Pretty Little Liars- 20 Years Later (A Next Generation Story)

Nine | Save The Date

One Month Later

The Hastings household was a scene. Tori sat at the kitchen counter, watching the events unfold around her. She had been released from the hospital weeks ago, but people still treated her as if she was made of glass.

Spencer Hastings stood in her wedding dress, a beautiful strapless gown that flowed behind her as she walked and was covered in sequins. A seamstress crouched behind her, holding a safety pin between her teeth as she pinched the dress behind Spencer's back to see where it was she needed to adjust the sizing.

The other bridesmaids (besides Tori)- Lillian and Elizabeth, were outside in the back yard, telling the moving men where to set down the chairs. The wedding would be taking place in the back yard, because where else is better to marry than where your daughter was arrested? Tori threw another peanut in her mouth, unenthusiastic about the whole thing. She was over the moon that her parents were getting married, but the preparations? Not her thing. The wedding was tomorrow and there was still a lot to be done.

Toby Cavanaugh was on the phone to the caterers in the corner of the room, angrily telling them that the shrimp cocktails were not a part of their budget. He hung up the phone and ran up the stairs, taking three stairs at a time, to find the placeholders for the tables.

The tables themselves were being set up outside, each circular wooden table would sit ten people, and eight tables were being laid out in one big circle in the yard. Michael Hastings was directing the moving men into Tori's barn for them to set down the flowers in her living room until the morning. Tori rolled her eyes. Of course. Tori walked across the yard to her barn and slammed the door behind her.

"Jacob!" Leo shouted from the bottom of the stairs. No response. "Yo, Jake!" He yelled again.
"What?" He heard his younger brother shout from his bedroom.
"Am I giving you a ride to school or what?" Leo's voice croaked a bit as he shouted.
"Yeah, hold on." He heard his brother say dismissively.
"I'll be waiting in the car." Leo said as he walked to the door. "Hurry up."

Leo opened the front door, a cool breeze sweeping across his face from outside as he did so. He walked down the drive with his backpack across his shoulder, and opened the back door of the car to throw his bag in there. Once done, he opened the door to the driver's seat and stepped inside, closing the door behind him and rolling down the window a crack as the car felt like an oven.

Leo let his arm dangle over the gap in the window into the cool breeze outside as he waited for his brother. With his left arm he pressed the 'on' button to the radio, and music flowed from the car's speakers. Leo looked to his right to see Jacob close the door behind him, trailing his sports bag behind him as he made his way down to the car.

Jacob Rivers was fairly similar to Leo. Jacob had different coloured hair to Leo- Jacob was a brunette and Leo a blonde, but they had the same chocolate brown eyes that were full of melting colours. They were both tall for their ages, Leo being six foot two and Jacob being five foot eleven, taller than people in the grade above him. They both had the chiselled jawline that girls seemed to pine after, and wore the same sort of clothes- jeans, t-shirts, and hoodies. They were also big into sport. Football, hockey, whatever. They'd try it.

Jacob opened the passenger car door with high force, then threw his sports bag in between the two front seats so that it would land in the back. Jacob bent down so he could slide into the car, then dropped his backpack between his legs in the footwell. He didn't talk, and didn't even look at Leo as he buckled his seatbelt. Leo knew something was wrong. Putting the car into first gear, Leo pulled out from the sidewalk and started to cruise down the street.