Aria woke up early and went downstairs, sitting down and turning on the television to the news. She drew her knees up to her chest and listening only slightly. The news, Aria thought, was pathetic next to the things she and her friend were constantly putting up with. She then mentally chastised herself, telling herself that though what they went through was horrid, some of the things that were on the news could potentially be as bad in their own ways.
Flipping channels absentmindedly, Aria looked up and out the window through which beams of sunlight slanted through. The morning, she guessed, was already warm, as you would expect on a summer morning. Just then, however, on the sidewalk, she saw an odd sight, that she certainly did not expect to see. A figure stood, wearing all black and a black sweatshirt. It had to be 'A.'
Just then, the figure turned around, and stared right at Aria. The person smirked under their mask, and then walked on down the sidewalk as though nothing had ever happened. Aria stared in shock and fear after the person, standing up quickly, the TV forgotten, and rushing over to the window. She gazed out confusedly, wondering if she had really seen 'A' or if her mind was merely playing some sick idea of a trick on her.
But she knew it was real; there was no way it couldn't be. It was certainly no piece of her imagination. Shortly after her sighting of their stalker, when Aria had calmed down, Spencer came downstairs yawning and rubbing her eyes tiredly. Aria flashed a smile as she came down the steps, and then turned back to her channel flipping.
Spencer smiled back at her and went to get a drink and a muffin from the kitchen before returning and plopping down next to Aria, looking at the TV as she finally stopped on ABC Family, where they were showing a Harry Potter movie marathon. Spencer grinned at her, her eyes twinkling with amusement.
"You flip all those channels, Aria, and decide to stop on a Harry Potter marathon. That's just like you." Aria laughed, her eyes sparkling, inwardly feeling very excited that she had stumbled upon Harry Potter.
Aria looked at Spencer with a slightly playful expression alight her face and said in response to her jokingly, "What else would you expect?" Spencer chuckled as a response and the two of them were silent, not knowing exactly what to say.
"I'm glad you're happier," Spencer murmured in a soft tone, a ghost of a smile gracing her lips. "It hurts me to see you broken."
Spencer's shorter friend looked at her with a bright smile and replied truthfully, "So am I." The two of them fell silent once more. But then, Aria saw it again. It was merely out of the corner of her eye, and she hardly caught it, but she saw a flash of black and snapped her head up to see the masked person walking past again.
"Did you see that?" Aria gasped, turning her head to look at Spencer, searching for any sign that her friend might have seen the person walk past. But the lanky girl looked at her with a confused look, and Aria was suddenly well aware that she had indeed not seen the figure that had to be 'A' walk past the house suspiciously.
"See what?" Spencer questioned, but Aria was already shaking her head and forcing a smile.
"Nothing; just something silly… it was my imagination." She said, making her smile a little wider, relaxing when, after looking at her for a moment, Spencer nodded and broke eye contact. Aria let out a breath she hadn't been aware that she was holding and crossed her arms, thinking how lucky she had been to fool Spencer like that.
After a few minutes, Spencer glanced at Aria again and said, "Hey, why don't we do something fun today? Like, maybe we could go to the Brew and then go shopping." Aria smirked with a twinkle in her eye as she cast a glance over at Spencer.
"Spencer Hastings, are you turning into Hanna? Shopping?" Aria laughed, playfully mocking the idea that Hanna was always the fashonista and one to want to go shopping, and that naturally from Spencer you'd expect a suggestion along the lines of 'let's go do homework for fun.' Spencer just rolled her eyes and laughed.
"But yeah," Aria said in response to her suggestion, "I think that's a great idea." Spencer smiled brightly and the two of them went to get ready and head out. Aria occupied the bathroom once she'd gotten changed in order to apply makeup and make sure her hair looked alright. When she finished, her phone went off. Sighing with a feeling of dread, she read the text message.
'Risking going out, are we? I'm proud of you. –A'
Aria rolled her eyes, irritated at 'A,' and left the bathroom, meeting Spencer and informing her that she was ready. Spencer smiled, having been ready, and the two of them went out to head to the Brew and grab coffee before going on a shopping spree.
They did just this, and things were going quite well, with no text messages or weird events that could have been from 'A,' all day. However, that phenomenon could only last so long. As the two of them headed out of the mall, they both saw it this time. A person stood, leaning against the brick wall, reading a newspaper.
The person peered up over the edge of the newspaper as Spencer and Aria walked past, and both of them looked at the figure curiously. It was the same masked, entirely black-dressed person that had walked past Spencer's house twice that morning. As soon as the two girls noticed, Aria glared at the person, and Spencer took Aria's arm and pulled her closer as they walked to Spencer's car.
When they got to the car, they got in swiftly and hurried off, not wanting to risk being followed by the person in black. For a little bit, they merely sat there in tense silence, Aria white as a ghost and Spencer taking sharp breaths, a slight fear in her eyes.
"'A' is everywhere," Aria muttered finally, sounding downright irritated. "We can never get a moment of peace. Want to try and have a nice day? Oh, too bad, 'A' is going to ruin it. You can't have one moment of happiness it seems." Spencer swallowed and steadied her breathing before nodding in understanding and agreement.
"Oh well," Spencer said finally, "At least we got to have fun before that," Spencer smiled at Aria. "'A' bothered to wait at least until we were leaving." Aria was silent and motionless momentarily before giving a slight nod.
"Yeah," Aria agreed, and the two of them fell into a more comfortable silence this time. Soon, they pulled up at Spencer's house, and the two of them got their things and went inside, each trying to take their minds off of the events that occurred just before. Spencer looked at the time, thinking of ways to try and brighten up the situation.
"Hey, Aria, why don't we see what Hanna and Emily are up to? Maybe they can come over and we can just talk and have fun. Plus, I love seeing them together. They make an adorable couple." Aria smiled brightly at Spencer's suggestion, and she nodded eagerly, before agreeing with the fact that they were a cute couple and it was wonderful seeing them as such a couple.
Meanwhile, previously that morning, Hanna awoke before Emily. She watched the other girl sleeping for a little bit, thinking she ought to let her sleep in, before her boredom got the best of her and she woke up Emily. She grinned brightly when she saw Emily sleepily blink her eyes a few times before yawning and sitting up.
"You know Emily; you're awfully cute when you wake up." Hanna giggled, earning a playful whack from Emily as a response to her joking. Emily yawned again as she finished waking up completely and then looked at Hanna, her eyes bright with the newness of being awake.
"Why did you have to wake me up?" Emily whined, "I was having the best dream. And of course, you had to go and wake me up."
Hanna sighed, looking at Emily with a slightly guilty expression written upon her face. "It was boring watching you just sleep. It was cute at first, but then it just got really boring. I'm sorry, waking you was against my better judgment, but it needed to be done." Emily rolled her eyes, but then smiled with a soft playfulness at Hanna.
"It's no problem. I'd probably wake you up, too. I love you, you goof." Emily leaned forward and planted a soft kiss on her girlfriend's lips before sitting back and smiling at Hanna, who was smiling with joy in her eyes and features everywhere.
"Come on, then." Hanna said, standing up and taking Emily's hand to pull her out of bed to her feet. "Let's go get this day started, shall we?" Emily nodded eagerly and the two of got dressed and made their hair look decent before heading downstairs. Emily sat at the table while Hanna got breakfast ready. She then gave Emily her breakfast and sat down across from her.
"So, what should we do today?" Emily asked the blonde girl sitting before her curiously over breakfast. Hanna got a thinking look on her face as she ate, clearly trying to think up ideas of things for them to do in their free time. Then she got a very bright and excited look on her face.
"Let's have a date!" Hanna said with a huge smile on her face. "We haven't had any real dates yet, so let's go on a date. We can go somewhere nice for lunch, and then we can go see a movie or something. What do you say?"
Emily smiled and said, "I think that's a great idea Hanna." For the rest of the morning, they got ready for their date, and then when the time came they went out. They went to a fancy restaurant, where the waiter immediately started trying to hit on both of them, apparently not getting the hint that Hanna and Emily were not two single girls but two girls in a relationship with each other.
So, Hanna straight up told him, and the look on his face was one of those priceless reactions that you wish you could have gotten on camera. After that issue was solved, Hanna and Emily were free to spend their day as they pleased, so long as no other guys came along and tried to flirt with either of them.
When they had finished lunch, Hanna and Emily headed to the movie theater to see a romantic movie and cuddle. After a little debate over the romance movies they could see, they decided on one and went to see it. The two of them cuddled throughout the entire movie, and between the two of them managed to eat three large bags of popcorn.
When the movie ended, the two of them planned to head home and just hang out for a while before seeing if Aria and Spencer were willing to hang out with them too. However, as they went to leave the movie theater, they saw a person walking toward the mall on the sidewalk, wearing all black and a mask. It had to be "A." The two of them exchanged a startled glance and hurried to the car.
They got home and walked inside, beginning to talk excitedly about what had just happened, both trying to figure out what on earth was going on, why "A" just blatantly walked straight past them on the street. They came up with a few ridiculous ideas, and a few good ideas that could potentially make sense, but none of them made perfect sense.
Emily decided to call Spencer, and just as she was going to, she herself got a call from Spencer. Surprised by this, she picked up the phone and held it up to her ear, asking a tentative "Hello?" Spencer asked if they wanted to come over, and she was happy to oblige.
When they got to the Hastings' house and walked in, Hanna and Emily kept serious faces on as they sat down with Aria and Spencer.
"What's up?" Aria asked, curious about their strange expressions.
"We saw 'A.'" Emily explained.
Aria and Spencer looked at each other in surprise, and then at Emily and Hanna, who also looked a little shocked at Aria and Spencer's reactions. So, Spencer explained.
"We saw 'A' too."
Ternernernerner
Ohmygosh I love you guys. I really do. All of my reviewers. You just make me so happy. And my followers, gah. You're amazing. Those who favorite, omg, how I love you all so much.
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I hope you all like this chapter, please give me suggestions, and to my fabulous followers, I'll be trying to update more.
Until next time,
Xoxo,
-England