Н’Нˆð‹Ð•Ð„Н‘ Н’НÐ‘НˆðÐ†Ð’ | H. Marin 3

xxx

“Whose idea was this again?” Hanna asked with a groan, trudging through the forest with her six-inch heels. “Emily’s mom.” Spencer answered, holding onto Cassandra’s hand for support through their little adventure. 

“The shed was me.” Emily intervened, “My mom just said we should do something for us.” 

Hanna rolled her eyes, “Well, couldn’t we do something without mosquitoes?” she pushed her hand through a tree branch that almost caught her purse. “They’re not mosquitoes, they’re gnats.” Aria said. 

“Whatever! They’re small and annoying and they’re flying up my nose!” Hanna hissed, speeding up her pace. “They’re attracted to your perfume and your hair product and your lip gloss.” Spencer listed, and Hanna turned around with a raised eyebrow. “So, what are you saying? I attract flies?”

“Gnats.” Aria corrected. “Why do I feel like this is the wrong way?” Cassandra interrupted, pushing her sunglasses higher up her nose to avoid the sun hitting her blue eyes. “No, this is it. I remember that tree,” Spencer pointed at a big tree, letting Cassandra’s hand fall, “It’s the halfway point. There’s 136 steps towards the shed.”

“Of course you’d remember something like that.” Cassandra sarcastically spoke with a fond smile. “Have you been out here since… Alison?” Aria questioned. “Me? No. No way.” Spencer shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest. 

“But you remember that tree?” 

Hanna lifted her hands up, “You guys it’s not that weird. I mean we used to come out here in eighth grade like, every day. Even after.” she defended the brunette. “I think this is totally the wrong place to do this, whatever you call it shrine.” Spencer added. 

“It’s not a shrine, it’s just a place to remember Alison. What’s wrong with that?” Emily said, holding her fingers together. “Doing it way out here makes it look like we have something to hide.” Spencer mumbled. 

“You’re worried what other people think?” Emily asked. “Well, aren’t you?” Spencer accused, “Do you really want to give that creepy detective more reasons to question us?” At the mention of the cop, Hanna silently kept moving forward with a frown. 

“Hanna, why are you so quiet?” Cassandra furrowed her perfectly sculpted brows. “I’m trying to keep the bugs in my nose and out of my mouth.” she snapped. “You’re allowed to have an opinion on this.” Emily reassured her blonde friend. 

The Marin daughter stopped and looked at the brunette. “You want my opinion? I say we hold off and not remember her till we know for sure she’s not still here.” 

“What?“

“What are you talking about?” 

“You think she’s still alive?” Emily said, her mouth falling open. “Hanna, they found her body.” Spencer reminded her. “Stop, I’m officially scared. Can we just not-” Aria wiped her forehead, clutching her bag. 

“You know what? You asked for my opinion. I don’t believe she’s really gone.” Hanna interrupted; she kept moving when her comment was met with silence. 

“We went to her funeral!” Spencer yelled behind her, following her trail. “Yeah, and when we left, we all got a text from her.” Hanna explained, shoving more stuff out of her way. 

“It wasn’t her. Someone is messing with us.” Emily rejected the silly idea. “How do you know? And what about all those nasty messages? I mean how does this “A” person know stuff only Ali knew.” Hanna repeated, grabbing Cassandra’s shoulder to stop her from falling down the short jump that they needed to make. 

She mumbled a quiet ‘thanks’ and kept stomping. “Okay, this conversation is giving me a hive.” The short brunette Montgomery said. “That’s a bite. Mosquito.” Spencer fixed her incorrect statement. 

“You know what, guys, Hanna has a point. I mean, think about it.” Cassandra defended the blonde, watching Hanna’s mood lighten because someone finally believed her. “Are you crazy?” Spencer scoffed, the group going to a halt. 

“No, it’s a possibility, and one that everyone should take into consideration. It makes sense, it’s not like the idea of Ali still being alive is impossible.” Cassandra explained, hoping to change at least one of their minds. 

“Sure,” Aria said, deciding to change the topic that was causing her a serious migraine. “Spencer, have you gotten any more messages?”

“Haven’t you?”

The sound of something rustling in the bushes not too far from them caused the girls to pause. “What was that?” Emily whispered, “Did you hear that?”

“Yes, I heard that. I’m standing right next to you.” Cassandra answered, leaning closer to the brunette in case something popped out. The crows started cawing in the distance, adding towards the fear factor that was scaring the group. 

“Hello?” Hanna called out, “Is anybody there?” 

“It’s probably a rabbit.” Spencer concluded. “Hello!” Hanna tried again, only louder this time. “It-it’s a rabbit, Hanna. It’s not going to answer you.” Spencer stuttered out, looking behind the blonde to see if something was there. 

Emily took a step forward, “Can we just get to the shed?” 

Something stepped on a branch, far closer to the girls this time, making Cassandra shiver slightly. “That is definitely not a rabbit. Someone’s out there.”

“Let’s turn around.” Right as they all faced their bodies in the opposite direction, all of their phones started beeping. Reluctantly, they pulled the device out of their purses and bags. Cassandra lifted her phone up with her blue acrylic nails. 

“Heads up, BFFs. It’s open season on liars and I’m hunting. -A” 

xxx

“Well, you’re pretty far into it.” Byron complimented his daughter on her progress on “To Kill A Mockingbird“. Aria nodded with a grin. “Yeah, I’ve got, like, sixty-some pages left, and I don’t want it to end.”

“I certainly do. I can’t believe you brought that stupid book with us to a coffee shop, nerd.” Cassandra rolled her eyes, taking a sip of her latte. Aria shot her sister a glare and Ella laughed at her daughters’ antics. 

“You should read his biography next.” Their dad suggested. “The father-worship thing becomes a lot clearer.” Ella sighed dramatically, watching her kids eat breakfast. “Well, I would worship both of you a lot more if you got me another one of these.” Aria lifted her plate up and wiggled it slightly. 

Cassandra rubbed Ella’s hand, “Don’t worry mother, I’ll always be a mommy’s girl.” she teased, her mom grabbing her hand back and smiling softly. “The poppy seed? We’ll split it.” Ella replied to Aria, ignoring the taller one’s playful attitude. “Make sure your father doesn’t drink all my coffee, please.”

“I’ll remember that!” she shouted out to her mother who was going back into the shop. “Do you like your teacher?” Byron continued their conversation.

 “What?”

“You’re English teacher. Do you like him?” he repeated. “Oh! Yeah. Uh, he’s okay. Cassandra also has him.” Aria added. 

“Hm. What’s his name again?” he hummed. “Mr. Fitz. Hey, maybe I’ll check out that biography at school. What’s it called?” Aria quickly said. Cassandra tilted her head at her sister’s sudden anxiousness. Once their dad brought up that English teacher it seemed like she froze up a bit. 

“Oh, I’ve got a copy of it in my office. I’ll bring it home. It might inspire you.” he set his mug down. “To what, write a novel?” Aria remarked. “You’ve got it in you.”

“Byron?” An agitating voice called out. Their dad straightened up and looked caught off guard, “Hey. Hi, how you doing?” Cassandra and Aria both shared a look and glared at the young college grad student that secretly caused a problem in their family.

She seemed to notice the two teenage girls and clenched her fists. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.” she apologized, though it seemed petty and not real. “No, no, that’s okay.” he reassured her, “Uh, Aria, Cassandra this is Meredith Sorenson. She also teaches in the department, uh my department. And these are my two daughters, Cassandra and Aria.” he introduced. 

“Oh! Cassandra, Aria, of course you are.” Melissa or whatever her name was responded. “Yeah, did you think we were other college grad students out with our teacher?” Cassandra jabbed, giving the girl a fake smile. 

Byron kept checking his surroundings, most likely waiting for Ella to come back. “Did you get my message?” Madison asked her dad. “Um, yes I did. And I’m sorry I haven’t had a chance to call you back.”

“That’s okay, they just need that referral by Monday and…” she trailed off, the daughter’s sharing a mutual look of disbelief. “Is there an email or?” he requested, feigning to act professional. She opened up her ugly, green binder filled with blank pages and put it down in front of Bryon. “Here.”

She faced the brunette girls and tucked her hair behind her ear while Byron wrote stuff down. “So, how does it feel to be back home? This town must be a little dull after spending a whole year overseas.”

“Not really.”

“Okay, well, I’ll send that before lunch.” he finished up what he was writing, and Meadow closed her binder. “Thanks.” she bit her lip and continued staring at him. “I’m so glad I ran into you.”

“Barf.” Cassandra mumbled to herself, only everyone heard it. Even the blonde. “Nice to meet you both, welcome home.” She headed back to her car. 

“Why can’t she graduate?” Aria growled, her sister nodding in agreement. “She has, I told you. She’s now a teaching assistant. Not mine, but her office is across the hall. I can’t pretend like she doesn’t exist, girls. It’s a small college.” he claimed, insisting that he couldn’t ignore her. All Cassandra heard were excuses, if he wanted to he would. 

“Not small enough.” she said and picked at her fingernails, almost popping off an acrylic before Aria put her hand on top of hers and shook her head. When she was younger, she had developed a bad habit of touching and messing with her fingers, which often led to bloody fingers and short nailbeds. Sometimes, she’d even go as far as to ripping the whole nailbed off. 

It was honestly really bad, and she did it out of pure nervousness. So, she would wear acrylics to cover up her nails to distract from toying with them. Plus, it was harder to reach the nail if they were stuck onto them. Unfortunately, most of her close friends had picked up on the nasty habit and stopped her before she could do anything worse. Hence, Aria placing her hand over her own. 

xxx

A loud bang caught Cassandra off guard as she saw all of Spencer’s heavy books fall out of her locker. She bent down beside her and helped pick them up. She noticed one book that didn’t surprise her in the slightest. 

“Russian History? Shocker.” she placed the books back where they were, only struggling slightly at the weight. “How many AP classes does it take before your brain explodes?”

“I’m already drowning in there.” Spencer huffed, closing her locker. “Why, what’s drowning for you, B plus?” she said, leaning against the wall. “First paper’s due Monday and I’ve written two words, my name.”

“What’s going on? You’re not still freaked out about what happened in the woods yesterday, are you?” Cassandra asked, placing a reassuring hand on the Hasting’s forearm. “Look, we do not have to do this thing for Ali until…”

“No, it’s not just that.” Spencer cut her off, “It’s… it’s everything.” she summed up. “Is here any chance your family wants to adopt me?” she whimpered before they both almost bumped into Jenna and Toby Cavanaugh.

“Uh, since when was he back?” Cassandra muttered, making direct eye contact with the older boy. Hanna, her sister and Emily came up to the girls with worried expressions on as well. At least she wasn’t the only one concerned. 

“He’s back, too? When did this happen?” Aria whispered, trying not to gain his attention. “Maybe she needs help sending radioactive e-mails.” Hanna snarked, smiling slightly when Cassandra giggled. 

“Yeah, or he may be sending a few of his own.” Spencer proposed. “Hanna.” the detective went up to the ladies, calling out for the blonde. “Wow, cops on campus too. This week just gets better and better, huh.” Cassandra noted. 

“I spoke with your principal and asked him if we could have a chat.” he explained. “No, I have to get to class.” she dismissed, not wanting to be near the man. “Don’t worry. You’ve been excused. Let’s go.” the blonde shared one last glance at them before turning on her hells and following the cop. 

“What is going on? Why just her?”

“Probably thinks she’s the easiest to crack.” Emily considered. “No offense, Em. But I think you would be.” Cassandra said, implying she was the weakest. 

“Whisper, whisper, whisper. Almost feels like Alison’s still here.” Jenna spoke up, creeping behind the group and making Cassandra jump. The girl was creepy as hell. 

The girls waited impatiently for Hanna’s return. Aria pulled out her phone and went through it, searching for an app. “What are you doing? Is that a new phone?” Spencer questioned, staring at the small screen. 

“Yeah, I’m checking my Kin.” She swiped past everyone’s name and finally found Hanna’s as she clicked on it. “I’ll write on Hanna’s wall from here.”

“If she’s not answering texts what makes you think she’s checking Facebook?” Emily said with a head tilt. “It’s worth a try.” Aria shrugged. 

“What’s going on?” Hanna started, immediately pulling the girls away from the phone. Cassandra flew into the blonde’s arms, hugging her tightly. The blonde instantly reciprocated the show of affection, before pulling back and rubbing her face to get rid of the red tint that appeared. 

“What happened in there? We were trying to get a hold of you!” Cassandra scolded lightly. “Nothing, just the same old stupid questions.” Hanna answered, hiding her face in her opened locker as she shoved random papers in there. 

“You were in there for an hour, Hanna. What else did he ask?” Spencer said. “Nothing, he just took a couple calls and I just sat there waiting for him to shut up.” Hanna replied, slamming her locker shut. 

“Well, is he gonna question all of us now?” 

“Who knows. Look, let’s do this at lunch, okay?” Hanna said, “I have to hit the ladies’ room before my next class.” she smiled and walked away. “Is she being weird?” Spencer noticed, asking her friends. 

“She’s being weird,” Cassandra confirmed, “I’ll see you guys at lunch.” 

On her stroll to class a certain brunette-haired boy stopped right in front of her. “Cassandra Montgomery.” he smirked, invading her personal space. “Noel Kahn.” said girl smiled, though it wasn’t fully real. She was already annoyed with the stress of possibly being interrogated by a cop and now she had to deal with a stupid teenage boy. 

“Why wasn’t I aware you were back in town?” he placed his hands on his hips, waiting for an answer. “Sorry, I didn’t realize I was supposed to stop by your house with balloons and a poster saying I’m back.” she snapped, already fed up with his games. 

“Wow, feisty as ever I see. You never had this much attitude when I was going down on you, Cass.” he cockily stated, thrusting his hips up in the air to demonstrate. “You’re a pig.” she spat, trying to get past him, but he blocked her. 

He clenched his jaw in frustration, struggling the urge to shove her back. “Yet, you still dated me.” he pointed out. “That was over a year ago, get over yourself.” she quipped, smacking her lips. 

“I can’t when you’re the hottest piece of ass in this entire school.” he mentioned, towering over her. “What do you want, Kahn?” she sighed, wishing she was in class. “I’ve got a cabin party going on tonight. I want you there.” he invited with a grin. 

“You’ll be lucky to see me.”

He scoffed, “What, no double date with me, you, Hanna and my bro Sean?” She shook her head and tried once more to move, being yet again blocked by the tall figure. “Listen, I was kidding, alright? Maybe later we’ll be able to reconnect and start going out again. You do realize we were the power couple of the school, right?”

As much as she wanted to disagree with him and call him a liar, he was right. They were the schools best couple, even having a spot together in the yearbook as ‘Rosewood’s Best Couple’. Everyone either wanted to date them or be them. One time, some dude asked to have a threesome, that quickly ended in Noel beating the absolute shit out of the guy. 

He was the boy Cassandra lost her virginity too, and at one point she did love him, and he loved her too. But a couple weeks before Ali went missing, she broke it off with him because she felt too strongly for Hanna, and it didn’t feel right to date someone you fell out of love with. To say the least, he really didn’t like that. He threatened to kill her, and he lied saying that he cheated on her with multiple women, even though that was incorrect. 

After she came back from Iceland, she heard stories from different girls in her class that he turned into such a player after they broke up and he became this party boy who threw parties every weekend at his cabin and got wasted. It made Cassandra feel slight guilt, because she didn’t mean to turn him into this big man-whore, being with him just wasn’t something she wanted to do. 

“Cass, you there?” he mumbled, bringing his hard, calloused hand on her cheek. She yanked his hand back, “Is Hanna going?”

“Yeah?”

“Fine, I’ll be there. But we aren’t doing anything, Noel. That’s a promise.” she stated, threateningly pointing her finger in his face. “Perfect.” he said with a weird expression that she couldn’t make out. He leaned down and kissed her cheek, practically running off without giving Cassandra the chance to yell at him. 

Idiot.

xxx

“How long have you been standing here?” Cassandra snuck up behind Hanna, drinking from a blue, plastic cup Noel gave her when she first arrived. She was wearing a silk, black dress that cut right below her thigh, with a silver necklace that was layered, and she wore five-inch black heels that matched her dress perfectly. 

“I don’t know.” she mumbled, too busy looking at her friend’s long, slim legs. “Well, Noel came up to me and personally invited me to this party earlier in school today. I think he’s trying to get back with me.” Hanna’s previous attention from her legs snapped right back to her words. 

“What?! You’re not going to do it, are you? Remember what he did.” Hanna harshly whispered, glaring at the tall boy passing out drinks to her boyfriend. “I’m not, he’s a jackass.” she swore, rolling her eyes as he hyped up Sean in his foosball match with Ben. 

“You look pretty.” Cassandra complimented, eyeing her up and down. The blonde had on a gorgeous redish-pink dress with some ruffles and a white belt tied securely around her waist. She had on white heels that went with her belt. The blonde blushed the same color as her dress and dropped her head slightly, tucking her hair behind her ear. “Thanks. You also look stunning, per usual.” 

Cassandra grinned and stared at Hanna for a few extra seconds that was more than friendly, and a certain Field’s daughter walked in with Maya. “Hey, Em.” She shouted, her and Hanna waving to the brunette who smiled in response. 

After numerous minutes of waiting, the two got bored and went out back to see the rest of their friends. 

“What’s up?” Hanna asked, looking between her friends. “Toby Cavanaugh got into a fight with Ben over Emily.” Aria briefly explained, leaving out the part were Toby bruised up his face badly. “It wasn’t over me, God. Look, he just… saved me.” 

“For what, himself?” Cassandra stated with a frown. 

“Ew.”

“Well, if we hadn’t asked you about Ben, would you have told us about this?” Aria questioned. Emily’s silence was enough proof that her answer was in fact a big no. “Hey, Toby is not a good guy, Emily. He could be seriously dangerous.” Spencer added. 

“If he’s such a bad guy why’d he take the fall for us?” Emily defended the boy, talking about the Jenna situation. When Spencer’s jaw practically hit the floor, that just raised more questions for the rest of the girls. 

“Is there another secret? Do you know something that we don’t?” Aria growled at Spencer, fed up with the hidden information. “Guys, why don’t we chill and talk about this somewhere else? When we’re alone.” Hanna suggested, trying to diffuse the tension. 

Aria glanced in the sky briefly, “I… don’t even know what “just us” means anymore.” the short girl sighed. “Yeah, uh, let’s talk about this tomorrow, okay? Are we still meeting at the shed?” Hanna asked. “Yeah, yeah, sure, why not?”

The blonde strutted away, and Aria pulled her purse over her shoulder. “Where are you going?”

“The art gallery, I promised my mom.” Aria replied. “Oh, she’s not expecting me to go, right?” Cassandra asked and her sister shook her head. “Okay. Bye, love you. Be safe!” She called after her, Aria yelled back something along the lines of “Love you too.”

Noel danced his way through towards the group, giving them smiles before directing his attention on Cassandra. “Cass, let’s talk?” he offered his hand out, and she decided to take it, not having anything better to do and she wanted to take her mind off of the “A” situation. She saw Spencer and Emily give her confused and shocked looks. 

She mouthed, ‘I’ll explain later,’ and let Noel lead the way. 

They went into an empty room in the cabin and Cassandra spoke up. “So, what did you want to talk about?”

“Us.”

She rolled her eyes, “Noel, I told you I’m not dating you again.” he frowned, “Why?” 

Is he serious?

Looks like she’d have to act like the older one for today. “Do you not remember threatening me and saying you cheated?” she recalled, raising her eyebrows at him like he was some child. “Yeah, and I’m sorry, I apologized then, and I will keep apologizing if it means we can finally work!” he shouted, getting more annoyed with her resistance. Any girl at this party would be thrilled to go out with him, so why can’t the one girl he actually wants, be happy with him?

“You know, Hanna and Sean are upstairs fucking right now, and you still won’t even kiss me.” he hissed, slowly cornering her without her realizing. Her face dropped and she shivered slightly. Hanna was losing her virginity to Sean of all people?!

This was ridiculous, she couldn’t possibly love him enough. God, she was so pissed. She started feeling the effect of the alcohol taking place, and suddenly Noel just couldn’t look better. With his blue polo and sort of messed up mohawk. If Hanna could fuck around with whoever she wanted, why couldn’t she?

Fuck it.

She stood on her tippy-toes and grabbed the back of his neck, pulling him into a harsh kiss. He grabbed her hips roughly and shoved her against the wall with most of his strength. She moaned into the kiss, and he tapped her left hipbone, silently telling her to jump up. She effortlessly jumped up and he grabbed the bottom of her ass, breaking apart for a moment to whisper, “You broke you’re promise.”

He chuckled as she yanked him back into the kiss, shutting him up. He carried her to the bed and threw her down, sucking and licking up her neck, before kissing her soft lips again. He hurriedly slid down the straps of her dress, leaving her lacey bra exposed. 

He practically shoved his tongue down her throat, giving him full dominance over her. He went to rip off her bra before a surprised gasp from the door made her push him off of her. “Cassandra?” the broken whimper left Hanna’s lips as she just witnessed her best friend making out with her ex that she swore she’d never go back with. 

Hanna looked like she had been crying, her eyes were all puffy and her eye makeup was completely ruined. Cassandra almost forgot that she was annoyed with Hanna as the blonde ran out of the room, tears rushing past her eyes. 

The brunette went to go chase her before Noel grabbed her arm. “Where are you going?” he huffed, mad that they were rudely interrupted. “After my best friend, idiot.” she pulled herself out of his hold and stumbled through the cabin, searching for the blonde. She couldn’t find her, but she heard her phone buzz, and prayed that it was the blonde. 

Her happiness faded when it was the unknown caller ID.

“Looks like someone isn’t as over her ex as she thought. -A”

xxx

“Alison wanted us across the street,” Spencer explained the morning after the party, “She had it out with Toby. Ali had something on him.” 

“Besides him being a total perv who peeped in our windows?” Hanna scoffed, avoiding Cassandra’s eyes. “Yeah, something way bigger and she was threatening to tell everybody. That’s why he took the fall for us.” Spencer summed up. 

“Why are you waiting until now to tell us?” Cassandra asked, the secrets were starting to annoy even herself now. “I don’t know. Ali made me promise and I guess I was scared. I thought if we never talked about that night again, it would just go away.” Spencer said, wishing that it could’ve just disappeared. 

“Well, it’s not going away,” Hanna reminded the brunette, “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 added as the girls started walking into the woods. “I think Emily’s right. And 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 every day.” Aria agreed.

“You mean like somewhere in school?” Hanna questioned, stepping on tree branches. “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 every day, too.” Aria suggested with a sigh. 

Hanna groaned and rubbed her hands over her eyes. “What you hate the idea?” Spencer asked. The blonde shook her head, “No, no, I just… I had a rough night.”

Before Cassandra could say anything, the sound of someone moving through the woods that happened the other day started again. This time, they weren’t risking letting them go. They dropped their stuff on the ground and chased after the noise. They gave up after running for a few minutes and Hanna pointed at the ground. “Oh my God, look.”

“Is that yours?” Cassandra asked, bending down to get a better look at the purple bracelet. 

“Alison’s.” she gasped, staring at the item with wide eyes.

xxx

a/n: just a bit of a longer chapter for you all! the idea of Noel and Cassandra being a thing was something that I came up with last minute and just decided to roll with it. hope you all enjoyed!