in my veins | jason dilaurentis [discontinued]

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"Alright, well I'm gonna go shower," Spencer said as she turned to leave. "Don't do anything drastic while I'm gone."

Arabella laughed humorlessly, watching as Spencer retreated upstairs for her shower. Ever since she'd left the hospital, everyone had been treating her like she was made of glass. She supposed it was expected after her head injury, but it's not like she had a concussion. There was minor memory loss and severe headaches here and there, but nothing too drastic. At least that's what she was telling herself.

It had been but 5 minutes when a knock on the door brought Arabella out of her reverie. She groaned, eating the last spoonful of cereal before setting the spoon down and getting up to answer the door. The brunette hardly had to do anything the past couple of days. She'd only left Spencer's house once to go home and pick up some extra clothes and other toiletries. Besides that, she barely left Spencer's room. If she did, it was to eat, watch TV, or shower.

Once Arabella reached the door, she swung it open expecting to see Melissa but getting Jason DiLaurentis instead. He was standing with both of his hands in his pockets, his expression blank of any emotion. He looked different from the last time she had seen him, better even. Maybe he had finally gotten his life under control.

Once she overcame the initial shock of seeing him, she mustered up enough courage to speak. "Jason, um, hi."

The boy had been staring down at his feet before the door swung open, but when he heard Arabella's voice he looked up immediately. "Oh, hey. I wasn't expecting you." His eyes widened to match his surprise, the corners of his lips twitching upwards into a faint smile as he took notice of her girly pajamas. "Is Melissa here?"

The girl shook her head awkwardly, her grip on the door loosening as she tugged on the hem of her tank top, suddenly feeling self-conscious. "No, sorry, I haven't seen her."

"Oh, okay," Jason bit his lip, running a hand through his dirty blond hair. "Well, she usually comes over and brings me my mail. She didn't yesterday, so I was just coming by to pick it up. You wouldn't know where she'd leave it, would you?"

"No, I wouldn't," she mumbled quietly, shaking her head.

Arabella was fiddling with her fingers, something she did when she was nervous. Seeing Jason for the first time in over a year was taking its toll on her. It was easy to pretend her feelings had disappeared when she was thousands of miles away. Even when she moved to Rosewood again, Jason was nowhere to be found. And when he did eventually come back to town, he was so focused on Alison's memorial that there was no room for any awkward encounters or reconnection. Clearly avoiding him this time around would be much harder.

After a moment, she spoke again. "I'm sure Spencer knows, though. She should be down any minute. Do you want to come in and wait for her?"

Jason hesitated for a second before nodding. Arabella stepped aside to let him walk through, closing the door behind him. He took a seat on one of the couches as she walked back into the kitchen to put her now empty bowl in the sink. Jason watched as she grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and dug through the cabinets for her medication. Arabella had to take her pills every morning after eating, and while she usually had trouble keeping up with her prescriptions, Spencer was not having it. In the Hastings household, everyone was an early riser, and Arabella feared she would adapt to their lifestyle and never sleep in again.

Once the girl had found the pill bottle, she joined Jason on the couch. She wasn't really sure what to say to him. At the very least, she was glad that he wasn't being hostile towards her. From her perspective, he didn't really have a reason to, but after the way things ended, she was surprised he would even want to be around her. Arabella supposed by now she should have been over it, but Jason wasn't just some crush she had that turned into something more. When they broke up, she had to figure out how she was going to fill the void he had left. It wasn't easy.