chapter eight
please, do talk about me when i'm gone
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Adalind was stressed, Jason was coming to town for Ali's memorial, and she still hadn't answered his calls. "I was afraid she wouldn't get it done in time for the memorial." Aria said as she and Spencer pushed a large crate inside the hasting's living room. "And this was someone from your mom's gallery?" Hanna asked as she lounged on one of the couches while Adalind and Emily stood up to help. "Right." Aria answered. "Where is your mom?" Emily asked her.

"There's an apartment above the gallery so she's staying there... for now." Aria answered. "Kind of weird, isn't it your mom moving out?" Hanna asked. "Yeah, like my dad should have left, that;s what you'd expect." Aria responded sarcastically but Adalind knew she didn't mean it, she was hurting. "Aria." Spencer spoke softly.

Aria turned back to Hanna and sighed softly. "Hey, I'm-I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that." She apologized. "Whole thing just... sucks." she added as she, Emily, Spencer and Adalind unscrewed the lid of the crate. "I know." Hanna responded. "Did anyone call Shelly Leonard?" Emily asked. "Done. And I told her if she plays anything depressing I will kick in her cello." Spencer responded, causing the girls to laugh.

"Oh, what about the program?" Aria asked. "Almost done, but we should finish it before Ali's brother gets here," Spencer replied and Aria gave her cousin a pointed look, making Adalind sigh, she knew she had to come clean soon. "When is that?" Adalind managed to ask, she was tense, and Aria could tell as she stood next to her. "Tonight, and he wants to see us in the morning." Spencer answered.

"Okay, you know what? I barely remember Jason." Hanna remarked as stood up from the couch and joined her friend. "We didn't know him, he was just Ali's older brother down the hall." Aria responded. 'Adalind knew him better.' she thought. "Behind the closed doors." Spencer added. "With his hardcore punk music vibrating the floorboards." Emily reminisced with a smile as Adalind's heart dropped, they had to know before they saw Jason.

"How did he get into an Ivy League school?" Aria asked. They had found that out when Spencer had contacted him for the memorial. "I don't know. It must have been affirmative action for goths and emos." Spencer joked as they all went to take the cover for the crate off when Adalind couldn't hold in her secret any longer. "I dated Jason." Adalind blurted out, making everyone turn to her, minus Aria, in shock. "What?" they asked.

Adalind sighed before looking at her friends. "You dated Jason? Alison's older brother?" Hanna asked in shock and she nodded. "Yeah." she muttered. "Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Emily asked her. "I-I don't know, i guess i didn't want you guys to judge." she admitted. "We'd never judge you." Hanna spoke softly with a comforting smile as Spencer turned to Aria. "You knew didn't you?" she asked and Aria nodded. "Caught her sneaking him out one night," she said, making Adalind sigh.

"Look, i haven't seen him since Ali went missing, he's been calling recently but i haven't answered, then he called the house, dad answered  and tomorrow's gonna be really awkward and i really need my friends here for me." Adalind ranted before letting out a breath as Spencer reached over and squeezed her hand. "We're always here for you." she spoke softly and the other girls nodded.

"We should probably open this thing." Adalind said after a moment and the girls laughed and nodded. The girls all helped pull the lid of the crate off to reveal a beautiful birdbath that had six girl figures sitting on the edge of it, resembling the girls and Alison. "It's beautiful." Aria commented. "Pedestal's already out there next to the bench, this goes up Friday morning." Spencer told them as they all stared at the birdbath.

"Do you think Jason will like it?" Emily asked. "He'll love it." Adalind answered. "And years from now, people are going to see this memorial, and that's all they'll ever know about Ali. She'll be the girl that they dedicated the bench to." Aria spoke sadly. "And we'll all be gone, but Ali will still be remembered." Aria finished. "That's immortality my darlings." Spencer repeated a line they had heard Alison say.

FLASHBACK

The girls were enjoying a nice day by the lake. Adalind was beside Spencer, laying on her back with Hanna on the other side of her while Emily, Aria and Alison sat in chairs under the shade. "I wish we could just choose the age we wanted to be and just stay there." Aria spoke up. "The only way to do that is to die young, leave a beautiful corpse." Alison says with her usual Alison smile as she looks between her friends.

"Don't joke." Emily told her. "It's not a joke." Alison said as she looked from Emily to the others. "Oh, come on, haven't you guys ever thought about how deliciously tragic it would be to die in some incredibly mysterious way? That would be superior." Alison said softly. "Is that really how you want to go, Alison?" She asked the blonde. "Not just yet." Alison shrugged. "Don't talk like that." Hanna told her. "It's gruesome." Aria added. "It's not gruesome." Alison responded. "It's immortality, my darlings." she said, making Adalind share a look with Spencer.

FLASHBACK OVER

"Where did she get that from? A movie?" Aria asked as she looked towards her friends. "Ali was a movie." Spencer commented.

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Adalind was scared as hell, she and Aria had just arrived at Spencer's. The two of them got out of the car, Adalind slower than Aria, wanting to put more time between now and seeing Jason. "Addie, you ready?" Aria asked softly and Adalind let out a shaky breath before nodding and the two walked into Spencer's house, using the door leading to the kitchen, easier that way.

Jason was taller than she remembered, but it had been a year so, she wasn't surprised. "Aria, good to see you." Jason greeted her before she went and sat next to Emily. Adalind wanted the ground to swallow her whole as she locked eyes with Jason, she could feel the tension rise, and she was sure her friends could as well. "Addie," he said, using her nickname instead of her full name.

"Jason, you look... better." she greeted with a tight lipped smile on her face. "Thanks." he responded before he cleared his throat and looked away, and Adalind could finally breathe as she went and sat next to Aria. "So, you've done a great job. Really." he complimented them as Adalind bounced her knee, being near him still made her nervous. "Mom and Dad and I are really grateful." he continued, sending the girls a grateful smile, his eyes lingered on Adalind before he looked away again.

Suddenly the door opens, making everyone look to see Hanna walk in. "There she is!" he remarked with a smile and Hanna stood frozen for a few seconds, her eyes briefly went to Adalind before looking back at Jason. "Jason! Uh, hey." Hanna said, and went in for a hug. "Sorry, I'm late." She apologized. "No problem," he responded as she went and stood in between Adalind and Spencer, grabbing Adalind's hand out of support. "I was just saying you've done some lovely work on the memorial, I might have done one or two things differently but we can adjust that along the way." he added, causing Adalind to roll her eyes.

"Here's a copy of the program for the dedication," he said, handing it over to Emily. "Oh, I emailed you the program that we worked up." Spencer spoke up. "Right, I saw the draft, this just fine-tunes it." he remarked, and Adalind saw that Spencer had given her a quick look that basically said, 'you dated this guy?' "Uh, let's see, uh, if Shelly Leonard's gonna play something I don't think we can give her more than three minutes, I remember she's somewhat of a showboat with that cello." he said amused.

"The, uh... oh." he said before he picked up a photo of Alison. "Is this the picture for the program?" he asked. It was a photo of Alison smiling at the camera. "Yes, it's everybody's favourite." Adalind spoke up for the first time, making Jason look over at her, and smiled softly. "It's the one I would have picked." he responded and Adalind smiled back at him. "I thought I was gonna be able to get my whole family out here but you know, at the last minute, my mom, um..." he trailed off before letting out a chuckle. "It's crazy talking about this, isn't it?" he asked.

The girls nodded. "When I think about her, I-I think about you," he said, looking at Adalind, making her look down, avoiding his gaze. "The six of you, in-in her bedroom, laughing, keeping secrets." he added, lifting his gaze from Adalind and looking at the other girls. "Long time ago," he said, getting back on track as he grabbed his coffee before turning to the girls. "I want each of you to speak, I'd rather hear from you than Mrs. Slocomb from the PTA." he said amused.

"The PTA was a lot of help." Spencer defended the PTA members. "What about the rain?" he asked. "The rain?" Adalind asked, confused. "Forty percent chance before the weekend," he responded. "Oh, um, they said that we can use the school's multipurpose room if we have to move the ceremony inside." Spencer answered and Jason nodded. "Great," he said. "People think this dedication is about closure," he remarked as she put a hand on one of the art tiles they had for Alison, the one the girls had made together.

"There won't be closure until they find out who did this is Alison," he added. "The cops in this town have been jerking my family around for more than a year. No more of that. I'm here to get some action and this memorial is gonna help me get it." he said, determined. "Oh, and I'm adding one speaker to the program." he added, before he wrote it down on the notepad in front of him. "Jenna Marshall?" Emily asked in shock, causing Adalind to look at Jason in disbelief, he knew they weren't friends at all.

"Wait, you want Jenna to speak at the dedication?" Hanna asked. "That's right." he answered. "Why?" Adalind asked, making him turn to her. "She asked me if she could," he answered. "Jenna asked to speak?" Emily asked. "Is there a problem?" Jason asked. "I-It just didn't occur to us that Alison and Jenna were that close." Spencer answered. "Yeah, I didn't know either." he responded. Adalind rolled her eyes. "Jenna called, and said my sister was a lot of help to her after her accident," he added. "Well, concentrate on what you're gonna say, leave the rest of it to me." he spoke as he packed up his things.

"Now, I'm going to have a talk with Detective Wilden and find out why they haven't located Toby yet." he said, grabbing his coffee and walking out, Spencer following him to walk him out. Hanna turned to the others. "Did we just get fired?" she asked bluntly. "Ssh! Keep it down Han," Adalind hissed. "Why is he talking to Jenna?" Emily asked and Adalind shrugged, "I have no idea." she answered. "What does she have to say?" Emily asked the one question everyone was thinking. "This is turning into a nightmare." Aria said as Spencer came back.

"What else did he say?" Hanna asked Spencer. "Nothing, he just kept smiling like he was running for office." Spencer responded with a sigh. "Spence, why does Jenna want to speak at the dedication?" Aria asked. "Why does Jason want her there?" Hanna asked. "I mean, he knows they weren't friends." Adalind said.

"We can't let Jenna speak," Emily said with a shake of her head. "How are we going to stop her without looking like bitches?" Aria asked. "How're we going to stop her at all?" Spencer asked. "In case you didn't notice we just got patted on the head and sent off to play." Spencer said to the girls. "You know what? You need to stay on top of him," Hanna said to Spencer. "Find out what's going on." she added. "Why me? Why not Addie, they dated." Spencer, making Adalind throw her a look.

"Because you're the big organiser, you've got the laptop of all knowledge and he's going to need some of that, plus I don't think they should be in a room together, you felt It, It was awkward," Aria pointed out the obvious and Adalind nodded in agreement. "Jenna could get up there, she could tell about the fire and Toby. She could tell about everything," Emily explains worriedly and the girls continued staring at Spencer.

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"So, have you spoken to Jason at all?" Aria asked Adalind as they walked the school hallways. Adalind shook her head. "No, haven't gotten to it, but i should," Adalind said as the two of them walked past a window, they saw Emily looking off into the distance, so they decided to check up on her. Adalind opened the door for her and Aria to walk outside.

"Em?" Aria said, gaining her attention. "It's my dad," she said softly, making the twins worry that something had happened to Emily's father. "God, is he okay?" Adalind asked, frowning and Emily nodded. "He's okay. He's...better than okay. they're rotating his unit out of afghanistan, my dad's coming home." she said, making the twins smile wide and let out a faint chuckle.

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The next day, Adalind, Spencer and Emily had gone with Jason to talk to the Principal, even if Adalind was trying to avoid him, this memorial was for Alison. "Well, that was painless." he remarked as they walked down the empty hallways. "Not for Principal Hartman." Spencer remarked. "He means well, but he needs to know who's in charge." Jason said, causing Adalind to roll his eyes. "I think we all know that." Spencer muttered, making Jason stop and turn to them. "Okay, is-is there a problem?" he asked, making them stop as well.

"There is no problem, you're Alison's brother. you should have the final say." Emily replied. "But you're not the only one dealing with this." she added. "See, there's that closed door again, the secrets of the girls cuddled up in Alison's bedroom." he commented. "Do you think that means you knew her better than I did?" he asked, causing Adalind to sigh.

"No. It just means we knew her in a different way." Emily corrected him. "She was your sister Jason, I know that but she was our friend, and what Emily's saying is that we just knew her differently." Adalind said to him calmly, making his face soften before they heard Detective Wilden. "Right here," he said, pointing to a locker, Toby's locker. "What are they doing?" Spencer asked, making them all turn to see him and a few officers force open the locker.

"That's Toby's locker." Emily informed them. "Detective Wilden." Jason greeted the detective man. "Oh, you'll find this interesting." Wilden commented as he started going through the locker. "We're having a lock in Toby Cavanaugh's locker." Detective Wilden informed Jason and the three girls. "Why? Do you think he's in there?" Jason said, which made Adalind snort softly making Emily nudge her. "He's a suspect." Wilden replied.

"Well, your investigation better turn up more than Toby Cavanaugh's old gym socks." Jason was clearly annoyed with Wilden. "You made it quite clear the other day you weren't happy with the pace of the investigation. You said you wanted action. I'm trying to give that to you." Wilden responded. "Yeah, you've got nothing. I realized that yesterday." Jason replied. "You know, sometimes, Jason, we withhold information on the progress of an investigation to avoid any interruptions." Wilden explained.

"Yeah, the only reason you're tearing this kid's locker apart is because he's not around to object." Jason shot back. "Toby Cavanaugh called your sister's cell phone the night she disappeared." Wilden said, causing Adalind to share a look with Emily and Spencer. "I checked the records. She took the call." Wilden added. "Toby called Alison the night she died?" Emily spoke up. "He did." Wilden nodded. "Or someone else did using his phone." He added, looking at the girls, like he thinks they did it.

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Adalind pulled into her driveway, not even noticing Jason waiting on one of the seats on her front porch. "Hi," he spoke up, causing Adalind to jump, startled. "Jeezus! Jason you can't sneak up on people like that." she said as she held a hand to chest before walking over and sitting next to him, on a different seat. "So..." she trailed off before looking up at him, seeing he was already looking at her.

"I've missed you." he said softly, making her heart beat quicker. "I kinda got that, with the six missed calls." she answered, making him laugh at her sass. "Why didn't you answer?" he asked after a moment, the laughter had died down. "I– I don't know." she answered as she picked her nail and Jason must have noticed because he reached over and held her hand, stopping her.

"You still do that when you're nervous?" he asked and she nodded shyly. "Yeah." she uttered. "You still paint?" he asked as he leaned back into his seat and she nodded. "Yeah, I stopped for a while after Ali went missing but I got back into it maybe six, five months ago." she answered. "Look, i should get inside, it's my night to cook," she said, making an excuse to get out of there, feeling awkward. "Alright." he mumbled as they both stood and she walked towards her door and he walked down the steps of her house before he called out to her.

"Addie." he said, making her turn. "Yeah?" she answered. "I still love you." he said and he didn't give her a chance to react before he got into his car and left, leaving a shocked Adalind outfront her house. "Oh crap!" she remarked as she leaned against her front door. Of course she still loved him too, but she had to protect her heart.

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Later that night, after it had grown dark outside, Adalind had just finished Dinner when she got an S.O.S from Spencer, making her grab her keys and rush over. "So she tried to pin it on you?" Hanna asked angrily. Apparently Alison had told Jason about the Jenna thing but made it out like Spencer was the one who did it. "That's why she told Jason." Spencer responded as she sat messed with some of the pillows on her couch before sitting down, pillow on her lap.

"But why you?" Emily asked. "Because Spencer could stand up to her and Alison didn't like that," Adalind replied as she crossed her arms, pissed at Ali for even trying to put the blame on Spencer for this. "God, this is officially insane!" Hanna snapped as she sat down across from Spencer on the opposite couch. "Is that what she told Jenna when she was at the hospital?" Emily asked as she sat next to Hanna.

"I don't know. I don't think so, but I don't know." Spencer responded as Adalind sat next to Emily and Aria stood next to the couch. "Okay, so-so one minute she's trying to cover it up and the next she's ratting us out to her brother?" Aria asked rhetorically. "Like she wanted Jason to know the fake story in case anything happened to her." Emily said. "Why?" Hanna asked with a scoff. "So they'd know who to blame." Spencer scoffed. "God, this is still Alison's movie and we are just filling up the screen." Aria remarked, frustrated.

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The next day was Alison's memorial, which they ended up having inside since it was raining outside. Spencer's speech was first but something caught her eye from behind and she briefly looked at her friend before looking towards the front, making the others turn around and Adalind felt her anger flare up seeing Ian Thomas standing there. "Ian?" Aria questioned quietly. "Wait, Melissa's Ian?" Hanna asked and Adalind nodded.

"Total asshole." Adalind sneered before looking forward, briefly catching Jason's worried gaze, obviously catching her and her friends looking at Ian, who had no idea was gonna be there, and if he had, he'd had warned Adalind, she hated him as much, if not, more than he did.

"Um..." Spencer trailed off, starting her speech but she closed her little notebook that Adalind knew she had written it in.  "I can't remember not knowing Alison. Not having her as a friend. She was the first person I knew long enough that I felt I could be angry without worrying that I was gonna lose her." Spencer spoke softly. "It made me feel like something was gonna last," she said, looking at the photo of Alison smiling. "And you need that." she continued. "Especially when you're a kid." she finished.

After Spencer, it was Hanna's turn. "Friends can be hard on you, maybe they expect more from you than strangers, strangers pretty much see you the way you want them to see you, but... you can't fool friends." she spoke. "That's what made them friends." she finished.

After Hanna was Emily. "That corner of the park is gonna be a safe place, where you can go and sit, read a book and just think," she paused. "You should think about Alison while you're there, she'd want to make sure you didn't forget about her." she finished.

Aria was next. "You do something like this, a memorial. It's partly because you don't understand what's happened, so you-you plant flowers and you paint tiles and somewhere in the middle of all that work..." she paused. "You stop crying, I guess that's the point." she finished. 

After Aria was Adalind. "Being around Alison was like always having a light on," she said, causing people to smile. "I loved that about her, how she could light up a room." she paused. "She would have liked that you were all here." she added. "She would have liked the attention." she said before correcting herself.

"Actually, she would have loved the attention." she said with a laugh that made others in the room laugh as well as she locked eyes with Jason, who smiled warmly at her. "I would have made her laugh," she paused with a sad smile on her face. "And Alison laughing... that was amazing." she said, her voice shaky, on the verge of tears.

After Adalind was Jenna and the girls were worried that she'd say something. Jason helped Jenna walk towards the podium. "We think we know who we are, but we don't. Not until something bad happens to us and then all the useless things fall away and we're left with who we really are. I learnt that from Alison DiLaurentis." she started.

"My whole life, I thought I knew who she was but I found out the truth when she came and talked to me at the hospital." she paused. "I found out that she was the strongest person that I had ever met and It's her strength that touched so many people. Shaped them, that's her real legacy, that's how her memory will endure, in the actions of those she inspired in so many different ways, from all of us... thank you, Alison." she finished.

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The girls had gone back to Spencers after the memorial. "I need sugar." Hanna sighed as she and the girls entered Spencer's kitchen. "Me too." Aria added as they all sat down around the kitchen island. "I'm buying." Spencer said as she opened her fridge. Jason entered after the girls, standing next to where Adalind was sitting. "That was my folks." he remarked. "They say thanks, and so do I." he added, leaning his hands on the counter, closer to where Adalind had her hands rested, intertwined together.

"You're welcome." Emily responded. "And i want you girls to have something." he spoke as he took something out from the inside of his suit jacket. He pulled out a little red-pink bag with yellow lining and Adalind recognized it, it looked the same as the one Ali had given them. "The police returned this to my family, I think you should have it." he said before putting the little red-pink bag and a bracelet on the table. Alisons' friendship bracelet, like the one that was in Spencer's room right now.

"The police gave that to you?" Emily asked as Adalind picked it up. Jason nodded. "Alison was wearing it." he answered. "You mean when they found her?" Hanna asked. "After listening today, I just thought you should have it," he said. It was a nice sentiment, if they weren't all freaked out because they had found another bracelet with Alisons's name on it. He turned to look at Adalind.

"I'll be in touch." he said before leaving. "If that's Alison's bracelet, what about the one we found in the woods?" Emily asked as Adalind stared at the bracelet. "I-I don't know." Adalind stuttered. "Someone made a copy of Alison's bracelet." Hanna let out, shocked. "Yeah, and made sure we would find it." Spencer added.

⎯ AUTHORS NOTE
another chapter!! adalind&jason <3