She had promised it would be a onetime thing, a single time
and she would never do it again. She laughed at how pathetic she was. Her school
had told everyone the stories, how one scar would eventually turn into two then
to five and eventually the scars would cover her and all because she felt weak
enough. Truth be told her promises were kept until she came back to rosewood,
to A and all the unfinished business she had. The one cut turned to more.
When she fell hard for Ezra Fitz she stopped hurting herself, at least
for a little while but then her parents split up and all her guilt came back
full force, just like the scars.
Mike had noticed his sister
was down, he acted like he didn't care and for a while he honestly didn't, she
lied to keep their dads dirty little secret and he couldn't completely forgive
her for that. Yet over the past weeks he'd noticed she was more subdued and
looked like she'd been crying so he had taken to spying on her. At first he'd found nothing, then one night he'd caught her. He didn't do anything, too shocked to react.
The second time it happened he marched into the room and grabbed the scissors out of her hand. She looked up in shock.
"Mike… it, it's not what it looks like" she said, with a picture perfect face of guiltiness. He said nothing, choosing to just hug her.
The third time was when he hit his limit, he'd screamed at her and told her to stop otherwise he'd make her. She screamed that he didn't understand, he had his pills to make him feel better, she would never have that. When she said that he'd stormed out of the house but regretted it when he came back. Police cars surrounded his house, he'd ran forward to find his sister being carried out on the stretcher. Turns out she was much close to the edge than he thought.
When he was questioned he said nothing, his sister would tell them when she was ready and he wouldn't force them upon her. Instead Mike chose to sit in a cold metal hospital and cry.
When she'd woken up she cried into his chest and told him everything. How she'd broken up with Ezra, how she felt so guilty for keeping their dads secret and everything she knew about 'A'. There was nothing he could say so he said nothing.
Over the next few weeks Mike had helped keep everyone apart from medical professionals away from his big sister, she didn't want to see anyone and so long as Mike was around she wouldn't.
It was two weeks later when Mike put forward the idea of admitting her to Radley, after a few choice words she agreed. So that night with the help of the girls and Wren they snook Aria out of the hospital and into Radley. After explaining it to his parents to the next day he thought he would be ok but they barred him from seeing her.
When Aria found out she refused to eat or take her meds, he was the one that had at least seen through her cracks. He shouldn't be punished for her faults. Eventually they let him see her and it worked miracles when they did. Aria had improved by the boat loads when she could talk to her little brother. They shared an understanding of utter hopelessness and terror. He once asked her how she could've hidden it, she told him she didn't, not really. Everyone was just too scared to see the truth.
When they let her out it was Mike who helped her heal, it was mike who asked Ezra to keep an eye on her and it was Mike who beat the living daylights out of the one person to call her a nutter. Aria gradually got better but she knew without Mike she would've undoubtedly been a lot worse. A year after her stint in Radley Mike sat across from her.
"Do you ever regret me finding out?" he asked shyly. She shook her head vigorously
"No, you helped me by taking me to Radley Mike and you helped me after, you saved me."