Secrets |Toby Cavanaugh|

Chapter 4

"How bad did your mom bust you over wrecking Shawn's car?" Emily asked Hanna as we walked over to a bench,

"Okay, I didn't wreck it... I just damaged it." Hanna replied, "And actually, everyone is being really mature about it."

"Oh."

"There is no 'oh' about it."

"The town is gonna put in a new bench. There are gonna be flower beds and a pathway of art tiles." Aria said.

"So like messages and pictures and stuff like that." Emily responded.

"Aw, like little headstones." Hanna retorted.

"Hanna!"

"We should each do a tile." I stated.

Hanna reached into her purse, "Look, I've had Alison's bracelet since the day we found it in the woods, and I don't want the responsibility anymore."

No one would take it, so I grabbed it, "I'll take it."

"There's nothing A could say or do to get us into trouble without making trouble for herself." Spencer said.

"Are you sure it's a her?" Hanna asked.

"Yeah, don't you think A is Toby?" I asked her harshly.

"Him, her, doesn't make any difference." Spencer replied, reaching into her bag and grabbing her laptop.

"What are you doing?" Emily questioned.

"I'm gonna block all messages from people I don't know. IMs, emails, texts, everything. Screw A." The laptop beeped and Spencer smiled, "There. Who's next?"

Emily went next, then Aria, me, and Hanna. We talked about Mr. Fitz on the bike, then we somehow got to Ben.

"How's things with Ben?"

"Nothing to talk about." Emily replied.

"So you're really done?" Aria questioned.

"It's okay. I'm fine."

"Okay. If you say so."

Hanna sighed, "I wish we had a drum roll for this. All right, here it goes. We are officially A-proofed."

"Listen. All those little messaged zipping through the air, all around us." Spencer began.

"Yep. And none of them from A." I finished.

"This feels like a good thing." Emily smiled, sitting next to me.

"Of course it's a good thing. Out of sight, out of mind." Hanna replied.

A piece of paper blew to us and Aria picked it up. It was Ali's missing poster, and on it was written 'Ding dong the bitch is dead'. Aria crumpled the paper up and we looked around to see the person who did it. There was no one around.

I walked into Chemistry and stopped in the doorway when I saw Toby.

"Hi."

"Hi." I replied, "Are you gonna be in this lab?"

Toby showed me his form, "Starting today."

"Sweet." I smiled before sitting in my seat.

"You don't mind, do you?" He asked.

"Of course not, Toby." I answered before the teacher walked in.

Toby went to go talk to the teacher and other students came in. I took out my notebook and Chemistry book when Toby walked over again,

"So, I guess we're lab partners. You okay with that?"

"Tell him no, Gracie. Keep him away from you."

"Yeah."

...

The next day I was at my locker when I heard laughing from the jocks. They were looking at Toby at his locker and I watched as he opened the door and shaving cream plopped out. I slammed my locker shut and walked past the guys, shouldering one of them hard.

"Dicks." I mumbled.

That night, dad wasn't home for dinner again. I ate a few pieces of broccoli before telling my mom I wasn't hungry and I went upstairs to do homework. I went downstairs to grab water and I saw a note on the fridge from my mom, saying she was going out for the rest of the night. I knew she was really upset about dad. He's hardly home anymore, always working.

"That's what he tells you. You know he isn't working, Gracie."

I walked back up to my room and I dropped my glass on the carpet. My window was open, and the room was cold. Someone wrote on my dresser mirror with lipstick. And not just anyone... A.

'It won't be that easy bitches.' -A