"I'm glad that boy went to jail." Breena spoke as she picked up the plates around the dinner table. "Finally, we can put this all behind us."

"The lord is with us." Victor nodded with an approving smile. "And let that murdering boy rot in hell."

Allison couldn't take it, slapping her hand on the table. "That boy is my friend. And he didn't murder Simon. Nate is innocent."

"Allison." Breena scolded her. "That boy isn't your friend. He's only manipulated you into believing so."

After Nate's arrest at the dance last night, it's all anyone was talking about. Allison looked in disbelief. "He didn't manipulate me. Nate's a good person, and I care about him!"

"Enough." Victor warned.

"Fine." Allison stood up. "I'm leaving."

"No, you're not." Breena spoke. "Allison, you aren't leaving."

"Why not?" she turned around with a look of disbelief.

"You're our child, you do what we say. It's late, we should all be in bed anyways." she spoke with a knowing look, lowering her voice.

Allison pulled her phone from her pocket, turning it to show off the 12:00 time. "I can leave when I want to now."

Allison stormed out. Eighteen. Happy birthday to her. This was the day everything was suppose to change, was suppose to be better for her. This was her freedom, this was when her and Simon were gonna be open with the world about the two of them. But, he was still dead. Freedom wasn't all as exciting now that he wasn't apart of the plan.

She hadn't gone far, only across the street. Allison knew her way around the Kelleher house perfectly by now, she's been here so many times. The cars were all gone, his parents out. It didn't take Allison long to find an unlocked door, near the back garage that you couldn't know was there unless you ducked behind the water heater. For emergencies only. And this, well, this was her emergency.

Allison's walked up the steps, going to his room immediately. It was cold when she walked in, not the usual comfort she got. Allison laid on the bed, inhaling at scent of the pillows as her eyes squeezed shut, her fist balling up around the comforter. She shut her eyes, that's what he said, to shut her eyes anytime she missed him.

"Allison." Simon spoke, her eyes opening as he sat on the opposite side of the room. "You miss me?"

"It's my birthday."

He cracked a grin. "Happy birthday."

"I wish you were here." she sat up, her eyes welling up. "I hate this world so much without you in it."

"At least my murder was caught." he pointed out.

"So, Nate did it?" she gapped in response.

He shrugged."Do you think Nate killed me?"

"God, no." she shook her head. "Of course not."

"Then it wasn't him." Simon shrugged in response. "But, who did it then? Was it you?"

"I'd never hurt you." she reminded him. "You know that."

"I hope so." he nodded his head. "What are you doing here?"

"I missed you." she blinked, her eyes burned. "I missed being in here."

Simon walked over, laying down on the bed as the two laid across from each other. He stared at her, breathing in as Allison placed her hand on his beating heart. Her eyes shut at the feeling. "Then stay."

"What I don't get is why someone put one pen in my locker and all the rest on Nate's bike." Addy spoke as she shut her door, inviting the remaining three over along with Janae.

"Maybe it was a distraction." Brownyn suggested.

"Or they planned on making it seem like you were involved as well." Allison added in, holding one of Addys stuffed animals in her lap.

"That's what I was thinking. Trying to frame her too." Janae added in.

"So, you're one of us now?" Cooper looked her way in questioning.

"Okay, it wasn't my best friend who was murdered." Janae spoke sarcastically, Allison winced slightly. "Sorry, I forget his lover is in my presence."

"I know, I didn't see it coming either." Addy confirmed as she eyed Allison. "He doesn't seem like your type."

"He wasn't." Allison said honestly. "But, you know, he got me somehow."

"Sorry, Allison." Cooper reached over to touch her head.

"Okay, Nate's in jail, we have to get him out. So we need all the help we can get." Brownyn defended Janae being there.

"Absolutely." Addy agreed with a nod of her head. "So, what's the plan?"

"Miss Avery. We know the cops weren't looking at her because they thought she had no motive. But, now we know she did because Simon had something on her." Brownyn said confidently as she stared to run over the plan.

"Do you think she was sleeping with a student?" Addys eyes widened.

"Like Pretty Little Liars style?" Allison mimicked her look.

"Wait, wait. Who would she possibly me sleeping with?" Cooper gave an odd, and questionable look.

"Just saying, that is always the teachers secret." Addy debugged.

"Whatever it is, we just need to get her to talk. We- we bluff. We tell her we know what she did and then we record her response." Brownyn cut in quickly, stopping any pretty little liars talk to continue.

"Yeah, who's gonna do that?" Addy asked in disbelief.

"Better yet, what if she admits it?" Allison's spoke up as they all looked her way. "If she actually did do it, and confesses to us before the police, I don't know if i'm gonna be able to handle it. I'll probably shoot her in the freaking head."

"Okay, so, Allison will definitely not be the spy." Cooper said honestly with an inhale.

"No, someone who could believably heard it from Simon." Brownyn turned back to Janae.

Cooped laughed slightly. "So, that's why she's here."

The blonde gave a question look. "Sorry, what?"

"Do you wanna know what really happened to Simon?" Brownyn asked her with a questionable look.

"Allison." Addy spoke as the four sat in the hallway, Janae headed in to question Miss Avery. "Did you mean what you said?"

"About what?" she asked, leaning on her knees from the way she sat, leaned against the wall.

"About shooting Miss Avery if she killed him?" the blonde asked, getting the attention of the other two.

Allison hesitated. "It was an expression. I wouldn't kill her, I don't think i'm capable of something like that."

Brownyn watched her as Allison messed with Simons necklace around her neck. "But, my boyfriend is gone. And I miss him, so much. So, whoever killed him, I hope they get what they deserve."

Cooper reached over and patted her knee.

Janae walked over to the remaining five, huffing loudly as she sat next to Maeve. "She knew the text was fake and I think she guessed I was recording."

"Damn it!" Allison hit the lockers.

"Allison." Brownyn spoke up, grabbing her hand.

"Great, she's smart." Maeve rolled her eyes. "Smart enough that she could have planned the whole thing."

"We still don't have proof." Addy pointed out as a door slamming got their attention, running to look behind the corner to see Miss Avery walking from her classroom, her phone in hand.

"I'll meet you there." she spoke, hurrying down the hall.

"Did you hear that? We have to follow her." Janae spoke quickly.

"Wait, what?" Cooper gapped.

"Where's your car?" Addy gave a pleading look.

"No." Cooper spoke. Allison dug into his pockets and grabbed his keys. "Allison!"

"Hurry." she encouraged, taking off down the hallway.

"We need to see who she's meeting." Brownyn spoke as Cooper drove the jeep, following Miss Avery.

"It's probably her accomplice." Maeve spoke honestly.

"You think there'd an accomplice?" Allison looked back, rolling her eyes. "What am I saying? There's always an accomplice."

"Great, so now we're not just spying on one murderer, but two." Cooper rolled his eyes.

"Cool. You have a better plan?" Maeve shot back.

"Well, maybe the person she's meeting is coming here." Bronwyn spoke on, leaning past Allison to look.

"So, we wait." Addy sighed.

The girls all ducked down as Cooper chuckled. "Sure, a car with the six of us is not suspicious at all."

"Coop, could you not stress me out for once?" Allison gave him a pleading look. "Please? For the love of sweet baby Jesus?"

"Sure, only for sweet baby Jesus." he hummed her way.

"Is this a stakeout? Can we put the top on?" Brownyn cut in.

"Yeah, can we park somewhere?" Addy looked at him quickly.

"There's nowhere to park." he huffed in response.

"Never happened to Ryan Gosling in Drive." Janae spoke up from the back, making them all look at her. "Non of you have seen Drive?"

"Too busy watching Crazy, Stupid, Love." Allison shook her head.

"Simon hated that movie." the blonde said.

"I know." Allison cracked a grin. "Made him watch it anyways."

"Look." Addy tapped Cooper quickly as she looked at the house, a figure walking up to the steps.

"Wait, is that..." Cooper trialed off.

"Vanessa." Addy gapped as Bronwyn took the photo quickly.

"Oh, god." TJ spoke as Allison showed up at his house. "Come to lock me on a roof again."

"No." she said, holding up a coffee. "I got the barista to tell me how you liked it."

He hesitated, holding the door open for her to walk in. "Ignore the mess."

"My rooms probably worse." she said honestly, letting him lead her to the living room. "I'm really sorry about the dance, TJ. Truly."

"Why'd you do it, Allison?" he gave her an odd look, shaking his head. "I thought we were starting to, I don't know, become friends."

Allison blinked in shock. "You wanted to be my friend?"

"Yeah, dude. I thought you were cool, in a weird and awkward way. Then it felt like you were just using me and in on something with Addy." he explained with a hand through his hair. "I was stuck on that roof for hours because of you."

"I was careless and stupid." Allison spoke, giving him a small sigh. "Just- it's not an excuse, but something has been happening lately. And-And i've just been really paranoid of everyone, but I shouldn't have involved you in that. More importantly, I thought have never suspected you."

"Suspected me? Of what?" he looked oddly, Allison stayed silent. "You think I killed Simon?"

"He's onto you." Simon spoke from the kitchen. "Don't screw it up again, Allison."

"No, I don't." she exhaled with a shake of her head. "I did, just for a second. But I know you didn't now, and that's on me. I should have just talked to you."

"Yeah." TJ scoffed slightly. "I mean, I couldn't kill anyone. If you talked to me, you'd known that."

"I know." Allison nodded her head.

"Don't fall for it!" Simon called her way. "You know the type, Allison."

She took her eyes off him. "But, if you're willing, we can maybe try the friends thing again?"

"Don't do it, Allison." Simon spoke again. "He's a dick head jock, they don't mix."

"Yeah." TJ gave her a small smile. "I think we can."

Allison looked to the kitchen, Simon was gone. TJ followed her gaze. "You okay?"

She brought her eyes back, shaking her head with a forced smile. "Yeah, i'm okay."

She wasn't. She really wasn't.

"Oh my god." Janae gapped as they all met up again, Cooper showing the payment on his phone that he got from one of the streakers. "It's Simon."

"Simon?" Cooper looked oddly.

"That was his screen name." Allison spoke. "When we first started talking on Pinterest, his username was Anarchisk."

"It was his game tag too." Janae nodded alongside her.

"So, Simon wanted us all in detention." Bronwyn confirmed with a questionable look. "And he hired the streakers?"

"I'm confused. Why would Simon want to create a distraction?" Maeve spoke up in questioning.

"To get Miss Avery out of her room." Cooper pieced together. "She was telling the truth."

"The cup. He left the cup on the table and then he went to the window. That's when one of us could have put peanut oil in it." Brownyn spoke fast and with her hands. "Without the streakers, none of us could have had access to the cup. They were there to frame us. That-that was the plan. He-he wanted to frame us."

"Okay, but why wound he do that?" Cooper looked oddly.

"Because he hates us." Brownyn shrugged.

"No, not all of you. He loved Allison." Janae spoke up, Maeve glanced off slightly. "We actually felt bad for you, Addy. Even he thought you deserved better then Jake."

Addy sighed. "If Simon orchestrated this whole thing, then that means that..."

She trailed off, looking at Allison. The taller girl pieced it together, sitting up. "No."

"What?" Janae hadn't caught on.

"Do you think...did Simon ever talk about killing himself?" the blonde pushed her theory.

"No." Janae said back immediately. "He would never do that. That's not Simon."

"Why would you even say something like that, Addy?" Allison asked, because it hurt. "Some of us are still trying to get through the fact that he was murdered."

"Okay, if there's any chance that he could have done this to himself, we have to tell the cops. Nate can't be in jail for murder if it wasn't murd-"

"Bronwyn, fuck off!" Janae yelled as her suddenly. Janae looked to Allison. "You knew him. Maybe almost as well as I did. So you know he wouldn't do that."

"No, he wouldn't." Allison spoke as she looked down.

"I didn't mean to-"Addy spoke.

"Yeah, no one ever means to do anything, do they?" Allison looked up, her chest heavy and her eyes watery. "No one ever means to say something that can hurt the ones around them. I mean, that's why we're all here right? Because an asshole made all of you miserable? And, you know, I get it. I really do. But, take a second to realize how hard this is on others. Not everyone hated him the same way the rest of you did, okay?"

"Allison." Brownyn tried to get her to come back, but she was storming away. "Allison, come back."

•

kylie speaks

all i'm gonna say is i
hope all of you were
paying close attention
this chapter and it's actually
very important