Thanks for the reviews last chapter! I hope everyone who is reading this story is enjoying it! (:


Aria woke up wrapped up in the warmth of her covers. She glanced at her alarm and noticed that it was a little after six thirty. She unplugged her phone from its charger and unlocked it, reading all of her missed text messages. She had three from Spencer, two from Hanna, one from Emily, and one from Ezra. She smiled when she noticed that the last one was from Ezra. She looked at the time it was sent to her and it was sent fifteen minutes before she woke up. She quickly typed back a response and asked him what color she should wear today. She got up and went across the hall to shower, and made her way back to her room ten minutes later. She picked up her phone and read the message that Ezra had sent her.

"Hm, purple. That's a nice change," she said to herself as she walked to the closet, letting the towel drop. She rummaged through the closet until she found a one-shouldered purpled blouse that she had forgotten she had. She paired it with a black mini skirt and grabbed a pair of knee high black boots out of her closet. Once she was dressed, she completed her makeup and decided to straighten her hair since she had more than enough time. Once she was finished, she made her way downstairs and grabbed a muffin. She walked out the door and drove to the little coffee shop she always went to in the mornings to get her morning coffee. Once inside, reality gave her a nice slap in the face as she recalled what day it was. Hanging behind the counter was a picture of Ali and how long she had been missing and how old she would now be. How could she have forgotten? It was Ali's 16th birthday. She had forgotten all about it, and now her day was entirely ruined because of this. Because she knew the reason why Ali wasn't here and she knew exactly where she was, but she wasn't going to dare open her mouth and spill that to anyone. She knew how dangerous it was and she knew exactly what the consequences would be, which is exactly why she wouldn't risk anything, anything at all.

Aria walked out of the coffee shop, and got back into her car. She drove to the school and got there thirty minutes early, like she had expected to. She looked in the mirror of her car and cleaned up her makeup as best she could, as she had been crying on the way to school once her feet landed on the cement outside of the coffee shop. She got out of her car, grabbed her things, and headed to her first block class. She opened the door and noticed that not any other students had arrived yet, although now thinking of it, she was basically the only car in the student parking lot besides, like, two others.

"Hey, Ezra," she said with a bright smile.

"Hey!" he nearly shouted with enthusiasm.

She went to her seat and set her things down on the desk and walked back up front the Ezra's.

"You look stunning today, if I may say so," he spoke.

"Thanks," she replied.

Ezra looked at her beautiful face and noticed something was off. Then he realized that she had been crying. "Aria, what's wrong? I can tell you've been crying. Please tell me," he pleaded.

She broke down right then and there, in front of him, not holding back any of the emotions she felt. "One.. One of my best f-fr-friends' birthdays is.. is today," she choked out.

Ezra walked over to Aria and pulled her into a warm and comforting embrace. Something he knew that she needed right now in this particular moment. What he didn't know was that she would need it even more in about a minute when she finished her story. He let her finished crying and then she pulled away and began to speak again.

"Her birthday is today. She would be sixteen. She has been missing for a little over a year now. She disappeared over the summer after our ninth grade year. No one knows what happened to her. Her name was Ali, well, actually it was Alison. Alison DeLaurentis. She was the leader of our group. She was controlling and a manipulating bitch, but we still loved her. She was one of our best friends. Everyone envied her, even the girls and I. I just don't know why someone would want to hurt her. I mean, she was evil and twisted, but not worth hurting. She could be the sweetest, down-to-earth person at times. We miss her. I miss her. She and I were the closest. Now it is Spencer and I," Aria said.

Ezra pulled her into a hug and whispered in her ear, "Aria, I can tell there is something you aren't telling me, but I'm not going to make you tell me. You don't have to, so please don't feel pressured to do so. I'm so sorry about what happened with Alison. And just remember, I'm always here."

Aria hugged him a little bit tighter and then pulled away and kissed his cheek, before making her way to her seat. Students would be arriving to class any minute and she didn't want to get caught hugging her teacher, as it would get both of them in serious trouble. Hell, last night would probably get them into serious trouble as well, even though it was after school hours and not on the campus. Soon enough, Spencer walked in followed by Hanna and Emily. You could tell they were upset, just by looking at them. Before long, the entire class was there and the room was nothing but gloominess. Everyone was taking her birthday hard, which kind of surprised her. Not everyone liked Ali, but she noticed that even the ones that hated her were a little upset. The day passed slowly, none of the teachers really teaching because they knew what day it was as well. After school, the girls' visited Ali's little memorial they had put together, as her body had yet to be located. They spent an hour there, talking about how life was going, crying, and comforting each other.

Aria arrived home later that evening and her mom had just finished cooking dinner when she walked through the door. "I'm home!"

"Dinner is ready, honey! If you don't feel like eating, I understand," said Ella.

"No, I'll eat. I think I've shed all the tears I can today. I don't think it's possible to cry anymore," Aria replied.

Ella walked over to her daughter and pulled her into an embrace, just as Ezra had done earlier in the day. They all sat down as a family and ate in silence. After dinner, Aria helped her mom do the dishes and then went upstairs to her room and started on her homework. She had an English assignment that was due the next day, and she hadn't started it yet. She knew Ezra would give her an extra day to work on it, but she didn't feel like getting special treatment. She pulled out her laptop and began to type up her paper over her favorite book. Before she realized it, it was almost midnight and she had typed nearly four thousand words, greatly exceeding what the paper had to be by three thousand words. She didn't care and just saved it to her flash drive and putting it into her bag. She got up off her bed and made her way across the hall to use the bathroom and brush her teeth and then went back to her room and crashed.

The next morning, she repeated her morning process all over again, this time dressing herself in a maroon colored dress that was mid-thigh. She got to class about twenty minutes early and went ahead and gave Ezra her flash drive.

"I don't think you'll want to print that. Or read all of it," she said before laughing.

"And why is that?" he asked with curiosity, a smile plastered onto his face.

"It's, um, a little over four thousand words," she spoke, giving a shy smile.

He smiled at her and shook his head. "Over achiever are we?" he joked.

She playfully slapped his arm and he pulled her in for a hug. "I'm going to read every last bit of it, Miss Montgomery, whether you like it or not."

She laughed and walked to her desk, sitting down and waited for the other students to pile into the classroom. Once everyone was inside, Ezra started the lecture for the day, assigning another paper. He knew Aria would probably go over the normal for this one too, so just for the heck of it, and to hear the class groan, he decided he would make them type three thousand words. Aria smiled when he let out this information and the class grumbled like he had expected them too. It was such a funny sight.

After class, Aria stayed behind. "Did you make it that many words just for me?" she asked.

"Well, since you typed over that last time, I figured I would just put it in your range this time," he said with a coy smile.

"Suits me," she said as she walked out of the classroom, swaying her hips sexily as she went.

School went by fast and she decided she would go to Spencer's after school. When she got there, they ordered pizza and went up to her room.

"I can't believe Ali would have been sixteen yesterday. She was the youngest, yet the brightest in the most ways, out of all of us," said Spencer.

"She was," replied Aria.

"What is your problem, Ar? You act like you don't want to talk about her, yet you were her best friend. I know she isn't dead. I just have this feeling, Aria. I think she is just messing with us, making this one big joke, somehow disappearing for over a year."

"Spence, she is DEAD. SHE ISN'T COMING BACK! SHE DIED OVER THE SUMMER OF NINTH GRADE IN THE WOODS!"

Before she realized it, the words had left her mouth and she got up and ran down the stairs and out of the house. Spencer was left there, the words finally registering and her face nothing but frozen in shock.

"Oh my god! What have I just done?!" cried Aria as she fell to her knees.