036 — single freight female

season three —
episode eleven

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AFTER SPENDING THE past few days with Jason, Aspen sits on Hanna's bed huffing due to the bandage showing in all of the outfits she's chosen.

"Okay, nothing fits over this" Aspen mutters throwing her head back in annoyance.

Hanna chuckles handing her a skirt from her closet hearing Aspen groan in response before stepping out of the shorts she's currently wearing.

"Well, Hanna, if you just wait until your mom goes to work, then we don't have to sneak around" Spencer shrugs.

"Why are we even sneaking around? I'm the one who got stabbed" Aspen voices looking at the blonde Marin girl.

"Well, I don't want you going to the school with a big open wound" Hanna responds, "I thought you said Wren stitched it up" Spencer frowns confused.

"Correct, he did—but I have to let it breathe or else it could get infected" Aspen responds looking at Hanna's next skirt option with disgust on her face.

"Whoa, when did you get that?" Spencer quizzes, "Eighth grade, Spenny, put it on!" Hanna demands receiving a glare off the blonde.

"Ew, I'm not wearing that! No! No freakin' way!" Aspen shrieks shaking her head feeling content with the first skirt option Hanna passed her since the bandage is covered mostly.

"Did it come with castanets?" Spencer asks still focused on the hideous skirt of Hanna's.

"It's not Spanish, it's Greek, I played 'Peasant lady' Mamma Mia" Hanna explains.

"I don't remember you in Mamma Mia" Spencer murmurs, "Me neither" Aspen frowns taking a seat on the bed again.

"Good, because I look fat and hideous and I had to stand next to a cardboard goat" Hanna utters.

Aspen looks at her phone sitting beside her seeing Wren's contact information flashing on her lock-screen, "Um, Wren is calling you" Spencer says.

Aspen sighs declining the call confusing the Hastings girl, "Why don't you wanna talk to him? What's going on with you and Wren?" Spencer questions curiously.

"Nothing at all" Aspen responds almost immediately, "He did however mention a certain thing happened with Hanna a few weeks ago, what's going on with you two?" Aspen quizzes tilting her head.

"Nothing" Hanna responds, "Hanna—Hanna, come on, look at me, okay, I know that A has made it incredibly hard for you and Caleb" Spencer voices, "Hard? Try impossible" Hanna mutters.

"So, what, is Wren moving in? Look, I know that he can be persuasive, I mean, the dimples, the accent, I mean Aspen even went there too before us" Spencer smirks looking at the glare Aspen's sending her, "Okay, can we not talk about this?" Hanna asks.

"You are not the first girl to fall for Downton Grabby, hello, Aspen and I have been there" Spencer voices pointing between herself and the blonde typing on her phone.

"Well, I'm not—there" Hanna states firmly, Aspen looks up from her phone as the doorbell rings downstairs.

"Now what?" Hanna utters looking out the window seeing her mother's vehicle still on the driveway.

"Ugh, is she ever gonna leave?" Hanna exclaims irritated.

Hanna leads Spencer and Aspen downstairs overhearing Ted and Ashley's conversation from the kitchen.

"Thumb drive, I plugged it into my computer, hoping I could return it to whoever lost it" Ted states, "It's not mine" Ashley responds confused.

"That's not why I brought it here, it turned out to be a number of video files, the first one I opened—Hanna's in it, looks like she's hanging out with a group of friends in a bedroom, just talking, but I don't think they knew they were being filmed" Ted explains holding the USB flash drive.

"There was a bully targeting Hanna and her friends last year" Ashley confirms.

Aspen, Hanna and Spencer look at each other alarmed taking a seat on the top half of the staircase, "That's what I threw to get away from Ian" Spencer whispers.

"I thought creepo took it" Aspen mumbles still hating using his name in topics, "So did I" Spencer lowly responds.

"This is so bad" Hanna sighs panicked, "No, Hanna, it's gonna be fine" Spencer responds trying to sooth the panicked girl.

"No, Ali used those videos to blackmail Jenna, all right? We promised we'd keep them locked up" Hanna mumbles, "Okay, but we didn't find this" Aspen utters joining into the conversation again.

"It doesn't matter, if my mom takes them to the police, then Jenna will think that I gave them to her" Hanna rambles alarmed.

"Hanna, you need to chill!" Spencer demands, "Me and Caleb, that's who she'll go after, not you, me, this is so bad!" Hanna whisper shouts.

Aspen looks towards the kitchen with wide eyes seeing Ted and Ashley walking towards the front door.

"Go, go!" Aspen orders pushing the two girls upstairs again being mindful of her wounded thigh while rushing into Hanna's bedroom behind Hanna and Spencer.

Once the front door is closed downstairs, the three girls quietly walk down the staircase seeing the USB sitting on the small table.

Hanna tiptoes trying to steal the usb flash drive, "Hanna, what are you doing?" Ashley questions alerting the three girls that she caught them trying to sneak out of the house with the said object.

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SPENCER AND ASPEN WALK into the school's courtyard since Aspen needs to see Mrs Lockman about a new line of designs and Spencer still being an attending student.

"So it was there the whole time?" Aria asks after Spencer fills her in on what Ted dropped off at Hanna's this morning.

"Yeah, Hanna's freaking, she's terrified of what Jenna's gonna do" Spencer states.

"I thought that we were backing off the whole Noel and Jenna are the A team" Aria voices flipping through some pieces of paper zoned out.

"I am, but Hanna won't listen to me—are you?" Spencer quizzes noticing the zoned out expression on the brunettes face.

"I'm sorry, I'm just trying to figure out a way to say 'happy birthday' without the 'happy'—" Aria lowly mumbles, "Birthday?" Aspen quizzes.

"Yeah, Ezra's not in the mood to celebrate, he's obsessed—he's convinced that he's ruined Maggie's life" Aria explains.

"Well, why is he still thinking about his high school girlfriend?" Aspen inquires confused.

"Probably because I pushed him to, god, I just—I just wish that there was a way that I could get in touch with her" Aria voices.

"That is a terrible idea" Spencer states quickly trying to shut the idea down.

"No, no, no. I just want—" Aria mumbles, "That is such a terrible idea, stay out of it, it is none of your business" Aspen responds.

"It is my relationship, Aspen, I'm sorry, we can't move forward until he does" Aria interrupts looking away from the blonde girl.

"Uh, I gotta go" Aspen states standing up carefully from the table walking inside noticing CeCe walking towards the courtyard.

"Hey babe" CeCe happily greets, "Hey" Aspen responds with a smile.

"How are you?" CeCe wonders, "Great, sorry, I really gotta go talk to Mrs Lockman, talk soon?" Aspen suggests kissing her hand and waving it off towards the smiling blonde woman.

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AFTER DROPPING OFF HER new designs to Mrs Lockman and offering some advice for a student needing some fashion tips.

Aspen walks into her apartment seeing Jason sitting on the sofa typing on his laptop.

Bowie perks up from beside the male barking happily seeing his mom placing her keys and bag on the kitchen counter.

"Hi boy, has dad been looking after you?" Aspen asks using her inner mom puppy voice patting Bowie's not so little head before walking towards her handsome boyfriend on the sofa leaning down and greeting him with a kiss.

"Busy?" Aspen asks motioning to the laptop, "Here and there, just doing some paperwork for mom and dad and then I'm all yours, baby" Jason responds continuing typing on the laptop.

Jason watches as Aspen strolls to the fridge and grab out a bottle of mineral water needing to clench her thirst since the sun outside is quite warm.

Jason looks over after packing away his laptop and office belongings hearing Aspen audibly groan at a text message on her phone.

"Is that from A?" Jason questions, "No, CeCe" Aspen responds leaving Jason looking at her in confusion.

"She wants me to help her tonight for some show at her new boutique" Aspen explains replying to CeCe's text and placing the phone back on the counter and walking around to the opposite side towards the sofa couch.

"Oh, so you're going to that?" Jason quizzes, "Yeah, the other girls are—so I better make an appearance and then clock out so I can come home and spend sometime with my favourite human being" Aspen explains looking away from her iPhone and towards the male seated on the couch.

Aspen takes in her boyfriend's appearance before taking a seat beside him and leaning into his gentle touch leading her into his muscular chest.

Said girl hums in delight feeling Jason's biceps wrap around her waist letting the comfort of her safe place sooth her for a while until she goes down the CeCe's boutique for the trunks show happening tonight.

MEET ME AT
HANNA'S ASAP!
— SPENCER

Aspen frowns reading from her iPhone once Jason grabbed it for her from the kitchen table since he was returning from the bathroom.

"I've gotta go, Spencer needs me" Aspen explains showing Jason on her phone screen jumping up from the sofa and putting on her shoes quickly pecking Jason's lips and rushing out of her apartment.

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HANNA AND ASPEN GRIMACE holding onto their legs as Spencer explains to them that a snake was at CeCe's boutique and nearly bit her in the changing rooms.

"It was alive? Was it crawling? Was there a text from A? Jenna knew that you would ask me to help" Hanna rambles nervously.

"Okay, get off of the blind girl train, I am telling you that I actually used the word 'snake' when I was talking to Emily outside of the girl's locker room" Spencer exclaims pacing back and forth in Hanna's bedroom.

"Paige is not after us, she's in love with one of our best friends" Hanna utters, "She did also try and drown her" Aspen shrugs.

"Yes exactly!" Spencer exclaims pointing at Aspen in agreement that she also doesn't trust Paige.

"And she was with Emily that night, and she never said a word until Emily brought it up, maybe instead of hooking up with Emily, she was hauling her off to an open grave" Spencer suggests, "Spencer, Aspen—" Hanna responds unsure.

"No, we really need to review that security tape because I guarantee you anything that was a girl's shadow that grabbed Maya outside of Noel's cabin" Spencer voices.

"And you think this was Paige/Pigskin?" Hanna quizzes.

"Yeah, don't you? She's been obsessed with Emily for years, she was jealous of Ali, she was jealous of Maya, she hated them, she probably hates us" Spencer shrieks.

"I don't like her" Aspen responds with a shrug not hiding her hatred for the girl Emily's dating.

Aspen's phone rings from beside them, "Who is that? Is that Wren or Jason?" Spencer questions, "It's Emily" Aspen responds.

"Well, give me it! We don't know what we're gonna say to her!" Spencer demands holding out her hand for Aspen to give her phone to her.

"I'm going to say 'hi!', look, it's about the knife in Maya's bag" Aspen explains quickly answering the call before missing it.

"Hi, please tell me it's not rusty" Aspen begs nervously, "It's not here, we must've lost it when we were racing to the car" Emily responds.

"No, we didn't lose it, you and Hanna put it in the bag, where is the bag?" Aspen questions.

"It was under my bed" Emily says, "Someone must've broken into your house" Aspen suggests.

"Then why wouldn't they take the whole bag? We must've dropped it outside of Noel's cabin" Emily responds.

"No, the only thing we dropped, Emily, was a pound of my flesh! Now, did you check your car?" Aspen irritably questions.

"Yes, but I'll check again" Emily voices ending the phone call.

Aspen scoffs looking at Hanna and Spencer looking at her with questionable looks.

"There's no way we left it outside of Noel's cabin, A must've snuck into her house" Aspen states.

"A may also go by the name Paige, why would you sneak in when you're invited?" Spencer questions with a shrug looking at both Aspen and Hanna who share a concerned look with one another.

Eventually, Hanna, Spencer and Aspen make their way towards CeCe's boutique seeing the blonde awaiting for their arrival with a wide smile excited to see Aspen again.

"I figure the rack can be in the back, and you can change in the dressing rooms" CeCe suggests.

"Uhh—nope" Aspen denies straight away not wanting to go anywhere near the dressing rooms due to her worst fear being in the there hours earlier.

"I agree with Spenny, no, thank you" Hanna states standing beside Aspen.

"Guys, animal control has already been here, I swear, they took it away and went through all the other boxes for nests" CeCe states, "Nests?" Spencer and Aspen simultaneously shriek alarmed.

"Hanna, you could rock this, be even better if you pinned your hair up, though" CeCe says holding up a short purple dress, "Oh, yeah, no, my hair is just—it doesn't—" Hanna rambles embarrassed.

"Use the dry shampoo, you're not the only one that didn't have a chance to wash your hair this morning, hon" CeCe winks throwing Hanna a bottle of dry shampoo from the display beside her.

Hanna slowly walks into the dressing rooms going to try the dress on leaving Spencer, Aspen and CeCe out in the main part of the boutique shop.

"This length, those legs—perfect" CeCe states motioning to Spencer.

"Uh, you probably should actually give that to Emily" Spencer suggests.

"Emily's coming? Fabulous" CeCe exclaims beaming with excitement.

"Look, I got her to come here, I don't know if she'll stay" Aspen mumbles leaning closer towards Spencer.

"Well, you don't have to bring up Paige right away, just check her temperature first" Spencer suggests making Aspen nod in agreement.

"Spencer, you should wear this, it's so you" CeCe states holding up a long blue dress.

"Oo, you know what? That is so me!" Aspen exclaims grabbing the dress from her old best friend and walking towards the dressing rooms making sure to look around for possible snakes.

"Damn" a voice whispers from behind her catching Aspen off guard by the sudden figure.

"Jason? What are you doing here?" Aspen questions wide eyed.

"Well, I knew you had some anxiety about the snake so I made sure I'd come and show you some support" Jason explains looking Aspen's figure up and down since she's just in her undergarments due to changing.

"My knight in shining armour" Aspen responds placing the long blue dress over her figure and doing a spin showing the very sexually frustrated male beside her.

"Hanna, Spen, I have some shoes out here for you, how are those dresses looking?" CeCe calls out from the opposite side of the dressing room door, "Hot" Hanna responds.

"Sexy" Aspen states now knowing that Caleb is in the other dressing room with Hanna since Jason and him came together.

"So how are you and Caleb gonna sneak out of here?" Aspen questions still blushing due to the previous compliment off her handsome boyfriend.

"Same way we came in, why? Is Jenna coming to this thing?" Jason quizzes suddenly getting serious.

"Jase, I don't think Jenna's the one we have to be afraid of anymore" Aspen responds biting her lower lip due to her anxiety.

Jason pecks Aspen's lips passionately making the blonde girl forget about her worries.

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ASPEN AND HANNA BOTH exit the dressing rooms seeing Paige talking to CeCe by one of the display cabinets.

"Hi Aspen, Hanna" Paige greets with a small wave.

"Hello" Aspen and Hanna simultaneously greet lowly walking towards Spencer who's looking at them a little unnerved.

"I'm sorry, I thought Emily was coming alone" Aspen explains quietly between the three of them.

"Yeah, well, her plus one suddenly wants to be our BFF, she's trying to kill us with kindness before she actually just—kills us, do we think that the knife is in that bag?" Spencer quizzes looking at Paige's bag beside them.

Hanna looks around the store quickly grabbing something close to them with a tilt of her head before looking at Aspen and Spencer who shrug in response.

"Hey, Paige? Um, can you give this to Emily and help her out? It's kind of a two-woman operation" Hanna suggests handing Paige the corset she grabbed from the clothes rack.

"Yeah" Paige says with a nod, "Cool" Hanna responds watching the girl walk off into the dressing rooms.

Spencer and Hanna go through Paige's bag while Aspen looks through the clothing options to the side of the two girls.

Said girl looks up hearing footsteps walking out from the dressing rooms.

"What are you doing?" Emily asks taking note of them being suspicious—well Hanna and Spencer considering Aspen's standing a little bit away from them holding a dress with a disgusted face.

"We're leaving" Emily firmly mutters noticing Paige's bag behind Hanna and Spencer.

"Emily—" Paige sighs grabbing her bag off Emily as said girl angrily stomps her way back into the dressing rooms.

"No, don't be so forgiving, I'm changing and then we're out of here" Emily mutters.

Paige sighs placing the corset item back on the clothing rack before following behind Emily.

Aspen stands beside Hanna and Spencer now worried for her cousin's safety.

"Great, now she really hates us and Emily hates us even more" Hanna voices.

"Emily will get over it, we needed proof and we got it" Spencer states opening her palm showing Hanna and Aspen the missing earring from Alison's grave.

"Well—crap" Aspen sighs feeling even more stressed for Emily's safety now.

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JASON LOOKS OVER AT the apartment door hearing Aspen entering with some stuff in her hands—their dinner, "How did it go?" Jason inquires.

"Oh, it went, to be honest after you left—Emily came and now we're pretty sure she hates us" Aspen explains, "Emily couldn't hate you Asp, ever" Jason states:

"I'm so worried about her Jase, like—I'm not sleeping because I'm scared, scared something with happen to her like Ali" Aspen sniffles.

"What happened?" Jason questions sitting up straight wanting to know why Aspen's in the state she's currently in.

Aspen exhales shakily before explaining to him the situation and who they think is the new A.

Aspen watches as Jason's jaw and fists clench in anger thinking about the continuous torture the love of his life and her friends are going through.

"Nothing will happen to Em, I promise" Jason firmly states bringing Aspen into his chest letting her sob for a while.

Eventually calming down falling asleep to the soft rhythm of his heartbeat and the gentle hair brushes Jason's currently doing with his fingers.

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TO BE CONTINUED...

𝖊𝖑𝖘 𝖘𝖕𝖊𝖆𝖐𝖘 ⛧
feel like this is in-between
boring and good, whoops
hope you enjoyed!

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