“My stepbrother used to set off fireworks from his tree house roof all the time,” Jenna explained, frowning. “My parents kept warning him that it was dangerous—he might mess up, send a firework right into our house, and cause a fire. They said the next time he set one off, they were going to send him to boarding school. And that was final.
“So Ali agreed to steal fireworks out of Toby’s stash and make it look like Toby had launched it off the tree house roof. I wanted her to do it that night because my parents were home, and they were already mad at Toby for something anyway. I wanted him out of my life as soon as possible.” Her voice caught. “He…he wasn’t a good stepbrother.”
Aria clenched and unclenched her fist. “Oh my God.” She tried to comprehend everything Jenna was telling her.
“Only…things went wrong,” Jenna explained, her voice teetering. “I was with Toby in his tree house that night. And just before it happened, he looked down and said angrily, ‘There’s someone on our lawn.’ I looked down, too, pretending to be surprised…and then there was a flash of light, and then…this horrible pain. My eyes…my face…it felt like they just melted away. I think I passed out. Afterward, Ali told me that she’d forced Toby to take the blame.”
“That’s right.” Aria’s voice was barely more than a whisper.
“Ali thought fast.” Jenna shifted her weight, making the floor beneath her creak. “I’m glad she did. I didn’t want her to get in trouble. And it kind of worked out the way I wanted. Toby left. He was out of my life.”
Aria slowly rolled her jaw around. But…you’re blind! she wanted to scream. Was it really worth that? Her head hurt, trying to process everything Jenna had just told her. Her whole world felt smashed open. It felt like someone had proclaimed that animals could talk, and dogs and spiders now ruled the world. Then something else hit her: Ali had set things up like it was a prank they pulled on Toby, but Ali and Jenna had been the ones who planned it out…together. Not only had Ali set up Toby, she’d set up her friends, too. Aria felt sick.
“So you and Ali were…friends.” Aria’s voice was faint with disbelief.
“Not exactly,” Jenna said. “Not until this…not until I told her about what Toby was doing. I knew Ali would understand. She had sibling problems, too.”
A flash of light streaked across Jenna’s face, revealing a calm, matter-of-fact expression. Before Aria could ask what Jenna meant, Jenna added, “There’s something else you should know. There was someone else there that night. Someone else saw.”
Aria gasped. The image of that night scissored through her head. The firework burst inside the tree house, lighting up the surrounding yard. Aria always thought she’d seen a dark figure crouching near the Cavanaughs’ side porch—but Ali insisted, over and over again, that she’d imagined the whole thing.
Aria wanted to smack her forehead. It was so obvious who’d seen. How could she have not realized till now?
I’m still here, bitches. And I know everything.—A.
“Do you know who it was?” Aria whispered, her heart hammering fast.
Jenna turned sharply away. “I can’t tell.”
“Jenna!” Aria shrieked. “Please! You have to! I need to know!”
All of a sudden, the power snapped back on. The room flooded with light so bright, it hurt Aria’s eyes. The fluorescent bulbs hummed. Aria saw a streak of blood on her hands and felt a cut on her forehead. The contents of her bag had spilled out onto the floor, and Jenna’s dog had eaten half of one of Aria’s Balance bars.
Jenna had taken her sunglasses off. Her eyes stared out blankly at nothing, and there were wrinkled, puckered burn scars on the bridge of her nose and the bottom of her forehead. Aria winced and looked away.
“Please, Jenna, you don’t understand,” Aria said quietly. “Something horrible is happening. You have to tell me who else was there!”
Jenna stood up, grabbing hold of her dog’s back for balance. “I’ve said too much already,” she croaked, her voice shaky. “I should go.”
“Jenna, please!” Aria pleaded. “Who else was there?”
Jenna paused, sliding her sunglasses back on. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, pulling on her dog’s harness. She tapped her cane once, twice, three times, fumbling clumsily for the door. And then she was gone.
32
HELL HATH NO FURY…
After Emily caught Trista hooking up with Noel, she ran out of the pool room, searching frantically for Spencer or Hanna. She needed to tell them that Aria had told the police about A…and show them the doll she’d just found. As she rounded the craps table for the second time, Emily felt a cold hand on her shoulder and yelped. Spencer and Mona stood behind her. Spencer was clutching a small, square photograph tightly in her hands. “Emily, we need to talk.”
“I need to talk to you, too,” Emily gasped.
Spencer wordlessly pulled her across the dance floor. Mason Byers was in the middle, making a jackass out of himself. Hanna was talking to her father and Mrs. Cho, her photography teacher. Hanna looked up as Spencer, Mona, and Emily approached, her face clouding over. “Do you have a sec?” Spencer asked.
They found an empty booth and piled in. Without a word, Spencer reached into her beaded purse and pulled out a photograph of Ali and Ian Thomas. Someone had drawn an X over Ali’s face and had written, You’re dead, bitch, in spiky letters at the bottom.
Emily clapped a hand over her mouth. Something was very familiar about the photograph. Where had she seen it before?
“I found this in my purse when I was in the bathroom.” Spencer turned the photo over. Better watch your back…or you’ll be a dead bitch too. Emily recognized the spiky handwriting immediately. She’d seen it scrawled on a PFLAG application just the other day.
“It was in your bag?” Hanna gasped. “So does that mean A is here?”
“A’s definitely here,” Emily said, looking around. The male model cocktail waiters swirled. A bunch of girls in minidresses flounced by, whispering that Noel Kahn had smuggled in alcohol. “I just got a…a message, sort of, saying so,” Emily went on. “And…you guys. Aria told the cops about A. Some cop came up to me saying he wanted to ask me questions. I think A knows about that too.”
“Oh my God,” Mona whispered, her eyes wide. She looked from one girl to the other. “That’s bad, right?”
“It could be really bad,” Emily said. Someone elbowed her in the back of the head, and she rubbed her skull, annoyed. This party wasn’t exactly the right venue to be talking about this.
Spencer ran her hands along the velvet couch cushion. “Okay. Let’s not panic. The cops are here, right? So we’re safe. We’ll just find them and stick by them. But this…” She tapped the big X over Ali’s face, then You’re dead, bitch. “I know who wrote this part of it.” She looked around at them, taking a deep breath. “Melissa.”
“Your sister?” Hanna squeaked.
Spencer nodded gravely, the party’s strobe lights flickering against her face. “I think…I think Melissa killed Ali. It makes sense. She knew that Ali and Ian were together. And she couldn’t take it.”
“Rewind.” Mona put down her can of Red Bull. “Alison and…Ian Thomas? They were together?” She stuck out her tongue, disgusted. “Ew. Did you guys know?”
“We only figured it out a few days ago,” Emily mumbled. She wrapped her coat around her body. Suddenly, she was freezing.