Pretty Little Liars

Chapter 14: Neah, Girl on Fire

The morning after Alison's funeral, Neah sits at her kitchen table, using a spoon to shove around the soggy cocoa puffs floating around in milk. Sage has already fled for early lacrosse practice and Tony is still getting ready upstairs.

Neah can barely bring herself to eat. All she's been thinking about is Ali and those weird messages she and her friends have been getting. Now, she also has Remy Thorne to worry about-- who left Rosewood after his accident. Carter Bass pretty much threatening them outside of the church doesn't make things sit too comfortably with her, either.

"You don't have to go to school today if you don't want," Eric, Neah's father, says from the island as he pours himself a thermos of coffee. He's dressed for work, a slim navy blue tie against a white button-down shirt. "Your mother and I talked about it and we both agreed that it wouldn't be the worst idea if you missed a day."

As much as Neah would like to skip, she thinks missing out and being cooped up in this house will only make her think about things more. "No, I think it's best if I go. Keeping busy with school might help."

"Shoot me a text if it gets all too weird, okay?" Mr. Dameron asks, sounding concerned. "I don't mind leaving work early to play hooky, as well."

Neah musters up a smile. "Thanks, Dad."

He tells her to have a good day as he snatches up his keys and his briefcase. Neah listens to him pad out the front door before she rises from her chair to pour out her uneaten cereal. She mentally tells herself that today is going to be good. That those weird texts about her and Tony were just flops. That whoever it was saw the four of them talking with Carter outside the church and maybe got scared they were telling him about the notes. She can only hope.

Neah climbs the stairs to fetch her bag from her bedroom. She stops dead in her tracks when she finds Tony stepping out of the bathroom, bare chested with a towel wrapped around his waist. Tiny droplets of water stream down his dark skin, his head dripping wet.

"Oh, shit, sorry." He goes to cover himself up but realizes he doesn't have much of a shield. "I didn't know you were still here, I thought you left with Sage."

Neah's eyes are as big as golf balls, she can feel them. She barely manages to look away, feeling heat rush to her cheeks. "Yeah, I'm just getting my bag... and stuff..."

It looks like Tony is trying hard not to laugh. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? "Right."

"Excuse me." She shuffles past him, almost knocking his shoulder with hers but she leaps away, too afraid to touch him when he's so... exposed.

After getting to school, Neah pops an Advil to the back of her throat in order to prevent the headache she is bound to have by the end of the day. She has this A person to think about, losing Ali all over again, and now her naked stepbrother who she may or may not have had a moment with before. What other curve balls are going to be thrown her way?

Neah's ex-boyfriend, Dylan, comes rounding the corner of the hallway, the two of them nearly colliding. His Axe body spray assaults her nostrils, as it always did when they were together. They've been broken up since the summer and Neah is dealing with it just fine. They started dating on New Year's Eve so they didn't last long but that doesn't mean Neah didn't have any romantic feelings for him. All breakups are hard.

"Sorry," she mumbles, trying her best to leap away from him, too. She's starting to feel like Rosewood is a war field with mimes under the surface.

"Oh, Neah." He looks surprised to see her, as though he forgot she went to this school, too. "No, it was my fault." He waves his phone in the air. "Texting and walking is just as dangerous as texting and driving, apparently."

"Yeah..." Neah agrees, considering telling him that he sounds like a middle aged woman but decides against it. She doesn't want a conversation with him. She turns to start back down the hall.

"Hey, uh..." He clears his throat, glancing around the buzzing hallway like he's in fear of getting shunned for speaking to her again. "I'm sorry. About Ali, and stuff. Sucks a lot."

Neah can't bite her tongue. "It's interesting how you choose to apologize for that out of all things but life goes on and mine has me scheduled for trig so... bye."

Dylan lets her go this time and for that, Neah is relieved. She nearly shoulders a band member out of her way, though, as she fumbles for her headphones in the pocket of her Roosewood High hoodie.

"I can't belive he's back," someone whispers from the other side of the hallway.

"I feel so bad for him," another one pipes up.

"I heard he can't even use his hands."

Neah snaps her head to look at the gossipers outside of the girls bathroom. She feels like she's on a roll, today. "His ears probably still work so either learn to whisper or maybe shut up?"

"Sorry about her." Dakota appears next to Neah, gently grabbing her arm and shooting an apology smile at the girls. "It's a Monday." Dakota drags her away, further down the hallway as more students bustle to their classes.

"I didn't need someone to rescue me," Neah says.

"They've been talking about Remy all morning." Dakota sighs. "I could barely sleep l ast night, thinking about him at the funeral."

"I applaud you, Dakota," Neah says honestly. "You still have that same bleeding heart for others you always had.

Dakota was always the most innocent out of their group. Dakota carried this way about her that Neah has always admired, even after they had a falling out. Dakota was always the one who sympathized with Ali's victims more than the others. Probably because if she never met Ali that day at the charity drive, Dakota would've been just another name on Alison's hit list.

"Don't feel too guilty," Neah instructs when they arrive at her locker. "Out of all of us, you tried the hardest to stop what happened that night."

Dakota's face is sad, flung into the past and buried under memories from that summer. She picks at her sky blue nail polish nervously. "Thanks. I just wish there was something more we could've done."

"You aren't alone in that," she promises. "I think that's one of the major threads binding humanity together: the desire to change the past." She gathers her books from her locker, feeling desperate to change the subject. "Do you want to maybe come over after school?"

Dakota looks surprised, twirling a piece of her pigtail around her finger. "Really?"

"Yeah, we can just... hang out." It would be nice to not feel so alone. Not with this A person running around.

"That would be fun," Dakota agrees, bobbing her head up and down. "My mom works late almost every night anyway and judging the texts from yesterday, I'm not really in the mood to be all by my lonesome." She lights up again. "I can bring some of my mix CD's! And my mom got these really good vegan chips the last time she was in the city."

Neah laughs. She missed Dakota. "It's a date."