I managed to sleep peacefully that night, which was quite odd as I normally pass out between 2am to 4am most nights. I had woke up the next morning feeling fresher than I have for the last few weeks. I played some music as I prepared for the day, dancing around to the beat and singing along to "Anywhere" by Passenger in the shower. I threw on some skinny jeans and a casual white t-shirt and glimpsed at myself in the stand up mirror. Due to the lack of sleep, I've managed to gain a new look of bags underneath my eyes, but on the positive side: I didn't look miserable for once.
My mother peeked through the crack of the door, startling me from the kind of modelling pose I did in the mirror after I applied make up to my face. I had to make sure that I looked half decent for the day, especially for meeting up with Aria later on.
"Hey, honey. You look more lively today" she observed, arching an eye brow at me. I looked at her with a glance of concern; what did I appear to be like to others around me? I knew I had felt sad, but I didn't think I showed it to the outside world.
"Aria's home today so I'll probably be back late, if that's okay?" I replied, not like it mattered much any way considering my parents didn't seem fazed about my whereabouts any other time. They were too caught up in their work loads to even notice.
She nodded in response, letting out a brief smile as she walked away from the door. She shouted up the stairs that "breakfast and coffee will be ready soon" to every one in the house hold.
Coffee was one of the main meals of the day for the Hastings family. Breakfast was just a side order.
I pushed all my books in my bag and grabbed my car keys, running down the stairs and grabbed a "to go" coffee that was waiting for me on the breakfast table. My mother knew me too well some times. I gave her a quick smile and thanked her, before walking out to my Toyota.
It wasn't a far drive from my house to school, so I managed to make it there pretty early as per usual. Punctuality had always been one of my proud achievements, I even gave the teachers a run for their money as I manage to get to each class earlier than they did.
The morning classes ran pretty smoothly, this year's work load didn't seem too much pressure. I'd managed to get most of the essays done within the first week that the teachers had handed them out, which for some reason they were never shocked about. Clearly Melissa had set the bar quite high when she attended here; setting a perfect example for the Hastings family.
At lunch, I managed to catch Emily who was sitting with a few people from the swim team. She looked in her element and quite content - which was a good thing. But I missed having her around as much, we use to have a tradition of spending our Saturday nights together. That tradition started to dwindle out a few weeks ago, but we always remained in contact. Plus, her swim team didn't seem to mind me hanging around either, which I was thankful for.
"Hey Em!" I shouted, cutting through the crowds of students to get to her table.
"Hey" She replied, moving over so I could sit down next to her. I smiled in response and took out the food I just brought.
"So, guess what?" I said excitedly, I'm pretty sure I could beat the excitement of a kid on Christmas day at this point.
"You got another A+ for next years paper?" She mocked, side smirking at me. I rolled my eyes at her.
"Aria flew back last night into Rosewood. She's back, Em!" I shouted, bursting into complete happiness.
"Wait, why am I only finding out about this now?" Emily asked frustrated.
"You were busy every time I tried to tell you!" I replied defensively "Come hang out tonight?" I begged. I wanted all of us to come together for Aria's sake and for the fact I've told her everything was normal. Oops. Emily nodded at me, her facial expression changing from a frown to a smile, excitedly talking about tonight's plans; if we could watch movies and bring snacks.
This, this feels like old times. All I need now is to get Hanna involved; that's if she wasn't too busy in her new super popular life. Maybe we could drag her away from Mona for a little while. Well, I certainly had no luck, I'm pretty sure the popular group thinks I'm strange - so this means one thing: Emily.
"Hey, Emily" I asked, interrupting the conversation about tonight "I need to ask a favor. Is there any chance you can ask Hanna if she wants to come, too?" I knew Emily and Hanna still spoke sometimes, I mean they were both very popular people in school. So if any one could get Hanna on board, it would be Emily.
"Sure, Spencer. I'll text her now" she replied, grabbing her phone and typed out words on the screen.
Emily confirmed that Hanna would be there tonight and she too was excited for seeing the smaller brunette. Looks like tonight would go to plan after all, I smiled to myself.
A part of me was dreading tonight because of the things I had told Aria when she was away; about everything being normal back here in Rosewood, I hope she wouldn't be too mad at me when I tell her the truth. I tapped my fingers against the court yard bench, pondering on how I would explain myself and how Aria would react to it. I wouldn't want to piss her off on her first night back here.
Emily and I made plans to meet up at Aria's afterwards, she wanted to pick up a present and some snacks, she had also arranged with Hanna that she would pick her up on the way back from the mall.
I passed by the florist after school, scanning around the shop at the mixture of flowers. Sure, some of the flowers that came into view seemed beautiful, but I needed it to be perfect; I needed it to be something outstandingly beautiful. I picked up some white and purple lilies and studied the shop further, looking for a single flower just to finish the detail. A bunch of roses stood by the counter, with different colored petals. I picked up the purple rose and examined it. Perfect.
The florist shop keeper approached the counter, examining the flowers in my hand and smiled softly at me. I passed her the flowers and she began to work on them, wrapping them up in a lilac colored wrapper.
"Very interesting choice of flowers that you've chosen - for a partner?" the woman asked, finishing off the rest of the wrapping. She handed me a note card so I could write down a message to put in within the bouquet. I'm currently trying to hide the sudden blush at the observation, wanting nothing more than these flowers to be for a partner, but truth be told that would never happen. As much as I hoped for me and Aria to be together romantically; she only seemed to be interested in the opposite sex. I would never have a chance to win her heart, so best friend status would have to be good enough for me.
"Uh, unfortunately not. These are beautiful, thank you for everything" I replied, hurrying to finish the note so I could make an escape from the shop, my cheeks were burning and I had become quite flustered thinking about Aria as my girlfriend. I payed the shop keeper and ran out to my car, if any one could see me right now it would look like I've just robbed my florist and making an escape. I quickly started up the engine and made my way to my best friend's house.
I've drove past this location so many times over the last year, just to feel a bit of Aria around but it always felt weird. But today, it felt more welcoming. Like a homely feeling. I walked up the steps to the house, knocking on the the door and waited, patiently. The door slowly creaked open and there she stood.
Aria.
My best friend.
The girl I've spent the whole year missing. Pining for.
There she stood back in her old door way, like nothing it had change except the fact she looked a little taller and with a few streaks of red in her hair. She looked a lot more punk than I last remembered, but she was still Aria. Aria who was now currently wearing my most favorite thing: a smile that lit up her hazel eyes.
Thud, thud, thud, thud. My heart began pounding against my chest, feeling like it was about to burst out of my skin.
Like it couldn't handle the sight of the beauty in front of me.
You and I both, heart. You and I both.
At this point my actions completely took over my mind, I stood forward and wrapped the girl up in my arms, bringing her feet off the ground. Clutching on so tightly, but trying not to break her at the same time as I squeezed. Aria wiggled in my grip, squealing happily. If the term happiness could be explained in any way: this would be it. I would re-write every thesaurus and made sure that Aria was the definition of the term happiness.
"Okay, okay, S. As much as I've missed you, please can you put me down." Aria giggled, finally finding the floor again with her feet.
"Sorry Ar, you have no idea how much I've missed you" I said, letting go of my grip and looked down at her, suddenly realizing that I had dropped the bouquet of flowers that I had previously brought. I picked them up from the ground and held them out for her, she studied the flowers, her cheeks raising as a grin formed on her face.
"They are so lovely, thank you!" She beamed, bringing up the flowers to the tip of her nose and inhaled the flowery smell. I stood there, silently thanking the florist in my head for helping me achieve such sweet sight of Aria looking happy. Maybe I'll leave her a thank you note later.
She held the door and stood back, letting me past. She guided us through to the kitchen where she could re-arrange the flowers into a vase, I flickered my eyes throughout the house, noticing all the boxes that still hadn't been put away. It was eerily quiet in here too, I was half expecting Ella to come out and speak but she was no where in sight. Byron and Mike were no where to be seen, either.
"So, where are your family?" I asked, not really thinking too much into it. They could of popped out for a meal leaving Aria to have her friends over, it happened quite a lot before she moved. But something in Aria's composure changed; she let out of a sigh and twisted her body to face me.
"Is it okay if we don't speak about this just for the time being?" she asked softly. I nodded, watching the pain enter her hazel eyes. I felt an ache in my heart, if I could do anything; it would be to make sure I could wrap the smaller brunette up and keep her away from any pain. I was about to walk over to her to give her another hug, but the door knocked. She gave me a reassuring smile as she walked past me and opened the door to the two squealing girls.
After hugs and gifts exchange had been all done, the three girls walked into the kitchen, smiling and talking. I really had hoped that I could of spoken to Aria before the other two arrived to avoid any awkward conversations if any one slipped up about the last year but now I was screwed. Please for the love of God, can no one mess this up.
We all sat inside Aria's room listening to Aria tell the story of Iceland: how beautiful the city of Reykjavik was, especially at night time with the Aurora lights glowing in the sky. I closed my eyes, imagining the sight of the night sky, it was one of my bucket list things to do. To get one of them little igloo's, laying on the bed and staring up at the sky, of course in my imagination - Aria was laying next to me, our bodies tangled. My eyes re-opened when Aria mentioned about the people she had met over there, the students were friendly when she started school and she adjusted to the new life pretty quickly.
"Did you meet any boys? I heard European boys are quite cute" Hanna asked, curiously. I'm watching Aria intently now, waiting for the response but she just picked up a chip and shook her head coolly. Hanna grunted in response - clearly not happy with the response but I, on the other hand, if I could express myself freely in this conversation; it would be with the biggest smile. It was a sense of relief knowing that some one hadn't stolen that sweet heart of hers yet, not that I had any fighting chance, but the universe works in a funny way. Hopefully it would work in my favor one day. I looked up at the ceiling and prayed: if there was a God up there, please give me that chance. Okay, what the fuck am I doing? Praying to a ceiling was far from normal, no wonder Hanna's new popular friends thought I was strange.
A cough cleared the room and my eyes darted from the ceiling to the other three girls, who were now watching me with confused facial expressions. I shrugged, leaning over to grab some chips. Aria shook her head in my direction, smiling.
"So, what's new with you guys? What have I missed? Apart from the fact Hanna looks even more glamorous." Aria asked the other two girls, my throat suddenly becoming dry from nerves. Here comes the conversation I had been dreading.
"Well, thank you for the compliment. I've met a new bunch of people at School and also kind of getting it on with Sean" Hanna smirked, Aria shot an approval look to Hanna and nodded.
"What about you, Emily?" Aria turned her attention to the tanned girl.
"I've been practicing on my swimming a lot and tend to hang out with the girls from there, it's going pretty well" Emily shyly smiled.
That wasn't so bad after all, no one mentioned how we came apart over the year. Maybe I could save this after all.
"It's great that you all have made new friends and managed to stay best friends. I've missed times like this, especially the sleep overs. I was sad when it dawned on me that I wouldn't be doing this any more when I moved." Aria admitted, glumly.
Emily and Hanna exchanged a look of confusion to each other, which Aria immediately picked up on. And I shifted awkwardly on the bed, my stomach doing somersaults.
"What?" Aria asked confused.
"Um, we actually haven't hanged out properly in a while, well all three of us anyway" Hanna announced. Aria glanced over to me, eye brows now arched up at me. I could see the shocked expression appear on her face.
"Oh, right. Well I'm glad we are all here now, at least." Aria half smiled, her eyes not leaving mine, I could see her trying to process all the previous conversations we had whilst she was in Iceland.
The other girls smiled in response, they appeared to be relaxed. Hanna and Emily began to bicker like a married couple over what film we were going to watch - what film I had to endure, like old times sake. I sighed, grabbing some more snacks and getting comfortable on the bed, watching the pair argue. These were the times I wished never changed.
Aria jumped on the bed beside me, propping up a pillow against my side. This was a normal Aria thing to do; using my tallness as a leaning post. I didn't mind though, I missed the closeness. This is my safety blanket. My very adorable safety blanket.
"This doesn't mean we aren't talking about this tomorrow, Spencer." I heard Aria mumble as she got comfortable. I sighed, she meant it too, for a small person she was very stubborn. I put some weight against Aria and leaned my head on top of hers, getting comfortable enough to endure 194 minutes of the Titanic that finally Emily and Hanna had finally agreed to; a film which I've watched now for what felt like the millionth time. I didn't mind though, give me Rose letting go of Jack any day because this was the feeling of contentment that I've been pining for all year.