Н’Нˆð‹Ð•Ð„Н‘ Н’НÐ‘НˆðÐ†Ð’ | H. Marin 8

xxx

“I was afraid she wouldn’t get it done in time for the memorial.” Aria stated, pushing the big, wooden box, with the help of Spencer, into the living room. “And this was someone from your mom’s gallery?”

“Right.”

“Where is your mom?” Emily asked, looking between the two sisters. “There’s an apartment above the gallery so she’s staying there. For now.” Cassandra answered, feigning to be cheerful and not like her soul wasn’t crushed when she found out her mom was leaving instead of her dad. 

“Kind of weird, isn’t it? Your mom moving out?” Hanna pointed out, focused on whatever large piece of paper she held. “Yeah, like our dad should have left.” Aria snapped, “That’s what you’d expect.”

“Aria.” Spencer said, giving her a stern look. Said girl sighed, “Hey, I- I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. This whole thing just… sucks.” Aria summed up, sharing a frown that matched her sisters. 

“I know.” Hanna softly smiled, rubbing Cassandra’s arm comfortingly. The brunette flushed and leaned closer into the blonde, whining when she stopped and giggled at the girl. She looked up at Hanna and analyzed her features.

Gratefully taking in her gorgeous blue-eyes that resembled ones of her own, and her perfect petite nose that held an even slope with no bumps. If Cassandra wasn’t best friends with her, she was sure that she’d be jealous of how perfect she truly is. 

“You have pretty eyes.” Cassandra mumbled, whole heartedly meaning her compliment. Now, it was Hanna’s turn to have a blush spread across her cheeks and nose. “Thank you…” she replied, looking down at the beautiful girl whose head was set back on her shoulder. She had to admit, she missed her sweet and soft moments with the Montgomery before she left for Iceland. They’d spend hours just complimenting one another while doing a simple task like baking a cake or watching a movie. 

Maybe someday they will get that back. 

“Did anyone call Shelly Leonard?” Emily questioned. “Done! And I told her if she plays anything depressing, I will kick her in her cello.” Spencer responded, handing Aria the screwdriver. “Oh, what about the program?” 

“Almost done, but we should finish it before Ali’s brother gets here.” Spencer suggested, working on opening up the top of the box. “When is that?” Cassandra asked from her spot on the couch. “Tonight. And he wants to see us in the morning.” Spencer confirmed. 

At the mention of Jason, Cassandra and Hanna stood up and moved over to the girls. “You know what? I barely remember Jason.” Hanna said. “We didn’t know him; he was just Ali’s older brother down the hall.” Aria shrugged. 

“Behind closed doors.” Cassandra added.

“With his hardcore punk music vibrating the floorboards.” Emily remarked, gaining a giggle from the group. “How did he get into an Ivy League school?”

“I don’t know. It must have been affirmative action for goths and emos.” Cassandra smirked. The five girls lifted up the wooden top after unscrewing it and carefully set it on the ground. They stared at the item covered in green, packing peanuts in awe. “It’s beautiful.” Spencer muttered. “Pedestal’s already out there, next to the bench. This goes up Friday morning. Do you think Jason will like it?”

“Of course he’ll like it.”

Aria shook her head, “And years from now, people are gonna see this memorial, and that’s all they’ll ever know about Ali. She’ll be the girl they dedicated the bench to, and we’ll all be gone, but Ali will still be remembered.”

“That’s immortality, my darlings.” Cassandra spoke with a small smirk, repeating the words Alison once said to them. 

The girls were all sat by the beach, Cassandra, Alison and Spencer with their bikinis on display while the rest had some article of clothing on over their bikini’s.

 Cassandra had on a simple black bikini with some lace at the end. 

If her parents saw her in it, they’d have a fit considering half of her ass was out that day. But she was trying to impress Noel, who had recently caught her attention. 

She sat in a lawn chair with a towel thrown over it, next to Alison. She finished up her tanning session and wanted to take a break under the big umbrella in the shade. 

She had to practically beg Aria to move so she could sit down, because she knew how much Aria disliked the warm weather that only made her skin burn and peel. That’s why she preferred being under the shade and chilled. 

“I wish we could just choose the age that we wanted to be and just stay there.” Cassandra sighed, lifting the bottom of her bikini down to see how good her tan was. She grinned when she saw Hanna from her peripheral vision, trying to discreetly stare at her. “The only way to do that is to die young. Leave a beautiful corpse.” Alison observed, letting her head fall against the chair. 

“Don’t joke.” Emily scolded. “It’s not a joke,” she replied, looking the brunette up and down. “Oh, come on, haven’t you guys ever thought about how deliciously tragic it would be to die in some incredibly mysterious way? That would be superior.” Alison gushed, playing with the straw from her diet coke. 

“Is that really how you want to go, Alison?” Spencer asked with a raised brow. “Not just yet.” Alison shrugged thoughtfully. “Don’t talk like that.” Hanna hushed. “It’s gruesome.”

“It’s not gruesome,” she smirked. “It’s immortality, my darlings.”

“Where did she get that from? A movie?” Aria asked. 

“Ali was the movie.” 

xxx

“You’ve done a great job, really. Mom and dad will be happy.” Jason complimented the girls on their work. Spencer’s back door opened, and Hanna walked in. “There she is.” he grinned, pulling the girl in a hug. “Jason, hey. Sorry I’m late.”

“No problem I was just saying you’ve done some lovely work on the memorial. I might have done one or two things differently, but we can adjust along the way,” he offered. 

“Here’s a copy of the program for the dedication.” he placed the sheet down on the table.

“Oh, I e-mailed you the program that we worked up.” Spencer recalled. “Right, the rough draft. This just fine-tunes it. Uh, let’s see. If Shelly Leonard’s gonna play something I don’t think we can give her more than three minutes. I remember she’s somewhat of a showboat with that cello.” he bashed, chuckling to himself. 

The group shared a look with each other as he continued. “Is this the picture for the program?” he held up the picture of Alison that was held at the funeral. “Yes, it’s everyone’s favorite.” Emily nodded. 

“It’s the one I would have picked.” he agreed. “I thought I was gonna be able to get my whole family out here, but you know, at the last minute, my mom…” he trailed off and sighed. “It’s crazy talking about this, isn’t it? When I think about her, I think about you. The six of you, i-in her bedroom, laughing, keeping secrets. Long time ago.” he muttered, grabbing his drink. 

“I want each of you to speak. I’d rather hear from you than Mrs. Slocomb from the PTA.” he stated. “The PTA was a lot of help.” Spencer mentioned. 

“What about the rain?”

“The rain?”

“Forty percent chance before the weekend.” he informed. “Oh, um, they said that we can use the school’s multipurpose room if we have to move the ceremony inside.” Spencer replied. “Great. People think this dedication is about closure. There won’t be closure until they find out who did this to Alison.” Jason specified as he drank from his cup. 

“The cops in this town have been jerking my family around for more than a year. No more of that. I’m here to get some action and this memorial is gonna help me get it. Oh, and I’m adding one speaker to the program.” he noted, writing down the name. 

“Jenna Marshall?”

“Wait, you want Jenna to speak at the dedication?” Hanna repeated. “That’s right.” he nodded in affirmation. “Why?”

Jason shrugged, “She asked if she could.” Cassandra widened her eyes. “Jenna asked to speak?” she quietly let out a deep breath. “Is there a problem?” he snapped with a confused glare. “I-It just didn’t occur to us that Alison and Jenna were that close.” Spencer said, saving her friends from further questions. 

“Yeah, I didn’t know either. Jenna called, and said my sister was a lot of help to her after her accident. Well, concentrate on what you’re going to say. Leave the rest of it to me. Now, I’m going to have a talk with Detective Wilden and find out why they haven’t located Toby yet.” he started moving to the front door and Spencer followed behind. 

“Did we just get fired?” Hanna scoffed. “Shh! Keep it down.” Aria hushed. “Why is he talking to Jenna?” Cassandra muttered, playing with the hem of her floral top. “I don’t know. What does she have to say?” Emily whispered, trying to think of what she could possibly include to the memorial besides trouble. 

“This is turning into a nightmare.” Aria groaned.

Spencer came rushing back after walking Jason out. “What else did he have to say?”

“Nothing. He just kept smiling like he was running for office.” Spencer rolled her eyes. “Spence, why does Jenna want to speak at the dedication?” Aria asked again. 

“Why does Jason want her there,” Cassandra exhaled. “I mean, he clearly knows they weren’t friends.”

Emily trembled, “We can’t let her speak.”

“Well, how are we gonna stop her without looking like bitches?” Aria hummed. “How are we going to stop her at all? In case you guys didn’t notice, we just got patted on the head and sent off to play.” Spencer snarked, rubbing her forehead to try and ease the stressfulness of this situation. 

“You know what? You need to stay on top of him. Find out what’s going on.” Hanna declared at the tall brunette.

“Why me?”

“Because you’re the big organizer. You’ve got the laptop of all knowledge and he’s going to need some of that.” Aria explained. “Jenna could get up there and tell about the fire and Toby. She could tell about everything.” Emily said, worry laced in her voice.

“This sucks.”

xxx

“I can’t believe this. Weren’t you just yelling at me for going to homecoming with Noel?” Cassandra raised her brow at the blonde girl next to her with pleading, puppy dog eyes. “Yes! And I hate him, but I want to go see this band and Noel wants to only go with you.” Hanna was willing to dismiss her hatred for the boy if it meant seeing this band. 

“You just want to be with Sean, huh?” Cassandra muttered, ignoring the pang of hurt that entered her body when the blonde nodded. “I do.” she confirmed. 

“Han, I’m glad that you’re in love and want to hang out with Sean, but I have family stuff going on. It’s too much.” The brunette pouted. She didn’t want to be in the same vicinity with the couple and watch them make out while she was stuck with Noel. 

That would be a huge slap in the face for her. 

“But-“

“No but’s, Han. I can’t see him after hoco. He really did a number on me.” Cassandra interjected, wincing at the memory of her sitting on the bathroom floor, crying with an ice pack against her shoulder while she wondered what she did to deserve this. 

“Yeah, Cass. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to overstep, I forgot about what he did to you.” she apologized, pouting at the brunette. “It’s fine. Sometimes I forget that he’s a jerk now. I try and focus on how sweet he was in the beginning too.” she attempted to smile, though it didn’t reach her face fully. 

Hanna sympathetically wrapped her arms around the brunette, reluctantly pulling back and kissing her cheek. “I understand.” she whispered, implying something, but what exactly? Cassandra couldn’t tell. 

“Well, well, well. Something new has been added.” Alison smirked, taking Cassandra’s sunglasses off her face. “Noel Kahn inspecting the troops.” Hanna added, the girls watching as Noel was touching some girls’ arm. 

“You really shouldn’t go out so soon after a boob job. Let them drop down to where they’re supposed to be before you take them out.” Alison commented, carefully paying attention to the imaginary fumes coming out of Cassandra’s ears. 

“Prudence Finn had a boob job?” Emily laughed. “She had to do something to compensate for being named Prudence.” Alison poked fun at the girl. “Thinking about it, Cassie?” 

“Thinking about what?” The blue-eyed girl raised her perfectly sculpted brow. “Doing something like that to get Noel’s attention back onto you after your argument.” 

“Fuck no. He can go and undress that ugly bitch for all I care. At the end of the day, he’ll be back in my arms. How mad can you get at me for hanging out with my best friends and not him? That prick.” Cassandra hissed, glaring at the two on the opposite end. She saw Noel keep turning her head around at her, enjoying the jealousy radiating off the brunette. 

“Cassie like’s them brainy.” Alison teased with a giggle. “Cute, rich and brainy,” Spencer included. “You get the whole package with Noel Kahn.”

“Yeah, even the insecure and childish part.” Cassandra glared at them, gaining chuckles from the others. 

“You know, personally, I like someone with a little more maturity. Not that Noel doesn’t have potential, he just lacks a little seasoning.” Alison shrugged. 

“He’s perfect for you, Cassie. Don’t be too coy.” Alison patted her shoulder. “I feel like I should be offended.” The Montgomery said, “Prudence better back off soon, clearly she’s forgotten her place.” she taunted, pressing her boobs together and trying to make them look as fake as possible, mimicking the Prudence girl. 

Alison laughed loudly, copying what Cassandra was doing, “Oh please Noel! Motorboat my new boobs that I spent money on for you to finally be attracted to me!” she mocked, staring at Cassandra and pretending to be Prudence. 

“I can’t, your boobs are great, but you see, I’m deeply in love with Cassandra Montgomery and she’d kill me and honestly, you’re not even that cute. Your body’s just decent.” Cassandra said in a deep voice, feigning to be Noel. 

The two girls giggled between each other, gaining confused looks from the others. Their giggles were cut short when they started walking away. “There go Noel and Prudence off to the Kissing Rock,” Alison said. “People have been sneaking off to the Kissing Rock for hundreds of years.”

“You’re making that up.” Emily caught her in a lie, grinning up at the blonde. “Just because I made it up doesn’t mean it’s not true. You go there with somebody, and you can feel the ghosts of the other lovers spying on you, pushing you to do it. You know, you should never disappoint a ghost.” Alison examined, pushed herself close to Emily. 

“It’s just a dusty old rock.” Emily pointed out. “Who do you want to take there?” Alison purred, smirking down at the tan girl. 

“If he kisses her, I’m killing them both.” Cassandra growled, crossing her arms above her bikini and pouting. “Hey, I doubt he will. He’s totally in love with you,” Hanna reminded her softly. “Plus, if all fails, we’ll be right by your side.” the brunette blushed and muttered something incoherent under her breath, scowling at Alison when she gave her a knowing smirk. 

“Fuck off.” she whispered quietly to Alison, making sure she was the only one who could hear her. 

Cassandra smiled at the found memory, remembering how she went home with Noel, who was crying in her arms and saying how much he missed her and regretted touching Prudence. He really was obsessed with her. She kind of missed that, even though he’s a jackass now, maybe he can return to how he was before.

So, she pulled out her phone and texted Hanna, “I’m sorry. Count me in.“

xxx

“This concert should be great.” Sean announced, “The most important thing about a band, is its name. I should know, ’cause I had one.” 

“You had five guys in Greg Samson’s garage.” Hanna sarcastically stated with an eye roll. “What was the name?” Noel asked, sneaking glances at Cassandra who was across from him. She caught his eye’s and smiled, taking a bite of her pizza and setting it down. 

“Oh, we had the best name ever. Tick Beaudine. It was some guy I saw in a Western when I was a kid.” Sean told them, Noel chuckling at the name, showing off his bright, white teeth. “We should get going.” he informed the group, getting up from his seat. 

“Thanks for the pizza, Noel.” Hanna smiled and got up, taking the pizza box with her. “Oh, don’t put it away. It’ll be perfect temperature when we get back.” 

The doorbell rang and Sean pointed at it with his thumb, “Oh, that’s the guy back with the crazy bread.” Cassandra turned around and shook her head. “No, Sean, it’s too late for that.”

He looked her up and down. “I paid for crazy bread; I want my crazy bread.” 

Sean went to the front door and Cassandra let out a huff. “God, he can’t be that hungry. He just ate like four pieces of pizza.” 

“Well, us guys can eat a whole truck filled with food and still be hungry after.” Noel mentioned, lifting up his shirt and showing off his abs, “Plus, we have fast metabolism’s and can still have a six pack.” 

Cassandra stared at his body and blushed, disregarding Hanna’s annoyed look. “Cass, you’re drooling.” she teased, watching her best friend’s face heat up even more. 

“Whatever.”

Noel gave her a cocky smirk and moved closer to her, holding his hand out. She scrunched up her nose and moved away, “You’re not funny, Noel! This is a brand-new dress!” she snapped, already seeing the grease from the pizza on his hands. “I’m not doing anything.” he defended himself and attempted to sneak up on her, but failing miserably when she dodged him.

“Look who’s here, it wasn’t the crazy bread.” Sean walked back with an angry glower, ultimately confused on how Lucas knew where she lived. “Hey, Lucas.” Cassandra waved and Hanna smiled and shoved the two of them away from the boys and Cassandra and talked to him. 

“I didn’t know they were friends..?” Cassandra bewilderedly muttered. The last thing she remembered was at homecoming and Hanna giving Luca’s attitude and being rude, not that she cared. Lucas was a good person. “Me neither.” Sean distastefully said under his breath.  

Luckily, for Sean, he left rather fast. “What’s he doing, coming to your house?” Sean questioned. “Nothing, just yearbook stuff.” Hanna clarified. 

“Can I talk to you, C, alone?” Noel asked, and the other two got the hint and left the room. Hanna gave her a kiss on the cheek and left with Sean. “Remind me, did I run over your dog or something? Because if I remember correctly, you bailed out on me during homecoming and left me alone.” 

Cassandra sighed, “I’m sorry, it’s just family stuff.” Noel nodded, “I know, I heard about your family splitting up.”

“Their separate, not split up.” she shook her head in denial. “Alright. Listen, Hanna told me, well more like yelled and threatened me, about the bruise on your shoulder. I’m really sorry, C. I let my anger get the best of me at times.” he apologized, resting his hand on her cheek. She closed her eyes and breathed in the scent of Noel, which was mostly of heavy cologne and a little musk, nonetheless it still brought her some comfort. 

“I just wish things could go back to how they were before I left for Iceland.” she said, leaning into his hand. “You know… I thought about you every day that you were gone. When I became a man-whore, I went for woman who looked like you. One time I even moaned your name on accident with another girl. That didn’t go well.” 

Cassandra genuinely laughed and let a smile pull onto her face that she tried to hide. 

“You’re a complete idiot.” he smiled, and Cassandra’s phone beeped, and it was a message from Spencer that said, “S.O. S.“

xxx

“So, she tried to pin it on you?” Hanna gasped, putting her hands against the cold countertop. “That’s what she told Jason.” Spencer agreed, fluffing up the pillows on her couch and sitting down, bringing a pillow over her lap.

“But, why?”

“Because Spencer could stand up to her and Alison didn’t like that,” Aria noticed, realization finally hitting her. “God, this is officially insane!”

“Is that what she told Jenna when she was at the hospital?” Emily asked, sitting down across from Spencer on the other couch where Hanna and Cassandra were. “I don’t know. I don’t think so, but I don’t know.” Spencer groaned, letting her face fall in her hands. 

“Okay, so, so one minute, she’s trying to cover it up and the next she’s ratting us out to her brother?” Cassandra said, piecing the mystery together. “Like she wanted Jason to know the fake story in case anything happened to her.” 

“Why.” Hanna whispered. “So, they’d know who to blame.” Spencer replied as she pulled the sleeves over her hands. 

“God, this is still Alison’s movie, and we are just filling up the screen.”

xxx

At the memorial, it was Spencer’s turn to speak and before she started, she looked at the girls and they turned around will confused glances. “Ian?” 

“Wait, Melissa’s Ian?”

Spencer closed her paper she had prepared and sighed. “I can’t remember not knowing Alison. Not having her as a friend. She was the first person I knew long enough that I felt I could be angry with without worrying that I was going to lose her. It made me feel like something was gonna last. And you need that, especially when you’re a kid.”

Hanna stepped up after Spencer finished. “Friends can be hard on you. Maybe they expect more from you than strangers. Strangers pretty much see you the way you want them to see you but… you can’t fool friends. That’s what makes them friends.” 

Now, it was Emily’s turn and she seemed to be the one who was taking this the hardest. “That corner of the park is going to be a safe place where you can go and sit, read a book and just think. You should think about Alison while you’re there. She’d want to make sure you didn’t forget about her.” she teared up and smiled before going back to her seat. 

“You do something like this, a memorial. It’s partly because you don’t understand what’s happened. So, you plant flowers, and you paint tiles and somewhere in the middle of all that work… you stop crying. I guess that’s the point.” Aria spoke into the microphone. 

Last out of the friend group, it was finally Cassandra’s turn. “You know, she would have loved that you were all here tonight. She would have liked the attention. And Alison laughing..” she paused and blinked back the tears, “That was amazing.”

“I still love her the same way I did before she was murdered, like a sister. Not many people got to experience Ali when she was loving and sweet and it upsets me. I’ll always think about the life she could have had. I will always get a pit in my stomach when I hear her name and a piece of me really did die with her. There aren’t different versions of the truth, there’s only one truth. Whoever murdered Alison will be found. And I hope they rot in the deepest pits of hell.”  Cassandra took her seat after she stopped talking and Jason helped Jenna get up to the stand. 

They all held their breath and waited impatiently. 

“We think we know who we are, but we don’t. Not until something bad happens to us and then all the useless things fall away, and we’re left with who we really are. I learned that from Alison Dilaurentis. My whole life, I thought I knew who she was, but I found out the truth when she came and talked to me at the hospital. I found out that she was the strongest person that I had ever met and it’s her strength that touched so many people. Shaped them. That’s her real legacy.”

Jenna exhaled and started again, “That’s how her memory will endure in the actions of those she inspired in so many different ways. From all of us… thank you, Alison.”

xxx

“I need sugar.” Hanna groaned. “Me too.” Cassandra agreed. 

“I’m buying.” Spencer offered, throwing her purse down on the table. “That was my folks, they say thanks, and so do I.” Jason thanked, putting pressure with his hands on the counter. “You’re welcome.” Emily smiled. “And I want you girls to have something. The police returned this to my family. He took a small, leather holder out of his suit pocket and opened it, throwing Alison’s bracelet down. 

“I think you should have it.”

“The police gave that to you?” Emily asked. “Alison was wearing it.” Jason stated with a frown. “You mean when they found her?” Hanna said with a staggered look. “After listening today, I just thought you should have it. I’ll be in touch.” he announced and left to go home. 

Aria picked up the bracelet and stared at it. 

“If that’s Alison’s bracelet, what about the one we found in the woods?” Emily pondered, tilting her head. “I don’t know.”

“Someone made a copy of Alison’s bracelet.” Hanna said.  

“Yeah and made sure that we would find it.”

xxx