1.15

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"If At First You Don't Succeed,Lie, Lie Again"

It took Halle longer to get home than she had initially planned. She did ride home on the handlebar of Caleb's bike, laughing all the way home to Bridgewater with Caleb as she squealed directions at him. After, she grabbed an overnight bag and headed to Spencer's like she had initially planned. In the morning, the five friends made their way downstairs for coffee.

"Wait, where's Ian?" Emily asked, last night still prominent in her thoughts.

Spencer waved her off whilst she walked towards the kitchen. "Don't worry, he went to Philly to be with Melissa."

"I didn't realise life existed at this hour in the morning," Halle uttered, rubbing her eyes with the sleeves of her pyjama-top. She yawned loudly. "I'm so tired, like, if I could sleep with my eyes open I would."

"Come on, guys, just walk," Aria said, shooing her friends over to the kitchen island. She even grabbed Halle's arm to stop her from throwing herself down on the couch. "You need to see this," she insisted.

"I need my full eight hours," Halle sulked, "otherwise I'm really bitchy." She saw her friends give her a look. Halle sighed. "More bitchy than usual."

"You know, I always hoped my first sunrise would have tequila in it," Hanna mused.

"I'll make coffee," said Spencer.

"Well, when it's ready just pour it down my throat," replied Hanna.

Aria busied herself on Spencer's laptop. She loaded up the image the group received last night while Halle was with Caleb. The image of Alison in Spencer's backyard was on the screen. She wasn't there when A sent it, but she certainly heard about it when she got there.

"'Watch your back. I didn't.'" Halle let out a low whistle and said, "can A get anymore sinister?"

Spencer groaned, "I thought we were done looking at this. I mean, we know the shadow is Ian, right?"

"You woke us up for this?" questioned Emily, slouching down on one of the stools.

"It's important," Aria responded. She placed down a blown-up image of Alison and the shadow following her. "I couldn't let it go."

"Have you been up all night?" Hanna asked.

Aria bit her lip. "Maybe..."

"You have! One eye is bigger than the other," Hanna pointed out. "You look like a strung-out powerpuff girl."

Halle stopped as she reached for a coffee mug. She turned back to Hanna, stunned. "That was funny."

"Thanks," Hanna said, grinning.

"No, that was funny." Halle shook her head. "Why didn't I think of that? Am I not funny in the morning?" Her hand fell over her chest. "Have I lost my funny? I could have easily called Aria Popeye, but I didn't think of that until now— Ooh, cyclops!" she exclaimed, slapping her hands together.

"Stop! Okay, stop looking at my eye!" Aria said. "Just look at the picture," she nagged, forcing them to look at the image again.

"Who's having coffee?" Spencer asked, desperate to avoid the subject of the picture.

"Me," Halle groaned, throwing her hand in the air. She practically thrust her mug at Spencer.

"I mean, there's only one place where this picture could've been taken from," said Aria.

"Where?" Hanna asked.

"Alison's bedroom," Aria answered.

"No, Alison is in the picture. She clearly didn't take that," Hanna replied plainly.

"Okay, but somebody in her house did," claimed Aria.

"Like, who, her parents?" mocked Emily.

"No, her brother," Aria stated.

Halle perked up. She looked up from her cup of coffee. "Jason?"

"You know, my mom ran into him at the bank," Hanna mentioned. "He had a meeting with your dad, Hal. He's back in town."

"He did? He saw my dad?" Halle asked, confused to why he dad hadn't told her.

"Why is he back?" Emily asked.

"Why is he meeting with my dad?" Halle questioned incredulously.

"We have to call him," Aria urged.

"No, ew! I am not going to talk to him," Hanna said firmly.

"Me either," Emily agreed, crossing her arms over her chest nervously.

"I will." Halle spoke up. She was quick in responding, eager even. "We need to know, right?" she reasoned. "We need to know if he took this. I should go, he knows me best, right? You all said it," Halle said, "he'll talk to me."

•

Halle was meeting Jason DiLaurentis alone at the gymnasium before school. She walked up the stone steps and out into the stands. She rounded the corner and saw Jason for the first time since the memorial, and this time he was without a shirt.

"Why does he have to be shirtless?" Halle asked herself. Did the universe really hate her that much?She pondered the thought in her head as he jogged up to her. Maybe the devil really loved her. Alison did once.

A slight smirk crossed his face when her saw Halle lowered her gaze, her cheeks flushed. "Hey," Jason greeted.

"Hey," Halle said. Teasingly, she asked, "Was this planned?"

It surprised Jason that Halle could get flustered but still hold herself strong when teasing him. The old him would've teased her right back, but that was the past. Now, he wasn't in the mood to banter her, not with how they left things. Seeing her brought back that moment he asked her why she chose him and she gave him the truth when he would have done anything to hear her lie to him.

"You called me, Halle. And I'm busy. You can fit into my schedule, not the other way around," he said.

Halle nodded, averting her eyes to the ground as though she was a scolded child. "You're still mad at me."

Jason scoffed. "Mad at you? I'm hurt, I have the right to be."

"I know, I know you do, but I could understand if you were still mad," Halle said to him.

"Any anger I still had for you, it went the moment my mom told me you got ran over by a car." He was still shocked by it. "What happened? Your dad said it was hit and run?" he said, sounding more like a question.

"Like my dad said, it was a hit and run," Halle said simply, offering him a shrug.

"That's all I'm gonna get, isn't it?" Jason said knowingly. "It seems you girls never grow out of your secrets."

Halle chose to ignore that. Instead, she asked what she had been wanting to ask him, "what are you doing back here, Jason? Why are you have meetings with my dad?"

"I'm just taking care of family business," he told her.

"Your family hasn't lived in Rosewood for a year, Jason. Don't treat me like an idiot and lie to my face," Halle said.

Jason gave her a look. "Halle, why did you come here? Why did you really ask to see me?"

Halle sighed and pulled out a file from her bag. Then, she handed it over to him, doing her best to avoid staring at his bare chest. "This was sent to Spencer," she said, "it looks like it was taken from the second floor of your house."

"Yeah, suppose it does," he said, barely glancing at the image.

"You're not convinced," Halle noted.

"Look, after Alison disappeared, we got all sorts of weird things in the mail. Sympathy cards from strangers and letters with conspiracy theories about what happened to her," Jason explained. "Some about us," he added.

"Us?" Halle questioned.

"Some whacko had it in their head that we killed her," Jason said. "Saw us at the police station after she went missing — the vigil — and recently at the funeral. Said it was crime of passion, so we could be together. Those were the ones that hit my mom the worst."

"That's insane," Halle rebutted the very idea.

"My point— it's not all legitimate, Halle," Jason said. He saw something dash from her eyes and tried to comfort her. "Look, sometimes it was photos we got. Blurry images of a blonde girl running away from the camera."

"Yeah, but that's definitely Ali," argued Halle, "and that is Spencer's yard and it was taken the night she disappeared. She's wearing the same yellow top, Jason."

"Halle, they have programs now that make photoshop look like scissors and a glue stick," he claimed. "Look, I'll tell you what, my family hired a P.I. I'll take the picture to him and see what he comes up with."

Halle nodded, letting out a deep sigh. "Thank you." Her brows then raised. "Wait, P.I.?"

"Yeah, my parents hired a P.I. to look into any leads the cops may have overlooked. It seems they're pretty set on Toby Cavanaugh, but he just seems to be an out for them," Jason said.

Her expression softened. "You don't think Toby did it, do you?"

"You don't either, I can see in your face," he mentioned. "And who knows? Maybe he is just a scapegoat for them while the real killer walks about free after what he did to Ali."

"Well..." Halle shuffled her feet. Awkwardly, she pressed her lips together and smiled tight. "I should get going, I have to get to school."

As she turned to walk away, Jason called her back. "Halle." When she faced him again, Jason said sincerely, "Ali's memorial was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Another was letting you go after That Night."

"That Night?" said Halle quietly.

"The night Ali disappeared," he replied. "The night you told me you were—"

"Playing with you, I know," Halle interjected, ashamed for what she did.

"I was a jerk to you the last time I was here," Jason said.

"We were both jerks, to each other," Halle said.

"Why can't we ever catch a break?" he asked her.

Sadly, Halle gave him an answer that didn't sit well with her. "Because we're the same."

"Just so you know, I didn't know about the video," said Jason truthfully.

"How do you know about that?" Halle asked.

"Word of mouth, Rosewood's a small town," he said.

"God, I hate this town," Halle replied, though it wasn't much of a confession to him. Jason had heard her say it countless times before.

"I don't know how it got out."

"It was Ali," Halle told him, making him raise his brows at her. "She... after she found our letters from That Summer when you were at Cape May, she went looking for more and she found that. She had the video, she so much as told me about it that night. She was gonna ruin me, Jason."

"I wouldn't put it past Ali to do that, but... Ali's dead," said Jason.

"Yeah, I know," Halle shook the thought of Alison in the hospital room from her. "I know she is."

"I'm sorry, about the video, about That Summer, too," he said.

"Hey, it's not your fault," Halle said. "We were idiots if we thought we could keep it from Ali. She always wins."

"It's why we're not together," Jason concluded.

"No, that's me," Halle told him. "I can't blame Ali for that one. That's all me."

•

Lunch was torture. She agonised over the thought of Jason — why they weren't together. Halle wasn't lying when she told him it wasn't Alison's fault, that it was all Halle's fault. It was her that was cruel enough to play with him, to screw what they had up so badly before it could even become anything.

"Why is this called meat casserole?" Emily asked, turning her nose up at it.

"That lunch lady has a gift for suspense," Spencer answered, routing around her own casserole with her fork.

"Where's Hanna?" Halle asked curiously, wanting to find something to distract her.

"Who cares?" muttered Aria.

Halle snapped her head around to face her. "What?"

"I don't know," Aria said, her playing around with her salad.

"You heard off Jason?" Spencer asked, as she tired to make conversation.

"Not since I saw him this morning," said Halle, shoving aside her lunch. She was still in her head about her whole conversation with Jason. Every moment she spent with Jason played with her head, stayed in there and messed her around. She felt sick.

"What about cheer? How's that been?" Spencer asked. "You know, since you broke Sophie's nose."

"Big sack of crap," Halle replied.

"Okay," Spencer sucked in a breath, "Em, how was swim practice?"

"Can we talk about something else?" Emily pleased, not even looking up.

"Okay, I've heard of communal cramps, but this is ridiculous," Spencer commented. "Halle's been grouchy since she saw Jason, and you—" she looked to Aria, "what happened to all that first-real-date excitement? I mean, yesterday you were ready to give me tongue for for giving you two tickets. You're not into it anymore?" she asked.

"No. I mean, yes." Aria threw her head back with a groan. "Yeah, I'm so into it. We're gonna have an amazing time tonight," she said, shaking off whatever was bugging her.

"Okay. So, talk," Spencer urged, desperate to hold a chat with anyone. "What are you gonna wear?"

"I can't decide between my backless or my strapless," Aria said.

"Go with the red one," Spencer advised. "Be bold. Don't you think, Hal?"

Halle gave a hum in response.

"Em?" Spencer tried.

Emily tuned into the conversation again after hearing her name. "About what?" Emily was too busy staring off in the distance.

"What are you looking at?" Spencer asked, whipping her head around as she tried to note what had Emily's attention.

"It's nothing," Emily said. "Just some girl on my swim team who wants me to disappear."

"Do you want me to make her disappear?" Halle asked her best friend, but Emily shook her head.

"What's her name?" asked Aria.

"Paige McCullers," answered Emily, and Spencer made a noise of acknowledgement.

"Oh, I know her." Spencer told them, "we played field hockey together. We named a penalty after her. What'd she say?"

"Some snarky comment about me being gay," Emily digressed; shocking her friends to sit up like lightning bolts had shot through them.

"What?" Halle asked, rage darkening her eyes.

"I will destroy her," said Spencer firmly.

"You point her out and I'll go give her a piece of my mind. I have no problem kneeing another bitch in the face," Halle said protectively.

Aria hummed in agreement. "Can I help?"

Halle instructed the small brunette, "you hold her arms and I'll punch."

"Guys, it's okay," Emily said, interrupting their battle plan. "First thing—" she shot Halle a stern look, "you can't be getting into any more fights. And second thing, I took care of it." Emily went routing in her bag for her purse, throwing out a little blue box. "Anyone else thirsty? I'm gonna get a drink," she said.

Aria picked up the present. "Who's this from?"

Sparing a glance, Emily groaned, "Paige — whatever it is, you can have it."

"You find a hair, I want it for a voodoo doll," Halle claimed, pointing at the box.

"I'm not gonna even ask," Aria replied, eyeing Halle suspiciously; the curly haired girl only winked in response.

Emily told her friend, "she's trying to bribe her way to becoming the next team captain."

Halle and Spencer shared a laugh. The former said, "honey, if you wanna be captain, trying to be everyone's friend ain't the way to go. They need to fear you a little, people won't take advantage of you that way."

"You know, you have real cynical way of looking at teams," said Spencer.

"Are you friends with anyone on debate? No, because you understand they're your competition. They're not only the people standing between you and winning, but for college offers. We're all vying for the same spots," Halle made her argument. "And I'm just more determined than some to get that spot. Being buddy-buddy ain't gonna get me it."

An air of harsh truth hung over the girls. They all knew how Halle thought — how determined she was with getting a scholarship through cheerleading — but they didn't know how her way of thinking applied to them as well. None of them wanted to lose out to one of their teammates and none of them were friends with anyone on their teams either.

"Oh, my god, you're right!" Spencer exclaimed, sitting back in her chair in shock. She was dumbfounded. "How hadn't I realised? I'm just as cynical as you."

"You're a subconscious cynic," Halle said, grinning smugly. "Welcome to the club."

Amused, Aria chuckled lightly as unwrapped the box of its ribbon. It died in her throat quick though. With shaky hands, she plucked up the bracelet embroidered with 'GO SHARKS' and revealed it to her friends. Their laughter went too.

"Do you think they're from the same place?" Aria asked warily, referring to the bracelet Alison gave them and the one from A.

"It's possible," Emily gulped.

"If they were, maybe the store owner could tell us who bought the fake Alison bracelet," suggested Spencer.

"Yeah, or maybe the Jenna one," Halle added.

Spencer snatched up the box hastily. "There's only one way to find out," she said. Spencer turned the box over and revealed the store name 'The Bead Boutique' printed on the bottom.

•

Mid-shift after school, Halle was clearing tables when Jason walked in The Applerose Grille. He smiled at the owner and pointed at Halle, too busy to noticed he was there, asking if he could have a word. In a town where people still saw Alison when they saw Jason and Halle, everyone understood why they'd want to talk; they knew Alison best. Jason interrupted Halle as she was laying out new cutlery on the table. She looked up when she sensed someone near her and stood up straight when she realised it was Jason.

"Hey, can I have a moment?" he asked.

"Um, yeah... Hold on." Halle caught the attention of her boss and motioned to Jason. "I'm gonna take five," she said, which her boss fully understood having greeted Jason at the door.

Halle dusted off her hands and gestured for Jason to walk. The two, wanting to away from prying eyes and burning ears of customers, took their conversation outside. They sat on the bench on the restaurant front, a gap between them as Halle positioned herself at the very end. Nerves eating away at her, Halle decided to get it over with quickly. She was straight to the point with him. "So, what did you wanna talk about?"

Jason took a breath and told her, "my family's P.I.— he said the picture is real."

Halle's brows involuntarily raised. "What?"

"And for all I know, I may have taken it," he confessed.

"What do you mean? You may have taken it?" she questioned him.

"I honestly don't remember. You know I was out of it That Summer," he said, his hand out toward her. "It's a blur to me. All of it."

"I know that feeling," Halle spoke softly. "I saw Ian and it's like I blocked out ever seeing him at any party That Summer."

"Ian's back?" Jason asked, confused.

"Same as you," she offered. "He got a coaching position at school. He's married to Melissa now, they eloped," Halle informed, a tight pressed smile on her face as she rolled her eyes.

Something between a scoff and a chuckle left Jason. "No kidding."

"It only took one coffee." Halle jested, "who knew the average woman was so easily impressed, hey?"

"Guess you're not average then," Jason noted.

Halle smirked. "Anything but." She gave a small laugh and said, "do you remember when you called me ordinary?"

"Big mistake," Jason chuckled, "you've been proving me wrong ever since."

"Yeah..." Halle chewed the skin inside her mouth. Looking at Jason and having him look back at her made her nervous. She didn't want to be nervous; she didn't like it very much. It made her feel inferior — fearful. No one had ever pulled a reaction like that out of Halle, to the point she felt small and vulnerable around him. Jason knew all her dark secrets. He was her dark secret. The one A knew about.

"I should get back in there," Halle said, breaking the uncomfortable silence her own feelings had created around her.

"When do you finish? Maybe we could grab a coffee or something," he offered with a gentle smile

Halle found herself laughing again. "Subtle." She lowered her gaze and shook her head. "We shouldn't."

Jason gave her a nod. "You're right, you probably couldn't handle the chemistry anyway," he joked.

A smile broke out across her face. "Oh, I can handle it," she claimed proudly. Halle stood up and said, "I'll see you around, Jason," and went to go inside.

"Hey, Brewster," Jason's voice made her turn back around.

"Yeah?"

"You're not as scary as you think you are, or as heartless," Jason said.

"I never pretended to be," said Halle.

"Yeah, you did." Jason explained, "That Summer, when you said were just playing with me."

Halle swallowed the lump in her throat. "I meant that."

"No, you didn't." He stood up from the bench and edged closer to her, making her gulp. Jason could see her throat moving and her chest rising quicker the nearer her got. "I think you're scared. In fact, I think you'd make some guy pretty damn happy."

"Some guy?" Halle tried to laugh it off but failed somehow. "I have a boyfriend."

"Yeah, and you're not happy," Jason concluded.

"Who says I'm not?" she asked, almost a little insulted. "You don't know me, Jason. You definitely don't know my relationship."

"You're bad liar, Brewster, you know I know better than anyone," Jason said. "You told me things That Summer that you've never told anyone before." He took another step closer to her and he smiled when she took one back, a flush creeping up her neck. "You're still thinking about me, aren't you?"

Halle shook her head, finding her voice. "It's been over a year, Jason, it's time to move on." She tried to joke, "you're looking a little needy right now."

"Neither of us have moved on. I know you haven't," he said boldly. "Be honest with yourself for five seconds, tell me how you feel."

Looking into his green eyes, Halle felt compelled to give him an honest answer. She confessed to Jason, "You scare me. How you make me feel scared me, and I don't ever wanna feel like that. Like I have no sense of control. That Summer never should have happened. I wish I had just left you alone."

"Do you?" he asked softly.

"I just said that! And I meant what I said," said Halle strongly. "If I could go back, I'd leave you alone. I never would have got in your car That Halloween, I never would have smoked with you after my date with Eric, I never would have kissed you the night I fought with Ali. It was a mistake. A summer full of them." Her chest tightened as the sight of him withdrawing from her; his hurt clear on his face. She heaved out a heavy breath and hopelessly offered him a pitiful apology. "I'm sorry."

Jason swallowed back what she had just told him. It was a hard pill to swallow; it left a sour taste in his mouth, an aftertaste of bitterness. As he went to pass her — to leave — he leaned down and said into her ear, "try lying better, Brewster, I don't believe you."

Then, he left.

•

"So the shadow in the picture isn't Ian, it's you?" Aria asked Spencer in the comfort of the Hastings' bedroom. Spencer had just finished telling them about her fight with Alison the night she disappeared, how she followed Alison and confronted Alison when she came back to the barn. It still deeply grieved Spencer; that argument haunted her.

Anxiously, Spencer told them the truth. "Yeah."

"Why didn't you tell us before?" asked Emily, curious to why Spencer didn't just tell them when A first sent the photograph.

"I don't know," said Spencer, shrugging. She nervously pulled at her sleeves as she spoke. "I guess that I was scared."

"Spencer, you told us you hooked up with Ian and Wren when they were dating your sister, you being this shadow is nothing," Halle assured. "You should have just told us."

"This is gonna sound crazy, but I think I didn't tell you because..." Spencer paused and then digressed further, "there was always a part of me that wondered if it was my fault. I mean, I wished it, then it came true," she said, her guilt conscious coated her tone.

"Spence, you didn't mean it," Hanna comforted her friend.

"It was something you said in the heat of the moment," Emily added reassuringly.

"We've all done it, I know I have," Halle said. "Ali was always the easiest person to love, or even like at times."

"Besides, Ali said stuff to us that was worse," Aria offered. "Much worse, right?"

"Right..." Halle played with her fingers, chewing her lips nervously as she debated whether to tell her friend about the night she fought with Alison. Halle fought back the urge; they'd never understand.

Aria noticed how Spencer tensed. Her body had gone pin-straight as Spencer moved across the room, having seen something out of her bedroom window. "Spence?" Aria questioned, as she too got up to look out of the window. "Oh, my god."

"Is that—?"

"It's Jason," Hanna said, cutting off Spencer's question.

Out of the bedroom window, the one that looked straight into Alison's old bedroom, the five girls stood speechless. They saw Jason stood in what used to be his sister's bedroom putting up newspaper on the windows. It was strange seeing him back in that house, why was he there?

Jason saw them, too. His eyes locked onto the girls and a dark look crossed over them before he put up the last newspaper. The room was totally covered from the outside. No one could see in. No one could see out.

Halle couldn't ever tell them her secret.

•