"Aria, Spencer is here!"

Aria froze in response to Mikes yell, her toothbrush still in her mouth. Hearing footsteps running up the stairs she quickly spat the toothpaste into the sink and rinsed with the glass of water in front of her. She stepped out of the bathroom just in time to see Spencer walk into her room.

"Aria?" Spencer called out from the bedroom.

Aria warily walked towards her bedroom and stepped inside to find that Spencer had her back turned to her. "Hey, I was just in the bathroom."

Spencer turned around and looked immediately relieved to find Aria in one piece.

"What are you doing here so early on a Sunday morning?" Aria asked, walking over to her bed. She hovered awkwardly next to it for a moment before taking a seat.

"I was worried when you didn't answer my calls last night." Spencer answered in concern. She didn't hesitate to follow Aria to the bed, taking a seat a couple of inches away from her. "I must have called you almost twenty times. I l left messages, not to mention all of the texts I sent you."

"Sorry Spence, I was busy with Jake." Aria said, raising a suggestive eyebrow. "You know?"

"Oh." Spencer looked confused for a moment before realization set in. "Oh, right! You were 'busy'."

"Very busy." Aria forced a smirk to her lips. It was a lie of course, she hadn't done anything more than kiss Jake the previous night but for some reason she felt the need to make Spencer think she was actually into the relationship. "I meant to text you before I went to bed but I forgot, sorry."

"It's okay." Spencer said quietly, though her expression and tone of voice clearly said otherwise. It wasn't like Aria to not let Spencer know that she was okay. Checking in with each other was just something they always did. She awkwardly cleared her throat and changed the subject. "I saw Mike on the way out, when I asked him if he was okay after yesterday he didn't seem to know what I was talking about."

"What?" Aria's eyes widened in alarm at the revelation, "Um…he was probably just embarrassed about the whole thing. You know how he is."

Spencer nodded thoughtfully. Mike did have a rather strong sense of pride. "So I was wondering if we could hang out today, just the two of us, since you had to take off early yesterday."

"Oh, um…" Aria glanced around the room awkwardly. "I would love to but I'm kind of busy today. I made plans with Jake."

"All day?" Spencer looked disappointed and Aria instantly felt guilty for rejecting the offer, with a lie nonetheless.

"Sorry Spence." Aria shrugged helplessly. "Maybe we could meet up for breakfast tomorrow? If Hanna and Emily are free."

"Only if Hanna and Emily are free?" Spencer echoed curiously.

Aria laughed nervously. "You know what I mean." She stood up from the bed and made her way to the dresser, hoping to avoid any more questions. Spencer was obviously starting to notice that she was acting strange and it was only a matter of time before she asked her about it outright. She turned around to face Spencer. "I'll call you later tonight if you want, we can talk then."

Spencer shot Aria a look. "Am I being dismissed?"

Aria smiled sheepishly. "I have to shower and get ready before Jake comes over."

"You shouldn't bother getting ready." Spencer smirked, leaning back slightly on the bed. "You know I think you look adorable in pajamas."

Aware of exactly what Spencer was referring to Aria glanced down at her feet which her pajamas did indeed almost cover. "If you make height jokes I'm throwing you out right now."

"I wasn't going to." Spencer grinned and held up her hands in surrender. "But…"

"Don't even say it." Aria interrupted, effectively silencing Spencer.

"Fine." Spencer chuckled to herself and stood up from the bed. "You'll definitely call me later?"

"Sure." Aria answered distractedly.

"I'm going to hold you to that." Spencer narrowed her eyes in playful warning. "I'll be waiting for your call."

"I'd expect nothing less." Aria waited until Spencer walked out of the room before she let her grin slip and leaned back against the dresser. Lying to Spencer was exhausting. A low buzz sounded from across the room and Aria glanced over at her phone. Silently hoping that it was Emily, Hanna or even Jake Aria walked over to her phone and picked it up from her bureau.

Keep up the distance for now or be forced to keep it up permanently – A.

Aria lowered her phone to her side, her breath hitching in her throat at the realization that she'd all but backed herself into a corner by starting to ignore Spencer. There was no way A wasn't going to take advantage of the situation even if that meant ruining Aria's friendship with Spencer by telling her about Aria's hidden feelings. Aria sank onto her bed, dropping her head into her hands.

"What am I going to do?" she mumbled to herself.

XXX

Aria narrowed her eyes, struggling to focus on the black and white movie on the TV. She'd opted to stay home in hopes of avoiding Spencer as much as she could. Jake wasn't available, having to go out of time on short notice to see his family. Aria reached for the bowl of popcorn sitting on the couch next to her but froze halfway when her phone vibrated next to her. She glanced at it apprehensively and found yet another text from a withheld number. She sighed heavily, disregarding the popcorn in favour of picking up her phone.

'Go and see Emily at the Brew or I'll make sure Spencer sees you for what you really are – A.'

"Go and see Emily at the Brew." Aria read back to herself, her brow furrowing in confusion. It seemed like such a trivial request, certainly not something that A would benefit from. Grabbing the remote from the couch next to her Aria switched off the TV and stared at her phone for a moment in confusion, trying to work out what could go wrong with the request. Coming up with nothing she shook her head and stood up, moving towards the door.

XXX

"Hey Em." Aria greeted as she approached the counter where Emily was just finishing serving a customer.

Emily looked up at Aria, obviously surprised to see her. "Hey! What are you doing here?"

Aria shot Emily a quizzical look. "Is there any reason I shouldn't be here?"

"Spencer told me you were busy with Jake today." Emily said, leaning on the counter.

"Oh…I-I thought I was, he kind of cancelled on me at the last minute." Aria hastened to come up with a believable lie.

Emily nodded, seeming to accept what Aria had said as the truth. "Do you want a coffee or something? I have a break in a couple of minutes anyway."

Aria wavered for a moment before responding. "Sure."

"Your usual?" Emily asked knowingly as she turned away from Aria to grab two cups. "Double shot cappuccino?"

"Yeah." Aria laughed softly at the question. Emily was probably the only one of them who knew everyone else's coffee orders. She waited for a couple of minutes until Emily turned around with two cups in her hands. She quickly relieved Emily of one of the cups and walked towards a free table, taking a seat. Emily sat down opposite her with a weary sigh.

"Long day?" Aria asked sympathetically.

"You have no idea." Emily answered, shifting slightly in her seat. "I've been working since nine this morning."

Aria glanced at the clock on the wall to see that it was almost four in the afternoon. She turned back to Emily in concern, "Without a break? Emily, that can't be good for you."

Emily smiled tiredly. "It's fine, my shift finishes at six."

Aria opened her mouth to reply but she was interrupted by her phone vibrating in her pocket. She quickly reached for it and took it out only to find another message from the withheld number – 'Ask Emily to come over. As a 'friend' of course' – A.'

"Who was that?" Emily asked, noticing Aria's confused expression.

"Nobody." Aria set her phone aside and looked back up at Emily. "Do you want to come over to my place tonight? I have a bunch of movies ready to watch."

"I'd love to but I have plans with Paige." Emily answered apologetically. "Maybe tomorrow?"

"Sure, don't worry about it." Aria said, slightly relieved that she didn't have to do whatever A would have wanted her to do. "Is everything okay with you and Paige?"

"Yeah, everything is fine. Why do you ask?"

"I was just wondering." Aria answered, forcing herself to sound casual. "We haven't talked for a while."

"We talked yesterday." Emily said, bemused by Aria's strange behaviour. "Are you feeling okay?"

Aria glanced skittishly around the Brew.

"Aria?" Emily prompted, causing Aria to look back at her. "What's going on?"

"Nothing, I'm just…" Aria trailed off, biting her lip. As much as she wanted to she couldn't tell Emily what was going on. "It doesn't matter."

"It doesn't seem like it doesn't matter." Emily pressed gently. "You know you can talk to me about anything that's bothering you."

"I know." Aria exhaled slowly, trying to calm her frazzled nerves, "But not this, not right now."

Emily opened her mouth to reply but she was cut off by the door to the Brew opening. She turned around in her seat to make check whether the person needed to be served – after all, she was the only member of staff in the Brew – and relaxed slightly when she saw it was only Spencer.

Spencer did a visible double take at the sight of Aria sitting at the table but she walked over anyway. "Is this a private party or can anyone join?" she asked, only half joking.

"Of course you can join." Emily shook her head in amusement. "Aria and I were just talking about…"

"Work." Aria interrupted quickly, unwilling to take the risk that Emily would tell Spencer that there was something wrong. "Emily was telling me that she's been working since nine this morning."

Emily glanced at Aria, confused by the half-lie. She was quickly distracted by Spencer who glanced at her disapprovingly.

"You should have called me, I could have helped out."

"You got the job?" Aria asked, her gaze shifting to Spencer. She wasn't at all surprised of course, Spencer generally achieved whatever she set out to achieve.

Spencer nodded, a tiny smile tugging at her lips.

"I knew you would." Aria smiled warmly. "Didn't I tell you?"

"Yeah, yeah." Spencer fondly rolled her eyes before she turned slightly more serious. "What happened to your plans with Jake?"

"Oh he cancelled on me at the last minute." Aria answered awkwardly. "He had to go out of town so I decided to come and see Emily instead."

"Since I'm busy with Paige tonight maybe Spencer could join you instead." Emily announced helpfully. "You're not busy tonight are you Spence?"

"No, I'm free." Spencer answered hopefully. "Why?"

"Actually, I just remembered I have something I need to do." Aria cut in before Emily and Spencer could get too far ahead. "I have history homework I need to catch up on. Maybe some other time though."

"Yeah," Spencer said quietly. "Maybe."

"I should actually be getting back to that." Aria said, standing up from her chair.

"But you haven't touched your coffee." Emily protested.

"Um…" Aria could tell that Emily knew something was wrong. "Spencer can have it, I should probably stay away from caffeine anyway, you know how too much of it makes me jumpy." Without waiting for a response Aria picked up her phone from the table. "I'll see you guys later."

"Bye." Emily and Spencer muttered in unison. As Aria walked away she could feel their concerned stares burning into her back.

TBC.