Wanted

33 ARIA MONTGOMERY, TYPICAL ROSEWOOD KOOK

Aria had begged her old friends to come with her to Rosewood Memorial Hospital, and now the four of them and Mike sat in the waiting room outside Labor and Delivery. An hour had passed since they’d heard anything, and they’d read the waiting room’s entire stash of Glamour, Vogue, Car & Driver, and Good Housekeeping, and had downloaded about a hundred iPhone apps. Byron was holed up in the delivery room, doing his I’m-going-to-be-a-father-again thing. It was beyond bizarre to see her dad so gung-ho about the birthing. Apparently, when both Aria and Mike were born, Byron had fainted at the first sight of blood and had to spend the rest of the evening in the ER getting IV fluids to keep his blood pressure up.

Aria stared across the room at a nondescript painting of a desert vista and sighed.

“You okay?” Emily asked.

“Yeah,” Aria answered. “Except I think my butt’s asleep.”

Emily gave Aria a concerned look. But Aria was pretty sure she was okay about all of this, unconventional as it was. The day after Ali had tried to kill them, Aria had gotten a call on her cell phone from her mom. Ella was in tears, devastated that something awful had almost happened to Aria.

Aria had admitted why she’d stayed away, that she’d wanted to give Ella a chance to be happy with Xavier. Ella had breathed out and cried, “That scumbag! Aria, you should have told me immediately.”

Ella promptly broke up with Xavier and things between Aria and her mother slowly returned to normal. Now Aria was back to spending half her time at Ella’s, half her time at Byron and Meredith’s. She and Ella had even talked a little about the impending new baby. Although Ella seemed a little sad about it, she also said it was the way life went. “Most things don’t work out the way you want them to,” she said. Aria knew that all too well. Practically the only thing she’d learned from the Ali experience was that some things were too good to be true.

Including Ali herself.

Byron pushed through the waiting room door. He wore blue scrubs, a face mask, and one of those weird anti-germ shower caps. “It’s a girl,” he said breathlessly.

Everyone jumped up. “Can we see her?” Aria asked, slinging her yak-fur bag over her shoulder.

Byron nodded and led them down the quiet hallway until they came to a room with a big window. Meredith sat propped up in bed. Her hair was matted to her head, but her skin glowed. In her arms was a tiny pink bundle.

Aria stepped inside and gazed at the little creature. The girl’s eyes were little slits, her nose was nothing more than a button, and she wore a preppy-looking pink cap on her head. Ugh. Aria would definitely have to knit her something cooler.

“Do you want to hold your sister?” Meredith asked.

Sister.

Aria approached tentatively. Meredith smiled and placed the newborn in Aria’s arms. She felt warm and smelled of powder. “She’s beautiful,” Aria whispered. Behind her, Hanna sighed with pleasure. Spencer and Emily made cooing noises. Mike looked flabbergasted.

“What are you going to name her?” Aria asked.

“We haven’t decided.” Meredith pursed her lips bashfully. “We thought you might like to help us choose.”

“Really?” Aria breathed, touched. Meredith nodded.

A nurse knocked on the door. “How are we all doing?” Aria gave the baby to the nurse, who pressed a stethoscope to her tiny chest.

“We should go,” Spencer said, giving Aria a hug. Hanna and Emily piled on, too. They used to do mass hugs like this back in sixth and seventh grades, especially after something huge had happened. Of course, there used to be a fifth girl in the mass hugs, but Aria decided not to dwell on Ali. She didn’t want her to ruin the moment.

After her friends disappeared through the double doors—Mike hand-in-hand with Hanna—Aria returned to the waiting room and slumped down on the couch nearest the TV. Predictably, the news was droning on about how Ali’s body still hadn’t been found in the wreckage in the Poconos. A reporter was interviewing a leather-faced woman in Kansas who’d started a Facebook group claiming that Ali was still alive. “Don’t you people think it’s strange you haven’t found even one of her teeth or bones in that fire?” the woman cackled, her eyes round and crazed. “Alison is alive. Mark my words.”

Aria stabbed at the remote to change the channel. There was no way Ali was still out there. She’d gone down with that house and that was that.

“Aria?” said a voice.

Aria looked up. “Oh,” she said weakly, rising to her feet. Her heart started to thump. “H-hi.”

Noel Kahn stood in the doorway, wearing a beat-up black T-shirt and effortlessly fitting jeans. Aria could smell his skin from across the room, a blend of soap and spices. They’d barely spoken since the Valentine’s Day dance, and Aria had figured things with him were ruined for good.

Noel crossed the room and sat down on one of the lumpy chairs. “Mike texted me about your sister. Congratulations.”

“Thanks,” Aria said. Her muscles seemed hardened in place, like clay after it had been fired.

A bunch of doctors in blue scrubs walked past the waiting room, their stethoscopes jostling against their chests. Noel stuck his finger into a tiny hole in the knee of his jeans. “I don’t know if this matters, but I didn’t kiss Courtney. Ali. Whoever she was. She kissed me.”

Aria nodded, a lump in her throat. As soon as Ali had made her motives clear, it was painfully obvious what had happened. Ali had been desperate to get Aria to the Poconos, not because she wanted to be friends with Aria but because she wanted all the girls together so she could kill them in one fell swoop.

“I know,” Aria answered, staring at the toy box in the corner of the waiting room. It was filled with dog-eared picture books, ugly, yarn-haired dolls, and mismatched Legos. “I’m really sorry. I should have trusted you.”

“I’ve missed you,” Noel said quietly.

Aria dared to look up. “I missed you, too.”

Ever so slowly, Noel rose from his chair and sat down next to her. “For the record, you’re the most beautiful, interesting person I’ve ever met. I’ve always thought that, even in seventh grade.”

“You liar.” Aria half smiled.

“I would never lie about something like that,” Noel said sternly.

And then he leaned forward and kissed her.