Killer. (Book Six)

Twenty: Aria's Free Fall.

That same afternoon, Aria met Jason outside Rocks and Ropes, an indoor rock-climbing facility a few miles outside Rosewood. "After you," Jason said, holding the front door.

"Thanks." Aria swooned. She hitched up the slightly too-bad spandex yoga tights she'd stolen from Meredith's closet, hoping that Jason wouldn't notice how baggy they were in the butt. Jason, on the other hand, looked comfortable and sexy in a long-sleeved gray T-shirt and Nike warm-up pants, as though he climbed rock walls all the time. Maybe he did.

Once inside, the light was fluorescent and harsh. Aggressive guitar rock blared through the speakers, and the high-ceilinged, rubbery-smelling room had thousands of colorful, plastic-looking outcroppings on the walls. Jason had asked Aria to Rocks and Ropes in a text message this morning, admitting he wasn't the type of guy to take girls to dinner and a movie. Really, Aria would have stood in line at the DMV with Jason if that was what he considered a date.

Aria signing in, they walked over to the big wall and looked around. Aria ogled a few girls as they scuttled up the side of the wall, harnesses tightly around their waists. How could they stand being up that high? Just craning her neck gave Aria vertigo. She shuddered.

"Are you scared?" Jason asked.

Aria giggled nervously. "I'm not that athletic."

Jason smiled and took her hand. "It's fun, I promise."

Aria flushed with pleasure, thrilled Jason was touching her. She still had to pinch herself to make sure this was really happening.

One of the instructors, a dark-haired guy with a scruffy beard, came over with their gear, which included harnesses, helmets, and special climbing gloves. He asked which of them wanted to be hitched up first. Jason pointed to Aria. "Madame."

"Such a gentleman," she teased.

"My mom brought me up well," Jason answered.

The instructor started to hook a harness around Aria's torso. When he walked off to find a different clamp, Aria turned to Jason. "So how is your family?" she asked as casually as she could. "Are they...okay?"

Jason stared at a few climbers on the other side of the room for a long time. "They're wrecked," he said after a while. He raised his blue eyes to her and smiled sadly. "We all are. But what can we do?"

Aria nodded, having no clue what to say. A's note from yesterday popped into her mind. Big Brother is hiding something from you. And trust me...you don't want to know what it is. Aria hadn't forward the note to any of her friends, for fear they would jump to conclusions about Jason. A had to be messing with them—that was Old and New A's M.O., after all.

Aria assumed A was implying that Jason's secret had to do with his and Ali's "sibling problems," as Jenna put it, but she wasn't buying it. There was no way Jason and Ali had had anything but a loving sibling relationship. Aria had tried to mine her memories for times when Jason had been mean to Ali, but she couldn't come up with a single incident. Instead, Jason seemed fiercely protective of his sister. Once, not long after they'd become friends, Aria and the others had been over at Ali's house for a sleepover. They were planning to give each other makeovers, and everyone had brought over their makeup bags to share—except for Emily, because she wasn't allowed to wear makeup yet. As they were oohing over Hanna's Dior eye shadow, Mrs. DiLaurentis walked into the room. There was a frazzled look on her face.

"Ali, did you feed the cat a whole can of wet food?" Ali's mom asked. Ali looked at her blankly, Mrs. DiLaurentis lowered her arms to her sides with a slap. "Honey, you're supposed to mix dry food in, remember? And put a few drops of hairball medicine on top?" Ali bit her lip. Mrs. DiLaurentis let out a groan and turned. "You forgot that too? She'd going to have hairballs all over the new basement carpet!"