Exploiting Realities

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR - SECRETS KILL

"I do now..." I said sadly.

She sighed. "You guys don't ever have to keep secrets from me, okay? We were suppose to tell each other everything, and you two completely ruined that!"

"Well you have secrets too!" I snapped.

"Not anything big like that! My secret was something that no one else on the face of the earth knew about! That's different!"

Alec looked back and forth between the two of us, confused. "Wait, what?"

I ignored him. "It was something big and you knew that it was something that I would want to know! You can't be mad at me after keeping that from me for so long."

"Well at least I told you!"

"Only because you lost a bet! I was trying to purposely lose that bet just so I could have an excuse to tell you!"

"You shouldn't need an excuse to tell me things."

"I was going to tell you anything but then you spilled your secret and...well...that changed things! Just think about it, Lor!"

"Wait...what secret?" Alec asked. "What bet? I'm lost."

"Don't worry about it," Lorelai said, brushing him off. "It's not important anymore."

I sighed. "It is still important, Lor. Don't you realize that?"

"It should've just made you want to tell me more," she snapped. "Didn't that make you feel awful? Keeping something like that from me?"

"Of course it did!" I exclaimed. "I hated every second of it!"

"Then why didn't you just tell me?!"

"I wanted to! Alec wouldn't let me!"

"Hey," he said defensively, "don't pin this on me."

"It was just as much your fault as it was Aria's," Lorelai snapped at him. "Why were you so against telling me?"

He shrugged."I didn't want to hurt you. Not after what happened a few years ago."

The air seemed to still at the mention of it. What had happened a few years back was never mentioned when the two of them were both around. This was the first time since it had happened that the two of them had actually talked about it.

"That was years ago," she said coldly. "What happened then doesn't even faze me anymore. The past is the past."

He sighed. "You know what I mean. You do understand how I could be worried about that being an issue, don't you?"

"Hardly."

"Well I mean, it would be like me saying that I don't like you but I--"

"Alec," I interrupted, "that's enough." Sometimes he just didn't know when to stop. Of course Lorelai realized that, but she wouldn't admit it to him in a million years.

"Well, I didn't think that us not telling you would make you not talk to us for two weeks," he stated.

She sighed. "What did you think would happen? I would act like it was the coolest thing ever? And then a few weeks or months later, I would finally admit to myself that it bothered me? And I would just let it eat me up inside but never ever say anything about it to you guys? Is that what you thought would happen?"

I nodded. "That's exactly what I thought would happen. And I didn't want to put you through that."

"Well, I'm through hiding my feelings," she told me. "I'm done. If I'm pissed, I'm going to let the world know that I'm pissed. Okay?"

"Okay," I agreed. "But can that start tomorrow? Because I really want my best friend back."

Her face softened. "I've missed you guys, too. I've been hanging out with Miranda and Avery more and it's just not the same."

I laughed. "Have you been getting earfulls about Finn and Connor too?" I asked her. They were all that Miranda and Avery would talk about whenever they would come over to tutor me, especially since I started making Miranda and Finn come separately.

She nodded, laughing. "It got really old really fast."

"So are we good?" Alec asked, not wanting us to start obsessively gossiping.

Lorelai nodded. "Just this once, I'll let you get away with it. Don't do it again, though."

We grinned. "I promise," we said together, glad to be getting our best friend back.

* * *

I didn't get home until 11:30 that night. The three of us had had a lot of catching up to do. Two weeks was a long time to be separated. When I climbed into my room that night, I pulled out my journal first thing.

December 20th

Dear Journal,

You've really caused a lot of trouble, that I must admit, but I actually think you've taught me something. I don't know why I lied to Lorelai, but it was a huge mistake. I know that now. Sometimes in life you're given the gift of a friend who will be there for you no matter what, and I'm lucky enough to have two of them. I've been taking it for granted for years now, and I can't afford to do that again.

Although, I'm still confident that I was right about how Lorelai would have reacted if she had found out right away, especially now that I know how she feels about Alec. She would have acted like she was really happy for us, but in reality she would hate the idea and it would be destroying her inside. She wouldn't say anything about it to either of us, and that would hurt her even more. I'm glad that this way I at least know that it bothered her, rather than her acting like it didn't.

I'm looking forward to Mia coming home tomorrow for Christmas, but I know that her coming home twice in two months is killing my parents. I wonder how we're going to manage that for three and a half more years.

Love, Aria.

* * *

I'm sorry that it's been so long since I've updated, and I'm sorry that this chapter is short, and I'm sorry that it's not very good. I'm having huge writer's block right now and I don't know what to write. Bear with me guys.

-V.E.