A/N - Not much Jaria in this but I hope you enjoy :)

Chapter Eleven
I Miss You

/I want you back
But you can't come back\

Giving up was the easy part. Forgetting was the hard part. It was like everything she said and saw just lead back to Jason. Like a circle. Aria badly missed him, even more than before he had texted her. Yes, Aria was hurt but she knew that it was her fault, for hurting Jason first. Of course Aria didn't want to, but there was A in the middle of this mess.

Still feeling bitter? Oh, poor little girl.
Just make sure not to end up passed out on your porch 'cause you better not expect Prince Charming to save you.
-A

What the hell did that mean?

Oh.

It was maybe the third or fourth time Aria had talked to Jason. He had been drunk of his ass and dumped on his front porch and Aria had taken him inside.

Aria was absolutely freezing in her shorts and tank top. Especially when it was forty-something degrees. She looked up and saw Alison waving at her from her bedroom window. Aria merely rolled her eyes as she picked up Ali's back which she "accidentally" dropped.

She walked slowly to the porch, her teeth clattering.

'What the hell?!'

Aria jumped back when she saw a guy passed out on the porch, face down.

'Jason?!' Aria bent down to see if he was awake. 'Jason. Jason? Wake up!' When he didn't move, Aria sighed. 'Jason? Oh my god, Jason?' Aria shook his shoulders gently. 'Jason.' She shook harder and he finally opened one eye.

'Aria?'

'What are you doing?' Aria pulled him up and he leaned on the wall for stability. 'Were you drunk?'

'I...I don't remember.'

Aria sighed loudly, looking him in the eye. She noticed a dark bruise on his forehead. 'Jason, your forehead…'

Jason touched it before wincing. 'How in the world did I get this?'

'Hey, don't.' Aria said, bringing his hand back down. 'Are you okay?'

'I think so.' Jason mumbled.

Aria pulled his arm and brought him inside. It was then when she realised his neck was also bleeding. She sat him down and carefully dabbed at his neck.

'Thank you, Pink Hair.' Jason said. Aria blushed as he reached his hand out and felt her pink streak.

'It's really okay.'

Jason leaned forehead and kissed her cheek. 'See you.'

Aria laughed at the memory. Back then, if anyone had told her that in only a year and a bit, she would be dating him, she'd think they were insane. No, dated him.

Aria sighed. I miss you, she thought, I miss you so much.

'Aria?'

The door opened and in came Ella.

'Hey Mom.' Aria mumbled. 'What's up?'

Ella looked down at Aria's bright pink tank top and pyjama pants (which had ducks on them) and paused. 'Just wear something nice and come downstairs.'

'Okay…' Aria muttered. She then looked down at her pants. 'Hey, these are nice!'

'Like a dress or something.' Ella smiled.

Aria shrugged and fished her wardrobe for anything that looked "nice". In the end, she just threw on a black flowy dress and went downstairs.

'So what's up?' Aria asked as she walked down the stairs. Ella looked up and smiled.

'So Aria, do you remember Holden Strauss?'

Aria widened her eyes. 'Holden!? Yeah, of course I remember.' She jumped down the two remaining stairs. 'Why?'

Ella smiled and gestured to her right. Holden had been Aria's childhood friend, and here he was, sitting at their kitchen table.

'Holden!' Aria smiled as she hugged him. 'It's been a really long time.'

'Yeah.' Holden said. 'It really has.'

'Hey, are you okay?'

Aria looked up and shrugged. It was probably their fourth meet-up and it reminded her too much of Jason.

'Is it...him?' Holden started. 'Your mom said something about a break-up.'

Aria shook her head. 'It's nothing.'

'Okay.' Holden nodded slowly. They were silent for a little bit until the door of the Brew opened and in came someone - someone Aria knew too well.

Jason waited at the counter, after picking up a muffin. He looked around and his eyes stopped at Aria. Aria had seen him too and stared into his green eyes. She then snapped out of it and turned back to Holden.

'Is that him?' Holden whispered.

Aria took a breath before shaking her head. 'I don't know what you're talking about.' Aria stood up. 'You know...I'm going to head out.' She looked down at her feet, trying not to look at Jason.

Holden stood up next to her. 'Actually...can I ask you something? Outside?'

'Sure...' Aria walked out first. 'What is it?'

'I...need your help.'

'For...what?'

'I...' Holden lowered his voice. 'Recently, I started martial arts. And...I was asking if you could cover for me.'

Aria thought for a second. 'Why can't you tell your parents?'

'It's...it's complicated. So...what do you think? You can even visit me sometime.' Holden played with his fingers.

'Well...sure, I guess.' Aria smiled. 'So when is this martial arts thing?'

'Actually, I'm kind of late.' Holden said sheepishly. 'You don't have to come with me.' He said as Aria turned to follow him.

'I want to. It'd be something to kill time.' Aria smiled.

Aria had been following and covering for Holden for maybe several weeks now. It wasn't boring as hell like she thought it would've been but then again, it wasn't exactly fun seeing him almost kill a guy. Aria had to admit, Holden was fun to be around and was a great friend but...there was no way she was going to move on with him. Not when she was still sore with Jason. Her mom asked her many times about her interest in Holden. Holden was nice but just as a friend. Not a boyfriend.

'He's single. You're single. What's the problem?' Her mom asked as she was talking with Aria on her bed.

'Mom, Holden's nice and all, but I really don't want to, you know, be with him.' Aria said. 'Not when...'

Aria's new single life was going great...well, sort of. A seemed to stop sending them messages 24/7, now with both Toby and Jason out of the picture. And talking of pictures, Hanna was in deep trouble, and it may or may not have been A's fault. Hanna's wicked stepsister had been humiliated in front of the whole school because of one picture...revealing a lot of herself. And all of those pictures had come from Hanna's phone. It wasn't Hanna's fault, she wouldn't have done that, no matter how much she loathed the new beauty queen.

'If this is A...?' Hanna mumbled as she walked with the girls through the hallway. 'God...'

'Maybe it wasn't A. I mean, why would A want to do anything to help Kate?' Aria said. She opened her locker and saw a poster pinned on it. 'What on earth?'

'Truth Up Day.' Spencer said from beside her. 'Well, doesn't this look exciting.'

'Seeing as we're so used to lying.' sighed Emily. 'I wonder how this will go.'

'What...is that?' Emily pointed at the red coat on Spencer's kitchen table.

'I picked it up using "Vivian's" claim ticket.' Spencer said. Emily suddenly remembered finding Alison's fake ID as "Vivian Darkbloom" and how they found the claim ticket.

'Well, um...can I touch it?' Aria asked.

'Yeah, it's a rain coat, Aria, not a mummy.' Spencer laughed.

Aria rolled her eyes and fished the pockets for anything. She picked up a tiny crumpled piece of paper with a few numbers scrawled on it which Aria could only just make out as a phone number.

'Guys...I think we should call it.' Aria said. 'It might give us some clues.'

'I don't...' Emily hesitated, not picking up her phone.

'What, are you scared?' Spencer said.

'No!' Emily insisted. Emily slowly picked up her phone and dialled the number. When it went to voicemail, she hesitated again. 'I...um...well...'

Aria sighed and snatched the phone of Emily. 'Um, hi? This is...um...one of Vivian's friend. When you get this, can you call me back? Thank you.'

They all looked at each other and smiled. One step closer to bringing down A and who murdered Alison.

'Well, that wasn't too bad.' Aria said as they walked down the school corridor.

'Yeah, all we need to do is endure about twelve hours of telling the truth. Something, as you can see, we are very good at.' Emily sighed, kicking at the ground.

'Em,are you okay?' Spencer asked.

'Tamborelli isn't letting me back on the team because he doesn't want me to tarnish the team's image as he has a major sponsor on the hook.' Emily sighed loudly.

'What?!' Both Aria and Spencer said loudly, outraged.

'How long do we have to pay for picking up a stupid shovel?' Emily groaned.

'Look on the bright side, we've got the rain coat, and we'll soon have some answers.' Aria smiled weakly, holding Emily's hand.

'I hope so.' was all Emily said.

A/N - Sorry for the very rushed chapter. I will try and update later on today :)

So a question to any writers: is anyone's traffic graph and views acting strange? I mean, I can't see how many views I'm getting.