Wanted pll-8

by Sara Shepard

  “Hey,” Emily said in Ali’s ear.

  Ali opened her eyes. “Hey, Em!” She kept dancing.

  Emily paused, waiting. Surely Ali would do a double take. Certainly she’d blurt out, Oh my God, you look incredible! But now Ali was whispering something to Hanna. Hanna threw her auburn head back and cackled.

  “For all you Valentines out there,” crooned the DJ as a slow, bluesy John Mayer song came on. Spencer hugged Andrew’s waist. Hanna danced with Mason Byers. Emily stared meaningfully at Ali’s back, but Ali still didn’t turn around. She fell into James’s arms as if they’d been a couple for years. They began rocking back and forth to the music.

  A couple bumped into Emily from behind. She staggered to the side of the dance floor. Ali had said she…the other day at her house…I meant what I said about how I feel about you. A cold sweat crept down Emily’s neck. Did Ali mean it…or didn’t she?

  Couples were disappearing into a smaller tent that said TUNNEL OF LUV toward the back. Rosewood Day had trotted out the creaky ride since Emily was in fifth grade, renting it from a local carnival supply company. The ride had about ten plastic swans, big enough for two people. The swans were so old that their yellow beaks were now a jaundiced tan, and much of the paint on their white bodies had flaked off entirely.

  The slow song droned on for another agonizing three minutes. When it ended, Ali and James broke apart, laughing softly. Emily leaped into their path and caught Ali’s arm. “I need to talk to you.”

  Ali smiled. The disco light reflected off her shimmery eye shadow. “Sure. What’s up?”

  “Alone.”

  Emily dragged her through the exit that led into the school and turned left to the girls’ room. All the stall doors were flung open, and the room smelled like a phantom mix of various perfumes and makeup. Ali leaned over the sink, inspecting her mascara.

  “Why are you being like this?” Emily blurted before she’d fully planned what she was going to say.

  Ali cocked her head, meeting Emily’s eyes in the mirror. “Like what?”

  “You’re ignoring me.”

  “No, I’m not!”

  Emily slapped her sides. “Ali, yes, you are.”

  The corners of Ali’s mouth turned down. She put a finger to her lips. “Call me Courtney, remember?”

  “Fine. Courtney.”

  Emily whirled around and faced the automatic hand dryer, staring at her warped reflection in the metal. It was like they’d taken ten steps backward. Emily’s limbs started to quake. Her stomach churned. Her skin felt like it was under a hot broiler.

  She turned around to face Ali again. “You know, friends don’t jerk friends around. Friends don’t give each other mixed messages. And…and I don’t think I can handle being friends if things are going to be the same as they were before.”

  Ali looked shocked. “I don’t want things to be the same. I want them to be better.”

  “They aren’t better!” Wet, sweaty patches bloomed under the arms of Emily’s brand-new pink dress. “They’re worse!”

  Ali sunk into one hip. A defeated look crossed her face. “Nothing is good enough for you, Em,” she said wearily, her shoulders sinking.

  “Ali,” Emily whispered. “I’m sorry.” She reached out and touched Ali’s arm, but Ali bristled and shook her off.

  But then Ali turned back, her arms hanging limply at her sides. Ever so slowly, Ali took a step toward Emily. Her lips quivered. The corners of her eyes were wet. They stared at each other for a static-filled moment, Emily barely breathing. And then, Ali yanked Emily into an empty stall and pressed their bodies close. They kissed and kissed, the world melting away, the music from the dance subsiding until it was a dull echo. After a moment, they pulled back, breathless. Emily stared at Ali’s shiny eyes.

  “What was that for?” she asked.

  Ali reached out and touched the tip of Emily’s nose. “I’m sorry, too,” she whispered.

  24 MISSING PERSONS

  About an hour later, as the dance was drawing to a close, Andrew and Spencer climbed into a bobbing ivory swan and set off into the Tunnel of Luv. The water beneath them smelled like lavender. Fairy lights were strewn around the entrance of the tunnel. As they floated into darkness, soft harp music nearly drowned out the techno song on the dance floor.

  “I can’t believe this ride still works.” Spencer rested her head on Andrew’s shoulder.

  Andrew laced his fingers through hers. “I wouldn’t complain if it broke down and stranded us here for a couple hours.”

  “Oh yeah?” Spencer teased, punching him playfully on the arm.

  “Yeah.” Andrew’s lips found hers, and she kissed him back. A warm feeling of well-being slowly pulsed through Spencer’s veins. Finally, everything in her life was right—she had a great boyfriend, a fantastic sister, and her best friends back. It almost didn’t feel real.

  The ride ended way too quickly, and Andrew helped Spencer out of the swan. She checked her watch. Ali wanted them to meet at her car in five minutes. She leaned in to kiss Andrew good-bye. “See you to morrow,” she whispered. She was dying to tell him the truth about Ali, but she’d promised to keep her mouth shut.

  “Have fun,” Andrew said, kissing her softly.

  Spencer turned and started for the door, then teetered to where Ali’s BMW was parked. She was the first one there, so she leaned against the trunk and waited. It was freezing out and her eyes started to tear. Emily skipped up next. Her hair was mussed, her makeup was smudged, but she looked overjoyed. “Hey,” she chirped. “Where’s Ali?”

  “Not here yet,” Spencer answered. She crossed her arms over her chest, hoping Ali would show up soon. Her feet were quickly turning to ice.

  Hanna arrived next. A few minutes passed. Spencer pulled out her cell phone and checked the time: 9:40. Ali had instructed that they meet her at 9:30, sharp.

  “I’ll text her,” Emily said, typing into her phone.

  A moment later, Spencer’s phone bleated loudly, making everyone jump. She lunged for it, but it was her home phone number.

  “Have you seen Melissa?” Mrs. Hastings asked when she picked up the line. “I haven’t seen her all day. I’ve tried her cell phone a few times, too, but it’s gone straight to voice mail. That never happens.”

  Spencer gazed toward the tent. Kids were streaming into the parking lot, but Ali wasn’t among them.

  “You haven’t gotten any calls from a hospital?” Spencer said into the phone. If someone had checked herself into the Preserve, the staff would have to notify family so they wouldn’t worry, right?

  “A hospital?” Mrs. Hastings’s voice peaked sharply. “Why? Is she hurt?”

  Spencer squeezed her eyes shut. “I don’t know.”

  Mrs. Hastings told Spencer to call her immediately if she heard from Melissa, then abruptly hung up. Spencer could feel her old friends’ eyes on her. “Who was that?” Emily asked quietly.

  Spencer didn’t answer. The You’re dead, bitch photo floated into her mind once more. The last time she’d seen Melissa was when her sister had driven her to school and warned her to be careful with Courtney. After that, Melissa had been oddly absent. Was she at the Preserve…or was she somewhere else? What if she was here—watching Ali right now?

  “Is everything okay?” Hanna asked.

  There was a golf ball–size lump in Spencer’s throat. She gazed toward the tent again, desperately hoping to see Ali’s blond head among the crowds of kids.

  “Everything’s fine,” she murmured, her heart beating faster and faster. There was no use getting everyone freaked out quite yet. Come on, Ali, she thought frantically. Where are you?

  25 TRUE COLORS SHINING THROUGH

  After waiting about fifteen minutes in a long girls’ bathroom line, Aria emerged on the dance floor and gazed around the room for Noel. He’d been a gentleman all night, dancing every dance with her, getting her glasses of pink punch whenever she was thirsty, already talking about how they were going to go all ou
t for prom—maybe they could even arrive by his dad’s helicopter. Everything just felt…right.

  She pushed her way toward the bar, figuring Noel might be there. Kids swirled around her, their dresses swishing. With so much red, pink, and white, Aria felt like she was inside a giant circulatory system. A few kids stared as she passed, smirks on their faces. A knot of sophomore girls nudged one another and whispered. Mason Byers caught sight of Aria, widened his eyes, and turned away. Aria’s heart began to thump. What the hell was going on?

  And suddenly, as if on cue, the crowd parted. In the corner of the tent, right next to the chocolate dipping station, a couple stood kissing. One of them had slicked-back dark hair and wore a gorgeous black suit. The other was sylph-thin, with honey blond hair done up in a French twist. Her fitted red cocktail dress skimmed her hips. The surface of her skin sparkled, as if it had been brushed with diamond dust.

  Aria watched helplessly as the music swirled romantically. Someone let out a loud whoop.

  Time snapped into warp speed, and just as a fiery flame ignited in Aria’s stomach, Ali broke away from Noel, her face twisted with outrage. She slapped him hard, her hand making a loud cracking sound against his cheek. “What are you doing?” she screamed as Aria rushed over.

  “Wha…?” Noel stammered. A huge red welt appeared where Ali had slapped him. “I don’t…”

  “Aria is my friend!” Ali screamed. “Who the hell do you think I am?”

  Then she turned, locked eyes with Aria, and froze. Her lips parted. Noel turned and saw Aria, too. His face went sheet-white. He started to shake his head, as if to say he didn’t know how he’d found himself here, doing what he was doing. Aria glared from Noel to Ali, her fingers twitching with rage.

  The cloying scent of dark chocolate from the fondue station wafted into Aria’s nostrils. The oscillating spotlight on the dance floor turned Ali and Noel from blue to red to yellow. Aria was so angry that her teeth began to chatter.

  Noel’s Adam’s apple bobbed. Ali stood a safe distance away, shaking her head both self-righteously and sympathetically. “Aria, it’s not…” Noel started.

  “You said she didn’t matter,” Aria interrupted. Her chin wobbled, but she steeled herself not to cry. “You said you didn’t like her. You wanted me to give her a chance.”

  “Aria, wait!” Noel’s voice cracked. But she didn’t let him finish, whirling away and weaving around the gaping partygoers. Lucas Beattie let out a gasp. Zelda Millings, who went to the nearby Quaker school but always managed to snag dates to Rosewood Day events, smirked. Let them, Aria thought. She didn’t care.

  Aria was almost to the door when she felt a hand on her arm. It was Ali. “I’m so sorry.” She panted, out of breath. “He just…smothered me. There was nothing I could do about it.”

  Aria kept walking on, too furious to speak. Her instincts about Noel had been right all along. He was a typical, lacrosse-playing, fratty, cheating Rosewood boy. He’d claimed to be different and she’d bought it. She was so stupid.

  Ali was still keeping pace with Aria, her arms crossed and her head bowed. I’ve changed, Ali had said at the wishing well. Maybe she had.

  They emerged into the frigid air. A bunch of kids loitered near their cars, smoking cigarettes. Fireworks erupted above the stately school, marking the end of the dance. Across the parking lot, Aria spied Spencer, Emily, and Hanna leaning against a BMW. Their faces brightened when they saw Ali, and Ali waved back.

  Aria knew what her old friends were waiting for and where they would be going next. Suddenly, she realized how badly she wanted to join them. How badly she wanted to go back to the way things were—before all the secrets and lies. Back to when they first became friends and everything was filled with possibility.

  “Um, about your Poconos trip,” she said tentatively, not daring to look Ali in the eye. “Do you think there’s room for one more?”

  The corners of Ali’s mouth spread into a wide grin. She jumped up and down a little, and then threw her arms around Aria’s shoulders. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  Ali pulled Aria across the parking lot, avoiding a shiny patch of ice. “We’re going to have such a great time, I promise. You’ll forget all about Noel. And tomorrow, we’ll find you someone even hotter.”

  They skipped to the bottom of the hill, arm in arm. “Look who I found!” Ali cried, hitting the unlock button on her key chain. “She’s coming with us!”

  Everyone whooped. Suddenly, Aria heard a strange, muffled sound. She paused, curling her hand over the car door. It sounded like a thump, followed by a squeal.

  “Did you hear that?” she whispered, looking around the parking lot. Couples staggered to their cars. Limos chugged. Mothers waited for their kids in their SUVs. Aria thought about the Polaroids she’d found in the woods. That phantom face, looming at the barn window. She looked around for Wilden…or any cop, for that matter, but they were all gone.

  Ali paused. “Hear what?”

  Aria waited, listening again. Between the thumping bass and the booming fireworks, it was difficult to hear anything. “I guess it’s nothing,” she decided. “Probably just some kids hooking up on the Commons.”

  “Sluts,” Ali giggled. She opened her door and gracefully got into the driver’s seat. Spencer sat beside her, and Hanna, Emily, and Aria clambered into the back. As soon as the car flickered to life, Ali cranked the music up so loud that it drowned out the fireworks. “Let’s go, bitches!” she cried. And off they went.

  26 A REINVENTION OF THE PAST

  The DiLaurentises’ Poconos house was exactly as Hanna remembered it: large and rambling, with red-painted teak siding and white shutters and windows. The porch light was off, but the moon was so big and bright that Hanna could see five white rockers on the porch. She, Ali, and the others used to sit on those rockers, Us Weekly magazines in their laps, watching the sun set over the lake.

  The car crunched into the driveway and rolled to a stop. Everyone leaped up and grabbed their purses. The night air was cold. A mist hung over the valley, as fine and vaporous as breath.

  There was a rustle in the bushes. Hanna halted. A long tail flickered. Two eyes glowed yellow. A black cat scampered stealthily across the driveway and into the woods. She breathed out.

  Ali unlocked the door to the house and ushered them in. The place smelled like aged wallpaper glue, dusty wood floors, and closed-up rooms. There was also a faint odor that reminded Hanna of old hamburger.

  “Drinks?” Ali cried, dropping the keys on the farmhouse table.

  “Definitely,” Spencer said. She unloaded a grocery bag of Cheez-Its, blue corn tortilla chips, M&M’s, Diet Coke, Red Bull, and a bottle of vodka. Hanna went to the cupboard where the DiLaurentises kept their glasses and pulled out five crystal tumblers.

  After making vodka and Red Bulls, everyone strolled into the den. Built-in bookshelves lined the walls. The closet was slightly open, revealing stacks and stacks of old board games. The television that got only four channels still sat on the old hutch. Hanna stared out at the big backyard, immediately locating the spot where they’d built the five-girl tent and slept under the stars. Ali had presented them with their Jenna bracelets in that tent, making them promise that they’d remain best friends until the day they died.

  Hanna wandered over to the mantel, noticing a familiar silver-framed photo. It was the picture of the five of them standing next to a big canoe, all of them soaking wet. The same photo used to hang in the DiLaurentises’ old foyer. It had been taken the first time Ali invited them to the Poconos, not long after they became friends. Hanna and the others had made up a secret ritual of touching the bottom corner of the photo at the same time, though they’d been too embarrassed to tell Ali about it.

  Everyone else gathered around the photo, too. The ice in their glasses rattled. “Remember that day?” Emily murmured. Her breath already smelled like vodka. “That crazy waterfall?”

  Hanna snorted. “Yeah. You freaked.” It was their maiden voyage
on a new canoe Mr. DiLaurentis had bought from the local sporting goods store. They’d all paddled furiously to start off, but then everyone got tired and bored and let the current carry them. When the river began to get rough, Spencer wanted to try and ride the rapids. Then Emily saw the little waterfall ahead and demanded they abandon ship.

  Spencer nudged Emily’s ribs. “You were like, ‘People die if they go over waterfalls in a canoe! We should tip it and swim to shore!’”

  “And then you tipped us all without telling us first,” Aria said, shaking with giggles. “That water was so cold!”

  “I was shivering for days,” Emily agreed.

  “We look so young,” Hanna murmured, focusing especially on her own pudgy face. “Just think, a couple weeks before that, we were sneaking into your yard trying to steal your flag, Ali.”

  “Yeah,” Ali said distractedly. Hanna watched her, waiting for Ali to chime in with a memory, but Ali simply began to pull out the bobby pins from her French twist, setting each one on the glass end table. Maybe it was wrong to bring up the Time Capsule day. Courtney had apparently been home that weekend, switching from the Radley to the Preserve. It probably stirred up all kinds of bad memories.

  Hanna looked at the photo again. Things had been so different then. When they’d tipped the canoe, Hanna’s drenched, oversize T-shirt had clung to every roll of skin and ounce of fat. Not long after, Ali began to make remarks about how Hanna ate so much more than the rest of them, and that Hanna didn’t play a sport, and that Hanna always went for seconds at lunch. Once, at the King James Mall, she’d even quipped that they should go into Faith 21—Forever 21’s plus-size store—just to “look around.”

  Suddenly, Naomi’s words flashed through Hanna’s mind. Everyone said Ali picked you as a joke. You were such a loser.