two. the jenna thing

chapter two
the jenna thing
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All the girls were sitting at a table inside The Apple Rose Grille. They were silently drinking and eating the food that they had ordered. None of them had spoken a word since they arrived at the restaurant. Aria was the first to speak. "Why was Jenna there?" she asked, making sure to be quiet so only her friends could hear her. "I guess she's back," Spencer mumbled as she played with her cup of coffee that she was drinking. Josie groaned softly as Hanna spoke. "That cop acted like we were suspects or something." she whispered to them as they all looked at each other.

"Do you think we looked guilty?" Emily quietly asked, worry evident in her voice. "Why would we be? We haven't done anything wrong." Aria said, looking at Emily. "Except lie about the Jenna thing." Josie said as she backed up Emily's statement. Spencer looked around to make sure no one heard before talking again. "We promised we'd never bring up the Jenna thing again, remember?" she paused. "It never happened." Spencer finished. "Have you found a way to forget?" Aria mumbled back, getting sick of this topic of conversation, she paused before continuing "I still wake up in the middle of the night." Aria said before getting cut off by Spencer. "Aria it was an accident." Spencer mumbled.

Josie took a hold of Aria's hand and gave it a squeeze and she gave her a soft smile in return. Josie takes a sip of her coke as she turns to see Hanna pouring stuff from a flask into her drink, Josie and Hanna had taken notice of a man sitting at a table across the restaurant and that he's staring at Hanna, so she decides to respond. "It's medicinal." Hanna says in hopes he'll stop staring. "Cramps!" Hanna hissed, making the guy turn around finally.

Emily let out a heavy sigh before she continued their conversation. "I don't get it, how does A know something about me that only Alison knew?" Emily asked while she looked at all her friends. "No one knows mine, only Richie," Josie mumbled trying to avoid the topic of her 'A' message she's gotten after she came home from school on the first day. "Ali knew all of our secrets, but we never knew any of hers." Aria let out with a huff. "I knew some." Spencer mumbled while drinking her coffee making everyone look up at her with wide eyes. Josie made a gesture for her to continue and Aria said, "Go on." It was silent for a moment while Spencer hesitated about sharing their dead best friend's secret until Hanna had enough of the silence and decided to break it. "Talk." Hanna urged her to continue.

"I can't." she mumbled. "Spence no, you cannot drop a bomb like that and just clam up." Aria sighed while staring at Spencer. "She'd so kill me if I told you" Spencer let out. "She's dead." Hanna and Josie deadpanned. Spencer looked at everyone before talking. "Ali was seeing someone that summer."

Emily looked at Spencer with a mixture of sadness and anger. "I knew she was keeping something from me," she paused briefly looking at her friends before adding "From us." Emily finished. "Well, why didn't she want us to know?" Aria asked, slightly frustrated with this new information. "He was an older boy, and he had a girlfriend." Spencer replied while playing with her coffee cup.

"Who was it?" Emily asked wanting to know more about Ali's secret lover. "She never said his name." Spencer just shrugged. "Okay, that's only half a secret." Hanna sighed, annoyed that it wasn't that much of a secret that she was hoping. "It's more than you ever got from her." Spencer defended herself. "How was it that Ali told us nothing and we told her everything?" Aria asked in annoyance while looking around at her friends. "Because she made us feel like we were part of something special." Emily replied and then let out a sad sigh while playing with her bracelet that Ali got them. "We were." Josie added "I miss that." Hanna added feeling slightly disheartened.

"Me too." Spencer finally mumbles before drinking more of her look-warm coffee. "I miss Ali." Emily said while she looked like she was going to cry. "Can't believe you still wear that." Hanna said as she saw Emily's bracelet situated on her wrist. "Ali still wears hers" she paused before adding "Wore." Emily sighed. "When Ali didn't come home that night, I knew something terrible must have happened but there always was some part of me that imagined someday she'd just show up." Spencer let out.

"Yeah, I used to think that maybe she'd just run off with some guy." Aria added with a light laugh. "She was laying on a beach somewhere." Emily said with a soft smile remembering how much Ali loved the beach. "Or getting a tan out by the pool with that hot lifeguard." Hanna smiled at the memory as well, making Josie giggled. "Oh yeah, what was his name?" Josie asked her friends while biting her lip to contain her laughter. "Who cares? 'Save me!'" Hanna imitated and they all laughed. They were all enjoying the moment before they heard the door open and something on the tile click. They all kept their heads down and walked out the restaurant, everyone going separate ways.

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After saying goodbye to her friends that night, she had arrived home and didn't even check if her mum was home, even if she was, she'd be in bed, plus she knew Richie was waiting for her in her room. He had sent her a text while she was out with the girls.

Upon entering her room she saw Richie laying across her bed watching Halloween. The noise of her door opening is what made Him look up at Josie who just smiled softly at him. He left her to get changed before laying back on her bed waiting for her to finish taking her makeup off from Alison's funeral.

"how was it? talking to the girls again Jo?'' Richie asked as he moved so she could get into her bed as well. "It felt good, I mean don't get me wrong, i love your company but I also grew up with those girls it felt weird not talking to them."

Richie nodded before hugging her and putting the movie back on. "Let's get some sleep, we've got school tomorrow." he said as she let out a groan while he laughed and they fell asleep like that, cuddled in her bed and a horror movie playing in the background.

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Josie was at her locker with Richie, they were discussing plans for next weekend, what movie they would watch. They always did that, planning ahead. It felt like a security blanket for the two of them. When one of her textbooks falls out, she tries and fails to catch it but Richie does. He hands it back to  Josie. "Thank you." she says softly and smiles before putting it back in her locker and goes to grab her correct textbook. "No problem, you are clumsy, i knew you wouldn't catch it." he says while laughing at the offended expression on her face. "Rude! I'm not that clumsy." she said and she looked at him as he was still laughing. "Jo, you tripped over on a step on your staircase last summer!" he exclaimed as she shut her locker and her face flushed in embarrassment, but before she could retaliate an announcement came over the speakers.

"Will the following students please come to the office? Emily Fields, Aria Montgomery, Spencer Hastings, Hanna Marin and Josette Carmen." The man over the speaker said. Richie looks down the hall as it clears quickly. Her friends see them leaning on her locker and they try to hide their smirks and smiles at the pair of friends. "I'll meet you after class, I'll be in the cafeteria Jo.'' he smiles and kisses the crown of her head before heading off to his class while Josie tries to ignore the looks her friends were giving her.

The girls started to walk when they heard Aria's phone beep. She pulled it out and opened the message. "Wait. It's from A." Aria said and showed them her phone. They all looked over her shoulder to read the message

UNKNOWN
Dead girls walking.
⎯ A

Hanna read it out loud and They all just stared at each other, fear taking over their bodies. They kept walking until they arrived at the office where they were greeted with Detective Wilden. They sat down on the couch and waited for him to start asking his questions. "So, let's see. You thought you heard her scream." He said and while he pointed at Spencer. "I-I said that, yeah." she stammered while playing with her fingers out or nerves. "And when you four woke up in the barn, Alison was gone, and so was Spencer?" He asks as he reads off their statements of the night, she went missing. "Yes. I woke up before them and I realized Ali was missing, so I-" Spencer nodded and started talking but only to get cut off by Wilden. "So, you went looking for her." He finished for her.

"That's what happened." Spencer replied honestly while looking at him. "I got that. So, what's up? Was this a slumber party or-" he starts spitting out questions so Josie cuts him off. "Is this an interrogation?" She asked while straightening up on the arm of the couch that she was sitting on. "No, just a routine follow-up." He paused, "Why did you guys all fall asleep?" He asks the stupidest question ever. "I guess we were tired." Aria said exasperatedly.

"Tired? Really? Is that how you remember it, Hanna?" He asks and looks towards Hanna while Aria can see Josie's anger. She nudges Emily who's close to her and nods her head subtly towards Josie as Emily notices her clenched fists so she puts her hand over Josie's in an attempt to calm her down, which thankfully worked, they didn't need Josie hitting the cop.

"Yeah." Hanna nodded while looking at him. "Yeah, you guys were tired." He nodded and looked at his papers. "Look, we've told you everything that we know just like we did the night she went missing." Spencer said to him slightly angry they were being questioned. "I know, I know. You see the thing is, it's almost exactly what you said last year. Almost like it was rehearsed." Josie looks at him for a minute before shaking her head in disbelief. "Like Spencer said, we've told you everything we know." Aria said and he just smiled at them and nodded.

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After going separate ways after being questioned when they were all free. It was lunch and they met up again in the cafeteria. Josie hadn't been able to find Richie yet so she was with the girls. "He knows we're lying." Aria sighed while looking at her friends. "Lying isn't a crime." Hanna replied and Josie laughed softly at her and shook her head. "It is when you're giving false statements to the police. It's called obstruction of justice." Spencer whisper-yelled while looking directly at Hanna before sighing. "Oh please" Hanna scoffs "We lied about drinking. But the truth that matters is that we don't know anything about what happened to Ali that night." She replied while rolling her eyes. "We also know about someone who might have wanted to hurt her." Spencer added on.

"We should've told the police the truth about Jenna's accident the night it happened." Emily said while looking around the table at all of us. "I wanted to, remember?" Hanna growled towards her friends. "We had a chance to do more than just tell the truth. We had a chance to stop Ali." Aria mumbled while giving her friends looks before looking away. "But we didn't. And telling the police now about what happened to Jenna isn't going to make her see again. It'll just ruin our lives." Spencer told Them. They then heard a cane tapping. "Oh my god, she's back in school too?" Hanna grumbled.

Aria looked at us and then to Jenna. Aria then walked over to Jenna. "What the hell is she doing?" Josie whispered while looking at her friends before looking down and playing with her locket."Jenna? Hey, it's–It's Aria. Do you wanna come sit with us?" She asked politely. "Sure." Jenna replied and smiled as Aria grabbed Jenna's tray. "Okay." Aria replied softly as Jenna put her hand on Aria's shoulder to help herself.

"So, you're going to be between Hanna and Emily, and you'll be across from Josie, Spencer and I." she tells Jenna as she leads her to the table. "Thank you." Jenna said to Aria as she placed Jenna's tray on the table for her. "Yeah, and here's a chair." Aria said as she brought a chair from a different table and placed it in between Emily and Hanna. "So, this would be Alison's chair, right?" She asked as she sat down.

"No. We're not even sitting at that table." Emily answered quietly while looking down. "You know she came to visit me at the hospital after the accident." Jenna said and their eyes widened. "Alison did?" Josie softly asked. "Mhm, everyone misunderstood Alison, but I knew exactly who she was." Jenna added. "When did you get back, Jenna?" Spencer asked. "We heard that you were in Philadelphia for the visually impaired." Josie added onto Spencer's comment. "You can say blind, Josette. It's okay. It's not a dirty word." She said and took a sip of her drink as the girls were silent. "Wow. It's so quiet. You guys used to be the fun table. What happened to you girls?" She laughed.

FLASHBACK

They were all at Emily's house in her bedroom trying on clothes and just having fun when all of the sudden Ali charged at the window and yelled. "I can see you! Oh my god, I can't believe it." She yelled and hit the palms of her hands on the window. "Who was it, Ali?" Emily asked, worried evident in her tone. "He was in that tree spying on us!" Alison exclaimed while looking at all of her friends. "Who was it?" Josie asked softly from her place on Emily's bed.

"It was that perv, Toby Cavanaugh." she scoffs. "Are you sure?" Hanna asked from beside Josie. "Yes, I'm sure. He was right there! I bet he saw us all naked." Alison states before sighs still quite angry though. "Should we tell someone?" Aria asked her. "I mean we could" Alison took a pause before continuing her statement. "But I have a better idea." She replied with a smirk while looking at her friends.

They were walking out of the house and slowly creeped over to Toby's house and None of them liked where this was going. "Are we sure he's not in there?" Aria asked, she was scared of what could go wrong, which to be honest was a lot of things. "He's not, okay? You've got the lighter right, Spencer?" Ali asked while holding her hand out to Spencer to give the lighter. "Let's wait a second." Emily said, grabbing Ali's arm to stop her. "What, Emily?" she asks, getting annoyed with everyone.

"I don't wanna do this." Emily admits. "Fine. Go back. You're on your own." Alison scoffs. "Okay maybe Emily's right. We should just call the cops, they'll take him in. They'll take care of it." Josie tried pleading with her, but she knew it was no use.

"Where's the fun in that? Girls, Toby Cavanaugh is a freak, and we need to teach him a lesson. If he thinks he can come and 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. I mean, who knows what he does in there all day, the little freak." Ali snapped slightly agitated.

"Are you sure it was Toby?" Spencer asked. "Yes! And it's a stink bomb for god's sake. We're not nuking the place. Now, let's do it." Alison said and walked towards the garage door, she looked back at Spencer. "Give me the lighter." she said to Spencer, but she hesitated before handing it over to Alison and when she finally got it she lit the stink bomb and threw it in. 

"Let's get out of here. Run!" Alison said and we did as we were told. As they were running, they heard a bang, and the place went up in flames. "Alison, what did you do?" Josie screamed at her while holding tightly to Aria. "We have to get out of here." Hanna said. "Come on." Emily said and they ran..

PRESENT DAY

They were brought back into reality when their phones rang at the same time. They all tried to ignore it but Jenna picked up Spencer's phone and held it in front of her and said, "Aren't you gonna get that?" They all opened the message.

BLOCKED ID
If only she could see
how guilty you look
A

The friends looked at each other, frightened, Josie just sighs softly and rests her head on Spencer's Shoulder. Josie had seen Richie over her friend's shoulder so she got up, making her friends look at her. "Where are you going Jo?" Aria asked. Josie nodded her head over to Richie who was at the door of the cafeteria.

They all nod in understanding, Josie says goodbye to her friends before heading over to Richie. "Hi Rich." she says as she nears him, making him smile at her. "Hey, what did they want with you and the girls?" he asked as they walked out of the cafeteria. "Just checking our statement from the night Ali went missing." she responded as she put her hands in her jacket pocket. He nodded while wrapping an arm around her as they walked off to his locker to get his stuff for their next class

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"Okay, people, let's take our seats." Mr. Fitz said as Josie sat next to Emily who smiled at her. "Am I late?" Mona said as she walked into class after the bell. "It's Mona, right?" Mr. Fitz asks and turns to her. "That's right Mr. Fritz." She said not even noticing she said his name wrong, the whole class giggled "What?" She asks as she was confused by the laughs and the looks she was getting. "Take your seat, Mona." She walked and sat down next to Hanna.

"If the mockingbird represents the idea of innocence, what characters are innocent?" He asked as he passed out a paper. "Take a second, jot down your ideas. We'll discuss." After a few moments, Aria walked and set a paper on his desk. Must have gotten denied. She took her usual seat next to me. Her friends shared a glance and went back to what they were doing.
















AUTHORS NOTE
not much josie & richie this episode sorry but i promise you, you'll get more of them soon <3

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