A/N: Enjoy!

"You're home early," Ella claimed when Aria stepped through the door.

"Uhh…yea."

"Did you have fun?"

"I–we didn't go," Aria confessed, going over by her mother on the couch. "We ended up taking Emily to the hospital, she had acute carbon monoxide poisoning."

"Oh my god, is she okay?" Ella said worriedly.

"Yea, she is fine. The doctors are just keeping her over night just in case. Mrs. Fields is with her right now."

"How did she get carbon monoxide poisoning?"

Aria shrugged and painfully stuck to Spencer's story. "We found her off to the side of the road as we were driving to the dance. She was throwing up and didn't look good so we took her in just in case."

"Wow," Ella said stunned.

"Yea," Aria sighed. Sitting in silence for a bit, she began shifting as she felt uncomfortable. "Hey mom?"

"Yes?" Ella wondered breaking away from her own daydream.

"During the whole fiasco with Emily, I sort of lost my phone. It was in my dress pocket and must have fallen out. Spencer, Hanna and I drove back to where Emily's car was and stuff but my phones gone. Do you think we can get a new one?"

"I'm sure we can try," Ella bargained. The mother seemed happy that her daughter had assisted her friend in something. She was acting like Aria had practically saved Emily's life. And maybe she did, but the lying about it afterward, and all the details didn't feel good. Lying was not always easy for Aria, especially when it came to her mother now a days. She always felt so guilty when her mom was always trying to be so truthful. "Well, I'm going to bed. Emily is going to be released early so I think we are going to head up there. Maybe we can swing by the phone place after?"

"Sure. I'm going to wait up for Mike but night sweetie," Ella smiled.

"Night mom," Aria said walking to the stairs and going to bed.

The next day was nothing like Aria had planned. Instead of going to see Emily before she went to get released from the hospital, the police made a pit stop to her house to bring her in for questioning. It was humiliating to say the least, having the police show up at the front door.

When she made it inside the station, there sat her other two friends Spencer and Hanna, but at least one of them had a parent.

"I'm her attorney too, keep her over here," Mrs. Hastings declared. Thankful, the cop nudged Aria towards Spencer and her mom, while some other officer at his desk was questioning Hanna.

"What's going on?" Aria hushly asked Spencer's mom.

"It's important for the police and doctors to know how and where Emily got carbon monoxide poisoning. And since you are the last ones to see her…"

"Were suspects," Aria finished.

"No, just key pieces to solving the puzzle. You aren't going to be labeled anything bad while I'm here," Veronica stated.

Surprised, Aria looked to Spencer who had the smallest of smiles on her lips. That was her mother for you…

It was about an hour or so before they got released. They were told to hang around Rosewood, not get into any trouble and a bunch of other small things.

"What about your phone?" Spencer asked Aria when they were alone.

"I told the cops that I lost it. It must have slipped out of my dress when I was getting out of the car for Emily or something. They know its gone so whatever happens now can't be my fault."

"You know, that's really smart thinking," Hanna complimented.

"Thank you Hanna," Aria smiled at the compliment.

"Okay okay, but then what are we going to do about 'A' in the meantime?" Emily asked, who was still sitting on her hospital bed. Apparently there was some massive trauma so the doctors were needed around the ER.

"I don't even know," Aria sighed. Checking her watch, she found it was time for her to go. Gathering her things, she scooped her purse over her shoulder and glanced back at her friends. "My mom and I are going to get me a new phone today."

"Aria, you can't leave now," Spencer whined.

As much as Aria knew she shouldn't, she needed to. She had plans with her mom and she didn't want to talk about 'A'. 'A' had ruined everything in her life, especially when it came to Jason. She still wasn't sure if 'A' had something to do with being stood up or if it was completely Jason. Either way, she felt empty and hurt and she didn't like to dwell on that feeling with people around.

"I'll be back as soon as I can. We can have dinner or talk about it later tonight. I really have to go you guys, sorry!" Aria exclaimed before backing out of the room and leaving. When she got home, she was surprised that her mom was still in her pajamas hanging around with Mike.

"Aria!" Her mother smiled brightly. "Look what I found on the front step this morning. Someone must have found it for you and brought it here," Ella declared, handing Aria her cell phone back.

Dropping her things on the counter, Aria took a step forward, surprised to see the device in her mom's hands.

"Did anyone leave a note?" she wondered.

"No, but it could have blown away. It was slightly windy this morning."

"Right," Aria muttered skeptically. Kissing her mother and ruffling Mike's hair, she went upstairs to her room and shut the door. It was odd that her phone was suddenly found and it was even weirder that 'A' hadn't kept it for blackmailing use.

Flipping open the phone, Aria immediately felt sick when she saw her phone background had been set to Ali's picture. It was one of her prettiest ones, where Ali was looking over her shoulder at the camera. Going straight into the settings, Aria tried to change the picture, but it seemed to be locked. Whoever took this wanted to keep Ali's picture on her phone, and until Aria could get it fixed, this was how it was going to stay.

Inhaling, Aria dealt with the fact that her dead best friend was her background photo and went onto more important matters. 'A' had sent a text from her phone, so checking the history of her messages; it seemed to be there, right in plain sight. It was horrible to think about, considering if the police ever saw this…

Oh gosh, Aria thought. Aria had told the police her phone was missing and someone sent a message off of it. Now that she has her phone…what if things back fire and they don't believe her? It wouldn't have been the first time and now she could be facing Emily's attempted murder charge!

Unsure of what to do, Aria quickly deleted the text message from her history for peace of mind, but knew it would still be there and the police could find it with a warrant if they ever really needed to.

Pacing around her room, Aria couldn't think of what to do first? Try and fix her phone or go tell the police her phone was delivered back at her house. Deciding to go with the second option, Aria grabbed her coat and went back downstairs.

She was going to tell Mrs. Hastings that her phone had been anonymously delivered and that the police should be notified. Doing just that, Aria let her mom know where she was going, with Mike tagging along and they walked to Spencer's.

"So who do you think dropped off your phone?" Mike wondered as they walked.

"Not a clue," Aria said, trying not to think about 'A'.

"Its cool that they did," Mike shrugged.

"Yea, I guess so," Aria smiled fakely. Coming up to the house, Aria knocked on the door and let herself in. Calling for Mrs. Hastings, she was met with her in the kitchen drinking coffee.

"Aria, what can I do for you?" Veronica asked. "I thought you were with Spencer and the girls."

"I was," Aria confirmed. "I left because I thought my mom and I were going to take a trip to the phone store but apparently my phone was dropped off at the front door this morning."

"Oh, that's good," Mrs. Hastings said, finding the actions to be a little too nice also.

"Yea…well, anyways, I was hoping that you could let the police know for me? I told them that I lost it and stuff but now that I found it I don't want them coming to any conclusions."

"Of course," Veronica nodded understandingly. "I'll give them a call right away. Good thinking Aria."

Smiling, the two Montgomerys soon left. As they walked down the sidewalk, Aria's head lifted and caught the sight of Jason's house. The place was dark from what she could see, but she couldn't really think about that since seeing anything that belonged to him or reminded her of him was a punch to the gut for her. Aria thought about that night of the dance, his promise to her about picking her up, and the fight they had. It was a complete mess and made her sick. She hated that he just left her, especially because she loved him.

"I don't know what happened between the two of you," Mike said softly, "and I know I can't do much. But I'm here for you Aria – if you ever need me."

Tearing up, she looked away from the house and shoved her pain to the side. Slinging an arm around her brother, the two leaned into each other before walking. Mike was always a good sibling. He was dependent, sweet, and even though he got on her nerves sometimes, he was well worth it.

"I was stood up," Aria confessed to her brother as they walked.

"At the dance?" Mike wondered.

"Before the dance," Aria scoffed pitifully. "He said he would pick me up at 9 – or at least that's what we talked about. He wanted to the whole gentlemanly thing and pick me up."

"Did he say why?"

"Nope. I haven't heard from him since that text. I thought we were okay, but I guess we weren't."

"Maybe he has an explanation," Mike bargained.

"Its kind of late isn't it?" Aria wondered sadly.

Mike observed his sister for a while as they walked in silence. She had been down ever since then. And even though she hid it very well, he could still see it at times. "He really hurt you."

Aria nodded. "I thought he loved me." Taking a deep breath in, she looked out at the way in front of her, "but love isn't like this. When two people love each other they don't stand the other one up or mislead them. They don't break promises either. It just…I don't know," Aria sighed tiredly.

"Think we can go downtown one night?" Mike randomly asked. "I like the bookstore there and we can go catch a movie. They have some new action one coming out you and I might both like."

Catching her brother's drift, to try and cheer her up while steering her away from the conversation, Aria put a smile on her face. "Yea, that sounds really good."

"Sweet," Mike smiled back before running off from her and up the driveway to the house. God she loved her brother.

Aria decided to give Hanna a call when she got home, hoping that Caleb could help her fix her phone. The kid was beyond tech savvy and as much as Aria thought she might be able to take Ali's picture on her phone, she couldn't. It was too freaky to even look at.

"Who the hell is this? You think this is funny you big sicko?" Hanna exclaimed into the phone.

"Hanna! Han! Its me, Aria."

Shocked, Hannah's mouth went agape. "Aria?"

"Yea, its me. I got my phone back. Long story short, I need Caleb's help." As she talked, Aria could hear some static over the phone. Wondering what it was, she pulled the earpiece away and looked at it. Ali's picture appeared again and she quickly put it back to her face so she wouldn't have to look at it.

"Why do you need him?" Hanna wondered confused.

"I need him to fix my phone. It's stuck on this weird setting. Do you think he can fix it?"

"Probably," Hanna told her. "I'll have the girls come by tonight after Caleb fixes your phone and we can talk about it all. Sound good?"

"Perfect," Aria stated relieved before hanging up the phone.

"What can Caleb's tech shop do for you today?" Caleb asked with a sarcastically happy smile on his face when he opened the door. Cracking a smile and laughing a little, Aria walked inside and pulled out her phone.

"Get Ali's photo off my background," she said handing him her phone. Giving her a confused look, he shut the door and followed her further into the house.

"How did it get on there?" he wondered.

"My phone was delivered back at my house after I lost it…" Aria trailed off as she greeted Hanna in the kitchen.

"Some sicko must have put it there," Hanna claimed as the gears in Caleb's head started to turn.

"Right," Aria said going along with it.

"Anything else you noticed that's changed about your phone?" Caleb wondered as he sat down by his laptop.

"Uhh, no I don't think so." Watching as he typed on the computer and hanna made a call to get take out, the light in Aria's head lit up. "Actually yea, there is. When I was talking on the phone with Hanna today, the earpiece kept making some crackling sound. Do you know what that could be from?"

Furrowing his eyebrows, Caleb looked over the phone and shrugged. "it can be a lot of things. I'll check it out for you. Is that it?"

"Well…now that that could be something, is it possible if someone blocked a certain person's calls or texts?" Aria wondered as she thought about Jason. Maybe that was the reason she wasn't receiving any calls from him or something.

"That's pretty extreme and doubtful. I can try pulling up your history and stuff from your phone company if you want. But it's going to take some time. I'm going have to get passed a bunch of security measures."

"Yea, sure, take as long as you want. I'm in no rush."

"Alright," he sighed. There was something more going on, Caleb knew. It was pretty obvious, but the girls were thankful he wasn't asking questions. It wasn't until something weird popped up that made him start. "Aria, do you know who dropped this phone back off?"

"No why?" she wondered as her and Hanna picked through the Chinese takeout they ordered a while ago.

Instead of answering, Caleb flipped the camera part of the phone down, grabbed some paper beside him and wrote 'your phone's bugged'.

Wide eyed, both of the girls looked at each other and knew what each of them were thinking – 'A'.