Aria was now getting those butterflies again. As he faced her and stared her down, she tried to brush away the worry from Noel, the thoughts of 'A' and focus on Jason. He seemed to read her like a book though and instead of saying something, he glanced over to her stuff and she went back to packing it (a little more peacefully I may add). They walked together back out towards the stage, him taking her bags from her hands, and finding a seat where they could sit.

"I'm going to go grab the dresses," Aria said softly. With a look from Jason, she walked back off, leaving her stuff with him and sucked in a breath. A long day wouldn't even be describing her 24 hours. There had been so much going on, she could have gone crazy.

Aria went back to the back stage, where the dresses hung and made sure they were all in their covers, zipped up and in their proper place. She grabbed them with ease making sure to be careful and walked back to Jason. It was sad that everyone kept tearing at the memory of her friend. They always had to ruin whatever it was about Ali and it made it seem like they had lost her all over again.

"You probably don't want to see these again," Aria stated as she plopped the dresses down behind Jason who was waiting for her by sitting on the sofa with her stuff beside him. He turned to look at her in the slightest before getting up from where he was.

Aria lowered her eyes, now focusing on anything besides him. She hated feeling like she was going to self-destruct, which was probably why she had folded her arms across her torso to keep herself together.

He seemed to stare at her for the longest time, almost waiting for her to pull herself back together, and when she did, she took a bold step forward. "Why come back?"

"I needed to put the pieces together," he answered now stepping closer to her, but not looking directly in her eyes. "I wanted to try and remember things."

"You still don't know who wrote that note," Aria claimed, reading his face. He turned to look at her then, eyes widening just the slightest. Was it fear that Aria was reading for him? Or curiosity as to why she was so obsessed with that.

"What if it had to do with what happened that night? What if Ian didn't…"

Jason cut Aria off. He didn't want to hear anymore about that. "Ian did it. He confessed and that's good enough for me. Look," he sighed, "all I know now is that I have to focus on trying to be happy, and coming back to Rosewood, I think I can be that here." With you, he wanted to add at the end.

Aria and Jason looked at each other for a few seconds again before he broke the stare. "Can I drop you somewhere?"

"Umm…" Aria hesitated, looking off into space wondering if it was a good idea. As she thought about it and briefly glanced up to him again, she also tried to analyze his previous words. What did that mean when he talked about finding happiness here? Did that mean it would be with her?

"Yea sure," she said looking back up to him. Nodding, the two moved in opposite directions, brushing up against each other in the slightest. As he picked up his sister's dresses, she grabbed her bags and headed out together.

The walk to the parking lot was pretty silent but after putting the things in his car and getting situated, a conversation between them started to flow.

"I'm sorry, again," Aria apologized, thinking about earlier.

"It's okay," he said, not saying much about what went down between the two earlier. "I guess I get a little defensive at times."

"I get nosy too," she incorporated, "I just have this strive to fix things you know? I'm a fixer," she smiled as he gave a chuckle.

"Plus…" Aria said looking to her lap. She thought about 'A' and how it might be his/her/them doing. She really wanted to tell him and to say whatever that note was wasn't his fault, but could she really?

"What?" Jason asked looking to her as they hit a stoplight and Aria went silent. The teen shook her head and brushed away the thoughts. Even if she thought about telling Jason about 'A' there would be so many complications and tonight just wasn't the night to deal with them.

"Tell me," Jason pushed as he stared at her.

"I just was going to say that, plus, I also want to help you. I like getting to know you and stuff," Aria said blushing into the night as she looked down at her hands. Jason gave a grin at that, trying to hold it back though for the pretty girl's sake. What she was saying wasn't a lie – she really did mean that too, but her desire to want to tell Jason everything had her a bit flustered.

The light turned green and they were off again, Jason ever so sneakily glancing at Aria as she still casted her eyes away from him in embarrassment.

"Well besides the fiasco with the Ali thing and my mother, you girls did really good with the show," Jason told Aria as they pulled up to her street. "You looked beautiful."

Aria looked up to him at the compliment, blushing again but still going to meet his eyes. "Thanks," she said proudly. Giving a nod, they stared at each other for just a little while longer before Aria had to get out with her things.

"Tell your mom I'm sorry again?" she asked Jason after shutting his car door.

"Of course," he said watching her give a small sad smile at his response.

"Goodnight Jason," Aria said finally, tearing herself away from his presence.

"Night Aria," he spoke, watching her from his car as she walked towards the house and through the front door.

Aria woke up the next morning from a good ending of the night to a horrible morning. It was both Spencer and Hanna texting Aria to go over Hanna's so they could all talk. There was much to discuss about 'A', Garrett, and what happened yesterday. With the emotions being sorted through and the fright dealt with from the night, it was time to face the music and Aria quickly got ready.

"Hey sweetie," Ella smiled as her daughter walked downstairs.

"Hey mom, I'm off to Hanna's," she said grabbing her bag and shoving things inside.

"No breakfast?" was her mom's motherly response as she was in the kitchen cooking.

"I'll grab something at Hanna's," Aria replied, giving her mother a quick smile before wanting to take off.

"Okay, have fun," Ella replied as her daughter walked towards the door. "Aria! Remember we have that dinner party tonight okay?" Mrs. Montgomery yelled from the her spot near the counter.

"'Kay mom!" was Aria's response as she practically ran out of the house. Ella knew her daughter didn't want to talk about what happened last night. It was traumatic for all of them, so being the mother she was, she let it go for now and decided she would talk to Aria later – it was so much easier to corner Aria in her room anyways…

When Aria got to Hanna's, they were already inside in the kitchen talking about last night's events. It was hard enough to go back over the Ian thing but they also had to talk about what was going to happen from here. Grabbing a cup of coffee, Aria stood and listened to her friends. Apparently Emily was going to be sleeping over Hanna's for the time being and Hanna decided it would be a mega party every night.

So Aria tuned out after that, but when Hanna said the words "and if we say something, 'A's going to smack us down," Aria's head sprung from her cup.

Those words rung in her ears as she thought about Jason and how close she was to telling him about the problems with 'A' last night. Again, Hanna was right. Telling anyone about 'A' would be dangerous and Aria couldn't believe she thought about telling Jason in particular.

The doorbell rang and knocked Aria out of another reverie. It was a gift basket, with 'bad chocolate' and a note from 'A' saying 'two liars under one roof. You are making it so easy for me – A'. The pit in the girls' stomachs rose and Aria looked to her coffee mug, now passing the chance to take a large swig of her refill.

"How far is this going to go?" Aria asked rhetorically to the group.

"Till we're buried six foot under," Spencer replied darkly.

"Like Ali," Emily said with her sad doey eyes.

"Or until we go insane and practically jump out of our skin, who knows," Hannah also answered, trying to ease the tension and stress a bit with her answer. Each of them gave a sigh and wished life was different.

Aria had returned home for the day to help her mom out. Being the perfectionist Ella was, Aria knew all the help she could get would be well appreciated.

"I think you look great in both," Ella said as Aria held up two dresses in her arms.

"That's so mom like," Aria teased as she set the dresses on her bed.

Ella smiled at her child, watching as she went back and forth from her closet to her bed where she would analyze the dresses. "You know, this doesn't have to be fancy. Its just a dinner party – kind of like how we used to have."

"I know, but it's the first one since we've moved back," Aria responded, still critiquing the dresses with her eyes.

"I like this one, it makes you look older," Ella said coming further into the room and touching the black dress in Aria's right hand.

Aria raised an eyebrow at that, wondering what her mother was trying to get at "Yea?"

Ella nodded.

"Byron?" Ella called as Mr. Montgomery passed by Aria's room.

"Yea?" he wondered sticking his head in.

"Elliot Partha called, he said they would be coming since they found an appropriate babysitter," Ella said with a smile. As Aria's parents talked, she looked back to the black dress her mother liked. It was a pretty dress and one of Aria's favorites, but she was still wondering what her mother's alter motive was.

"I was thinking of inviting Ezra," Byron announced. Aria froze; turning her head in the slightest, listening to her mother say she was worried about the short notice.

"Well, he seems like he is still trying to fit it and lately he's seemed a bit preoccupied with other things. He buries himself in his work," her father responded. "I think it will be good for him to get out."

"Alright," Ella shrugged, "as long as he doesn't mind." The mother then turned to her daughter and smiled, "now, you know, you are going to have to start getting used to calling Mr. Fitz Ezra," she gleamed. Aria put on one of those fake smiles so it wouldn't look like she would throw up right there. Her ex would be coming to this dinner party. Fantastic.

It was Aria who was going around the house cleaning up things. She dusted, sweeped, mopped and even vacuumed. As she walked back upstairs to grab her phone from her room, she heard her dad and Mike talking.

Lately, Mike had been in this rebellion stage, not talking to her, her parents or anyone anymore. He was slipping into this dark place and all Aria could do was watch. It was Byron though who broke her thoughts with his loud voice. He was getting stern with Mike as the kid threw attitude around. They wanted him at the dinner party tonight and were demanding his presence. It was important to her family, Aria knew that, as her mother and father were stressing about it more than they let on. It was the first time getting together with people after the whole fatherly affair thing and it had to be smooth. With a snappy 'fine' from Mike, saying he would show up, Byron approved and walked off.

"Aria?" Byron asked looking to her as she was frozen in the hall listening to them.

"Just…getting my phone," Aria replied – legs becoming mobile again as she walked into her room and got the device.

"You know, I want to thank you for doing this – helping your mom and I out with tonight," he started following her and leaning against the doorframe.

Aria analyzed her father and gave a nod. "Its okay, I don't mind."

"I hope you don't mind me inviting your old English teacher to our house. I know it's going to be a little weird but there is no more conflict of interest between you guys. He's not your teacher anymore but now a colleague of mine," Byron explained.

"It's fine dad," was her little reply. The fact of the matter was though it was far from fine. There was always going to be a conflict of interest between her and Ezra. He was not only her old English teacher but also her ex boyfriend. It was wrong on all sorts of different levels but she couldn't spill that to her parents.

Byron looked to his daughter with a grateful and satisfied look. "Alright."

After he left Aria's room, Aria let out a large breath and checked her phone. 0 messages – just the way Aria liked it.

The sound of the front door opening caught Aria's ears and she walked down the hall towards the stairs to see who it was.

"Oh Aria!" Ella said with her arms full of groceries. Hurrying down to help her mom, Aria grabbed some bags from the woman's hands and set them down on the counter.

"Thank you sweetie," Ella smiled while digging through the bags.

"Sure," Aria said glancing to the clock. Only 4 hours to go till this dinner party. After setting things out and putting others away, Aria and her mom began to cook. They would be having roast chicken, a salad, bread, fruit, beans, and dessert. It all seemed really great and she knew her mom was a great cook.

"So guess who I ran into while at the grocery store?" Mrs. Montgomery announced as she began prepping her food.

"Who?" Aria responded as she cleaned the fresh beans.

"Jason DiLaurentis," she said with an uplift to her voice. "I invited him to tonight's dinner."

Aria's eyes went wide and she couldn't think of a more heart-stopping thing to hear. "…He's coming?"

"Yea, I figured since he's new coming back to Rosewood and we both know it's hard, he should join us and meet some new people. Is that okay?" Ella asked concerned as she found her daughter looking shocked.

Aria quickly shaped up; putting a cool mask on her face as she saw the worried look her mom was giving her. "Yea of course, I was just surprised."

Ella understood that. Jason wasn't really the person to go out much but she was pretty insistent when she saw him at the store. "Well with what happened yesterday I figured that it was for the best. The guy deserved to get out for a little while."

"Right," Aria said looking down to the food.