Please, Fix Us

CHAPTER 3: Warm

I'm never satisfied.
It's never good enough.
I always seem to find the right formula for putting up
I tried to love you, baby
In every way, in every way
I tried to satisfy you honey,
But you wouldn't stay, you wouldn't stay

WARM BY THE NEIGHBOURHOOD, FT. RAURY

"So, I spent all that time abroad in Italy, and I learned a lot. Italy's like the center of art, so it's a dream come true for any aspiring artist. It was well-worth the time and the money. I had the time of my life," Jonny explained, sipping his soda at the Hastings breakfast bar.

"It must suck to be back in Rosewood after spending time in some place so fascinating," Spencer commented, clearly fascinated by his travels herself. "This travel log of your time in Italy was worth an egg. I'm glad you got your paint color materials, and I got my travel log."

"Well, if you ever want to hear more, I'm always around to tell," Jonny said with a smile. "And it is a big difference. Italy to Rosewood... but this is my home. It's where I've lived all my life, and I want to stay here, while Italy was fun. I need to find my own place, and start my own life and career. Even though staying here is quite the treat, I can't live in your family's barn forever."

"Why not?" Spencer laughed. "No one's ever home, it's not like it's occupied. Besides, it's fun having you here. There's actually someone to talk to."

"This house must be lonely," Jonny agreed. "It does seem like no one is ever around. How do you manage?"

"I've lived here all my life, I'm used to it," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "It wasn't always like this, anyways. My parents avoid each other now, they have some dilemma going on, and I guess they don't want to deal with it, so they just keep running away from each other, as silly as it is. But it's not that bad. I usually spend some nights with Toby when I want to. My parents probably wouldn't like that, but they don't notice since they're not here to notice it."

"You can't go to Toby now, can you?" Jonny asked, glancing over at her to see her reaction.

"For now, no. We're on thin ice, and I don't want this getting worse than it already is," Spencer replied, sighing. "Do you want more soda?"

"Sure," Jonny said, nodding his head, and Spencer got up to refill his soda glass.

"Ted proposed to my mom last night."

Jason looked up, clearly confused by the words he was hearing, "Your mom's pastor boyfriend?"

"You knew about him, but you did this," Hanna snapped.

"Hanna, I didn't mean to cause this kind of damage. It didn't mean anything. I was... I was being crazy. With Alison gone, I feel lonely. And I turned to your mom, and then it just happened," Jason tried to explain. "I'm glad your mom and her boyfriend are okay. I didn't want to start anything."

"Too late, you did!" Hanna yelled. "My mom didn't respond to Ted because of you. I liked Ted, I wanted her to marry him, but this guilt is making her overthink it, and she doesn't know if she can marry Ted with this secret!"

"You're acting as if I raped her, Hanna, but it was consensual!" Jason defended.

"Please, don't ever talk about having consensual sex with my mom again," Hanna said, shaking her head in disgust.

"I'll talk to her," Jason said, nodding his head. "I don't want this to affect anything. Your mom deserves to marry him. I don't know much about Ted, but I can tell that he's a good guy that can take care of her. I'm not. I'm the kind of guy who hooks up with and kisses girls before running away because I'm afraid. I did it to Aria, and now I did it to your-"

"Aria?" Hanna asked. "You hooked up with Aria?"

"I thought you knew, but I guess not. It was a while back. Over a year ago," Jason said, shaking his head.

"You're acting like a monster right now," Hanna snapped. "My mom won't even talk to me about this!"

"She doesn't have to talk to you about it. You're lucky that I'm gonna deal with this," Jason told her. "I'm going to go talk to her, I promise, Hanna. Please, just don't worry about it."

While Spencer and Jonny were in the middle of a great conversation about more of his Italian travels, there was a knock on the door. She gave him a small smile, and left him there to drink his soda. She got up with a sigh, and opened the door. She swallowed hard and opened her eyes wide when she saw Toby standing there. She didn't think he was coming over any time soon after their big fight. Her plan was to just wait for the dust to settle back. He usually didn't hold a grudge about their fights, and calmed down after a while. But then again, this fight was pretty different from the ones they had before.

"Toby... what are you doing here?" she asked, biting her lip.

"Did you go to the storage room last night with Caleb?" Toby demanded.

"We talked about this last night. You know I did," Spencer responded.

"Did Hanna come with you?" Toby asked, folding his arms.

"No, she didn't," Spencer responded. "Why?"

"Are you being completely honest with me right now?" he asked.

"Yes, I am! I have nothing to lie about when you know the complete truth. What does any of this have to do with Hanna?" Spencer asked.

"I'm on lunch break right now, so I have to get back to work soon, but I overheard Lieutenant Tanner having a conversation on the phone. They found fingerprints that match Hanna's in the storage room. Somebody tipped the police off to go investigate that scene, so if your fingerprints, or Caleb's, are there, one of you, or maybe both of you, are going to go down, hard. Hanna's in a lot of crap right now. Tanner wants to arrest her."

"Arrest Hanna!? She wasn't even with us. She went to a dinner with Ted, how could she have even been there!?" Spencer cried. "This isn't possible. And I don't think Caleb and I are going down. We were careful, and we wore gloves."

"I told you to stop the day the knife was found, and you two kept hunting behind my back!" Toby yelled. "Do you see what keeps happening every time? Something goes wrong. And this isn't like the time you were able to get out on bail and save your ass, because this time, someone is trying real hard to get our asses busted, and you and Caleb are making it so damn easy for A to do this!"

"Toby, we can't talk about this right now," she said in a hushed voice.

"Why not? When are we going to have time to talk about this besides now? It's all I've got," he said.

"My friend is here," Spencer said. "Jonny, you don't have to pretend like you're not here."

"Damn, that was scaring me, and it was intense!" Jonny exclaimed, laughing. He stopped ducking behind the kitchen counter, and walked over to join them. "Hey, man. I'm a painter, I work at Ezra's, and my name is Jonny Raymond. You must be the boyfriend who made her cry. How are you doing?"

Toby stared at the floor as Spencer gave Jonny a look.

"Thanks for your concern, but these problems have nothing to do with you, and there's a lot going on that you just don't understand. And you never will understand it," Toby snapped, glaring at him.

"Jonny, this is Toby," Spencer introduced, stopping him from his angry words.

"Nice to meet you, Toby," Jonny said with a smile. "Sorry about the invasion of your privacy, I didn't know that it was such a touchy subject-"

"You don't have to apologize," Spencer told him.

Toby looked back up and said, "I have to get back to work. Will you please just stay out of trouble today? And please, don't go out on some kind of insane mission with Caleb today. With this Hanna thing, there's enough to deal with."

"Yes, officer," she sarcastically said, folding her arms and sighing.

"What are you guys up to?" Toby asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Well, I'm enchanting her with my great stories of Italy, and teaching her about some of the greatest parts of art!" Jonny exclaimed with a grin. "She's crazy about Italy, you know? Maybe she doesn't need college. Italy is better than college. I would know! I've done both."

Spencer laughed so hard and said, "Hmm, maybe we can discuss how I'm going to give up college for Italian art instead, huh?"

Toby looked away and announced, "Okay, well I'll get back to work. Call me if you need anything."

He felt like he needed to prove a point to Jonny, so he leaned over and kissed the top of Spencer's head before turning away and going to his truck.

"Your boyfriend... he's something," Jonny laughed.

"He's not some tight-ass, okay? He's right, there is a lot behind this. It's not some big, large, it's all his fault sort of fight. It's turmoil," Spencer tried to explain. "And honestly, he's right, you're never going to understand what we've been through. This fight is more than meets the eye. You can't understand or solve it by hearing one conversation. He's not a jerk, either."

"Didn't seem that way when we talked," Jonny told her.

"Well, that's because you came off as a bit arrogant," Spencer laughed. "He gets mad when he feels threatened."

"I'm a threat?" Jonny asked, grinning. "Cool."

"He's not a bad guy, trust me. If you got to know him like I do, you would know that he's a really sweet, loving guy," Spencer tried to explain.

"I'll keep that in mind, but all he seems like is a big ol' bitch right now," Jonny joked.

"Let's not talk about him anymore. Let's talk about Italy and art," Spencer said with a smile. "Enchant me like you told him you do."

"Will do," Jonny began, laughing. "Well, one time I saw this statue in a museum, and this old lady came on by and said..."

"Did you go back there?" Caleb demanded, folding his arms.

"Okay, I did. But why does it matter?" Hanna asked.

"Toby's barely speaking to me, but he just gave me a call. They found your fingerprints at the storage room," Caleb explained. "Hanna, you know I think you're a smart girl, but that was so incredibly damn stupid! Did you wear gloves?"

"No! I didn't think I would find anything, or that A would report the scene to the cops!" Hanna cried.

"What did you think you would find?" Caleb asked.

"A clue from A. Anything A dropped," Hanna said.

"A is too smart to leave behind clues," Caleb told her. "At least real clues, that is. Anything A would have dropped would have been fake as hell, and a big ass set up. What happened to you? You and your friends should know the game of A well by now!"

"I slipped up!" Hanna cried.

"This isn't a small slip up, Hanna!" Caleb snapped. "Do you know what this can do to you? Toby didn't tell me everything, but he told me that Tanner wants to file for an arrest. Your fingerprints at the scene are enough to cause suspicion that you killed Mona."

"Why would that mean I killed Mona?" Hanna asked, confused. "And I'm the one who cared the most about Mona's death. I'm the one who bawled my eyes out for hours. I'm the one that was best friends with Mona for so long!"

"They think Mona's body is in there, Hanna. And if it is, you can say goodbye, because they're taking you down, one step at a time," Caleb told her.

"Hey!" Ezra exclaimed, pecking Aria's lips quickly. "Are you heading off already?"

"Yeah. Jason wanted to meet up for a bite, if that's okay," Aria said.

"It's fine, I just wanted to know," Ezra said, smiling. "Did Talmidge ever get back to you about the wait list thing? Emily told me you sent a letter there, but she wasn't sure of the outcome, so I wanted to ask. Did that go well?"

"I'm not sure, I haven't heard back from them yet," Aria said. "I'm sure they were unfazed by it. Jackie probably threw my letter in the garbage, you know!"

"Hey, it's okay. Talmidge was a long shot with Jackie working on the board. Apply somewhere where my ex-fiance doesn't work, maybe," Ezra joked, smiling.

Aria fake laughed before saying, "I should get going. I don't want to keep Jason waiting."

"Aria... are you ok?" Ezra asked, raising his eyebrows.

"I'm fine," she answered.

"If this is about not getting into anything right now, you'll be okay. There is a college out there that wants you, I know it. You're talented, beautiful, and you're going to do so many amazing things in this life. Any college would be lucky to have you, and I know there's some place out there that wants you. You need to keep trying, and not give up, just because a few colleges said no, or wait listed you," Ezra explained. "I know how these things work."

"Thank you, Ezra," Aria said, and kissed his cheek quickly.

"You just seem distant," Ezra told her.

"I'm tired," Aria lied, and walked out the door without another word.

She had been seeing her letter to Jackie everywhere. A had gotten a hold of it, and this bitch was using it against her. A was threatening to tell Ezra all about it, and honestly, Aria was just afraid of what Ezra would say to it. Emily seemed so sure that Ezra would be devastated if he read it, and now, Aria was starting to think the same way. It would break his heart to see a letter full of regret about him.

Just then, Emily came out of the room after working with Talia to prepare a new recipe.

"Is everything going all right in the kitchen, Emily?" Ezra asked. "You're fine with working with Talia now, right?"

"Well, we're getting along better now, so yeah, I am," Emily responded with a smile.

"Did you ever hear back from those scholars that wanted to have a private party here?" Ezra asked, looking up.

"I did!" Emily exclaimed. "They want to rent the place out for a whole night. It's amazing. They're willing to pay major bucks, and with Talia and I working together now, I think the food is going to be pretty darn good."

"I'm glad you're feeling more confident about your cooking now," Ezra laughed.

"I emailed you the guest list and all the information for the night," Emily told him. "It has how many people, what food they want, and what sort of music they want. Also, the time, date, and all that good stuff."

"Amazing! Thank you, Emily. Hold on for a second. Let me just make sure I got this email," Ezra said, getting out his cell phone.

He opened his mail application, and found Emily's email.

"Perfect!" Ezra exclaimed. "Emily, this is truly great. You've been working your ass off..."

He suddenly stared down, and Emily asked, "What's wrong?"

"I got a blocked email," Ezra said, furrowing his eyebrows. He opened it. "It looks like it was originally for Talmidge."

Emily's eyes widened and she asked, "Do you really want to read that?"

"I just did," Ezra mumbled, and turned his phone off, before setting it down on the counter. "Looks like I'm nothing but a regret to Aria."

Emily swallowed hard. The moment Aria sent that letter to Talmidge and Jackie, Emily knew crap was going down. Of course, A got a hold of the letter, and now Ezra got a hold of it, too. It was just the perfect mess.