Pretty Little Liars #15: Toxic (6 page)

“Oh,
please
.” Hailey rolled her eyes and yanked Hanna around the set. “I swear everyone who works with Hank has a vagina,” she whispered loudly to Hanna before they were out of earshot. Hanna glanced apologetically back at Daniel, hoping he didn’t think
she’d
said it.

They crossed the soundstage, climbed a set of stairs, and walked down a narrow hallway that overlooked a few cruise ship sets. Halfway down the hall, Hailey opened a door with her name on the front. Inside was a room with furry pink wallpaper, a couch in the shape of pursed red lips, a mini-fridge, a SoulCycle spinning bike, and a bookcase filled with trashy magazines. Hanna glanced at a vanity, where pictures of three different guys were arranged. Each one was cuter than the last. She was pretty sure she’d seen one of them in the latest Jake Gyllenhaal blockbuster.

Hailey noticed her looking. “My three boyfriends. Adorable, aren’t they?”

Hanna frowned. “You’re dating them all at the same time?”

“Uh,
yeah
,” Hailey said. She dug out a pack of Parliaments from a corduroy pouch atop the fridge. Lighting one up, she flopped onto the lip-shaped couch and exhaled blue smoke. Then she extended the pack to Hanna. “Want one?”

Hanna hesitated, not having smoked since she was best friends with Mona Vanderwaal. She took one but didn’t light it.

Then Hailey’s phone bleated the ominous, two-note theme from
Jaws
. “Ugh, sorry,” she said, looking at the screen. “What do you want
now
, Mom?” she screamed into the phone. She paused, then sighed. “I
told
you they were lying about that. Who are you going to believe, me or him?”

Hanna started for the door, figuring Hailey wanted privacy, but Hailey signaled her back, making a winding-up gesture that she’d be off soon. “You are being
such
a bitch today,” she yelled into the phone. “Your shrink needs to up your meds.”

Then she hung up and smiled at Hanna. “Sorry about that!”

Hanna gaped. “Was that really your mom?”

Hailey shrugged. “She
so
isn’t in my corner sometimes.”

Hanna blinked hard. If only she had the balls to talk to her father like that.

Hailey took another drag of the cigarette. “So. Hanna Marin. I’ve watched all your interviews.”

Hanna felt her cheeks grow red. “You
have
?”

Hailey shrugged. “I had to figure out who you are since I’m playing you.” She leaned forward. “You are the most poised of the group. Definitely the coolest. I feel so lucky to play you.”

Hanna lowered her eyes. She certainly hadn’t
felt
cool or poised in the past few months—in the past two
years
, actually. “I’m the one who should feel lucky. It’s a dream that
you’re
playing
me
.”

“You really think so?” Hailey clutched her hand to her chest. “You are so,
so
sweet!”

Hanna was about to say that Hailey probably heard that stuff all the time—she’d won a zillion People’s Choice Awards, after all. But Hailey leapt off the couch and moved closer to Hanna, suddenly pumped with even more enthusiasm. “We should really get to know each other. Maybe you could show me around Rosewood? Or wait, we’re not that far from NYC, are we?” She squeezed Hanna’s hands hard. “I can get us into any club in Manhattan. Tons of bouncers owe me favors.”

“Okay,” Hanna said breathily, trying to imagine the jealous looks on everyone’s faces when she walked into a club with
the
Hailey Blake.

“We should take Jared, too.” Hailey looked excited. “He’s hot, don’t you think? And
so
nice. I could totally fix the two of you up.”

It took Hanna a moment to realize she was talking about Jared Diaz, the boy who played Mike. “Um, I already have a boyfriend,” she said, laughing. “The
real
Mike.”

All at once, someone exhaled behind them. Hailey’s door was open now, and Daniel, the director’s assistant, stood in the dressing room. Hanna nearly yelped. There was something definitely creepy about his almost translucent skin and thin lips, and the way he’d slipped soundlessly into Hailey’s room. Hanna wondered how someone like him could have gotten such a plum job.

“Ladies?” he said, his eyes narrowing at the swirling smoke. “We actually need you downstairs for the cruise scene.”

Hailey’s face soured. “Already? My contract
specifically
states downtime. I’m calling my agent to complain.” She reached for her phone, then rolled her eyes and let it drop. “Oh, whatever. I’ll let you slide this once.”

She stubbed out her cigarette on the floor. Daniel led them down the stairs, and Hailey squeezed Hanna’s hand. “Always remember,
you’re
the talent,” she whispered. “Don’t let them push you around. They’re supposed to cater to you.”

Hanna couldn’t help but giggle.

Hank was waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs. “About
time
,” he said, glowering at Hailey. “Marissa wants to get you in a different outfit. She’s been looking for you for a while.”

“I
told
Daniel I was in my dressing room,” Hailey snapped. “It’s not my fault he doesn’t give you messages.”

Hank ignored this, turning to Hanna. “You’re in the crowd, honey,” he said in a much gentler voice. He pointed across the room to what looked exactly like the deck of the Eco Cruise complete with the brass railings, a tiki bar in the corner, and purple plush booths along the walls. There was even a reggae band absently plucking their instruments.

Hanna said good-bye to Hailey, who still looked pissed off, and sat down at a nearby table with Penelope Riggs, the girl playing Riley. Hanna’s only instructions for this scene were to make it look like she and Riley were having a conversation and to shoot Hailey-as-Hanna daggers every so often. In moments, Hailey reappeared in a beachy sundress that looked precisely like something Hanna would wear. She stood within earshot of Hanna, and Hanna could hear Hailey repeating a bunch of
muh-muh-muh
vocal exercises under her breath.
What a pro
, Hanna thought. Maybe she should do vocal exercises, too.

Hank disappeared behind the wall of cameras. “And, action!” he yelled out, and the cameraman moved in on Hailey. The band started to play. Hanna turned to Penelope and pantomimed a conversation in a low voice, but her attention was really on Hailey across the room. She wanted to see how Hailey played her in this scene.

“You’re not going to believe this, Hanna,” Bridget-as-Aria said as she ran up to Hailey, her eyes wide and her mannerisms perfectly Aria-like. She clutched Hailey’s hands. “Graham, my partner for the scavenger hunt? He was
Tabitha’s boyfriend
.”

“Oh my
God
,” Hailey said exaggeratedly, her mouth dropping open. “You have to get rid of him!”

Hanna tried not to twitch. Why was Hailey using that weird Valley Girl voice?
Her
voice didn’t sound like that, did it?

“I can’t just get rid of him,” Bridget argued. “What if he suspects something is up? Maybe I should just tell him the truth.”

“No
way
,” Hailey said, popping out a hip. “Like, Aria, that is the
last
thing you should do.”

Then she made vigorous chomping movements, like she was really chewing hard on a huge wad of gum. Hanna felt queasy. She didn’t even
chew
gum.

“Cut!” Hank cried a few moments later, reappearing on the set. Hanna figured he was going to give Hailey some advice on playing Hanna—she kind of needed it. But instead, Hank walked over to the band, speaking in a low voice to the lead singer.

Hailey turned and glided to Hanna’s table, her eyes shining. “So?” she chirped. “Don’t I make an ah-mazing you?”

She looked so pleased with herself. And though Hanna was kind of offended at, well,
everything
Hailey had just done, she couldn’t imagine saying so.

So Hanna smiled brightly. “You were great,” she said in a small voice.

“Okay, everyone, places!” Hank interrupted, running back to his post. “We’re going again!”

The cameras rolled once more. The band launched into the opening bars of “Three Little Birds,” and the partygoers milled around happily. Hanna pretended to talk to Penelope, all the while keeping her eye on Hailey as she did the scene
exactly the same way
, gum-snapping and all. A horrible feeling welled in the pit of Hanna’s stomach. If Hailey kept this up, Hanna would be the laughingstock of Rosewood—and FIT—once this movie came out. People would do hip-popping, gum-chewing, Valley Girl Hanna impressions. What if they actually thought she was
like
that?

She turned her head to idly look around the rest of the set, hoping for some distraction. Suddenly, a flash of blond hair shot through the back of the room. Hanna did a double take. There was another streak of blond. Hanna’s heart started to pound. There was something about the person’s movements that filled her with jitters.

She half-rose to her feet. The girl playing Riley gave her a strange look. “What are you doing?”

“Cut!” Hank yelled again. Everyone broke character. Hanna thought he was going to reprimand her, but he went over to Bridget. Seizing the opportunity, Hanna shot off the chair and pushed through the crowd. She had to see who that blonde was.

She had to weave around a lot of kids, fake palm trees, bistro tables, a large statue of a scuba diver, and several huge potted plants to get to the back. Then she peered around into the sea of extras. None of them was Ali. Spots formed in front of Hanna’s eyes. Had she imagined it?

But one of the exit doors was easing shut. Hanna rushed for it, nearly tripping over a light cable. She almost had her hand on the knob when someone grabbed her arm. She whirled around, her heart thudding hard.

It was Jared, the guy playing Mike. “Hanna, right?” His eyes shifted back and forth. “Everything okay?”

Hanna looked at the door. “I—I need to go outside for a sec.”

Jared shook his head. “Not through that door. An alarm will sound. Hank will freak.”

Hanna glanced at the door again.
EMERGENCY EXIT
, read big, bright letters above it. “But someone just went through here, though, and nothing happened,” she protested weakly. Her head was suddenly swimming.

Jared patted Hanna’s arm and guided her away from the door. “Take a deep breath, okay? I’ve worked on a lot of films, and first days can definitely be hairy. I’ve seen people with way more experience panic much worse than you.”

“But I’m not . . .” Hanna trailed off. She
wasn’t
panicking. She’d been perfectly calm and centered before Ali appeared in the crowd.

Only,
had
it been Ali? How could someone go through an emergency exit without setting off the alarm?

You imagined it
, she told herself as fake-Mike escorted her back to the scene. But she peeked behind her one more time to be sure Ali wasn’t there.

She wasn’t, of course. But Hanna still had the eerie sense she was close. Watching.

6

AND NOW, INTRODUCING ROSEWOOD’S LATEST PRODIGY . . .

Aria sat in her father’s airy den, listlessly pulling apart a stick of Monterey Jack string cheese. Byron flitted around the room, doing his annual reorganizing of the bookshelves, a ritual in which he pulled all his tomes off the wall and arranged them in a new way that was understandable only to him. His new baby, Lola, cooed happily from a jungle-themed jumping apparatus in the corner, a tinny version of “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” tinkling through the tiny speakers.

Byron’s wife, Meredith, flipped through channels. Finally, she settled on a celebrity exposé on Bravo, which was utterly
un
Meredith—Aria had always thought she’d be the type of person who hated reality TV. She turned to Aria and smiled brightly. “I heard your friend Hanna is going to be in a movie!”

“Uh-huh,” Aria mumbled, hoping that Meredith wouldn’t ask the obvious follow-up question—why
she
wasn’t in the movie, too. Aria was happy that Hanna felt comfortable enough to act in the film—
one
of them should get to capitalize off this nightmare. But Aria was a behind-the-scenes kind of girl—when she and her friends were younger, she used to direct artsy movies, usually making Courtney-as-Ali the star. And anyway, she’d had enough time in front of a camera with all those torturous Ali interviews.

When the show broke for commercials, Meredith flipped the channel again, this time landing on a local newscast. Aria tuned out—now that their Ali struggle was old news, the reporters were back to talking about picayune stuff like squabbles at town hall or whether to put a new GAP on this corner or that corner. But then Meredith exclaimed brightly, “Oh! How nice!”

“Huh?” Aria turned around. On the screen was a banner that read
ROSEWOOD RALLIES FOR YOUTHS
. Then came a shot of the outside of the Rosewood Country Club; Aria used to spend a lot of time there because Spencer’s dad was a member.

A woman with light blond hair held back in a black headband popped up on the screen. The name
Sharon Winters
appeared under her face. “We’ve had a lot of tragedy happen in this town, but it’s time to turn it into something positive,” she said. “Next Friday, we’re throwing a fund-raiser for all the disadvantaged and troubled youth in Rosewood and its surrounding areas. My hope is that everyone comes out and supports the cause.”

Meredith looked at Aria excitedly. “Didn’t you get an invite for this?”

“Maybe,” Aria mumbled, staring at the string cheese in her hands.

Byron stopped to look at the screen. “Hmm. Perhaps we should all go.”

“Are you kidding?” Aria cried. Her dad usually hated big parties.

Byron shrugged. “They should throw you a party after all you’ve been through. And you can take Noel.”

He smiled at her dopily. Aria looked at the floor. “Noel’s busy that night,” she muttered, thinking about their conversation outside the gallery the other day.

Her phone buzzed, and Hanna’s name appeared on the screen. Aria squinted at the text.
I just saw Ali.

Aria’s blood ran cold. She shot up and walked out of the room, dialing Hanna’s number.