The Wrong 'Fitz'
Chapter Four
Chapter Three Dedication: I apologize to all of you for making you wait as long as you did for the last chapter. I have had a lot of stuff going on in my real life that was preventing me from continuing chapter 3. But, it's posted, and I hope you all enjoyed it. And there will be plenty of drama filled encounters throughout the rest of the story, so I hope you all liked the drama that we were introduced to in the last chapter.
Not having another else to do other than to get into the car, Wesley let out a sigh and walked around to the driver's side of Aria's car and climbed in. Before he put the key in the ignition, he turned to the girl beside him and took in her appearance. She was visibly nervous about the encounter with her old flame had sparked, and she seemed shaken by the thoughts that she wouldn't have a choice in the very near or far future when it came to her getting married. But Wesley was determined to keep her safe, no matter what the cost was to him.
"Aria, are you okay? Do you want to go somewhere else besides over to your friend's house?" Wesley asked slowly.
"Currently, no I'm not okay. But I will be. With you and my friends all around me, I will be just fine." Aria said with a shaky smile.
"Okay, where to then?" Wesley asked as he started up the car.
"You're going to turn left at the corner of the park." Aria said trying desperately to calm her shaking body.
As Wesley followed each direction that Aria gave him, he tried to think positively about their relationship. Sure, they weren't dating, yet, but they were already quite close, and he didn't like the thought- or sight- of Aria being upset. It jarred him that some guy that she had liked a couple years ago was able to get under her skin and mess with her mind. A couple minutes later, Wesley pulled to a stop in front of Hanna's house and turned the car off. Turning his body to face Aria's, Wesley took her hand in his and urged her to look at him.
"Hey; don't dwell on what he said. We are going to have a fun night with your friends, and then tomorrow night, I will be with you the entire time. I already told you that I won't let him be around you without me there. I don't trust him, and if me being there is what I have to do to protect you, then that's what I'll do. I will be there if you want to explain the situation to your father; but right now, your friends are waiting for us. So just don't think about it. Think about something that makes you happy." Wesley said as he brought her hand to his lips and kissed it.
"I'm trying to do that Wesley, but I'm too shaken up to think straight. Every happy thought that I have gets twisted into something to do with Fridrik. I don't know what else to do." Aria said as she tried to focus her thoughts and tried to keep eye contact with Wesley, but it wasn't working.
"What's the first thing that comes to your mind that makes you happy? Don't think about it; just say the first thing that comes to your mind." Wesley offered.
"You are the first thing that comes to the front of my mind." Aria whispered.
"Then think about me. Think about how I'm going to protect you, and how I'm going to support any and every decision that you make; think about how much I care about you, and don't want to see you hurt, or upset. Think about those things and you will be okay." Wesley said softly.
"Thank you Wesley." Aria said as she glanced at him with a hint of a smile playing at the corners of her lips.
"You're welcome Aria." Wesley said as he released her hand and climbed out of the car before hurrying around to open the passenger side door for Aria.
"Is there anything that you want to know about my friends before you meet them?" Aria asked as she got out of the car and took Wesley's offered hand and they started walking towards the front door.
"What are their names? And who all am I meeting?" Wesley asked after a second's thought.
"Well, Hanna, Spencer and Emily are my friends. And then you are also meeting their significant others; Caleb, Toby and Paige." Aria replied.
"Is there anything spectacular that I need to know about any of them?" Wesley asked.
"Well, other than the fact that Emily and Paige are gay, no, not really. Oh, and don't bring up anything having to do with Alison DiLaurentis." Aria said.
"Who's Alison, and why shouldn't I mention her?" Wesley questioned.
"She was mine, Hanna, Spencer and Emily's best friend. She was killed a couple years ago, and last year both Spencer and Toby were suspects in her murder, so they are a little touchy about that. Actually, all of us girls are touchy about the topic of Alison." Aria explained.
"Oh, okay. Then I will be tight lipped about that then." Wesley said as Aria reached under the door mat to grab the extra key.
"You know where the extra key is hidden?" Wesley asked as he raised an eyebrow at Aria.
"Hm, I thought I did. It's not here." Aria said with a shrug as she knocked on the door and then waited for someone to answer.
"Aria? What are you doing here? Hanna's not home." Ashley Marin said as she opened the door and gave Aria a confused look.
"Oh, I'm sorry Ms Marin. Hanna sent me a text saying that the girls were all meeting here with their significant others." Aria explained.
"Oh right, that; well, they had to relocate to the Hastings' house; Hanna didn't let you know that?" Ashley asked glancing over at Wesley before turning back to Aria who was pulling her phone out of her purse.
"Uh, no, she didn't. None of the girls did." Aria replied with a frown.
"Well, I'm sorry about the confusion. It was nice to see you again Aria." Ashley said as she started to close the door.
"It was nice to see you again as well Ms Marin." Aria replied as she turned to Wesley and gave him an apologetic smile. "It looks like we're going over to Spencer's house instead." She said with a shrug.
"Where does Spencer live?" Wesley asked.
"A couple blocks over. But let me just grab something from my house real quick." Aria said as she nodded across the street to her own house.
"You live across the street from your friend?" Wesley asked.
"Yeah… it helped before my family moved to Iceland for a year, you know, to be close to a friend; but since we got back, it hasn't really mattered much where my family lives; my friends and I are always together at each other's houses." Aria explained.
With a small nod in understanding, Wesley followed Aria across the street to her house. He didn't know what she wanted to get, but he didn't care. After walking across the street, Aria stopped suddenly and turned to Wesley. When he gave her an odd look, Aria took a deep breath and tried to calm the nervous feeling that had fallen upon her.
"Is everything okay Aria?" Wesley asked.
"My dad is here." Aria replied.
"So you're saying that our conversation with your dad is happening sooner than we thought." Wesley said.
"That is exactly what I'm saying." Aria said with a sigh.
"I guess the only thing to do is get it over with." Wesley said as he took Aria's hand in his and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
"I guess so." Aria agreed.
Turning around, Aria led Wesley into the house. After looking in the kitchen and living room, and not seeing her dad in either room, Aria called out for him.
"Dad? Are you here?" Aria asked.
"I'll be right there sweetheart." Byron called back.
"Okay, we'll be in the living room." Aria said.
"We?" Byron asked as he came down the stairs.
"Uh, yeah, we. There's someone that I would like you to meet." Aria said as she glanced at Wesley then up at her dad.
"Who's this?" Byron asked as he eyed Wesley carefully before his eyes drifted to where Wesley and Aria were holding hands.
"Dad, please don't freak out, but this is Ezra's brother, Wesley." Aria said before turning to Wesley. "Wesley, this is my dad, Byron. While you two talk and get to know each other, I need to grab something from my room." She finished before heading upstairs so that her dad and Wesley could talk.
"Ezra's brother?" Byron asked skeptically.
"I'm nothing like my brother; I am more responsible now than my brother has ever been." Wesley said slowly.
"I heard that from your brother… at least the part about being responsible. Yet he still decided to pursue a relationship with my daughter while she was still his student." Byron said as he folded his arms across his chest and stared at Wesley.
"Sir, my brother got a girl pregnant when he was in high school, and the girl had the baby, despite my mother trying to pay her off to take care of it; I would never be so careless as to do anything like that, to anyone." Wesley explained.
"My daughter was dating a guy who has a kid?" Byron asked and even Wesley could tell that the older male was getting pissed.
"He didn't know that he had a kid; he actually just found out today." Wesley said quickly.
"Are you trying to justify Aria's relationship with your brother as being okay because he didn't know that he had a kid?" Byron asked.
"No sir, that's not what I'm trying to do at all. All I'm trying to say is that you are faulting him for something he didn't even know. Yes Ezra has made some bad decisions in his life, and he shouldn't have continued to date Aria after he found out that she was his student, but everyone makes mistakes in their life; the important thing is that now that Ezra knows about Malcolm, he is trying to make things right between him and his son's mother; sir, Ezra and Aria aren't together anymore." Wesley said as he stared Byron down.
"Are you dating my daughter now?" Byron asked.
"No sir. We want to get to know each other better as friends before we attempt any form of a relationship." Wesley replied.
"Do you like my daughter?" Byron asked.
"Yes sir, I do." Wesley said.
"Dad, there's something that Wesley and I need to tell you." Aria said as she stepped off of the last step and into the living room.
"What is it Aria?" Byron asked.
"We ran into Fridrik tonight. He informed me of something that I am not okay with; and frankly, neither is Wesley." Aria explained.
"What did he say?" Byron asked looking between Aria and Wesley.
"Do you remember that necklace that Fridrik gave me as we were getting ready to leave Iceland?" Aria asked.
"Yes, I do, but what does that have to do with…" Byron started to say but was cut off when Aria's phone started ringing.
"Excuse me." Aria said as she pulled her phone out of her to see who was calling. "It's Hanna, I'll be right back." She said before walking into the kitchen before answering the call. "Hey Han, what's up?" She asked as casually as possible.
"Where are you?" Hanna asked irritably.
"I'm at home; Wesley and I are talking to my dad since no one bothered to tell me that you guys weren't at your house." Aria replied.
"Emily said she was going to text you." Hanna commented.
"Well, she didn't, and now Wesley and I are talking to my dad about something that is actually pretty important, so we will probably be here for a while." Aria retorted.
"I'm sorry Aria; I thought she had let you know that we had to move to Emily's house." Hanna said apologetically.
"Did you move to Emily's house or Spencer's house? Because your mom said that you all had to move to Spencer's house." Aria said; she didn't like the fact that her friends weren't including her in what was going on.
"I told my mom that we were going to Emily's, she must have gotten confused." Hanna replied.
"Han, look, I'll introduce you and everyone else to Wesley some other time, but I don't think tonight is going to work out." Aria said with a sigh.
"Maybe we can all just go over to your house." Hanna suggested.
"Hanna, have you been listening to me at all? Wesley and I are talking to my dad about something important." Aria said while shaking her head.
"Okay, I get it. We'll see you tomorrow." Hanna said slowly.
"Tomorrow won't work either. I'll see you guys on Monday morning at school." Aria said before hanging up.
Walking into the living room, Aria looked between her father and Wesley. The look on her dad's face told Aria that Wesley had at least started to tell him about the encounter with Fridrik.
"Aria, what did you do with the necklace?" Byron asked.
"I gave it back to him and said that if it meant that I had to marry him, then I didn't want it." Aria said.
"Um, Aria, I hadn't gotten to that part yet." Wesley said quickly.
"You hadn't?" Aria asked in a small voice.
"No, I hadn't." Wesley repeated.
"Crap." Aria muttered.
