Thank you all for sticking with me so far! I sincerely appreciate every single one of you :)

CHAPTER #3: Just a Restart

Italics means thoughts, emphasized word or action. Bolded is a flashback. (….) is an indication that time has passed.

That Saturday night, Aria looks at her phone to check the time. 11:27pm. I could go for something right now… Aria gets up from her bed covered in old assignments and notes and walks out of her room to the kitchen. She opens to see what the fridge has to offer.

Water…Milk… Juice … More juice… Fruit… Eggs . . . Ok, so this is going nowhere fast.

Aria closes her fridge and looks inside her pantry for any snacks, which becomes a losing game for her to find anything to munch on. Aria crosses her arms, defeated, in the middle of her kitchen. What place would still be open at 11:30 at night…?

Aria mentally scans the surrounding bakeries and shops around her campus, somewhere close by. Starbucks…Of course. Aria heads back into her room and opens her closet doors. She grabs a random pair of jeans and a sweater as she puts them over her tank and short shorts. Living at such a campus as UPenn, you have to walk just about everywhere. Especially with the location of her College Hall, there is no parking nearby. Aria leaves her car about 0.5 miles away in a parking garage. That means if she had to go anywhere, she would have to walk 8-10 minutes across her campus just to get to her vehicle. Because of that dilemma, Aria brought herself a bike for those days/nights where she had to do some quick travels. She grabs her wallet and leaves her dorm. Making her way down the stairs, Aria quickly decides whether she'll walk to Starbucks or ride there.

Walking would take me about 3-4 minutes but biking would be about a minute, give or take… But do I really feel like unchaining the bike and chaining it back up? … I'll walk.

Aria heads out the side exit door of her College Hall and proceeds to walk to Starbucks in the dark of the night before it closes at 12.

…

Aria walks inside the freshly-roasted scented Starbucks that has a few people lingering here and there. She stands by the front counter as she looks at the menu to see what she'll have. After battling what to order, she casually glances at another customer, who looks disheveled and tired, waiting for an order in their pajamas. After a moment of looking at the waiting customer, she realizes, once again, who she ran into.

Spencer feels eyes on her as she turns her head in the direction of Aria.

"You've got to be kidding me," she mumbles under her breath as she hangs her head. Aria takes a step towards Spencer. "Please don't." Spencer tiredly protests, "If you've came here to make my night even more of a hell, you've already won."

"Look, Spencer, I just wanted to say I'm sorry. For everything." Aria apologizes as she steps closer, "I just want to start over. No games, no fighting, just a restart."

Spencer suspiciously eyes the smaller brunette, not knowing if she should trust her or not. "How do you know my name?"

"I came by your dorm earlier today. I got your roommate who told me. I wanted to apologize then but you were already gone."

Spencer finally caves in as she sighs, "Ok. We can restart. What's your name?"

"Aria. Aria Montgomery."

"I'm Spencer Hastings." Spencer responds.

Aria gives Spencer a smile before changing it from a happy one to a sympathetic one. "It's nearly midnight, you look tired and in you're in your pajamas, waiting on possibly an order of coffee." Aria lightly teases, "Do you need a hug?"

Spencer rubs her eyes, "I've been up since four this morning. Caffeine is the only thing keeping me alive. I'm so glad this place closes late." A barista comes towards the front where Spencer is waiting and hands her her order of Venti Pike Place Roast. Spencer thanks the worker and turns to Aria. "I might be worn-out but what are you here for if not the same thing."

"I need something hot and chewy for my late night studying session. Figured this place could satisfy my needs."

Spencer takes a sip of her coffee, "Just like what this is doing right now…" she sighs with her eyes closed; Aria chuckles.

…

Aria and Spencer walk back inside their College Hall and stand in the hallway by Spencer's door.

"Wait right here?" Aria asks Spencer with her drink and baked goods in her in hands, hoping she would.

"Uhm.. Ok."

Aria quickly walks towards the stairs not too far from them and disappears behind the doors. Spencer stands idly in the hallway as she taps on her cup. Where would she run off too and why? Ugh… So much work I got to do. I don't know how I'm gonna survive this. Spencer rubs her right eye once more. Ok. I'm gonna study until about 3 or 4. By then at 12, I would already had a good full 8 hours. Do some more quick studying for at least the quiz in Mr. Austin's class. Spencer's inner thoughts are interrupted by the sound of the stairwell doors opening.

Aria makes her way back to where she left Spencer, thankful she actually waited.

"Here…" Aria hands Spencer a book.

Spencer grabs the book to look at it. American Literature & Events Beyond 1870. Her eyes instantly widen.

"I know you said your grade hangs in the balance with this book so I decided you need it more than I do," Aria puts her hands in her jean pockets.

"T-Thank You, Aria." Spencer looks up at her, "Thank you."

"You know… I could…probably help you with it." She leans towards Spencer. "I didn't check out that book for testing purposes. I just wanted to learn some information for fun."

Spencer looks at Aria puzzled. "Read this for fun?"

"Oh, I'm majoring in English. I find some old authors fascinating and would like to learn a little more about them."

Spencer nods her head, understanding the curiosity.

"But yeah, If you need help. I could help you remember some things with a few tricks here and there. Once you get a system down, you're good to go." Aria gives the taller brunette a closed mouth smile. Does she really want to help Spencer or is she just offering her services just out of curtesy, actually hoping she'll decline it? Aria mentally questions herself as she knows she has work of her own that she needs to be studying.

"Sure." Spencer accepts. "Anything could help since there is no guideline to what would be on the test."

Aria finds herself oddly joyful to be helping Spencer. This sudden feeling must have came from the fact that she is no longer "enemies" with her. If you were to call that little back and forth making them enemies.

Spencer guides Aria to her dorm door as she pulls out the keys. When she unlocks the door, she holds it open, allowing Aria to enter. Aria sees that they have a similar dorm layout except reversed and different locations of furnishings. Spencer locks the door and begins towards her room where Aria follows behind.

Upon entering Spencer's room, she right away notices the simplicity and organization of it. With the small room and window facing the courtyard, she has her twin XL bed against the wall with the window, her dresser right beside it and closet across from her bed for the easy "jump to action" access. At the end of her bed she has computer desk with some extra space around for whatever. As Spencer sets her things on the dresser, Aria notices how much paper and assorted highlighters are scattered on her bed. Looks like we have a heavyweight studier here.

Spencer takes off her hoody and hangs it up in her closet. She closes the closet doors and leans over her bed to grab her things, "We can work on the floor since there won't be much leg room on the bed."

As she transfers her work to the floor, Aria nods. This is gonna be a long night.

Oooooh. Super short chapter this was! I was debating on either stopping it right here or keep it going, however, I decided that this would be a good ending for Chapter 3. Don't worry, Chapter 4 will be up in a couple of days, pick up with some time passing between the two. Not too much time but enough! How was it? Short and sweet or short and horrible because you want some more? Haha :)

I don't know about you guys but I could definitely see Spencer waiting in line for coffee at nearly 12am, looking all types of crazily tired because of her work. Thought it'd be a perfect place for them to run into each other…again.

Now, that they have decided to put their past aside and start brand new, what's going happen now? :O

What would you like to happen?

Reviews, favs, and follows are always appreciated! :D