𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐊, 𝐁𝐀𝐁𝐄! | 𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐀 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐆𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐘

three.

olivia spent the rest of the week feeling sick to her stomach. at lunch, she poked her food around her tray and then left it completely untouched. she went through the motions of her classes but didn't take in anything. kalani and iris tried to talk about anything but aria coming back, not that it really mattered because olivia wasn't really listening. the only thing she'd actually been focused on all week was analysing the message in front of her.

the - A signature stared back at her, olivia could feel her hands becoming more clammy by the second. it had been a year and although no one had ever really vocalised it, everyone thought alison was dead. but here olivia was staring at a message she was 99% sure was from alison. no one else knew about her and aria, alison was the only person who had ever caught them. it would be just like alison to be hidden somewhere around rosewood, deciding what time would be best to start torturing her former friends. olivia shook her head and threw her phone onto her bed.

she couldn't deal with it, she didn't even know what type of message had come in on aria's phone, just that the girl dropped her phone back into her bag at a rapid speed and then spent the rest of english twisting her hair around her finger anxiously. she'd spent the entire week avoiding her, the only time they'd seen each other was in english and even then aria avoided even looking her way. olivia wanted to ask her, she wanted to know what exactly was being messaged to her and why now? but she couldn't. she couldn't bring herself to ask aria anything, she'd just have to deal with this on her own or ignore it completely. she was far more likely to choose the latter.

"oli?" the three familiar knocks from her mother came from the other side of the door, olivia glancing between her discarded phone and the door. she could tell her mother but then she'd have to tell her that she spent almost a year in what she had been calling a relationship with aria montgomery. and she really was not prepared for that conversation. she unlocked the door, expecting her mom to ask her what she wanted for dinner or how her first day went. instead her mother stood on the other side of the door looking like she'd just seen a ghost. "there's something happening at the dilaurentis' house," she said. "george just got home, he said there's police everywhere."

"what?" olivia's eyes widened. "oh my god." she looked back towards her phone, if there was police flooding the dilaurentis' old house, they had to have found something. "i have to go," olivia stepped out but her mom grabbed onto her shoulders. "i don't think that's a good idea." olivia shook her off gently. "you don't think everyone's going to be there?" she asked. "i'm not finding out what's going on through the rumour mill at school, she was my friend." her mom didn't look like she approved of the idea of olivia going to the dilaurentis' at all but they didn't live far away from that house and she probably knew olivia would just sneak out regardless. "ok," she said. "bring your phone so i can call you."

olivia swallowed hard. her phone. the one thing that she didn't want anywhere near her at that moment, she'd spent the entire day waiting for a follow up text to the one she'd already gotten but it never came. that didn't mean her stress over it went away, she'd been jumpy and panicky every time her phone buzzed. "yeah ok," she grabbed her phone from her bed, knowing that her mom would refuse to let her out without it. she'd been on edge for the past year, after all if alison could disappear without a trace, what was stopping the same thing happening again? "be safe!" her mom called after her as she descended the stairs.

she stepped out of the house, the darkness was setting in around her even though it was still early. another reminder that another summer had come and gone. she walked the familiar path to the dilaurentis' house, cutting through the lane that her and alison would walk on the days where she was actually nice to olivia. she hadn't been anywhere near the dilaurentis house since ali had went missing, a couple of weeks after her parents had packed up everything and moved. olivia didn't know where they had went, but the residents of rosewood seemed to find it suspicious of how quickly they had rushed off. after all, what if their daughter returned?

the flashing lights of the police cars that littered the street came into view, the ambulance parked closer to the house made olivia's stomach lurch. she stood at the corner, far back enough that the attention wouldn't turn to her but close enough to see people rushing around the back of the house. olivia spotted what looked to be the new residents of the house, they looked pretty shaken and olivia got that sinking feeling in her stomach. something was wrong, something serious had been found and it wasn't looking good.

the body bag that was wheeled out moments later confirmed olivia's worst nightmare, because yes in her head she had made the assumption that after all this time alison was dead. but seeing that bag changed everything. a small gasp came from beside her, she turned her head ever so slightly to where spencer hastings had appeared beside her. for a moment olivia was glad that she wasn't alone, at least one of the other girls who had been a part of their group was there. that was until aria emerged from behind her. she moved closer to spencer, keeping her eyes on the scene unfolding in front of them.

"i heard the cops took hanna to the police station today," she said slowly. olivia froze, exchanging looks with spencer. "about what?" she asked, overly aware that these were the first words she'd spoken to aria in over 12 months. "i don't know," aria shrugged. spencer glanced between both of them, that anxious look that olivia knew all too well washing over her.

"you don't think she'd talk about-"
"the jenna thing?"

olivia practically jumped at the girls presence before she moved to let hanna in between them. the girl looked at them with a small sigh. "we made a promise." olivia swallowed hard, they had made a promise. a promise that they'd only agreed to because they had been there when it had happened, as much as she hated it, they had been alison's accomplices. now that the police were questioning them, olivia wondered would any of them crack under the pressure. she wouldn't and it was obvious that hanna hadn't either. which left emily, spencer and aria. olivia didn't like the idea of having to trust her former friends once more.

but even worse than one of the girls exposing the jenna thing publicly was the text message that laid on olivia's phone. the - A signature that she was so sure was from alison. because who else could it have been from? someone knew about olivia and aria, their secret was no longer safe even when the girl who had caught them was dead.