Forget Me Not
Chapter Five
"In reality, hope is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs the torment of man."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Spencer
My eyes lingered on Aria for another moment. "Are you sure you don't want to come explore California with us? You can't sit here in a pool of sadness just because Ezra dampened the mood." She winced at the sound of his name but then shook her head violently.
"For the last time, Spencer, no! You go have fun with Hardy."
Ever since she came home from lunch this afternoon she'd been different. Not quite happy, but not quite sad. I've known that Ezra has changed her moods before but not this bipolar-like. Hardy looked at me and shrugged.
"Okay...well we'll be sure to get you something or something," I said, I felt so bad. She's been through so much for seven years and then she finds out in one day that the love of her life doesn't even remember her. I shut the door and my flats patted against the cement steps as we made our way to the lobby. The hotel was, in a nutshell, crappy: the room was pretty shabby and the service was downright cheap, something even I could learn to live without.
"Please tell me you aren't dragging me on a long, meaningless shopping trip.." Hardy whined as we plopped down in the rental car's leather seats The car smelled terribly, the mixture of BO, cigarette smoke, and old alcohol made my nose wrinkle, but we hadn't been in it since the drive from the airport, so anything was better than a blank, white wall and pale, blue sheets.
"You're the official crap carrier." I declared and he chuckled. We snooped around Hollywood for a while, and things were not as glamorous as they're put out to be.
We headed to Venice beach. The shops were crammed and there was a medicinal pot shop on almost every corner.
"Weed love to help ya!" A girl yelled, dressed as a pot leaf, I laughed. From there we went to Beverly Hills; we had a lot of money, Hardy and I were both in the lawyer profession.
As we were rolling through all we could see were fancy shops with glass display windows.
"Babe," Hardy stopped walking at the site of the stores. "Please don't make me go through all of these shops." I chuckled as he stuck out a pouty lip and crossed his arms.
"Just two." He seemed fine with it because he quickly hopped out of the car and offered me his hand, I blushed before taking his hand in mine. We walked silently across the street, my eyes wandered over the many people on the street. My eyes fell on a woman with bouncy, blonde curls with a young daughter who resembled her to the bone on her hip. She was looking in the window of one of the small stores.
"Mommy, how pretty am I?" I smiled at the young girls question, it was too sweet.
"You're the prettiest girl ever, Mar."
That voice. I knew that voice better than anyone else could. I turned to Hardy who gave me a look of confusion. My eyes built up with fury, I had never been so angry before. I took my hand from Hardy's, clenching them into fist, and stomped over to her. My brown hair blew in my face at the hint of California wind. I could feel Hardy trailing not far behind me. I kept my hands clenched at my sides just incase my maroon, floral-print skirt rose up. I was right behind her, she could feel my breath on her neck, she whipped around, her nostrils flaring.
"Alison." I said dryly.
"Spencer." She eyed me, she couldn't escape now and she sure as hell couldn't do anything. I gave the young girl in her arms a sweet smile and she balled her hands up and let them go in a toddler sort of wave, beaming at me. "This is Marley, my daughter." I gulped.
"This is Hardy, my boyfriend." Hardy emerged from behind me, and all of the fake tan drained from Alison's face, causing her to set her daughter down, she held onto her leg for dear life.
"We know each other." Hardy crossed his arms over his chest at her comment.
"Nice to see you too, Alison, why don't we catch up? Late lunch?" Alison picked up her daughter in a hurry, nodding. Her demeanor soon changed.
"Sounds good," She smiled at us. "I hope you two know what you're doing." I rolled my eyes at her arrogance.
We ended up having a nice lunch at the Elephant Bar. The food was crap, but it looked nice which sort of made up for it. I folded my hands over the table, as the waitress took our orders. Alison had gained a little bit of weight, which was completely normal for someone who had a daughter.
"Great, I'll be back with your orders." She said cheerily, Alison smiled politely and turned back to Hardy and me.
"So," She started, Marley was engrossed in her coloring, I'm sure if I blurted out something wildly inappropriate the only looks I would get would be a questionable glance from Hardy and a horrified glare from Alison, "I suppose Aria told you?" We nodded.
"Why would you lie to him, Alison? That's not how life works." Alison chuckled.
"It doesn't matter, Spencer. Ezra is perfectly happy with his life. He doesn't need 'You-Know-Who' in his life anymore, in fact, her dropping in only confuses him more!" I looked at her in disgust. "Besides Spencer, when I came back none of you befriended me. In fact, as far as I can recall, you were glad that Ezra was gone. You said it yourself, Spence. He ruined Montgomery, worse than anyone could ever predict."
"It doesn't matter," I slammed my hands against the table in frustration. "Aria deserves to know why he did everything that he did. What was really going on! No matter what you say, Hardy and I were his friends too. You're lying about his life, Alison. Do you think that if he knew what you did to him he'd still be in love with you? Are you that delusional?!" Marley's head perked up.
"What?" She was so innocent, oblivious to her mothers lies. Unfortunately, I knew her innocence would be replaced by something evil and wretched. Something not a soul could describe. Alison smiled soothingly at the girl.
"Nothing baby girl, keep drawing." She turned her head towards me. "It doesn't matter anymore, Spencer. None of it." I scoffed. Hardy broke from the silence.
"Don't forget that I am one vital piece to the puzzle, Ali. I know the game. He has a book published, about your game. He's a grown man who doesn't need you. The only thing that ties him to you is a book and your daughter. You cut me out after the crash. You knew I would tell him about Aria!" Hardy face turned red. He got a crazy look in his eyes that was - I won't lie - extremely hot. Alison leaned in close to us.
"Who do you think he'll believe? A duo who he doesn't even know, or his wife? So help me, I will get a restraining order. I'll do what it takes to keep my family safe, because it's just that, MY family. You won't talk or communicate with my husband or you will pay. And if you do happen to have a run in, you won't mention the truth about Aria or anything else related to that subject. If you cross me..." She chuckled, evilly. "We'll have to take this to the courts."
With that she picked up her daughter and strode out of the restaurant, only leaving behind a dirty threat on the table.
Ezra
I stared at the wall with a blank expression. The spark when she shook my hand...I have never felt that feeling with anyone, not even Alison. Which brings me to the point to question Alison. The front door slammed and turned my head to see that it was exactly 4:45. Alison and Marley had gone out to have a mommy and Marley day, as she called it. I heard Marley run up the stairs and Alison drop what sounded like twenty paper shopping bags. Her heels clicked against the linoleum until I heard the double kitchen doors swing open, I could feel her smiling at me as she saw me on the living room couch.
"Babe?" I tensed at the nickname, her voice was sweet enough to be honey, I still stared at the wall, suddenly fixated at the simplicity of a wall.
"Ezra." She said more stern. "Look at me, please." I stood up and gestured for her to sit on the couch. She looked as if she had seen a ghost. Her brown boots clacked as she sat across from me, she looked me in the eye.
"What's wrong?" Her clear hesitation didn't go unnoticed. I dug into my pocket, feeling the creases of the photo. I pulled it out and tossed it onto the table.
"What the hell is this, Alison?" I watched her face contort into several different emotions before speaking up.
"Who is it?" I pressed on; Alison shook her head, staring down at the photo.
"Who gave this to you?" She stood up with the photo in hand, fury burning in her eyes.
"Why? Does it matter if someone gave it to me?" She scoffed, shaking her head.
"Yes! It does! Now tell me, Ezra!"
"I found it! Now you tell me who that woman is!" I asked calmly. I just wanted truthful answers.
"I don't know!" She cried, running a hand through her hair. "Why are you asking me? It doesn't matter!" Anger boiled in my blood, I couldn't keep this civil. Without even considering Marley, I screamed right back.
"Because it does matter, Ali! This is obviously something from my past! Before the crash, before I lost my memory! You can't hide it from me, forever!" She crossed her arms over her chest as if she was saying, 'oh really?'
"So now I'm hiding things from you? I'm being honest, Ezra! I don't know!" I laughed sarcastically and ripped the photo out of her hand, grabbing my jacket off of the banister, as I made my way to the door.
"Ezra! We aren't finished! Please! Let's talk about this!" She yelled following me on my way to the door. I slipped on my coat.
"I won't be home for dinner. Give Marley a kiss for me." I muttered under my breath before slamming the door behind me. I stayed for an extra moment, listening to the other end of the door.
"Is daddy okay?" Marley asked tentatively.
It broke my heart, because the fact of the matter was...her daddy wasn't okay.
Hardy
"Get me another beer." Spencer had been drinking ever since Alison gave us a potential restraining order. I got up, obeying my girlfriends orders. The entrance bell rang and I turned to see who it was, for no particular reason. The man that walked through the door hit me like a big yellow school bus. The curly dark hair, the signature book in-hand...
Ezra.
He looked up, confused at first, but then smiled. He walked towards me and we gave each other the signature guy handshake.
"Hardy! It's been forever, man. Where've you been?" Ezra asked, narrowing his eyes at me questioningly.
"I sent you tons of emails, bro. Are you playing the 'never came in my inbox.' card?" We both laughed, and he shook his head.
"No, I can assure you that I never got any of your emails." It was quiet for a minute until Spencer came wobbling behind us.
"Hi, I'm Spencer Hastings," she smiled at him and they shook hands. It amazes me how sober she could look when she was drunk. He stared at her a bit longer than normal, cocking his head an inch to the side.
"You look extremely familiar.." he trailed off and she shrugged at the comment.
"I guess I just have one of those faces," she smiled at him and he nodded.
"So, what brings you to California?" He asked as he ordered a plain scotch. Spencer and I glanced at each other quickly before she responded.
"A friend of ours dragged us over here." She spoke simply, without a hint of apprehension.
"Oh really? That's great! What friend?"
"Aria." Ezra turned and looked questioningly at us.
"Aria Montgomery? I actually need to talk to her, we kind of had lunch today, and she was acting funny, I just wanna talk to her face to face so I know I didn't do anything." I gave Spencer a skeptical look.
"Of course! We were just on our way out."
"I'll follow you to your hotel."
The only simple way to say it was..Oh crap..
We pulled up to the hotel at the same time. The sun was setting, it was 5:09.
"We're in room 306." Spencer smiled. "We'll walk up with you, but we'll stay outside until you're finished." He nodded firmly.
We walked up the gravely steps, reaching the door.
"I'll be back.." He gave us a small wave and shut the door quietly, leaving Spencer to press her ear against the door.
Aria
"Spence? Where is my-" My breath stopped. "What are you doing here?" I gasped.
Ezra stood in front of the door with his hands up.
"I saw Hardy at a bar a few blocks away...you kind of ditched me at lunch, I just wanted to make sure you were okay.I nodded, I looked like a mess. My hair was atop my head in a messy bun, and just as I was about to put on my green face mask, Ezra Fitz comes chasing after me just to 'ask if I was okay.'
"Oh.." The awkwardness in the room wasn't even amicable.
"I also wanted to tell you that Alison blew up when I asked her who was in that picture.." He stepped closer to me, I didn't know what his intentions were, but I gulped at his sweet smell as it swam around my nose. "And I know you know who that girl is.."
"I-I- can't tell you." He stared right at me, like he could see my soul. His lips were inches away from mine.
"Why?" His breath was hot, and I could almost hear his heart beating.
"Why were you crying, Aria?" I couldn't look him in the eye anymore, I focused on his blue, plaid button up. I bit my tongue and diverted my attention to his lips, it was the only excuse I had to get him to stop asking questions. I pressed my lips to his, in a frenzy. I needed something, something to hold me back from telling him the truth, I swear I thought the moment I kissed him he would redeem himself and back away, but for some reason, he didn't. He kissed me back, and it was something different. It didn't feel fake, or rushed, it felt real. He was loyal to Alison, and his daughter at home.
His daughter.
I backed away, quickly. I couldn't betray that little girl, I could care less about Alison. I put my hand on my forehead.
"I am so sorry. Oh my god, I'm sorry." I gasped, his eyes widened in realization of what just happened.
"No-Aria-" I closed my eyes.
"You shouldn't be here." I whispered the words. He nodded, but he didn't move.
"Aria, please...I just need some honesty. No one will tell me anything anymore!" he looked at me hopelessly. I couldn't say anything. I couldn't. Not after what Alison told me.
"Ezra, I can't...please, just go," I spoke the words quietly, my voice cracking.
"I thought you might be the one person who could tell me something...anything...I guess I was wrong," his tone turned harsh and he left, I jumped when he slammed the door and bit my clenched fist to keep from crying.
What just happened?