Tapping her black, strappy heels against the floor of the taxi, Aria attempts to calm her ever-growing nerves. She can't stop the uneasy feeling in her stomach as she impatiently waits for the car to come to a stop.

Sitting up slightly, she glances at the clock: 6:10.

Sighing heavily, she throws herself back against the seat.

She feels a cocktail of emotions: anger, frustration, nervousness, etc. She wanted today to be perfect, and it's been everything but so far. Not only had she failed her Economics pop quiz, but also she managed to piss off Jamie the night before, resulting in being locked in, and subsequently spending the night in the cellar.

"I hate him," she says to herself, mentally disgusted at the mere thought of her foster parent. "It's all his fault." She feels her fist ball up, thinking about how she had to wait for Jamie to leave for a colleague of his get together before she could get ready. She's forever grateful to Maya and Kay for helping her as much as they did. She doesn't know what she'd do without either of them.

"We're here ms," the middle aged, cab driver informs Aria. It takes a few moments to register what he just said. When she does, she digs in her purse and pulls out the cab fare.

"Thanks," she says, quickly giving the man the money before jumping out the vehicle and slamming the door.

Walking as fast as she can, Aria takes a second to marvel at the restaurant. It's located in the business district of the already affluent city of Carmel Valley and reminds her of one of those 5 star restaurants in NYC. Sighing, she continues into the building and glances around before spotting him.

Taking a deep breath, she approaches him and, "Ken, I'm so sor-"

"You're late," he cuts her off sharply. "15 minutes late to be exact."

Arianna looks down, "I know, and I'm sorry but-"

"But what?" Snapping his head, he finally looks at her and Aria feels her stomach drop when she sees he looks completely and utterly done with her. "I told your ass to meet me at 6:00 and you couldn't even do that. It's our fucking six month anniversary Arianna." Roughly grabbing her arm, Aria instantly winces at his death grip.

"Let go of me," Aria murmurs, not wanting to cause a scene.

"You think it was easy getting these reservations?" He continues, "Well, it wasn't. I went through a lot just to make tonight special for us and you can't even show up on time." A beat. "Where were you?"

"Kendal please," she pleads, feeling his grasp tighten. "You're hurting me. Let me go."

"Not until you tell me where the hell you were and why you were late," he demands, showing not even a hint of remorse.

"Sir, your table is ready." At the sound of the stranger's voice, Kendall releases Aria and the two turn to the waiter. Both teens seem somewhat relieved by the fact that the employee seems oblivious to what just happened.

"Thank you," Kendall says calmly, gesturing for Aria to walk ahead of him.

The two follow the waiter to their table and take seats opposite of each other.

"Here are your menus," the waiter hands them the menu and pulls out a notepad. "Can I get either of you something to drink?"

"Water please," Kendall replies. His eyes dart to his girlfriend, "Ari?"

Holding onto the spot Kendall previously had his hand on; Arianna looks up at her boyfriend, and then the waiter. "Oh, umm, I'll just take a sprite."

The overly friendly blonde jots down something on the pad before smiling at Kendall, "Okay, I'll have your drink right up." Kendall offers her a simple "okay" before the flirtatious girl walks off.

As soon as the girl is out of hearing distance, Arianna looks at Kendall with anger, "What the hell was that?"

"I'm sorry baby," Kendall shamefully drops his head, clasping his hands together in front of him. "I just got worried about you. It's bad enough that we have to sneak around and even worse that you don't even have a cell phone. I couldn't even call and check up on you."

Arianna immediately feels a sense of sympathy and some guilt for reacting the way she did. He only acted the way he did out of fear. Albeit, it was in the wrong manner, he had good intentions.

"It's okay," Arianna sighs, still rubbing at her now sore arm. "But you shouldn't worry about me so much Ken."

"Aria, until I get you out of that hellhole you call home, I'm always going to worry about you

She offers him a sad smile, "I wish people could see this side of you. The real you. There's so much more to you than what meets the eye."

He returns her smile, "It's because of you. You're the only person I can be around and not feel like I have something to prove." A beat. "I love you Arianna."

"I love you too."

The server returns with their drinks, and after glancing over the menus, the two place their order.

Arianna glances and notices they're seated towards the back, in a more private area, where no one can really see them. While waiting for their food to arrive, the two spend their time talking and just joking around. She loves when he's like this: carefree and relaxed.

"Oh," she exclaims, "I almost forgot."

"What?" Kendall asks, watching as she starts to dig in her purse.

"My gift for you," she smiles, handing him sheathed card. "It's a"

"Nike gift card," he finishes for her, looking at the card. "Whoa. Baby, this is seriously for a hundred dollars?"

She nods, smiling and mentally relieved at the fact that he doesn't find the gift card insensitive. He's such a hard person to shop for. "How'd you afford it?"

"There's always someone in need for a babysitter," she shrugs. "I just took on a few extra families."

"Thanks Aria," he smiles, placing the card in his suit pocket. "Now for your gift," his smile broadens as he pulls out a black and silver gift bag.

She gasps when she sees it's a Zales gift bag, "Ken you shouldn't have."

"But I did," a beat. "Open it."

Shaking her head, she opens the bag and pulls out a small box. One someone would place a ring in. Pausing for a second, she opens the box to see a silver ring with two marquise-cut crystal birthstones she immediately recognizes are hers and his. Surrounding the crystal birthstones are diamond accents. On either side of the stones, each corresponding with the appropriate one are Arianna and Kendall. Bringing it closer to her eyes, she sees Forever and Always is engraved on the interior in bold, black letters.

"Kendall......" Aria trails off, speechless, eyes still focused on the ring.

"It's not an engagement ring; it's a promise ring," he explains. "It's my promise to you that once we graduate, we're going to get married."

Aria's head shoots up at the last word, "Married?" She glances at the ring again, "This is beautiful Kendall and I love it but...." She trails off again and Kendall's smile slowly fades away.

"What, you don't like it?" he asks sharply.

"No, it's not that, it's just that...." Again, she struggles to put together a coherent sentence.

"Just what?" He challenges. "You know I hate that beat around the bush bullshit Arianna. Just say what you gotta say."

She rolls her eyes, starting to grow irritated with his sudden mood change. "I just think...don't you think we're moving a little too fast? I love the ring. It's beautiful. I just feel like it's too early for customized gifts and promises and stuff of the sort."

"Too early?" Kendall repeats, with shock written all over his handsome face. "We've been together for six months Aria. How in the hell is that too early?"

"You're talking about marriage when we haven't even finished high school yet Kendall. I don't want to go straight into marriage right out of high school. I wanna go to college, and get my degree and have financial stability before I even think of that. Besides, we're young Kendall. Who's to say you'll even still love me or even want me once we graduate?"

"Oh, so what, now you don't love me?" He asks harshly.

"What?" Aria questions, wondering how in the hell he came up with that assumption. "Of course I love you. You're missing the whole point. I just think you're moving too fast."

"Well fuck it then," Kendall says bitterly, reaching over and snatching the box from Aria.

"Wait!" Aria exclaims, stopping when she sees his irate expression.

"Fuck no Arianna," he says her name with such venom, it sends chills down her spine. "I've been waiting for you for the past fifteen minutes and you're not even going to accept the gift I got for you for our six months together?! I mean, really, I gave you six months of my fucking life and you're gonna sit here and waste it all over a fucking ring?!"

"But baby I didn't say that-" Aria weakly attempts to explain herself when he cuts her off again.

"Just shut your big ass mouth up and let me speak!" He shouts, still maintaining a low tone though not to attract attention. "I've been a fucking fool for wasting my time with your ungrateful ass. I mean, look at me! Girls would be all over me right now if I wasn't with you."

Shaking her head, Aria wipes at her teary eyes, "Don't say that Ken. We can make this work."

He just stares at her for what seems like minutes before speaking again.

"I don't know Aria. Are you even willing to make it work?"

Opening her mouth to speak, Aria doesn't know what it is, but she's unable to do so. She wants to tell him yes, beg him not to leave her, but something prevents her from doing it.

He chuckles darkly, "Yeah, that's what I thought."

"Kendal please," she reaches out to grab his arm as he stands up.

"Let go of me Arianna," he hisses, pulling his arm out his grasp.

Standing up as well, she moves in front of him, "No, not until we work this out."

He laughs, looking away and then down at her. "I knew your ass was nothing but trouble. My first mind told me not to get involved. I should have stuck with my plan-"

"Plan?" Aria interrupts. "What plan? What are you talking about?"

He looks at her as if she just asked what color the grass is, "You honestly think I was that nice to you in the beginning because I sincerely liked you? I was playing you Arianna. The same way I do all those other easy bitches at school. All I wanted was some pussy. Figured it couldn't have been that hard considering you live with the head whore herself Kay-"

Kendall is cut off by Arianna's hand as she slaps his face with all of her strength, "I hate you." She mumbles, as her voice begins to crack.

Placing his hand where she slapped him, Kendall removes his hand and looks at Arianna before doing something she never thought he would.

He hits her. Slaps her. Hard too.

Following instinct, Arianna's own hand goes to her burning cheek as she turns her head to the side.

She can't even bear to look at him.

He leans over to whisper in her ear, "You're right. There is nothing to fucking work out."

Reaching in his pocket, he pulls out a small wad of cash and throws it on the table.

"Don't spend it all," he tells her with not a hint of emotion. "Happy anniversary Aria."

The waiter finally arrives, food in hand, not even paying much attention to Arianna.

"Leaving so soon sir?"

"Yeah," Kendall replies calmly. "So this table is a party of one now."

With a final glance at Aria, who still refuses to look at him, Kendall walks out.

OoOoOoOoOo

Arianna, looks at her reflection in her mirror, trying hard not to cry again. She can't ruin her makeup. Makeup that's concealing the nasty bruise on the left side of face.

She's dreading seeing Kendall again. She hasn't seen or heard from him since Friday. She really wishes she could stay home today, Monday's are already bad enough as it is. But she knows Jamie would never go for it.

Left stranded and with little money, Aria was forced to walk as far as she could to a bus stop. She didn't have enough money left to take a cab home. When she finally got home, she explained to Kay and Maya what happened, purposely leaving out the slapping part. She made up some story about her losing her balance in her heels and falling face first as explanation for her face.

Arianna had made it through most of the day without seeing or speaking to Kendall. Then came Chemistry. She sat all the way in the front, instead of in her usual spot next to him. During the whole class, she could feel his eyes on her, but refused to give in. As soon as the bell rang, she gathered her stuff and headed out the class. She quickly heads into the girls restroom to touch up her makeup before leaving out to go to her locker. Just as she's about to reach her locker, she feels herself being pulled into a closet. She's about to scream when someone places their hand over her mouth.

"Relax Ari Bear," she freezes at the sound of his voice. "It's just me."

Pushing him off, Aria pulls her books to her chest, "What the fuck do you want?"

Kendall flips the switch on in the closet and locks the door, "I miss you."

"Bull shit," Aria scoffs bitterly. "Leave me the fuck alone Kendall. I have nothing to say to you."

"Look, I know you're mad at me and you have every right to be, but you have to believe me when I tell you how sorry I am."

"I don't have to believe shit Kendall, now, for the last time, move out of my goddamn way."

"Ari please," he pleads and Aria looks away. "I've barely slept. All I do is think about you. I can't get you out of my mind." A beat. "I need you."

Reluctantly, she slowly turns her head to look at him. She almost has to do a double take. He looks horrible. He has a 5 o'clock shadow and bags under his eyes, confirming his sleep deprivation.  

Seeing she's not going to say anything, he continues. "You have no idea how much I regret Friday. It was supposed to be perfect and I just went and fucked everything up. I'll be honest with you, I wasn't lying when I said I was just playing you, but then I developed legit feelings and fell for you. Hard. You're everything to me Arianna and I can't bear the thought of not having you in my life. You were right. About everything. We're moving too fast. I just don't want to lose you and, ultimately, that's what the ring symbolizes. I know I hurt you and I'm sorry. It's just...." He pauses, trying to think of what else he can say to win her back. He needs her and will stop at nothing to have her as his again. "I got and E on my History exam Friday and then came home to find out my aunt has cancer."

"Oh my God," she gasps in shock. "Why didn't you-" She stops when he moves closer to her, taking the books from her and placing them on a nearby box. Cupping his hands around her face, she winces when he makes contact with her sore cheek. He lightly grazes his fingers over the same spot.

"I'm so sorry," he whispers shakily, kissing her forehead, as she closes her eyes. "I'm sorry," he moves his face to her right cheek, then her left, while mumbling a sincere apology each time.

"It's okay," Arianna finally gives in. Despite how angry she is and how hurt she is, she still can't deny how much she loves him. "I forgive you."

His smile is so bright and genuine; Aria can't help but to return it.

He proceeds to pick her up and spin her around, while throwing out countless "thank you's."

"But baby, how in the hell did you get such a bad grade on your exam? You love history."

"I don't know," he shrugs. "I guess I wasn't really paying attention."

"It's okay," she wraps her arms around his neck. "Maybe we can just get you some tutoring."

He laughs without humor, "So now you trying to call me stupid?"

"No," she frowns slightly. "I'm just saying that if you're getting an E on your exams, then you should go to tutoring."

"Look, I don't need your help or any lazy teachers help to get an A on a test Arianna," he suddenly snaps.

Arianna sigh heavily, "I was only trying to help."

"Well you can stop," he shoots back.

The bell rings and Arianna mentally sighs in relief. She's in no mood to argue with him again.

"I gotta get to class," he reaches her books to her and steals a quick kiss. "See you after school?"

"Sure," she smiles, before he unlocks the door and heads on to his next class.

Arianna stands there for a moment, contemplating what just happened. Had she forgiven him too easily? She feels complete sympathy for him in regards to his aunt's situation. Still, the fact that he hit her still bothers her deeply. Then again, she did hit him first. So, technically, she was in the wrong. Shaking her head, Arianna leaves out the closet to get her books, before heading off to her own class. All the while, she can't help the bad feeling in the pit of her stomach that forgiving Kendall was a mistake.

A mistake she would soon enough regret.