Н’Нˆð‹Ð•Ð„Н‘ Н’НÐ‘НˆðÐ†Ð’ | H. Marin 6

warning: shitty men who throw temper tantrums and can’t keep their hands to themselves.

xxx

“Hey.” Aria grumbled, reaching to put her headphones back in her ear before Spencer yanked them away. “What are you doing?”

“An intervention,” Cassandra answered, “We brought takeout and rag mags.”

“But you cannot have any of those until you get out of these sweats.” Hanna ordered, slamming her hands on Aria’s sweatpants lightly. “Why, what’s wrong with these?”

Cassandra shook her head, “Nothing. Except they’re starting to graft to your skin.” she placed her hands on her hips and looked down at her sister with a frown. “But they are comfy!” she whined, reluctantly sitting up. “Yeah, so are mom jeans and platform flipflops.” Hanna added with a smirk and head shake. 

“Plus, how are we gonna help you choose a homecoming dress if you don’t try some on for us?” Emily stated, pulling down the blanket that Aria tried to lift back up. “Oh, that’s easy. I’m not going.” Aria shrugged. 

“What do you mean you’re not going?” Hanna questioned. “Yeah, you can’t just not go, what are you doing instead?” Spencer shook her head. 

“I don’t know, I’ll just read these and then inhale a gallon of chunky monkey.” she sighed, lifting up the magazine before plopping it back down on the bed. “Hey, look, cutting yourself off from the rest of your life is not going to help your parents. And besides it might work out.” Spencer said, trying to be supportive. 

“They’re not speaking.” Aria deadpanned. 

“People get angry, they blow up. Doesn’t mean it’s over.” Emily explained. “Emily, they didn’t blow up over her dad missing their anniversary. He slept with one of his students.” When she noticed Aria and Cassandra on the verge of tears, she rubbed Cassandra’s back and muttered, “Sorry.”

“I’m just saying things can look over on Friday and by Monday all is forgiven. Some things just take time.” Emily repeated. “Yeah, maybe.” 

“Okay, so you’re coming!” Spencer shouted excitedly, taking Aria’s legs and pulling them to the edge of her bed, “Come on!”

Aria laughed quietly and got up, “I’ll think about it.”

Hanna stopped rubbing Cassandra’s back to stand up, ignoring the subtle whine that left Cassandra’s throat. The brunette glared at Hanna and the blonde gave her a grin and kissed her cheek, secretly enjoying the blush that spread across Cassandra’s face. “Well, if you’re not coming can you at least cast an absentee ballot?” Hanna spoke, “What! I need a vote!” she yelled when her friends gave her a dirty look. 

“Hanna, stop already. You’ve got homecoming queen locked down.” Cassandra reassured her friend. “Really? You can rig the election?” the Marin daughter smirked down at the brunette.  “Sorry, I have enough to do already, thanks. Spencer forced me to join head of the committee.” she watched Spencer with a pout, who in return blew a kiss and pulled up one of Aria’s chairs in her room to eat. 

“Half of which is out sick with the flu. So, we’ll be restocking the ice and refilling the hummus bowl. And trying to look cute for my first official date.” Spencer explained their plans, Cassandra nodding in confirmation. “You hear all this stuff she’s making me do?” she groaned and threw her head in the blonde’s lap. Hanna smiled and her dimples popped out, making Cassandra reach up and poke them. 

“Hey!” Hanna yelled, playfully shoving Cassandra off of her. The brunette landed headfirst on the ground and laid there. “Ow.” she mumbled, staying in her position while her friends laughed at her antics. “Anyway, are you bringing Alex?” Emily asked, in which Spencer gave her a thumbs up. 

“So, this is real?” Cassandra grinned, finally getting off the floor and repositioning herself next to Hanna. Spencer felt her cheeks heat up as she dipped her head. “Look at her blush!” Hanna pointed out. “Stop!” Spencer said as she tried to hide her smile. 

“Damn, now I really might have to come.” Aria stated, happy her friend found someone to go to homecoming with. “But seriously, guys, he’s not gonna know anybody there. So, can you just do your best to make him feel included?” Spencer hopefully asked. 

“No, we were planning on freezing him out.” Hanna sarcastically spoke. “Alright moving on,” Spencer rolled her eyes, “Em, who are you bringing?” 

“I think I’m gonna go stag.” Emily admitted, “I will too.” Aria agreed. “Why don’t you guys come together? Oh, you would make such a cute couple.” Spencer gushed. “How did I go from wearing mom jeans to being Samantha Ronson?” Aria joked, grabbing food out of the bag. 

Emily faltered slightly and Hanna spoke up, “Who cares who anyone goes to this thing with? I mean, it’s just a dance. You should bring someone who you have fun with.” Emily bowed her head and thought for a minute. “I might wanna go with someone. I just don’t want people to think it means more than it does.” 

“Are you and Ben back together?”

“No. No, of course not.” Emily turned down that idea. “So, who’s the mystery dude?” Hanna suddenly took a bag and shouted, “I’m starving!” she cracked open a fortune cookie and frowned as she read it. “What’s wrong? Bad fortune?”

“Yeah, Confucius says, “Stop being such a drama queen.” Spencer said, licking her fingers from the sauce on the orange chicken. “Lions and tigers and bitches, oh my! There’s no place like homecoming. See you there, A.” Hanna read aloud. 

Spencer grabbed the bag of cookies and cracked open all of them, giving the same message as the one Hanna opened.

xxx

Cassandra huffed to herself and threw her hair up in a quick messy bun, letting her silver hoops dangle below her jaw as she rolled up her sleeves and took a paint brush. She regretted wearing such a nice outfit, had she known that she was going to spend her evening painting with Spencer, she would have immediately told the girl no. 

She wasn’t a painter, nor did she look like one. Yet here she was out of the kindness in her heart, helping set up the homecoming event because her best friend practically begged her to. She dipped the brush in the dark brown paint, making sure to get both sides evenly dunked in the wet paint as she lathered up the pole. 

The brunette wasn’t quite sure what painting the pole was going to benefit anyone with, but she was going to do what Spencer told her to, knowing the Hasting girl would have a fit if it was done incorrectly. And according to Spencer, she was the only one who knew how to do something without messing up a million times. 

It was a sweet comment, coming from Spencer who made sure she didn’t do anything wrong.

She chewed on her gum, blowing small bubbles as she continued on with her boring job, which felt like a chore because she wasn’t even getting paid! She deserved to be paid for this, in her opinion. 

“Can you stop chewing so loud?” some random boy hissed, staring at her with daggers in his eyes. Cassandra scoffed and was about to make a retort, but a tall figure stepped into frame and cut her off. The boy who stood in front of her took the shorter boy by the shirt and growled, “Leave her the hell alone.” 

The boy gasped, “Noel! I-I’m sorry, I didn’t-” he wasn’t able to finish his sentence as Noel dropped him, resulting in the boy landing hard on his ass. “Get the fuck out of my face.” he barked and the boy, who she guessed was a freshman, ran out of the room scared to death.

“My savior.” Cassandra sarcastically snarked, totally uninterested in this scrabble the two boys just had. She turned around and finished painting, realizing that she’d much rather watch the paint dry then whatever she just witnessed. 

Noel fluffed his mohawk up and shook off any crumbs from lunch off of his shirt, “A thank you would suffice.” he said with a smug smile. When she said nothing, he frowned. “Or… maybe, join me to homecoming instead?” he offered, holding up two tickets that were in his pocket.

“I’ll pass.”

“Oh, come on Cassandra! I scared the shit out of that freshman for you, and you still won’t be my date?” he threw his fists up in the air, angrily clenching them. “You’re making a scene, idiot. You look like a gorilla. Grow the hell up.” she hissed, unaware that Spencer was watching them from her spot across from them. 

“I want you to come with me!” he wailed, forcefully grabbing her shoulder and turning her around to face him. “I’m going with my friends, you imbecile.” she responded, trying to remove his hand, which wouldn’t leave. “You’re hurting me!” she winced, but he only gripped her tighter. “Be my date.” he demanded, digging his fingernails in her shoulder. 

“No.”

“But why!” he shouted, taking the paintbrush out of her hands and throwing it, so her full attention could be on him. “God, you’re fucking insane! And you wonder why I won’t go out with you!” she yelled back, not caring that everyone’s attention was on them. 

“It’s just a dance. Please, we can even match our outfits, I know how much you wanted to do that in eighth grade.” he whispered, slowly retracting his hand from her shoulder after getting stares from others. “That was a while ago” she reminded him. 

He clenched his jaw and felt the need to rip out his teeth, he softened his eyes and leaned down, getting to eye level with her. “Has anyone else asked you?” 

She shook her head, and he got closer. “Because they’re too afraid that you’ll reject them. I’m not, I have confidence, money, popularity and everything you’ll ever need. I’m not asking you to date me, I just want to go to the dance with you.” he said, feigning for the innocent act, praying that she’d fall for it. 

Cassanda gulped and tried staring somewhere else. He wouldn’t allow that, though, and took her jaw in between his hand. “Please, Cassandra. I’ll do anything for you.” he begged, and Cassandra felt sick to her stomach when she gave in. “Alright, now let me do this in peace. I’m wearing a dark purple dress with black heels.” 

It seemed as if his whole demeaner changed as he went from bitchy and desperate to cocky and gleeful. He gave her a big grin and kissed her temple, “Thank you! You won’t regret it.” he promised, standing up straight and wiping the sweat off his forehead. 

“I’ll pick you up at 8!”

He strolled away with a smirk plastered on his face. He had finally won over the girl of his dreams. Who wouldn’t be cocky about that?

“What was that about?” Spencer questioned with a raised eyebrow, walking over to the brunette. “Noel Kahn inviting me to the dance, I guess.” she summed up, ignoring the concerned glances the girl kept giving to her shoulder. Cassandra gave her a smile and rubbed her own shoulder to ease the pain, “Well, see you at lunch!”

I’m definitely going to need an ice pack. 

xxx

Cassandra gasped as her and Noel walked into homecoming and saw Emily holding hands with Toby Cavanaugh of all people. When she was talking about the mystery man yesterday, she didn’t realize she meant Toby. 

She stepped down with Noel and he took her hand, grasping them together. Her friends disapproving stares went from Emily straight to herself. “I’ll get us drinks.” Noel decided, whispering something to Toby and the two boys left, leaving the group of girls alone. Two of which were guilty, and the others were less than pleased. 

“You’re here with Toby?! And Cass, Noel? After he bruised up your shoulder yesterday?” Spencer harshly whispered, Hanna crossed her arms over her chest and shouted, “He what?!” she looked between Spencer and Cassandra hoping for an explanation and receiving none. 

“Either you’ve got some genius plan of sleeping with the enemy or you’ve lost your mind.” Aria fumed, “And I thought you said you were done with Noel?” she scoffed, infuriated with her sister and best friend. 

“You don’t even know him-” Emily started, “What is there to know? Who else could’ve helped Jenna?” Aria interrupted, “He has every reason to hate us.”

“Well, he doesn’t.” Emily responded, she was tired of her friends hating on Toby for no reason. He did nothing to them. “Em, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck. It’s a freaking duck.” Hanna snapped. 

Emily fake-laughed, “Wow, I thought at least you’d understand.” she stormed off before Hanna grabbed her wrist, “Em, wait.”

“Why are you doing this?! Aren’t you the one who told me to follow my feelings? And not to let other people’s opinions stop me?” The tan girl accused. “Yes. Yes, I did, but that was before. I thought you were taking Maya.” she defended herself. “Maya? Why would I take Maya?”

Hanna was about to respond but Toby came back to Emily with two drinks in his hand. “Want to play some games?” he offered, handing her the red liquid. “Sure.” she replied, looking Hanna up and down and giving a weak smile toward Cassandra, knowing she was next in line. 

The two walked away and Hanna glared at Cassandra, who actually cowered back. Angry Hanna was something she didn’t see often, and when she did and she was on the receiving end, it was frightening. 

The blonde touched Cassandra’s shoulder and the brunette flinched, the multiple ice packs and Neosporin didn’t work as well as she had hoped. Hanna growled under her breath and carefully lifted up the shoulder of the blue-eyed girl’s dress. She frowned when she saw that there was a bruise about the same color of her dress on the skin. There were four crescent indents right in the middle that were surprisingly deep in her skin. It probably was bleeding the night before.  

“I’m going to kill him.” Hanna muttered, already prepared to start marching around and give the boy a piece of her mind. How dare he mess with Cassandra and treat her like a rag doll? She wouldn’t let that slide. Ever. 

“Stop, Han. Please, he didn’t mean it. He was just really upset because I kept rejecting his offer to go to homecoming with him.” Cassandra explained, hoping the blonde would understand. “That doesn’t mean he gets to express his frustration out on you! You look like Rihanna after Chris Brown!” Hanna snarled. 

“It didn’t even hurt!” Cassandra lied, pretending her shoulder felt perfectly fine. “I can tell when you’re lying, so don’t try that on me.” Hanna pointed out with a stern expression. 

“Maybe you should focus on your little boyfriend. Looks like he’s back.” The brunette scoffed, leaving the blonde in the dust as she went out to find Noel. 

Once she found him, he was hovering over the drinks with a flask, most likely spiking the drinks. “Trying to get everyone drunk?” she frowned as he faced her with a smirk, his eyes were low, and he seemed to be on his fifth drink already. 

“Uh, no? Wow, you’re so hot.” He stumbled over his words, gripping her waist, “D-dance?” he spoke, dragging her to the dance floor. She wrapped her arms around his neck as they danced to the music, he couldn’t keep his hands on just her waist as he attempted to go lower. She felt Spencer tap her unhurt shoulder and she let go of him before the song ended, making him groan in irritation. She shrugged and mumbled ‘be right back’ before following the brunette who was with Hanna and Aria. 

They reached a spot where no one else was and waited for Spencer’s news. “I found out what Toby’s tattoo means,” she announced, “901 free at last, that’s September first.” 

“The day Ali disappeared.” Cassandra inhaled a sharp breath, grasping the information she just comprehended. “Hanna, you’ve got to get that file!” Aria repeated for the tenth time. “Tonight?” she grumbled. 

“Emily’s not going to believe us without proof,” Spencer added, “She could be walking into a trap.”

Hanna scrunched her face up in annoyance, “Can we do it after they tell us who homecoming queen is? Please?” Spencer scoffed at her, and Hanna threw her hands up, “Okay, fine. Fine. I’ll get it. Keep an eye on Emily until I get the file.” she requested. “Wait, what about me?” Aria stated. “Keep an eye on Sean.”

“What?”

“Well, I can’t exactly tell him where I’m going and if I make something up, he’ll wanna come with me. Just keep him busy.” Hanna instructed. “How am I supposed to do that?”

“I don’t know. Figure it out. And you’re coming with me.” Hanna stated interlocking Cassandra’s and her fingers as she took lead. “Why?” the brunette asked. “Because I said so.” was all she got out of the blonde. They got outside and the boy who yelled at her to stop chewing loud before came up to them. 

“Hey.” Hanna started and Cassandra let go of their hands and stomped up to the kid. “You’re that bitch who told me I was chewing gum to loud!” she snapped, moving her hand to remove her heel and throw it at him before Hanna stopped him. 

“Enough, Cass. Don’t mind her, she’s drunk.” she apologized for the brunette, and Cassandra shook her head in confusion. She hadn’t even had anything to drink. “I am not!” she rebutted. “I’m sorry about that, but your boyfriend took care of the problem for you.” he stated, and Hanna scowled. 

“That’s not her boyfriend.”

“Oh! Well, my apologies. Tell you the truth, you weren’t even chewing loudly, I wanted to start a conversation and I’m sort of awkward, so I didn’t know how to approach you.” the boy admitted, blushing out of embarrassment and Cassandra rolled her eyes. “Great.”

Hanna knitted her brows together and wished he didn’t have some weird crush on Cassandra or something because that would be pretty awkward and annoying to deal with. “Anyway, my names Lucas.” he introduced himself, holding out his hand for her to take. 

Cassandra smirked and didn’t touch his filthy man-hands but gave him a nod. “Cassandra, though you already know that don’t you. You know, you look sort of familiar, were you given a name by Alison?” she asked, genuinely wondering. 

He frowned, taken aback and hurt by her. “Uh- yeah, hermie.” he seemed discouraged, and Cassandra’s face lit up. “I knew you from somewhere! God, Alison hated you. It almost feels wrong talking to you right now.” 

He went to go home, but Cassandra stopped him. “Listen, um, Hanna left a check for the band at the office where she works. Would you mind driving us there and back?”

“I mean, it’s either that or watch the new Hoarders episode with my parents, so yeah.” he agreed, and he took off his jacket, noticing Cassandra’s shivers. “Here, you look cold.” he placed his jacket around her, and she muttered a small thanks. 

Hanna showed her displeasure of his actions by the expression on her face, and they went to his car. 

The drive towards Hanna’s work was ultimately silent, beside the radio playing songs from the 50s. Hanna practically shoved Cassandra and herself in the back, even though Cassandra offered to sit in the front with Lucas. She didn’t like that idea and made the Montgomery girl sit next to her. They finally arrived and they both quickly got out of the car and made their way up the stairs. 

Hanna unlocked the door and turned around, “Can you wait here? We’ll only be a couple of minutes.” 

“Oh, yeah, take your time. Hoarders always, you know, has… two cases.” she slammed the door shut on his face and they went into the dark room searching for Jenna’s files. Hanna turned on her flashlight and flashed it at the cabinet. Cassandra quickly opened it up and searched through the various folders. 

They went through the entire “M” section and couldn’t find Marshall. “Maybe we should call Spencer?” Cassandra suggested and Hanna nodded, and quickly called the girl. She answered after a few rings with an annoyed tone, “What is it?”

“We’re looked through everything and there’s no Jenna Marshall.” Cassandra said, putting her voice up to the phone. “Check under-… she’s his… maybe it’s under there.” The Hasting’s girls voice broke out and they couldn’t understand her. 

“Hey, my phone’s dying. What did you say?” Hanna asked. 

“I said check under Cavanaugh!” 

“But what if the-” she gave up when her phone died, and she sighed. “I’d say we call her on my phone, but I left it with Aria.” Cassandra shrugged. They stood up and opened up the top cabinet, going through the “C” section and they successfully found Toby’s file. “We got it!” Cassandra shouted, jumping up and down excitedly. Hanna grinned and hugged the girl hurriedly before pulling back. 

“We can celebrate later, we’ve gotta go.” 

xxx

Hanna and Cassandra came running back to homecoming when Melissa started announcing the hoco king and queen. They got the attention of their friends and Cassandra took off Lucas’ jacket and handed it back to him, pulling him into a side hug. 

They went straight into a room with mirrors and Spencer shut the door tightly. “Did you get Jenna’s folder?”

“No, but we got Toby’s. Turns out Jenna wasn’t the patient. The therapist had one session to see how she felt about Toby coming back home.” Cassandra simplified in simple terms. “Oh, my God. What else does it say?”

“Well, the date proves he wasn’t away at school when Ali disappeared. He was still here in Rosewood.” Hanna added. “What else?” Aria questioned, taking the folder from her hands as Spencer and her went through it. 

“So, that’s what Ali had on him. He was fucking Jenna?!” Spencer gasped. “It’s enough to want her dead.” Hanna said. 

“And us,” Cassandra mentioned, “Wait, Emily!” she pulled out her phone and found her contact, calling her. The phone rang multiple times and she didn’t pick up. “She’s not answering.”

“Text her!” 

She quickly texted her “You’re with Ali’s killer! We have proof…” and a spam of other things. “We have to go find her! Come on.” They searched all through the school and stopped in the lunchroom. “Where is she?” Cassandra worriedly asked. “Maybe she left..?” 

The sound of Emily screaming, ‘Someone help me‘ made them realize she was close by. “That’s her!” They chased after the voice and found a room with blood splattered all over and Emily’s phone on the ground. 

“Oh, my God.”