I Dreamed a Dream

Aria's POV

My heels clacked loudly and pronounced as I walked quickly out of Mr. Fitz's English classroom to the nurse's office.

"Name?" the nurse said without looking up from her computer screen.

"Aria Montgomery," I said quickly, only wanting to close my mouth again for fear that I would vomit all over the floor.

She pointed me towards a cot and said curtly,

"What's the problem?"

"I don't feel well. I feel like I might throw up," I said as my head began to spin.

I tried to squeeze my eyes shut, but nothing was helping the dizzy sensation and tunnel vision.

"Aria?" I heard a soft and feminine, but commandingly familiar voice call out.

My eyes fluttered open to see Alison's face framed by her shiny and cascading curls.

"Ali?" I croaked out as I blinked my bleary eyes several times.

She let out a wicked laugh, "Oh, Aria. Poor you. You would be so much better off if I were here to guide you through all your boy problems. Who would've thought that you'd be stuck between Professor McHottie and Noel Kahn?"

I reached out a shaky hand to touch her, and her perfectly manicured fingers wrapped around it.

"Ali…how?" I felt my breath hitch as she pulled me into a hug.

"I've missed you all so much. Especially you, Aria, you were always different from the others. Don't tell them, but you were always my favorite," she gave me a wink, hiding her icy blue eyes for a moment.

"Aria?" I heard a disinterested voice call out once again.

My eyes opened slowly, but this time I didn't see Ali's angelic face hovering above me. I saw Nurse Linda's wrinkled and bored face leaning over me.

My mouth gaped open, "I…"

"You passed out, Aria. I called your parents, and one of them is going to come take you to the doctor's. Just relax," she turned away and began typing away on her computer again.

I leaned back against the pillow on the cot in disbelief. My dream, or hallucination, had been so real, so vivid. It felt more real than anything else that had happened over the past few days – the past couple months, really.


"Aria," Spencer said sternly, "I'm telling you that there is no way you saw Ali in the nurse's office."

I shook my head and let out a breath that I had been holding while awaiting her response.

"Spencer, you don't understand. It was more real than you and me talking right now. I could smell the cream rinse in her hair, feel her soft hands…I…"

Spencer pursed her lips and sighed, "Aria, we all miss Ali. Maybe this is your way of coping. Not to mention that you have a fever and are dehydrated, so I'm surprised that you're allowed to be here right now."

"I snuck out," I saw Spencer's disapproving glare, "not that it matters how I got here. I'm here," I said defensively as I plopped down on her plush bed.

"So, how are things with you and Noel?" she asked carefully as she turned her body to face me from her perch on the edge of her bed.

I didn't really know the answer to that question, so I decided being vague was the best approach.

"Fine," I said with a decisive nod.

"And things with Mr. Fitz?" she asked with a slightly higher voice.

"Spencer, I want to tell you something, but I don't want you to freak."

I eyed her and tried to gauge her mood before dropping an atomic bomb on our non-parent approved sleepover.

"Ok," she said as she gave me a once over and winced for the impact of my words.

"Ezra," I saw her body tense at me calling him by his first name, "Mr. Fitz, and I had sex…last night."

I swear I saw Spencer go through the stages of denial and grief.

"You what?" she asked as she stared at me through slightly narrowed eyes. "Does Noel know?"

"Are you crazy?" I couldn't help but laugh at what had to be a joke. "Noel does not know, and it needs to stay that way. I really like him, but I just…"

Spencer sucked in a breath as she waited for what I would say.

"Please don't say you love him," she whispered with her eyes closed.

"I think I might," I murmured back as I covered my hot and flushed face with my hands, "but I think I'm falling in love with Noel Kahn, too."

A/N:

Sorry it took a little longer than normal to update! Keep up the reviews, please! Xoxo, PenGirl97