❝ I genuinely thought the worst of this nightmare was over ❞
Halle Brewster told a lie, and the secrets kept growing. After slaying one stalker, another reared its nasty head, and Halle was starting to wonder if she'd ever be free from the friendshi...
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The interrogation began in the morning. Intensity coursed through Halle's veins as the the plush, over-stuffed armchair in The Brew became a make-shift red chair where questions were hurled at her for another big mistake. Halle's panic attack. All the crippling anxiety that caused her to crash down onto her front porch and got the policed involved. It was Wilden's matter now. Her phone was in his custody, locked up, while their texts were being judged like she was by her best friends.
"So what did you tell him?" Spencer asked. This was the only conversation worthy of her breaking her lasting silence, sitting glumly in her heartache, and of course Spencer was the first to bring it up.
After all, Spencer had seen the red and blue lights flood their street. If it hadn't been for Spencer knowing —and seeing — Halle wasn't entirely sure if she would've told her friends or kept this a closely guarded secret. Halle was afraid of what came with it. The Weakest Link. An awful, soul-destroying title A once gifted the group. Now they had adopted and thrust it on any member who wasn't at a constant or handling everything with all the grace in the world as everything around them was on fire.
"That it was prank," Halle answered. She stuck to herself, arm brought into her chest as she clutched onto the hot drink. That morning, her extra hot macchiato had tasted different, so Halle just used it as a hand-warmer. As difficult as Halle found the incident to downplay, she did a marvellous job at doing it. Convincingly, she acted indifferent while she played it off as no big deal. "Which ain't technically a lie, but it ain't exactly the truth either."
"We're getting away with lying to our parents on technicalities now," Hanna remarked, sat comfortably on the plump sofa.
"Ain't new," Halle returned back. Her hands still tremored as support decreased, and Halle weakly raised the mug to her mouth. She sipped at it, trying to hide the grimace that followed from the people who knew her best.
"And he's got your phone, with all our texts?" Aria asked, eyes a little frantic and panicked.
"The important thing is, he's got the A-texts too," Halle responded. Her expression told that of mild disgust; the bitter taste of her morning coffee coated her tongue. She carefully put the mug aside and said, "He ain't gonna be ignoring them, not with my dad on his ass."
Hanna shivered. "You know you've really screwed up if Mr B is coming for you."
"Think Wilden feels the same," Halle commented to her. Her brown eyes moved onto Aria, positioned purposefully in between Emily and Halle, as if she were wrapped up in a cosy hug. "Enough about me, what's going on with you? What's Fitz said now?" she asked.
"Nothing, he's left," Aria told her. "He's gone to talk to Maggie... meet his son," she added in sadly, all her glum emotions written onto her face. Her stomach turned and twisted at the thought. "I've not spoken to him since he left," she said.
