Forget Me Not

Chapter 1

For the past seven years I've been praying to the gods that Ezra would miraculously barge into Rosewood so that I could re-connect with him. I felt the hot fan of my laptop hit my shorts. It was autumn and slightly too cold for shorts but I didn't plan on going out. My fingers glided across the keys as I logged into my Facebook account.

Mike Montgomery:
You'll die in a year if you don't repost this.

Mona Vanderwaal:
Finally <3 Noel Kahn.

Spencer Hastings:
Hardy just farted on his hand, and then smelled it.

I chuckled at Spencer's status update. The only thing separating us was the wall between the kitchen and my bedroom but I still commented.

Classic Hardy. Next time, he should fart on Hanna and watch her have a meltdown.

I had gotten to know Hardy extremely well as the years had progressed. Once Ezra had left, Hardy came back to town in hopes of going out for a beer but I told him it would never happen and he was confused, but understood my anger. He and Spencer got caught in a couple of dates, leaving Spencer in the middle of a fist fight between him and Toby. Surprisingly, Toby was the first one to let up.

They'd been together ever since and I could feel their love in the air; meanwhile I would sit next to Riley and politely hold his hand and smile every other minute.

My mouse hovered over Hardy's profile. I knew he and Ezra were still friends even though Ezra refused to speak to him. Throwing all of my caution into the wind I quickly clicked through Hardy's Facebook friends before landing upon Ezra's name.

"What are you up too?" I muttered under my breath. His photo was him flexing in front of the Statue of Liberty, his information bar was visible but his likes and dislikes went hidden. He never filled any of that stuff out. I eventually found an address for his possible current home.

"Aria..." I heard Spencer's voice from the other side of the door. I was already up from my bed, running around my room looking for a suitcase. The door opened slowly to reveal a confused Spencer. "What's going on?" She smiled, I only caught it for a moment before she snapped back to a frown.

"I'm going to New York." I decided I wouldn't beat around the bush. I wanted to see Ezra, and for all I knew this was the only chance I had, I wouldn't screw it up like I had oh so many moons ago. She narrowed her eyes at me.

"What's in New York?" She questioned, I fumbled around with the mountain of clothes.

"Ezra is." I murmured quietly, her face contorted into an even bigger frown, she was going to tell me off.

"Ar...you can't be serious.." I scoffed at her. "Aria, he hasn't lived in New York for at least two years." My fumbling stopped, what was she talking about?

"How do you know that?" I turned my head towards her and she shrugged.

"Hardy and Ezra don't talk anymore, but when they did Ezra was moving to California, and they just lost touch. Ezra doesn't respond to his emails or anything. I do know that he was moving to Los Angeles back then." I nodded.

"Are you in for a road trip?" She smiled, smugly at my question.

"We leave tomorrow morning. You'll need a companion. I'm going to go pack and buy plane tickets." I nodded again with a smile on my face. "It's nice to see a genuine smile on your face again." She cooed, before walking back to the kitchen and getting on her laptop. I heard her tell the girls and Hardy our plan. After 20 minutes of them claiming it was a terrible idea, they agreed but Hardy and Spencer made an agreement that he would tag along.

The Next Morning

We boarded our plane around 9:45. Spencer and Hardy were sitting across the aisle from me, one row back. The car ride hadn't been long. We had to drive to Philadelphia then fly on a five hour flight to Los Angeles. We were about three hours in when the elderly woman, who reeked of flowers was snoring, was murmuring apologies to some guy named Edmond as she snoozed. I could hear Spencer and Hardy yell-whispering at each other.

"How am I supposed to let her embarrass herself like that?" I narrowed my eyebrows at Spencer's comment.

"I didn't want either of you to know. Spence, you know that would destroy her. Especially the day she said she was planning to see him...She would've reached her breaking point." Hardy reasoned. I knew for whatever reason that he was right.

"Hardy, Aria needs to get over him. She has somebody in her life now, and he likes her. He might even love her by the end of the week. The point is, if you just tell her, we can have a nice trip in California and she could get over him." Spencer wasn't getting anywhere, and after hearing a tid-bit of Hardy's side of the argument, I was almost certain I didn't want to know.

The rest of the plane ride, I let my imagination run a muck. I didn't want it to, but I couldn't help it. Whatever Hardy didn't bother to tell Spencer before we were on the plane, was definitely anything but good. It was described as something that would break me, listening in didn't only make me want to know what they were talking about, but what to be prepared for. The plane landed around four o'clock. We drove twenty minutes to the hotel that Spencer had booked last minute. The only problem was that Spencer only booked one room, so someone would have to be demoted to the floor.

"Aria, we can share the bed." I nodded with a blank expression, I wanted to skip the commentary and just find out what they were all keeping from me.

"Okay, I'm just gonna take a shower and talk to Ezra.." All the color in Spencer's face drowned. She was as pale as I was. Hardy interjected.

"Uh-that's cool. We'll print out the directions for you!" I nodded and went into the bathroom. I was in desperate need to a shower. I reeked of whatever flower perfume the elderly woman was wearing on the plane. I paraded into the bathroom with my suitcase in tow.

After my shower, I sorted through all of my clothes I had decided on a pair of light wash capris, an off white t-shirt and a sea foam green scarf with floral print. I curled my hair into loose curls and did my makeup naturally. I slipped on my grey sandals. The air in California was stuffy. It wasn't hot, but it wasn't cold. And for November in Pennsylvania, it was almost never like this.

"All printed out, here's your purse." Hardy handed me my purse and the directions and I smiled politely. I walked down to the rental car that Veronica got for us. Before starting the car, I pulled out my phone and texted Riley.

I'm here and safe. Exploring with Spencer.

I locked my phone and started the car, carefully following the directions. I came upon a house with bright green grass. It was a baby blue and off white color that almost matched my shirt. I smiled slightly, this was the home Ezra and I talked about briefly before he revealed himself as....A. I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding in.

All I was there to do was to get an explanation, yet I couldn't even open the car door. My phone vibrated in my pocket.

Have fun babe. Xoxo.

I rolled my eyes at the last part of the text. Swallowing hard, I got out of the car and walked towards the two story house that held my only love. I walked up the three steps and onto the porch. Holding my breath, I lightly knocked on the door. I heard tiny footsteps pitter-patter and then the knob finally turned. My breath hitched in my throat.

"Hi! I'm Marley!" A petite girl with golden curls down to her back stood at the threshold, before I could say anything I heard a familiar voice make their way around the corner.

"Marley, how many times have I told you--Aria?"

And just like that, I understood Spencer and Hardy's argument.