Aria took a deep breath as she tried to figure out how to tell Ezra her darkest secret. She didn't keep secrets from him. After all, he was a secret.

"Ezra, do you remember who Alison Dilaurentis was?" He put a hand over her clenched fists in her lap.

"She died before I moved here, but how could anyone forget such a horrible tragedy?" Ezra's question was rhetorical; all of Rosewood was haunted by the unsolved murder of Alison Dilaurentis.

"Well, she was. . .um. . . she was our friend." Aria said slowly. Ezra nodded even more slowly.

"Our as in. . ?" He asked. Ezra knew Aria had been associated with Alison, with them being in the same grade and all, but he had never more than skimmed newspaper articles about the murder before he already felt as if he knew too much.

"Me, Hanna, Spencer, and Emily," Aria's voice wavered, "She wasn't really a friend though, more of a dictator. Alison was a very cruel, manipulative person." Ezra stiffened, he thought it wrong to speak ill of the dead. "But that's beside the point." Aria added, when she saw his discomfort." Aria took a big sip of her tea before continuing to speak.

"Last Halloween, we went to a party. Alison went for a walk, and got locked in an abandoned house. She called us, and we found her. Thankfully we managed to escape, but we never found out who the person was." Aria tensed, she was vary of telling Ezra too much and endangering him, "Ali was being stalked, by a person who went by the name of A."

"Did you tell the police?" Ezra inquired earnestly.

"Ezra, we didn't know this was going on until after she was murdered. We had to put the pieces together by ourselves." Aria told him, "But that's not all. After Ali's disappearance, none of us really spoke anymore. She had kind of been the glue that held us together. A year later, we sat by each other at Ali's funeral, and that's when A started going after us. We started receiving anonymous text messages, and they, we think it's more than one person, won't leave us alone." Aria was trembling with fear, thinking back on all the things A had done to her and her best friends.

"What's the worst thing that A has done to you?" Ezra asked, dying to know but afraid to hear the answer.

"They hit Hanna with a car." Ezra gasped.

"Aria you have to go to the police!" Aria just shook her head.

"A knows everything about me," Ezra opened his mouth to protest, and Aria cut him off. "Everything." Ezra untangled their hands and wrapped his arms around her tiny frame, pulling her closer to him.

"Aria, I can't risk losing you." He murmured in her ear,

"Ezra, if I tell the police, the truth will come out about us and we will lose each other." Aria leaned into him and turned her face towards his. "I love you, and I know you want me to be safe, but the definition of 'safe' has kind of changed since A became my own worst enemy." Ezra took her face in the palm of his hand and kissed her gently.

"I love you so much."

"Can I stay here tonight?" Aria asked, "I kind of want to be with you right now."

"Of course you can." Ezra replied. Aria pulled away to take her phone out of her pocket and dial her best friend's number.

"Hey, Hanna, can you do me a favor?" Aria said when Hannah picked up on the other line. Hannah fake groaned.

"What do you need?"

"I'm staying at Ezra's tonight, will you cover for me?"

"Ooh, sleepover with Mr. Fitz, someone is a teacher's pet." Hanna teased, "Use protection!"

"Han," Aria warned. Ezra snickered into her shoulder, hearing Hanna's comment over the phone. "Love you, bye." Aria hung up and rolled her eyes at her friend's immaturity. She opened her phone and sent a text to her mom.

I'm going to stay at Han's tonight. Her mom's on a date and she doesn't want to be home alone. Hope that's okay, xoxo.

Aria slid her phone shut and wrapped her arms around Ezra's neck,

"Well, it looks like I'm yours for the night." She said playfully, trying to lighten his mood. He kissed her quickly,

"Well then it looks like tonight I'm the luckiest man alive."