Part Four Chapter 8

Five years later

"So what's the news you want to tell me?" Spencer asks Aria excited.

Spencer stands in front of the open refrigerator and is looking for something to drink. Instead of answering her, Aria walks towards the kitchen island and supports her head on her clenched hand.

When Spencer turns her head away from the content of the fridge towards Aria, she sees a small diamond sparkling on a ring on Aria's finger.

"No way!" Spencer cries immediately. "Really?" She asks.

Aria nods with a beaming smile. Spencer notices how this news moves her to tears as she takes Aria's hand in hers to look at the ring more closely.

"Oh Aria. I'm so happy for you. Congratulations." Spencer congratulates her while tears are running down her cheeks. She hugs her friend tightly.

"Thanks Spencer." Aria replies. When she sees Spencer's ruined mascara, she laughs. "You're crying more than my mother." She says. Spencer laughs.

"Don't get me wrong, I would have always been happy for both of you. But since I know that Jason is my half-brother, I really was looking forward to the day when you stand in front of me with this beaming smile and you would show me proudly your engagement ring. I've always known that he would ask you. Aria, you are going to be my sister. You've always belonged to my family, but now it will become official." Spencer explains her friend her emotional reaction.

Spencer goes back to the fridge and reaches for the chilled bottle of champagne. "I'd say that's an occasion to open this one." She suggests.

But the next moment she hesitates. "Or are you not allowed to drink anymore?" She asks with big eyes while she is stroking her stomach.

Aria begins to laugh while she is shaking her head. "No, we won't get married because I'm pregnant." Aria says, although she knows Spencer didn't mean it like that.

"I know." Spencer assures her.

"I know that I'm only twenty-one, but I'm sure I want to be with him. I've already taken us one year together, because I have made the wrong decision. I just don't want to spend a day without him." Aria says with an amorous look.

"I know. Honestly, you guys keep up my faith in true love. I can't imagine a better wife for my brother and also no better husband for my best friend." Spencer assures her friend and future sister-in-law.

"How did he propose?" She asks curiously.

"You know that Jason and I celebrate the day when I woke up from the coma every year. As kind of a second birthday. Jason drove with me to the viewpoint of Rosewood and there he has prepared a blanket with a picnic basket and small tea lights everywhere around it. We sat together for some time. I've expected nothing more when he said that he still has a surprise and I should close my eyes. While I was sitting there with my eyes closed, he took my hand and put the ring on my finger and proposed to me." Aria tells, noticing how her eyes were misty again.

Spencer grins, as her friend tells her about the evening. "My brother's a real romantic. And pretty confident when he put the ring on your finger before he asked you the question." Spencer says laughing.

"You know, I would have never rejected his proposal. He said he wanted to wait at least until I'm officially an adult before he asks me. I would have said yes at any time." Aria says smiling.

Spencer is also smiling when she sees her friend so happy and still so in love.

"Do you have already ideas for the wedding?" Spencer asks then interested.

"We prefer to celebrate in a small circle. Only family and closest friends. And I want you as my maid of honor." Aria outlines Spencer in her plans.

"Really?" Spencer asks moved. "Yes, you're my best friend and my future sister-in-law. Who should I ask otherwise?" She asks rhetorically, as Spencer drops herself enthusiastically in Aria's arms.

Jason's lips are touching Aria's one last time before he gets up from his chair and clears his throat.

"First I want to thank you that you are all here today to celebrate our wedding with Aria and me. But despite all the joy we are both aware that one person is missing: Alison, my little sister and one of Aria's best friends. I know my wife well enough to know how many times she has asked herself the question, what Ali would have thought that she married her brother. I can tell you the answer, Aria. She would have loved it. She would have loved especially that she was right again." Jason says, as he looks down at Aria.

"When Ali was seven years old, I came into the kitchen, as she sat there at the kitchen table. She painted a picture. She had already painted three people: Mum, Dad and me. She painted the fourth person next to me. I assumed that she painted herself. But then she took a dark brown pencil and painted a girl with long brown hair. I asked her why she paints herself brown hair and she replied that this girl shouldn't be herself. She said This girl is supposed to be Aria. You'll marry her someday. I just laughed and thought that it was only a wish of a little girl that her brother will eventually marry one of her friends. I can hardly believe that she was right." Jason sighs.

"I wish I would have the opportunity to thank my little sister in person. Ali's life had so much sense although it was so short. Although she was often not an easy person, she has given me so many unforgettable moments. I hope you all have good memories when you are thinking about my little sister. But for me her life had a very special meaning. Through her I met Aria. She has led me to this wonderful woman, who is sitting next to me in her beautiful white dress. Thank you, Ali."

Jason raises his glass in the air as Aria also gets up from her chair. She wraps her arm around him. Jason embraces her waist and kisses tenderly a tear from her cheek.

So that's the end of the story. Please tell me your thoughts :)