ꗃ ﹕𝓓𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝓑𝐋𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝓜𝐄 . . . . . 𓈈 𓍢 ░
𝖯𝖱𝖤𝖳𝖳𝖸 𝖫𝖨𝖳𝖳𝖫𝖤 𝖫𝖨𝖠𝖱𝖲 ── ༅𓂃👜゛໒ ࣪˖˚

𝒊.   𝗪𝗘𝗟𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗘      𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗘,     𝖦𝖮𝖫𝖣𝖨𝖤 ‧₊˚📱✩
˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚ 𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄, 𝐃𝐎 𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐊 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐌𝐄 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐈'𝐌 𝐆𝐎𝐍𝐄 ── 01𝗑08 ｡𖦹°‧
𝖨𝖬𝖮𝖱𝖳𝖠𝖫𝖨𝖳𝖸, 𝖬𝖸 𝖣𝖠𝖱𝖫𝖨𝖭𝖦𝖲 𐙚𓏲⋆ ִֶָ ๋𓂃 ⋆ᡣ𐭩

▐ 𝖧𝖠𝖲𝖳𝖨𝖭𝖦𝖲 𝖱𝖤𝖲𝖨𝖣𝖤𝖭𝖢𝖤

❝ 𝐈 𝐖𝐀𝐒 afraid she wouldn't get it done in time for the memorial. ❞ Aria says as she, Spencer and Sadie push a giant square crate into the Hastings living room.

"This was someone from your mom's gallery?" Hanna asked as she sat on the couch.

"Right."

"Where is your mom?" Sadie asked.

"There's an apartment above the gallery." Aria tells them, "So she's staying there. For now."

"Kind of weird, isn't it? Your mom moving out." Hanna asked.

"Yeah, like my dad should have left. That's what you'd expect." Aria's words cause Sadie to look at her with wide eyes.

"Aria."

"Hey, I'm sorry." Aria looks over at Hanna "I didn't mean it like that." Then she turns to Sadie, "And thanks' for letting Mike sleep over. He's not really talking to anyone so I'm worried about him."

Sadie shrugged, "It's fine. He's welcome over anytime. And so are you."

Aria sighs, "This whole thing just sucks."

"I know."

"Did anyone call Shelly Leonard?" Emily asked as she helped Spencer, Sadie and Aria unscrew the top of the crate.

"Done." Spencer spoke up, "I told her that if she plays anything depressing, I will kick her in the cello."

"Okay, what about the program?" Sadie questioned, passing the screw over to Spencer.

"Almost done. But we should finish it. . . before Ali's brother gets here."

Sadie's shoulders tense up at the mention of Jason, her eyebrow shooting up in confusion and her head lifts up, "When. . . when is that?"

"Tonight." Spencer answered, "He wants to see us in the morning."

"God, you know what?" Hanna stands up from the couch, "I barely remember Jason."

"We didn't know him. He was just Ali's older brother down the hall." Aria shakes her head.

"Behind the closed door." Spencer adds on.

"With his hardcore-punk music vibrating the floorboards." Emily says, causing the girls to laugh.

Sadie shrugged, "I knew him. I mean, I used to party with him and some of the older kids."

Spencer smirked, "Oh, yeah, we remember that. Party Sadie was probably my favorite alter ego of you."

The blonde laughed, "I still party hard. Ask Noel Khan, aka, my beer pong partner."

"How did Jason get into an Ivy League school?" Aria questioned.

"I don't know. It must've been affirmative action for goths and emos." Spencer joked as the five pull the top off.

"Wow."

"It's beautiful." Aria smiles.

"Pedestal's already out there, next to the bench." Spencer says. "This goes up Friday morning."

"Do you think Jason will like it?" Emily questioned.

Sadie smiles, "Of course he'll like it."

"You know, years from now, people are gonna see this memorial. . . and that's all they're ever know about Ali." Aria says, "She'll be the girl that they dedicated the bench to. And we'll all be gone, but Ali will still be remembered."

"That's immortality, my darlings." Spencer spoke, Alison's voice filling all of their minds.

" I wish we could just choose the age that we wanted to be and just stay there." Aria says as the six girls sat on the beach, four of them sitting in chairs while Spencer and Sadie laid out on their towels.

Sadie laid on her back, a pair of sunglasses she had taken from Jason covering her eyes as she listened to the sound of the waves and the girls talking.

"The only way to do that is to die young, leave a beautiful corpse." Alison says.

Emily shakes her head, "Don't joke."

"It's not a joke." Alison tells them, looking at the other girls "Oh, come on. Haven't you ever thought how deliciously tragic it'd be. . . to die in some incredibly mysterious way? That would be superior."

"Is that really how you wanna go, Alison?" Spencer asked.

Sadie snorted, "I'd want to be taken out with a bottle of Jack in my casket."

Alison smiles, knowing that Sadie would always make a joke out of every situation that Alison thought of, "Not just yet."

"Don't talk like that." Hannah smiles over at the third blonde in their group of friends.

"It's gruesome."

"It's immortality, my darlings."

"Where did she get that from, a movie?" Aria asked.

"Ali was a movie."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

❝ 𝐘𝐎𝐔'𝐑𝐄 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄! ❞ Sadie rushes into her house, flinging herself into Jason's arms as he stood talking with Will, who was dressed in his scrubs before he had to leave and go to work.

Jason laughs, resting his hands on the back of her thighs to keep her from hitting the ground, "Hey, pretty girl."

"Ugh, you guys make me sick." Will playfully teases the couple as he grabs all of his stuff. "I gotta get to work. Love you, kid."

"Love you!" Sadie calls back to her brother as he walks towards the door, "Hi."

"Hi." Jason flashes her a dazzling smile, "I missed you."

"I know. I'd miss me too." She joked with him before pressing her lips against his.

Jason is quick to kiss her back, moving forward until he was close enough to the counter to sit her down, his hands moving to cup her face as their lips move in perfect sync together.

A soft moan leaves the blondes lips as Jason gently bites down on her bottom lip, the two pulling away from each other, "I'm seriously not about to have sex with you on the counter. This is where we eat."

"Room still the same? Or did you take over Jesse's?" Muttered Jason as he kisses down her neck, a smirk on his lips as he sucks onto the skin, knowing that by the next day she would have a hickey right between her collar bone.

"Still the same." Her voice jumps an octave at the last of her sentence as she was thrown over his shoulder, laughter leaving her lips, "Jason!"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

❝ 𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 seriously late too? ❞ Hanna catches up with Sadie as they walk up Spencer driveway, "Hoping to avoid all of this?"

"Uh, no." Sadie shakes her head, moving her hand up to pull more on the hoodie she was wearing, hoping that the splotches of purple on her neck weren't seen. "My alarm didn't go off and Will worked last night, so nobody was there to wake me up."

"Maybe everything will be done when we get in."

"You've done a great job. Really. Mom and Dad and I are really grateful." Jason's voice carried through the room as the two blondes walked in, "There they are."

"Jason." Hanna spoke, a confused look taking over her face as Jason hugged her, "Uh. . . hey, sorry I'm late."

"No problem." Jason shrugged her off and hugged Sadie, his hand sliding lower down her back as a smirk was on his face.

Sadie, thankful that she was turned away from the girls, sent him a playful glare, "I see Frat boy Jason is gone."

He chuckled, "And I see that Party girl Sadie is still here. Nice pic at Khan's party."

"I told him not to post to anything." Sadie frowned as she sat down with the girls.

The four glance at each other, surprised looks on their faces at the interaction going on between one of their best friends and the dead best friend's brother.

"As I was saying, you've done some lovely work on the memorial. I might've done one or two things differently." Jason tells them, "But we can adjust that along the way. Here's a copy of the program for the dedication."

"Oh, I emailed you the program that we worked up." Spencer tells the older boy as he passed the paper over to Emily first since she was the closest.

"Right. I saw the draft. This just fine-tunes it. Let's see." Jason looks down, "If Shelly Leonard's gonna play something. . . I don't think we can give her more than three minutes. I remember she's somewhat of a showboat with that cello. Then, uh. . . oh. Is this the picture for the program?" He picks the picture up.

"Yes. It's everybody's favorite." Emily smiled.

"It's the one I would have picked." He looks at the picture of his little sister before sitting it down, "I thought I was gonna be able to get my whole family out here. . . but, you know, at the last minute, my mom, uh. . . ," He chuckled, "It's crazy talking about this, isn't it?"

Sadie looks down at her hands as the girl's glance at each other, none of them noticing the sad look Jason sent to the Beaumont girl.

"When I think about her, I think about you." Jason gestures to the girls, "The five of you in her bedroom, laughing, keeping secrets. Long time ago. I want each of you to speak. I'd rather hear from you than Miss Slocomb from the PTA."

"The PTA was a lot of help." Spencer tells him.

"What about the rain?"

Sadie raised an eyebrow, "The rain?"

"Forty percent chance before the weekend."

"They told us we could use the school's multipurpose room if we have to move the ceremony inside." Sadie tells her boyfriend.

"Great. People think this dedication is about closure." Jason puts his hand on one of the art tiles. "There won't be closure until they find out who did this to Alison. The cops in this town have been jerking my family around for more than a year. No more of that. I'm here to get some action, and this memorial is gonna help me get it. Oh, and I'm adding one speaker to the program."

He wrote a name down on the paper and passed it over.

"Jenna Marshall?"

"You want Jenna to speak . . . at the dedication?"

Jason nodded, "That's right."

Sadie crossed her arms over her chest, "Why?"

"She asked me if she could."

"Jenna asked to speak?" Emily asked.

"Is there a problem?" Jason questioned, looking around at the five of them.

"It just didn't occur to us that Alison and Jenna were that close." Spencer tells Alison's older brother.

"I didn't know either." Jason shrugged it off, "Jenna called and said my sister was a lot of help to her after her accident. Well, concentrate on what you're gonna say. Leave the rest of it to me. Now I'm going to have a talk with Detective Wilden. . . and find out why they haven't located Toby yet. Sades, walk me out?"

"Yeah, sure." Sadie nods, hopping up from her seat to walk him out of Spencer's house, following him out on the porch as the door shut behind him. "I'll see you tonight."

"Okay. Is Will working tonight?" Jason raised an eyebrow, looking down at her short figure.

"Uh, I don't think he is, but he's taking Cassie out on another date. Why?"

Jason smirked, "I'm cooking you dinner. Any preferences?"

"Whatever sounds good to you." She shrugged, "I should really get back in there."

"Okay." Jason leans down, quickly pressing a kiss to her lips, "I love you."

"I love you, now go!"

"What else did he say?" Hanna asked as she walked back inside.

"Nothing. Just kept smiling like he was running for office." Sadie lied to the girls with a shrug.

"Spence, why does Jenna wanna speak at the dedication?" Aria asked.

"And why does Jason want her there? He clearly knows they weren't friends."

"We can't let Jenna speak!" Emily shakes her head.

"How are we gonna stop her without looking like bitches?" Aria questioned.

"How are we going to stop her at all?" Spencer looks at them, "In case you didn't notice. . . we just got patted on the head and sent off to play."

"You need to stay on top of him, find out what's going on." Hanna looks at the Hastings girl.

Spencer looks at her in disbelief, "Why me?"

"Because you're the big organizer." Aria tells the Hastings girl, "You've got the laptop of all knowledge, and he's gonna need some of that."

Sadie sighed, "I'll do it. Will is letting him use our guest room until after the memorial so he'll be at the house."

"Jenna could get up there, she could tell about the fire and Toby." Emily panicked, "She could tell about everything."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

𝐒𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐀𝐍𝐄𝐃 as she drops her book on the floor, bending down to pick it up, only to jump as Noel stands in front of her, "I freaking hate you!"

He laughs, "Sorry. I'm sorry. Anyway, I have tickets to Band of Horses. Wanted to see if you wanted to come with me. And Hanna and Sean."

"If you would've told me this a day or two ago, then I would've said yes." She gives him a sad, teasing look. "But I can't. Will is having Cassie over for dinner again, and she offered to use our kitchen and cook on the condition that I helped her."

"Alright, fine. But you own me!" Noel points at her, "Do you. . . do you think I can get Aria to come?"

Sadie shrugged, "Maybe."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

❝ 𝐍𝐎 𝐖𝐀𝐘! Are you serious? ❞ Cassie laughs loudly as she and Sadie moved around the kitchen, cooking for the four of them.

"I'm so serious! He lived in that tree house for two days before Jesse talked him in to coming back home." Sadie giggled, dumping the cutting board of vegetables into the pot on the stove.

"Uh, oh. I hear laughing." Will walked into the kitchen along with Jason, finding the two girls giggling, "Don't be embarrassing me, Sadie James!"

"I'm not!" Sadie holds her hands up in surrender, "I promise I'm not."

"Sadie is the queen of telling embarrassing stories." Jason grinned as he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, a kiss landing on her temple.

"It wasn't an embarrassing story!"

"Yeah, she's telling the truth. So, Will . . . how was your two day stay at Tree House land?" Cassie asks with a teasing smile on her face as she bit into a raw carrot she had picked up.

"It was an embarrassing story!"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

❝ 𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐋, 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 was painless. ❞ Jason walked ahead of Spencer and Sadie down the school hallway.

"Not for Principal Hartman." Spencer sighs.

"He means well, but he needs to know who's in charge."

"I think we all know that."

"Okay, is. . . ? Is there a problem?" Jason spins around to look at the two girls.

Sadie shook her head, shotting Spencer a look, "There's no problem, Jase. You're Alison's brother, and you should have the final say. But you aren't the only on dealing with this."

"See, there's that closed door again." Jason says, "The secrets of the girls cuddled up in Alison's bedroom. Do you think that means you knew her better than I did?"

"Okay, first of all, drop the attitude." Sadie holds her hand up to stop him from talking, "Second of all, it just means we knew her in a different way."

"Right here."

Spencer looks head of the two where Wilden and two officers were standing in front of Toby's locker, "What are they doing?"

"That's Toby's locker." Sadie mumbled, locking eyes with Jason.

Jason glanced down at her before turning towards the Detective, "Detective Wilden."

Wilden turns his head as he open's Toby's locker, "You'll find this interesting. We're having a look in Toby Cavanaugh's locker."

"Why? Do you think he's hiding in there?" Jason asked him.

"He's a suspect." Wilden says, the two girls looking at each other in surprise.

"Your investigation better turn up more than Toby Cavanaugh's old gym socks."

"Jason." Sadie hisses, hitting his arm.

"You made it clear you weren't happy with the pace of the investigation." Wilden tells the DiLaurentis boy, "You said you wanted action. I'm trying to give that to you."

"Yeah, you've got nothing. I realized that yesterday." Jason tells him.

"Sometimes, Jason, we withhold information. . . on the progress of an investigation to avoid any questions." Wilden said.

"The only reason you're tearing this kid's locker open. . . is because he's not around to object."

"Toby called your sister's cell phone the night she disappeared." Wilden reveled to them, "I checked the phone records. She took the call."

"Toby called Alison the night she died?" Spencer asked.

"He did." Wilden nodded, "Or someone else did using his phone."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

        ❝ 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄 right about the weather. ❞ Spencer tells Jason as she sits in her living room with him and Sadie, having talked the blonde into coming to help so that she didn't have to be with Jason on her own, "Rain starting at midnight, continuing throughout the day."

Jason leaned forward to grab his glass off the table, "I wish this was gonna be outside, in the sun."

"Are you satisfied?" Spencer questions him.

"Yeah. How about the two of you?"

"I'll just be glad when this is all over." Sadie laid her head back against the couch and Jason had to refrain from resting his hand on her thigh to comfort her.

"Are we talking about the dedication or finding out what happened to Ali?" Jason asked.

"Both. I guess."

"Dedication will be fine. Thanks to you." He gestured to Spencer, "And I lit a fire under the cops."

"Did you know that Toby called Alison?" Asked Spencer.

"No. Wilden shouldn't have told me, but he was easy to shake up." Jason said, "Like most bullies."

Spencer stands up from the couch and walks towards the counter to grab her coffee cup.

"The two of you were the only ones who ever really challenged Alison. I remember hearing the three of you . . . getting in each other's grills a couple times. Kept waiting for the cat fight, but never happened."

"Who do you think killed Alison?" Spencer turns around to look at the boy.

"Police like Toby Cavanaugh." Jason said, "If they can't find him, they'll start liking someone else."

"Just someone, or someone in particular?" Sadie asked him.

"Does it really matter?" He asked the two girls, "My mom still needs pills to get to sleep. When they don't work . . . you can hear her walking around the house at three in the morning. You know, you lived with us."

Sadie glanced down at the floor, knowing that he was right because she would wake up hearing her, and the two women would sit in silence together, loving the feeling of comfort that it brought the two of them.

"You think you're ever really gonna have closure? Aren't you guys always gonna be the friend of that girl who was murdered?"

"Just like you'll always be her brother."

"That's how people see us." Jason looks at them, "They solve it or they don't, that's not gonna change. . . so I guess it doesn't really matter."

"But what about justice?" Asked Spencer.

Jason chuckled, "You don't really wanna bring justice into this, do you?"

"Why not?"

He turns his head to look at Sadie before standing up from the couch, talking to Spencer, "Alison told me about the fire. About how you said the six of you should all go over. . . and teach Toby a lesson. How you got the stink bomb. . . and convinced the rest of the girls to back you up. How you even threatened Toby if he told the truth."

"Alison told you that?" Spencer asked as Jason sat at the bar, glancing back at Sadie who looked just as confused as she did.

"Yes, she did."

"Did you believe her?" Spencer asked, looking the boy over, "You are just like Alison, aren't you?"

"In some ways, even worse." Jason smirked, taking a sip from his glass, "Besides, Sadie came crying to me and told me everything the night it happened."

Spencer's head snapped towards Jason, lips parting in shock as Sadie looks at her with a small, guilty smile on her face.

"When Alison came to me and told me that it was you, that had made the plan to go to Toby's, I had already heard the story from Sadie."

"And you believed Sadie over your own sister?" Spencer tilts her head.

Jason glanced back at his girlfriend as she spoke his next words to Spencer, "I trust Sadie a hell of a lot more than I would ever trust Alison."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

         ❝ 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒𝐎 she tried to pin it on you? ❞ Hanna asked as the five friends were now in Spencer's house.

"That's what she told Jason." Spencer fluffed the pillow before sitting down, "He didn't believe her though because Sadie had told him the truth way before she went to him."

"But why you?" Emily asked.

"Because Spencer and I could stand up to her, and Alison didn't like that." Sadie sighed, rubbing at her forehead as a headache formed.

"God, this is officially insane." Hanna sat down next to Sadie on the couch, Emily sitting next to her and Aria sitting on the arm of the couch by Sadie.

"Is that what she told Jenna when she was at the hospital?" Emily questioned.

"I don't know. I mean, I don't think so, but I don't know."

"Okay, so one minute, she's trying to cover it up. . . and the next, she's ratting us out to her brother?" Aria asked.

"Like she wanted Jason to know the fake story in case anything happened to her." Emily concludes, as if trying to figure out why Alison had told someone after they all promised not to.

"Why?"

"So they'd know who to blame." Spencer spits out.

"God. This is still Alison's movie, and we're just filling up the screen."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒 at the podium, the other girls sitting in the chairs on one side while Jason sat with Jenna on the other side. As she goes to open her mouth, something — or rather someone — catches her eyes.

Looking down at the four girls, they turn around, Sadie's eyes going wide as she took in the figure of Ian Thomas.

"Ian?" Aria whispered.

"Wait, Melissa's Ian?" Hannah is confused.

"Um. . . ," Spencer closes the book she had brought with her, the girls turning back to face the front, "I can't remember not knowing Alison. Not having her as a friend. She was the first person I knew long enough. . . that I felt I could be angry with. . . without worrying that I was gonna lose her. It made me feel like something was gonna last. And you need that. Yeah, especially when you're a kid."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

         ❝ 𝐈 𝐍𝐄𝐄𝐃 sugar. ❞ Hanna announces as the girls walk into Spencer's house, Jason following behind them.

"That was my folks. They say thanks." Jason tells the girls, "So do I."

"You're welcome."

"And I want you girls to have something." Jason tells them, pulling Alison's bracelet from his suite pocket and sat it on the middle of the table.

Sadie's head snapped to her boyfriend, "Jase, the police gave this to you?"

"Alison was wearing it."

"Wait. You mean when they found her?" Hanna asked as Aria had picked the bracelet up to examine it.

"After listening today, I just thought you should have it. I'll be in touch." Jason says, brushing his hand along Sadie's back before he walked out.

"If that's Alison's bracelet, what about the one we found in the woods?" Emily asked, all of them scared.

"I don't know."

"Someone made a copy of Alison's bracelet."

"Yeah and made sure that we would find it."