Chapter 2: No One Needs To Know.

3 person POV

As soon as Ali's parents left Jason walked into her room and said, "Hey will you guys be good, I'm going out for a while."

"Where are you going?" Alison asked him

"Out" he said

"Out where?" she asked

"None of your business" he said as he towered over her.

"Oh really," Alison said as Aria hopped up knowing this was about to get ugly so she stepped in between Alison and Jason with her back to him.

"Ali don't he doesn't even deserve it," Aria said with a double meaning, to Alison she said, 'He's too pathetic for you to even bother with him,' same for the girls but with him it was, 'He didn't do anything wrong so leave him alone' and that's honestly what she thought.

But Alison saw the first meaning and said, "You know what Punk Princess, you're right, he isn't even worth it." Alison said smirking and sat back down with Aria right behind her.

"Whatever I'll be back before dawn, bye," Jason said causing Aria to look up at him. She gave him an apologetic look with him giving her an accepting one before turning and walking out the door.

"He is such a loser," Ali said to the girls as she sighed

"Well what do you expect, he's always hanging around those loser friends of his," Em said agreeing blindly

"Your right Killer, you can't expect anything from him he's too worthless." Ali sighed making Emily's body go ridged

"Yeah and he's a drug addict." Spence said

"And he's an alcoholic," Hanna said eagerly

"Agreed now let's go back to playing along with the movie remember I'm Regina, Spence your Gretchen, Em your Karen, Aria your Katie, and Han you get to be Janis." Alison said

Sometimes the girls pondered on why she picked who to place who when they did this, but no one as much as Aria, especially since she got the feeling that Jason wasn't as bad as Alison was making him seem.

They didn't spend long, maybe and hour on acting out the movie before pausing and Alison said, "Guys I have to tell you what Jason did to me." With a sudden panic in her voice

"What?" Emily asked with a worry hinted in her voice

"Ok well look it was last Thursday night and I was in the kitchen and mom and dad had gone to bed and I was leaning against the fridge because it was hot as fire in the house and he came downstairs and when I didn't move out of his way, he started yelling at me and I thought he was gonna hit me." Alison said as pity filled the others, with the exception of Aria.

Aria had to bite back the anger that was bubbling inside her, threatening to boil out of her. She had no clue why she suddenly felt defensive of Jason but she couldn't help it and Ali was really grinding her nerves lately.

So taking her only chance to get out before losing her temper she said, "I'm gonna go make popcorn, you guys want anything else?"

"Um can you bring me a glass of water?" Hanna asked her friend

"Sure Han, anybody else want anything?" she asked but everyone else was too engrossed in Ali's tale. Aria scoffed silently and walked out of the room, relieved to be away from the tension. She walked into the kitchen and flipped on the lights.

Glancing at the clock she saw it was past midnight and began to worry about Jason. He had been gone quite a while since he had left at around 8 and the girls had just kept replaying the movie.

Remembering what she had come down for she grabbed a bag of popcorn from the box and put it in the microwave letting it go. She jumped up onto the counter and listened to the popcorn pop. She only jumped down from the counter when she heard the microwave ding.

She had just taken the bag out of the microwave when she heard the back door swing open and she dropped the bag and nearly screamed but bit it back when she saw Jason stumble through with a laughing Ian.

She made an unnatural sound as he set Jason in a chair as Jason's head fell to the table as Ian turned to walk out. "You can't just leave him like that!" she yelled at Ian.

"Oh yes I can." Ian said before he walked out laughing, shutting the door behind him and leaving a trail of odorous liquor.

She spun on her heel and picked up the dropped bag of unopened popcorn, grabbed two glasses from the shelf and set one down while feeling the other with ice cold water. Aria walked to Jason slowly with the water in her hand.

He had his head in his hand with his arm propped on the table so she crouched down and set the water on the table. Aria raised her hand to his face slowly but once her hand touched his face his eyes snapped to her's. "Jason," she said quietly, "You need to drink the water so you don't have a hangover in the morning."

He moaned before he said in a whisper, "Why?" but she couldn't make out what he said so instead she grabbed the water with the hand that wasn't on his face and motioned for him to drink it. He mumbled something no one could make before he wrapped his hand around hers as she held the cup and brought it up to his lips.

She watched the water pass his lips with edginess filling her. He down the glass of water before he removed it from his lips, the drink had made him slightly more sober than he was before, but not to where he could get up the stairs on his own. "Jason, come on." She said as she stood up.

"Ok," he complied before he stood up slowly not wanting to give himself an even bigger headache. He slung his arm over her small shoulders as she wrapped an arm around his waist. Walking him to the staircase she tightened her grip on his waist as she grabbed the railing and they started up the steps.

They took their time in getting up the stairs but that was better than falling down them. "Which one is your room Jason?" Aria asked as she prayed that she wouldn't have to pass Alison's room.

"That one," he said in a rough voice and pointed to a door. She nodded as she silently thanked God for having mercy on her soul. Aria opened the door and was met with a room she didn't expect. She expected a messy room with alcohol cans and bottles along with drugs to cover the room. Instead it was a clean room with no sighs that a stoner drunk lived in it.

But she knew it was his room thanks to the big Rosewood basketball jacket slung over the back of a chair. She walked him over to his bed and let him sit down. He caught her off guard when his motion pulled her to him.

Suddenly she realized their position. He sitting on the bed with his hands on her hips, her standing in between his legs with her hands on his shoulders, lights off and in complete darkness except the light of the full moon shining through his window with the blinds pulled back since the bedroom door had shut somehow after they had come inside.

She started to pull away from him only to have him place his hands on her hips and pull her back to him, closer than before. "Jason-" she said not sure what to say after that.

"Why?" he asked her, drunken confusion obvious on his face. Her eyes widened slightly in confusion as she stared at him for a moment, her lips parted in an unspoken question of her own. She subconsciously wound her arms loosely around his neck with her hands clasped on the back of his neck as she looked down into his wide somehow innocent eyes that shone bright with raw curiosity.

"Why what Jason?" she asked with a curiosity of her own.

"Why do you do that?" he asked as his hands tightened slightly on her hips. She opened her mouth to speak but he answered the question she had planned on but hadn't had the chance to ask, "Why do you that, you seem to care so much about me. Why? No one else does." He said and the young teenage girl felt her heart break in two and one of those halves she just wanted to give to him, make him feel better.

She crouched down and Jason's hands slid up her sides at her movement, stopping at her rib cage and now she looked up at him, "Jason, you wouldn't remember anything I told you tonight and you need to rest, sleep off the rest of the alcohol, it would be pointless for me to tell you anything, other than you need to go to bed."

"But that's why you should tell me, you could tell me anything you wanted and never worry about me telling because I would have no clue of what you told me. Please Aria." He asked slightly begging her for an answer she really didn't want to give. After her internal conflict of being honest with him or not she caved into his requests.

"Jason honestly, I do care about you, greatly, and I don't understand why Alison makes you out like some horrible monster we should be afraid of I mean you can get really mad at her, so can I, but I know you would never hurt her, or me for that matter, so no I'm not afraid or scared of you, and yes, I do care about you, but please don't think that I'm the only one." She said in a rush, unsure of why she said all of that.

"But you are, if I died my parents wouldn't care, hell Ali would probably dance on my grave along with her powerpuff girls, maybe with the exception of you, and my 'friends' wouldn't care, but if Alison died, it'd be the end of the freakin world for this town. I was a mistake in my parents eyes." He said causing Aria's heart to break once again.

She tightened the hands on his neck and said, "Don't you ever say that, that's not true and it never will be do you understand me, you have people who love and care about you, me being one of them. So don't you ever say that because it isn't true, and I'll promise you this and keep this promise whether you remember it or not, if you ever, EVER need someone you have me ok?" she said desperately

He nodded and she stood up, his hands sliding back to their original position on her hips and she said, I'll be back in a second ok?" he nodded again "Don't move ok?" another nod. As she turned to leave she his fingers brush across the skin of her hand, leaving a burning sensation wherever his fingers had brushed her skin but sent shivers down her spine.

Walking out of the bedroom she closed the door the majority of the way before she took off running down the stairs. Grabbing the popcorn she tore open the bag and dumped the popcorn in the bowl, and on purpose she 'forgot' Hanna's drink as she ran back upstairs to Alison's room.

"Sorry I took so long." She said

"Well what kept you." Alison asked as Spencer snatched the popcorn bowl out of the spunky girl's hands.

"Well I couldn't reach the popcorn in the cabinet so I tried to climb on the counter but these pants wouldn't get enough friction so I had to give up and get a chair, then after the popcorn popped when I went to get a bowl I grabbed the wrong size bowl and all the popcorn couldn't fit, so I got another bowl that the popcorn fit in, then I felt bad for wasting a bowl so I ended up washing it then putting it back up." Aria lied smoothly; it was truly beginning to worry her that she was lying so easily to all her friends.

"Hey Aria, where's my water?" Hanna asked

Perfect timing Han… Aria thought happily. "Oh crap Hanna I forgot it, must have slipped my mind since I was rushing since the popcorn was taking so long," Or I was busy with Jason, wow that sounded wrong, helping, helping Jason that's better "Here I'll go get it… be back in a few." Aria said as walked normally out of the room and shut the door before running like she was in a marathon.

Getting downstairs she grabbed the cup she had given to Jason and the one she left out for Hanna. She quickly filled Hanna with ice and water before filling Jason's up with only water. As soon as it was done she grabbed both cups and speed walked upstairs, quickly she slipped into Jason's room and saw he hadn't moved from where she had left him.

Setting down the cup Aria got for Hanna she walked quickly over to Jason, "Here, I got you some more water." She said as she held the cup up for him to take, instead of taking it he placed both his big hands gently around her smaller one and brought the cup up to his lips. She quickly felt the feather light contact of his lower lip grazing the side of her finger that had been a little too close to the top, but she didn't bother to move, seeing no point in it.

Once again he didn't move the cup until he had downed its contents. "Thank you." He breathed as they sat the cup down together. She could tell he was sober now but it didn't stop her from brushing a stray piece of his hair that had stuck to his dampened forehead and did like she would if she were brushing back her own hair and couldn't help but letting her finger trail to the back of his where they had been earlier, down his neck, before landing on his shoulder.

"No problem Jase." She said, as the new nickname rolled off her tongue with ease and she hadn't hesitated or giving a second thought about saying it. And then with a jump, she was on his bed sitting next to him. "Do you remember what we talked about when you were drunk?" she asked, fearful that he would take what she said the wrong way, she didn't know how he would though.

"Parts, I'll probably remember later, but I do remember you telling me that you care about me, thank you. I haven't really ever had anybody to care about me, or at least say it to my face." He admitted thinking that she deserved at least that much, and so much more.

"Jason I care about because I have faith in you and I know you are some drunk stoner and that there's more to you than that, and trust me, I don't just give you on the people I have faith in, especially when I care about them and what happens to them, look when the girls leave and Ali falls asleep I'll come back in here and check on you ok. Now that may be a while and you can go to sleep, I know you need it, but I will come check on you now I have to go, or they'll come looking, see ya later." She said as she got off the bed and started to walk out when she turned around and threw her arms around his neck, "And please don't stay out that late again without word, I was getting really worried," she said as she stressed on the words 'really worried'.

His arms were instantly around her tiny waist as he hugged her tightly, burying his head into her shoulder and it was there like that he mumbled to where she somehow understood him saying, "Thank you, I've never had someone have faith in me, or get worried about me being out, everyone else has given up on me. That means a lot." He said as she gave a reassuring squeeze shocked at truthful he was and brushed it off as him being tipsy still, because he was Jason DiLaurentis, the boy who let no one in. but now she wasn't so sure that was true. As he let go she backed up then took his hand into hers and gave it a squeeze that was like her saying, 'I'll be here when you need me' and that was exactly what she meant.

"Hey Aria." He said

"Yeah." She said

"Wake me up if I am asleep." He said, silently asking her.

She nodded, "Of course."

She walked out, glass in hand with a feeling of satisfaction, she was Aria Montgomery, and she was a fixer, and she was going to break through that tough shell he hid in, only if that shell disappeared when it was just her, somehow she thought that would be better, no one else needed to know.

AN: ok hey sorry that it took so long to put this up, well to me it seemed long, well I hope you liked this chapter and let me know with wonderful reviews.

Hugs and Kisses - Madame Magic