Aria looked through the open hospital room door to see Noel entering Hanna's room. Aria shifted uncomfortably as he approached her.
"Hey, Noel", she said, as she said it she saw something flicker across his face—anger.
"Hello, Aria," Noel said coldly, "I just came to visit Hanna".
"The doctors are running some tests, but she should be back any time now," Aria responded.
"Oh…well. I guess I can come back later"
"Noel. Wait. What's going on? You seem mad at me. What did I do?"
Noel's face suddenly got dark. "You know exactly what you did". Aria looked at him confused, then he continued, "I saw you. I'm not stupid. I knew something was up between you and Mr. Fitz after I walked in on you two yelling about his poem, so I followed you to Camp Mona. I saw you sneak off with him. I saw you two kissing!"
Aria just stood, mouth open unable to speak. She finally stuttered out a response, "I-I-I don't know what you think you saw, but I wasn't kissing Ez—Mr. Fitz". Suddenly Aria realized how futile denying the whole thing was and her face flushed in exasperation.
"Can it Aria", Noel continued, "I have proof". He whipped out his phone to expose a snap shot of Aria and Ezra making out in the car.
"Noel, what are you going to do with that?"
"What do you think I'm going to do with this?" Noel practically barked back, "I'm going to show everyone. I'm going to get this creep out of Rosewood. I'll send him to jail".
Aria's eyes widened in shock. She'd never seen this side of Noel before. "You can't do that! You have no right to destroy Ezra. He's a good person. He doesn't deserve to be punished".
"Can you hear yourself, Aria. 'He doesn't deserve to be punished'. Come on. He's a teacher and you are a minor—enough said. It's illegal. He should go to jail and I'll make sure he gets there".
Aria felt herself begin to breakdown in tears. This took Noel by surprise and his demeanor softened a bit as he walked over to comfort her. He put his arm around her shoulder and she sobbed into his chest. "You can't report him, Noel. You just can't. I love him. I won't be able to survive without him". Noel pulled away. Aria could tell that her last statement had irked him a bit, but she hoped that it had jarred him enough that he'd reconsider.
"Ok. Ok. I won't say anything…yet," Noel said in an attempt to comfort her, "But, whatever you are doing with Mr. Fitz, it just isn't right".
"What isn't right?" Hanna called from the door as a nurse wheeled her in. It was two days since Hanna's accident and she was recovering quickly. Well, most of her was recovering quickly, but she still couldn't remember A's identity or anything from the night of the accident.
Aria wiped her eyes quickly to remove any evidence that she'd been crying and began, "Just what happened to you, Hanna. It left us all really shaken up".
"There's no reason to cry. I'm fine. The doctors say I'll be back to normal in no time," Hanna retorted.
"Um. Ok. I guess that's one way to look at it," Aria said, "Can you guys excuse me for a second. I'm just going to call my Mom to let her know I'll be here a while longer".
Out of the corner of her eye, Aria caught sight of Noel shaking his head. It was clear that he knew that she didn't plan on calling her Mom, but there was nothing she could do about Noel for now. She had to let Ezra know what was going on. He needed to be prepared.
She walked into the hallway and pulled out her phone to text him. Hey- I know who wrote on your car window. It was Noel. He's pissed, but I don't think he'll tell anyone about us…yet.
She didn't have to wait more than 20 seconds for the response from Ezra. Ok. I guess that's good news, but I'm still worried. She was worried to. She'd never seen Noel so upset before and she was afraid of what he was capable of, but she didn't want to tell Ezra this. She couldn't risk losing Ezra again especially not because her boyfriend—her ex-boyfriend—was upset. Aria needed to find a way to convince Noel not to tell ever and more importantly she needed to destroy the evidence that Noel had on his phone.
