Aria held her breath tightly in her chest as she tapped the box up and down against the bathroom counter. Her mind finally blank, for just one second if nothing more.

She had stopped and picked it up on her way hoe that night. She knew the location within the store all too well. She had glared at them many times before while picking up her tampons. It usually felt as if they were mocking her from the grocery store shelving, but not today. Today, she actually got to claim a box as her own and place it in her basket.

'One small victory,' she thought to herself, down what has been a long tedious road. Just needing to purchase the test in the first place was a big deal, and a huge first step.

But she couldn't bare to take it. What if it was another big fat slap in the face. Another rejection. Another negative. The door to impending motherhood slamming on her foot after she had finally gotten the chance to stick her toes in.

She closed her eyes and tore open the box, ripped open the wrapper with her teeth and sat down on the toilet. Breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth, she surprised herself with how easily she was able to relax and 'go'. And now it was the waiting game. She slapped the test down on the counter and tried to stare at the wall in front of her. Trying to focus on the shelving in front of her that held perfumes and hair ties, she noticed that she could still see the test laying on the counter out of the corner of her eye. Her left hand flew to the counter and flipped the test upside down.

And there Aria sat. With her underwear still around her ankles. Playing the waiting game.

Ezra had told Aria that he had meetings with several parents that evening and wouldn't be home for dinner. Yet he found himself driving to her house. He knew he needed to end it. He wasn't falling in love with her, not that he had hoped that he would be, but living a double live was making him fall out of love with his marriage also. Not necessarily with Aria, just the union that they created. Marriage made him feel trapped, tied down and overwhelmed. All of the things that he had once fought so desperately for. There was so much pressure to provide for her. Money, support...a baby.

Aria was sitting in the same spot still ten minutes later. She hadn't touched the test yet. Her arms were bent at the elbows, resting on top of her thighs. She was biting absentmindedly at her thumb nails. Not blinking, not breathing, just being. She wanted to flip the test over and see that beautiful pink plus sign more than she had ever wanted anything before. She longed for it even more than she had longed to be with Ezra. That little plus sign was the answer to all of her prayers and the solution to all of their problems. She closed her eyes and placed her hand flatly over the test, lengthwise. Quickly sliding it off of the counter and into her lap, still lying face down. She picked it up by the ends, holding it between her forefinger and thumb gingerly. After a long second she closed her eyes and flipped the results to face her.

Ezra stood inside the front door of her home. Hand nervously running up and down the straps of his messenger bag.

"You can come in you know." She yelled from the couch, not bothering to greet him at the door. Ezra cleared his throat.

"No, I really I uh .. I can't stay." There was silence.

"Well okay." She continued to sit in her living room. She knew she could wait him out. She could make him come to her.

"Hanna. I really need to talk to you, but I...I don't feel comfortable coming inside."

She let out a long, dramatic sigh. He used to walk right in to her home like he lived there.

Like he belonged.

In the beginning, it was all so strange. She had never, ever, felt an attraction to Mr. Fitz before. She even struggled to call him Ezra. That was far too personal of a place to go with your English teacher. But Aria had put everyone in a strange position. Deciding that it was worth making everyone hold a secret as huge as Mr. Fitz from the world. Eventually, their love affair became a romance that Hanna felt herself enamored with. The forbidden love, the way that people looked at them in public, yet how they still chose to look at each other. She wanted that kind of love for herself. But there were no other cute teachers for her to choose from. So without meaning to, without it evening really crossing her mind that it was happening, she slowly started to seduce Ezra.

It didn't happen over night. It was a work of several years in the making. And then, there they were one night. Hanna had parked her car next to his in the faculty lot at Rosewood, waiting for him to come out. Expecting to have to get out of the car and explain through embarrassment what she was doing camped out next to Ezra's car at five o'clock in the afternoon when she should have been at work.

But that didn't happen. When he walked out of the building and saw her car next to his, he simply walked up to it, opened up the door and sat down in the passenger seat.

And now they were here.

"I cant't see you anymore Hanna." He caught a lump in his throat and swallowed it back down. He could not be getting emotional in front of her. She was his mistress, and he needed to end this affair tonight for the sake of his wife. One of her best friends. She should understand.

"What, did Aria find out?" Hanna crossed her arms in defense and stared Ezra dead in the eyes.

"No, it isn't that. I'm thinking about asking for a separation, and if we separate ... it's because I need to be alone. I can't see you anymore Hanna." And with that he turned to walk out the door.

"Are you KIDDING me right now!? You have the PERFECT life Ezra. Everything you have ever dreamed of having is sitting in your lap. And you're going to throw it all away so you can sit in self pity? You look at me as a mistake don't you. I played with your mind, made you doubt your feelings for your wife...for the life that you built?" Hanna was slowly taking steps towards Ezra, arms still crossed over her chest.

"I was going to do you a favor and break it off with you tonight. I was gong to save you from destroying your marriage, but I see you're doing that yourself." He had stopped just outside the door.

"Why would you do that?" He spoke straight ahead, not turning back.

"Don't worry about it. You won't have to deal with it. Good bye Ezra." And with that Hanna shut the door on Ezra, and the affair that they had been sharing.

Aria had peed on two other tests. She felt deflated, empty.

All three were negative.

She had been SO sure. She had just felt it.

She was late. She was tired, her chest was sore.

And yet there she sat, with three negative tests staring her right in the face.

She scooped them all up in to her hands and threw them in the waste basket.