Fletcher Pierce

Chapter Fourteen- War and Peace

AH, CHAPTER 14! Getting pretty far into the sssstorrryyeee. Please vote and comment so I can know that you like reading, and that I should keep writing.Thanks so much for reading it this far!

WARNING:

Short, boring, filler chapter. But you do need to read, or you won't understand the rest of the story.

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Aria:

Ever since I had slammed the door to Fletcher's house and driven down his driveway at the beginning of last summer, something had been... Not quite right in me. I had convinced myself that I'd healed, but deep inside of me, somewhere I still felt the pain of being betrayed. The loss of someone so important to me was devastating. Thought it had died down so far that I suppose I couldn't directly feel the pain, but there were repercussions. I'd become much more angry, untrusting, depressed. I'd started to care much more who thought what of me. I hated that feeling. The feeling of being lost, knowing that you're lost, but refusing to even consider admitting that.

But when Fletcher walked over that cold, mid-march night, I was healed. It wasn't even him. It was just being able to resolve a conflict of what-ifs, like what if I had forgiven him. What-if he hadn't cheated. What-if We had never been together. All of those what-ifs were resolved, and a weight was lifted off my chest.

Fletcher walked over and leaned against the wall, standing next to me. "Hey, Aria."

I rolled my eyes and stared at him darkly. "Can I help you, Fletcher?"

He laughed softly. "Aria Peters, is that your 'I'm-not-forgiving-you-so-you-might-as-well-just-go-away' voice?"

"I use that voice a lot more than I'd like to nowadays." I admitted, looking at the dirty side-walk.

"I know that you won't believe me. But  I feel terrible about what I said to you. I want to honestly apologize for saying those things to you in there. I was annoyed and I was jealous. I guess I should admit it to you. I do feel jealousy when I see you and Shawn together. I guess all those years that I knew you, seeing you look at him indifferently, looking at me with... I don't know, how you look... Its just painful, I guess, seeing you look at him that, but staring at me like I'm nothing. Even though I love Rosalie with pretty much everything inside of me.... Some part of me is still in love with you."

I couldn't respond. I just couldn't. What did I say? That I missed him? That I hated him? I finally swallowed the lump in my throat. "I forgive you for insulting me in there."

"Something tells me that you don't really forgive me."

"But I don't forgive you for cheating on me. For playing my heart. Do you know how much that hurts? Jade showed me pictures you two took. Watching someone you thought would always love you... Love someone else?"

"Yes, I do understand. I see you and Shawn all the time. But before you blow up and tell me its not the same, I understand that it isn't. So I am sorry. I am really sorry that I cheated on you. I'm sorry that we couldn't avoid all this pain, but I can't do anything about it. I really can't. I'm sorry."

I looked at Fletcher, and that is when my what-ifs were answered. If I had forgiven him, he would've done it again. If he hadn't cheated, we would still be together. But he had, and that was that. If we had never been together, I would never have met Jade, or Rosalie. "I forgive you."

He smiled, the first time I'd seen him smile outside of when he was with Rosalie in months. 

We hugged. It wasn't really romantic, but it was the right thing to do, and it was nice. We both walked back over across the street. 

I decided that I needed to clean up some debris that I'd left in my life. It was ruining my happiness, and I had to do what was best for me.

"Rosalie. Its over. The plan is off." I said with a smile.

"What plan?" Fletcher and Shawn asked at the same time.

"The plannnn to surprise you guys with ice cream." Rosalie saved. "But I'm sticking with the plan." She gave me a look that meant she didn't mean the ice cream plan.

"Rosalie, can I TALK to you for just a second?" I hissed.

"Of course." She nodded.

We walked away from the boys, then sat on a bench. We were out of hearing range for about a half second before Rosalie exploded.

"What do you mean, the plan is off?"

"Fletcher apologized to me. I know it isn't all about me, but he's really sorry. I think it would be best if didn't try to make him feel that pain."

"You forget something  very important, Aria." Rosalie glared at me, arms crossed. I'd never seen her like this. "This whole plan is about me. I do all the work. So how dare you try to call off something when you are nothing more than the person who had the idea?"

"Because, I'm.... I honestly think Jade would agree with me." I wasn't lying, I really believed she would. As it turned out, she did side with me.

"Fine, you want to quit the plan, go ahead, be my guest. But I'm going to do this. I'm going to make him suffer for what he did to Spencer, and every girl and boy he's hurt. Someday you will thank me."

"Rosalie, you can't do this, I will tell him!"

"Yeah, good luck with that. He's going to believe his girlfriend, which is me. So good luck and goodbye, Aria." Rosalie stood and walked back. About a minute later, Shawn walked over to me.

"I figured it was my turn." He laughed, heaving himself down next to me.

"Yeah. Listen, Shawn. This past month of dating, it really hasn't been all that.. happy. Has it?"

"I guess not."

"I really like you, but we can't get through a day without fighting. I'm tired of the insults, the turbulence. I thought I could ignore that, but when Fletcher was throwing around insults, you didn't defend me. When someone came to apologize, it wasn't you. That isn't boyfriend material. I'm sorry, but I need to do what's best for me. Its over. I hope we can still be friends."

Shawn sighed, drumming his nails on the bench. "I figured as much. There is something I've been meaning to tell you..... After graduation, I'm not going to community college, like I'd planned. I'm going to enlist in the Army."

I was ready to hear him start a fight, but when he said that, all I could do was smile. "That's great, Shawn!" I embraced him tightly. "I'm so glad that you are willing to fight for our country."

He hugged me back. "Friends?"

"Friends." I confirmed,  pulling away. "Come on, let's rejoin the others and get some ice cream." I stood and we walked together in companionable silence, until we rejoined Fletcher and Rosalie.

"We have some news. Shawn and I are no longer a couple, we are friends."Rosalie arched an eyebrow in surprise, and Fletcher's mouth dropped a bit, but they both remained composed. "You both seem awfully cool with that."

"It was a breakup of mutual agreement."

And that night was the first night that I began to clear up all the debris and start my life new. I felt freer than ever. Rosalie, of course, no longer talked to Jade and I, but Fletcher did. He made up with Jade to. We couldn't talk to him often, because Rosalie sucked up all his attention. We talked to Spencer for awhile, but he didn't seem to like us that much. He was much more considered with Rosalie. So the old foursome had kind of died. But I had Jade. We got closer than ever, and almost two months, I was totally happy.

If you think this is the end of the real story of my senior year, you couldn't be more wrong.