Hidden Lies ✧ J. DiLaurentis

04 - dead silent

"Setting fire to our insides for fun.
To distract our hearts
from ever missing them.
But I'm forever missing him."
• youth - daughter •

• • •

That night, Ivory didn't get much sleep. Her fear of A and the cries of her son kept her up most of the night. Her mom would offer to help her at night, but Ivory didn't let her. She felt that her mom did too much work for her. So all night it was just Ivory alone who stayed up with Nolan. It was times like these that made her wish Jason knew. But she had no idea where he was, and no idea what he was doing. Jason was just so damn unpredictable and that just made Ivory nervous.

Before Alison went missing, Ivory knew Jason as a bad boy who partied and got drunk all the time. At least, that was what everyone saw. But with her, Jason was different. He would still get drunk and party, but he was sweet to her. He was gentle and slow around her, and that's the Jason Ivory wants to remember. She didn't want to think he was still a guy who wasn't working for something in life. She wanted him to be better. She didn't want Nolan to know his father like he was before.

But Ivory knew it was a long shot. For now it would just be her. And most of the time, she was okay with that.

But with her sleepless night, Ivory could barely stay awake in school. Her friends were worried but she just reassured them that it was okay, and it wasn't the first night. Besides, she didn't want to take their focus off their current Ian problem. And she didn't.

Late that night, Ivory got a text from Spencer saying Wren knew where Melissa was meeting Ian. She had come up with the excuse that Emily wanted to talk about her relationship problems so her mom would let her go. Her mom wasn't too convinced but eventually gave in. With that, Ivory found herself in Spencer's car with the other girls, just following the car ahead.

"Do we have a plan?" Hanna asked while resting her head on the window.

"Working on it," Spencer replied.

"Should we call Garrett? Tell him about Ian?" Emily questioned.

"No!"

"Getting him involved is the last thing we need," Ivory said.

"Involving him in another mystery we can't explain would make it worse." Aria sighed.

"That's what happens when we're the girls who cried wolf. I mean don't you get it? We're screwed," Hanna said bitterly.

Everyone stayed quiet. They all knew what Hanna said was true. Even Ivory who wasn't there knew. But once word got out that she was hanging with her old friends again, she'd be seen just like them. And it terrified her that they would find out about Nolan.

"Look they're stopping!"

The girls watched as Wren and Melissa got out of the car to go near the small wooden house. They quietly and carefully left their car to get closer to the pair that were walking towards it. They hid in the tall plants and trees, Hanna hopelessly searching for signal. All of them were scared and thinking the worst. The girls got close enough where they could see Melissa leaving Wren to go inside. But a loud, terrifying scream made them all run towards them.

When they got inside, everyone was disgusting. Ivory gasped as she turned away from Ian's dead body that was on floor. Her stomach churned at the thought of looking back at it.

In the back, Ivory could hear Melissa's sobs. And that moment, would haunt Ivory forever.

• • •