She had done it. She had really done it. In mere days, she wouldn’t live here anymore. She’d be a New Yorker, away from Rosewood for good. Olivia would come home from Paris, and Spencer would be adjusted to city life. She imagined meeting Olivia and Morgan for casual dinners in their apartment and fancier dinners at the Gotham Bar and Grill and Le Bernardin. She pictured the group of new friends she’d make, people who loved going to art exhibitions and benefits and didn’t give a shit that she had once been pursued by a bunch of jealous losers who called themselves A. When she thought of the boys she’d meet, she felt a twinge of sadness—none of them would be Andrew. But then she thought of how he’d treated her today and shook her head. She couldn’t dwell on him right now. Her life was about to change.
Her head felt soft and hollow, as if she were drunk. Her limbs shook with glee. And it almost seemed like she was hallucinating—when she looked out the back window, she thought she saw sparkling beams of light bouncing off the trees, like a fireworks display just for her.
Wait a minute.
Spencer stood. The beams were from a flashlight, criss-crossing over the tree trunks. A figure crouched and started rummaging in the dirt. Whoever it was tried one spot, stopped, and then crab-walked a few paces to the left and tried another.
Her stomach dropped. It couldn’t be a cop—they’d abandoned these woods days ago. She hefted up the window, curious as to whether the person was making any noise. To her horror, the window made a loud scraping sound against the jamb. Spencer winced, curling away.
The figure stopped, turning toward the barn. The flashlight beamed erratically, first right, then left, and then, for a moment, on the figure’s face. Spencer saw the whites of two blue eyes. The edges of a black hooded sweatshirt. A few pale strands of familiar blond hair.
Spencer wrinkled her nose in disbelief. Was that…Melissa?
The figure flinched in the darkness, as if Spencer had spoken out loud. Before Spencer could determine if it really was her sister, the flashlight in the woods snapped off. A few twigs cracked. It appeared that whoever was out there was walking away. The footsteps grew fainter and fainter until Spencer couldn’t distinguish them from the swishing trees.
When Spencer was certain the person was gone, she ran outside and crouched in the dirt. Sure enough, the soil was soft and loose. She felt around for a moment, touching only stones and sticks, but the ground still felt warm, as if someone else’s hands had just been there. As she looked up, she heard a thin sound, far off in the trees. Goose bumps rose on her arms. It almost sounded like…a giggle.
But as Spencer cocked her head, the noise vanished, and she couldn’t help but wonder if it had just been the wind.
20 ARIA’S FREE FALL
That same afternoon, Aria met Jason outside Rocks and Ropes, an indoor rock-climbing facility a few miles outside Rosewood. “After you,” Jason said, holding the front door.
“Thanks.” Aria swooned. She hitched up the slightly too-big spandex yoga tights she’d stolen from Meredith’s closet, hoping that Jason wouldn’t notice how baggy they were in the butt. Jason, on the other hand, looked comfortable and sexy in a long-sleeved gray T-shirt and Nike warm-up pants, as though he climbed rock walls all the time. Maybe he did.
Once inside, the light was fluorescent and harsh. Aggressive guitar rock blared through the speakers, and the high-ceilinged, rubbery-smelling room had thousands of colorful, plastic-looking outcroppings on the walls. Jason had asked Aria to Rocks and Ropes in a text message this morning, admitting he wasn’t the type of guy to take girls to dinner and a movie. Really, Aria would have stood in line at the DMV with Jason if that was what he considered a date.
After signing in, they walked over to the big wall and looked around. Aria ogled a few girls as they scuttled up the side of the wall, harnesses tied tightly around their waists. How could they stand being up that high? Just craning her neck gave Aria vertigo. She shuddered.
“Are you scared?” Jason asked.
Aria giggled nervously. “I’m not that athletic.”
Jason smiled and took her hand. “It’s fun, I promise.”
Aria flushed with pleasure, thrilled Jason was touching her. She still had to pinch herself to make sure this was really happening.
One of the instructors, a dark-haired guy with a scruffy beard, came over with their gear, which included harnesses, helmets, and special climbing gloves. He asked which of them wanted to be hitched up first. Jason pointed to Aria. “Madame.”
“Such a gentleman,” she teased.
“My mom brought me up well,” Jason answered.
The instructor started to hook a harness around Aria’s torso. When he walked off to find a different clamp, Aria turned to Jason. “So how is your family?” she asked as casually as she could. “Are they…okay?”
Jason stared at a few climbers on the other side of the room for a long time. “They’re wrecked,” he said after a while. He raised his blue eyes to her and smiled sadly. “We all are. But what can we do?”
Aria nodded, having no clue what to say. A’s note from yesterday popped into her mind. Big Brother is hiding something from you. And trust me…you don’t want to know what it is. Aria hadn’t forwarded the note to any of her friends, for fear they would jump to conclusions about Jason. A had to be messing with them—that was Old and New A’s M.O., after all.
Aria assumed A was implying that Jason’s secret had to do with his and Ali’s “sibling problems,” as Jenna put it, but she wasn’t buying it. There was no way Jason and Ali had had anything but a loving sibling relationship. Aria had tried to mine her memories for times when Jason had been mean to Ali, but she couldn’t come up with a single incident. Instead, Jason seemed fiercely protective of his sister. Once, not long after they’d become friends, Aria and the others had been over at Ali’s house for a sleepover. They were planning to give each other makeovers, and everyone had brought over their makeup bags to share—except for Emily, because she wasn’t allowed to wear makeup yet. As they were oohing over Hanna’s Dior eye shadow, Mrs. DiLaurentis walked into the room. There was a frazzled look on her face.
“Ali, did you feed the cat a whole can of wet food?” Ali’s mom asked. Ali looked at her blankly. Mrs. DiLaurentis lowered her arms to her sides with a slap. “Honey, you’re supposed to mix dry food in, remember? And put a few drops of hairball medicine on top?” Ali bit her lip. Mrs. DiLaurentis let out a groan and turned. “You forgot that too? She’s going to have hairballs all over the new basement carpet!”
Ali tossed Hanna’s blush brush on the table. “Would you chill? I’m in sixth grade now, and we have a lot of homework! Sorry if I’m a little too distracted to remember how I’m supposed to feed the cat!”
Mrs. DiLaurentis had shaken her head, exasperated. “Ali, you’ve been feeding the cat this way since third grade.” Then she stormed away.
An instant later, Jason appeared from the kitchen, a bag of pretzels in his hand. “Mom’s in a mood, huh?” he said gently. “I can feed the cat for you for a while, if that helps.”
He touched Ali’s shoulder, but Ali shook him off. “Stop it. I’m fine.”
Jason recoiled, a wounded look on his face. Aria had wanted to leap up and throw her arms around him. Ali had behaved the same way the day Time Capsule was announced, too—Jason had approached Ali and Ian in front of the bike racks, telling Ian to leave Ali alone, and Ali had shooed him away, mocking him for caring so much. Maybe Jason had sensed that Ian’s feelings for Ali weren’t exactly innocent and wanted to protect her. Maybe Ali knew Jason had sensed it and wanted him off her back. If Ali and Jason had sibling problems, maybe Ali was the one creating them, not the other way around.