Young Queen

FOUR

"I love you sweetheart, have a good day. Call me if you need anything, and I mean it. Do not hesitate to call me," he placed another kiss on my lips, causing me to go into a daze at the effect this man had on me.

I nodded my head, "I love you too, Leo."

I gave him one last kiss before making my way up the stairs into the school. I looked back seeing how intimidating Leo looked in his suit, and yet he still held a soft smile as he saw me looking back at him.

Finally, I walked through the doors of the school, automatically missing the feeling of being home when I noticed all the stares I was getting from my classmates. I kept my head down while walking to my locker, noticing the girls already standing there causing me to feel better knowing that they would be by my side today.

"Aria why didn't you text the group chat back?" Claire asked me with a glare on her face.

Ahaha, oops. "Sorry I completely forgot, Leo came back yesterday and-"

"Oh, oooh," her expression quickly changed from a glare to wiggling her eyebrows up and down, "I see why you couldn't reply."

I rolled my eyes, "Whatever you're thinking happened didn't you sicko." I moved to open my locker.

"I thought he wasn't coming for a while?" Victoria asked me.

"He wasn't" I whipped my head back to Claire, "but when he surprised me he asked me about the note."

Her eyes widened, "I'm so sorry Aria, I told Justin when I was venting to him about my day, and he probably told Damon, who went on to tell Leonardo-"

"Claire it's okay, it actually allowed us to talk a lot last night, and for the first time in a while, I feel good. I feel happy," I told them with a smile on my face, before shaking my head and grabbing my English textbook.

"Well, I'm glad to hear that Aria, all we want as your best friends is to see you happy," Elena told me, squeezing my arm to show support.

"And this is why you guys are my best friends in the world," I closed my locker shut as the bell rang and we began walking to class.

Claire and I had English together, but we didn't pay attention as we really just spent the whole class whisper-talking to each other about things going on in our lives. She was still with Justin and the two were actually doing really well together. She said that he was planning to surprise her with a trip for winter break, but she found out about it when he accidentally sent her the text instead of sending it to Vince. However, she had no idea where they were going so she was now in the midst of buying a completely new closet that would suit any kind of climate for the trip.

The class went by rather quickly, but I guess that's what happens when you don't actually pay attention to what's being taught. It was nice getting to catch up with my friends one on one so I can really find out the juicy details of their lives.

We quickly made our way out of class when I noticed the large group standing close to where my locker was. I saw Elena with Margot and Victoria as I made my way over to them with Claire.

"What's going on here?" I asked them.

"Aria, don't go over there," Victoria said wide-eyed, trying to stop me from going over to my locker, but I ignored her and went over anyway.

My breath hitched in my throat once the crowd cleared for me and everyone was silent. The word 'murderer' was engraved onto my locker with a red marker. I felt my heart speed up and my body tense. Who the hell would do something like this?

I turned around to face the crowd with tears in my eyes, "Who did this?" I asked the crowd, my voice calm. When no one answered I felt anger run through my veins, "Which one of you cowards did this?" I yelled at them.