Pretty Little Liar (Aruani Element Shifter AU) ✔️

Five

(Three years later.)

"Armin! Come on you lazy idiot!" She yelled as she ran up to my bedroom. "We'll be late!"

As I opened my eyes, I caught a glimpse of her blonde hair, her bright blue eyes, and her wide smile. She sat at my office desk, and threw my sixth form uniform at me.

"Wake up!" She laughed. I slowly sat up, and smiled at her, while she grabbed my bag.

"You haven't even packed!" She cried, grabbing my books. She knew my timetable off my heart by now.

I got up and went over to the bathroom to get changed. Once I had finished, she was waiting for me in the doorway.

"Come on, you have ten minutes to eat breakfast, you lazy bum!"

"Alright!" I said, laughing.

She sat, on her phone, at the table as I poured my cereal.

"Do you want something? A drink?"

"Oh, no thanks. I already ate. Its my sisters birthday, and I had my fair share of cake."

"Ah, okay. Fair enough."

Then, my mum came into the kitchen in her coat, ready to leave for work. When she saw her, she smiled fondly.

"Good morning Christa. Helpful as ever. Armin was up a bit too late working on university applications."

"Good morning Mrs. Arlert. Yes, I thought so. I waited for half an hour, and when he still wasn't awake, I thought I'd try and wake him up."

"Thank you. I'm just so busy today, I didn't even realise he wasn't awake. He's so lucky to have a best friend as wonderful as you."

As she said that, Christa's face dropped a bit, and she averted her eyes towards me, a bit uncomfortable. I decided I'd give her the benefit of the doubt, and nodded.

"Yes, I am."

She smiled, and I nodded back to her.

My mum gave me a quick kiss on the head, before grabbing her keys and leaving.

As I finished my breakfast, I stood up, getting my bag, and we left for school.

As we walked down the street in the misty winter morning, we were both deep in thought. I turned to see Christa lost in thought, staring at the floor.

"I was being honest in there you know."

She looked up, unsure. "Really?"

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry. It's just, you know."

"Yeah, I know. Don't worry. Please, don't feel awkward. That's in the past, you're my best friend."

She smiled. "Thanks Armin. You know, if I wasn't gay, this is when we would kiss."

I laughed. "Yep."

Christa and her family moved to the area two years ago. After the worst summer of my life, I missed a few months of year eleven while I grieved. Then, after Christmas, I came back to school to do my exams, and she was new to the school.

For some reason, she liked that quiet, pale boy in the back of the classroom, and came to sit with me on the first day. I wasn't a big talker, and neither was she. She had no idea why i was so sad all the time, yet she always stayed close to me and never asked any questions. She was so much like Annie in so many ways, yet it still felt like there was a huge black hole in my life without her.

When the anniversary of her death came, I spent all day by the river, next to the memorial I had made for her. The whole place is overgrown and almost impossible to reach, so nobody has ever been there except for me.

Christa followed me, and found me crying, with a huge bouquet of flowers talking to the memorial. She came and sat with me, and talked to Annie with me. She told Annie that she promised to look after me at all times. I explained everything to her, and we became inseparable.

She never called herself my best friend. She always said it was because that was Annie's role, and not hers. I always told her the same, which was that that was in the past, and I have to move on.

Moving on was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I never imagined a world without Annie, so to go through it alone, was not what I had planned. Having Christa here helped a lot, but I still had to wake up and open the curtains, and look over at the dead, overgrown garden next-door.

Two years and a half later, and I still haven't properly gotten used to the fact that she's gone. I still have nightmares of what happened. Even though I wasn't there, I felt so guilty all the time. My brain would often linger, and I'd half expect her to text me, or come running in through the door with something amazing to tell me.

Christa is a good distraction. A great one. I don't think of Annie half as much as I used to. She even stops me from thinking too much about it. Having her company, as well as the love and support from my parents, I can finally see clearer.

"Hey, Armin?"

"Yeah?"

"You see her? Over there?"

"Who, that tall girl there?"

"Yeah. Well, I was told by Jean that Eren overheard Mikasa say that she had heard from Sasha, who heard from Connie, that she said she was gay. What do you think? Should I go for it?"

"That's Ymir, she's in my French class. Isn't she a little bit tall for you?"

"I can live with that."

"I can talk to her if you want."

She blushed bright red. "Oh, no! Don't, I'll do it myself sometime!"

"Go for it. Take your time!"

"Will do. But, damn, she's hot," she said, staring at her and biting her lip.

I laughed, shaking my head. "Come on, we're late enough."

I took one last look over at Ymir, who wasn't paying attention to us, but was talking to her friends. As I looked away, a strong gush of wind blew. Christa's hair flew away from her face, and she turned to look towards Ymir, who was now staring at Christa. I raised an eyebrow, then the bell rang and we made our way inside.