I realized that it probably wasn't the best time to come out of the closet. Sure there never was a good time, but when your parents might be about to divorce probably ranks near the bottom of the list of appropriate times.
I looked in the mirror at my hair. I didn't only change it for Hanna. I mainly changed because this hipster girl wasn't who I was. I was okay with being the little Goth. I liked Avril and Paramore, and Taylor Momsen, not whoever sings some song "B-26". The main thing that I didn't know was what my sexuality was. I didn't know if I was a lesbian or just bisexual. Being with a guy didn't make me feel anywhere as good as kissing Hanna did. I couldn't compare sex because I had never had it with a guy before.
I knew that my dad probably didn't want to talk to me right now. I wasn't sure if Mike wanted to talk to me either. I hadn't done anything wrong. I decided just to talk to Mom. I did have to go to the hotel where she was staying to do that, but I could do it. I needed to do it.
I couldn't help but wonder if Hanna was doing the same thing. I knocked on my mom's door and she answered it.
"Hey." I greeted her.
"Hi." She responded.
"I was just coming here to see how things were going." I lied.
"Well I'm still processing things." She answered. "I'm not even entirely sure what I want to do yet. I just needed a timeout so to speak."
"Mom, there's something else that I need to tell you." I declared. "This isn't about Dad. It's about me. Hanna and I have started a relationship and what I mean by that is a romantic relationship."
"Oh." She replied in surprise.
"I know that this is confusing and I don't completely understand it myself, but I know that I want to be with Hanna." I explained.
"Well this is a bit surprising." She admitted. "But I want you to know that as long as you're happy, I'm okay with whoever you want to date."
"So have you thought about what you want to do at all?" I questioned.
"Well I don't know what to do." She admitted. "I know that this thing happened and that it ended and he chose me, but he also chose to let it happen. I think that you need to tell him about this. I need to know how he feels about it."
I was dreading that moment. I was just dreading talking to him in general.
Tonight I was doing something that I had never done before. I was going out on a date with Hanna. I did have to admit that it was easier to find somewhere to eat now that I wasn't a strict vegetarian.
I went home and began to look for something that I could wear. I wasn't even sure how open we were supposed to be. I knew coming out to our families was the first step, but I didn't really know what the next one was.
I then went home. Sunday probably wasn't the best night for a date. It would definitely be an interesting time to go out.
I began to look through my closet. I was glad that I kept my old clothes from before we left. I decided that I could probably go for something less formal. I went for a pink Pretty Reckless tee that I got at the airport in London and frayed black skirt with a leather jacket and black stilettos.
"Are you going somewhere tonight?" Dad asked me.
"Are you sure that you care?" I questioned.
"I'm a little angry at your decision to tell your mother, but of course I still care about you." He pointed out.
"I'm going out with Hanna." I told him.
"Don't stay out too late." He replied.
"Dad, I'm going out with Hanna." I explained.
"Do you mean on a date?" He questioned.
"Yes, I'm going on a date with Hanna." I clarified. "I'm not going to let you say anything to tell me that I can't."
"We need to talk about this." He responded.
"Well I don't really have time to talk about it tonight because I have a date." I stated. "I've already told Mom about it and I need to go."
"Then we'll talk about it when you get back." He declared. I knew that was going to be a very awkward conversation. At least I hadn't told them about the sex part. I wasn't sure how to tell them about the sex part. I hadn't even had the regular talk yet and I had a feeling that there would some new talk. Was there a gay version of the talk?
I grabbed my keys and headed out the door. I couldn't help but wonder if Hanna telling her mom was as awkward as that was. Before I got to Hanna's house, I got a call from Emily.
"Hey, Em, what's up?" I asked.
"Ali and I kissed." She explained quickly. "Before she went missing or ran away or whatever she did, she kissed me, or I kissed her…it's complicated. I just thought that you might understand since you and Hanna are in a relationship and I don't know who else to talk to."
"Em, I can't talk about this right now." I told her. "Hanna and I are about to go out on our first date."
I hung up the phone and pulled into Hanna's house. I went to door, wondering if I should have brought her some flowers. Did girls give each other flowers when they dated? I just knocked on the door. Hanna came right off. She was wearing a pink dress with fishnets.
"Let's go." She replied. She seemed to be in a hurry.
"So how did your mom take it when you told her?" I asked after we got back in the car.
"I didn't tell her." She responded.
"Hanna, we said that we were going to tell our parents today and I understand you not telling your dad, but you live with your mom." I argued.
"I tried to tell her, but I wasn't able to get any alone time with her and I don't exactly want to tell Officer Shirtless that I screwed my best friend while drunk." She answered.
"I didn't tell them that. I just said that we were dating." I explained. "Will you promise to tell her soon because I actually hoping to be able to be able kiss good night, but I can't do that if your mom doesn't know about us. I'm a romantic. I want to be able to do things right."
"So what are we seeing tonight?" She asked.
"We are going to be seeing Easy A." I explained. "You look really pretty."
"Thanks so do you." She replied.
The restaurant was a bit fancier than what you'd find at your usual chain restaurant. Even though I wasn't shunning all types of meeting, I still wanted to eat organic. It wasn't too expensive even though we had a pretty big limit for how much we could spend.
"So where do you think Ali is?" I asked.
"Hopefully it's somewhere that she can shower regularly." She remarked. I just looked at her. If I was going to run away from home, I would have to have indoor plumbing or I would come crawling back."
"Hanna, never change." I declared with a laugh.
We ended up deciding that I would pay for the restaurant and Hanna would pay for the movie and the refreshments or anything that we decided to get after. I wasn't sure if I wanted any popcorn. Their "butter" was actually just butter-flavored oil.
"So do you wanna get popcorn or do you wanna get ice cream after the movie?" She asked.
"I think I'd probably prefer ice cream." I answered. "Plus it would give me more time to build up an appetite again."
It was at that time that I remembered something.
"We don't have to get ice cream." I remarked.
"Well I was actually thinking that we would go to Sweet CeCe's instead." She replied. "It's low-fat frozen yogurt with all of the flavor of ice cream, but I'm not going to get fat again. I won't let that happen."
I think what I liked most about the movie was that it was kind of like The Scarlet Letter but more modern. Actually, it really wasn't like the book at all, but that was okay because something like that wouldn't work in a time like this. There were really a lot worse things than adultery, especially since the girl sitting next to me...no she wasn't. My dad was though, and it was pretty bad, but it was far from the worst thing that you could do. Murder was a lot worse. Speaking of which, if Ali was still alive, whose body was found buried in her backyard?
"So Em called me and said that she and Ali kissed" I explained as we expected the yogurt store.
"Well it makes sense." Hanna commented. "Did you see how she lit up when we told her that she had called?"
It was at that moment that I saw someone. There was a head of blonde curls that I only saw from the back, but I knew that hair anywhere.
"Hanna, we need to run." I explained as I noticed the girl was walking away. "Ali, wait."
She kept running and eventually we ended up losing her.
"Are you sure that it was her?" Hanna asked.
"Why would she run if wasn't her?" I challenged. "She was here in Rosewood."
I didn't understand why because it seemed like an easy way to blow her cover. Most of the people in town had gone to her funeral.
"Do you think that she'll come back?" Hanna replied.
"I don't know." I admitted. "I wish that she would just let us help her. Our friendship may have not been perfect, but we were always there for each other and hope that she knows that we'll do anything for her."
"You know if I didn't know better, I'd think that you were crushing on Ali." Hanna joked with a grin.
"Well it's hard not to considering that she has a flawless body, but you're definitely the girl that I want to be with." I declared before I gave her a kiss.
I really hoped that she would tell her mom about it since I wanted to do that more often. I also wished that I knew a way to come out to the school. How does one go about doing that?
I ended up having the conversation with my dad and he told me that he was confused, but in the end, he was okay with it because I was his daughter. He did care about this family. I wasn't sure if the thing with Meredith was a mistake, but I did know that it was over, though the fact that Ali and I had trashed his office under the guise of Meredith might have had something to do with it.
The following day, I walked into school. Hanna and I had hadn't gone together because I needed to take Mike.
I noticed that everyone seemed to be staring at me and I had a feeling that it wasn't because of my hair. Some girls were backing away from me. I then got to the bulletin board and I noticed why everyone was acting weird. There was a picture of me and Hanna kissing from last night on it.
So this chapter's in Aria's POV. Now I need to stress that there WILL be Emison, but you shouldn't expect it any time soon. The main focus will be Aria and Hanna. Please don't forget to review.