perfect little lies | jason dilaurentis

015. If At First You Don't Succeed, Lie, Lie Again

Aria texted Rachel early in the morning to come to Spencer's, so Rachel went to the Hasting's house as quickly as she could. When she arrived, Aria was just dragging the other girls downstairs.

But there was a looming fear inside of Rachel, one about a man in particular. "Wait. Where's lan?" she asked.

"Don't worry, he went to Philly to be with Melissa." Spencer explained, and Rachel breathed a sigh of relief.

"I didn't realize life existed at this hour." Emily complained as they reached the living room.

"Come on, guys, just walk." Aria said, "You need to see this." It seemed like Aria had been awake for a long time.

"I hoped my first sunrise would have tequila in it." Hanna commented as they sat down at the island. Spencer told her she'd make coffee. "Well, when it's ready just pour it down my throat."

Aria pulled up the picture of Alison from last night and printed it out. "I thought we were done looking at this." Rachel said, "I mean, we know the shadow is lan, right?"

Aria picked up the picture from the printer and Emily said, "You woke us up for this?"

"It's important. I couldn't let it go." Aria said.

"Have you been up all night?" Hanna asked Aria.

"Maybe." Aria replied, though it was clear she hadn't slept a bit.

"You have! One eye is bigger than the other." Hanna said, "You look like a strung-out Powerpuff Girl." she added.

"Just look at the picture." Aria directed their attention back to the picture of Alison, "I mean, there's only one place where this picture could have been taken from."

"Where?" Rachel asked her.

"Alison's bedroom." Concluded Aria. Rachel furrowed her brows slightly, it made sense. The angle was perfect for it; it was high up and had a direct view of the backyard.

"No, Alison is in the picture. She clearly didn't take that." Hanna commented.

"Okay, but somebody in her house did." Aria replied.

"Like who, her parents?" Rachel questioned.

"No. Her brother." Aria concluded.

Rachel's eyes widened for a fraction of a second. "Jason." she muttered softly to herself. Could he really have taken that picture?

"My mom ran into him at the bank." Hanna admitted, "He's back in town."

"We have to call him." Aria said immediately, wanting to get to the bottom of this.

"Ew. I am not going to talk to him." Hanna said disgustedly.

"Me either." Emily said. Spencer agreed.

"I will." Rachel quickly spoke up. The girls looked at her confusedly, so she continued, more quietly. "We need to know if he took this."

None of the girls wanted to talk to him, so they didn't question Rachel any further. She was very grateful for that. If any of the girls knew her connection to Jason, they'd never look at her in the same way again.

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When Rachel had a moment alone getting ready for school, she decided to call Jason. The line rang for barely two seconds before it was picked up.

"Rach?" He said.

"Jason, hi." She greeted him, "I need to see you."

There was a moment of silence where Rachel could've sworn she heard Jason fumble on something. "What?" He said, "Rach, I thought we agreed to stop all of that."