A/N: Last chapter! I am committed to doing a third story, Caleb has a birthday coming up. I have a few ideas for other installments, but the lack of response is disheartening. I will start the third story sometime in the next couple months. After that, I really am leaving it up to you. If I get as little response to #3 as I've had to #2, then #3 will be the last one. I hope you like the wrap-up to Dive Right In.
Chapter 9
The first thing that Hanna was aware of was sunlight. It burned behind her eyelids and she wondered how it could be daytime already. The sunlight was not what had woken her, though. The second thing Hanna noticed was an occasional beeping noise that was very familiar to her. She refused to open her eyes and she was just dozing off again when the beep repeated. Oh, it was her cellphone indicating she had a voicemail. Uuuuugggghhhh. She'd better get it. It could be her mother, or Spencer saying she was headed back. Hanna peeled her eyelids apart and hissed in pain from the way-too-bright sun. "AACCCKKK The cursed day star." Hanna knew no one else was awake to hear her. Sometimes, hell most of the time, she was just trying to entertain herself.
Hanna sat up and surveyed the wreckage from the previous night. A half-dozen or more empty water bottles littered the floor. The margarita glasses and pitcher were piled in the sink, along with the tray they'd used. The empty tequila bottle lay on its side on the open island, looking like its previous purpose was for "spin the bottle". They hadn't played that, had they? Someone had remembered to turn off the fireplace, that was good, and the suits on the hearth looked nice and dry. The same could not be said for the mound of wet towels on the kitchen floor. Spencer was probably going to make them wash those, oh, and all of the dry ones the threesome had used as bedding. Of course, Fitzy wouldn't have to help. He'd make his escape before then.
Hanna looked down and smiled at her friends, her close, intimate friends. They'd ended up sleeping the way they spent their evening, a tangled mess of limbs and bodies. Even after she sat up, Hanna saw Aria's arm was still draped across her lap. Aria was asleep on her stomach, her long dark hair was fanned across the floor above her head, leaving her back totally bare. Hanna fought the urge to trail kisses across the smooth expanse of porcelain skin. She shouldn't wake Aria up. But, maybe, once everyone got up, Hanna could suggest a group shower. She was very concerned about water conservation. How had Ezria responded to Hanna's last suggestion? Had they responded at all? She couldn't remember.
While Hanna considered making a Kardashian sex tape joke and seeing how it landed, the beeping of her phone repeated. Oh! Right, there was a reason she was upright. Hanna dragged herself over to her bag, where she'd dumped her phone. Picking it up Hanna read the screen; 1 missed call and 1 new voicemail, Caleb Rivers. Damnit, Hanna forgot to call and tell him goodnight. She shot off a text promising to call him once she was ready to leave Spencer's and apologizing for her forgetfulness. Suddenly, Hanna heard another beep, a different beep, a bad beep. Was that the security system's signal that the property's gate was being opened?
Without considering the fact that she was buck naked, Hanna jumped up and ran to the window. NO! No no no no no no, it was too early. Crap! Hanna spun around and leaped across the room to Aria's sleeping form. "Aria," Hanna said urgently, but softly. She didn't want to freak Aria out, she might freeze up and they so didn't have time. "Aria, sweetie, wake up!" Aria stirred and looked up at Hanna with confusion and concern.
"Hanna, what's wrong?" Aria tried to keep her voice down, but Ezra jerked awake from the sound of the girls talking. He looked at Hanna and knew he needed to be alert, now. Hanna was already jumping to her feet and scooping her things into her arms.
"What's wrong is it's 8 am and Spencer just drove through the gate!" Ezra and Aria sat bolt upright at the sound of a car door slamming. "Unless you have a way to become invisible, Ezra, Spencer is going to know you stayed over. Pretend to still be asleep!" Hanna scrambled her adorable backside up the stairs, calling over her shoulder, "I slept alone in Spencer's room!"
Aria and Ezra quickly gathered things more tightly into their "nest". It no longer looked like room had been saved for a third person. They settled into a position similar to how they slept at Ezra's and heard keys turning in the lock on the back door. Aria felt Ezra's heart start to race and lifted her head off his chest to look into his eyes. "It's fine, Babe." Aria caressed Ezra's cheek and whispered, "I promise to protect you from the big, bad Spencer." He shot her a look and Aria gave him a quick kiss before collapsing back down in feigned slumber.
Ezra concentrated on appearing relaxed, unaware of what was happening around him. The back door opened, and he heard keys and other things landing on the island. He took slow even breaths and focused on how wonderful Aria felt in his arms. He'd shot her a withering look, but they both knew he was a little bit afraid of Spencer. He thought any sane person should be a little afraid of her. But he didn't need protection, he was a grown-up. It wasn't like he had to stand up to Spencer's parents. Now they were scary. Ezra felt Spencer looming over Aria and him. How long were they staying "asleep"? Should he just follow what Aria did? Aria's leg began to jiggle a bit, and Ezra recognized that Spencer was nudging her foot.
"Aria, Ezra, please wake up." Ezra felt Aria begin to squirm. Her bare skin rubbing against his would certainly wake him up, and then some. As if hearing his thoughts, Aria rolled partway onto her back, propped up by his bare chest. She just so happened to put her arm on his abdomen, her hand resting on his groin. The back of her hand grazed against his flaccid penis and Ezra struggled not to imagine Aria turning her hand and wrapping her fingers around his girth. That was the thing about the way Aria teased him. She made it easy to stop her, if that was what Ezra wanted to do, it was just damn near impossible to find the desire to stop her.
Aria cracked her eyes open and stared up at her best friend. She adopted a confused expression. "Hey, Spence. God, is it lunch time already?" Spencer shook her head.
"No, it's actually only 8:00." Aria nodded and let her eyes droop.
"Ok, that's good." Aria tucked herself into Ezra's side, making sure to brush her fingers across Ezra's member as she moved her arm to wrap around his torso. Then she replaced her arm with her leg and rubbed firmly against his burgeoning erection. Ezra groaned and covered by stretching his arms and legs, before wrapping Aria back up in his arms.
Spencer rolled her eyes. "Aria, please, stay awake," her voice was a little louder this time. Her tone was a bit more demanding. Aria really wanted to sell the idea that she was just now waking up, but she also wanted to stick it to Spencer a smidge. Sure, this was Spencer's house, but she ordered Aria to stay over and get drunk. Now she'd decided 8:00 was up and at 'em time? WTF? Still, Spencer didn't order Aria to invite her boyfriend over and screw him in the great room. That was the only thing Spencer could see had happened, and Aria would put up with a lot to keep it that way. She opened her eyes wider and attempted to sit up, only to have Ezra keep her locked in his embrace. Oops, it appeared she miscalculated how much she was turning Ezra on. Now, he was either trying to keep her pressed against him for pleasure, or to get back at her for being such a tease. She deserved it, she welcomed it, but Spencer wasn't going to go away just so she and Ezra could play out a sexual battle of wills.
"Sorry, Spence. Hang on." Aria wiggled her arms free and brushed one hand through Ezra's loose curls. She brought her other hand down his side and found the spot between his side muscles and his back muscles. She dug her fingers in and held them still. "Ez, baby. Spencer's back. Come on, we both know you're not really that asleep." Aria pressed her fingers more into his side and he couldn't help but shift. She wasn't hurting him, she was using his most ticklish spot against him. She was going to win this. If she really dug in he'd crack-up. The only way he'd keep his arms around her at that point would be to roll, twist, and flop about. He was naked, Spencer was present, it was never going to happen. She was going to win, but sometimes, it's better to lose. So, Aria released his side and whispered, "You win. I was very wicked. If you play nice for now, I'll let you decide how to 'punish' me tonight."
Ezra smiled and released Aria, stretching his arms over his head. He didn't know why Aria had done that. She obviously had a win in the bag, he was resigned to his fate. But instead, she handed the win to him. He would have to make very sure that her punishment was even better for her than it was for him. It was only fair. Ezra opened his eyes to a very "not amused" Spencer Hastings. Uncharacteristically, he took the glare in stride. "Good morning, Spencer. Sorry about that, I could hear you, but I was having a really vivid dream and it was hard to fully wake-up." He gathered more covers around him and then laid back and let the girls talk. He traced lazy shapes on Aria's bare back and imagined what they might do for the rest of the day.
Aria was sitting with her knees gathered to her chest, her arms wrapped loosely around her legs. She blinked repeatedly, trying to clear her vision. She had no idea what time they'd gone to sleep, but she knew 8:00 was not far enough away from it. "You're back really early. Is everything ok?" Spencer's annoyed expression softened a little, but not much.
"Everything's fine. Where is Emily's car?" When Spencer had left, it was parked right out front.
"With Emily over at Paige's." Aria was glad Spencer was starting with easy questions.
"Oh, she ended up going over to Paige's, after all?" Spencer was trying to figure out just how the sleepover had changed so much while she was gone. Aria nodded and yawned.
"Pretty much the minute you left. Be proud of us. Hanna and I were left without any supervision and a pitcher of margaritas and I'm pretty sure nothing got broken." Both Aria and Hanna were known to be kind of clumsy when drunk. Spencer looked around the room, doing a quick check to see if Aria was right. The room seemed free of damage and Hanna.
"Where is Hanna?" Aria pulled the towel slightly away from her chest and looked down, "searching" for Hanna. She cocked her head and pursed her lips as if trying to remember. Then she looked over her shoulder at Ezra.
"Baby? What did we do with Hanna?" Aria was turned away from Spencer, so she made her eyes wide and waggled her eyebrows. Ezra loved how playful Aria was being, "something" must have left her in a good mood, despite the hour.
"Huh, I swear she was here just a minute ago." Ezra bit the inside of his lip to keep from laughing at his joke, that also happened to be true.
Aria struggled to school her face before facing Spencer again. Once she wasn't on the verge of laughing, she looked back up at her friend. "She's upstairs in your room, probably still sleeping."
Spencer nodded and then grimaced as something occurred to her. "Please tell me she's alone." Spencer still shuddered when she thought about her Nana's couch. She might have to get a new bed if Hanna and Caleb…
Aria saw the distressed look on Spencer's face and skipped the sarcastic comment she'd been about to make. "She's alone. Caleb was having a bro night with Lucas, so I told her we could just share Ezra." She shouldn't be pushing her luck, but it was just so much fun to tell a truth so outrageous that everybody assumes you're kidding.
Spencer was relieved that she got to keep her comfy bed, but that still left the little matter of the lovebirds in front of her. "I assume you're both naked under there?" Spencer knew that from an artistic viewpoint, Ezra and Aria would both be beautiful. But that did not mean that Spencer wanted to see it.
Aria rolled her eyes. "Obviously." Spencer scrunched up her face.
"Aria," she positively whined. Aria was reminded that she was hungover by the way that whine grated on her. She was trying to keep things fun and light. Spencer was trying to put her on the defensive. She didn't want to fight, but she was going to stand up for herself.
"What? We're on the floor. Look, we even shoved the couch way over there. Do you want me to shampoo the rug?"
Ezra thought it would be better if he removed himself from the situation. He made sure to stay covered up while he reached out and grabbed the robe he had worn, last night. He slid it onto his arms and tied the belt, before turning around as he stood up, so he didn't "flash" Spencer. He grabbed his bag and headed toward the bathroom when Spencer called after him, "That's my dad's robe."
Ezra cringed a little, but called back, "I figured."
Spencer turned back to Aria, only to find that she had buried herself under towels and robes. The only thing Spencer could see was dark hair peeking out. She sighed and sat down next to the pile of linens. She knew she was being too hard on Aria. If she had come home at lunchtime, Ezra would have been gone, Aria would have cleaned everything up, and Spencer would never have known. It was just, her night was god awful, she felt used and unappreciated by Melissa, and then she came home to the last scene of a teenage sex comedy. She felt like Aria had taken advantage of the situation and her. How would Aria feel if she and Toby had sex in her house…aw fuck. Spencer hated hypocrites, especially when the hypocrite was her.
The previous spring, Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery took a short trip to celebrate their anniversary. The girls had a sleepover at Aria's where they watched movies and drank wine left over from the Montgomerys' last faculty mixer. When the rest of the girls had fallen asleep, Spencer found herself alone. She was wired, drunk, and horny. She woke up Toby and invited him over. The girls were upstairs in Aria's room, so Spencer brought Toby into the den. He had been hesitant, at first. But once he agreed, it was amazing. Spencer was extremely turned on by the idea that they might get caught. Toby was excited by how enthusiastic Spencer was. They had fucked each other's brains out for three-ish hours. They did it on the rug, the sofa, once on Byron's desk and even standing with Spencer shoved up against a post. Afterward, they cleaned everything, Toby went home, and Spencer got away with it.
Feeling like a huge jerk, Spencer prodded Aria and said softly, "Aria? Aria? I'm sorry." Aria moved the towel off of her eyes and looked at Spencer with suspicion. "I am, really. I'm glad that you guys had fun after everything got flipped on its head. I mean, you did have fun, riiight?"
Aria snorted and got a huge smile on her face. "Yes, I had fun." Spencer decided to tease Aria just a little bit more.
"And everything was…good?" Spencer made "good" sound very suggestive and Aria blushed.
"It's Ezra. It's always good." Aria caught Spencer by surprise with her response and Spencer turned bright red.
"Gotcha. Did you let Hanna get any sleep?" Spencer had gathered from different stories and jokes that Aria and Ezra told, that Aria was somewhat loud, in bed.
Aria covered her face with the towel again and said, "You'll have to ask Hanna."
"Ask Hanna what?" Hanna said through a yawn as she came down the stairs. She was in her pink fleece pajamas with unicorn-kitties all over them.
Aria stayed buried and called out, loudly, "Spencer wants to know if Ezra and I let you get any sleep, or if we kept you up with sounds of our lovemaking?" If she was embarrassed, then Aria was going to embarrass Spencer, too. Sure enough, Spencer spluttered.
Hanna plopped down on Aria's other side. "Nope, I was not kept awake, or woken up by any sounds. Until Caleb called me on my cell phone. Then I heard voices down here, and I knew you would be missing me, so here I am." Hanna smiled at Spencer, then frowned and looked Spencer over, carefully. "Ok, what did she do?"
"Who?" Spencer asked, not sure what Hanna was seeing.
"Who? Jaws," Hanna replied, referencing Spencer's ringtone. "It's barely 8, which means you got on the road at 7, which means you were up at 6, and you never get up that early without a really good reason, so what did she do?" Hanna knew she was right, she just had to wait for Spencer to admit it.
"It was more what she didn't do. She didn't call me and tell me I didn't need to come. I got to the townhouse and Melissa wasn't outside, but her lights were on. I knocked on the door, and she answered in her pajamas, sleep mask on her forehead. Her response was like, 'Oh, right. I got in.' And then she acted put out that I needed to stay the night." While listening to the story Aria sat up and held the towel to her chest. She stared at Spencer, incredulously.
"How did she get in?" Melissa was a thoughtless bitch, but she wasn't flighty or stupid. If she said she was locked out, then she had been locked out. What changed?
"Oh, see, this is the best part. She dropped her keys in the cab. The guy's next passenger found them and gave them to the driver. After he dropped the passenger off, he came back to Melissa's to return them. And this happened…10 minutes after I left to go there. If she had called, like any normal person, I could have turned around, come back and actually enjoyed my night."
Aria turned her head to face Hanna. They shared a subtle but meaningful look. Melissa Monster had struck again, booooo. Melissa had ruined Spencer's sleepover, sad. Melissa was solely responsible for one of the most amazing nights either girl had ever had. So, maybe, just this once…Aria and Hanna both silently cheered for Melissa, and thanked God that Spencer had the most wicked, most evil, meanest sister of all time.
Blessings to all
