Thank you all for the positive feedback and the favourites/follows! Special mentions to Boris Yeltsin, sarahschneider2012, littlelyingmilly, Maria, Venna26, Guest and Guest for all your amazing reviews! Here's the second chapter for all of you :) Beware of the Ezra-bashing…

Mistakes

–

"I remember years ago

Someone told me I should take

Caution when it comes to love."

– "Impossible" / Shontelle

They keep in touch.

They exchange their numbers and laugh some more, the pang of sadness in Aria's heart long gone. Suddenly, she's glad. She's glad she walked out of her own birthday party, and she's glad she got that panic attack which caused her to crack her phone, which ultimately caused her finger to bleed. It hurt, of course, but she's glad it kept on hurting and it kept on bleeding – otherwise she wouldn't have gone to that hardware store and bumped into Jason.

It's been so long that she almost forgot how much she missed him.

Two years back, and she hadn't even said a proper goodbye.

Two years back, and whatever relationship they had, she threw away.

"Do you want me to drive you back? It's a little cold and my car's just around the bend." Jason offers, looking at Aria with sincerity in his eyes.

Aria politely declines, before noticing…

"Didn't your car tyre have a puncture or something?" Aria props her eyebrow, now convinced he is lying to her. "Jason, I am still awaiting an answer."

Jason looks down sheepishly, realizing his obvious and stupid mistake. He covers it up, again, although he knows that she knows. "Yeah… as much as I wanted to… I couldn't really anyway." he pauses. "And you will carry on 'awaiting'."

"You're implausible," Aria groans, rolling her eyes.

"I'm being defensive," he protests. "You have your secrets, I have mine…" He smiles triumphantly, but when he sees Aria's reaction, his face softens, and he starts to feel terrible. "I didn't mean… Jesus, I'm sorry."

"You didn't do anything," Aria hides her fake smile. "You're… you're being lovely. I mean, I haven't been a terrific friend the last… years… and here you are, standing with me in the cold, laughing with me… and… I'm sorry…"

"Hey, don't be," Jason says. "You have nothing to be sorry about. Except maybe being a little nosy." he adds cheekily.

"Thank you." she breathes.

"None of that either," Jason says. "But it is a little freezing outside. Why don't we meet again, tomorrow? In broad daylight, without one of us bleeding to death, and the other acting the pathetic jester."

"It's a date." Aria nods.

And it's strange – very strange. She doesn't even like him in that way – not after years and years of being in a long but unhealthy relationship – not after years and years of being in love with a different man. And anyway, she's just freaking met him only half an hour ago, in the freaking hardware store.

But something, something is inside her, reminding her just how much she wants it to be real.

She left Jason at about two.

She checks her phone: 02:25.

She's spent almost thirty minutes pacing around the block of apartments, wondering on whether she should come back to her party or not. In the end, she does. Her friends have gone out their way to create this for her, and she leaves without any notice. But she, and she knows this herself, was never good at friendship.

"Where the fuck were you?"

She is met by an angry shout and an equally angry-looking Jasmine Regal, her chestnut hair flying up in all different places. That is the first thing she notices. The second is that there is no one in the room except her and her roommate, balloons and party hats dead on the floor – she almost feels bad for them.

"I'm… sorry." she admits.

"You're sorry? You're… Jesus Christ, 'Ria, I've been tearing my hair from my scalp the past two hours! First I thought it was Bill and his other hippie friends, so I made them leave and texted you… which you haven't even read, by the way…" she takes a breath. "I know you're twenty now, and you've been legally an adult for years, but… you're really tiny… and I love you…"

Aria freezes at that – those words, Spencer Hastings had said those very words only several years before…

"Jaz, I'm sorry… really… my head was…" Aria sighs. "I love you, too."

She does. Maybe not as much as the other girls, but since first meeting her at eighteen, they had become the best of friends, and Aria had been able to trust her… with her life even.

"Mushy squash," Aria says, when she pulls her into a hug. "That's what you are, Jasmine."

"Hey! I was worried for you…" Jasmine's face goes into serious mode. "It was one in the morning, and you were gone… goodness knows what could have happened… Hey, is your finger alright?"

Oh, the damn bloody finger, she thinks.

"I ran into an old friend," Aria mutters, absentmindedly staring down at her finger, picking at her plaster. She frowns when she sees Snoopy with only one-and-a-half ears.

"Here in this abandoned area?" Jasmine scoffs. "Sure…"

Aria doesn't bother arguing. She wouldn't believe her anyway.

"But… happy birthday, 'Ria," Jasmine pulls her into yet another hug, before yawning. "I'm tired… Be safe, and don't run away."

"Yes, mother." Aria calls out after Jasmine retreats to her bedroom.

When she is positive she is gone, Aria looks around again, hoping that nothing has been raided. Apart from the liquor cabinet, everything seems safe.

She too, tired as hell, goes back to her bedroom. Her head hits the pillow, and just as she is expecting sleep – which doesn't come – she instead hears something clash onto the ground with a horrific crash.

"Oh…" Aria groans at the noise, tumbling out of bed to see what it is. "Oh… oh, shit."

A picture – at least, the remains of what would have been one – is on the floor, shattered into tiny little pieces. She is careful this time, not cutting her finger. With a book from beside, she sweeps up the glass to one side, reminding herself that she will clean it up tomorrow. She places the book on her bedside table and returns to her bed.

She can't go to sleep. She tosses and turns so many times she loses count, and her head it too clogged up with counting how many tosses and turns she's done, that counting sheep is close to impossible. Her eye catches the beige notebook, and she can just make out the handwriting.

2011.

This perks her interest up – 2011, she was seventeen then. Seventeen – a reckless age. She made many mistakes which she'd redo in a heartbeat.

She opens it, stroking each page with care. Her writing is squashed in neat boxes, about ten lines long. She reads the first entry.

January 1st

New Year, new resolutions. Except I'm not sure if I can keep my resolution. Of course, I'll attempt to stop lying and running to save my ass from A. So yeah, I'll try and stop lying.

Aria raises her eyebrows as she reads through her seventeen-year-old self's words. She can't help but giggle at her own attitude – although much hasn't really changed. She carelessly flicks through the remainder of the diary, ever so often stopping to read an entry about another of A's great accomplishments and the fact that Aria was very able to save her ass from said accomplishment.

One in particular catches her eye.

April 7th

Never fall in love again.

She sucks in her breath, tapping her fingers and the smooth cover. There is only one person in the entire world who this was directed to and why.

Ezra.

Her first love, first boyfriend, first time, first heartbreak…

He was a lot of firsts. He was a lot of seconds too. He had wound his way back into her life after Mistake Number Two Hundred and Seventy-Five. She had given him a second chance after he made his biggest mistake (Mistake Number Two Hundred and Seventy-Five). She had let him feel her, touch her, make love to her. Mistakes, mistakes, all mistakes. It had all been a matter of time until he made the next one.

Mistake Number Two Hundred and Seventy-Six was him losing trust in her and him telling her so.

Looking at it now, she realizes how stupid that seems. Ezra had lied to her, used her, manipulated her so many times throughout there on/off relationship (two hundred and seventy-four times, to be exact) and now he had lost trust in her?

Aria, even now, can almost taste the irony.

So due to such trust issues, they had broken up – hence Mistake Number Two Hundred and Seventy-Seven.

It had all been alright after that mistake – over time she had been able to forget about him and think about other, more important things like getting Ali out of jail, fighting off A.

The next mistake was her mistake.

Forgiving him. Again. Forgiving him once was hard enough. But forgiving him twice?

Aria had loved Ezra – for sure. He had been her everything for a god damn two years. And she had been convinced that after MNSF, she still did.

She still does – even now. Although this love – this love isn't the same as the love she and Ezra shared when they she was a stupid and reckless sixteen-year-old. Ezra just left Aria broken – a little too broken. Broken enough to leave scar so deep for it to still hurt – even now.

Never fall in love again.

She rereads the line again and again, until it burns into her brain.

Never fall in love again.

She understands why she had written that.

And even at twenty, years since all the mistakes the both of them made, she promises herself that she never will.

Jason contacts her exactly one day, ten hours, sixteen minutes and if she is absolutely exact, twenty-two seconds after the 'incident'.

Sorry. Had a few things to take care of. Would you like to meet up? Call me.
Jason

That single text message makes Aria feel… warm? Invited? Excited?

She calls him. He answers on the third one.

"Hey there, ex-Pink Hair," Jason muses from the other side of the phone.

"Hilarious," Aria replies wryly.

"It was my intention," he laughs from the other side. "So, what do you say? Do you want to meet? We can pull off another 'bump into each other after years with your finger'-"

"Haha," Aria shakes her head. "Anyway, I quite like the idea of us meeting again? What time and where?"

"Well, you know the place better than me," Jason says.

"It's near Mindy's, a few shops off. It's a new coffee shop – Sally's Cafe,"

"I do love her creativity,"

"Jason – following your words – you are one pathetic jester."

"Just doing my job, mi'lady."

Aria giggles. "See you there in… twenty minutes?"

"Sure," Jason says.

"Okay. See you then." Aria says in her most flirtatious voice.

When she hangs up, she leans against the walls, a somewhat wistful look on her face. She clutches her phone in her hands tightly, as if it is the only thing that matters. But she doesn't really care about the phone itself. It's the message – and the call.

She steals a glance at the mirror, and her hands instinctively go to her hair, which, undoubtedly, is a complete mess. With every attempt, she tries to tame her light brown hair, and finally – finally – nails it. Her dress is short and tight enough, she thinks, and she picks her handbag up and leaves.

The walk seems twice as short as the one on her trip to the hardware store. Mostly because she is running, but also because she is, well, very excited.

"Steady there, Princess,"

"I…" Aria looks up, breaking into a smile. "Hullo, pathetically dim-witted jester. Long time, no see."

"About one day," he grins. "So long, so gone."

Actually, one day, twelve hours, and now about forty-three minutes, she says to herself, and counting.

"So… are you going to sit down or something?" Jason asks, stifling a laugh. "Maybe you can stop gaping at the… clock?"

Aria snaps out of her daze, only just realizing she had been counting the seconds. She nods, laughing along.

"I'm sorry," she lets out a girly giggle. "I'm really, really, really, really sorry."

"You really, really, really, really shouldn't be." Jason raises his eyebrows.

A few minutes in and they're back to their pattern. The same pattern from when she had pink in her hair and he had been drunk and high. The same pattern from when Ian had died and he had come back to Rosewood and he had…

She remembers.

Jason kissed her.

The memories flood in – it is something she hasn't thought about for a very long time. She reaches her hand and brushes it against her lips. That kiss with Jason – it differed to the million kisses she and Ezra had shared. She wasn't sure if it was good or bad to feel those very feelings – now of all times.

"You know, I'm surprised."

"Huh?" Aria says absentmindedly.

Jason chuckles. "You haven't brought… her up."

Aria knows what he is saying.

"It… it hasn't crossed my mind," stutters Aria. It is true – Charlotte hadn't crossed her mind since seeing Jason again. Snippets now and again, but she hadn't fully thought about her for… quite a while.

"You're one terrible liar, Ar." Jason laughs, before turning serious. "You can ask, you know."

"I…" Aria mumbles. "I… how… how is she?"

Jason shrugs. "She's doing a lot better. Ali's been with her the whole two years – I've visited her… a few times."

"You… you've seen her." Aria states.

"Yeah," Jason shrugs again, fiddling with his straw. "She says she's sorry and… and I think she means it… I think she's changed – for the better."

"That's really good to hear." she says genuinely. She too turned solemn. "Jason… I'm really sorry – about her… about… everything."

Jason shakes his head. "Thank you, Aria, but… I don't need your sympathy. I think I've had enough of that." he pauses. "I'm sorry, that was rude."

"Don't worry…" Aria says. She feels horrible – Charlotte, A, it must be a touchy subject for him, and here she was, talking about it right in front of his face. And she thought this couldn't get more awkward. "I… would you like some more milkshake?"

She arrives home around three hours later. Her heart is beating rapidly. He had told her he'd call her again, and then he'd hugged her and kissed her forehead.

She felt her temple. The place where he'd kissed it – it still felt surprisingly warm – warmer than the other parts.

"Hot date with Mr Casanova?" Jasmine sweeps into the room, a strawberry tart in one hand.

"Sorry, who?" she splutters, hanging her handbag on the peg. "Hey, can I steal some of that?"

"Don't change the subject." Jasmine says. "Is it something to do with why you were late out on Sunday?"

"First of all, a) no, it isn't. Well, partially but… that's not it. B), technically, I wasn't late out! You threw me a party very, very late. No! Early-"

"You're smitten," Jasmine smirks, crossing her arms.

Aria's face contorts in disgust. "That is not true! You don't even know who I was with! An old friend! We've known each other for… seven years! We-"

"Yep, definitely, unmistakably smitten." And Jasmine walks of, still smirking, still crossing her arms.

Aria just shakes her head at such nonsense. Smitten – smitten indeed! She was anything but smitten. Jason was a close friend – is a close friend. Only a close friend. She is not in love with him – with anyone, for that matter.

Never fall in love again.

Even her love for Ezra is long gone.

That's a pretty shitty chapter, I'm sorry :( Did anyone get the tiny, tiny HP references from this chapter and the one before? DID YAAAA? No? Oh okay… Also, the and running to save my ass from A is meant to be crossed out but it didn't let me haha:) BTW, I am currently on Chapter Four of editing If It Was A Fairytale!