“I’m fine.” Ali tried to laugh it off as she stood.
A single tear rolled down her cheek, but she quickly sniffed and kept the rest at bay. Alison DiLaurentis did not cry. Alison DiLaurentis didn’t freak over her loser sister, nor did she stress, worry, or fear for her popularity. That was why she was the most popular girl in school—because she knew she deserved it. Her sister was just undermining her like she always did. And as for her friends, maybe she just needed to remind them how special and amazing she was, how they’d be nothings without her. She’d kill them with kindness, dazzle them with the sparkling magic that drew them to her in the first place. It would be easy, really. She already knew what all of them wanted. She could snap her fingers, and it would be done, just like that.
Right?
10
STAR-CROSSED LOVERS
“But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?” Aria said dramatically, clutching her breast.
“It is the east, and Juliet is the sun,” Spencer continued, then collapsed onto the bench outside the People’s Light & Theater Company, a few miles from Rosewood, where some of the class had come on a field trip to watch the famous play. “That is so romantic.”
“Yeah, but don’t forget they die in the end,” Ali teased, kicking at a divot in the grass. “They don’t even get to enjoy being in love. Lame!”
“Yes, but death is the most romantic gesture of all, don’t you think?” Aria asked, her eyes sparkling. “I mean, if you’re willing to die for someone, that means you really love them.”
“Thanks, but I’d rather live and enjoy being in love,” Ali said.
And she did feel in love these days. She and Nick had been texting nonstop for two weeks now. They hadn’t gotten together yet, but their first date was the next day, and she couldn’t wait. It had also been two weeks since her sister had made that threat, and nothing had come of it. Yet. Though Ali had tumultuous dreams of her sister somehow proving what she’d done, there had been no parental interventions or terrifying exposés. Her sister hadn’t shown up on their doorstep or in Ali’s bedroom at night, forcing Ali out of her bed so they could switch back. The DiLaurentis parents had called her both Sundays, Ali listening stealthily on the extension. “Courtney” talked about her boyfriend, Tripp. Her classes. How Iris, her roommate, was gone, but how she hadn’t been assigned someone new yet. Nothing about Ali. Nothing remotely crazy at all.
Which made Ali even more nervous.
Two weeks hadn’t changed the situation with her friends, though. Emily was still keeping secrets. Hanna was still socializing with Josie. Spencer still seemed wary of Ali, and Aria had shut down entirely. Every challenging remark from Ali’s friends felt like a test she needed to pass—especially if her sister was watching, judging, gathering intel to prove she wasn’t who she said she was. She was not going to the Preserve. She was not saying her good-byes. She’d die first.
Aria grabbed her purse. “I need to go to the bathroom.”
“I do, too,” Emily said, glancing apologetically at Ali before standing, as if she was supposed to ask permission. Ali just rolled her eyes and ignored her.
Next to her, Spencer’s gaze was on the field. Near a picnic table full of the teacher chaperones were a bunch of seniors including Jason, Darren Wilden, Melissa Hastings, and Violet Keyes, who’d been after Jason for years. Ian Thomas was there, too. Spencer’s eyes lit up when she saw him.
She jumped up. “I have a question for Mrs. Delancey,” she said, nodding at one of the English teachers.
Ali and Hanna, the only two left, watched Spencer’s ponytail bounce against her back as she ran toward the picnic table. She asked Mrs. Delancey a question, but she kept sneaking peeks at Ian out of the corner of her eye.
Ali made a disgusted noise at the back of her throat, and Hanna looked up from her sandwich. “What is it?”
“She’s only over there to be near the older boys.”
“We could go over, too,” Hanna suggested.
“No.” Ali crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m mad at Spencer.”
“You are?” Hanna looked worried. “Why?”
Ali tapped her nails against the bench. Same reason I’m mad at you, she wanted to say. But instead she sighed. “Long, boring story.”
Hanna went quiet. Ali stared out at the yellow school buses parked in the lot, which disrupted the pastoral Chester County fields and farms. Their ugliness suited her mood, though, as her friends’ disobedience had just stirred up all her unsettled feelings once more. What if she was slipping? What if her sister did figure out a way to come back and take her life over again? If Ali went to the Preserve, she’d never get to see these fields again. And she hadn’t even appreciated them.