Update: Hello! I was reading back over this and I realized that I was really not happy with the first couple of chapters, so I'm currently working on rewriting the first 4 chapters while I still work on an eighth one! I'm definitely not going to be uploading the new one until I've updated all the chapters I want to rewrite. I'm happier with where it's at now, so I hope you all like it more! There's not as much dialogue in this anymore because I focused on having a lot more narration to actually explain what's happening. I'm going to be updating the next three chapters after this, but until then, there is this!
So I've decided to write for this because I love this couple and it doesn't have very many people writing for it. I read the books, don't really watch the show, so this couple is one of my favorites. I'm not really sure how this couple is portrayed on the show, or if they will ever really happen. All I know is that I love them together and really wanted to write for them. By the way, this is kind of my own story so like plot details and stuff mentioned in the book might not be in here. Here goes!
By the time it came to the end of senior year, A hadn't really been a factor in the girls' lives for over 6 months. Half a year without A had been blissful, the capture of their previous tormentor giving the girls time to strengthen friendships, relationships, and grades in a way that they never had before. Ever since the very first text message arrived, this had officially been the longest period since they'd been without their constant stalker, and this had left the girls waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop. Seemingly due to the fact that there had been multiple people who had been A, all four of them felt that there was no way no one else had come forward and decided to take over the role of their personal stalker. It wasn't as if the girls wanted their lives to change. They were finally happy, and finally thriving, Aria having solved all of her relationship issues and being able to find the perfect boyfriend in Noel, Spencer having entered a new relationship and becoming committed to Princeton for the fall, Emily having dealt with all of her baby drama, fixing her issues with her parents, and finding a girlfriend, and Hanna having gotten rid of Kate and still successfully dating Mike. So the question remains: if they were good and they were happy, why the hell were they waiting on change? Of course, it always comes down to the same answer that it's always been, doesn't it? A.
Having a constant stalker left them with the actions of constantly looking over their shoulders, double checking empty rooms before they entered them, watching where, when, and to whom they were saying things. In fact, the girls had just stopped jumping any time that their phone vibrated when they weren't expecting a text. A had always been there, it felt like, and based on the fact that an object in motion tends to stay in motion, the girls were still struggling to deal with the period of rest that their motion had finally come to. A had never let them retain their happiness for a very long time, so while the girls were steeling themselves for another stalker, they were also going to make the most of the time and the last summer they had before they all they split up, starting with getting something to eat after their official last day of high school.
"What I just don't understand," Hanna spoke, waving a hand around for emphasis, "is why we couldn't have all tried a little harder to go to schools in the same state, if not the same exact schools. Come on girls, we just got all close sophomore year, isn't it a little unfair that we already have to split up?"
"Well," Spencer began in her matter-of-fact tone as she sipped her soda, "it's basically been decided from junior year that I was going to Princeton. You were more than welcome to try and find a school in New Jersey if you really wanted."
"Guys. It's not like we're going to be too far. At least we're all still on the East Coast!" Aria tried her hardest to remain optimistic, but while Spencer and her boyfriend were both going to Princeton together while Emily and her girlfriend were also going to be going to college together, Noel was going to be over 300 miles away from her, a far cry from the 5.34 miles away from her that he lived now.
"Plus we all know we'll be coming home for vacations and everything, so we'll be okay. And we all have to go visit Hanna anyways so we'll be together then," Emily, ever the voice of reason, spoke up. She was definitely as sad as the rest of her friends were at the fact of leaving, but she knew their friendship was strong enough that it wouldn't matter.
"You're missing the point. It's never going to be the same in Rosewood again," Hanna pouted.
"That would be a great thing, seeing as how Rosewood hasn't been the best for us in the past. Besides, you're missing the point. We all know you're just upset that you're going to college and Mike still has another year left before he can join you," Spencer fake pouted, the other two laughing at the glare that Hanna sent Spencer. After a second, however, Hanna sighed and gave in, knowing that it was true that she would miss her boyfriend a lot while she was away.
"It just makes me kind of sad that he won't be with me," she said as she slowly dragged a french fry through the pile of ketchup on her plate.
"Yeah but," Aria picked at her salad as she spoke in order to avoid eye contact with her friends lest they figure out how worried she actually was about this, "at least he'll be in Rosewood. You know all of the girls in Rosewood, so it's not like anything could happen. At least he's not far away in a school full of new girls that are probably as smart, and athletically inclined, and as rich as he is, making them a better fit for him than you could ever be, but he's too nice of a guy to break up with you so you guys slowly drift apart until you're both home one weekend and it's not the same so you make the mutual decision to break up but it's clear that he's got options and he moves on while you're left all alone staring at the pictures of when the two of you were happy!"
She looked up to find three pairs of eyes staring back at her. "Oh my god," Hanna spoke, "you're not actually believing that everything you just said will happen, are you?"
"Dude, you're crazy." Spencer looked Aria in the eyes so she would truly absorb her point. "Noel is so far gone over you that I'm pretty sure he doesn't even notice there are other girls around. Remember that day we all went out to lunch and that waitress kept flirting with Noel, but he was so busy talking to you that he didn't even pick up on all of her super obvious hints?"
"He's crazy in love with you," Emily reassured, "and besides, if he wanted a smart, rich, athletic girl, he would be dating Spencer. He wants you and that's not going to change no matter where you guys are."
Aria had slight tears in her eyes after listening to her friends reassure her, and while she believed them, it was so difficult for her to truly get over it, "how come he's never said it though? It's always like he's about to say 'I love you' and then he just hesitates and stops and never says it. If he was really so in love with me, wouldn't it be easier for him to say something?"
"He's a guy, babe, he's going to be hesitant about sharing his feelings no matter how confident he is of them. Besides, we're telling you, and we know more about Noel's emotions than Noel knows about Noel's emotions, trust us." Hanna spoke with an air of confidence that made it difficult for Aria to doubt her, so she just nodded her head and went back to eating her salad.
There was a brief moment of silence as everyone ate, but it was quickly broken by the sound of Aria's phone vibrating. They all turned towards her as she grabbed it, a slight blush and a smile appearing on her face as read the message.
"Ooh," Hanna teased, "you know what means girls? That means it's a text from Noel. What's the boy saying that's got you blushing?"
"That," Aria answered as she pulled her phone away from Spencer's reaching hands, "is none of your business." The other girls pouted at Aria, wanting to know what he had said that got her to react that way. Aria rolled her eyes and sighed. "Fine, if you must know, he told me that he wasn't sure how he was going to get through college because it has only been about 3 hours and he already hella misses me and that he's super excited for us to all hang out tonight. And then he uh," Aria turned pink again, clearing her throat slightly before continuing, "he asked if I could come over early so we could umm chill. Just the two of us."
Emily gave her a look as if to say 'see, I can't believe you were worried' while Spencer teasingly demanded an explanation from her friend. "Why does chill have you blushing like that, huh? What exactly do the two of you plan on doing with each other?" The girls laughed at Spencer's teasing while Aria continued to get even pinker in the face before she told them all to shut up.
"Leave her alone," Hanna stated after a few seconds, "I think it's really cute that you guys are that into each other. Especially considering just how long it took the two of you to get together. In fact, I think the first time Noel ever said he had a crush on you was in 6th grade, and then it took you guys another 5 1/2 years to finally get your shit worked out."
Aria gaped at her, "dude shut up. He did not like me in middle school, no one liked me in middle school, I didn't even like me in middle school!"
"Nope, I remember it loud and clear. He told Ali that he thought you were cute, and that's when she started telling you that he was into her and would never be into someone like you." They all grimaced a little at the memory of how shitty the girl that they thought was their friend was. "I'm sorry, I probably shouldn't have said that..."
"No, it's okay," Aria smiled at her friend, "I knew she had a thing for him so it was kind of stupid of me to tell her in the first place. Besides, we're together now, which is all that matters."
It truly had been a long time coming for Aria and Noel, especially if he had liked her in sixth grade the way that Hanna said he did. There was the whole mess with the eighth grade dance, where he had asked her and then Ali said she was sick and took Noel with her instead. Then there was the freshman orientation debacle where Noel, Aria, and Ali had ended up in the same group and then every single time Noel tried to speak to him, Ali would intervene (turns out Ali had later told Noel that Aria wasn't responding because she hated him). Then Aria moved to Iceland (for the last time Noel it was not Finland) and then there was the whole Ezra thing when she came back, and honestly, their relationship had been a bit of a hot mess, but then in December, he had asked her to the Senior Formal (they finally finally made it to a school dance together) and then the rest of the year was just amazing, between all of the senior events and Prom and getting rid of A, it seemed that Aria's life was finally coming together.
Spencer watched Hanna, Aria, and Emily continue to joke around and smiled to herself. She might pretend to be all tough love, but she really was going to miss them. It had been a long time since Spencer was truly satisfied with where she was in life, but this moment was truly it. She had started dating Zach recently, and he was perfect, in every since. She had seen him around school but hadn't really gotten to know him until they were both at the same Princeton orientation back in March. To make the story short, she saw him at orientation, realized he was from Rosewood, began talking to him about how exciting it was to be getting out of that town, and promptly realized he was basically her perfect guy. Her dating life was working, her friends were all living good lives, she had met her academic goals (hello, Princeton), and while her home situation wasn't the best, she was finally getting along with her mom, dad, and Melissa, so yeah, she was definitely going to miss her friends and her family, but she was excited that she would be able to start this new moment in time with her boyfriend.
She was jolted out of her thoughts by Hanna's elbow accidentally hitting hers, and she quickly listened back into the conversation that her friends were having.
"I appreciate all of the teachers that like tried to make it all sentimental and everything but dude Mr. Fitz was so weird," Hanna exclaimed.
"I know, god, that was so awkward, I felt so uncomfortable listening to him," Aria added.
"Yeah, I hope you were uncomfortable," Emily agreed, "considering so much of his speech was about you, and how much he was going to miss you. I definitely didn't realize how into you he still was, he mentioned you guys subtly like 10 times."
Spencer was about to interrupt and tell Emily that "actually, Mr. Fitz made 13 subtle references to his relationship with Aria in his goodbye speech to us" when suddenly, all four phones vibrated at once. That was never a good sign. They looked at each other and checked the messages at once, reading it out loud together.
"Hey bitches. I'm back from hiatus. Who's ready to see how badly they screwed up? -A"