Thin Skin and Barely Bone: Chapter 1

One Text that Changed Everything

Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.
~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

June 23rd, 2011.

There is nothing better than a woman waking up to the man who she loves more than life itself early one summer morning with his breath in her ear and his long, strong arms around her, holding her to him like a boa constrictor. His dark brown curls shown in the faint June sunlight that streamed through the thin curtains of the apartment balcony and faint stubble grew on his cheeks and chin as he hadn't shaved in at least four days. He wore a pair of boxers and a tight white undershirt that hugged his body rather nicely. Out of a cute little habit of his, Ezra chuckled away in his sleep.

Aria smiled at him as she watched him as he dreamt the morning away, her hand entangled with his between their two bodies. She'd stayed the night as she always on the weekends. She'd said that she would be at her friend, Spencer's house for a weekend getaway when really, she was spending her time making out and making love to the man she loved in his apartment. They would run for a morning coffee at the new restaurant, The Brew, and then do whatever they felt like doing while they were together. They would go to the creek just outside of Rosewood, to the movies and ignore it completely as they kissed passionately and lovingly. Sometimes they would just stay at home in the apartment and lay on the couch, entangled with one another, watching old movies all day.

It didn't really matter where they went or what they did because they were in each other's company. That was their gold in the old wooden treasure chest.

She had only lied to her father every weekend and almost every day, since her estranged parents were getting a divorce from 'inconsolable differences' and her mother had left to go stay in the same apartment as she did months before above the old art studio in downtown Rosewood.. Ella was coming to and accepting the terms that her eldest child was dating her former English teacher. Byron, on the other hand, was still in the denial stage that his little girl and his former friend as well as colleague were together the whole time that the family had been back from Europe. He probably knew that Aria was going to Ezra's, but he didn't even bother to argue with her or try and tear the two of them apart once again because the last thing he wanted was to push her so far that their father-daughter relationship would always be broken beyond repair.

She gently stroked Ezra's face with her fingers, her face soft and loving as she kissed the tip of his nose and then silently and stealthily found a way out of his strong arms without awaking him. He didn't stir and she took advantage of the time of going to the very small kitchen area and making a pot of coffee for them to share once he woke up from his deep and laugh-filled slumber. Once it was brewing, she opened the fridge, knowing that it would be happen. She had to convince her boyfriend of now nine months to go to the grocery once every millennium so then they wouldn't have to eat Thai takeout for every single meal.

Aria took out the half empty gallon of milk and the almost expired dozen of eggs before closing the fridge. She stood on her tiptoes in order to reach the pancake mix on top of it. She would treat her man to pancakes and store bought maple syrup. He barely knew how to cook anything and she wanted to make sure that he didn't starve because he lacked skills in the kitchen and only knew how to make three different dishes and even that was a bit of a stretch for him to do.

She sprayed down the pan and turned the stove on so then it could warm up. She took out a mixing bowl and cracked two eggs into it, the yoke bursting as she poured the pancake mix and milk in and stirred it all together as quietly as possible. If he didn't have enough sleep and food in his stomach, Ezra wouldn't be able to stay awake for the plans they had that day, which were going to the historic art museum in Philly. They had tickets for a small art opening that Ezra had won from a raffle before he was terminated from his position at Hollis. Now that he wasn't teaching there or at Rosewood High anymore, he couldn't afford to pay for a limo for them to go in, unlike their first 'real' date back in November.

They would be lucky if they could even afford the gas to get there.

Though they went public with their love for each other at the masquerade ball in March when Ezra had removed the masks from both of their faces, the habit of sneaking off to different cities in order to be together was taking longer than they thought to wear off. Sure, they were adjusting to going into downtown Rosewood together, holding hands and acting like every other couple walking alongside them on the sidewalk, but the linger and judging stares they received still had them taking off to New Hope, Scranton, and Phileldelphia. People in the small town were still having trouble accepting the relationship of a former teacher and student when really it had nothing to do with them or their own lives. Ezra and Aria hoped that the opinion of their town would change as time went on. They would just have to be patient for the acceptance that they really should already have. Their love was no different than anyone else's; only the circumstances were.

As she waited for the first batch of pancakes to cook on the steaming hot pan on the stove, Aria went to go get ready for the day, keeping the cooking timer near her as she walked into the bathroom in case she needed to rush out and save the food from mass destruction of being burnt, and closed the door firmly and quietly behind her. She looked into the mirror and tried her best not to cringe at the sight of her morning self. Ezra said that she was always beautiful, especially without the makeup and she questioned his sanity as she took in her image. Her long brunette hair was a tangled mess all around her face and her clothes, which were only a t-shirt of her boyfriend's that hung loosely on her body, but he insisted she wore it because it looked better on her than it did on him, and a pair of her pajama shorts, were wrinkled and torn. Her face was free of makeup except for some leftover eyeliner from the previous day. She was surprised that Ezra could even look at her sometimes.

A buzz came from her iPhone in her pajama short's pocket and she automatically reached to get it, tucking a loose lock of her hair behind her ear as she unlocked the screen and saw the text that was waiting for her. She thought it was going to be Ella or Byron or maybe even one of the girls wanting to check in with her. Instead, her heart stopped as she saw the words:

Unknown number.

Beads of sweat broke above her brow and began to roll down her face as she backed up against the glass door of the shower. Her breathing was heavy and labored. She felt like gravity was no longer working as she fought to gain some of her composure back. She thought that she and the other girls were done with the whole –A mess once Mona was sent to Radley after the masquerade ball. She thought that she would able to walk down the street without being afraid and glancing behind her shoulder every three seconds out of fear of someone watching her. Is it really starting again? Aria thought fearfully, doing her best not to scream.

She swallowed hard as she opened the text and her burning and tear-filled hazel eyes widened as she read it out loud to herself, her voice choked with panic:

Poor little Aria. Alright, maybe not the 'little' part. You're always worried about your cute boyfriend thinks of you. You should try shedding some of those holiday pounds and then maybe he'll want to see you naked more often.

-A.

Dread and terror filled Aria as she finally looked up into the mirror at her reflection. She always thought of herself as a slender young woman with curves. And besides, Ezra seemed to love her body after all the times he'd tried to get her nude. He once said that if he was a woman and had her body, he would be walking in no clothes all the time. He would love her no matter what she looked like, right? He always told her that.

Or was he just being polite and not trying to hurt her feelings?

Now that she looked at herself in the mirror, Aria couldn't help but notice the baby fat on her cheeks and underneath her chin. Her arms and legs were a little bit too round for her comfort and when she moved, she cringed as they waved and jiggled. Her torso was like a pumpkin now that she looked at herself hard enough. She glanced down with tears in her eyes and grasped it in her hands. She wanted to throw up at how much fat was in her grip at that moment. She felt sickened with herself. She wanted to break the mirror, but she didn't want to blame an object for what she looked like. It wasn't its fault. It was hers. And that made her want to die even more than what it was already eating her inside.

Then the worst thought popped into her head:

What does Ezra think about me walking around and looking like an elephant? I bet he's so embarrassed to call me his girlfriend. Why does he even allow himself to be seen in public with me? He must want to throw up every time he looks at me. He must think that he's stuck with me since no one else with love me looking like this.

Aria didn't hear the timer for the pancakes cooking on the stove go off and it was ringing throughout the entire bathroom. She could hear the fire alarm going off in the apartment and she knew by the footsteps and swearing outside the door that Ezra was now awake. He started to pound on the bathroom door, "Aria? Are you in there? Why are there pancakes smoking in the apartment?" When he received no answer, his voice grew worried as he said, "Are you okay? You're making me worried sick. I'm coming in, whether you're naked or not. It's not like I haven't seen you like that before."

The bathroom door opened and soon her wild blue-eyed boyfriend was staring at her with his wavy curly brown hair falling all over his face and forehead. His face was creased with worry and fatigue, his body tense, "Aria, are you alright? You look kind of pale." He took her into his arms and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, "The pancakes on the stove were burnt to a crisp, so I tossed them out. Why did you leave the kitchen when you were making breakfast? Are my bad habits rubbing off on you or something?" He chuckled and pulled away to look at her. His boyish smile slowly fell from his face as he took in her wet-eyed and tear stained cheeks, "Aria, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" He kissed a few of the tears away with his soft lips and wiped the remaining ones from the corners of her eyes.

She forced a grin to her face as she stretched up to press her lips to his, "Oh, nothing that you need to worry about. PMS stuff. I'm just a couple days away from my next cycle and my hormones are acting insane this week. There is no need to worry about me. " It was a lie but she didn't want to imagine what he would do if he found out the way that she feeling at that moment. Or why she was feeling that way. If he knew that –A was back, it would only make him even more paranoid about her. He would never leave her side.

He shook his head and tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear, stroking her cheek gently with his thumb, "I do nothing but worry when you cry. So don't tell me to not do my job. A man hates seeing tears in his woman's eyes. It hurts him more than a thorn of a rose piercing his skin."

Aria kissed him again; this time, the embrace was longer and drawn out so then she could convince him that she was fine when really she was dying inside because of her realization of what she looked like, thanks to the text from -A. Ezra pressed her against the sink, his hands pulling on the t-shirt she was wearing. She knotted her fingers into his curly hair, clinging and leaning into his long and lanky body, feeling every single one of his muscles against her. He was so strong, so graceful, so amazing.

He is such a beautiful man. I don't deserve him. He deserves someone prettier, smart and thinner than me. Someone who he can proud of when he's walking down the street, holding her hand. He deserves someone who he can look at without wanting to throw up. He deserves someone who he can love because they can make the best love to him at night. The thought stuck a thick briar into her throat and it wouldn't go away. She felt horrible that she couldn't satisfy Ezra because of her image, because of her failure, because of her.

Finally, the two of them separated, leaning their foreheads together and breathing heavily. Ezra kissed her one last lingering time before murmuring, "I love you so damn much." He stepped away from her with a smile and a sigh of happiness, looking at her up and down, making her feel tiny underneath his hungry and lustful gaze, "Let's go and see if we can finish making breakfast without burning the apartment down." He took her hand in his and gave it a gentle press to his lips, looking at her with his boyish grin widening on his lips, "Shall we, my beautiful lady?"

Hearing the word 'beautiful' tumble from her boyfriend's mouth made the whole growing inside of her even bigger. Aria knew that he was just trying to compliment her and make her feel better about herself and the fact that he was lying to her hurt her more than anything else. He was everything and more to her. She had to try and lose what she had to in order to please him. She wanted to make him happy because he made her the happiest girl in the world just by looking at her with those smoldering dark blue eyes that burned intense cobalt lava filled with love and tenderness and those auburn curls falling over them, his boyish grin on his lips. He deserved to be happy and she wanted him to be delighted to be with her and only her. So, she was going to whatever it took to make him that way.

She kissed his cheek and whispered, "Let's go."

Ezra took a sip of his coffee as he glanced over the mug at his girlfriend. God, Aria Montgomery was so beautiful, it took his breath away. And he had the pleasure of calling her his girlfriend. He never thought that they would ever make it as far as they did or be as happy as they were together with all of the stuff that they had to go through: the blackmail, the sneaking around, the disapproving town and her parents who forced them apart and then tried to send both of them off to different states to then they couldn't be together. However, there they were, sitting at his kitchen table, reading the Rosewood Observer and eating the pancakes they'd made.

Well, the pancakes that Aria had made while he looked on, but that was beside the point.

Aria caught him staring at her again and she ducked her head as if she were embarrassed, her long and magnificent waterfall-like brunette hair hiding her face from his view. Something in the pit of his stomach told him that something was going on with her that she wouldn't tell him about. He could see that she wasn't being her normal happy and cherry self and it worried him to see her upset about something that he couldn't fix. If there were a threat to her that had been made, she would tell him about it, right?

Immediately after the whole thing with Mona and then Maya's death, Aria had been very closed off. She wouldn't sleep or eat or even look at him the same way. There some nights when he had just held her while she woke up screaming from a nightmare and then would just break down crying into his shirt until it tear-soaked. He went back to Rosewood after the ball to help her deal with everything, even though she was the only one who he was returning for. He didn't have anything or anyone else holding him to the jobless and judgeful town that stared hostilely at them every time the two of them walked down the street together.

After going public at the ball when they'd removed the masks from their faces as they kissed and danced together, Ezra didn't know what to expect from Rosewood or the people in it. It hadn't been an easy road already, between the time they'd met to going public at a school party and the aftermath of that whole ordeal. They got stares and glares from all the townspeople every time they went into public together. Both of them did the best to ignore the attention, but it was awfully hard when there were rumors going around that he had taken advantage of her and promised her things to have sex with him and that he got her pregnant. Others were that she was a whore who was one of those girls who flirted with every guy, including her male teachers. The gossip hurt and enraged Ezra, but what was he going to do? He couldn't stop what people thought of the situation.

He could only prove to them that he loved Aria more than any man ever loved a woman.

He'd known from the beginning that it would have been better to stay away from Aria and let her live a normal life as the average teenage girl. However, it didn't work out that way. He couldn't stay away from her, as many times as he had tried. He remembered the first time he met her as if it were just earlier that morning. They had had no idea where a flirtatious conversation was going to lead them the next day when they'd found that he was her English teacher at Rosewood High….

Nine months earlier. September 1st, 2010.

"Are you alright down there?" Ezra picked his head up from where he read Ulysses, an old novel that he was only halfway through and wanted it to be over. He loved classic literature, but this story bored him half to death.

He tried not to stare. The young woman sitting two seats down from him was the most beautiful female he had ever laid eyes on. Her hair fell in a dark brunette mess around her shoulders. Her eyes burned a flaming hazel. They met his immediately and soon he was blinded from amazingly white pearly teeth. He was stunned, like a deer in front of headlights as she looked over at him with a tiny twitch to her pursed and soft pink lips, "I'm a bit jetlagged. I just got back from Europe."Her voice was a like a gentle ringing in the smoke-filled air of the old bar and it sent his heart on a high speed chase like the Kentucky derby.

Ezra's curiosity intensified as he heard her response. He'd spent a couple of months in Europe on his year abroad through Hollis College, where he just graduated from. This girl had to be a college student right? She had to be. She looked too mature for a high schooler and too young for a graduate, "Where in Europe?"

"Iceland."

"I spent some time in Reykjavik on my way Amsterdam. It's a great city."

She smiled ever so slightly, biting her bottom lip as she looked at him up and down, her gaze intensifying by each passing moment, "So, do you go to Hollis?"

He returned the smile with one of his own taking a place on his soft lips, all of his pearly white teeth flashing back at her and he watched her cheeks as they soon turned to a light shade of pink; a color that had never seemed so beautiful to Ezra before that moment, "Just graduated. I'm about to start my first teaching job."

"I think I'd like to teach."The girl responded, her grin widening as their conversation progressed. There was a pause between the two of them and when a familiar began to play on the jukebox and streamed a beautiful melody. Then Isaac Slade, the lead singer of one of Ezra's favorite bands,The Fray,began to sing. He smiled softly. He recognized the song immediately from their first album.

She must have recognized it as well because next, she softly said, her words almost inaudible, "I love this song."

Wanting to make a bit of an impression with her, he licked his bottom lip and nodded, "B-26." Their gazes shot up to meet again, one grin reflecting another and he could not stop staring at how amazingly beautiful those hazel orbs of her eyes were. They drowned him like the crashing and rushing waves of the Atlantic Ocean, dragging him under until he couldn't breathe any longer. At last, he was finally able to pull himself back up to the surface, gasping for air. "So, what's your major?"

She hesitated for moment before hurriedly replying and he wondered if he had been too forward. He didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable with him. He really liked this girl, "Well, I'm thinking about majoring in English."

"That's what I'm teaching." His grin widened.

Another incredibly wide smirk graced her already stunning face and she added to her previous statement, "Well, I write, too. But so far it's mostly personal. Just for me."

Ezra slightly nodded in understanding, knowing exactly what this stranger with the pretty hazel eyes was talking about, "I'm impressed."He was a striving author himself. He only had a few online entries to his name and he wished a publisher would just give him a chance already. But he was constantly being turned down, leaving him with little hope.

The girl asked with a tiny giggly tone to the edge of her voice, "Why?"

He shrugged and simply replied as he moved from his seat to the cool empty bar stool that sat right beside hers, his body facing hers completely, not minding being so open with her. He felt a strong connection to her already, "Well, I tried writing. I didn't get very far. You're lucky. If you're writing for yourself, it's pure passion." He had his eyes linger on her mouth, feeling such a stronger desire to kiss her at that moment, before meeting her gaze again, "Maybe you'd let me read some of yours?"

"You really want to?"

"Yeah." He said with a warm tone to his voice and another smile pulling at the corners of his lips, "You're smart, you've travelled." He glanced up at the speakers of the pub that was still pouring out the lyrics to Happiness, "Great taste in music!" They both shared a laugh before he continued, his gaze resting affectionately on her face, "I'd like to know more about you."

She bit her bottom lip before responding, looking at him up and down again, making him feel like a prized piece of meat, "Yeah. I'd like to know more about you, too."

Present time. June 23rd, 2011.

Aria looked over at him with those gorgeous hazel eyes of hers that had captured her on the first day that they had met all those months and days ago in September. She smiled slightly, her face still paler than it normally was, "Why do you keep staring at me?" Her voice was rough as if she wanted to cry.

He pushed himself to his feet from his seat and walked to her side of the kitchen table. He took her hands in both of his own and made her look at him straight in the eyes. He kissed the tops of them and then sighed, "Aria, what is making you so miserable? Please tell me because I'm sitting over there trying to enjoy my breakfast and I can't do that when you're sitting here, wanting to cry." He kneeled down and pressed his forehead onto his girlfriend's lap, "So, tell me what I can do so then I can fix it."

"Ezra." He looked up and immediately found his girlfriend's mouth on his as if to silence him from his pleas for her to tell him what was wrong. He tried to pull away, but she tied her long fingers into his curly dark brown hair, keeping him in the kiss. He was thrown off on how rushed and angry her lips were against his. He wondered he had done something to upset her, but he couldn't think of anything. She had been perfectly fine the previous night when she came over. What is making her so upset and why won't she tell me what's wrong? Maybe I can fix it or at least make it easier for her to bear. I don't want the woman I love to be so miserable.

He was finally able to pull away and he opened his eyes to find Aria crying, tears rolling like rainfall down her cheeks. He felt her shaking and something inside of him just broke at the sight of her so broken. He was scared for her. He wanted to fix her and make her happier. He wanted her to stop worrying about everyone else but herself. He wanted to love her enough so then she could feel like she could come to him about anything and everything on her heart. He didn't want to see her like this anymore. He didn't want her to cry any more tears, He didn't want her to wake up screaming in the middle of the night out of fear from –A and Ali and Maya's murderers.

Ezra took Aria into his arms and held her, feeling her cling to him as if he were the only stable thing in her life that she could hold on to without feeling like she had to let go before she wanted to. He felt tears soaking his shirt, but he didn't care. It could be washed and fixed and sewn back together again. A young woman as broken as Aria Montgomery couldn't be as easily fixed. It would take time for her to trust again, to not walk down the street with the need to look over her shoulder. He wanted to make her feel safe again. He wanted to help fix her.

He murmured comforting words into ear, softly singing the lyrics to Happiness, letting her know that he was right there to help her through anything that she was going through, "Happiness is just outside my window.. Would it crash blowing 80-miles an hour? Or is happiness a little more like knocking on your door and you just let it in. Happiness feels a lot like sorrow. Let it be, you can't make it come or go. But you are gone- not for good but for now. Gone for now feels a lot like gone for good." He kissed her hair, each lock individually until her soft cries were shimmered down to shudders, "I love you, Aria. I'm always here for you. Never forget that."

She pulled back and he whimpered when he saw her eyes were bloodshot from crying. He wiped some of the tears away as she whispered, her words barely audible, "I love you, too, Ezra." She swallowed hard and put her head on his shoulder, He rubbed the small of her back comfortingly, "I just want to make you happy. Please never leave me."

A thorn stuck in his throat and he struggled to not let his own stinging tears to fall from the sorrow in his girlfriend's voice, "You'll make me happy by being happy." He pulled away and leaned his forehead against hers, his husky breath as he murmured softly, "I'm never leaving you again, Aria. Never again. When you turn around I'm always going to be here to catch you when you fall. You'll always have me, Aria. Forever and always is how long we have and that's how long I'm going to be here for you."

Right then, something deep inside of him told him that what was upsetting her was completely different and apart from –A and a murderer of two of her friends. Something that was way bigger than any of that. Something that wouldn't be as easy to get over. Something that could jeopardize everything in their relationship.

Something that could put one of their lives into danger.

This story is going to be a challenge for me to write since I, myself, have never gone through it. It's going to be an eye opener and a great story about what a relationship is truly about: patience, support and unconditional love no matter what the two people go through together as a couple.

Be warned that future chapters will be graphic and full of imagery of realistic themes. So, if you're not into that, I would stop reading after chapter one.

I hoped all of you enjoy the first chapter. Don't forget to review and tell me what you thought! The second chapter will be up as soon as I can get the time between my other two active stories. Thanks so much for reading!