Sara Shepard - Crushed

“I don’t know, Dad.” Hanna smirked. “Want to help with makeup?”

Mr. Marin raised his palms and backed away. “That’s not my territory.” He smiled adoringly at Hanna. “You look beautiful, though.”

“You do look awesome.” Kate poked her head in next. Half her hair cascaded down her shoulders in tendrils, but the other half was still straight.

“Thanks,” Hanna said, sounding surprised. “You do, too, Kate.”

Then Kate and Mr. Marin disappeared into the hall. Hanna looked at Spencer. “Do you think I should have asked her to hang out with us?”

“Maybe.” Spencer shrugged. Not that she was really into socializing. And Kate’s simple, uncomplicated life would probably rub her the wrong way at the moment. That girl didn’t have an A in her life. Or secrets she was hiding. Or a death threat on her head.

Hanna slumped back in the chair, making no move to go into the hall and call Kate back. “I wish Mike would call the house and let me know he’s still my date.” She eyed Spencer in the mirror. “Who’s the guy you’re going with, Spence?”

Spencer picked up an eyelash curler. “Oh, just someone I met.”

“Where?”

“At the King James,” Spencer said automatically, using the story she’d rehearsed in her head. “He works at that upscale men’s boutique.”

“Beauregard’s?” Hanna’s eyes lit up. “I thought about getting Mike cuff links from there. I’m totally going to hit him up for a recommendation . . . if Mike and I are still together.”

“Um, I don’t know if cuff links are his specialty,” Spencer said, biting down hard on the inside of her cheek. She had a feeling this was going to be a long night. Hopefully Chase wouldn’t want to chat with any of her friends.

Thinking of Chase, she pulled out her phone, leaned over Hanna, and showed her the picture he’d given her of Ali at The Preserve. “Look.”

Hanna’s lips were pursed. “Where did you get this?”

“I’ve been digging up stuff about her. You know where this is, right?”

“ Duh. I’d know that dayroom anywhere.” Hanna’s brow furrowed. “Ali looks about our age, maybe a little younger.” She pointed at the figure whose face they couldn’t see. “Who’s that?”

“I was hoping you’d know. He’s with Ali, don’t you think?”

Hanna squinted. “Too bad he’s not wearing something distinctive. Everyone and their mother has a black hoodie, huh?”

“Noel has a black hoodie,” Spencer said, coughing awkwardly.

Hanna gave Spencer a long, serious look. “It does seem like him, doesn’t it?”

“I don’t want it to be.” Spencer sank to the bed and rubbed her eyes.

“But it seems like it, doesn’t it?” Hanna asked softly. Hanna had told Spencer about how Mike didn’t remember where Noel had been when the bomb went off on the cruise . . . and about how she’d seen Noel at the Bill Beach. She shook her head. “And I still can’t believe you went into that apartment building in Philly by yourself. You could have been killed.”

“I think A just wanted to scare me,” Spencer mumbled, her stomach churning. It all seemed so obvious now: Ali and her helper had planted that address in the CVS system for Chase to find. They’d rigged the trapdoor to fall when Spencer snooped around. So did that mean A knew Spencer was snooping?

Spencer leaned into the mirror and blotted a bit of smeared eye shadow on her temple. “I wish I could go back to that building, but I’m way too scared.”

“Why would you want to go back ?”

“Because even if that’s not where Ali’s private nurse lives, Ali and her helper have been there, booby-trapping the place. And now that the trap has been sprung, there’s a chance they’d go back and collect all the stuff they’d planted in that attic. Maybe that bowling ball is Noel’s dad’s. Maybe something up there can be traced to Ali.”

“Huh.” Hanna slowly ran a brush through her hair. “I never thought about that.”

It was a theory Chase had raised. Spencer had begged him to go in her place today to see if Ali or her mysterious boyfriend showed up, but he couldn’t. He didn’t explain why.

Her laptop beeped as if on cue. Spencer had a new e-mail in her top secret account. She glanced at the screen, shielding it from Hanna with her hand. Looking forward to seeing you tonight, Britney , Chase wrote, adding a winking smiley face. And, by the way, I just found out something interesting about Alison.

Her heart started to pound. What?

Another e-mail popped up. Don’t want to tell you online , Chase wrote. But I’ll see you soon.

Spencer gritted her teeth. She glanced at the clock on the bedside table. Only three more hours.

It was going to feel like an eternity.

Just as dusk was falling, Spencer and Chase, who met her back at her house, walked hand in hand to the limo at the curb. As Chase held the door for her, she gave him a bashful smile.

“You look amazing,” Chase said, kissing her cheek.

Spencer tried not to swoon. “You look great, too.” Chase’s tux fit him perfectly. He’d been so polite when he’d handed Spencer her corsage and posed for the pictures. Even Amelia, who wrinkled her nose at everything, had gawked.

The limo turned out of the cul-de-sac and onto the country road toward Philadelphia. The front window was down just a little, blowing in the sweet-smelling spring air.

But even when Chase popped the cork of a bottle of champagne and handed Spencer a glass, she couldn’t relax. She turned to Chase. “Now that we’re alone, can you please tell me what you know about Alison?”

Chase sipped from his champagne flute. “I got some interesting footage from a friend. It’s a surveillance video from a building not far from here. There’s a girl in one of the shots who looks like Alison.”

Spencer’s skin prickled. “You’re kidding.” She glanced at Chase’s phone, which was on his lap. “Do you have it on you? Can we watch?”

Chase stared at his phone, too. “I don’t have it.”

“Oh.” Spencer slumped.

“Was that the only reason you came out with me tonight?” Chase’s voice was froggy.

“Of course not!” Spencer cried. “I just . . . well, that sounds huge. I’d love to see it.”

He took her hand. “This is huge too, though. Being with you, I mean. I just want a calm, normal night, one where we don’t talk about Ali or stalkers or the shitty things that have happened to us. One where, like, you don’t almost die from something falling on your head.” He tried to laugh.

Spencer blinked. “But . . .”

“How about this.” Chase squeezed her hand. “How about I access the video after our first dance. That’s, what, an hour from now? I just want a little bit of time with this amazing girl I met named Spencer. Okay?”

Bubbles from the champagne fizzed in Spencer’s nose. She gazed at the blurry highway lights above them. When was the last time she’d just enjoyed something? Even the cruise, which was supposed to be relaxing, had been a horrible, stressful mess. And it was kind of nice to be thought of as just Spencer, a regular girl, not Spencer the Pretty Little Liar.

“As long as you promise to show me everything as soon as that first dance ends,” she said.

“I promise.”

They shook on it. Chase rested his head on her shoulder. They looked out the window as the city of Philadelphia glittered on the horizon, and they started to talk. Spencer asked him about what his prom would have been like, and who he would have liked to have taken, and what he was thinking about studying in college next year. Then they talked about her upcoming semester at Princeton. Spencer even told him a little about the huge mishap at the potluck party the weekend she’d visited.