Okay guys, here's another one for you.
Pretty Little Liars belongs to Sara Shepard and Freeform.I do not own or take credit.
Let me know what you think!
It's Thursday night the following week and it kinda turned into a crazy disaster. One minute I'm sitting up in our room just playing Pokémon on my DS, and the next everything basically explodes. Not literally, but what happened was not good.
Last Tuesday Uncle Byron had another get together with some of the teachers from work (including Fitz). Alison's brother, Jason, for some reason was invited as well by Aunt Ella. I wasn't really able to do much but I really wasn't in the mood to just sit around adults all night and listen to them talk about whatever it is adults talk about. Plus Fitz being there I couldn't quite imagine myself hanging around with the guy who is Aria's secret, and much older boyfriend. Still makes me unsettled to think about. So instead Andrew picked me up and we went to catch a movie.
Later when I got home I found out that Mike got himself arrested when he decided to break into someone's house. I think that was his way of getting his parents attention because then he didn't really interact with us anymore and eventually stopped going to school when they told Aunt Ella that he completely checked out on paying attention. He barely leaves his room. So a lot of the A fiasco has been a bit out of both of our minds lately, more so for me than her since I can't really do too much about it. But as far as I know, not too much has happened lately. Or at least nothing they've bothered to share. I may have to start pressuring them about it a bit more once this whole Mike thing gets settled.
"Jessie." I look up from my DS and see Aria in the doorway. "Mom asked if you could come down and help set the table?"
"Kay, give me a minute." I smile at her before looking back down to save my game progress as I hear her walk away.
"Hey." her voice comes from the hall. "Mom wants you to go downstairs and help get dinner ready."
It gets quiet for a second as I crutch my way into the hallway and look towards Mike's room.
"Mike." She says from the frame of the door.
"Close the door!" He yells.
I debate whether to interfere.
"I said get out!" He yells again.
Now I head over to his room, because I've had it with his attitude lately. Ever since he got himself arrested he has been down everyone's throat 'cause he doesn't want to talk to anyone. I'm ready to whack him with my crutch if I have to.
"No. No, I'm not gonna get out."
I watch her disappear through his door. When I get to it I see she had walked over to his desk.
"Mike. You need to let somebody in. Not some…stranger online." She points to his laptop. "Who are you even talking to?"
He doesn't even pay attention to her so I butt in. "Mike." I say as calmly as I can and he turns to me. "Let's go. Don't make your sister tell you again."
I see movement from the corner of my eye as I said that. Aunt Ella walks up next to me and she gives me a look.
I half smile and move to the side so she can get inside his room.
"What's going on in here?" She asks.
"Nobody invited her in." He says, pointing to Aria.
"I tried." Aria says, flapping her arms in frustration as she walks over back to the opened door. She shakes her head in disbelief and stands beside me.
"Mike." Aunt Ella says, walking over to him. "Turn off the computer and come downstairs."
"I'm not hungry."
My heart sinks a bit, because it reminds me of how I was when I was depressed around the time the anniversary of the accident.
"Did you even eat lunch?"
"Who cares?" He starts to raise his voice a bit now and my blood is starting to boil. "Just close the door. I'm in the middle of something, okay."
"No." She reaches out for his laptop. "You're done. Give me the…"
The conversation drowns out a bit as they both talk at the same time. They start to wrestle for the laptop in a yelling argument and then he stands up. The look in his eyes is a bit scary.
"Let go!" He yells.
He shoves his arm forward and it has Aunt Ella fly to the other end of the room, hitting his nightstand and his laptop falls to the floor. My heart sinks and I watch Mike stare in shock for a second before he walks off into his bathroom, closing the door behind him.
Aria walks forward into the room and I'm in pure shock with my mouth open. "Mom." The heartbroken sound in Aria's voice is breaking mine. "Are you okay?"
The look in Aunt Ella's eyes are concerning. She has tears in them and she starts messing around with her wrist. "I'm okay. Umm…" Her voice cracks and she takes a deep breath. "When your father…" She looks at me too. "Your uncle gets home, this never happened."
"What…" I start.
"No." Aria adds.
I walk a bit more into the room and Aria heads closer to her.
"Mom…"
"I have to tell him that I tripped down the stairs, and you guys are going to tell him the same thing."
"Mom, you can't just let him…"
"No." She has a more serious tone in her voice now. "He cannot know about this. This did not happen. I'll take care of it." She walks around Aria and starts for the door. "I'm gonna go get some ice, and you need to set the table."
She gets to me and I stand in her way, even stretching the crutch a bit to my side so she doesn't try to walk around me. "You are not going to let him get away with hurting you."
"Jessie, you are going to do what I say. Don't tell your uncle what happened. Mike is going through something.'
"And that gives him the right to hit his own mom? I was yelled at by everyone for using others as punching bags when I was going through my situation. But it's okay that he's using his own parent as one?"
"Jessie." She takes a deep breath. "Not a word."
My eyebrows go in an angry V shape and I squeeze both of the bars from the crutches tightly, trying not to lose my temper with her. "No, Aunt Ella." I say, shaking my head in aggravation.
"Jessie, please. Promise me." She's holding back tears now.
I look behind her to Aria. I see the sad and hurt look on her face while she holds her stomach in pain for her mom. She has her mouth hanging open, not knowing how to react and tears are in her eyes.
I look back to Aunt Ella and try to relax. "Fine."
She smiles and I move aside so she can leave. She brushes her hand against my arm in a thank you as she walks away.
I wait till she gets completely out of sight before my anger seeps in again and I head straight over to the bathroom. "Mike!" I yell, banging on the bathroom door as hard as I can with my crutch. "Mike, you get your ass out here!"
"Jessie, stop." Aria runs over and grabs my arm, carefully pulling me away before I can bust down the door. "Let's go set the table."
"Are you kidding me?"
"We have to do what mom says, okay?" I look at her and see she's holding back tears.
I look back at the bathroom door then pull my arm away from her hand in anger. I storm towards his door and slam my fist into one of the walls before I leave the room.
Friday night Aria managed to talk to him and he finally came to join us for dinner. I was still pissed at him though, even a bit at Aunt Ella because she still refused to tell Uncle Byron what happened. But I guess it was better than nothing.
The next morning I wake up to Aria jumping onto the edge of my bed. I groan as she yells my name at the top of her lungs. I'm about ready to kill her for waking me up on a weekend.
"What!" I yell.
"It's the Saturday we are supposed to meet dad at Hollis for lunch remember?"
"Oh my God. That's today?"
She starts jumping up and down, "Yessss."
I hear the urgency and excitement in her voice. I turn away from the wall and look right at her. She has a bright smile on her face. I know exactly why she's acting this way. It sure as hell isn't because we are having lunch with her father.
"Mr. Fitz works today…doesn't he?"
She tries to give me an innocent look. "No?"
"Liar. You set this up on purpose."
"It was dad's idea."
"Because you told him that you wanted to spend some family time with him. You wanted to go see Fitz, and you asked me to tag along because you're trying to finally get us in the same room since I know."
"Me? Never."
"You are such an asshole."
"Oh Jessie come on. He's not going to bite."
When we got to Hollis we hung with Uncle Byron for like an hour because he had a class to teach. We talked about random stuff here and there, avoiding anything that had to do with Mike. We can see he's trying to get back to normal but at the same time he's having a hard time communicating. When it's time to go we head out of the school's cafeteria.
As if right on cue, Mr. Fitz bumps into Aria (literally) as we turn the corner. "Oh my God!" he yells. "I'm so sorry." He bends down to pick up his cup of coffee that somehow managed to miss both of them and then his face turns red when he sees us. "Aria."
"Hi, Mr. Fitz." Now her face is turning red.
"What brings you guys here?" He looks at me and I notice the worry in his eyes as he probably knows exactly what I'm thinking.
Which my exact thoughts are…I can't believe you are dating my best friend and didn't tell me.
"They were just visiting their favorite relative of course." Uncle Byron looks down at us with a smile.
"You're our only relative that works here, Uncle Bryon."
"Still your favorite though."
"Oh, old man has jokes." I say.
He smiles and hugs me. "I love this kid."
I put an annoyed face. "I'm not a kid."
"Of course you are. Stop complaining." He says then checks his watch. "I have to go to my next class."
"I'm on my break if you want me to watch them till you're done, Byron." Fitz says.
He laughs. "No need to watch them Ezra, you aren't their teacher anymore."
"Oh, right. Old habits die hard." He says.
I roll my eyes. What a dork.
"I know the feeling, but no, no. Feel free to hang out or…chill. However you kids phrase it these day. Just let me know when you leave campus."
"Oh. My. God." I hear Aria say under her breath as she nods to her dad.
I look over at her and try not to laugh as I catch her eyes.
"Anyway." Uncle Byron says. "I'll see you two at home. Order pizza or something for dinner." He goes into his pocket and grabs money from his wallet. Then he shakes Ezra's hand. "See you at the meeting later."
"Yea, see you there."
The next ten minutes of silence in Fitz office is probably the weirdest of my life. I don't want to start the conversation with. "So, how's dating my best friend? You know, the same one I've known since diapers." Aria will kick my ass. And I can't start out with the normal sibling like speech of "You hurt her I hurt you." Because then Aria will really slap me.
"Mr. Fitz." I finally say.
"Ezra." Aria says before he even turns to me.
"What?" I slant my eyebrows in confusion.
"His name is Ezra." She says in a bit of an attitude.
"It's okay." He says before we can get into it. "If you want to call me Mr. Fitz again, that's fine. I understand the sudden need to change it."
"Do you?" I say sarcastically.
"Don't answer that." Aria says.
"Ria."
"Jessie."
We stare each other down for awhile. We have no idea where to go from here.
"Look." Fitz chimes in. "I love her."
My mouth drops. "You what?"
"Love her. I love Aria. That won't change. I just need you to know that and try your best to get past whatever you are feeling towards me right now. We were bonding and I get that it feels weird now that you know, but I'm still the same guy you've been talking to as a friend."
"Except that you're my twenty three year old friend that is dating my sixteen year old best friend, who hasn't told anyone about it since September because you know they won't approve. Am I missing something?"
"Told you this was going to take more time." Aria says.
"I'm not going to stop talking to you." I say to him. "But I need more time to process it than a onetime ambush of trying to get me to see that it's okay the first shot you try. She's like a sister to me. I'm a bit more opened minded but you just need to give me that time to get used to it. But trying to tell her parents? They are going to kill you when they find out."
The look on his face is pretty priceless, and I can't say that I didn't enjoy messing with him. After all, what are best friends for? Scaring the crap out of her boyfriend is kind my job.