CHAPTER 5

POVS SPENCER

After the emotional moment we had at the viewpoint with Aria, I asked her if she wanted to come with us to my house and there we could talk calmly, and she could rest. She still seemed reluctant towards us, but she ended up agreeing.

Aria climbed into the seat in front of my car and Hanna, Emily and Alison got behind me. We thought that this way she would have a little more space and she wouldn't feel so pressured to talk to us. Shortly after driving to Rosewood she fell asleep with her head resting on the window. She would be exhausted with all the traveling, the trial, and the lookout moment. I felt so guilty for not trusting her. I would never forgive myself.

"Do you think that one day she will trust us again and she will truly forgive us? " Emily asks sadly when she sees that Aria has fallen into a deep sleep.

"I don't know, but we have to do whatever it takes to reward her for everything this year and support her. I think she needs us a lot right now," I tell the others as I look at Aria who seems to be sleeping peacefully.

When we arrive at my house, after about 30 long and silent minutes of driving, we are all also exhausted, especially emotionally. We tried to wake Aria, but she was sleeping so peacefully that we didn't have the heart to do it. In the end, with Emily's help, we picked her up and took her to my bedroom, so she could rest comfortably. We would talk when she woke up.

"This whole year we have been trying to avoid her, believing that she had betrayed us and she had saved us," I tell the others, wiping tears from my eyes. We were sitting around the kitchen table. We felt overwhelmed by what we had just learned.

"If it weren't for her, our children might never have been born and who knows if I would still be alive," says Alison, looking at Emily deeply sad.

"We have a lot to thank her for," Emily sighs.

"And she had pancreatitis from which she almost died and we didn't find out? How could it happen?" Hanna asks, exasperated.

"No one found out until shortly after I was able to be a little conscious, days after the doctors managed to stabilize me. I was still at some risk according to what the doctors told me, so until I was out of that risk I didn't talk to my parents about what had happened," Aria tells us as she enters the kitchen. She was wrapped around a blanket from my room and looking asleep. We all looked at her surprised by her words.

"Why aren't you sleeping?" I ask worriedly. She looks a little pale.

"I had a nightmare a few minutes ago. I don't want to talk about it," Aria tells us tiredly. She sits between us and settles into her blanket.

"Why didn't you tell anyone what happened to you when you regained consciousness?" Hanna asks, too intrigued to keep quiet.

"I suffered pancreatitis when I was traveling in Chile. My parents didn't even know where I was. Those months had been very exhausting for me, and I just needed to not be in Rosewood. I needed to be very far from here, so I left, only telling them that it wouldn't take many months to return. So, when I knew that I was still at risk of dying, I didn't want them to call them because I didn't want to make them suffer. I wasn't worth worrying about. When I knew I was out of danger was when I told them, and they helped me get transferred to the hospital in Philadelphia. I stayed there for another month, as it had been quite serious. I still have some checkups to make sure everything is going well and that's why your mother was a little strict the other day with what I eat," Aria says, looking at me.

I couldn't believe how much I had failed her as her friend, as her sister, which she really was to me, she was always like my little sister.

"I… I'm so sorry, Aria. We should have let you talk to us. We were very bad friends. I was a bad sister," I tell her, very upset with myself. She smiles a little at this last thing I say.

"It was… hard, but I also understand why you felt so betrayed, I just… felt like… if I had never really meant anything to you. As if… our friendship wasn't worth it," Aria tells us sadly. I feel miserable. As if a dagger had been stabbed in my heart. There was no way we could have made her believe that.

"Of course, our friendship is worth it, Aria," Emily says excitedly.

"We didn't give you up because our friendship meant nothing, but because it meant so much that it broke our hearts when we thought you had betrayed us," I tell her, crying. Just as I say that Aria comes up to me and gives me a deep hug while she cries.

"Do you really care about me? Don't you think you would have been better off without me?" Aria asks us while she cries on me. I caressed her back trying to calm her down, although I had also started to cry.

"Of course we care," I say as I place a kiss on her forehead, trying to comfort her.

"We so wish you were with us when the babies were born," Alison says moved.

"When I told them I was pregnant, I just wished I could tell you too. "I just remembered the whole day you gave me a headache talking about all the names I couldn't give my kids if I had them one day, because those were names of villains in some classic movie or book," Hanna tells her laughing, also trying to relax the atmosphere.

"You see, we always needed you, we just weren't able to see that we were wrong. We always want you in our lives, little one," I tell her, deepening her hug so that she perceives all our affection.

We stayed like that for a few minutes until Aria started to fall asleep again.

"Aria, why don't you go to bed again? You're falling asleep on top of me. You haven't gotten enough sleep yet," I whisper affectionately.

"I don't feel like it," Aria says complaining as she kept her head resting on me.

"Come on, Aria, you haven't slept in what? Two days? You need more than an hour of sleep. Alison and I are going to leave because we have to pick up the girls before it's too late, but we'll bring them early tomorrow morning so you can see them, okay?" Emily says to Aria, smiling. That seems to cheer Aria up.

"What about you, Hanna? Are you leaving or staying?" I ask her.

"Me? I'll stay, I think Caleb will be glad he doesn't have to suffer from my cravings another day," Hanna says making us all laugh. Her belly still didn't show much, but she was already almost five months pregnant, and she had Caleb crazy.

"Eww, are you sure you want to stay?" I say jokingly. She gives me a light smack in response.

Once Alison and Emily leave, Hanna and I look at each other wondering how to encourage Aria to sleep.

"Well, let's go to my room and the three of us are going to have a sleepover in my bed. What do you think? It's big enough," I try to encourage her. She looks at me with a frown, but she seems to agree.

"Okay," Aria says, sighing.

When I'm done getting ready for bed, I watch as Aria has her head placed on top of Hanna's slightly bulging stomach, with the latter a little excited.

Hanna and I looked at each other smiling, happy to see that we had our little friend with us again.

"Does it sound like there's an alien in there?" I ask jokingly. Hanna looks at me offended.

"No, but possibly a little Hanna who will also be a shopaholic and the next prom queen in 16 years," Aria says with a big smile on her face. Hanna can't help but laugh and agree with her.

"Well, let's try to sleep, because if we start talking, you're going to make a record of not having slept in three days," I tell Aria, laughing as I get into bed with the two of them.

"Good night," Aria and Hanna say in unison.

After turning off the lights and finishing getting into bed, I feel Aria come a little closer to me and take my hand. I move a little closer and hug her, knowing that she needs support right now and this has always been the way she has found the most comfort.

It had been a day of many emotions, but the day had ended better than expected.

I hope everything goes well from now on.

hi, a new chapter. I hope you like it and tell me if you liked it. I always accept suggestions about what you would like to see in the story. Have a great day and week! kisses