𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐊, 𝐁𝐀𝐁𝐄! | 𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐀 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐆𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐘

one.

the familiar noise of kalani wheeler's car horn blowing practically deafened olivia as she packed her school bag as fast as she practically could on monday morning. "she knows she can just knock, right?" george poured coffee into his mug from the counter beside olivia. six months after her parents divorce, her mom had met george who worked in the same building. olivia had not been impressed at first, but now she was perfectly fine with it. mostly because she got along with george, he was actually pretty cool. although she'd probably never tell him that, he'd let it go to his head. "she knows," olivia sighed. "she just likes to be as annoying as possible at any given time."

olivia had met kalani shortly after her old friend group had disbanded. no one really wanted alison's friends around them, partially because no one knew what to say to them and partially because they were bystanders to alison's actions. olivia never blamed people for not letting her into their groups, she'd been sitting along when kalani and iris had approached her. they welcomed her into their little duo quickly and she found her footing with them, they were sweet and kind and probably the type of people she should've surrounded herself with originally. neither of them judged her and she was always grateful for that.

"i'll see you later!" george called out to her as she headed towards the front door. "i'll pick up takeout on the way home if you want?" olivia smiled at him. "that's if i survive." it was the first day back after summer break and olivia really was not looking forward to it. "you'll be fine," he reassured her. "you always are." another thing george constantly did was remind olivia of how strong and brave she was. after all the girl that had been her friend for years had just disappeared. not that alison was the only person that disappeared from olivia's life a year ago. "yeah to the takeout," olivia switched the subject quickly. "bye!" she slipped out the front door, closing it behind her before she waved towards her friend.

"we're going to be late!" kalani yelled out the window at her in true kalani fashion. she was a straight A student and was convinced that being late by even five seconds would throw off her grades entirely. not that they would be late considering kalani always showed up to olivia's house at least forty-five minutes earlier than she needed to. "stop being so dramatic," olivia checked the time on her phone. "we're literally ten minutes away from the school." kalani huffed at that. "it was way easier having to pick up iris," she commented. kalani used to pick iris up every morning before driving over to olivia's, but ever since iris got a boyfriend, he drove her to school instead. "the more time you spend complaining, the later we get," olivia mocked.

kalani pulled out onto the road, eyeing olivia cautiously. "so," she started, clearing her throat awkwardly. "i'm fine," olivia cut her off before she could start. the week before had marked the one year anniversary of alison's disappearance and there had still been no breakthroughs, no one knew what happened and olivia knew there was a good chance they would never would know. she had shut her phone off that day, stayed at home and shut herself into her room. kalani had messaged her all week asking if she was ok, olivia skirted around it as best as she could because she didn't know how to answer her. alison was mean a lot of the time, that didn't mean olivia wanted her gone.

she wondered a lot of the time what it would be like if the girl hadn't vanished, would the girls all still be friends? spencer would always say that they would be friends regardless of alison's presence, it was the one thing she had been wrong about. "are you sure?" kalani asked. "because it's obviously ok if you're not." olivia raised a brow, she was fine for the most part. she'd come to terms with the fact that alison wasn't coming back which took a long time, she came to terms with the fact people she considered her best friends changed and left her. and she'd come to terms with the fact that aria montgomery could care less about her and also wasn't ever going to come back. "i'm sure," olivia answered. "she's gone, that's the end of it."

she met kalani's eyes and didn't like the concerned look that was written across her face. "what?" she shrugged, gesturing for kalani to keep her eyes on the road. "there's literally nothing i can do about it and it's obvious there's nothing the police are going to do about it either." the only thing olivia had ever seen the police do was put up missing posters around the entirety of rosewood. for weeks, olivia would stare at alison's smiling face on windows, lampposts, anything that poster could be stuck to. it was eery and it sent olivia spiralling. a couple of weeks after that and most of the posters had been ripped away, a couple of them had been defaced and were trashed immediately.

kalani pulled up outside rosewood high and gave olivia a reassuring smile. "don't," olivia held up her hand to stop her. "i'm fine, you don't need to tiptoe around me like i'm going to implode." kalani sighed slightly. "ok," she said before climbing out of the car and grabbing her bag from the backseat. she joined olivia's side, who was frozen outside the passenger side of her friends car. she felt kalani move her to close the door so she could lock the car before she joined her side. "you don't look so good," she put her hand on olivia's shoulder worriedly.

olivia didn't feel so good all of a sudden, her breath was coming out shallow, she felt like the world was spinning around her. because barely four steps away from her stood aria montgomery wearing the exact same deer caught in headlights look that olivia was.