Picture This

Chapter 9

"Hey, Emily," I say as she sits down in front of be before school. I had turned my phone off last night when Ezra started to call me and fell asleep the moment I hit the bed when Jason dropped me off. I had almost twenty miscalls from her and Spencer when I woke up but I didn't want to talk explain myself over the phone..

"Aria! Where have you been?!" I open my mouth to reply, but she cuts me off. "Aria you have to leave Jason alone, Spencer and I went in his shed last night and he created his own dark room."

"You broke into his shed?" I ask, remembering him telling me on the ride home he had to clean out his shed because someone broke in.

"That's not the point! He developed pictures of you sleeping, or drugged." Emily yells at me. I sit up straight and go wide eyed.

"What? Are you sure?" I ask just as frantic, I wouldn't believe this. Jason wouldn't do this.

"You should be terrified!" Spencer sits down next to Emily. "I personally never believed his act about him helping the kids in school or Mike. He was just doing it to get close to you and get into your house."

"No, Spence, that can't be the whole story. I know Jason -"

"Aria, he's dangerous, you need to stay away from him!" Spencer yells at me, the thought of not spending time with Jason making my stomach churn.

"Fine." I reply. "Fine, I'll talk to you guys later."

"Jason!" I call as I see him in the hall, jogging up to him. He looks me over when he hears my tone, making sure I'm okay before he relaxes. "Can I talk to you?" I ask urgently, he picks up on the harsh tone and furrows his eyebrows.

"Hey, of course what-"

"Why do you have those pictures of me?" I ask, watching his eyes narrow and shoulders tense.

"What?"

"My friends said they found pictures you had of me sleeping," I tell him, my heart racing. "How did you even take them? Did you climb my tree in the middle of the night or something?" My voice rises slowly, from anger and fear. Fear of the truth and anger for fearing Jason.

"Wait, hold up, your friends are the ones that broke into my dark room?" Jason clarifies, getting equally angry.

"So what?" I try to keep the topic focused on the real problem. "Why did you have those pictures, Jason?"

"That is so typical of this town. Going behind people's back to find out what they want instead of asking a direct question," Jason rants angrily, saying something similar to what we joked about a few nights back about the lies in this town.

"I'm asking a direct question, Jason!" I retort, my eyes begging for the truth. "Why did you take them and when."

"I didn't take them," he snaps back. "Ali did. She had pictures of all of you sleeping but I only developed the ones of you. To give them to you. As a gift." He crosses his arms and looks down at me, a look of betrayal on his face. "Anything else you want to accuse me of, Aria?"

"You have to admit this looked bad, Jason," I defend, dropping offense. "What were they suppose to think?"

"They were suppose to stay out of my shed and talk to me not behind me." He shakes his head and shrugs. "I'll talk to you later." He turns and starts to walk down the hall, nodding to a few students but not turning around.

"Wait!" I shout after him, ignoring the looks I was giving. "I'm sorry, Jason," I say grabbing his hand and standing in front of him. "Thank you, for the pictures. Could we meet after school, I'd like to see them."

"Sure," he uncrosses his eyes arms but still wears an emotionless mask. "Were you scared of me when your friends told you?"

"No, they told me a few minutes ago and I came to find you right away. I just wanted the truth because I now they jump to conclusions about you."

"You're right, they do." He pauses and watches me squirm under his stare. "The fights you have had with them this past week have been about me, haven't they?" I hesitate, and he nods. "What do they think I did?" I open my mouth, not knowing what I'm going to say, when I see two familiar black heads walk down the halls, making me stumble backwards and run into a student. "Aria?" Jason asks, his tone changing drastically as he steadies me, "what's-" he turns around and stops.

He sees Ezra pass by us, not noticing us as Jackie walks by him. He is in a slight daze, a hurt expression etched on his face, as he walks by. Jason moves me behind him, almost by instinct, and doesn't drop is gaze on Ezra's back until he turns the corner.

"What is he doing here?" Jason grounds out, watching the corner Ezra disappeared behind.

"College fair," I squeak. Jason turns around and takes in my pale face.

"You aren't going."

"I have to," I stumble out, partly because I want to go to the college of my dreams, but also because I don't want Jason telling me what I can and can't do.

"Aria, please, I'll get you information from every college, except Hollis, and help you get college visits to any that you want to ask questions to, but Aria, the incident with Fitz happened last night. I'm not going to forget about what he did to you for a long time, and I'm certainly not allowing him to get near you again." He takes my hand and squeezes. "For me." He pleads, furrowing his eyebrows, showing he is giving me a choice, but he needs me to pick the right one.

"Okay, I won't." I promise him just as the bell rings. "I'll see you at the Brew after school?"

"Yeah, don't be late to class."

I stick my tongue out at him. "Don't be late to the Brew."

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When Jason walked into the Brew a hour after school ended, he had a good excuse when he held up gift bag and handed it to me in a peace offering before she could say anything. "The pictures," he explains when I give him a look.

I open the bag and place the framed pictures in front of me. "These are beautiful," I comment.

"Yeah," Jason agrees, watching me examine each of them. "I didn't even know Ali was artistic."

"I barely remember her taking pictures." I set the pictures down and look over all of them as I speak my thoughts. "It's weird, getting to know someone after they're gone." He nods, not saying as much as he usually does when I bring up his sister, though even that is little. "Look, um.. I know this isn't an excuse but, my friends broke in because they've been through a lot." He nods, both of us thinking back to our comfort food night when I told him how much I had changed since I came back due to everything that has happened.

"I think we're all looking for answers. That's how I found this roll of film in the first place."

"Where did you find it?"

"I'm finally redecorating inside the house after your comment about how it smells like old people and my mom," he jokes lighting up a bit, forgiving me for accusing him again. "I pulled up her floorboard and found a box of her stuff."

"What else was in the box?"

"Nothing really," he looks over the pictures and shakes his head. "Keeping secrets and hiding things became such second nature to Ali, I don't think she even knew why she was doing it half the time. When something becomes a habit, it's hard to stop you know?" I nod in understanding, but still want to be able to pick apart that box, knowing that Ali didn't tuck things away for nothing. She would let everyone see all of her possessions to flaunt them, unless they were apart of her secrets or someone else's.

"So have you found anything else of hers?" I ask, dancing around my actual question, but Jason has figured my tactics out by now.

"No," he shakes his head and smirks. "You can take a look at it if you want, it's back at the house." I hesitate before I answer which makes Jason chuckle. "Or you can wait for a family member or friend to break in and steal it." I laugh and nod, standing up and gathering the pictures. "Here I'll carry them, after my house we can go back to yours and figure out where to put them."

I nod and we head out of the store.