CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

"Where are we going?" Aria asked Spencer as they walked down the sidewalk. She looked into random windows not seeing anything interesting at all, so she knew Spencer wasn't out to go shopping or anything.

"I just need to find someone," Spencer said walking faster. Aria's short legs couldn't keep up.

"Spence, slow down," Aria said, but Spencer had already stopped in front of a door. It had a 'Sorry We're Closed' sign hanging on the front of it. Spencer got closer to look inside, "It says they're closed. Nobody is in there," Aria said not yet noticing where they were.

"I just wanted to make sure," Spencer said backing away from the door, "Some people stay late, but keep the sign up," she told Aria.

"Why are we at the DiLaurentis's office?" Aria asked. Literally, just a week ago Spencer was sure Jason and his friends were a team being 'A' and now Jason wasn't. Or he was lower on the list.

"I just need to talk to Jason about something," Spencer said, "But he's not here, so I'll have to wait until he's home."

"Why didn't you just do that before?" Aria asked, "He lives right across the street. You wasted gas when you could have just walked over," Aria said.

"Remind me why I brought you with me?" Spencer looked asked Aria, "And I'm staying with you, so I'd have to drive either way."

"Not as far. And I don't know," she said, "I was fine reading at home or doing homework. You could have asked Hanna or Emily."

"Hanna and Ms. Marin are setting up a party for Emily and the swim team. Emily is still at the school with the team," Spencer said.

"Oh, so I was your last resort," Aria said faking unhappiness, "I get it. I'll remember that next time you need me for something. I'll know you don't really need me. You just have to settle for me."

"Oh hush," Spencer said, "Let's just head back home. Do you know what time Em's party is?" she asked.

"Later," Aria said not knowing the exact time, "Call Hanna and ask. I'm not a calendar."

When they turned to go back to the car Spencer saw Jason standing across the street at a fruit stand. He was talking to a girl. She could only see the back of the girl, so she didn't know who it was or whether or not she knew them. She linked her arm through Aria's and started walking towards them. Aria noticed Jason talking to the girl and felt a twinge of jealousy. She had never felt that before and she didn't like it. She didn't think she would be the jealous type and she didn't want to be. She couldn't hear what they were talking about, which made it worse for her. The jealousy disappeared when the girl turned around and she saw that it was Maya. Maya didn't seem to notice Aria or Spencer because she walked right past them without saying anything or acknowledging them at all.

Again, Spencer took off faster than Aria could keep up to talk to Jason. She didn't even try to stop her. Whatever she had to say was obviously important.

"Yeah, I only work a couple hours a day," Jason said. Aria could have told Spencer that, but she was on a mission, "Getting the place up and running again," he told her, "Did your father send you?" he asked

"No, I haven't talked to him," Spencer said.

"Yeah, she's been hiding out at my place," Aria spoke up. Jason looked over as if noticing she was there for the first time.

"Aria? Babe, why are you hiding under there?" Jason asked pulling the hood of her shirt down, "I couldn't even see your face."

"Because she woke me up and I didn't have time to get ready and I look awful," she replied, "Talk to her. Get her out of my house," Aria told Jason.

"Hey!" Spencer exclaimed, "You said you didn't mind me in your house," she said.

"I don't. But you need to go home at some point," Aria told her.

"Fine," Spencer said, "We are gonna go over there and talk," she said gesturing to park across the street with multiple benches and people walking around.

"What am I supposed to do?" Aria asked looking between Spencer and Jason, "Stand here and look at fruit?" she asked, "You know what, give me your keys I'll go sit in the car," Aria said irritably holding her hand out for Spencer's car keys.

"Aria, you told us to go talk," Spencer said.

"Yeah, I know. It's fine," Aria said, "I just didn't think it would be some huge secret between my best friend and my boyfriend that I'm not allowed to know about," Aria said taking Spencer's keys, "The 'Aria' half of Team Sparia will be in the car while whatever this team is goes to talk about your secrets," Aria said taking off towards Spencer's car.

She knew she was being a little childish, but she and Spencer were just talking about her being scared about keeping her secrets from Jason the other day and now Spencer and Jason were keeping something from her.

Later that night at Emily's party Aria stuck close to Hanna. The two were icing more shark shaped cookies while Emily and her teammates watched videos of their swim thing.

"What's going on with you?" Hanna asked.

"Nothing," Aria said grabbing another cookie off the cookie sheet, "Why?"

"You won't talk to Spencer who has tried to talk to you a few times already," Hanna said, "What's going on?" she asked.

"She just upset me this morning and I'm not quite over it yet," Aria said, "I'll be good in a while."

"You're probably spending way too much time together with her in your house," Hanna said, "Emily and I went through that phase and Spencer isn't even really living with you," Hanna said.

"Spencer and Jason are keeping something from me and I don't like it," Aria said.

"Ohhh," Hanna said, "Do you have any idea what it is?" she asked.

"Nope," Aria replied, "They were talking about Spencer's dad and then clammed up and then basically told me to get lost because I can't know what they're talking about," Aria said, "So, I went back to Spencer's car and played games on my phone for nearly an hour."

"Have you talked to Jason?" Hanna asked.

"He texted me a couple times, but I haven't responded yet," Aria said, "I haven't even looked at the texts yet."

"What if it's an emergency or something?" Hanna asked.

"He probably has Spencer's number. He can call her," Aria said. Hanna raised an eyebrow, "I know I'm being childish. I'm allowed to every now and then."

"Hanna," Ashley Marin walked into the room, "Put down the icing. We've been invited to the police station," she said.

"Why?" Hanna asked.

"I don't know. They wouldn't tell me. But we have to go," Ms. Marin said.

Hanna put down the cookie she was icing and washed her hands. She grabbed her jacket and followed her mom out of the house.

"What just happened?" Spencer and Emily walked up to Aria.

"The police called her to the station," Aria said, "I'm not sure why," she told them not looking up from what she was doing, "I guess we'll find out when they get back," she said. Emily grabbed a plate of cookies and started walking around passing them out to people.

"Aria, are you still mad at me?" she asked.

"Not really," Aria said, "I'm just upset because of the conversation we had about me keeping secrets from Jason and now you and Jason are keeping something from me," she told Spencer, "I'm not mad, just…frustrated. I'll get over it," she said, "I think we have enough cookies for now," Aria said mostly because she didn't want to ice anymore cookies.

"I think you should call Jason," Spencer said, "He probably thinks you're mad at him too," Aria shrugged.

"He's texted me I just haven't replied," she said.

"Well, maybe you should," Spencer said.

"I'm getting a headache," Aria said not wanting to listen anymore, "I'm gonna go upstairs and lay down," she told Spencer and walked upstairs to lay down in Hanna's room.

Taking her phone from her pocket she looked at the texts Jason had sent her.

JASON: Call me?

JASON: Please don't be upset. I just can't tell you right now. Please call me.

She found Jason's contact in her phone and called putting the phone to her ear. He picked up after a couple rings.

"Hey," he answered drowsily.

"Did I wake you up?" Aria asked.

"I just dozed off for a minute," he said, "I wasn't sleeping," he told her.

"Oh. Okay," she said, "Um…you asked me to call so I'm calling," she said.

"Yeah," he said, "You were pretty upset this morning and I didn't want you to be mad at me. I just wanted to talk to you," he told her.

"What about?" she asked.

"I just don't want you thinking I'm keeping things from you," he told her, "It's just this one thing I can't talk about right now. I'll tell you when I can, but I can't right now," he said, "Me and Spencer aren't trying to keep you out of the loop, we just can't talk about it yet."

"Okay," Aria replied, "Can you tell me why you were talking to Maya?" she asked.

"Yeah. She has a bag of Alison's stuff and wanted to let me know," he told her, "She asked if I wanted it. I figured you girls might, so I asked her to drop it off when she could," Jason said, "She just dropped it on the porch a little while ago."

"But she was just here," Aria said, "At Hanna's."

"Well, someone dropped it off," Jason said, "There was a knock on the door and when I opened it the bag was there. I guess one of her parents could have dropped it off or something."

"I guess," Aria said. They didn't say anything for a few minutes before Aria spoke again, "I'm sorry I was mean to you this morning," she said.

"It's okay," he said, "I probably would have been upset too," he told her.

"I'm not mad anymore," she said just as Hanna burst through the door.

"Aria, I need help!" she all but screamed.

"I've gotta go, Jase," Aria said, "Hanna is demanding my attention."

"Okay," he laughed, "Can I see you tomorrow?" he asked.

"Of course," she said, "I'll text you later when I'm not being shouted at."

"Okay," he said, "I love you, babe."

"I love you too," she said before hanging up. She then turned to Hanna, "Can I help you?" she asked.

"I love you?" she asked with a smile on her face, "When did that happen?"

"A few days ago," Aria said with a shrug, "It's not a big deal."

"It's a huge deal," Hanna said, "Soon you're gonna be doing more than just sleeping in his bed," she said jokingly. Aria could feel her face heating up. Her porcelain colored skin turning bright pink. It did not go unnoticed, "Aria! When?" Hanna asked.

"Didn't you come in here to do something important?" Aria asked trying to distract Hanna. Luckily, it worked.

"Shit!" she exclaimed, "Yes. I have to try to figure out how to hack into Caleb's computer and delete files that were planted in there," she said, "But we are not done talking about this," she pointed an accusing finger at Aria.

"Do you even know what your doing?" Aria asked her friend.

"Sort of," Hanna said, "Caleb showed me, but I need his password and I don't remember all of it," she said.

"Okay, well, let's sit down and try to figure it out," Aria said. Hanna opened her laptop and get everything set up while Aria got a pad of paper and a pen, "So, what do you remember of his password?" Aria asked.

The two girls worked to remember Caleb's password. It was a complicated one. Hanna remembered more and more of it the further along they got. She had a hard time remembering the last four numbers though. They only had one try left before they would be locked out and then they wouldn't be able to help Caleb at all.

"Think, Hanna," Aria said.

"I am thinking!" she shouted as she paced back and forth.

"You said it's 1,1, something, 5," Aria said, "What is the something?" she asked, "Is it a code. Part of a phone number? A birthday. An anniversary?"

Aria saw a lightbulb go off in Hanna's eyes. She sat down and typed the password again with 1105 at the end. She hit 'ENTER' on the keyboard and they waited. The password was right. The '0' was the missing number.

"Oh, my god! We're in! We did it!" Hanna said.

"Hanna, what do we do?" Aria asked, and Hanna's mood deflated. She had no idea.

Eventually the two of them were able to figure out what to do. They found a file full of folders. There were hundreds of folders. Hanna found one that was labeled 'Hefty' and knew it had to be that folder. She opened the folder and inside were student records and social security numbers and so much more. Caleb could get into so much trouble if someone found that. Hanna started to delete the files one by one.

"Control A Hanna," Aria said.

"I'm going as fast as I can," Hanna told her not understanding the keyboard command of CTRL A.

"Just control A, Hanna," Aria said again.

"What do you think I'm trying to do?!" Hanna shouted.

"No. Hit CTRL A, on the keyboard," Aria said. Hanna looked down and did what Aria told her to do. All the files in the 'Hefty' folder started disappearing; over 800 files.

Aria and Hanna just hoped the files were deleted before Wilden and Garrett were able to see them.

"Will you drive me to the station?" Hanna asked.

"Yeah," Aria said as Hanna shut down her computer, "After tonight I think I need to make my password more complicated," she said.

"Same," Hanna said as they walked downstairs. All of Emily's guests had left and Emily was cleaning, "Do you want some help?" Hanna asked.

"No, I've got it," Emily said, "Go do whatever it is you were going to do."

"I'm just going to pick Caleb up," Hanna said, "Aria's driving me."

"Alright," Emily said, "I'll see you at school tomorrow then, Aria," Emily said.

"Yeah," Aria said.

"Oh yeah, Em. Jason and Aria had s-e-x," Hanna said spelling out the word as if it were a dirty one and walked out the front door.

"What?!" Emily yelled as the door closed behind her, "She can't just drop a bomb like that and leave. That's not cool," Emily said and continued to clean.

AN: New chapter!

I had some Hanna and Aria time in this chapter. I switched Spencer for Aria with the CTRL A part. I'm sure you noticed. I'm still thinking of an 'A' message for Jason. I hope you like this chapter. Please review and let me know.

As usual let me know any ideas you have. They might end up in the story somewhere.