Careful, Ali ➳ Emison

Chapter 9 | Change Within

A/n: this chapter is a bit of a filler, but there's plenty of real action and drama that happens in the next chapters!

Alison searched all around her room for her earphones, desperate to block out the loud, high-pitched metal music coming from Jason's room. She certainly didn't want to go in there, afraid that one or more of his beer-buddies were inside and in the mood to start sending their beefy hands her way. She despised Jason sometimes, mostly due to his choice of companionship. He wouldn't be so hard into the forsaken and thrown-away lifestyle that he supported if it weren't for them and their peer pressure.

The door of her bedroom was locked, also a precaution for these kinds of occasions. Her parents' presence was lacking in their own home, again, and she had half a mind to go to Spencer's house, until she remembered that the girl was in her weekly school newspaper meeting, a mandatory duty for the student body president.

She slammed a drawer in her dresser shut with a pained huff after not finding her earphones in there either, pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance as the music grew offensively louder and more assaulting.

Walking up to the wall that connected her and Jason's room, she banged on it, yelling out, "Shut up!"

Jason's obnoxious laugh echoed through the space, making her growl in anger. "Fine," she shouted, "say goodbye to your inheritance money, halfwit!"

She took out her phone, and dialed her grandmother's number promptly, putting it on speaker so that Jason could hear it through the wall. Instantly, the music shut down completely, and she heard Jason's door opening. Her phone continued to ring, and she turned to watch her door once she heard the knob shaking aggressively.

Jason's frenzied voice boomed through the door, "Don't do it, Ali. Open the door. Please."

"Too late, Jason," she replied coolly, listening as her grandmother picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hi, grandma," she greeted in a sickeningly sweet tone, ignoring the heavy thump on her door, "how are you?"

"I'm doing just fine, honey. How about you? How is school?" the woman's warm tone stood in contrast to the tense situation in Alison's room, a state that she wasn't even nearly aware of.

"It's great," she answered offhandedly, keeping her eye on the door handle. A particularly powerful bang on her door made her jump a little, adding, "I called because I just wanted to talk to you about something."

"What is it, sweetheart?" her grandmother asked caringly, and Alison was about to respond smugly when she saw that someone else was calling her. She gazed at the screen to find that it was Hanna.

"Actually, can I call you back in a few minutes, grandma? Sorry about that," she said hurriedly, transferring to the other call without hearing the answer.

Though she felt a tad rude for doing that, the current situation she was in with her friends, which included walking on eggshells with A on the loose and around them practically every day, made her recognize that she should always answer calls from her friends, given that they could very well be in danger.

"Hanna, is everything okay?" she asked urgently as she answered the call, simultaneously noticing that the banging on her bedroom door had mysteriously disappeared and that Jason had slammed the door to his own bedroom in his return there.

"Yes, everything is perfect, Ali!" Hanna gushed excitedly on the other line, making Alison raise her eyebrow in surprise.

"Oh," she said, "so then why did you-"