My apologies if there is any mistakes in this one. I'll be checking it over again later.
Song for this chapter (decided to stay with the theme) Beyonce - Halo
I managed to wake up a few hours before Aria; it was hard to leave the bed at first especially with the fact we were curled up around each other, my arm held around her. I had to fight every part of me that urged to stay but I got up in the end, slipping out of the sheets without waking her. I spent the remainder of last night brainstorming ideas up in my head; ideas of how to cheer up Aria.I needed the help of my mother though.
Luckily for me; my mother was already awake sitting at the breakfast bar when I went downstairs. All I had to do was convince her to allow me access to my funds that they kept aside for me. My family weren't shy when it came to money, so it wouldn't be too much of a problem - as long as I wasn't blowing tons of money on drugs or hookers. I also needed to somewhat coax my mother into spending time with Ella without making it too obvious as to why, so I made some hints of: why don't you have a girly night in tonight with the fellow moms? It worked; she ended up texting the rest of them. If I've learnt anything from growing up is that my mother and my friends mothers enjoyed a night of drinking wine from time to time.
My first part of the plan was complete. Success.
The next steps of the plan was to make sure that Emily and Hanna weren't busy today doing anything. So I silently walked around my room making sure not to wake up a sleeping Aria; grabbing my phone, car keys and laptop then made my way out of the house to my car.
I drove to the Brew to pick up two coffees - I needed them to tame the angry beasts that I was about to wake up. Firstly, I made my way to Emily's house which was the furthest away. Pam answered the door and was shocked to see me here so early, so I told her my plan of potentially stealing Emily for tonight and tomorrow, also making sure to reassure her that I had my mother's blessing for it, too. Even though Pam was quite off with the idea at first, she soon came round when she spoke to my mother who had promised her that we would be fine.
I ran up to Emily's room and sat on the edge of the bed; Emily was the easiest out of the two to wake up, so this shouldn't be too much of a problem.
"Emily Catherine Fields!" I shouted whilst shaking her leg. There were a few groans and grunts as she slowly processed what was going on, but she soon soothed when she saw the coffee in my hand. I told her about my master plan - careful not to slip on Aria's situation - I didn't want to be the messenger; that was up to her if she wanted to tell people. Emily was game for the big plan and decided to help me out with a few things, too. I thanked her and left her house to go wake up Hanna.
When I arrived at the Marin's household; I explained the situation to Ashley, who was completely fine with me potentially stealing her daughter. I approached Hanna's bedroom door way and peaked inside to see Hanna snoring away, mouth wide open. I wish I had brought my phone in from the car to take a picture of the sleeping beauty who had drool on her face but I didn't - gutted, I could of used this for when she annoyed me next. I really had to think about this next step carefully - taking notice of all the escape routes and thinking about what can shield me for when Hanna wakes up. I chose to leave the coffee on the stand beside the bed then quickly shook her body a few times and then made a run for the door way - just in case.
"Spencer, what the actual fuck?" Hanna growled, eyes glaring at me.
"Morning, sleeping beauty. There's coffee on your table." I replied, pointing towards the coffee. Hanna's eyes softened as she leaned over to grab the coffee, but groaned when she saw the time on the clock.
"Not that I don't mind seeing you, but why are you here so early?" she asked, sitting up in her bed to drink the coffee.
"Well, if you're not too busy today or tomorrow.. I've kind of organised something." I replied.
I spent the next half hour sat with Hanna discussing everything that was planned already, what Emily was currently up to and asked if she would want to come along too; judging by the excitement on her face or the fact she completely pulled me in for a bear hug - I'll be taking the answer as a yes.
The spontaneous plan only needed one more thing now: Aria.
Just one more trip to the Brew to grab two more coffees and some bagels then back home to wake up Aria; after all she did have a busy day ahead of her that she doesn't know about yet. I made my way back home to find out that Aria was already awake sitting in my kitchen talking to my mother. She looked so adorable with the messy hair from sleeping and the fact she still had my hoodie hugging around her. She glanced over to me as I walked through to the kitchen area, her face instantly lit up with a smile. And I'm now swooning in to the counter, watching her with complete admiration.
"Hey" she said sleepily with the smile still lingering on her face.
You would think I would of been used to the heart pounding in my chest but I wasn't - I'm pretty sure it was unhealthy to beat so furiously.
Aria Montgomery, you're going to give me a heart attack at this rate.
"Hi, I brought coffee and bagels" Attempting to speak out confidently, but failed as I stammered. I held up the items in my hand like an idiot and blushed. Smooth, Spencer, smooth.
"Thank you" she replied as I passed over the coffee and food.
"No problem. I, uh, made us plans for this weekend" I spoke out nervously.
"Oh yeah? What are we doing?" she responded back with eyes curiously looking at me.
"Cape May? I mean, I've got Emily and Hanna on board, too."
"Spence, what about my mom? I can't just-" she began to reply, but my mother spoke up and interjected.
"Your mother and I have made plans for tonight" My mother spoke. Aria's now looking at me, shocked.
"So, Cape May?" I asked again with a confident smirk on my face.
"Road trip!" she squealed in response, jumping from the kitchen seat to hug me.
I dropped Aria home to pack things for the spontaneous trip to New Jersey, it wasn't really that far away from Rosewood - just over 2 hours in a car journey. I had made plans for everyone to be ready for 12 o clock so we could get there to enjoy some of the warm weather. I had left my laptop with Emily to book some kind of accommodation for tonight as I went around to wake up and share the plan with the other two girls; she also promised me that she would make a decent playlist for the car journey ahead.
I parked the car outside of Aria's house and dropped her a text to say that I'm waiting outside. She came out of the front door with her mother behind her and I observed Ella briefly; the prior events had really took it's toll on her, she looked so different since I last saw her a year ago. She smiled briefly but weakly at me as Aria approached the car and I gave a quick wave in return - a part of me wanting to run up to her to give her a hug but I'm pretty sure Ella would find it strange if I randomly did that. I hated seeing people struggling with tough times, especially people who meant something to me.
After Aria put her bags in the boot of the car and giving her mother a hug goodbye; she climbed into the passenger seat and we were ready to go collect the other two girls. Hanna was outside already in her beach wear when we arrived with sitting sun glasses sitting on top of her head - she honestly looked like she was about to do a magazine shoot for summer range clothing. Emily took the longest to come out of the house after Pam kept her in longer - contemplating if travelling to Cape May was a safe thing to do.
"She's too over protective sometimes" Emily grumbled as she explained the story to us.
"You know, I'll happily trade places with you, Em. My parents don't bother half the time." I replied.
"Yeah but Spence, your parents have paid for the weekend at the beach!" Hanna said, cheerily.
Well she had a valid point there. I owe my parents big time for allowing this to happen - especially with it being so short notice.
The car journey went pretty smoothly; even with Hanna and Emily fighting in the back of my Toyota to which songs should be playing in the car - Hanna would always win dominance over the Spotify playlist - although I'm sure Emily just gave in to have the easy life. So most of the ride to Cape May consisted of listening to Beyonce songs with Hanna being the special guest to her own tribute band. Poor Emily.
Some times my eyes would wonder as we came to a halt in traffic and would look over to Aria who would be consumed by the scenery around us. It was magical watching her get lost in the world around us - even though I've been down this road so many times - it felt like I was seeing the trees on the side of the road for the first time and feeling completely in awe at the sight.
And that's what she did to me - she opened up my eyes to a world that already existed around me but made it seem more alive and beautiful. I felt more alive. The moment she stepped into my life she had changed it for the better.
We pulled up to the main strip of Cape May and drove to the hotel that Emily had booked us in for the night; it was just basic accommodation with a television mounted against the wall and two queen beds situated in the middle of the room and a window at the far end of the room that overlooked the ocean. The view was absolutely beautiful - looking like the kind of picture that would be put up on someones wall as decoration.
Hanna called dibs on sharing the bed with Emily and referred to sleeping in bed with me as a "bony skeleton who likes to stick out her elbows during the night" - thank you Hanna for the charming compliment but I didn't mind - I was secretly happy about the fact that I had another night of sharing a bed with Aria. The other two girls didn't seem to mind either; no one made a fuss out of the sleeping arrangements.
We all got ready - well apart from Hanna - to go hit the beach for the rest of the afternoon and work on a tan; Hanna had been ready for this moment since we had left for the journey. Hanna had spent most of the afternoon on the sun lounger with a cold drink in her hand whilst Aria, Emily and I had a dip in the sea - which our bodies had a shock when we first lunged in due to the cold water - but we were soon throwing each other into the water. We broke the late afternoon up by going into the town to find food to settle us over for the evening - all of us opting for burgers and fries.
By 7:30 on the evening, the light blue sky had transformed into a mixture of pinks and oranges; with the sun that sat in the distance of the sea had begun slowly sinking towards the water. I'm slowly walking behind the rest of the group who have ran towards the edge of the sand that just meets the sea to watch the sunset and even though it's a beautiful sight; my eyes are fixated on the smaller brunette as she gazes towards the distance - my mind taking pictures so I could have this memory kept stored forever.
I ran towards the sea to catch the last final moments of the sunset, standing next to Aria, who's still watching the sunset with the sweetest smile on her face. In this moment it felt like there was only the two of us and this beautiful sight in front of us. Just us looking out at the world.
"Isn't it beautiful, S?" she speaks out softly, her eyes never leaving the sight of the sun as it disappears into the sea. But there was something more captivating to me than the sunset in front us; my eyes fell down to the face of smaller brunette beside me and I whisper in response:
"It really is"