Chapter 5 – Hmm. Maybe they do know best

Courtney woke up with a horrible headache. How much did she and the girls had to drink last night? Opening her eyes she remembered what had happened.

She and Spencer had gotten in a fight, she had left the sleepover, witnessed her mother meet with her lover who was also her bio-dad and was startled by her twin sister. She had tried to kill Alison but it didn't work.

She wasn't at home. Alison won. She had lost. She stood on shaky legs and with trembling hands she wrote a note on a clean piece of paper before grabbing a belt, looping it on the rack of the walk in closet, put it around her neck and took her life.

She had lost

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Alison sat gingerly at the breakfast table with her family. Her whole body ached but she hid it behind the bitchy mask her sister had created.

Her parents didn't see any difference and even sent her to school.

Alison DiLaurentis was back

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Bella was enjoying her first quiet day in a full year. After deposited Courtney she had returned to her motel, showered and slept and was now standing in a record store going through the various cds. She was rocking to the music blaring through her headphones when a hand touched her shoulders. Whirling around faster than her personal safety limit her eyes widening as she saw Alison's older brother before smiling.

"Hi"

"Hi"

Jason said.

"What are you doing here?"

He asked her. He had found her on purpose and had spent the whole morning berating him for not asking for her number all those months he visited Courtney at the Preserve.

"I'm checking colleges. After all the hype your family gave this place I thought I should look it up"

Jason smiled at her simple answer. He sobered knowing he was going to shock her

"Courtney's gone"

"Gone?"

Bella inquired

"She killed herself this morning. The stuff found her"

Bella's mouth popped open before big crocodile tears began falling from her eyes. Courtney was dead? Had she killed her and the Preserve covered it or had she only caused it? Jason pulled her in his arms letting her cry for he lost of her friend wishing he could cry too.

No one knew about Courtney in rosewood

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That afternoon was a somber affair at the DiLaurentis house. They were mourning a daughter no one knew they had and they had decided to bury her under the gazebo. The workers would finish its structure the next day and it would provide them the best way to keep their daughter close while keeping her a secret.

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"How long are you staying in town?"

Jason asked over coffee a few days after the funeral. Bella shrugged

"I was thinking of going to college here. Why?"

"Then you're free for coffee, dinner, tour guide"

Jason trailed his eyes dancing like Alison's when she knows she's won. Bella smiled at the slightly older guy.

"Free as a bird"

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Bella and Alison sat together at the lawn of the DiLaurentis house. Officially they had agreed to try and get to know each other 'to honor fake-Alison who was supposedly Bella's best friend'

In reality they basked in the afternoon sun.

They had won. They had overcome the reasons they were put in the Preserve of Addison Steven's and they had each other.

"Success"

The End