Pretty Little Liars: 16 & Pregnant (Sequel)

To the End of the Earth

Later That Day
Aria's Pov

"And then just pull tight on the ends, and there you have it." Holden says "A chicken." Piper and Stella both stare wide-eyed as he holds up his cloth napkin, which now resembles a chicken.

"How do you do that?" Stella asks.

"I just showed you," Holden chuckles "Here, give me your napkin and I'll show you again." He repeats the fairly simple steps of making a napkin-chicken, leaving the girls just as amazed.

"You try now." He says.

"I can't," Stella replies "I don't know how."

"I wanna try!" Piper exclaims, picking up her napkin. Although what she creates doesn't exactly look like what Holden's does, it isn't half bad.

"You did it!" I tell her "I can see that it's a chicken." Piper beams with pride at her cloth creation, and it makes me happy to see such a big smile on her face.

"Well, what do you guys say to some ice cream?" Holden suggests "I know a place close to here."

"Sounds great," I nod "And thank you again for dinner, it was delicious."

"It was my pleasure." He replies "It was nice to catch up with you Aria. You never did tell me, how long are you in New York for?" I think back to earlier today when Piper called Ezra on the hotel phone, and how that greatly increases our chances of being found.

"We're leaving tomorrow morning." I say.

"Oh," Holden answers "That was a short trip."

"We're not going back to Rosewood quite yet." I continue "I think we're going to continue on somewhere else."

"Like a road trip," He nods "Why didn't Ezra come?" There it is, the question I was expecting as well as dreading.

"He had to stay back for work." I lie "And since Piper's summer break just started, I wanted to do something fun with the kids."

"Makes sense." Holden says, although I feel like there's a small part of him that doesn't quite believe me.

Holden takes us to the ice cream parlour a few blocks up, and it has so many flavours that it takes me about ten minutes to decide which to get. I choose mango-passion fruit, Piper gets raspberry creme, Stella orders s'more flavour, and Holden decides on caramel macchiato. Then, we all take a cab to Central Park, where we sit on a bench and people-watch as the sun starts to set.

"Well, it's been fun Holden, and I'm sure these two agree." I look at Piper and Stella "But it's been a long day, we should probably head back to the hotel."

"Of course," He smiles "Although if you want, I have a spare bedroom at my place. It's not right downtown like your hotel, so you'll probably get a better sleep before you leave tomorrow. I know you're probably used to quiet Rosewood."

"That's so kind." I reply "But it's really okay, the hotel is fine, it's only one more night."

"Come on," Holden urges "I'll make banana pancakes tomorrow, you don't even have to come to the restaurant."

"Yeah!" Piper exclaims "Mommy please?" Between her pleading eyes and Holden's innocent, inquisitive look, I give in.

"Fine." I answer, throwing in a smile.