No Escape

Let's Act Our Age

Hanna had purposefully waited for Alison to go to the bathroom so the other blonde would have no chance to avoid her. She couldn't understand what the hell was going through Alison's mind, but the look Alison had given her before she walked away reeked of the old Alison who walked around the school like she was the queen. And in some ways, everyone else believed it. But not Hanna.

She locked the door the moment she entered, and thanked whatever circumstances had led to the fact that there were no other girls in the washroom that lunch period.

"Alison."

At the sound of her name, the blonde turned, and with the same air of disregard, raised her eyebrows. "Yes?"

Hanna shook her head. "Why have you been avoiding Emily the whole morning?"

Alison's eyes widened at how incredulous the accusation was. "Avoiding her?" Alison scoffed. "Is that what she told you? Maybe ask her why she's avoided me the whole weekend after the night we-" She stopped herself, pulling herself together. She didn't want Hanna to see her this way. She's looked weak all of the past two weeks. Of course she went through something that almost took her life, but Alison was never the kind of person who let other see that something was wrong. Why else did she get high on caffeine to look as well as she could?

She turned away from Hanna and fixed her hair, even though there really was nothing to fix. She regarded Hanna through the mirror, taking out her lip gloss. "You shouldn't butt into something that isn't your business, Hanna. It's unbecoming."

"Bullshit." Alison blinked at Hanna's tone, feeling a rude comeback wanting to rise from her chest, but repressing the urge. She was trying to prove herself to the girls. It was bad enough trying to pretend she was ok with Emily being with Paige, and it was making it more difficult for her to be nice. Hanna barreled on. "Emily went out of her way to stay with you that night." So Emily told them about it. "The least you could do if be friendly with her."

"What makes you think she even wants to be friends?" Alison had meant for her tone to be stronger, her usual blunt and sarcastic self. But she knew by the way Hanna's eyes suddenly widened, and her whole demeanor sag that she had failed. She'd let the hurt show, before she could completely mask it. Everything that was happening was running her dry. She was getting weaker.

"Ali-"

"You know what, fine. I'll pretend to be the perfect friend and support her and Paige."

"She's not-"

"I'll even send advance wedding gifts if you want me to. But stay out of my business, Hanna, because I've been staying out of yours."

Without another word, Alison walked out, leaving a confused Hanna behind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alison was putting her books into her locker when Spencer approached her.

"We're spending the night at Emily's. Do you wanna go?"

She turned towards Spencer, arms settling on the strap of her shoulder bag. "Isn't she spending her night with Paige?" Spencer's eyebrows furrowed. "What?" Then Alison shook her head. "Yeah. I'll be there. But I might be a bit late. Dad has finally decided to grace me with his presence for dinner. So I'll arrive after that."

Spencer nodded her head and watched Alison walk away, and Spencer noticed that Alison's back a little too stiff than usual. She caught movement in her peripheral vision and turned to see Emily loading her locker with books, too. Spencer walked towards her.

"What's going on with you and Ali?"

Emily looked up at her, and Spencer noticed Emily school her features so she looked like there was nothing going on. "I told you."