chapter five
reality bites me
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The girls were still at Spencers after what happened last night, they had stayed over since Spencer didn't want to be alone. Aria and Josie were sitting on the couch while Hanna and Emily were sitting at the counter while Spencer was standing at the fridge.

Aria sighed and shook her head. "A sent this letter to my Mom." She says as she looks at her friends "You know it's not your fault, right? It's your dad's mistake, totally." Emily reassured her. Aria sighed. "No, it is my fault." Aria denied. "You didn't hook up with her and then ask your daughter to cover for you." Spencer spoke up.

"Ali said I should've told my Mom right after it happened." Aria said as she diverted her attention from the letter to her friends. Her friends whipped around to look at the girl. "Ali? Alison knew?" Emily asked. "Yeah, she was with me," Aria replied as she took a sip of her coffee. "So, Alison saw this Meredith person?" Spencer asked and she nodded.

Hanna snapped her head to Spencer. "Meredith? Her name is Meredith? Ew! That's not even a cute-girl name. I'm seeing big pores and mousy roots," Hanna said, and everyone looked towards the blonde with a look. "Hanna, I think it's a little too soon to joke." Spencer said as she put the butter out of everyone.

"I'm sorry, but If you're going to cheat, you might as well do it with some-body who deep-conditioned her hair occasionally." Hanna said, making Josie sigh and shake her head. Spencer handed her a bagel "Here, put something in your mouth besides your foot." Spencer handed her a bagel.

"I'm sorry, okay? Look, all I'm saying is that when my Dad left, laughing sometimes helped. So did crying." Hanna said as turned to Aria. "Hanna" Josie warned gently. Aria stood up from the couch along with Josie and walked towards their friends. "My father hasn't left, guys. I mean, this happened over a year ago." She stopped when she saw everyone not looking at her.

"You think he's going to leave?" She asked weakly trying to keep her emotions in check, Josie sighed and side hugged Aria. "Whatever happens, we're here for you always" She told her with a warm smile which made Aria smile back. "Thank you, guys, for staying here. I couldn't have been here alone" Spencer told her friends, getting the attention of Aria. "When's your family getting back?" Hanna asked Spencer to which she replied. "This afternoon."

"Weren't you going to clean off the mirror before they get here?" Aria reminded Spencer. Once her friends noticed her nervousness, Emily spoke up. "Want me to come with you?" Spencer nodded. "We should all go." Aria suggested and they all got up except Hanna who still was sitting down. "You know what, it doesn't take five of us to clean a mirror, so why don't you four go, and I'll just wait here?"

"Fine, okay. You stay down here. Alone" Aria said and gave Hanna a pointed look as Josie finished her friend's sentence. "But make sure you lock the door." Josie said. "You spray, I'll wipe." Hanna said as she got up, but her phone ringing caught everyone's attention. "Well, the creature's back. We should've never unblocked our phones" Hanna muttered as she opened her phone to see the text

BLOCKED ID
Ever wonder what's going on
when your back is turned?
⎯ A
attachment 🖇

They opened the attachment and saw a video that looked like it was filmed from inside Spencer's closet. It was the five of them up in Spencer's room while they were looking at the mirror. "Was that shot from inside your closet?" Aria turned and asked Spencer, she didn't answer, just looked upstairs which made everyone else look upstairs too. "A was watching us" Spencer mumbled

With that being said they looked at each other before sprinting upstairs, to Spencer's room, they went into Spencer's room, and opened her closet and something fell out, Aria lent forward. "Guys. Check it out." It was lipstick, Aria smeared it on her hand and held it up to the mirror for compression, and it matched "Well shit" Josie mumbled.

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"You can't seriously think that a blind girl broke into my house. That would take a lot more than a talking GPS" Spencer said quietly enough so no one else could hear what they were talking about. "Well, I didn't say that Jenna was alone" Aria said and looked at her friends, Josie sighed and rubbed her shoulder to calm herself from last night and this morning's events. "Let's not go to the Toby place Okay?" Emily spoke in a hushed tone to her friends.

"Why not? You guys think her guide dog left his lipstick behind?" Aria said as she looked between all her friends. "Yeah, do you want to ask what your lab partner was doing last night? You know, maybe he took a break from sitting on his porch pulling the heads off of squirrels." Spencer sarcastically said to Emily as put her books into her bag, Emily was about to respond but Mr. Sheldrake came over to them.

"Spencer!" He exclaimed then looked at the girls. "Sorry, ladies, I didn't mean to interrupt, but I hope you're as proud of your friend as I am." He held up an envelope. "Congratulations. My instincts were right. This just makes it official." He gave her the envelope then left. "What's that about?" Aria asked and looked at Spencer "An essay contest." she replied to Aria as she put it inside her locker. "Wait, did you win it? Aren't you going to at least open the envelope?" Emily asked.

"Why should she? She wins an award for waking up." Hanna said in a teasing tone and Spencer just gave her a weak smile, feeling guilty already, Josie noticed and gave Spencer's arm a quick Squeeze before heading off to class to which Spencer gave a thankful smile.

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Josie walked into her class and sat at her table and just waited for the teacher to come in. She decided to take out her sketchbook to do some drawings while she waited. She was busy drawing; she didn't notice Richie had sat next to her till he spoke. "cute" she jumped and put a hand on her heart and closed her eyes to calm herself down from the mini scare. "God" she mumbled before looking at Richie.

He just laughed which made her smile. "Thank you, rich." she replied to him as she looked at him to which he nodded. "So, did you do the homework last night?" she asked him while finishing off her drawing. He snapped his head towards her, a look of confusion on his face as she looked at her, it made her laugh as she pulled out her homework from her bag. "We had homework?" he asked, making her nod as she handed him her homework to copy off, making him smile at her. "Thank you!" he replied as she laughed while he quickly wrote the answers.

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Hanna, Spencer and Josie were sitting at a table at the grille. Spencer pulled out the red lipstick. "I saved it just in case." She said to Hanna and Josie. "I'm telling you, that's the lipstick Jenna was putting on in the elevator" Hanna replied while eyeing the lipstick. "Really?" Josie asked, to make sure. "Yes! That's Alison's colour. Same shade, same tube. What I'm wondering is why was Jenna in an empty room for an hour?" Hanna wondered. "I think we should call the police. There are fingerprints on this tube" Spence spoke in a hushed tone so no one else could hear them. "Well, yeah, ours." Josie and Hanna said in sync

"Look, if you want me to answer any more questions, just let me get in the office and see what I can find." Hanna said and looked over and saw Toby. Seeing her friend wasn't looking towards her and Spencer anymore, Josie turned too. "Have you gotten any more emails?" Hanna asked Spencer shyly. "Not since this morning. Have you?" Spencer said while looking between the friends. "No. I'm just wondering." Hanna lied through her teeth.

Emily came walking in, Josie and the girls saw her. "Emily." Spencer called her over. "Hanna had a run-in with Jenna Marshall today. Sit down." Spencer said and Emily reluctantly sat down. "You know the dentist office I'm working at? Well, I was going in for my shift after school, and I was in the elevator. Jenna Marshall was in there. She had the same lipstick Ali wore." Hanna explained to Emily. "The exact colour." Hanna added. Spencer added. "She had the same lipstick as Ali, she had Alison's lipstick, she was putting it on." Hanna explained and the girls continued to whisper about the incident.

After a while Spencer got up from the table grabbing her bag too. "Where are you going?" Hanna asked Spencer, the three girls looking up at the brunette standing up from the table. "I have an early tennis day, with my dad, and I have no idea what I'm gonna wear. There, um, maybe this boy--" Spencer started to say but was cut off. "Boy! What boy? Details!" Hanna asked excitedly which made Josie giggle. "Well, there's none yet. But I'll keep you guys posted." Spencer smiled and walked away. "Are you emily?" An employee asked as she approached Spencer. "No. Em?" Spencer said as he looked back at Emily as the employee turned to her as well. "Someone left this for you." the employee said and handed Emily a CD. "Someone left this for you." An employee handed Emily a CD. Hanna and Josie looked at the disc.

"Pretty. Who made that?" Hanna asked. "Somebody from school." Emily answered. "Well, whoever made it must like you a lot." Hanna said, which Josie nodded in agreement. Emily furrowed her brows at Hanna. "No, we were just talking about this band we both like." Emily said. "Is it from somebody you like back?" Hanna asked, prying further but when Emily didn't answer Hanna added. "Sorry. You don't have to tell us anything. But Em. If there's someone in your life who cares about you then I'm happy for you." Hanna smiled genuinely. "Me too, Em" Josie piped up.

⎯ AUTHORS NOTE
updated!!!sorry took so long, i've been back at school and i've been real busy but i'm planning on updating all my books this weekend at least once <3