Vodka Kisses

0318- Dead to me

"Nothing?" Emily asks aria.

"Nothing." Aria confirms. "Well, he sent an 'I got here' text."

"That counts." Hannah tells Aria. "If you want it to." She adds.

The five of us are sat at the brew for our morning coffee before school.

As Ezra found out about his son he left and has been gone for a few days.

Aria hasn't heard from him.

"I mean, I know he's doing the right thing it's just the idea that somethings happening hundreds of miles away that's going to change everything." Aria says.

Emily, Aria and Hannah are sat on the sofa and Spencer is sat in the chair. It's quite busy in here this morning so there's no chairs to spare so I'm sat on the arm.

The three of them take a look in our direction, looking at Spencer. She looks so tired.

Her and Toby broke up which is so sad I kinda liked them together. The breakup is very much effecting her. She won't tell us what happened though.

"This is cold. I'm just going to go get a refill." Spencer stands and head over to the counter.

When she's gone, Hannah turns to Emily who's on the opposite side of the sofa.

"Do you think that Wilden read that notebook by now?" She asks.

"He must have." Emily says.

"So he knows what we know." Aria speaks up.

"And what exactly do we know?" Hannah asks.

"Just Cece'a version of things." Aria speaks up.

"Exactly, Cece's version of things. How would Wilden know that?" I ask them.

"There was a picture of him in Cape May. I'm going back to the police station after school, take a snap of it on my phone." She tells us.

A minute of silence passes as I grab my coffee and we digest what that could mean.

"Hey how's your mom?" Hannah asks me.

I slip onto the actual chair and sigh.

"The chemo is really taking it out of her, every time I see her she can hardly stay awake. She's been sleeping a lot but she'll be fine. I'm fixing it." I tell her.

"I can't believe you're going to have surgery at the end of the week." Emily tells me.

"I want my mom around and it's the only way I know how to be certain she will." I tell them.

"We'll come visit." Aria tells me.

"Thanks." I smile.

They look behind me and I turn my head to see Jason and Spencer coming over to us.

"Hey guys." He says to us.

"Hey Jason." We all reply.

"We're keeping this kinda quiet." He starts. "They've released Ali's remains to my family. There's going to be a re-interment." He tells us.

"She's being buried again?" Emily asks.

"Not in the ground." He tells us. "In the mausoleum."

"There will be a service, family only, but I've arranged for you guys to have some time after my parents leave." He tells us.

"Thank you." Emily give him a polite smile.

"There's something else." He says. "The things we put in the casket with Ali, they're still missing." He tells us. "The state police think whoever opened the grave was keeping them as some kind of sick souvenirs. They figure when they find those they'll find the creep who did this. I think they're right."