perfect little lies | jason dilaurentis

017. The New Normal

All of the girls were sitting on Spencer's bed looking at the note Toby gave Spencer. Well, except Aria. She was seated away from them, looking out the window. Rachel couldn't figure out why she was acting so weird. Spencer's laptop had a braille decryption website pulled up, since Jenna used braille, it seemed plausible.

As well, Rachel and Spencer told them about Melissa being pregnant. The thought still made Rachel shudder. The others didn't know about Leo, but wouldn't Melissa's child technically be his half-sibling? The thought of it made Rachel sick; she couldn't think about it for too long.

"Your Sister's pregnant? How'd that happen?" Hanna questioned.

"I figure pretty much the usual way." Spencer replied, chuckling. Hanna rolled her eyes.

"It's not really a "how" question, it's more of a "why" question." Emily explained.

"I guess Melissa could have gone all maternal, but I doubt it." Rachel told them. For as long as she had known Melissa, motherhood was the last thing on the woman's mind. Now all of a sudden she was pregnant?

"This is so creepy." Hanna commented.

"Where are they now?" Emily asked her.

"Philadelphia. Shopping." Spencer rolled her eyes at that. The girls focused back on the note.

"What do you think this means?" Hanna asked Spencer.

"I don't know, but Toby wanted us to have it." Spencer explained, "It's in braille, so..." She held the note up to her laptop.

Rachel noticed Aria looking at them from across the room, like she wanted to see what was going on. "You want to see this, Aria?" She asked the girl.

"No. I can see just fine from here." Aria said, sounding irritated. She glared for a moment before looking back at the window.

Spencer found the first letter. "The first letter's a B." She wrote it down. The next letter was an A.

"I think it's gonna tell us who "A" is." Hanna said in anticipation.

She found the final letter, a D. "B-A-D."

"Bad." Hanna repeated, "That's the whole message? Bad?"

"What's it supposed to mean?" Emily asked.

"It means you got punked." Aria snapped, "Toby doesn't trust us. I don't blame him."

"No, I don't think he'd mess with us like this." Emily disagreed.

Aria glared once more, but this time, at Hanna. "You'd be surprised what people are capable of." Rachel furrowed her brows. What was going on between them?

"You guys, we have to figure this out." Spencer said, "This might be a joke, but it could be something real."

"Look, either way, Toby's not the enemy." Hanna insisted.

Aria suddenly stood up from her position and grabbed her bag. "You know what, guys? I'm gonna go." And before anyone could say anything, she left Spencer's room. It was especially weird now.

"What was that all about?" Rachel asked the girls. Maybe something had happened while she wasn't there.

"How should I know?" Hanna shrugged, but she still seemed tense. Rachel shrugged it off as Aria being in a bad mood, but things still seemed off. So, the girls continued trying to figure out the message without Aria.

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Rachel walked to the cafeteria for lunch, clutching her lunch tray. She wasn't exactly hungry, but she knew if she didn't eat now, there was a good chance she'd go hungry for dinner. It was either feed herself or feed Leo, and Leo always came first.