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Aria let out a sht erect a shrine in Jenna’s honor, but so about it seemed so…tacky
"Shit," Noel whispered "We shouldn’t have come in this door"
Aria’s eyes filled with tears One minute, Jenna was alive--Aria had seen her at a party at Noel’s house, laughing with Maya St Germain Then, practically the next minute…well, what happened next was too horrible to think about Aria knew she should be relieved that at least Jenna’s killer had been caught, Ali’snotes from A had stopped, but what had happened couldn’t be undone--an innocent girl was still dead
Aria couldn’t help but wonder if she and her friends could have done more to prevent Jenna’s death When Billy-as-A had been co with them, he’d sent Eer He’d then directed Emily to Jenna’s house when Jenna and Jason DiLaurentis were fighting He was obviously giving theered on Aria’s front lawn, looking as though she needed to tell Aria so When Aria called out to her, Jenna had paled and quickly walked away Did she sense Billy was going to hurt her? Should Aria have known sole red rose on the memorial Aria closed her eyes She didn’t need anyshe’d seen a report about a set of Polaroids he’d taken of their end-of-seventh-grade sleepover It was hard to believe Billy had been so close As she’d chewed on her quinoa breakfast flakes, she’d parsed here noises on the porch or suspicious breathing at the ? Had she felt angry eyes glaring at her through the glass? But she couldn’t reainst the wall at the far end of the lobby A bunch of boys on the crew tea about an app thatnoise Sean Ackard and Kirsten Cullen were con out near the Jenna shrine Jennifer’s hip bu over a sold frahtened in Aria’s chest She htened the picture Jennifer and Jennings broke apart, looking guilty
"Have some respect," Aria snapped at them anyway
Noel touched Aria’s aret out of here"
He pulled her out of the lobby and around the corner Kids were at their lockers, hanging up their coats and pulling out books In a far corner, Shark Tones, Rosewood Day’s a cappella group, was rehearsing a version of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" for an upco concert Aria’s brother, Mike, and Mason Byers were in a shoving match near the water fountains
Aria approached her locker and spun the dial "It’s like no one even remembers what happened," she ," Noel suggested He rested his aret your led out of the houndstooth coat that she’d bought at a thrift store in Philly and hung it on a hook in her locker "What do you have in ave hiu from the rearview mirror of his Cadillac Escalade
"I wouldn’t ested Clio was a new, quaint café that had opened in don Rosewood The hot chocolates were served in s the size of a baseball hat
"Done," Noel answered But then he winced and squeezed his eyes shut "Wait I can’t tonight I have roup"
Aria nodded Noel had lost an older brother to suicide and now attended grief support s After Aria and her old friends had seen Ali’s spirit the night Spencer’s woods burned down, Aria contacted aAria to briefly wonder if Ali had co?" she asked
"I think so Wait--" Noel snapped his fingers at soo to that?"
He was pointing to a hot-pink poster It had black silhouettes of dancing kids all over it, like the once-ubiquitous iPod ads But instead of holding Nanos and Touches, they were holding small white hearts FIND LOVE AT THE VALENTINE’S DAY DANCE THIS SATURDAY, the poster proclaimed in sparkly red letters
"What do you say?" There was a sweetly vulnerable look on Noel’s face "Want to go with me?"
"Oh!" Aria blurted Truthfully, she’d wanted to go to the Valentine’s Day dance ever since Teagan Scott, a cute freshrade Aria and the others had helped Ali get ready like she was Cinderella going off to the ball Hanna was in charge of curling Ali’s hair, Emily helped Ali into her ballerina-skirt dress, and Aria had the honor of clipping the diaht around her neck Afterward, Ali bragged about her beautiful wrist corsage, the awesorapher followed her around the entire tiirl in the rooazed bashfully at Noel "Maybe that would be fun"