Aria had gone back to her apartment in a rush and slammed the door behind her. Her heart hadn't stopped pounding since her phone went off. How is A back, Mona was behind bars, she confessed to a litany of A crimes, they were supposed to be notified if Mona was released. Her head was swimming as she quickly ran to her windows and shut the blinds sending her small studio apartment into almost complete darkness. She was supposed to be writing a small write up on a dog that went after some woman's cat, but she couldn't even think about something so petty when it looked like A was back and had Ali.
She thought back to the moment after they realized what was going on. A had Ali, or atleast knew where Ali was, and the girls almost all completely dashed. Except for Emily, the little attack dog. She immediately followed them all out of the café and berated them for leaving their friend in obvious danger. Maybe Emily didn't realize how much of their lives were stolen by this game. Maybe she didn't care? Either way, Aria wasn't about to get trapped in another mouse trap over some crazy person who couldn't keep their games to themselves.
It was at moments like this when she was scared and worried and couldn't get her breathing under control that she liked to call Ezra. Ezra always knew how to keep her calm, bring her back to reality with some simple quote from a book he just read. She sat down and sighed knowing that he wouldn't be coming to her rescue anymore. Their breakup was still raw for her, she never loved anyone so deeply, so completely as him and she knew she never would. But, too much had happened. Between his book and the lying she couldn't look at him the same way. He betrayed her. She tried to forgive and forget, but it was impossible.
She sat down on her couch and pulled her knees up around her and hugged them. She stared at her phone which was thrown on her coffee table with her house keys and sighed. She was allowed four years of peace and quiet, four years to start a life and now it's being taken away again. She was about to let her mind wander when her phone went off again with a tone she designated for Spencer. She grabbed it off the table and looked it over, "I'm starting to think A was the one that invited us all to the Grille, not Ali". Aria bit her lip and thought about it, she had a point. None of them got a call, Emily said she skyped with her, but that was before she left for Rosewood. Maybe A got to her before she was able to get out or... Aria quickly opened her keyboard and text back, "what if A is why she came back in such a hurry? Should we go to the police?"
Aria got up and began to pace her apartment while she waited on Spencer to text her back, her mind was racing. What if A never left Ali alone? Maybe that's why she moved out west, hoping to shake the stalker? And, now that Ali was back, she brought the maniac with her. She ran her fingers through her hair anxiously waiting on a response, how can they be back to doing this? Her phone went off again and she looked it over, but this time it wasn't from Spencer. It was from Ali's phone, "I know your secrets, and I'll unbury them if you talk".