Careful, Ali ➳ Emison

Chapter 13 | Can't Choose Your Family

A/n: another filler, but great things to come in the next chapters!

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"Where do you always go off to?"

Alison swiveled quickly to find that Jason was entering the kitchen where she stood, looking through he fridge for dinner. She attempted to slow down her furiously beating heart at the scare, clearing her throat.

"What do you always do in your room?" she retorted.

"Touché," he said in a mildly amused tone as he grabbed as apple, washing it in the sink.

She looked at him from the side, really looked at him, and wondered just how much he knew. Judging by the fact that he wasn't raising havoc around their house and throwing things at their parents, she guessed he didn't know anything about her latest discovery.

Other than that, she hated his shaggy five o'clock shadow and sloppy, homeless man clothes.

Alison wasn't usually very fond of telling the truth, always believed that it was better to tell a really good lie, but under these circumstances, she figured she had to do it. It was one of the only times Jason was momentarily sober enough for her to speak to, and in an okay mood, thus she was prepared to carry the consequences.

"Jason," she called him as he was about to leave.

He turned to her slowly. "What?" he asked in a tired voice.

She faltered for a moment, biting the inside of her cheek. "Do you want to order some food?" she eventually asked.

He stared at her strangely, scratching the back of his neck with his free hand. "Uh... fine," he drawled, "order whatever. I'll be in my room."

Of course you will, she thought to herself as she watched him descend the stairs. She sighed deeply, turning around to the counter. She did a double take once she saw her vague reflection in the window, her eyes widening. Her make up was smeared terribly from the crying she did earlier that day earlier with Spencer after school, and she didn't even notice it up until now. She couldn't believe she had let Emily see her like that, and even more so, she couldn't believe none of her friends had told her she looked like a freaking raccoon! Some friends were they.

It crossed her mind that it had been quite long since she had to worry about nonconcequencial things like her make up, but she was candidly glad to have a pause from her own mess of a life.

She called for Chinese food, and in the meantime went off to retouch her make up and do her homework, another thing that had been passing less and less through her mind as she spent her days falling deeper into the dark pit called A. Two days ago, she received a B on her history assignment. A freaking B! Sure, she wasn't straight up popping pills like Spencer, but she was a straight-A student, and the fact that she got a slightly lower grade annoyed her probably more than it should have.

It didn't take long for the food to show up, and she went downstairs to pay the delivery guy. After he took his tip, and not to mention, pathetically ogled and drooled at her for dear life, he left and she took a seat in front of the TV with the food, distractedly watching some boring show on the screen.

Jason came downstairs not long later, and went over to grab his food from the living room. He was about to take off back to his room when, much to her astonishment, he back-tracked and took the seat next to her on the couch. She peered at him curiously for a few moments, before switching back to the passing show, each eating their food respectfully.