Pretty Little Liars

Chapter 26: He Joined Drama Club, too?

That day at school, Sabrina sits in the audience of the school auditorium with her script for The Bad Seed in her lap. Kirsten Cullen and Phi Templeton are onstage rehearsing a scene together, listening to stage directions from the drama instructor, Mrs. Bolton.

Sabrina can't stop thinking about her outing with Zoe the other day at the creek. Everything was going smoothly up until the flashing incident-- which Sabrina is still trying to recover from--but all in all, it was fun. She just worries that one day, like Alison, she might view Sabrina as this bored girl who would rather have a quiet time under a tree versus showing her boobs to the entire lacrosse team. She remembers Ali mentioning something along these lines a little bit before she went missing.

"We should plan a getaway," Alison said mysteriously as she and Sabrina headed home with frozen yogurt in their hands.

"A getaway?" Sabrina echoed.

Alison nodded. "We could plan a trip to Philly. No one would know where we went."

"But why?"

Alison rolled her eyes. "You need to stop asking why all the time and start asking why not. You girls have gotten so boring lately."

It was from then on that Sabrina feared Alison would dump the four of them on the side of the road like some dead-beat mother. Perhaps that's what's making Sabrina distance herself from Zoe a little bit. She would rather not dive head-first into some sort of relationship with the girl if it's only going to end with her getting hurt.

"You tell likes like that, and you won't go to Heaven when you die!" Phi proclaimed, center stage, dramatically spewing her lines out as she plays the young girl in the play, who turns out to be a murderer.

"Good job, Phi," Mrs. Bolton says from her seat in the audience, circling something in her copy of the script. "Can we get Quinn out here, please? This is a rehearsal, people, not the time to be shitting backstage!"

Sabrina doodles in the margins of her script, seeing movement out of the corner of her eye. She looks to her right and several seats down from her, Remy plops himself down. He's wearing a knitted beanie on his head and he's blankly staring at the stage, his burns etching themselves into Sabrina's mind. He looks over at her, catching her staring.

Since when is he part of the play? Sabrina quickly averts her gaze, her heart thrumming in her chest. She should text the others, warn them that Remy just joined the drama department to probably keep an eye on her. That's got to be it. She reaches for her phone in her bag.

Phi plants herself down in the seat in front of Sabrina, her glasses taking up almost her whole face. She has a knowing expression splashed across her and she, too, glances over at Remy. "Weird, isn't it?"

Sabrina holds her phone in her hand, staring at her. "What is?"

"Apparently just because he's back in town, he gets to be part of theater," Phi barks. "I know that he was part of that fire and all, but he hasn't been working with us all summer. I know it's rude to say, but I don't think it's fair. Even if he's only working on stage crew."

Sabrina wants to relax at this information, relieved to know that she will never have to share the stage with Remy because no amount of acting can cover up her feelings about him. But she can't bring herself to unclench her jaw.

"It's better than giving him a real part, I guess," Sabrina says, trying to sound casual.

"I heard that he can use his hands, but he likes having other people do things for him," Phi gushes, as though the two of them are gossip buddies. "It's normal with people who become depressed after a handicap. That's why he's on stage crew, he's perfectly capable of doing things, he just chooses not to."

Sabrina wasn't a fan of Phi back in middle school because Alison wasn't a fan of Phi. But now, Sabrina finds herself still not a fan. She's become this huge gossip who really clearly hasn't earned any respect in the last two years.

"What else have you heard?" Sabrina asks curiously. Maybe Phi or someone else she knows spotted him creeping around bushes or hiding out in front of Neah's house the other night.

"I've heard some stuff about you," she admits coyly.

Sabrina shifts, unsure if she should be worried about this or not. "Oh?"

"People are saying that you had something to do with Alison DiLaurentis." Phi shrugs a tiny shoulder like she doesn't believe any of them but the way she's watching Sabrina tells her otherwise.

Sabrina's nostrils flare. This isn't the first time something like that has come up. After Ali went missing, everyone was trading information on Sabrina and her friends, marking them as the reason Ali is no longer here. Some people believe they lured her into the woods behind Bree's house and jumped her. Others say that they were involved in some sort of accident and they covered up what they did. Now, Carter Bass and a chunk of the student body are back to talking about them. Again.

"Well I didn't," Sabrina says defensively. "Alison was my friend."

"Was she, though?"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that it was kinda clear she treated you guys like her lap dogs instead of like people," Phi says. "If I were to be around someone like that, I wouldn't blame you for doing what you did."

Sabrina says nothing as Phi turns back around to focus on the rehearsal. She leans back in her chair, uneasy at the thought of everyone thinking she's to blame for what happened to Ali once again. But, being friends with the queen bee comes with this territory.