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Spencer's PoV

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I look at my reflection in the mirror, knowing I look awful, my face pale and lifeless, my hair limp. I had wanted to look good for the sleepover today, but after a sleepless night, I looked like crap. Not only was I tired, but I think I'm coming down with something.

I try a smile looking in the mirror, it looks all wrong, twisting my face up in strange ways, making my mouth look too big and my eyes look too small. There's only half an hour before the sleepover is supposed to begin at Aria's house, and the whole group will be there; Aria, Emily, Hanna and I. Usually I would pass up on a sleepover in my current state, but it's the last one of the summer, and it's at Aria's house, which means that there is a 100% guarantee that she'll be there, and there is no way that I would pass up on an oportunity to spend time with her.

I snap myself out of my daze, dabbing on the last of my make-up before grabbing my overnight bag and hurrying out the door, I'm running a little early, but maybe this will be an opportunity to hang out with Aria alone, if only for a few minutes.

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I knock lightly on Aria's door, shifting my weight between my legs nervously and looking down at my hands as I wait for it to be opened. After waiting about a minute I lift my hand to knock again, but the door is pulled open the second before my knuckles should have made contact with it, leaving me standing there like an idiot with my arm raised in a fist and an awkward smile on my face in front of my crush - Aria.

She's standing there, panting - from running down the stairs I assume, she was never one to excel in PE - in grey sweatpants and a pink tank top, her soft, brown hair still damp. She's so beautiful, with her gorgeous, emerald greeny brown eyes, framed with long lashes, her perfectly shaped, plump, pink lips. I could look at her forever.

But that would be wierd, wouldn't it? In fact, I should probably talk now. Who knows how long I've been staring?

"Hey" I get out, grinning like a maniac.

"Hi" she says "You're early"

Whoops, but only 10 minutes, I'm suprised I had enough self restraint in me to not arrive hours earlier in the day, but that is not what I will be saying out loud.

"I thought if I came by earlier I could help set things up" I offered instead. That was good, considerably less creepy.

"That would be great, Spence" she replied "I actually just got out of the shower, maybe you could bring all the pillows and blankets upstairs whilst I dry my hair off?"

"Sure" I responded, trying to keep my replies sounding sane whilst my eyes were following a drip of water tracing it's way down her body, currently on the precipice of her defined collarbone. I bit my lip, trying to drag my gaze away, and failing miserably. Luckily for me, suddenly Aria wasn't in front of me any more.

"Come on in then" she said, and I realised that she had moved to one side and was now standing there, holding the door open for me.

At this point, it dawned on me that if I don't get my act together soon, my feelings for her wouldn't stay secret for long, so I took a deep breath and composed myself, vowing to be completely indifferent towards Aria for the rest of the night. So I smiled my thanks and walked in, heading straight to the downstairs cupboard and grabbing a huge stack of blankets, so big in fact, that I had to crane my neck in an attempt to look over them. I could see a little, but my vision was almost totally obscured, luckily for me, however, Aria and I had been best friends since childhood, so I liked to think that I knew my way around the Montgomery's house fairly well.

I reached the foot of the stairs and took a deep breath, knowing that this was going to be hard work. After wallowing in self pity for a second or two at the task ahead, I began my ascent.

5 minutes later, I was at the top of the stairs, unbalanced and out of breath, but I was nearly there now, so I didn't bother resting, instead just going straight into Aria's room to put the blankets on the bed. Unfortunately, with the bottom half of my sight practically non-existent, I didn't see the 5'2" brunette sitting cross-legged on the floor in the doorway, drying her hair, until it was too late. By 'too late' I mean that not only had I tripped, but I was currently face-down on the floor in Aria's room, the whole top half of my body completely covered in blankets.

Seconds later, a melodic giggle comes from behind me that I know instantly belonged to Aria, not just because she's the only other person who I know for sure to be in the house, but because I could recognise that laugh anywhere.

"You're such a goof, Spence" she says as I roll onto my back, pushing some of the blankets off of my face. She is kneeling over me, with one leg on either side of my hips and her left hand planted into the carpet beside me, supporting her weight, whilst the other is pulling the many, many, tangled blankets off me. She's not looking at me directly, her attention clearly focused on the task at hand, but I can see the smile gracing her features even from this awkward angle. Her (now dry) silky, coffee coloured hair keeps tickling my face, and I can't help but stare at the way the light catches the loose, wispy strands, turning them gold and making her look even more angelic, if that's possible.

She finishes moving the blankets off me as her gaze returns to mine and I'm suddenly all too aware of the position that we're in. The smile fades from her face as it clicks in her own head too, and her eyes widen fractionally before she replaces her smile with a much more serene expression, lowering her eyebrows and biting her lip, her breathing deepens and the warmth suddenly hits my face. I was not prepared for how much that would affect me at such close proximity, but I find my own breath catching in my throat as my eyes flicker down to her soft, rosy lips.

I look back up into her beautiful eyes, only now noticing the kaleidoscope of shades of brown and green that make up her gorgeous irises.

Before I know what I'm doing, I'm leaning towards Aria, propping myself up on one elbow as I near her. Just as it seems that our lips will collide, just when I thought I'd finally taste her soft, sweet lips, there was a hammering at the door downstairs and Hanna's unmistakeable voice shouting:

"Open up, bitches! The party has arrived"

Aria jumped out of her skin, looking conflicted for a moment before flashing me a weak, apologetic smile and running away to answer the door.

I, on the other hand, was far too stunned too move, and just lay there, completely dazed. I had to have imagined that, there's no way that really just happened, why would Aria, an impeccably flawless, stunning in both personality and looks, creative, sweet, compassionate girl, possibly want to kiss me, Spencer, just plain old Spencer, even for a second?

I had to physically shake my head to snap myself out of it, rushing to get up from my more-than-a-little-compromising position on the floor before Hanna and Emily got upstairs.

Speaking of, as I settle down onto the bed next to the pile of (now neatly stacked) blankets, I hear them thundering up the stairs, sounding more like a herd of elephants than three teenage girls. This makes me smile, temporarily putting the incident with Aria out of my mind.

At this point the three of them burst through the door, hitting it so hard that it swings completely open and hits the wall; making a huge 'bang'. I snorted with laughter at the sight of them practically falling over each other trying to get through the narrow doorway, clearly after trying to race each other up the stairs.

"What're you laughing at?" Hanna asked me, deadly serious.

"Do you want to run back up and down the stairs again? I think a handful of people 20 blocks away might have slept through it" I replied

'Ha ha, how very, very funny of you Spence, you're so clever, and that was so, so funny," she responded, sounding - on the contrary - not very amused at all.

I opened my mouth to retort with an equally witty response but was stopped in my tracks when Aria put her hand over my mouth.

"Both of you, shut up, before someone loses an IQ point" Aria - ever the peacemaker - said, smiling.

I went to laugh, but refrained, realising that Aria's hand was still on my mouth, and wanting to keep it there for as long as possible. Aria must have noticed my sudden stillness and quickly pulled her hand away, letting her hair fall out from where it had been tucked so neatly behind her ear and obstructing my view of her face.

"So what should we do?" Hanna spoke up suddenly, "I brought 'The Notebook' with me so we could watch tha-"

"No way!" I cut her off "I have decided that it's in my best interest to just not watch that ever again... but then I realised that there was no way that that was happening so I promised myself at least a month."

Hanna and Emily look kind of upset but when Aria turns to face me she looks more relieved than anything.

"Good idea Spence! I've got some great black and white movies that I know you would all love!"

At this, Emily and Hanna groan in unison, they look at each other, smile, and then both say 'Jinx!' at the same time, and so started the cycle of 'Double Jinx!', and then 'Triple Jinx!'.

Honestly, they were like two five year-olds at times, but I loved them for it. I turned to Aria, rolling my eyes as she smiled and shook her head exasperatedly. I love that. That we can have a silent conversation with just looks and gestures. That we know each other that well.

I'm pretty sure that Hanna and Emily couldn't think beyond 'quadruple' and are now just having a silent staring contest whilst scowling at one another. At this point, I decide to take charge before either of them get too stubborn about winning.

"Okay, Emily go get snacks, I'll make coffee, Aria can pick out the film and Hanna, you make sure she doesn't get carried away and choose one that is just one colour."

"Spencer, there is no way in this world that I'm going to let you make the coffee, I do actually want to sleep at this sleepover," Hanna replied, looking at me like I was crazy.

"Hey!" I whined, putting my hand on my chest and wearing a look of mock hurt, Hanna just continued speaking like I hadn't interrupted her in the first place.

"I'll make the coffee and you can help Aria choose the film," she finished.

"Fine," I conceded, smiling good-naturedly on the outside but having a silent freak-out session on the inside. Will she bring up what happened earlier? The almost-kiss? Was it even an almost-kiss? It probably wasn't. None of it happened, there's no way it could've. I must've imagined the whole thing.

I'm drawn out of my negative spiral by a hand on my upper arm. It was Aria's hand, no question about it, her touch was the only one that made my skin tingle like that. I took a deep breath and spun on my heel, preparing to face the problem head on and immediately begin apologising to her:

"Aria, I am so sorry about what happened earlier, I was just caught in the moment and I-" I begin but I'm cut of by Aria.

"Don't worry about it Spence, it was my fault just as much as it was yours, if not more and it won't happen again; I'm sorry" she smiles at me and I can tell from her use of my nickname that I'm completely forgiven, so I smile as wide as humanly possible to return the favour.

She rolls her eyes at my childish behaviour and pulls me into her for a hug. Surprised, I stand there for a second or two before wrapping my arms around her. Aria has her head buried into the crook of my neck and is squeezing me with a force that's practically bone-crushing; it never ceases to amaze me how much strength and feistiness is packed into one, tiny human. My nose is buried in her freshly washed hair which smells of coconut when I hear footsteps, but hell if I care when I'm hugging Aria so I don't bother moving a muscle - that is until I hear violent gagging sounds coming from the doorway.

I look up to see Hanna standing there dramatically pretending to be violently sick (and impressively so with the tray of coffee in her hands).

I raise my eyebrow at her and say "Seriously Hanna?" But she just laughs far too hard at something that was never really funny in the first place. At this point, Aria withdraws her arms from around me; scowling pointedly at Hanna while Emily shows up at the door, bags of crisps in hand saying:

"What did I miss?", to which Hanna replies with utmost seriousness:

"Oh nothing, just Sparia having sex on the bedroom floor"

Everybody bursts out laughing whilst Emily just stands there looking confused, although none of the comedic edge to the conversation prevents the slew of less-than-PG images that run through my head at Hanna's words.

I quickly shake myself out of it, pick up my overnight bag and announce that "I'm getting changed" before leaving to find an empty bathroom to change into my pale blue, long sleeved tee and my black pyjama shorts.

I come back into the bedroom to find Aria putting a film into the DVD player wearing a black tank top and tartan pyjama shorts that fit her far too well to be legal, so I hastily turn around to see that Hanna and Emily have taken the time to settle down, with Hanna stretching herself all the way across the end of the bed long ways (taking up far more than her designated quarter) and Emily propped up against the headboard on the left side of the bed with her lower legs under the blanket with a huge bag of tortilla crisps on her lap.

I make my way over to Aria's bed, making sure to pick up my coffee (no matter how weak and gross Hanna may have made it) on the way before settling down in the only available space on the bed, on the right at the back.

Aria turns around from the television to see that there's no room whatsoever left on the bed for her and narrows her eyes at all of us, saying "Hey! No fair!" Which just succeeds in setting Hanna off laughing again. Then she clearly gets an idea because her face immediately brightens up and she makes her way over to me, smiling sweetly. "Spencie" she asks, drawing out the syllables and batting her eyelashes, "You'll make room for me, won't you?" she continues.

"But there's no room!" I whine.

Aria, clearly not happy with that answer, sits on my legs. She just sits there and refuses to move unless I accommodate her. "Fine" I sigh, "but only because you weigh a ton" she gasps and glares in mock horror at me, slapping my arm. I laugh, amending my earlier statement, "I'm kidding Ar, you're a pixie, you literally weigh nothing" and then I make room for her to sit between my legs.

At this she smiles, saying "Finally" and rolling her eyes at me, but proceeding to turn around and rest her head on my chest, grabbing my arms and wrapping them around herself, reaching for the blanket and pulling over the two of us before snuggling down into me.

Is it sad that I feel so extremely lucky to be allowed to stay like this, with Aria, for the next two hours guilt free? Because we were just cuddling, platonically, which is perfectly allowed between two friends. What isn't allowed is how incredibly happy it makes me feel.

I open my mouth to speak but barely get a syllable out because Hanna turns around glaring at me and says "Stop flirting! The movie's starting", I begin to protest but she just swings her head back around to face me and stage whispers "Shut it!", leaving me bright red and extremely grateful that Aria can't see my face right about now.

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About an hour and a half into this movie and nearly all of us have figured out that it's really not the most interesting romantic comedy out there, I had offered to put something else on about forty-five minutes ago, but Emily turned down my offer before anyone else got a word in edgeways, insisting that she was just had to know what happened to the star-crossed lovers. So the rest of us were stuck watching it, or, in Aria's case, not. She had gone completely slack against my front and her breathing had evened out, she was even making these soft little snoring sounds which were completely adorable. In other words, she was fast out.

This wasn't bad at all for me in the end though as I just sat and snuggled into Aria, enjoying her warmth and her comforting presence. That was until she moved in her sleep.

Because at that moment, Aria turned to rest on her right side - still on me - and when she lets her left hand drop it lands on the skin of my upper thigh. I swallow dryly and wish fervently that I could go back in time and pack pyjama trousers, anything that would make Aria's touch any less electrifying.

I sit there in a stunned silence trying to remain calm and desperately trying to recall how to breath like a normal person. When I finally get my thoughts together, I decide that the best solution is just to move her hand away from my leg.

Unfortunately, it's never that easy, when I move my arm and prepare to move hers, Aria detects the shift of movement by her 'mattress' (aka me) and decides the best way to remedy that is to snuggle further into 'it', but Aria basically only succeeds with sticking her hand up my shorts with this movement.

This is pure torture for me and I whimper aloud completely by accident, for which I receive very strange looks from Hanna and Emily but I manage to play it off as being excited for the stupid characters on the screen.

Now having my hand free to move, I gingerly pick up Aria's hand and rest it on her stomach to make it significantly less awkward if she woke up. I then prop her up and quickly shuffle out from beneath her sleeping form, gently resting her head on the recently vacated pillow.

I smile, for a second believing that I'd achieved the impossible; not waking up the lightest sleeper known to man.

I was stupid.

Aria suddenly shifts in the bed, her eyes fluttering open.

"Spence? Why have you gotten up? Where are you going?" she asks, practically frantic. Frankly, I reckon she's more upset about about losing her nice, warm 'pillow' than me.

"Nowhere" I laugh back at her "I'm just gonna grab another coffee from the kitchen, mine's gone cold." My voice is unsteady but I'm pretty sure I've assured the girls, as Emily resumes her terrible movie, Hanna dramatically flops backwards on the bed with a small "Oof!" as the breath leaves her body and Aria's face seems to relax a little.

With one last smile in her direction I turn and hurry downstairs to the Montgomery kitchen. I consider actually getting myself a coffee but then think better of it (no matter how great a drink it may be) and instead grab a glass of water and sit on one of the stools at the centre island, resting my head in my hands and rubbing my temples in a pathetic attempt to rid my brain of the last few hours. I'm so distracted that I don't hear the quiet footsteps on the staircase and then on the kitchen floor until it's too late.

"Spencer? What's wrong?" Aria's concerned voice penetrates the silence downstairs and my head snaps up. I immediately plaster a fake smile onto my face.

"Hey Aria!"

"Don't 'Hey Aria' me! We've been best friends since we were fourteen, I know when you're upset. Don't even try and feed me some stupid excuse; because you don't just have a migraine, you're not just tired. You know it and I know it, so how about we just quit playing these stupid games?"

This completely stuns me into silence and I can't help but just stare blankly at her as I try and think of anything I could say to placate her at this point. Aria continues to stare at me accusingly, and this paired with the knowledge that she's uncomfortably close to finding out about my stupid crush on her just becomes too much for me to handle and I begin to cry.

Immediately Aria softens and runs around the counter to take me into her arms. She holds me against her and I cry into her shoulder, really it's ironic; she's the only person who can make me feel better and yet the guilt of how I feel about her tears me up inside. Aria's a lovely, compassionate person who I know would accept my sexuality if I told her, in fact, she'd probably even pretend to not be bothered by my feelings for her. But she would be, because she doesn't like me like that, and she would never treat me the same again, never treat me like this again. For probably the thirtieth time this week I wish away my crush on Aria, my feelings for her. For probably then thirtieth time this week it doesn't work.

"Look Spence, I get that you're upset, I don't know why and I don't need to know why if you don't want me to, but what I do need to know is that you know you can always talk to me. I'll always be there for you Spencer, I love you"

I look up and see Aria's face centimetres from my own, her eyes glossy with tears and brimming with raw emotion and I just can't help myself, I close the almost nonexistent distance between us and I kiss her.

And I know in that moment that I might have just ruined my friendship with her; everything we'd built up over the years, but I also knew in that second that I didn't care, not even a little bit because this was where I was supposed to be.

Aria's hand snaked up to caress the side of my face, and she let it drop as we pulled apart looking one another in the eye and my heart was beating so fast that it was practically vibrating.

An eternity could've passed and I don't think I would've known any different, but eventually Aria gets up from the stool, wiping away the last stray tears.

"Come on", she smiles at me "let's go back and join the others" I grin as she reaches out for me to help me up, and when I let her do just that she doesn't let go, instead she interlaces our fingers and I decide that I never want to let go.