When the harsh critical remarks she had expected didn't come, Aria slowly looked up to see the expression on her therapists face. To her surprise, Dr. Sullivan's facial expression was very neutral, as if Aria hadn't said anything at all. There weren't even hints of disgust in her features, even though Aria had assumed the expression would have taken over her whole face. If anything, Dr. Sullivan looked as if she hadn't heard what Aria had just said.

"So you're dating your teacher," Dr. Sullivan stated, but it came out as a question, as if she was making sure she had the facts straight.

"Yes."

"Ok, and I—" Dr. Sullivan began to speak but was quickly cut off.

"Why are you not disgusted by that?" Aria demanded. She had become a little agitated at the lack of reaction from her therapist. This was a big moment for Aria; she had just shared her biggest secret ever, and Dr. Sullivan had barely even moved when she told her. "Why are you not lecturing me about how I shouldn't be dating someone who's that much older than me, and what more my teacher? Because I know it's wrong. And I know to others, this looks creepy and gross and weird. But it's not for us. When we're together age doesn't matter, so I don't understand why everyone else gives two shits about it!" Aria was all but yelling right now. It felt so good to tell someone all of this that the words just began to pour out of her mouth, as if they had been liquefied from being kept inside her for so long. When Aria realized the tone and volume of her voice she immediately shifted her gaze back to the ground, "sorry," she murmured.

Dr. Sullivan looked her over, and had Aria been looking back, she would have seen nothing but care and compassion in her therapist's eyes. "I'm not lecturing you because it's not my job to tell you what is right and what is wrong. I'm here for you to have someone to talk to, not for you to have another adult figure that you're afraid to tell things to."

"But you don't think it's weird?" Aria glanced up to see the emotions in Dr. Sullivan's eyes, then quickly back down to stare at a detail in the carpet that she suddenly found interesting.

It took her a minute to reply to this. "If I use your terms, I am neither 'disgusted' nor do I think it's weird. Your relationship is clearly different from everyone else's, that doesn't make it weird."

Aria let her eyes trail the rug for a couple seconds before looking Dr. Sullivan in the eye. "I wish my parents saw it the way you do."

"You told your parents?"

"No!" Aria's eyes grew wide and she shook her head quickly. "I could never tell them! They'd kick me out of the house! Even thought that would be extremely hypocritical on their part…but they wouldn't even wait to hear my side of the story, they would just jump to conclusions and assume the worst, like that he was forcing me into it, or that I was pregnant or something."

"You said it would be hypocritical of them to kick you out?" the therapist asked, hanging on that one sentence Aria had just said. "How is that?"

"Well…um…a couple years ago, Alison and I caught my dad kissing one of his students. He found out I saw and begged me not to tell," as Aria spoke, her eyes shifted around the room, and her voice held a tone of guilt to it.

"I'm assuming you told anyway?"

"No, A did, in the form of a note to my mother, complete with the fact that I knew he had cheated."

"What happened after your mom got the note?"

"My mom moved out, but then after she moved out, my parents had a fling I guess you could call it, and then my mom moved back in."

Dr. Sullivan nodded, she was trying her best not to let her face show her shock. She couldn't believe that these girls were going through being tortured by A, and then on top of that, they each had their own individual problems. She took a deep breathe to compose herself like they taught her to do in therapy school. "What makes you so sure that your parents would act so harshly if they ever found out?"

Aria closed her eyes briefly, inhaling deeply. "One day, my mom came into my room and told me she had heard a crazy rumor that Ezra was dating a student—" Aria froze immediately. Her eyes flew up to meet Dr. Sullivan's, desperately hoping that she hadn't picked up on the fact she had just used his name.

"Aria, breathe," Dr. Sullivan instructed, "Like I said before, I'm here for you to have someone to talk to, not to judge you are tell you what is right and wrong."

"I just…can we talk about this next time?" Aria suddenly blurted out, as she stood and pulled her bag over her shoulder.

"Yeah…sure," Dr. Sullivan agreed, slightly surprised. It wasn't much of a surprise to her that Aria wanted to end their session early however. Aria had shared a lot of secrets today, and that would be overwhelming for anyone.

"Thanks," Aria said quickly, and then she hurriedly ran out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Sorry it took me so long to update this one! I have a couple stories/oneshots in progress right now so hopefully I'll be able to get some more chapters/stories out for you guys soon!