❝ we all eat lies, when our hearts are hungry ❞
Halle Brewster made a promise she would never tell the secrets of the summer Alison DiLaurentis went missing. Only now, someone else was doing the telling - something Alison never got the chance to do...
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"Our championship Rosewood Sharks are running a little behind, but they'll be here any minute."
The skirt of her cheerleading uniform twirled — layers of blue and white hit against the bare skin of her upper thigh — as Halle ruffled her pom-poms. She rolled her wrists, stood near to her team while they waited for the arrival of the girls' swim team. Halle was particularly excited. She wore a large grin, eager for the team to get there already so she could wrap her arms around Emily in a celebratory hug.
Looking around, she caught a glimpse of Hanna and Caleb coupled up on the bench, under the window. Halle's smile fell slightly. The pair looked so in love — all cuddled up into each other, bright smiles and exchanged looks of adoration. A deep sense of longing took a tight grip of her heart, closing its grasp around it. Halle felt the phantom feeling of Jason's touch on her waist and her breath caught.
After exhaling — Halle gently blowing out the stuck air — her briefly closed. She needed a moment to herself, to compose herself. It wasn't ever going to happen, with the rambunctious crowd swirling around the foyer, but Halle tried.
Jason and those three words had shaken her. Him saying them to her had caused a crack in her surface. Through that crack, the tough act she had perfected was falling apart. Bit by bit, Halle could hear it breaking. So, she buried the tight longing in her chest deeper, ignoring her buckling knees, if not for the Sharks colours emblazoned proudly on her body but for her own self-preservation. The pressure on her heart was weighty and overtook the heaviness already on her shoulders. All the heartbreak and stress had melted through her skin and formed a thick veneer over her bones. It drove her — kept her upright and steady and was part of her skeleton now.
Opening her eyes, Halle met Hanna's beaming face. Then gave a little cheery wave, teeth shining as she smiled widely at her friend. In return, Halle forced her own smile and dropped her right eye down into a wink just her brother appeared at her side.
"Hey, I need you to cover for me Friday night," Myles said, quickly trying to escape her already. "'Kay, thanks, bye."
As he went to flee, Halle's grasped at his jacket and pulled him back. She kept held him there with the fabric balled up in her tight fist. "First off, rude," Halle commented. "And second off, where you going where you can't tell mom and dad?"
"A party," Myles answered. He looked down at her grip and shoved her off of him, brushing down the newly-formed crinkles in his jacket. "It's nothing."
"Then, you can tell them there's a party," Halle countered.
"Tell them I'm going with you, there's gotta be some thing for this, right?" said Myles, motioning to the huge school banner strung up for the Sharks.
