in my veins | jason dilaurentis [discontinued]

nine

CHAPTER NINE

"Is this a suicide note or a confession?"

The school's courtyard was littered with students, those including Hanna, Emily, Spencer, Aria, and Arabella. The five girls were huddled at a table looking at Emily's tablet which had a picture of Ian's "suicide note" on it.

Arabella was still having trouble grasping all of it. Ian was a jerk but she didn't think he deserved to die. Whether or not he killed Alison, she'd rather him rot in jail than to die at such a horrible fate. If it even was a suicide. The brunette was having a hard time believing that Ian would just end it all, and then leave a note for everyone confessing to a crime, especially one that's been unsolvable, or at least until now. It just didn't seem like him at all.

"It's both," Spencer declared.

Aria looked at Emily in bewilderment, "Emily, how do you have this?"

"I sent it to her," Hanna answered for Emily. "I took a picture with my phone before we called the cops."

"It's weird. Why would Ian kill himself just as he was about to skip town with Melissa?" Emily questioned, the same question that had been going through Arabella's head ever since they found the body.

"Maybe he realized he was gonna get caught," Spencer, forever the problem solver, proposed. "He couldn't hide forever, even with Melissa and Wren's help."

"He was probably desperate," Aria whispered with her eyes wide open.

Hanna's expression was annoyed, "Look, who cares why he did it? The important thing is Ali's killer is dead and we're no longer people of interest."

Arabella recoiled slightly at Hanna's words. Clearly what the brunette was thinking strongly differed from what the other girls were thinking. Arabella knew Ian wasn't exactly a saint but was he really capable of murder? Then again, he did try to kill Spencer and almost succeeded in putting Arabella out of commission for a while. Maybe the brunette should stop thinking about how Ian didn't deserve to die and come to terms with the fact that Ali's killer was indeed dead and now they could all move on.

"Why am I not feeling relieved right now?" Emily said, gaining looks from both Spencer and Aria.

"Oh, Em, come on," Aria told her desperately. "For months we've been about as welcome in this town as a cold sore. And plus, now people know that we've been telling the truth. And Ian is out of our lives for good."

"Yeah," Emily agreed, "but A isn't."

Arabella sighed as Emily brought up a good point. A was never going to let up on them just because Alison's killer was now dead. Whoever it was really loved seeing them all miserable and Arabella doubted this was the end of their torment. She itched for the opportunity to unveil this A and make their lives miserable for a change.

"Can we please just slay one dragon at a time?" Spencer pleaded with Emily, trying to get her to see the positives of the situation.

Then all of sudden Spencer straightened up and pressed the power button on the tablet to conceal what was on it. Arabella shot her a questioning look, then glanced over to see Garrett, the police officer, walking over to them.

"Hey," Spencer greeted politely, receiving another greeting from Garret in return. "What are you doing here?"

"I just came to return some evidence that we took from the field hockey office," Garrett explained, looking directly at Spencer. Something about him irked Arabella for some reason. "Hey, um," Garrett started again, having been about to walk away, "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry you all had to be the ones who found him."