As the thin red hand on the vintage clock passed over the twelve, ending Aria's shift, she shimmied out of the red apron and shook her hair out of her tight ponytail. Aria unbuttoned the white shirt she had to wear everyday with the diner's name monogrammed on the breast and changed into her regular clothing. She waved a quick goodbye to the fry cook as she grabbed her bag from the back room and slid out the exit of the rusty old diner.
As much as Aria hated to make the travel all the way to the apartment building she was trekking to, it was Sunday night. She had no choice but to face her biggest mistake over and over as she took back what was rightfully her's; her son. At age twenty, Aria had said yes to marrying her college love and they eloped, having just a very small wedding with just friends. In was a good idea in theory, but looking back, she just wished she said no. Scott had barely helped out at all after Liam was born. Only coming back to the apartment complaining about his day at work before chugging a beer and going to sleep. And soon enough, Aria was too tired of changing all the diapers and feeling like she was a single parent having to take care of her newborn all by herself. How in hell did he even get rights to see him when the only part of his life he took part of was when he climaxed then rolled over to sleep.
Aria only had two major regrets in life. Marrying Scott far too young was one of them. She thought about it every time she made the walk from the diner to his apartment in Manhattan. They were far too young to get married even after two years of being together. They were blindly in love when they decided to have a child, but once Liam was born and Scott's job took off, their entire relation began to crumble and Aria realized the kind of person that he really was.
Aria rapped on the wooden door of Scott's apartment. It took a few moments before she heard footsteps behind it and looked down, not wanting to look into Scott's eyes again. She only had to see him two times in a week, it didn't mean that she had to be courteous to him or like it. In reality she badly wanted to splash a glass of cold water in his face, though it would only tame a little bit of the fiery grudge she held on him all this time.
"Aria," He greeted coolly as the door swung open and leaned against the door frame. He watched Aria stand in the doorway silently as she tried to locate Liam in the apartment living room without sparing him a glance, which was hard with him standing smack in the middle of the doorway. She stayed quiet and kept her arms crossed along her chest as she felt her ex-husband's eyes burning a hole in the top of her head. Before she knew it though, a little boy with their shared brown hair and Scott's brown eyes ran through the living room and clung to Aria's legs, making the stone cold expression she kept in front of Scott fade to one of pure joy once her little boy's arms wrapped around her thighs.
"Momma!" Liam giggled excitedly as Aria lifted him up and kissed his cheek, leaving a red lip print on the little boy's face. Scott reached out and mussed up Liam's hair in a playful before handing Aria the Batman overnight bag Liam always brought whenever he spent the weekend at his father's.
"He was good. I brought him to the Bronx Zoo yesterday. We had fun, didn't we buddy?" Scott asks as he winks to his son and earns an eager nod back, but only a clearing of the throat and a less interested nod from Aria.
"Sounds like fun, Scott. But Liam and I have to go. It's a while back to the apartment." She responds icily as she hoisted Liam's bag on to her shoulder and gave a curt look goodbye as Scott backed off and pushed himself off of the door frame, walking back slowly into his apartment as Aria started down the hallway with Liam. Liam started talking excitedly about his weekend with his father while they walked down the halls and into the lobby. Aria wanted to listen to Liam as he talked with such enthusiasm about the animals at the zoo and about the tiger stuffed animal Scott had bought him from the gift shop, but she was busy navigating through the city and trying to hail a cab to get back to Brooklyn.
It was a long, painful night, but Aria let out a sigh of relief once she stepped into their apartment. It wasn't much, and it was nowhere as near as nice as Scott's but it's what Aria was able to afford with a waitress's salary and child support checks. Once placed back down on the floors of his home, Liam took his tiger stuffed animal out of his over night bag and smiled brightly as he followed Aria into his room.
She quickly had him brush his teeth and go to the bathroom before he went to bed, and she was exhausted by the time that she had gotten Liam tucked into bed and finally calm enough from talking about his adventure at the zoo to sleep. "Goodnight, Liam." Aria whispers as she pecks the top of his head and turns off the little lamp on his night table. But before she could even stand up, Liam caught her hand and squeezed it to get her attention.
He paused briefly, as if he was trying to gather the words to say what he wanted, before blurting out, "Why don't you and Dad live together?" making Aria feel horrible for never fully explaining why she and Scott weren't together anymore. She had tried to explain it before, but he was only five. She didn't know if he would be able to grasp the concept.
She took a second before answering anything, not wanting to confuse him. "Me and your father just... don't get along as well as we used to. So we thought that it would be best if we didn't live together anymore." She says simply before pressing a kiss to his head again. "But it's late, honey. If you want, we can talk about this more in the morning." Liam nods, knowing not to press his mother on certain things before dropping Aria's hand and watching as she slowly walks out of the room and closes his door until there's only a small sliver of it open.
Aria presses her hands stress fully against her face and pulls out a wine bottle from the kitchen counter as well as a large glass. She was used to these nights, after placing Liam to sleep, she would spend hours before actually going to sleep drinking wine and regretting what she had done with herself. Not that she didn't love Liam, she loved him with all of her heart. But she just wished that she had given birth later than sooner, because the first months of taking care of him were pain when there was only her doing all of the work and awake constantly at four in the morning as she rocked her newborn back to sleep. While Scott slept like a rock and didn't give a damn if she only got thirty minutes of sleep the night before because "he was the only one bringing in money for the family". There wasn't anything in the world that burned Aria up more than thinking about Scott and the first few months they had spent together after they had their baby.
But it wasn't just that mistake that kept Aria up at night. Even though marrying Scott had been at the top of her list for the stupidest decisions shes ever made, it wasn't number one. It wasn't the thing that made her cry at night, wishing that things could have ended differently between them. Wishing that years ago she had the guts to chase after what she knew was right.
Letting Ezra Fitz slip out of her fingers like crumbled pieces of sand was by far the biggest mistake of Aria's life. There was not a moment that passed when she wasn't thinking about how different her life could have been if she hadn't agreed with Ezra that breaking up after months of long distance was the right thing to do. It definitely was not the right thing to do because before she knew it, she had drunkenly landed in the arms of her next handsome mistake. A mistake that would cost her the rest of her twenties and the happiness and plans that she had for the future.
As Aria gulped down the last of the cheap, seven dollar red wine she had gotten from the drug store, her emotions overwhelmed her. She wasn't doing well at all. She was only twenty five and having to care for a five year old and manage her own apartment and was already divorced. All the plans for the future that she thought up of at sixteen when she was hopelessly in love with the man she thought she was going to marry were crushed. Living in the Big Apple off of just being a waitress was not the way she pictured herself in the future. She loved Liam more than anything, but it just stressed her out that maybe she wasn't the best person to take care of him when she barely had enough money to take care of herself and pay for the apartment.
As her tears spilled out of her eyes like the remaining droplets of wine in the tipped over glass, she reminded herself of what she had told herself for the past years when she had to fend for herself. She was doing this for Liam, she was going to do whatever was best for him. She couldn't give up this easily on her happy ending.