❝ we all eat lies, when our hearts are hungry ❞
Halle Brewster made a promise she would never tell the secrets of the summer Alison DiLaurentis went missing. Only now, someone else was doing the telling - something Alison never got the chance to do...
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Halle's right eyebrow arched up as she took in the red coat. Spencer's text came earlier that morning after she had gone to the Laundromat, having found a receipt in the 'Lolita' book of Alison's that Hanna had kept. It was why Halle — along with Spencer, Emily and Aria — found themselves staring down at the bold item, laid across the white couch in the Hastings' living room.
"That's what you got from Ali's claim ticket?" Emily questioned to make sure she was following. It made no sense; it fit nowhere amongst the wardrobe of Alison.
"That's what they gave me," Spencer replied.
"So, basically you picked up her dry-cleaning," commented Emily dryly, which Spencer shot a hard glare at.
Frowning, Aria said, "I just can't ever picture Alison wearing this."
"Well, picture Vivian Darkbloom," returned Spencer.
"So now we're saying this Vivian Dark-person had her own wardrobe, too?" Emily asked, baffled by how far this went.
"Wouldn't you?" Halle said. She gave a shrug and explained, "if I was going around to try and find out who A was, I wouldn't go to the lengths of a wig and a fake ID, and then screw up by wearing my own clothes." A chill shot up her spine as she remembered the image of a bloody rock the night Alison disappeared. Halle crossed her arms, hugging herself, and said, "She was too smart for that."
"This is weird," said Emily lowly, face contorted with how freaked out she was.
Aria, on the other hand, drifted closer. Her hands stayed clasped behind her back, nervous around it. The coat had eerie allure to it, hypnotizing to the eye. She glanced over to Spencer and asked, "Can I touch it?"
"Yeah, it's a raincoat, Aria," Spencer quipped, "it's not a mummy."
"And we never hand anything over to the cops, so fingerprints don't matter," Halle replied, with tight sarcastic smile.
Curiously, Spencer asked them, "Where's Hanna?"
While Aria picked up the red coat, Emily answered, "She and her mom had to meet with Tamborelli before school."
Spencer withdrew and settled down on the chaise opposite the sofa. Being quieter than usual, Halle decided on joining her, crossing her right leg over the left and sighing. The cheerleader was already paranoid of her latest revelation — one she had yet to digest — but with the added attention of Hanna "leaking" her step-sister's nude had people talking again. Halle's own experience with private images was dredged up and she hadn't made sense of the memory of That Night. Halle was overwhelmed, and she didn't need the stares from her peers judging them all as mean girls when Halle was questioning just how mean she was — how far she would go to keep her first secret.
