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Chapter 17

Spencer came over the next night, she hadn't been home yet, but each of us had spare clothes in each house for emergencies. We hadn't been able to talk since the incident on the roof, and neither of us were sure what the other one knew. As her friend, I wanted to support her with this big revelation about her father, but I knew she will be mad at me if she finds out I knew a whole month before her and never said anything except telling her not to think so badly about Jason.

When she arrived, we went straight to my room to talk, but when we got in there, I sat on my bed and she sat in my desk chair and we didn't talk. We talked about our day, about Caleb's laptop at the police station, about Hannah's crazy step-sister, and Maya being back, but we didn't talk about what we wanted to. After awhile, she had to go to get ready for Emily's swim team party, I managed to get out of spending the night hearing about times and strokes by going to the city with Mike but she had no excuse because she wasn't going home.

I walked her downstairs and to her car, telling her to tell Emily congratulations for me. Before she gets in the car she turns and looks at me, her eyes distant. "Do you know?" She asks, her voice pleading for the truth. I open my mouth to reply, but only manage to nod my head. She lets out a breath and nods while looking at the floor.

"I only found out recently, and Jason wanted to make your father tell you," I explain myself. I step forward and wrap my arms around her shoulders. "I'm so sorry, Spencer." She places her forehead on my shoulder.

"Did he tell you about the money?"

"Yeah."

She stays quiet for a moment. "Do you ever hate Alison? Really, really hate her for everything being her friend leads to." Spencer pulls away and wraps her arms around herself.

I shrug my shoulders and think about it before nodding. "I don't think Alison ever planned for this to happen to us, I mean think about all the lies she told us. Sometimes I think she lied just to practice, but if we had known everything we do now about Alison, A would have been after us a lot sooner than they were." Spencer only nods and gets in her car, driving in the direction of her house instead of Emily's.

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"So, Jason will start coming around a lot like he was before, now that he is back, right?" Mike asks, we were walking back from the Arcade, he use to be able to stay in there for hours but he doesn't like it as much anymore and the loud atmosphere was making him jumpy so we are headed to find something to eat.

"Yeah, I guess." I give Mike a look as we cross the street. "Why?" Mike glances at me and smirks.

"Just waiting to hear you say that you're dating him."

"Uh!" I say, hitting him on the shoulder as Mike laughs at my surprised expression.

"Don't lie, Davis told me he saw him kiss you on Truth Up night."

My cheeks go red and I hit Mike again. "Davis needs to stop lurking around school!"

"So what, if you aren't dating is it like 'Friends with Benefits'?" Mike asks seriously, but when I hit him again and go completely red he laughs again.

"Ew no! Why do you even know what that is?" I ask, trying to shake the idea out of my head.

"There was a movie, Aria." We go inside a bakery and sit down to wait until it's time for mom to pick us up. "So you aren't dating?"

"I don't know," I sigh. Mike nods and doesn't ask anymore questions, not wanting to gossip but just wanting to check up on me.

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