Aria lay in bed restless. This love story they shared was slowly falling to pieces, so much so that she was starting to doubt how Ezra ever felt about her. Every bone ached, her tear ducts were too tired to cry, it even hurt to breathe. Her chest felt heavier with every breath she took. The only way to fix this was to go to Ezra's apartment and get the truth, whether she liked the answer or not.
As Aria plotted out her mission, she decided it was too late to do anything about it now. She wasn't Spencer, and a tiny pill wasn't going to give her the drive she needed. No, these answers could wait until morning, what Aria needed more than anything was sleep. A dreamless sleep, she needed peace not Ezra lingering around in her head.
In the morning, Aria was ready to get on with her day. She didn't try to doll herself up, her outfit wasn't as lavish as usual. When she looked at herself in the mirror, she couldn't help but laugh, even if it was halfheartedly. "So this is what depressed me looks like," she said mockingly to herself. She grabbed her keys and headed to her car, it was now or never.
She drove in silence. The silence filled the void and it helped her push back the tears that kept trying to escape. The drive seemed faster this way, and before she knew it she was standing outside apartment 3b. She didn't knock. She slid her hand under the doormat to find the key that belonged to her, and unlocked the barrier between her and the truth. Unlocking it felt like a habit, and she despised herself for getting attached in that way. She was simply unlocking a door, not a lifetime of happiness.
Aria was greeted by loneliness when she opened Ezra's door. She asked him to leave, but him actually being gone hurt more than it should. It not only hurt, but it raised this burning anger inside of her. The anger she had been waiting to release since the moment she learned of Ezra's true intentions. Only upon seeing him actually being gone did she realize what she wanted to do. Destroy his apartment, the same way he destroyed their relationship.
She started with his desk where his precious type writer sat. It hit the floor with a clunk, along with the different playbills scattered across his desk and papers that were still ungraded. A picture of them sat on his desk, but shortly it met the wall and was shattered to hundreds of pieces. Aria knew the feeling. Next she headed to his book shelf, she only tossed the ones that mimicked what she was lead to believe their relationship was. First off the shelf was Great Gatsby, next was The Tempest. Something inside her was feeling satisfied. Until she stumbled upon the book that contained the poem Ezra had wrote, B26.
She opened to it, determined to rip it out and shred it but she couldn't. The moment she opened it she was drawn back in, this poem was the one thing to show her that what they had was real. She hated him for writing this, for falling for his charming ways when she walked into that bar. Being mesmerized by his attentive nature, and melting when he kissed her. Nothing felt more magical, but in this moment nothing hurt more.
She made her way to his bed, the sacred ground her friends once called it. She cradled the book in her arms and started crying, she was amazed that her eyes could even still produce tears. But they flowed, heavily and freely, and soon the pillowcase was drenched. She couldn't bear this pain anymore, it was too much for one person to endure.
Her eyes were carrying a burden she was not used too, her blinking slowed and before she knew it she was asleep. Memories filled her dreams, they played out slowly. It was tragic but beautiful, dangerous yet sexy. How could the brain process all these thoughts as once? Soon though the dream to a turn south, and the dream soon became a nightmare. One filled with the fear she felt all last night as she sat beside a guy she once knew so intimately but for some reason he seemed like a stranger and then he was gone, vanished from her mind.
She awoke with someone standing over her, but it wasn't the one face she wanted to see after such a dream. Emily looked down at her, her eyes filled with worried.
"Aria, do you even know what you have done?" Emily asked her. Aria frowned, these were not the first words she wanted to hear.
"Yes," she released the book from her grasp "I just want to go home." When she stood up she was greeted with Hanna's presence as well. She wasn't ready for a double team intervention, and a part of her felt like they should be lecturing Spencer. She felt guilty for even thinking that, but at this point it was the truth.
"Why are you guys even here? How did you even know I would be here?" Aria asked them.
"Because when Caleb left me, Ravenswood was the first place I ran," Hanna answered "The heart wants what the heart wants."
Aria was taken aback by Hanna's sincerity, but she welcomed it with open arms.
"Let's just get you home, before anyone realizes we were here." Emily said to her, not sharing the same openness as Hanna.
Aria agreed, but only because she didn't need to be here anymore. Being in his apartment wasn't going to make him come back, and she wasn't even sure if she was ready to see him again. Instead she broke down, because it felt better than anything or anyone else could make her feel. Gone were the memories, gone were the tears she tried to repress this morning, gone was the happiness she once felt.