CANARY CRY [pretty little liars]

28. never letting go

Adaline sat on the end of Emily's bed, folding along the edges of slick paper. Keeping her hands busy helped with the thoughts racing through her head. And blocked out what the others were saying.

"Why would A show us that part of the video?" Aria asked, placing a pamphlet in the middle of Emily's bed.

"To keep us distracted for when the next attack is launched," Hanna suggested.

"Or to tell us there's more to what happened that night," Emily said.

"Okay," Adaline sighed. "Ian tried to kill me in the bell tower to get back his perverted videos, and he went after Ali for the same reason. He wanted to frame me for her murder. Why would he do that if he wasn't her killer?"

"A convinced us he killed her," Spencer said. "He was trying to frame you to get us off his back."

"It's two miles from the kissing rock back to Ali's house," Emily started. "I mean, did she turn off the camera and walk home, in the dark, alone?"

"Someone could've been waiting for her and surprised her when she got home," Hanna added.

"Like who?" Aria asked.

"Like Ian," Adaline said exasperatedly. "Just because he didn't kill her at the kissing rock, doesn't mean he couldn't have done it in her backyard. Two miles is a long way to carry a dead body. And who else would've killed Ali? It was Ian's videos."

"Maybe A?" Spencer asked. "Maybe A was in one of his videos and didn't want anyone to see it."

"I've watched most of the videos, Spence. Gruesome as it is, there's no videos of someone we haven't rules out as A already," Adaline said. "Can we just talk about something else?"

The girls all looked at each other as Adaline concentrated on the paper she was folding.

"So," Hanna said, being the first one to speak up. "Did you invite Ezra to the show?"

"No, he's out of town presenting a paper at a conference," Aria replied, a broad smile on her face. "Did you invite Caleb?"

Hanna scrunched up her face. "Why would I do that?"

"Because you kissed him?" Spencer said teasingly.

"How was it?" Emily asked.

"Well, I wore the total wrong lipgloss," Hanna described. "You know the kind that looks wet, but it's really sticky?

Emily grimaced. "Ugh, the wads of hair get stuck to your mouth."

Adaline smiled. "It's all fun and sexy until someone hacks up a hairball."

"Hey, could we please keep folding?" Spencer said pleadingly. "I needed these done yesterday, and I've already missed a million committee meetings."

"We're just chatting," Aria defended.