My Best Friend's Brother (PLL: A Jaria story)

Chapter 7:

I heard a loud, sharp, scolding tone. And I immediately recognized it.

I turned around, meeting the girls. Spencer in the front and who was the one scolding me.

"Okay can you all stop looking at me like someone shot your puppy..." I said sarcastically, closing my locker, turning away.

"How could we not?" Spencer said, in an offended tone as she circled around me, the other girls following her.

They all thought Jason was the enemy. I can tell by the way they reacted when they saw him at the funeral. No doubt Emily told them about the fact that I spoke to him. One look at her guilty face told me the answer.

"You were talking to that creep..." Hanna mumbled, voicing her own opinion.

"He's not a creep..." I defended as I started walking off to home room. I would rather be off to class than listen to them badmouth him. I wasn't even sure why it irritated me so much, their comments about him. But it did.

"And you base that off of what? One conversation you had with him yesterday at the funeral," Spencer was right on my trail, walking next to me.

I have Emily a look. I know she didn't trust Jason but did she have to throw me under the bus like that?

Emily just sighed looking ahead as she walked along the other side of me. "Come on Aria, you can't forget the kind of person he is..."

"And what kind of person is them, Em? Need I remind you Alison was the only that used to plague our minds with that perception of him," I retorted as we entered our first home room and first class, English.

"But she wasn't wrong... Remember that back then Jason was always high or hungover... He was a druggie... and..." Emily's voice trailed off for a moment as if debating whether to finish her sentence.

"What?" I said, raising a brow as I set my books on the desk. Emily and Spencer exchanged a knowing look with each other. Hanna however was just looking at me, as if trying to piece something in her head.

"Look... Emily and I have been thinking, and judging by the fact that we are still getting texts from A... and the suicide note Emily brought... we started thinking that what if... what if Ian didn't kill Ally," Spencer spoke slowly, hinting something else but I wasn't getting it.

"What? You guys seriously think Ian isn't Alison's killer?" I said in disbelief at what I was hearing. Can't we just say that he was for the sake of peace... what ever happened to closure?

"Come on Aria, you can't deny that some things don't add up... There could be another truth... A basically told us that Ian's death wasn't a suicide by the note," Emily pointed out.

"And we are just supposed to believe A now why?" I darted back.

Before anyone could respond, my mom walked on as the bell had rung, signaling the start of class. "We'll talk later..." Spencer muttered before walking to her seat with Emily.

I looked at Hanna who was standing there and tilting her head, deep in thought.

"What? What's up?" I questioned, seeing that she had something on her mind.

"Are you and Jason like... friends now?" Hanna asked out of the blue. Making me really regret asking her if something was up.

"I don't even know him that well..." I answered simply. "He came back after a while of being away... I would hardly call us friends," I replied.

"Hm... well just be careful Aria... I know Alison was a lot of things, but she didn't lie about Jason. He was a creep... just because a guy disappears for a year doesn't mean he comes back a whole new man. That only happens in movies," Hanna said before going ofc to her seat.