𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐊, 𝐁𝐀𝐁𝐄! | 𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐀 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐆𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐘

prologue.

aria montgomery was the type of girl who smiled at you once in passing and you'd think about it for the rest of time. she was incredibly pretty and endearing, she had these big dreams that she was so sure she was going to achieve. she was the type of person everyone really loved. and when she paid even a sliver of attention to olivia, the girl felt like the entire world stilled around them.

they'd met through alison dilaurentis who seemed to also have control of everyone around her. she'd created her own little group consisting of spencer hastings, hanna marin, emily fields, aria montgomery and olivia wyatt. she saw something in them, maybe it was just that each of them was desperate for a little bit of the spotlight that alison constantly had. olivia had never know exactly why she'd started hanging around with alison, but aria made it worth it.

alison probably wouldn't have liked it if she'd found out they were meeting up themselves without the rest of the group. she probably would've been afraid that they might realise they didn't need her around after all. but olivia never really thought about alison or the other girls when it was just her and aria. they'd mostly hang around aria's house, at that time olivia's parents were going through a divorce and even though she knew it was for the better, she still didn't feel like being in the house when one of her parents were boxing up their things to leave.

aria had always tried to take her mind off things, they'd go out to eat or they'd try cooking new recipes they found in untouched recipe books that were strewn on the kitchen shelves. sometimes aria would show her things that she had written, sometimes olivia would help her when she was struggling with pieces of a story, sometimes they'd pull random outfits from aria's packed closet and style each other. when they got bored of that, they'd curl up on the couch and watch films.

olivia never meant to fall for aria, she couldn't even pinpoint the exact moment it happened. she just knew that one evening, her eyes met aria's and her heart felt like it was about to explode. and that was it, because obviously aria had been having similar feelings. olivia didn't even remember who leant in first, she just remembered the feeling of aria's lips on hers and how soft the whole thing felt.

they continued that way for months, they'd meet up after school or sneak away from the other girls to just be themselves. they'd never labelled what their relationship was but olivia fell hard and fast for aria. she knew that they were young but she was also so sure that she'd never feel anything for anyone else again. and then their walls came crashing down around them.

neither of them had talked about what would happen if anyone ever caught them, what they would say or do because they thought that they were being careful. olivia had never wanted to be anyone's secret but she knew that everything about them was new for aria and so she gave her time. but alison dilaurentis wasn't one for giving people time so when she caught them, she immediately had something new to use against them.

olivia had tried her best to reassure aria that alison wouldn't actually tell anyone but both of them knew that wasn't true. they had both been on the receiving end of alison's cruelties and there was nothing the girl wouldn't do when she was bored. so aria took a step back from olivia. it was subtle and probably unnoticed by the other girls who didn't know the full extent of how close they were. aria moved and started sitting beside hanna in class, she sat next to spencer at lunch and kept her attention firmly away from olivia. alison held the relationship over aria far more than she did with olivia which made olivia feel incredibly guilty. olivia's mother would ask her why she was never at aria's house anymore and once aria muttered something about her own parents asking why olivia wasn't around anymore. without thinking olivia made a promise to aria that she couldn't take back. she promised that she'd handle alison and then they could go back to normal. it was the first time she'd seen aria relax in weeks.

that night they had a sleepover at spencer's barn, aria and olivia fell asleep together and when they both awoke, alison was gone without a trace. it looked bad for olivia, she knew that but she also assumed that aria would believe her when she said she didn't know what happened, that she had nothing to do with whatever was going on. after all, she'd been asleep next to her the entire time. the worst part about their entire relationship wasn't aria walking away from it like it was nothing, it was the way she looked at her like she didn't believe her when she spoke about alison. she never vocalised that she didn't believe her, but olivia could feel it.

a week later aria and her entire family had packed up and moved to iceland. she hadn't even told olivia, she'd just left without a second thought. and yes they had been young, but it was at that exact moment that olivia realised she had never really meant as much to aria as aria did to her. and it took a hell of a lot of time for that feeling to go away.