normally as she can manage. She can’t quite totally ignore the girls and their unfortunate stalker due to the many update texts she gets from her so called friends about the lipstick, and the office, and on and on they go, like eager little novice detectives. She, by and large, responds with an ‘ooh’ or an ‘ah’ and leaves them to it. By Friday Karol and her skeevy boyfriend are arrested and the harder drug problem is off Rosewood’s streets. And all Eisa does with this time is shop, and captain a cheerleading team, and study, so, y’know, nothing at all right? At least, that’s the girls’ perspective on her ditching them for most of the week.

That is, until she can avoid the girls no longer, and by Saturday evening, she is re-imbedded in their ever lasting drama, Spencer and Hanna demanding her presence at the grill as they debate over the viability of Jenna as their stalker and blackmailer.

Spence pulls out the lipstick they found in her closet, obviously worn down when she pops it open, still safely ensconced in the zip lock bag. “I saved it, just in case.”

“I’m telling you, that’s the lipstick Jenna was putting on in the elevator,” Hanna’s adamance irritates Eisa enough to comment.

“Okay, and? It’s not exactly some rare lipstick, its cheap basic red. I agree, she’s suss as hell, but not because she wears red lipstick Han. I wear red lipstick, am I blackmailing us?”

“Fine, even if we ignore that, that’s still the same lipstick Ali used to wear, same shade, same tube. And what I’m really wondering is this. Why was Jenna in an empty room for over an hour?”

“I think we should call the police. I mean, there are fingerprints on this tube,” Spencer whispers conspiratorially, making Eisa wonder why they chose to have this conversation in the middle of a crowded restaurant.

“Uh huh, ours dumbass, we all touched it.”

“Eisa’s right, all it’ll do is make the cops question us even more. Look, I’ll get into the office, see what I can find, and we’ll deal with it from there…” Hanna is distracted by something off to the side, drawing Eisa’s attention in the same direction to find Toby.

He sits at a high bench on a stool, coffee in front of him and a copy of JD Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye open in his hands. He eyes the girls uncomfortably, and Hanna clearly notices the way his eyes linger, interpreting it as the behaviour of a stalker caught in the act. Eisa tries to make eye contact with him as she tunes out the girls, any form of contact with her friend, but he avoids her smoothly, clearly still tender from their last interaction, and she doesn’t tune back in till Spencer calls a surprised Emily over to their table. She quickly tunes back out when she sees Toby getting up to leave.

“Look, guys, I, uh, just remembered I have a date tomorrow so I have to get my homework done tonight, I’ve… I gotta go, see you!”

She’s out the door before the word bye even passes their lips, chasing the boy down the street.

“Toby! Toby please, would you just- Don’t make me chase after you in heels, I can do it, but I’ll be mad.”

He pauses, and she isn’t sure if it’s just the dark dim light of the evening or a trick of her eyes, but she swears she sees his shoulders shake in a snicker. He turns, leaning against a brick wall like the gritty alternative male protagonist of an eighties film glorifying rebellion and teen stupidity.

“What Two-Face?”

“Toby, would you stop acting like you’re some scary dude. You can’t frighten me.”

“You sure? I can sure frighten the rest of this town, and the rest of your friends. I see the way they look at me.”

“They just… Only see you the way Alison framed you. They can’t see outside that narrow little view she painted, even now.”

“What, and you can?”

“I never listened to Alison. Never believed her bullshit. I know you. And I know you like her.”

“I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

“Fine, but just… give her time. She isn’t good at being an outsider, and she needs those girls as much as I need my reputation. Don’t give her the ultimatum you gave me. Just… Be nice. She’s my friend.”

For the first time in the conversation, he looks up from the ground, his eyes connecting with hers solidly like a punch in the gut.

“You really care about her…”

She can say nothing to that, to his genuine surprise at his realisation, so he laughs, dumbfounded in his newfound knowledge.

“Ice queen has a heart after all.”

As he walks away, she calls after him. “Ice queen will still freeze you to death if you step outside your bounds Cavanaugh!”

Alone on the street now, she breathes, smiling a little with the hope that maybe, just maybe, two of her friends are seeing lights at the end of their tunnels.

So that’s her week, nothing, and blah, and her very boring new normal, and unlike her little gang of lying miscreant friends, Eisa is beginning to settle into it. She hopes.

Whether or not it’ll stay that way, well only one person knows, and she doesn’t seem inclined to share. 

Merciless Martyr Must Party Harder

For a whole week, the girls watch Aria mope and moan about... Well she doesn't quite say what, but given her parents' marriage is shattering before her very eyes, they assume it must be that, and Hanna certainly has the experience to back it up. Even Eisa supposes it must be true, she remembers the similarity between the wreck Hanna was then and the Aria they've all experienced for the last week. Her depression sweats were starting to mould to her body, and the whole group was finally over it. Given that, Eisa does a quick round trip in her car, picking up each of the girls and stopping by the shop to grab essentials, and as they go, the group sings along to the radio, dancing in their seats with the top down, the picture of youthful exuberance. The giggling and jovial tone of the group continues as they exit the car, but it soon dies down as they actually hear the fighting inside the home they are approaching. Eisa hesitates before knocking, and its answered by a red faced Mr Montgomery, who, upon realising he has guests, and who they are, looks mighty sheepish.

"Girls... I- Now isn't a good time."

"Mr Montgomery, Aria hasn't worn anything but the same pair of sweats for a week, there is no time like the present."

The man seems to have been sufficiently chided by the red head leading the group, his head dipped as he stands aside to let the gang of girls by. Eisa leads them past him, and Aria's mother who stands, silently fuming, in the kitchen, continuing up the stairs and into the bedroom of their pocket sized friend who is snuggled up under several blankets, earphones blocking them out. They walk up behind, not intending to sneak, but judging by the way she jumps when Spencer removes her earbuds, they did so anyway, and she doesn't look to happy about it. She gripes at them, clearly not particularly in the mood for company.

"We are having an intervention, we brought take out, and rag mags, and trashy romance movies, now up, up, up," Eisa takes charge, pushing at her friend playfully.

"None of that, though, can happen till you're out of the sweats," Hanna, likewise, is on the same thought train as her friend, determined to bring Aria out of her slump, whether she likes it or not.

"Okay Commandant Janusson, jeez. What is wrong with my sweats?"

"Nothing," the group answers defensively as one, trying hard not to hurt her feelings, and as it looks like no one will say anything, Hanna takes the lead with her brutal honesty.

"Except they're starting to graft to your skin."

Aria snuggles into herself, pouting. "But I'm comfy," is mumble into her own knees.

"Yeah, well, so are mom jeans, flip flops, crocs, and any number of fashion don't's," is Eisa's snappy addition to the conversation.

Emily, however, tries to soften the groups approach all on her own. "Besides, how else are we gonna help you pick a homecoming dress if you don't model for us."

"Easy. Not going."

"Woah, woah, that's... impossible! You have to go! It's homecoming!" Eisa and Hanna both are horrified by this turn of events, though Hanna appears to be much more concerned for different reasons.

"You're gonna cast an absentee ballot for homecoming queen, right? I need your vote."

"Lets refocus here, Han, what are you gonna do instead," is Emily's attempt to keep the conversation focussed where it should be.

"Probably read these... Inhale a gallon of Chunky Monkey... Cry while listening to Debussy."

"Okay, that is... enough," Spencer speaks up finally. "You cannot just lock yourself away and cut yourself off from the world, it's not gonna help your parents patch this up, and it is certainly not gonna help you."

"Besides, they still might work it out, people don't stay angry forever."

Emily's brief injection of optimism is ruthlessly crushed under the heel of Hanna's blatant lack of regard for hope. "He slept with a student, he didn't forget an anniversary."

She suddenly realises what she said, and who it was in front of, though it requires a sharp elbow to the shoulder to realise, whereupon she mutters a quiet 'sorry'. Thankfully, Emily is not easily beaten by negative, if a little more realistic, words, and doubles her dose of hope and positivity, which seems to encourage their pocket rocket friend at least a little. Not enough to garner a definite yes to homecoming, but a maybe is now somewhere on the cards. Which rounds Hanna straight back to ensuring Aria's vote for the election.

"God! Han, you've got the votes on lock. Would you chill?"

"Really, you can rig the election? Because even if she isn't trying to beat me, Eisa here is still in the running."

"Hey, I tried to stop people from nominating me, I didn't succeed, but I tried. I have no control over the minds of the feeble teen masses of our school. If I did, you know I would send them your way sweetie," Eisa really did try to tell people not to vote for her, had even bribed a few club captains to convince their groups to vote for Hanna instead, but she is still worried it isn't enough. She wants Hanna to win, she doesn't need a crown, no matter how much her mother wants her to have one.

"And that's a no to the rigging of the election, I already have way too much on my plate to worry about, thank you. I'm head of the committee, half of which is out sick with the flu so it's me and Eisa, and whichever cheerleaders she can frighten into helping, getting more ice, and refilling the hummus bowl, and still trying to look cute for my first official date."

There's a flurry of friendly interest in the new beau their friend has, and Eisa quickly commits to taking over as much responsibility as she possibly can to take some stress off Spencer. She just wants the girls to have the best possible homecoming ever, seeing as hers is already off the rails, being dateless and all. Between school, cheer and, shudder, Darren, she's barely had time to pick a dress. But back to the girls. They all promise to be nice and welcoming to the poor boy, Alex, but are quickly directed on to the subject of the rest of the girls' dates. Eisa watches Emily carefully, not noticing who else in the room is doing it too, as Spencer as Aria make jokes about the two girls going together.

"Who cares who goes with who to this stupid thing? It's just a dance," Hanna tries to ease the pressure a little.

"Usually Eisa... and you."

"I'm with Hanna, dates are meaningless at these things. I'm going solo, I'll join your little stag group, we can be a throuple. I'll have a girl on either arm, I will look boss as hell."

"I don't mean to disturb your dreaming oh great and red one, but, well, there is someone I'd want to bring, but I don't want people making more out of it than it really is."

Spencer immediately jumps to action, "Not Ben, right?"

There's a quick moment of tension in the room, they're about to knock some sense into her if she wants to go with her asshole ex-boyfriend.

"No! God, no!"

"So who's mystery guy then?"

"Who cares, he's not Ben, anyone else is thus, fine. Let's eat ladies."

Eisa's utter dismissal of the topic stirs the girls into action over the pile of Chinese food before them, each grabbing their favourites, while Hanna opens a fortune cookie, which she stares at ominously.

"Han, are you okay? You're staring at it like it holds the answer to the universe. It's just a cookie."

Spencer joins Eisa in mocking their friend at her weird reaction. "Yeah, Confucius says, stop being such a drama queen."

She looks up at them, and they finally notice the genuine fear in her eyes as she recites back the piece of verse on the paper.

Lions and tigers and bitches, oh my!

There's no place like homecoming.

See you there.

- A

"Just when we thought it couldn't get worse."

Spencer opens the rest, finding identical messages in each, the whole group is horrified, and eat their meal in tense silence, each of their minds working overtime, wondering what the message means. What new horror will lie in wait for them at the school dance.

Monday is yet another in a long sea of days that start wonderfully, and very quickly turn terrible once she leaves her safe haven of cheer practice. When lunch comes around, Eisa is found sitting with Hanna, checking her lipstick hasn't bled beyond its impeccable line and primping when Spencer appears behind them, manic in her insistence that Hanna get the file right that second.

"I can't, shift got cancelled, sorry."

"It's a psychiatrists office Han, just pretend you're having a nervous breakdown."

"I won't have to pretend if I lose the crown to Heather Perez!" At that, Eisa snaps her compact mirror shut sharply.

"Please, she does not have the juice, just because her and her jesus freak friends are spreading weird propaganda that she already has the votes to trick everyone to either not vote or vote for her to follow the crowd, does not mean it will work."

"I didn't know she did that..."

"Well, she didn't but it certainly looks like she did, and it's taken a devastating toll on her chances of winning."

Spencer stares at Eisa with a comically fearful look in her eyes before she swats at her so she can change the subject. "This is serious guys, that file might be our only chance to find out what she knows about that night, and whether or not she and her creepy as hell stepbrother are planning revenge-"

"Spence, I'll get it, jeez. Why the freak out?"

"Yeah, did the fortune cookie really wig you out that much?"

"It's because Toby Cavanaugh, who has never had a date in his life, just bought two tickets to homecoming..."

Hanna's eyes say everything about the majority of the groups feelings about Toby and his potential appearance at the dance after the baked message they just got, and she and Spencer both miss the twitch on Eisa's face, the beginning of a smile, that is quickly tamped down to the same serious look the others have. When Mona arrives and begins needling Spencer for her choice in date, Hanna makes a move to scold her, but Eisa gets in quicker, pinching her friend in the side.

"Mona, can we go to your locker, you said you wanted to show me something you got on the weekend earlier."

"No I..." The look in Eisa's eyes seems to change Mona's tune very quickly. "Oh yeah, that, come on, we can walk to class together."

As they walk off, Mona pouts a little.

"Oh please, do not act like you didn't deserve it, Cinderfella, really? First of all, puns, ew, second of all, those girls are off limits."

"Why? Are they really that much better than me that they get special treatment? You're the person in this school that everyone fears, including a few teachers. Why do they get a presidential pardon?"

Eisa turns to Mona who seems genuinely upset by all of this, and thinks for a moment before pulling her into an almost empty classroom. The student reading comic books within sights them and stares like a dear in head lights.

"Beat it dork," Eisa waits for the kid to scramble out the room, bumping into desks on the way, before she turns to her friend. "All my friends get the same treatment. If anyone said a single thing about you, even so much as references the days of Loser Mona, I would be on them like lion on a gazelle. You just aren't around for it. You are not less special than them to me... You're just more vicious, they don't tend to mock you to your face, which I usually love about you, but if you could just direct it at not my friends, that'd be swell."

Mona pouts a bit more but Eisa can see her struggling to hold back a smile, before finally breaking as she whined out a "fine..." The two comes together in a hug, Eisa resting her cheek on the forehead of her much shorter friend, even despite her heels.

"I do actually have a new perfume I wanted to show you in my locker."

"In a minute, we're hugging."

Mona laughs and settles into the embrace.

~~~

As Eisa bosses around the mass of cheerleaders she has threatened and cajoled into helping, she watches the interaction between Spencer and a boy she recognises from the few times she's had lunch at the club with her mother, the rare times she's home for a few days. The red heads eyes widen at the way he tucks money into Spencers back pocket, and a few of the other girls in the room fan themselves at the display, finding it totally hot. Once he walks off, Eisa sternly tells the room to go back to work before wandering over to her friend.

"Holy cow Spence, your man is smooth as hell."

"You saw that?"

"Half the girls in the room were fanning themselves, of course I saw that. Are you... blushing?"

"Shut up," Spencer threateningly points the paint brush in her hand at the other girl, much to Eisa's amusement.

"Please, you're like a puppy with a butter knife. I am really happy for you though. He seems good, like he makes you happy."

Spencer smiles at her friend through the stray piece of hair hanging in her vision. "He does."

The week passes quickly with all of the work she and Spencer put into the decorations, which end up spectacular, and soon the two are standing with Spencers date Alex, Hanna, Sean, Mona, and whoever the hell had the guts to ask her. Eisa is pretty sure his name is Mac, or Steve, or Blah. Whatever it is, their discussion criticising other girls' dates and dresses is cut short by the arrival of Aria.

"You made it! I thought you'd bail."

"No, no. I'm totally ready to have a fantastic time tonight." Aria seems reluctant despite her words, her tone saying something completely different to her mouth. Unfortunately, the comforting and friendly moment is ruined by Mona opening her mouth.

"With no date? My how the mighty have fallen."

Eisa whips her head towards her friend, scowling cruelly. "Mona, we talked about this. Go get some punch."

Like a scolded child, Mona walks away with her date, no one but Alex regarding the incident as strange, who looks at her a little fearfully as he sees the signs of the behaviour of the scary popular girls he has at his own school. The moment is thankfully shortened by Hanna offering to share her date, as does Spencer.

After waiting for introductions to be conducted between Aria and Alex, Eisa buts in with the business side. "However, you have to work before you can play. You have the first shift at the bean bag toss, I'm afraid."

Spencer calls out to her that she's a hero as she leaves the group, and Eisa notices Melissa at the same time as Spencer, suddenly feeling bad for the fact that she was the one who called her, and that she hadn't found time to mention it to her friend. She follows Spencer to her sister, trying to get her attention to explain before she can reach her older sister, but she has no such luck, and she backs off to find Mona as the two turn snippy, letting them have their private conversation.

She stands silently, listening to her friends as they mock other girls yet again, including Becky's dismal face and hair, when a boy Hanna seems to know interrupts them. Eisa watches carefully as Hanna lets Mona cruelly dismiss the boy, Lucas, a little disappointed in her friend, till she turns around to confront Mona on her rudeness.

"Am I in some strange parallel universe, E? Because Hanna just engaged in conversation, willingly, with Hermie. Isn't that what Allison called him?"

"He is not a hermaphrodite, okay?"

"Besides, Mona, you don't use stuff like that to make fun of people, there's choices in hair, clothing, friends, taste, and extracurriculars, all of which are free to target. But a medical condition they have no control over and should be respected? To make fun of that is to have no class. I didn't like it when Ali did it either. I ever hear it out of your mouth again, I'm smacking you into next week."

With that, the red head storms off, and is quickly inundated with her pack of cheerleading sycophants, complimenting her on everything they can see, assuring her she'll win homecoming queen.

"I don't want to win, I'm voting for Hanna, she really deserves it this year."

At that, they all coo about how humble and generous she is. She rolls her eyes, waving them all off, and wandering back to her friends, standing somewhere on the dance floor.

They're all talking about Emily with Maya when Aria draws their attention to the door, where the aforementioned friend of their enters, holding hands with Toby, much to Eisa's inner delight.

"Wow, she looks so hot in that dress," Spencer nudges Eisa in the ribs, as if to tell her off, which only makes her raise an eyebrow. "What? Oh no, she's with evil Toby, who I have never been as certain about as you guys, because I don't think he's all that evil."

The looks she gets from the rest of her friends make her go quiet, though not out of acquiescence to their opinions, so much as not bothering to fight them on it anymore.

"Hey guys."

There's an awkward silence for a moment, when Eisa rolls her eyes and steps forward. "Hey Em, mind if I steal your date for a sec? I need to top up the punch bowl and the drink dispenser is too heavy for me to lift on my own."

The Emily and Toby seems to talk through their eyes alone before he nods, following where Eisa leads down the empty halls of the school to find the refrigerator the thing is kept in. She lifts it easily onto the cart that is there for just this purpose, and Toby raises and eyebrow at her.

"You didn't need me at all."

"Please, I'm a cheerleader, I lift people, liquid is nothing. Though, I'll need you to lift it so I can get it in the bowl, I can't do that in front of people."

"Why not? I've never gotten you. Back during summer-"

"Quiet! Whisper, at least, people can't know where I was."

"See, it's stuff like that. You spent a whole summer with me, getting dirty, and lifting heavy shit, and not caring what anyone thought, hell, you clipped your nails to nothing, but when I came back, it was like nothing had changed. Why do you feel the need to be that way all the time, never let anyone know who you really are?"

They slow to a stop in the hallway as he calls her truth out loud, something she rarely hears, and Eisa can feel her hands shake a little in fear at the very thought of being honest, but he has her cornered.

"I... My mother has been entering me in beauty pageants since I was 18 months old. I've had my nails done, worn make up, and walked in heels of different heights since I can remember. And I was told, every moment she was in my presence, what my future held. I would spend my life working to be Miss Universe, and when that was over, I would work as a philanthropist, spending the family money on orphans and third world countries, and look amazing doing it, till I had a baby to carry on the tradition of perfect Fitzgeralds and our very old money. It's impossible for me to be anything else, to date outside the small group of appropriate people my mother deems correct, to exist outside the very small box I was born, bred, and raised for," as she finishes, she finally feels that tears have begun to leak from her eyes unbidden, and she turns away, hiding her face, or she tried to. Toby stops her, holding her face sweetly, brushing her tears away with his thumbs.

"You don't have to hide from me, okay? The Eisa that's real, the one trapped inside the box, that girl I met over summer, she is an amazing person, and my friend, and until you're ready to tell your mother to go fuck herself and be who you are, you can be honest around me, ok?"

With tears in her eyes and caught in her throat, Eisa nods. "Ok..." She slams herself into his chest, letting herself feel small as he hugs her, letting her cry a little. Once she's done, they separate, and Eisa pulls out her compact mirror to check her makeup, ensuring nothing has smudged too badly, fixing the few little messes that have occurred, and cleaning his clothes systematically, so they both look just as they did before.

"There, like it never happened."

"You are scarily good at that."

"Yeah well, when you've been repressed your whole life, you pick a few talents."

With that, they're off, and back to the party. Once the drinks are handled, she leaves him to Emily, taking the dispenser back to the fridge on her own, rushing around the room, keeping the event in order. She finally takes a break only to find all of her friends with their dates, most of them slow dancing on the floor. The sight makes her heart ache, and unbidden, the image of her and Jason springs to her mind, the one time they slow danced in his bedroom.

In Jason's bedroom, in the time before all hell broke loose, Eisa lay on his bed with her boyfriend, her head pillowed on his chest, rising and falling with his every breath. The peaceful, sweet moment, is ruined by the sound of Alison's personalised ringtone chirping from Eisa's phone on the bedside table. The two of them grown, the redhead starting to move towards the sound, despite the arms of her boyfriend trying to keep her with him.

"No," Jason whines, trying to hold on.

"She'll get whiney if I don't answer... Whinier than you, now lemme go, I'll be back in a second."

She rolls over to the edge, grabbing her phone and reading the message quickly, sending a snappily typed reply and rolling back towards her boyfriend. She pointedly ignores the inquisitive look he gives her, snuggling back into his chest. Instead of leaving the unspoken question as it was, Jason tilts her head up to look at him.

"What did my sister want?"

"She's just been bugging me a lot lately about the dance next week, training regimen, dress fittings, primping and preening, all for a dance I have to go to with some guy I don't like. I'd just... rather spend the night here, with you, with no stupid dress and heels to worry about."

Jason smiles glumly, feeling and agreeing with her frustration at the limits of their relationship, tenderly stroking her hair to comfort her.

"Y'know, if you didn't sound so upset about it, I might actually be jealous of this other guy."

She scowls, not interested in entertaining his joke. "Meanwhile, I'm gonna be jealous of every other girl at that stupid dance. Especially Emily. She gets to slow dance with her boyfriend, kiss him in public, be normal!"

She rolls off of him and sits up, turning her back to him, her hands on the edge of the bed as her shoulders hunch, Eisa trying desperately not to sob while the tears run down her face.

"Babe, babe- Eisa! Come here," he gathers her into his arms, tucking her head under his chin. "One day you will be out of high school, and Ali will not rule your life, and we will have all of that and more. We will have a picnic of nothing but ice cream in the town square, and we will go to the movies and make out in the back row like all of the other disgustingly affectionate couple, we will have everything, I promise."

Her tears subside and she sniffles before looking up at him. "I just wish we could have it now."

"Y'know, just because we can't go to the dance, doesn't mean you can't slow dance with your boyfriend."

He stands up, walking to stand in front of her, holding his hand aloft, offering it to her to take. Her eyes sparkle with the dew of unshed tears as they flick between his hand and his face for a moment before she tentatively raises her hand to place it in his. In a flash, he's pulled her up to stand chest to chest with him, the hand he offered still holds hers clenched between their bodies, his other arm is wrapped around her waist, his hand wide and softly drifting up and down her back. He sways them from side to side, humming an off key tune as they go.

"I feel ridiculous, can we at least put on some music first?"

"No, I'm creating a vibe here, come on, hum with me."

She shakes her head before doing as he says, humming a few bars of nonsense before a song comes to mind and she begins singing softly.

"Stars shining bright above you,

Night breezes seem to whisper 'I love you',

Birds singing in the sycamore tree,

Dream a little dream of me."

"Wow, Eisa Janusson, a secret cheesy girlfriend, who knew?"

"Shut up dork."

Her memory of that night fades away as her attention returns to the sight before her, of Spencer beckoning her to the entrance hall of the dance, a signal she follows quickly.

"I figured out what Toby's tattoo means, I mean, '901 free at last'? I can't believe I didn't see it sooner."

"What?"

"It's September 1st!"

"That's the day Ali disappeared..."

Eisa scowls, and rather than stay silent and jump to conclusions about her friend, she decides to remind them of something. "It's also the day he left Rosewood, just saying, who wouldn't commemorate being free of this place."

"That doesn't make sense, if he were free, why would he come back here?" Eisa rolls her eyes at Spencer insistence at disputing the redheads every point of logic.

"Hanna, you have to get that file, tonight."

"Seriously?"

"Emily will not believe us without proof, and neither will Eisa here, but at least she isn't in immediate danger from that sociopath. She could be walking into a trap!"

"Can we do it after they announce the homecoming queen?" Hanna pouts at her friends, who scoff in disbelief. "Ok, fine, fine, I'll get it. Uh... Keep an eye on Emily till I get the file. And Eisa, can you distract Sean while I'm gone?"

Eisa sneers. "Must I?"

"I can't exactly tell him where I'm going and if I tell him a lie, he'll want to come with me. Please, just keep him busy."

"I'm sure a ball of yarn will do, or a chew toy..."

Hanna sends her friend a glare, to which she holds her hands up in defence and turns to walk to her task for the evening, distract the big dumb jock boy. She pastes on her best pageant smile and brushes her hand on his elbow.

"Sean, hey..."

"Hey, where's Hanna?"

"Oh! I sent her to get more ice."

"More? Is there some heat wave I don't know about?"

"More like there's a group of idiots stealing it to throw at each other or stick down people's clothes. What can we do? Boys will be boys."

He looks at her sceptically, like he wants to challenge her.

"It's whatever, but, um, would you mind dancing with me? Unless being nice to me would be against the bro code or something?"

"... Nah, it should be fine, come on."

After a few minutes of dancing, Sean starts to look around for Hanna again, the grimace on his face growing.

"Y'know, this is such a typical Hanna move! She makes a big deal about coming to this thing together, and then she ditches me."

"You are not a very good dance partner, complaining about your girlfriend? It's a little whiny dude," she smiles kindly, snickering with a light hearted air as she teases the boy, needling a smile from his lips.

"Sorry, I just... She's been different lately."

"The Ali thing has thrown us all for a loop, just... give her time."

"Is that what broke you and Noel up? He couldn't give you time?"

"No, it's... An old rule Ali and I had, no boyfriend's that last more than six months, time was just, up I guess."

"That's cold."

"Yeah well, that's me, hell bitch with ice for a heart."

He notes the look on her face, a solemn thing, and decides to change the subject.

"Come on, I love this song, it's not the thing to have a deep chat to, you can't leave me to bump 'n' grind all alone."

She breaks out in a smile, deciding to focus on the dance, beckoning Aria to join them. It doesn't take long for the tiny brunette to ditch them, but Eisa doesn't notice for whom, too involved in the dancing, letting herself get lost in the moment with Sean.

Finally, it's Melissa waltzes up onto the stage like she owns it, taking charge of announcing the Homecoming Queen.

"-and don't forget to buy your raffle tickets for a chance to win a brand new Toyota Corolla."

As she says some terribly lame line like she's in an ad, Eisa turns to see Hanna in a guys coat waving them over frantically.

"And now, for the reason we're all here. I can still remember the feeling of joy I had when, as a Rosewood student, I heard my name called. Please welcome you new homecoming King and Queen..."

Eisa just barely hears the rest as she trails in behind the group to see what Hanna found in the stolen file, stopping in her tracks in the doorway to turn back in discomfort.

"Sean Ackard and Eisa Janusson."

She turns into the room, her eyes drop to the floor, and she backs out, before holding her head up regally and slowly walking to the stage to take her crown. In the other room, the girls are only just noticing she isn't there.

"Did you get Jenna's file?"

"No, but I got Toby's, wait, where is Eisa?"

"I... I think her name got called, she had to go back..." Aria tentatively tells Hanna, knowing how much her friend wanted this.

"Oh... That... That makes sense..."

"Hanna, focus, the file."

Hanna sniffs briefly as she opens up the file, Aria sending Spencer a sharp look to remind her to be nice.

"Right, well, turns out Jenna wasn't the patient, Toby was, they just wanted her to come in for one session to find out how she felt about Toby coming home."

"Oh my god, what else?"

"Well, the dates prove he wasn't away at school when Ali disappeared, he was still here in Rosewood."

"And?" Aria snatches the file into her hands to read it herself.

She reads aloud, detailing the conversation Toby had relayed to his therapist from that summer, specifically the night of The Jenna Thing.

"That's what Ali had on him?!"

"It's enough to want her dead."

"Us too... Emily, we have to call her!" They wait for a moment, five rings, eight. "She's not picking up."

"Well text her!"

"There's no time, we have to go find her, now."

As they rush into the cafeteria, Eisa rushes in after them, finally free from the spectacle in the gym.

"Hanna, I am so sorry, I-"

"Time for that later, we can prove it was Toby, but we gotta find Emily."

"She could be anywhere!"

As Eisa finishes her sentence, they hear the echoey sound of Emily's voice from another hall, their heads all turning before they race after it. They call out her name again and again as they run around the school.

"Um, why don't we split up?"

"Um, why don't we not?"

"I'm with Hanna, every horror movie ever says no bueno."

"Hanna, you can come with me," Aria offers.

"Why do I have to be alone?"

"What am I, chopped liver?"

"Ugh, whatever, lets just split up all together then."

As Hanna and Aria bicker about her calling someone, Eisa shushes them, allowing them all to hear the sound of a phone ringing from just in front of the chemistry room. Hanna picks it up as Eisa forges ahead to push open the ajar door to find a mess of broken glass and shelves and blood on the floor.

"Oh god... What exactly did you guys find out?"

"He... He was sleeping with Jenna, Toby, and that's how Alison made him cop to blinding her... He's sick."

"I think I'm gonna be sick..." Eisa covers her mouth rushing out of the room to find a toilet as she thinks of all the times she let him kiss her, and touch her, the same lips and hands that... Before she can get there, her nausea is stopped in it's tracks by the sound of her phone.

You should thank me,

You may have tried to throw the race for Queen,

But we both know little Hefty doesn't deserve the crown.

Without me, only you belong in a tiara,

And I'm not above swapping ballots,

As you and Spencer well know.

- A

She blinks away the tears as she realises that this bitch just used her to hurt Hanna, and still, she talks like she's Alison. Her night sucks, and she has a feeling that when she wakes up tomorrow, it won't be any better.

The Vultures Circle

Eisa sits in Emily’s window seat, her arms wrapped around herself as she sits far from her friends, listening as they try to convince the injured girl sitting in her bed that Toby is a villain. She tries, desperately, to find some way to make the whole story make sense, between what they had found in the pages of that file, and Emily’s injury, the redhead was beginning to believe that she had been duped by him, that he had tricked her the way he had tricked Emily. Finally, Spencer’s sarcastic words finally break through Eisa’s haze.

“I doubt I’d call it romantic, and I doubt Jenna had much of a choice.”

“And that’s what Alison saw when she threw the stink bomb.”

“Which is what she meant when she threatened to expose Toby, and it’s why he wanted her dead.”

“Not just her, you, all of us.”

‘Not all of us’ a traitorous little voice whispers in Eisa’s mind, reminding her that all this stress doesn’t apply to her, that she wasn’t there, that she’s innocent of this particular crime, but not of everything that happened that particular night.

“You don’t believe us?”

“I-I do, I… I just don’t get it. If Toby killed Alison and wanted to do the same to me, then why am I sitting in my bed and not in a body bag?”

“Because people knew he was with you, he’d be the first suspect, last night was probably just about scaring you, some creepy juvie tactic,” Eisa moved to face Emily as she spoke, pulling down the veil of heartless bitch she had perfected so well.

Spencer and Aria look at the two sadly, before the tall, caffeinated brunette sighed. “At least the cops will be looking for him anyway, he attacked you, and its only a matter of time before the truth comes out about Alison anyway.”

“Well…”

“What?”

“I told the cops that I tripped when I went out for some air.”

“Well, why didn’t you just tell them he attacked you?”

“I didn’t wanna say anything until I talked to you guys first.”

“The truth is in the file.”

“The file we obtained illegally… Great.”

“Well, she can still tell them everything now, and leave out the file.”

Eisa stood, teetering gracefully on her Louboutin’s to sit on the side of Emily’s bed, and just as she’s about to say something, anything to comfort the poor girl, Hanna enters, babbling about cops and the file. Her appearance makes the redhead shirk away from her sight, her guilt swirling in her gut from the events of last nights dance. She hides, not speaking as they move from discussing the file to discussing Aria’s parental situation. She silently waves and leaves with the other girls.

~~

Unfortunately, the next thing on her list for the day was the makeup photo with Sean, and what’s worse is that Hanna arrives at the same time.

“Hanna… I… Are you…? I’m so…”

“Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you speechless.”

“Please don’t think I wanted this, I wanted you to win, I swear!”

Hanna’s eyes tear up slightly, welling up with clear liquid but not spilling over onto her face. “That might be worse, you won while actively trying to lose.”

“Not really, this was A. She basically said she switched out the ballots!”

“Really? Can you show me?”

“I…” Eisa almost goes to pull out her phone. “I need to check with Spencer, there’s something about her in it, she might not want you to know.”

Hanna scoffs, “a feeling I know well. I… A told me something about Emily that I shouldn’t know, it was hers to tell me, when she was ready, and… I just feel awful, when I technically haven’t done anything wrong but still.”

“I… I feel that way now, knowing all the things I know, that Ali told me, and I wish I had never learnt them but back then… Ali used to dispose of the groups of friends she’d make for us, sometimes within weeks, we’d all be besties, and then they’d be worse than mud on our shoes. I picked up really bad habits, to distance myself from the ‘friends’ she made, otherwise I’d be losing people I cared about all the time. It was fine to me, to hurt you, to hurt any of you, because you were transient figures in my life,” Eisa finally notices the wetness on her face as her voice cracks mid word. “Then I finally saw you, all of you, and Mona, and I couldn’t believe I pushed you all away. I regret everything I ever did before Alison disappeared, and I am so grateful to have you all back in my life, that I can make amends for it. And I… I would abdicate if I could, if that would make this better.”

Hanna sniffled through her own sympathy tears. “What would abnegating do, exactly?”

“Ab-dick-cating babe, it means to voluntarily relinquish duty, specifically in reference to a crown.”

Eisa smiles at Hanna, who laughs easily, used to her friend needing to correct her understanding of less common words. The two hug tightly, Eisa kissing Hanna hair fondly, wishing she could change so many things.

“What are you doing here anyway?”

“Hoping to ambush Sean, he hasn’t spoken to me since last night.”

“Ugh, boys… I’ll help hold him hostage, don’t you worry.”

Hanna smirks joyfully. “Then there’s no way he’s getting away from me now.”

“Mm, I may be a bitch, but I have my uses.”

The two loop arms conspiratorially, walking in unison into the room where Lucas sits, smiling at his computer.

“Hey Lucas, I’m here, and I’ve brought a friend, I hope that’s cool. I…” Eisa looks toward the backdrop, expecting to see Sean, and yet. “I thought you said 1:30.”

“Yeah, are we early?”

“No, yeah, you’re perfect, both of you… I mean, uh, on time, you’re both here, when you should be, and…”

Eisa smiles sweetly.

“The custodian really didn’t wanna let me in, and he didn’t even seem to know you were doing the makeup pictures. You told him, right?”

“Who, Carl? Twice.”

“Unsurprising, he has never been the most switched on, a little too… calm, if you ask me. Just give him a fifty at the start of the year and he’ll let you in whenever.”

“Between the floorwax and the vodka, he’s an interesting dude.”

“Ooh, Eisa, come here, you have eye bags.”

“Crap, ugh, I got, like, three hours of sleep last night, save me.”

Eisa finds a chair, handing over her bag to Hanna to rifle through and attack her face with makeup with the pure artistry the girl has. The redhead zones out from then on, letting Lucas flirt awkwardly with Hanna, his moon eyes tripping him up, as the blonde fixes her face, and chats to him. She doesn’t return to the conversation till they hear footsteps approaching the room.

“Hey!” Hanna smiles desperately for Sean’s approval as he enters in the top half of his suit from last night.

“Hey. So, uh, are we gonna do this or not? I got a basketball game happening.”

“Excuse you, some of us need to perfect the face before a photo, give me a second to reapply the lip. Hanna, go chill out your boy toy before I strangle him,” Eisa winks to her friend surreptitiously before finding her lip stain and lip gloss and her compact and making a show out of checking her face, ignoring the squabbling couple all the while. It doesn’t last long, Hanna’s phone ringing shutting down the conversation and eliciting a snippy response from her boyfriend.

“Oh no, go ahead, answer it, I’m sure it’s someone who pulls rank over me.”

“Yes, well, dust ranks above whining little boys, but I need your attention anyway, I’m camera ready. Good to go, Lucas?”

“Sure, just stand near the backdrop and I’ll get to work.”

Hanna ignores the call, stepping back to watch her boyfriend crowd into her ridiculously pretty best friend’s space. As the two smile, Eisa’s perfect, practiced smile, not too many teeth, no gum shown, even her eyes falsely joining in to the façade, and Sean’s is equally as measured, none of his negative emotions for Hanna shown, and the two look like a perfect portrait, like a couple, two people that genuinely belong together. There is a squirming, sick, swirling feeling building in her gut, one she tries desperately to shove in a box, wrap in chains, and drop to the deepest level of the ocean. That feeling is made worse by the beeping of her phone, letting her know there is a text waiting for her, making her check it with fear building in her gut.

Poor Hanna, left in the cold, again.

I always told you, boys like hot girls,

Try as you might, Sean will always see you as you were,

A Hefty loser Eisa and I took pity on.

-A

Her reverie is broken by the flash going off, her mind returning to her Lucas’ voice.

“Excellent, excellent, uh, Sean, scooch in to Eisa a little… A little more, perfect, and Eisa, just turn your hips in but leave your torso… Yes, just like that, and hold.”

He takes a few more shots before pulling the camera away from his face and frowning. “Hmm, maybe, oh, Sean, if you could put your hands on her hips.”

The flash goes off again and again, Hanna watching as Sean’s hands gently glide over Eisa’s hips, softly holding them, not pulling away like he sometimes does when touching her. She forcibly holds the tears threatening to leak from her eyes at bay, and catches his eye, icy blue and holding only annoyance in their depths. Hanna takes the opportunity to speak to Sean when Lucas begins futzing with the lights.

“I said I was sorry, it wasn’t about you, I was dealing with Emily.”

“-You’re crooked.” Sean sharply cuts in, Eisa and Hanna both flinching at his harsh words.

Hanna’s eyes widen in disbelief, “what?”

“Your crown is crooked.”

It becomes evident then that he has not addressed Hanna at all, that he was outright blanking her. Eisa’s lips purse crossly, picking up her foot and slamming her heel into his foot before checking her crown, which is actually perfectly centre, much to her ever growing annoyance.

“Okay, much better… Ready your majesties? Smile for the peasants.”

Hanna steps away again, forced to watch the perfect picture the two make all over again. Tired from the night before, and with her heart in agonising pain from Sean’s callous dismissal, Hanna finds the image before her a bridge too far, and she quietly waves to her friend and leaves, giving up on speaking to her boyfriend that day.

Eisa stays silent for the rest of the torturous photo session, and when its finally done, she turns to the bland boy before her. “I cannot wait for the day you figure out what you’re fucking up.”

“Really? Because it seems to me that you and your little posse of bitches have a habit of publicly humiliating guys who only want to be there for you. As if I’d take a lecture from the slut who broke my best friend’s heart for nothing other than a little bit more power in high school.”

“Yeah, Noel did seem super heart broken with his tongue down that random chick’s throat.”

With that, Eisa exited the school with such speed and grace that not another word could be said to her. When she finally got home, she texted her friends, letting them know she’d be incommunicado, turning her phone off, detoxing, doing homework, and excited for her weekend plans. That is, until she heard a noise in the informal lounge.

“Hello? Who’s there? Daddy?”

“Daddy’s a new one.”

Eisa screamed a little at Darren suddenly appearing around the corner. “Jesus Christ, I meant my actual father, he forgets to tell me when he’s coming home sometimes. You could have texted. You scared the shit out of me.”

Darren smirked, sidling up to his girlfriend and sliding his hands around her waist. “Don’t worry baby, I’ll always keep you safe. Aren’t you glad I’ve got the weekend off; we can spend a whole 24 hours with no interruptions. Unless you’ve got plans?”

The way his hands painfully tightened on her bones was warning enough. “I did have plans actually, stay at home, alone, do some homework, you’ve been taking up a fair bit of my free time lately.”

“Have I? Or was it those girls you call friends taking up all your time? Didn’t one of them just get herself into trouble with that Cavanaugh boy, plus that blonde one you take pity on, Hanna, she’s a real troublemaker, from everything I hear around the office, though I shouldn’t really tell you, professionalism and the like. Still, I think you should be a little bit more careful who you spend your time with.”

“You sound like my mother.”

“I don’t really wanna talk about this anymore, do you baby?” He grabs her chin gently, he won’t leave a bruise, but still firm, he is in complete control when he forces her head to shake a negative response. “Good girl, now, can you grab me a beer, I’ll order us some pizza, the game’s on and I don’t want you getting up to cook tonight. Nah, tonight, you’re all mine, aren’t you?”

She lets him kiss her, a totally claiming, monstrous thing that makes her mouth feel like it’s not her own. As she goes to do as she’s been told, she flinches at the sound that haunts every dream she’s had since Ali’s funeral.

Good girl indeed,

Don’t you wish you’d behaved in the first place

And you’d be free already?

Well, free from him at least.

Me? Well bestie, you promised, till death

And only one of us has followed through on that.

Kisses - A