My Life in Rosewood

Chapter Thirty-Six

The next day I'm sitting on my bed blasting music on my headphones while I continue to catch up on the homework Aria brought me yesterday. It is Saturday so thankfully I'll have tomorrow too if I'm not done by today. There isn't much else for me to do other than to check up on the store, but I know my aunt and uncle wouldn't allow it since I'm still sore and not able to do too much on my own. But they also have to take Mike to his new therapist so they can't go with me if they wanted to.

Andrew had called me earlier in the day to check up because he's been worried. Yesterday he tried to pass by a couple hours before dinner but when he did I was napping and my aunt didn't want to wake me. So he just asked her to let me know and for me to get back to him, which I eventually did after we were done with dinner. This weekend unfortunately he's away with his parents because they had tickets to go see a broadway show in New York City, so he couldn't catch me today either. By Monday hopefully if I'm not back at school he's able to come over.

My eyes shift over to movement from the door minutes later and I see Hanna, Spencer and Emily are walking into the room with Aria. Hanna had her dad's rehearsal dinner the night before so she kind of looks like hell, but she also looks just as scared as the others and I don't like the look on their faces. I have a feeling it has to do with seeing my bruised up face because they haven't seen me since the day of my game.

So when I take off my headphones I automatically say, "I'm fine. Just a little banged up."

Spencer tilts her head lightly, "Seems like more than a little."

I give a small smile, "It looks worse than it feels." Another lie but I don't really want to talk about it. They had all checked up on me throughout the day yesterday when I didn't show up for school and let me rest so I know they are worried.

"We heard that they suspended them." Emily says gently.

I slowly nod as I shift my eyes between them all, "Two out of three."

"So unfair." Hanna says now as she sits at the end of my bed by my feet.

I shrug, "Rachel technically never did anything physical to me. So there was no way to make her pay for it."

"The fact she allowed them to hit you should have been enough." Emily adds, sitting on Aria's bed and Aria is right beside her.

I shrug again and shake my head, "No proof."

She watches me for a second, then presses her lips together. "I can't believe A took that video."

My heart sinks, staring at Aria for a second because obviously she said something. "A has a hold on all of us."

They all give me a sad look as Spencer walks closer to my bed and is standing beside me now, her hand lands on my head. "You look like hell." she jokes.

I half laugh but I can see the fear in her eyes when I look up at her. Seeing my other childhood best friend looking terrified always kills me. "Thanks."

She leans in now and hugs me, taking me a bit off guard but I also wince and flinch, "Easy, Spence. I'm sore."

"I know. I'm sorry." But she doesn't let go, as if she really needed the hug.

I take a breath and hold onto the hug, not even bothering to try to get away from it at this point. Then she lets go and I smile at her, my eyes scanning the others and now I can really see there's something wrong. "Spill. What happened?"

What happened is they got a call from Dr. Sullivan last night saying she knew who A was and when they went to go see her she had disappeared and got a text saying "The doctor is out." from no one other than A. Dr. Sullivan never went back to her house either and now they are worried. On top of that they received another text saying that she's still alive with a picture of her holding today's newspaper and a box was sent to Spencer's house with a note saying they have until 7pm to save her with demands, and 3 creepy looking porcelain dolls with it. Each doll talked and told them what to do as their tasks. Emily didn't get one but the others did.