Sara Shepard - Pretty Little Liars

She walked into his office and shut the door. It was empty, except for a wide, heavy wood desk, two folding chairs, and a computer. She sat down on the empty folding chair.

‘So, um,’ Aria said. ‘Hey.’

‘Hey again,’ Ezra answered, grinning. He lowered his eyes and took a gulp from his Rosewood Day crest coffee mug. ‘Listen,’ he started.

‘About yesterday,’ Aria said at the same time. They both laughed.

‘Ladies first.’ Ezra smiled.

Aria scratched the back of her neck where her straight black hair was drawn up in a ponytail. ‘I, um, wanted to talk about . . . us.’

Ezra nodded, but didn’t say anything.

Aria wiggled in her chair. ‘Well, I guess it’s shocking that I’m . . . um . . . your student, after, you know . . . Snookers. But if you don’t mind, I don’t.’

Ezra cupped his hand around his mug. Aria listened to the school-issued wall clock ticking off the seconds. ‘I . . . I don’t think it’s a good idea,’ he said softly. ‘You said you were older.’

Aria laughed, not sure how serious he was. ‘I never told you how old I was.’ She lowered her eyes. ‘You just assumed.’

‘Yeah, but you shouldn’t have implied it,’ Ezra responded.

‘Everybody lies about their age,’ Aria said quietly.

Ezra ran his hand through his hair. ‘But . . . you’re...’ He met her eyes and sighed. ‘Look, I . . . I think you’re amazing, Aria. I do. I met you in that bar, and I was like . . . wow, who is this? She’s so unlike any other girl I’ve ever met.’

Aria looked down, feeling both pleased and a little queasy.

Ezra reached across the desk and touched his hand to hers – it was warm, dry, and soothing – but then quickly pulled away. ‘But this isn’t meant to be, you know? ’Cause, well, you’re my student. I could get in a lot of trouble. You don’t want me to get in trouble, do you?’

‘No one would know,’ Aria said faintly, although she couldn’t help but think about that bizarre text from yesterday, and that maybe someone already knew.

It took Ezra a long time to respond. It seemed to Aria that he was trying to make up his mind. She looked at him hopefully.

‘I’m sorry, Aria,’ he finally mumbled. ‘But I think you should go.’

Aria stood up, feeling her cheeks burn. ‘Of course.’ Aria wrapped her hands around the top of the chair. It felt like hot coals were bouncing around her insides.

‘I’ll see you in class,’ Ezra whispered.

She shut the door carefully. In the hall, teachers swarmed around her, rushing off to their homerooms. She decided to get to her locker by cutting through the commons – she needed some fresh air.

Outside, Aria heard a familiar girl’s laugh. She froze for a second. When would she stop thinking she heard Alison everywhere? She trudged not on the commons’ winding stone path, like you were supposed to, but through the grass. The morning fog was so dense that Aria could barely see her legs below her. Her footprints vanished in the squishy grass as quickly as she made them.

Good. This seemed like an appropriate time to disappear completely.

That afternoon, Emily was standing in the student parking lot, lost in thought, when someone threw their hands over her eyes. Emily jumped, startled.

‘Whoa, chill! It’s just me!’

Emily turned and sighed with relief. It was only Maya. Emily had been so distracted and paranoid since getting that bizarre note yesterday. She’d been about to unlock her car – her mom let her and Carolyn take it to school on the condition they drive carefully and call when they got there – and grab her swimming bag for practice.

‘Sorry,’ Emily said. ‘I thought . . . never mind.’

‘I missed you today.’ Maya smiled.

‘Me too.’ Emily smiled back. She’d tried calling Maya this morning to offer her a ride to school, but Maya’s mom said she’d already left. ‘So, how are you?’

‘Well, I could be better.’ Today, Maya had secured her wild dark hair off her face with adorable iridescent pink butterfly clips.

‘Oh yeah?’ Emily tilted her head.

Maya pursed her lips together and slid one of her feet out of her Oakley sandals. Her second toe was longer than her big toe, just like Emily’s. ‘I’d be better if you came somewhere with me. Right now.’

‘But I have swimming,’ Emily said, hearing Eeyore in her voice again.

Maya took her hand and swung it. ‘What if I told you that where we’re going sort of involves swimming?’

Emily narrowed her eyes. ‘What do you mean?’

‘You have to trust me.’

Even though she’d been close to Hanna and Spencer and Aria, all of Emily’s favorite memories were of hanging out alone with Ali. Like when they dressed up in bulky snow pants to sled down Bayberry Hill, talked about their ideal boyfriends, or cried about The Jenna Thing from sixth grade and comforted each other. When it was just the two of them, Emily saw a slightly less perfect Ali – which somehow made her seem even more perfect – and Emily felt she could be herself. It seemed like days, weeks, years had gone by where Emily hadn’t been herself. And she thought that now, she could have something like that with Maya. She missed having a best friend.

Right now, Ben and all the other boys were probably changing into their suits, slapping one another’s bare butts with wet towels. Coach Lauren was writing the practice sets on the big marker board and carrying out the appropriate fins, buoys, and paddles. And the girls on the team were complaining because they all had their periods at the same time. Did she dare miss the second day of practice?

Emily squeezed her plastic fish keychain. ‘I suppose I could tell Carolyn I had to tutor somebody in Spanish,’ she murmured. Emily knew Carolyn wouldn’t buy that, but she probably wouldn’t squeal on Emily, either.

Triple-checking the parking lot to see if anyone was watching, Emily smiled and unlocked the car.

‘All right. Let’s go.’

‘My brother and I checked out this spot this weekend,’ Maya said as Emily pulled into the gravel parking lot.

Emily stepped out of the car and stretched. ‘I forgot about this place.’ They were at the Marwyn trail, which was about five miles long and bordered a deep creek. She and her friends used to ride their bikes here all the time – Ali and Spencer would pedal furiously at the end and usually tie – and stop at the little snack bar by the swimming area for Butterfingers and Diet Cokes.

As she followed Maya up a muddy slope, Maya grabbed her arm. ‘Oh! I forgot to tell you. My mom said your mom stopped over yesterday while we were in school. She brought over brownies.’

‘Really?’ Emily responded, confused. She wondered why her mother hadn’t mentioned anything to her at dinner.

‘The brownies were deelish. My brother and I polished them off last night!’

They came to the dirt trail. A canopy of oaks sheltered them. The air had that fresh, woodsy smell and it felt about twenty degrees cooler.

‘We’re not there yet.’ Maya took her hand and led her down the path to a small stone bridge. Twenty feet beneath it, the stream widened. The calm water glittered in the late-afternoon sun.

Maya walked right up to the edge of the bridge and stripped down to her matching pale pink bra and undies. She threw her clothes in a pile, stuck her tongue out at Emily, and jumped off.

‘Wait!’ Emily rushed to the edge. Did Maya know how deep this was? A full one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi later, Emily heard a splash.

Maya’s head popped back up out of the water. ‘Told you it involved swimming! C’mon, strip!’

Emily glanced at Maya’s pile of clothes. She really hated undressing in front of people – even the swim team girls, who saw her every day. She slowly took off her pleated Rosewood skirt, crossing her legs over each other so Maya couldn’t see her bare, muscular thighs, and then pulled at the tank top she wore under her uniform blouse. She decided to keep it on. She looked over the edge to the creek and, steeling herself, she jumped. A moment later, the water hugged her body. It was pleasantly warm and thick with mud, not cold and clean like the pool. The built-in shelf bra of her tank top puffed out with water.

‘It’s like a sauna in here,’ Maya said.

‘Yeah.’ Emily paddled over to the shallower area, where Maya was standing. Emily realized she could see Maya’s nipples straight through her bra, and cut her eyes away.

‘I used to go cliff diving with Justin all the time back in Cali,’ Maya said. ‘He’d stand up at the top and, like, think about it for ten minutes before jumping. I like how you didn’t even hesitate.’

Emily floated on her back and smiled. She couldn’t help it: she gobbled up Maya’s compliments like cheesecake.

Maya squirted Emily with water through her cupped hands. Some of it squirted right into her mouth. The creek water tasted gooey and almost metallic, nothing like chlorinated pool water. ‘I think me and Justin are going to break up,’ Maya said.

Emily swam closer to the edge and stood up. ‘Really? Why?’

‘Yeah. The long-distance thing is too stressful. He calls me, like, all the time. I’ve only been gone for a few days, and he’s already sent me two letters!’

‘Huh,’ Emily answered, sifting her fingers through the murky water. Then something occurred to her. She turned to Maya. ‘Did you, um, put a note in my swim locker yesterday?’

Maya frowned. ‘What, after school? No . . . you walked me home, remember?’

‘Right.’ She didn’t really think Maya had written the note, but things would’ve been so much simpler if she had.