Ella didn't return home the next day, or the next. She forwarded Aria's calls and ignored her texts. Her father apparently had spoken to Ella and despite the ample opportunity to out her daughter's inappropriate rendezvous with Ezra, Ella had kept mum. Byron was furious with Aria, and they'd exchanged some choice words over the matter the night Ella had left, but mostly he'd been avoiding her at all costs. Tuesday night Mike informed her that he was going to Noel Kahn's house for a few days, until everything blew over and part of her wished she and Elliot could run away to Noel's, too.
It was Thursday that the dominoes were beginning to fall onto one another. Spencer hadn't brought up the revelation that Aria had made Sunday night, and Aria hadn't been naïve enough to mention it to either Emily or Hanna. Between Spencer and her mother, Aria felt as though she were walking on top of a greenhouse, waiting for the glass to break beneath her feet. When she arrived in fourth period, Ezra wasn't there. Spencer looked just as shocked as she felt so she knew, or rather hoped, that it meant Spencer hadn't said anything. As Aria was about to text her mother to plead not to put Ezra behind bars, she received a text from a number she didn't recognize saying that it was Ezra and that he was interviewing at Hollis College that morning, not to worry.
He also mentioned that he would be reading a short story under a different name in the next town over, Ashbury, if she wanted to come. Aria readily agreed, knowing that it meant she'd have to bring Elliot along. She replied asking what type of location it was and he informed her that it was a café and if she felt it safe, Elliot was more than welcome. Aria glanced around her and replied that she and Elliot would be there when she got off work.
After fourth period, Aria headed straight for the teacher's lounge. Normally she would eat lunch with the girls and then head home to get ready for work, but today she needed to meet with her French and Pre-Calculus teachers to take her mid-term examinations. When she got there, she felt her blood run ice cold. All of the teachers that were already there looked at her and the hatred was evident in their eyes. She wanted to scream, to tell each of them that they didn't know what they were talking about and to shut up, but nobody was talking, except for one Jenna Marshall. In the corner, Jenna sat with one of her teachers, Aria didn't recognize her, and was quietly reciting answers to a midterm as the teacher recorded them and made marks on a blank exam sheet.
It took a few minutes, but Aria finally made it across the lounge to where Madame Beaumont was waiting with her mid-term. The entire forty minutes that it took for her to complete the exam, Aria was hyper-aware that although Jenna couldn't see, the girl's eyes bore into her backside. She hadn't so much as seen Jenna around school since she'd gone to the principal about her and Ezra, and she honestly hoped she wouldn't for a long, long time. Two hours after arriving, she'd finished both exams and fled from the room as quickly as she could manage. She'd almost made it to the parking lot when she heard her name being called out.
"Aria." She stopped, not daring to turn around because the voice she heard was one she recognized. The girl was like a ninja. Her cane click-clacked against the pavement as Jenna approached her, eventually coming to a stop barely a foot away. "I told you I'd be asking for a favor. I hope you're ready to pay up."
"What favor?" Aria's voice dropped to the same level Jenna's had been at. She wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer, but Jenna had information that could land a lot of people behind bars. If she and the girls had to be punished, that was one thing, but she wasn't letting anyone take Elliot from her.
"You know my brother, Toby?" Jenna stated. It wasn't a question; they both knew that Aria knew exactly who she was talking about. "He's finally coming home from reform school today."
"Yeah?"
"He, more than anyone, deserves an apology," Jenna paused, a wicked grin spreading across her delicate face. "And you're going to make sure he gets what he deserves as a welcome home gift. If he happens to be in touch with Rosewood PD, well, I can't be held responsible for his actions."
A confession. That was Jenna's favor. Somehow or another, Jenna knew that they – along with Ali – had been the ones to blind her all of those years ago. Her brother had taken the fall, and had been away at reform school ever since. It was common knowledge that he'd been convinced that he was the one to do it, and hated himself for it. By the time Aria turned around, Jenna was gone and Aria felt the air around her suddenly drop by several degrees. Right on cue, her phone buzzed in her pocket.
"When you bury your secrets you should expect for them to be dug up. Karma's a bitch, just like you and your posse. Have a nice day. – A."
*PLL*
After getting off of work, on her way to pick up Elliot, Aria called Emily. Surely she was out of swim practice by now. She would have called Spencer, if Spencer weren't still royally pissed about Ezra. Hanna had said herself that although Elliot was adorable, she wasn't really a kid person so that left Emily. Mike was still staying at Noel's and she didn't want to put this on him. Aria had no intentions of telling the girls what she was about to do, but she also hadn't any intentions of letting her son tag along, either. It took six rings but Emily finally answered.
"Hello?"
"Em! Hey, I hate to ask but I really, really need a favor." Aria knew she sounded desperate but, really, she was.
"What's up?"
"Do you think you can meet me at my place?" Aria asked tentatively. "My dad isn't home and Mike is at a friends and there's somewhere I need to be and I can't take Elliot."
"Where's your mom?"
"She, uh," Aria mentally slapped herself. She hadn't even considered Emily asking. She tried to think of a reason, any reason, that her mother wouldn't be taking care of Elliot that night. "She's out of town. She had, um, a gallery thing in Philly. I'll only be, like, half an hour. Please, Em? I am begging you."
"Please don't beg," Emily laughed. "I'll be there in a bit, ok? I'm just going to wash my hair first."
"Thank you so much, Emily!" Aria sighed with relief. "I owe you big time!"
"Do you mind if I bring a friend?"
"Um sure, I guess." Aria wasn't sure whom Emily was referring to. She knew that Emily had recently broken up with her long-term boyfriend, Ben, and had insisted they would not be rekindling their relationship. She also knew that Emily and Hanna hung out fairly often outside of school, but she doubted Hanna would be a ton of help in this situation. "What friend? I just wanna know who's going to be around Elliot. I trust you, Em. I'd just like to know…"
"You know that new girl, Maya?" Emily asked, and there was a certain cautiousness to her voice that made Aria's mouth go dry. "She and I were supposed to hang out tonight. Maybe she can come help me with Elliot?"
"Yeah, that's fine." Aria wasn't too familiar with Maya, but if made Emily more comfortable to watch Elliot if she had someone with her then so be it. "I'm picking him up right now, how soon do you think you can be at my house?"
"Is half an hour okay?" Emily asked. Aria was just pulling into the daycare parking lot, so she knew that half an hour was plenty of time to get home and change.
"Half an hour is great, Em." Aria agreed, getting out of her jeep and locking the doors. "I'm picking up Elliot, I'll see you soon."
When she'd finally gotten home, Emily and Maya were sitting on the front porch swing. She removed Elliot from his carseat and placed him on the ground. When the toddler spotted Emily his eyes lit up and he bolted.
"Em-lee!" He cried enthusiastically, clambering up the steps and throwing himself into Emily's arms.
"Hi." Emily giggled, returning Elliot's embrace. Emily glanced warily at Maya, but decided to wait for Aria to explain.
"Hi." Aria greeted breathlessly, smiling at her son's affections towards her friend. "I'm Aria." She reached her hand out to shake Maya's. "This is my brother, Elliot."
"Maya." The girl introduced herself. "He looks a lot like you!"
"Yeah, I get that a lot." Aria agreed, digging into her purse. "Here's a spare key, Em. He's not in pull-ups anymore; he'll tell you if he needs to go to the bathroom. He has snacks in the fridge and toys in the den and his bedroom."
"I've got this, Ar." Emily laughed, standing from the swing and accepting the spare key. "You go do what you need to do, Elliot and I are going to have a blast. Right, Buddy?"
"Ya!" Elliot shouted, jumping up and down with Emily's hand in his own.
"Are you sure, you'll be ok?" Aria asked, glancing from Emily to Maya. The new girl hadn't taken her eyes off of Emily and there was something familiar in her expression that made Aria curious.
"Positive." Emily nodded. Aria finally conceded, kneeling to kiss Elliot on the forehead before heading back to her car. She smiled sadly at how easily Elliot went with Emily before backing out of the drive. It wasn't that she wanted Elliot to hate Emily, but that was her baby boy and every day it seemed he needed her less and less. And for that, there wasn't a thing she could do.
Ten minutes later, Aria was raising a trembling hand to the front door of the Cavanaugh house. It was located directly across the street from Alison's old house, which Maya's family now lived in. Ironically enough, Alison had lived next door to Spencer, whom Aria could see wasn't home from whatever team activity she had been participating in today. Thank God.
When she finally summoned the courage to knock, she could feel her blood beginning to cool at the sound of footsteps from within. The footsteps were soon drowned out by the sound of her own pulse beating fervently in her ears. Her palms were beginning to sweat, and she felt herself resisting the urge to scratch her arms. When the door swung open, Aria could feel a lump forming in her throat. The boy standing before her looked nothing like the one that had been hauled away almost four years ago.
Toby had been an awkward thirteen-year-old. He was shorter than the other boys, and quite skinny with long shaggy hair and somewhat sunken in eyes. The Cavanaugh family had lived in Rosewood for many years, until Toby's mother passed away when he was six, before moving to New York. The winter of sixth grade, they had moved back with a new Mrs. Cavanaugh and step-sister Jenna. Toby, with his awkward looks and bizarre interests, had been an easy target for the other middle school students of Rosewood – especially Alison. Now, Aria almost couldn't believe she was looking at the same boy.
He now stood a staggering six foot, and was no longer skinny but rather muscularly built. His eyes weren't sunken in, but they still had that haunting look about them that gave Aria the chills.
"Can I help you?" Toby asked slowly, clearly unable to recognize Aria who now suddenly felt self-conscious to his gaze.
"I, uh, I-" She fumbled with her words, not sure how to begin the conversation they were bout to have.
"You look familiar." Toby stated, surveying her carefully.
"Aria." She finally said, able to collect herself. "J-Jenna told me you were back in Rosewood, so I thought I'd stop by."
"Why?" Toby suddenly became defensive, closing the door so that only his face was visible. Something in his face changed when he learned who Aria was and she was beginning to think this whole thing had been a mistake. "What do you want?"
"To apologize." Aria was careful to make sure there was no one within earshot. "My friends and I… we were horrible to you before you left. And-"
"No." Toby said firmly, opening the door a bit more. "Alison was horrible to me. You were the one with the pink hair, right?" Aria nodded in confirmation. "You were never horrible to me. You, and the other girls just let Alison be horrible to me."
"That's even worse." Aria said quietly. "Toby, do you think we could talk for a minute? There's something I need to tell you about Alison."
"She's dead." Toby said fiercely, causing Aria to jump. "I don't care to know anything more about her."
"I think you care to know this." Aria's hands were beginning to tremble as she gestured for Toby to join her on the porch. He studied her for a moment more before finally following her lead and closing the door behind him. "Do you remember anything about the night Jenna had her accident?"
"I was in my treehouse." Toby recalled. "I remember Jenna coming up to the treehouse to… talk, and then something happened. One of my fireworks went off."
"That wasn't an accident." Aria whispered. She was ashamed. She hadn't actually set off the firework, Alison had. Hell, she'd even agreed with Emily that they shouldn't be doing it in the first place, but she also hadn't done anything to stop her.
"It was Alison." Toby finished the thought. "Yeah, I know."
"You what?" Aria whipped her head up to meet his eye. "How?"
"Look, I saw her, ok?" Toby locked eyes with Aria and the intensity was scary. "I saw her coming, from the window behind Jenna's back. And I saw the rest of you hiding in the bushes. I knew she was trying to scare me, or whatever. I also knew that Jenna was closest to the trapdoor. I was too miserable to care if I died in a fire, and I hated Jenna too much to care if she did, either."
"You saw Alison and you knew that firework was going to hit Jenna and you didn't try to stop her?" Aria was confused. She could understand his misery, he hadn't had any friends except his step-sister and people were cruel, but why would he allow something so horrible to happen to Jenna? "You wanted Jenna to get hurt?"
"Alison wanted me to get hurt and you didn't try to stop her." Toby countered and Aria felt the guilt beginning to creep up again.
"And you never told on us." Aria finally realized. All these years, Toby could have put them all in juvenile hall just by giving up their names and yet he hadn't. "Why not?"
"Because it doesn't change what happened to Jenna." Toby said easily. "I feel terrible now, she'll spend the rest of her life without her sight, but if being guilty meant I could get far away from here, then I was willing. I figured I could just run away from the boarding school, commit suicide and no one would ever have to know. Not that anyone would care."
"Toby." Aria said. He was intimidating, sure, but Aria could see what was behind all of that. A person had to be in horrible pain if they were willing to take this kind of fall just to escape, and ultimately considered suicide as an answer. "Don't say that."
"Listen." Toby dropped his already quiet voice to barely above a whisper. "Jenna doesn't know that I know. Knowing my sister, she wanted you to feel badly about it and that's why you're here. She can't do anything because nobody has proof that I didn't do it, so just leave it alone."
"Why?" Aria felt herself becoming bold. She squared her shoulders and furrowed her brows, straightening her back to bring her to her full height. "Why should I leave it alone?"
"Because now that people think I'm a monster they leave me the hell alone. Which is what you need to do." Toby snapped, careful not to raise his voice. He glanced over his shoulder, back to the door. Noting that it was still closed tight, he turned back to Aria. "I appreciate the gesture, but you need to leave."
Aria didn't budge. She stood her ground, refusing to back away no matter how menacing Toby tried to be.
"Aria." Toby growled, taking a single step in her direction. His brows furrowed and his grey eyes became impossibly dark. Aria could feel the hairs at the back of her neck begin to stand up and her stomach begin to drop, but she did not stand down.
"Everything ok?" Aria and Toby both whipped their heads across the street to see Spencer getting out of her SUV. Her duffel bag was slung over her shoulder haphazardly, a stack of books in her arm and her hair thrown into a messy ponytail. Aria wasn't sure how she was able to stay sane with all of her activities, but she was thankful for the interruption.
"Fine, Spencer." Aria finally stepped away from Toby, who was backing away closer to the front door. "Everything's fine."
"Remember what I said." Toby warned. "You keep your mouth shut." Before Aria could even formulate a retort, he had slipped back into the house and locked the door. She stared after him for only moment before she turned back in Spencer's direction, stepping off of the porch and making her way across the street.
"So," Spencer said, folding her arm as best as she could with the stack of textbooks in her hands. "What's up with that?" Spencer nodded her head towards the Cavanaugh house.
"Nothing." Aria answered quickly.
"Nothing?" Spencer ticked an eyebrow. "You certainly have a thing for dangerous men."
"Spencer." Aria really didn't want to discuss this in front of the Hastings house, or at all really. Of course, she knew deep down that Spencer wouldn't stop bringing it up unless they did finally talk about it. "It's over, okay? It never really started, but it's over. Are you happy?"
"You know what, Aria?" Spencer rolled her eyes. "You're my friend and I love you, but this is all really self-destructive behavior ad honestly it's alarming."
"Spencer?" Aria and Spencer turned to see Melissa stepping out of a car. The trunk was open and it was evident that someone was removing luggage from the storage space as Melissa approached the two girls. "Aria? Well, well, well. It's been years."
"Hi, Melissa." Aria mumbled, unsure what to say. The last time she'd seen the girl had been the day after Aria had slept with her then-boyfriend.
"So, you and Wren made up?" Spencer leaned over to get a better glimpse at the figure getting Melissa's things from the car. Aria remembered Spencer telling her that they'd broken up when Melissa had caught Spencer kissing the man, and she found it almost ironic that all of Melissa's boyfriends seemed to be more attracted to her sister and her friends.
"No." Melissa said firmly before smiling widely. "Now, Spence, you can NOT tell Mom and Dad. I want to surprise them."
"Surprise them with what?" Spencer asked suspiciously. Aria suddenly felt awkward. She was about to learn a secret that was meant to stay between the sister's and she felt more than out of place.
"We eloped!" A voice answered and Aria could feel her heart stop. She literally felt that she could have been a heart attack. She knew that voice. She didn't have to be looking to know that Melissa was now married to none other than Ian Thomas. He faltered for a brief second when he saw her, though it went completely unnoticed by Melissa who was beaming with joy.
"I, uh, I gotta go. See you at school, Spence." Aria dismissed herself quickly, rushing across the street to the safety of her car. She was aware of Ian's eyes on her back as she left. Starting the ignition of the Jeep, Aria chanced a glance back towards the Hastings house. Spencer looked thoroughly shocked as she listened to Melissa prattle on about the elopement. Ian, however, had his eyes locked squarely with her own. It was unnerving. She could feel the bile rising in her throat as she tore away and sped off.
After pulling up in front of her house, she received a text. Picking up her cell she noticed that she also had a missed call from her father, a text from the number Ezra had used earlier and a text from an unknown sender. Dialing '1', she pressed the receiver to her ear and listened to her father's voicemail.
"Aria, I'm going to be late at the office tonight. Please make sure you and Elliot eat. Don't wait up for me." He sounded so cold, detached even. Although deep down she knew he was bringing this on himself, part of her wondered why she felt so terrible about the whole thing. Next, she read Ezra's text.
'Still coming? I go on in an hour. Was hoping to see you before then…'
Seeing that the message had been received over half an hour ago, Aria knew she wouldn't be making it to the reading in time. Quickly, she typed out her response.
'Something came up, sorry… see you at school tomorrow?'
Almost instantly his reply came to her and she felt herself smiling despite the fact that she knew she would be projectile vomiting the second she walked through her front door.
I understand. You owe me, and I expect to be paid in full. See you tomorrow ;)
She didn't bother responding, instead choosing to open her last message. There was such an ominous feeling in the atmosphere, she felt she'd much rather drown her phone in the river than read another text from her anonymous stalker.
Poor, poor Aria… One secret after another is getting unraveled… Better look for shelter before I strip you bare. – A
Aria quickly dialed Hanna's number. She couldn't talk to Spencer, and she didn't want to alarm Emily in front of Elliot. There wasn't much else A could do, they'd already outed she and Ezra, they'd revealed Elliot's identity, they'd even somehow exposed she and Ian. Toby had willingly taken the fall for The Jenna Thing, what more could A possibly do? Still, the situation was becoming entirely too overwhelming and Aria just wanted to scream.
"Aria?" Hanna answered. Clearly she had been surprised to hear from her, and rightly so. Aria hadn't really made any effort to spend too much extra time with anyone but Spencer and even then it was mostly Pre-Calc homework. "Is something wrong?"
"Hanna." Aria breathed out. She could feel an anxiety attack coming on and opened the car door to allow herself some fresh air. "Ian's back in town. Melissa married him and A knows everything and I- I don't – know – wha-what to d-do!" she sobbed dryly. Leaning over the edge of the car, Aria began to dry-heave as Hanna struggled to find the right thing to say.
"I-uh… do you, like, want me to come over or something?" Hanna asked, completely unsure what to do or say.
"I just can't deal with this anymore!" Aria finally was able to work up the tears that had been clogging her throat.
"I'm on my way."
By the time Hanna pulled up in front of the house, Emily and Maya had ventured onto the front porch with Elliot to discover Aria leaning over, crying, against her steering wheel. Hanna stepped out of her car and walked over to where the two girls were trying to comfort Aria.
"What's wrong?" Emily rubbed small circles on Aria's back, attempting in vain to soothe her.
"Ian's back." Hanna said flatly. Aria's head jolted up.
"Toby knows about The Jenna Thing." Aria said just as flatly. "He always knew. And he's the only one with any proof."
"Toby's back?" Emily's eyes grew wide. "When did he get back?"
"This morning, I guess." Aria shrugged, finally able to calm herself down enough to hold conversation. "Or this afternoon. That's where I went after work." She said this looking only at Emily, by way of explanation. "Then Spencer showed up and then Melissa and that's when I saw Ian."
"So him and Melissa are back together?" Hanna said in disbelief. When the older Hasting had broken up with him, she had been adamant that she would never take him back. Why, then, were they together now?
"It's worse." Aria said, looking up at Hanna. She leaned over and took Elliot from Emily, allowing him to sit in her lap and rest his head on her chest. "Melissa and Ian are married."
"What?" Emily and Hanna exclaimed in unison.
"That's what I thought! But I couldn't speak. I couldn't even breathe." Aria rested her chin atop of Elliot's head, holding him as closely as she possibly could. "What am I going to do? I never wanted this to happen. Any of this. And now he's back and… you know who is trying to expose everything."
"I think this is where I make my exit." Maya finally spoke after being silent for the past several minutes. All three friends looked at her, almost shocked by her presence. "Look, I don't need to know about this Ian guy, or this Jenna person. I'm just going to head on home. This seems like a really private, not-meant-for-new-girl-to-hear conversation."
"I'm sorry, Maya." Emily said. Aria and Hanna shared a look. It was obviously upsetting to Emily that Maya was leaving, but really the girl didn't need to know any of this. "I'll call you later?"
"Okay." Maya smiled, waving as she walked towards and Volkswagen Beetle that Aria hadn't noticed had been parked on the street. As Maya drove away, Emily and Hanna turned back to Aria attentively.
"What did Spencer say?" Hanna asked. "About the whole Ian thing? Didn't Melissa just break up with a different fiancé a few weeks ago?"
"Spencer didn't say anything." Aria shrugged. "She was just as freaked out as I was. I mean, you should have seen! He wouldn't even take his eyes off of me, it was scary."
"I bet it was scary." Hanna leaned her head against the back door of the Jeep. "What are you gonna do?"
"What does A want you to do?" Emily's forehead creased with worry.
"I don't know." Aria said honestly. "I have no idea. A's already driven my mom away; she won't answer my calls or texts… As if things could get worse with my dad, A has somehow made that happen. I don't get why they're doing all of this. What does A want with me?"
"Us." Emily corrected. "A has something on all of us…"
"Em?" Hanna looked at her carefully. Something changed in Emily just then, something so small you wouldn't notice if you didn't know her. "Em, what did A do to you?"
"A told my parents something…" Emily cast her eyes to the ground. "About me and about Maya."
"I knew it!" Hanna squealed, clapping her hands together. Emily looked up, a hurt to her face that hadn't been seen before, and Aria glared. "What? Aria, you're not in sixth period with us. Emily and Maya are totally flirty lab partners."
"Han." Aria warned.
"Hey, I'm totally cool with it." Hanna raised her hands in the air in surrender. "You can't help who you fall for."
"Yeah, tell me about it." Aria grumbled, her mind wandering to Spencer's close-mindedness towards she and Ezra. Hanna looked at her questioningly, but was interrupted before she could say anything.
"So, you guys are ok with me being… whatever I am?" Emily asked hopefully.
"Emily." Aria said, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder. "We love you. If you guys can be ok with me having a baby at fourteen, I'm more than ok with you liking girls."
Emily started to cry. She wasn't sobbing, nor was she gasping for air desperately as she had been when her parents found out, she was simply allowing tears to roll down her cheeks. Hanna immediately pulled her into a tight, reassuring hug.
"Em-lee ok?" Elliot asked, pointing at Emily curiously. Aria kissed his forehead.
"Yeah, baby, Emily's ok."
"Mama ok?" The question caught Aria off guard. He hadn't seen her crying, and she knew that he didn't know anything that they were talking about, yet he knew that something was amiss.
"I don't know, Handsome." She answered honestly. There wasn't anything she could say that would make any more sense to him than that, but he seemed satisfied enough as he cuddled against her chest once again. "I don't know when things will be ok again."
Something that never made sense to me on the show: Toby would have had to live VERY close to Ali, who lived next door/behind Spencer, in order to see into her window from the treehouse. WHY in the show is that not the case? Spencer seems to live across town from him or something in the show. And Aria would have to live fairly close in order for them to be able to hear the same sirens, right? It looks like Emily lives across the street from Maya/Ali's house, which makes sense since she was next door to Toby when his step-mom and Jenna moved in... So, THEORETICALLY they all live really, REALLY close to one another… yet they always drive to one another's house or call each other on the phone… why not just walk over? The only one that actually seems to live in another part of town is Hanna. Yet they all ACT as if they each live in a different area of Rosewood. My mind is blown. So in this story, Spencer and Ali/Maya do live next door and Toby lives across the street; Aria and Emily live in the same part of town, within walking distance from one another; and Hanna lives in a suburb farthest from the other girls.