Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

This chapter's a bit of a monster. Please let me know what you think of it, because I worked really hard on it. I basically built this whole thing around these flashbacks, and this is a major one.

[Flashback]

Aria agonized over the decision for days. Did she trust Ezra? She thought she had, but wasn't sure anymore. Last night, she waited hours at his apartment for him to come home, until she finally had enough. If she wasn't important enough to leave his stupid meeting early for, then he didn't deserve her. She left a note perched in the output of his paperweight typewriter - 'Sorry we couldn't make this work,' and hardly slept all night.

Once Aria made a decision, she stuck to it, as best she could. She sat in class the next day and tried to pretend he didn't mean anything to her, even when he made that speech, speaking directly to her, and not any other student like they all thought. She wouldn't know it, but it took everything Ezra had to make that speech, to make one last appeal before walking away for good. He wouldn't call her or text her or try to make her do anything she didn't want to do. He had tried to get through to her multiple times already. If breaking up was what she wanted, he wouldn't try to talk her out of it anymore.

Aria left the room, knowing she wouldn't be able to hold it together if she stayed, and she forced him out of her mind all day until was able to sit and think without distractions. Why was she doing this? Why end things before they'd even really started? They'd never know what it's like to be in a normal relationship if she didn't give them the chance to try.

Aria had been chosen to select the going-away gift for Mr. Fitz. She picked a book she knew he would love, a first edition of To Kill A Mockingbird, and she wouldn't have gone through all the trouble of locating one if he didn't mean mean anything to her. She thought of how it felt to see his ex on her doorstep and how familiar a scenario it was. But he explained her presence at the mixer. He explained everything. Why did she have so much trouble believing him? What had he even done that was so wrong? He risked everything for you. He resigned from his job!

She played his words over and over in her head. 'You must give up the life you had planned in order to have the life that is waiting for you.' He didn't mean her. He was part of the life she had planned. Ever since they decided to move forward together, her future had included him. Those words were referring to himself. He had never planned to meet her, to fall in love with her, or need her the way he found he did. She was in the life he had waiting.

Why would she give all that up? Give up on all the dreams she had for them? Despite all the outside forces which could ruin their relationship at any moment, she still saw them being together in the future. The prospect was frightening, but also exhilarating. How many people can say they met their soulmate at 16? You're making a mistake. Don't let him go.

Finally the rational voice won out. Aria ran from her seat in the now empty cafeteria to the classroom she had sat in for months pretending not to love him. And he wasn't there. Disappointment set in, then, as if a sign from the universe, the clouds parted and the sun revealed itself, just for them. She spotted him outside through the window and ran to catch him. If she didn't make it, she told herself she'd run all the way to his place on foot. There was no way she was letting him go. Never again.

Aria found her way to the nearest exit, out into the brisk fresh air, and could hardly believe it was winter. She called out his name before she ran into his arms. Their lips and bodies crashed together as he lifted her up into perhaps their most passionate kiss. Why was she ever willing to give this up? The singular way she felt when his lips touched hers, nothing could ever compare.

Finally he put her down. With one last nibble on his bottom lip, she tore herself away. "We should get out of here," she said, scanning their surroundings. "Someone might see us."

Ezra nodded and looked around. The parking lot was still empty. He captured her lips in his once more, an intoxicating feeling. He had thought it was over. He thought it was actually over, once and for all, and he was devastated. And now, he could be considered the happiest man alive. As well as the stupidest for continuing to make out with his girlfriend in the parking lot of the school in broad daylight. You have her. Now go.

He finally let her go, grabbing her hand and leading her to the passenger door of the silver Toyota. He opened it for her, let her get inside, then forced himself to push it shut, obscuring her beautiful smiling face with the reflection of clouds in the window. Ezra jogged to the driver's side, practically skipping, and slid into the seat. Only 5 minutes ago he had thought he'd never taste her soft lips, never touch her smooth flawless skin, never see that brilliant smile again. Pearl joy packed. He couldn't help himself and leaned over to kiss her once again. Each kiss from now on was precious.

"I could-" she started, her words muffled inside his mouth, "do this-" he licked her tongue, "forever-" another kiss, "but-" and another, "we should," she sucked in some air, "really get going." Ezra planted one last kiss on her lips, then released her. Aria took in and let out a joyful breath and sat back in her seat.

They buckled their seat belts and he put the car into gear. Ezra kept looking over at her during the crawl through the parking lot, just to make sure she really was there. Aria smiled back at him each time, and placed a hand on his knee as further proof.

"Where are we going?" he asked, despite the fact he was the one in control of the vehicle.

"Anywhere. Just drive."

'Anywhere' sounded good to him. Ezra's foot pressed a little harder on the gas as they turned onto the street. He drove west because that was the direction the car was facing, and the fastest route out of Rosewood. No destination in mind, he did as she had said, and just drove. "What made you change your mind?"

Aria was waiting for the question. If he hadn't spoken up soon, she would have asked it for him. "I realized letting you go, letting this go, would be the worst mistake of my life. I'm sorry it took so long."

He was incredibly happy to hear her say that. "Obviously I'm glad you did change your mind, but, I feel like we have a lot to talk about and get out in the open. We can't move on from this if we don't talk about what caused it in the first place." And he didn't want to wait another minute, because he was so ready to move on. At this very moment, he had everything he had wanted for months, a job which could not prevent them from being together, and most importantly, he had her.

"Okay," Aria said, already in complete agreement. "I'm going to tell you some stuff I never told you before which might help explain why I reacted the way I did."

"Okay."

"You know I had been with two guys before you, right?" And by 'been with,' she meant 'slept with.'

He nodded, preferring not to think about it. As relieved as he had been to find out she wasn't a virgin when they'd met, part of him now wished he could have been her first. First, and last, and only.

Sensing it wasn't his favorite topic, she asked, "Do you not want to talk about this?"

His answer fell somewhere in between 'yes' and 'no.' "You brought it up for a reason."

"I did, but if you'd rather not hear it, I'll stop." She could give him the abridged version instead.

"I do," he said, and braced himself.

"Okay. The second one was name-"

"Hal," he interrupted. "I remember."

Aria asked, "Why do you remember that?"

"I remember most things you say. And I sure as hell remember all the names of your exes, in case any of them happen to show up unannounced."

"Speaking of which," she got sidetracked by his comment, "Freddie might come for a visit. Probably not until next year though." Aria tried to keep up with emailing back and forth with Freddie, who at times had seemed like her only friend in Iceland. He was the only one she bothered to keep in touch with.

"Awesome," Ezra said facetiously.

"Freddie's not the one you have to worry about," she said with a slightly scornful tone. Hal's the bastard.

Ezra misinterpreted. "But I should worry about Hal?"

"No, I didn't mean it like that," Aria explained, "..Freddie's gay."

As they passed the sign which meant they were officially outside Rosewood, Ezra stated, "You may have left out that minor detail last time we talked about this."

"I didn't know then," she said. "He told me in an email a few weeks ago. I was kinda relieved. Explains why the sex was so bad," she joked, but was serious. They had attempted it exactly 3 times before deciding to just stay friends. Aria would be the first to admit she had terrible gaydar. Atrocious really. The girls had a math teacher in 9th grade who was openly gay, but Aria somehow didn't know, so when someone made a reference to his boyfriend, she was surprised. Ali had laughed at her, saying, "Mr. Murphy is gayer than the night is long," then added, "right Em?" It was digs like that, remembered in hindsight, which made Aria despise Ali.

There was no humor to be found behind the laugh Ezra forced.

"We're being candid here, right?"

"Yes." More candid than he cared for. "Please continue."

"Hal seemed like a great guy, at first. We had way more chemistry than I had with Freddie, for obvious reasons, and even though we didn't have much in common, I liked him. A lot." Ezra wished he could fast-forward through the part where she talked about liking other guys, but he listened patiently. "We dated for about three weeks. And for those entire 3 weeks, he was seeing someone behind my back. It made every conversation, every kiss, every moment we spent together a lie." To be honest, there wasn't all that much conversation. They'd gotten down to the screwing straightaway upon meeting at a wild party. He was tall and athletic and Aria was so small, he would throw her around in bed, which she liked, but he wasn't exactly a sensitive lover.. Aria realized she was getting sidetracked again. She took a breath, about to reveal what she'd never really told anyone before, at least not in such detail. "I was destroyed when I found out, and wondered how I could be so stupid and not see what was right in front of my face." She had been naive to think he hadn't simply been using her for sex. "I realized he was using my ..vulnerability at that time to, for lack of a better term, get in my pants, and I felt disgusting," Aria actually shook her hands out in front of her as she said this, as if she were shaking off cooties, "especially after seeing the girl he cheated on me with, she looked like a friggin' supermodel." The tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, thin yet curvy bitch, Kristjana, whose name even sounded like a supermodel's, was everything Aria was not. "Actually," she added, determined to be truthful even if it was an insignificant detail, "he was cheating on her with me, and that somehow made it worse." The way she found out about Hallbjorn's two-timing was uncomfortably reminiscent of how she met Jackie. Aria was at a party at Hallbjorn's house and opened the door to find the two making out on the front stoop. Not quite the same, but close enough in her mind to send her right back to that place where the guy she really liked, or loved, was lying to her.

Ezra found himself accelerating a lot more than he should have been when he realized it was his turn to talk. He eased off the gas. "First, you're not stupid. And second, is it possible to hate someone you never met? I'd like to strangle that guy for making you feel that way, or least kick his ass a few times." And third, you look like a supermodel, he thought, but didn't say because he thought it might sound disingenuous.

The image of Ezra kicking Hallbjorn's ass amused her. Ezra was no slouch, in a pretty boy, could've been a male model in another life sort of way, but, in all honesty, he'd lose any scuffle with the 6' 2" athlete with a swimmer's body; the guy was practically an Olympian. "Mike beat you to it. He got all his hockey friends to jump him after school one day and kick the crap out of him. Not gonna lie, I enjoyed hearing all about it that night."

Ezra enjoyed the image even though he had no idea what Hallbjorn looked like. It was a good thing too, or he'd surely develop an inferiority complex. "Remind me to give Mike a high-five one day."

She laughed. "The point of this story is to illustrate what I think of most boys. Every "relationship" after that never went very far and ended poorly. The next guy cheated on me because I wouldn't put out." Lars. Ugh. "I meant it when I said you were the only guy who had never lied to me. It was probably my fault for picking them, but still. I stopped trusting basically everybody after that. I hated the world for what happened to Alison, my dad for what he was making me do, and myself for being such an idiot and letting people walk all over me." Aria was being more honest than ever before. Her friends didn't know about half the stuff that went on in Iceland.

"You're not an idiot."

"Thanks." It was the compulsory response when someone pays you a compliment; it didn't mean she didn't still believe she was an idiot back then.

"And I've never seen you let anyone walk all over you, or tell you what to do."

You never met Alison. "Cuz I grew a backbone. After everything that happened that year, I came home, and I wanted a fresh start. And I met you, and you were different." Aria could tell right away. Maybe it was because he wasn't a teenager, and she was so done with boys. "But when I found out about Jackie, I could see it all happening again."

"It's not the same," he assured her. "At all. Can I please reiterate to you that Jackie is in the past? I never think about her, I never expected to see her again, and any feelings I had for her are long gone. I would never lie to you. And in no universe would I ever cheat on you." Not with Jackie, not with anyone, but definitely not with Jackie. No contest.

"I can see that now," Aria said. "I just needed a little perspective."

"Are you sure? Because the past few days have been hell," not knowing where they stood. "When I found your note…" It felt like being stabbed in the chest. He had had to sit, and stared noncomprehendingly at the words for what felt like a very long time, trying to figure out where he had gone wrong. There were too many missteps to count during that sleepless night. "If you hadn't changed your mind, I don't, I honestly don't know what I would have done, how I would ever get over you. Do you really trust me?"

"I really do," she promised. "I trust you more than I trust anyone else, and truthfully, it scares me a little bit. Sometimes I have trouble understanding what we are, because I've never been in such a serious relationship before, and the Jackie thing spooked me."

Ezra looked back and forth between Aria and the road as he tried to articulate how much he didn't want that. "If I've ever made you feel… If you ever thought we were moving too fast or if you wanted to slow things down, I wouldn't-"

"No, that's not it." She was the one who had insisted they move at the speed they had been moving at. "I'll tell you what I determined during the hours I spent thinking about this. My reasons were threefold," she added in a joking tone. "First, the trust issues, we talked about that. Second, how I was scared. Being with you has always felt so right, so completely right. Does that not scare you sometimes?"

"Of course it does," he replied as if he were very relieved to finally get that off his chest, but also with an edge of apology, "but if you were feeling scared, why wouldn't you just tell me?" It wasn't really a fair question though. He'd been scared of this from the beginning and never let her in on it.

"I wasn't. Not until I thought I had a reason not to trust you, and then I started talking myself out of this. I was taking the easy way out. And it was wrong." She thought of what she'd put him through the past few days, and was truly sorry for it.

So from the beginning, she really was more sure of this relationship than he ever was, Ezra thought. She never told herself it was wrong or destined to fail. Ezra always knew this, but just realized it all over again. There was silence while they were both lost inside their own brains. Not complete silence. The wind pounding at the surface of the moving vehicle was remarkably loud. "And third?" he asked eventually.

That's right, she had said 'threefold. "Third, I was trying to protect you."

"Protect me from what?"

The wrath of A. "You could still get in a lot of trouble for being with me. We were taking such a risk. Part of the talking myself out of it included talking myself into believing you'd be better off without me."

Sometimes I wonder the same thing. "Look, I know there are aspects of this relationship which are not ideal. The fact that we can never go anywhere or tell anyone, it makes things harder. But don't think for one second I think it's not worth it. This has always been worth the risk. You don't have to protect me from my own decisions." He wanted to take her hand. He wanted to pull over and have a real face-to-face conversation, but he took what he could get.

"I know," Aria said. "I realized how stupid I was being. None of my reasons make any sense anymore." A aside. "Plus," she continued, "your words in class really got to me. I want you to know, I'm all-in if you are."

"You know I am." Ezra had been all-in since the moment she took him back just over 2 months ago. There were moments of uncertainty and times he wondered how they could ever make it work. He regretted not telling her that his last serious relationship ended with his fiancée calling off their engagement, but when they had had that ex-lovers conversation, he didn't want to make the age gap between them seem ever more apparent than it already was. He knew she wasn't hiding any ex-fiancés in her past. He also regretted not keeping better tabs on Jackie. If he'd only known she hadn't moved away, as he'd assumed, this whole thing could have been avoided.

"Good. Now can we pull over so I can fuck you clear into the next century?"

Ezra yelled, "Jesus Christ, Aria!" but she kept on talking. "I won't lie and say the phenomenal sex didn't factor in to my decision," she added, half-joking. "Just so you know, I'm very willing to be punished for being irrational and impatient and generally dumb the past few days."

Very calmly, and through gritted teeth, Ezra muttered, "Aria... when you say stuff like that, while I'm driving, I'm likely to swerve into oncoming traffic and kill us both," adding, "Just so you know," using the exact nonchalant tone of voice she had just used.

"Come on. Pull over.. It's getting dark." She dragged a finger along his hand and wrist, which was gripping the steering wheel tight. Now that they'd gotten all the relationship stuff out of the way, she was ready to move on to the make-up sex.

He looked over at her for the briefest second.

"We haven't gone this long since the Dark Days of Abstinence," she said, thinking 2 whole weeks was far too long. Aria had come up with this title for the sexless time period they spent getting to know each other better towards the beginning of the school year. It was a joke and they both knew it because neither one would have traded those months for anything, ups and downs included.

Ezra shook his head and exultantly exhaled, "God I missed you."

Aria smiled, "I missed you too."

"But I'm not pulling over," he said firmly.

Aria scowled, "Why not?"

"We can't just do that." Though they'd done it before, it wasn't going to become a thing that they did. "I'll look for a motel. Okay? Think you can make it?"

"I can, can you?" She placed a hand on his thigh.

Focusing on the road, he said, "I'm keeping my eyes open. We're bound to pass one eventually." Ezra didn't recognize exactly where they were, but the straight narrow 2-lane roadway seemed like the type travelers took to avoid main highways, and seemed likely to possess a motel eventually, despite the fact they were currently surrounded by trees and not much else.

Aria considered letting her hand wander upwards, but knew he might literally crash the vehicle and then they'd have to explain why she was miles from home in her English teacher's car. She decided to be patient and ask him something she just thought of. "Are you happy, now that you're not my teacher. Do you.., feel better about us now?"

"I won't lie. It feels like now, we're a legitimate couple. And there's not the same cloud hanging over our heads."

Aria figured he would say that. It didn't bother her, except she had always considered them a legitimate couple.

After a few seconds, Ezra said, "Hopefully things will get a little easier now. You can come visit me at Hollis without worrying who sees us talking."

"That will be nice," Aria said, looking forward to it. "Do you think you'll like working there?" She sure hoped so. If he hated it, she would blame herself for being the driving force behind him needing to take the job in the first place.

"I do," Ezra replied. "They already showed me my office, it's incredible. And I think I'll get the hang of teaching a college course pretty easily since I TAed a few courses, and was pretty involved in the lesson planning of one last year, and led a lot of discussions."

"Did you and Jackie TA the same class?" Aria asked, remembering Ezra had said Jackie had been a TA.

"No, she had a different major." They had only had one class together, Intro to Sociology, which basically everyone was required to take.

"What if you run into her? Will it be weird?" The campus was fairly small, and they'd already run into each other once at her parents' mixer. Aria almost wished she had stuck around to see what happened after she left. Did they talk? She wouldn't ask him though. He had the right to talk to an ex without being interrogated about it.

Ezra had in fact talked to Jackie. For the few minutes after her arrival, they had caught up on the basics, where've you been, how's life, etcetera. Then Ezra pulled another professor into the conversation, someone he'd only just met, and when Jackie was sufficiently distracted, he slipped upstairs, ready to whip out the 'I got lost looking for the bathroom' excuse should he have been caught. Afterwards, he let the most verbose and prosaic woman, a relic from the archaeology department, talk his ear off, nodding along mindlessly, thinking only about Aria, counting the minutes until he'd spent an adequate amount of time at the party to not feel rude when he left. "I'm telling you the truth when I say it won't be weird for me to see her on campus. Because I don't have feelings for her anymore. It is not an issue. You don't have to worry."

"I'm not worried." Aria didn't love the idea, but she trusted him.

"How are you doing though?" Ezra inquired. "This week must have been rough. Do you want to talk about it?"

No. "I'm a little sick of talking about it. No one believes us."

"I believe you," he told her again, in case she hadn't been listening the first time. "I mean it. Why would you lie?"

"I wouldn't," she said. "Obviously I'm capable of lying about certain things, such as us," More than capable. I'm lying to you right now and you don't even know it, "but I wouldn't lie about this. We wouldn't just make up this whole story to get attention, or whatever it is people think."

"I know you wouldn't."

"Thanks. That's something at least."

Ezra knew this was probably the best opportunity to get her to open up. "So what happened? The details in the paper are sort of sketchy."

Aria sighed. "If you're reading the paper then you've got the wrong idea about everything."

"Then let me hear it from you." When she didn't respond, he added, "But we don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"No, it's fine." She wasn't reluctant to talk to him, she just needed a moment to formulate what to say and decide which details to leave out. "After I left the party, I met up with my friends," to try to trap a killer in the woods. "Spencer was supposed to join us, but she never showed. It turned out she had been in a car accident."

Ezra shifted his eyes sideways. "Was she hurt? I didn't know about that."

"No, it wasn't bad, she wasn't hurt. They never even admitted her to the hospital. Her sister was admitted though, so they could monitor the baby."

"Oh," Ezra said. He felt bad.

"They're both fine," Aria added. "Spencer went to the church to pick up her sister's phone and that's when he attacked her. Spencer's not dumb though. She dialed Hanna on her cell and we heard the whole thing, his whole confession and his plan for how he planned to kill Spencer. He was going to kill her. We heard her begging for her life. And there wasn't a damn thing we could do about it."

There were no words he could say to erase that from her mind, much as he wished there were. "Did you call 911?"

"Yeah. A lot of good that did us." They took their sweet-ass time showing up. "When we finally got there, Spencer was at the top of the belltower clinging to the railing, in shock. Ian had fallen. We thought he was dead. We saw his body." The girls never mentioned to the cops, or to anyone, that Ian had been pushed. They could hardly believe it themselves, so they knew the cops wouldn't buy it if Spencer said a random passerby happened to push Ian to his death then disappeared without a word.

"But he's not." The statement almost sounded like a question.

"No, he's not." Of this Aria was certain. He could have killed me last night if he'd wanted to.

"And that's why everyone thinks you lied." Another question masquerading as a statement.

"Yes."

"Is Spencer okay?" Ezra asked. "She seemed fine in class, you all did, but... that's a pretty traumatic thing to go through." He couldn't even imagine.

We're used to it. "She was really shaken up at first. But she's better now." Spencer had hardly slept that night. Aria knew because she was right there with her, and felt her tossing and turning into the wee hours.

"I'm sure she'll feel even better when they catch him. You all will."

If they catch him. If he doesn't kill us all first. Aria didn't actually know if that's what Ian had planned. She knew he had been in contact with Melissa and thought they might try to run away together, if Melissa was stupid enough to go for it. But Aria basically watched him murder her friend on that video, heard him attempt to murder her other friend on that call, and could have been killed herself last night had he perhaps been in a different mood. It was hard to guess his next move.

"She'll get justice," he said while Aria was lost in thought. She nodded her head, but didn't look at him. Aria knew the 'she' he referred to was Alison. She didn't talk to Ezra much about Alison. One time, when he asked why, she said it was because he didn't know her so he wouldn't understand. And she herself had conflicting emotions about Alison, her best friend at times, and at others, her worst enemy. He told her he'd be there if she ever did want to talk about it, and she knew he meant it, but hadn't taken him up on it.

"Are you sure you're okay? You know I'm here..." And not going anywhere, no matter what.

"Yeah I know." Aria smiled genuinely at him and squeezed his knee. At this moment, she was very okay, because he was by her side. Whatever awaited her back in the land of reality was not something she cared to think about at the moment.

He would never force her to talk about something she didn't want to. Ezra changed the subject. "So what else is new? I feel like I haven't talked to you in forever even though it hasn't been that long." Aria had been cold and standoffish during their last few encounters, and ignored his texts asking her to call him and asking if she was alright. It really hurt to be shut out like that, especially for reasons he didn't fully understand at the time.

Aria thought about the things she had wanted to tell him about this week until she had remembered she was upset with him. They usually touched base every day, even if they didn't have plans to see each other outside school. There was a lot of day-to-day stuff she hadn't yet told him. "My mom moved back home."

"What was that?" Ezra asked. He hadn't heard what she said because he was concentrating on the road, keeping an eye on the black SUV behind them making some dodgy moves.

"My mom moved back home," she repeated as the impatient driver sped past him on the left, venturing into the wrong lane just to pass Ezra's car, doing the speed limit.

"Oh, I thought she had already," Ezra said. She hosted the party last week.

"Well officially."

"That's really good." Ezra knew her family was one of the most important things in Aria's life and was truly happy for her that her parents seemed to have worked things out, unlike his own.

"Yeah, I'm happy about it. I told her to just make up her damn mind already, and she decided to come back." Ezra wondered what his mom would say if he spoke to her that way while Aria thought about how she was happy to have her mom at home again, but wasn't too thrilled with her at the moment. "...I'm banned from seeing my friends."

"You are? Why?"

"It was the therapist's brilliant idea."

"Therapist?" he asked. One week apart and he'd missed so much.

"Yeah," Aria said, "our parents have us seeing a therapist, you know, cuz we're crazy attention-seeking liars."

"Nobody thinks that."

"Yeah, whatever.." Yes they do. "We went as a group at first, now individually," she explained.

"How is that going?" He sounded disinterested because he was watching the headlights of another car getting too close for comfort in the rear view mirror.

"Well. It's not like I don't have plenty to talk about.. I haven't mentioned you specifically, in case you're wondering."

"I wasn't." He wasn't. "And I wouldn't ask you what you talk about with your therapist." Luckily, the tailgating car made a turn at the light and Ezra didn't have to worry about being pressured into speeding anymore.

"That's sweet, but unnecessary. There's not much I'd tell her I wouldn't tell you." And there's a lot I wouldn't tell either of you.

Ezra smiled to himself, glad they had gotten back to this place so easily. "Why doesn't she want you to see your friends? If anything, you need each other more right now." Ezra knew what a tight-knit group Aria belonged to. They'd been through a lot together.

Just like that, things between them were normal again. It was as if they'd never broken up. She felt comfortable telling him everything, or, almost everything. "I really couldn't say, but we're not actually doing it. We still talk between classes and whenever we get a chance." Who else could she tell this to? He didn't even blink hearing she was defying her parents' and therapist's orders. Aria realized how much she had really missed talking to him. "I don't see how it's healthy to separate a close group of friends, trying to isolate us, especially Spencer. Her parents don't even want her seeing her boyfriend. I just don't see how it's helpful."

Neither did he, but he tried to understand why the therapist would impose this ban. "Could it have something to do with the thing with Jenna?" he suggested. "Does she know about that?"

"No, and I'd rather you not bring that up," Aria said tersely.

"Sorry, I just thought since it's a secret the 4 of you share, it might have something to do with it."

"No that's not it." It kind of was it. He kind of just hit the nail on the head. The secret they shared was a lot bigger than the Jenna thing though. Aria tried to put it out of her mind, and for a brief moment, did. She reminded herself to be happy, sitting next to this person she shared so much with and saw a future with. For a minute, he was all she thought about, being caught up in his loving embrace, locking eyes and seeing into each others' souls. It had never been that way with anyone else. Only him.

Her last words hadn't been said harshly, but matter-of-factly. Ezra didn't think she was upset with him for bringing up the touchy subject, but did wish he knew what she was thinking about. Out of the blue, she asked, "Could I have a key? To your apartment? So I don't always have to take it from under the mat?" She would try to figure out a way to get him to change his locks later, though she knew it wouldn't do any good. If A had gotten in once, he/she/it could do it again. "I know that's something I should probably wait for you to offer but-"

"Of course you can," Ezra said, thrilled she wanted to take this next step, even though she basically had free reign of the place already. "What makes you bring it up?"

"I dunno. I was just thinking about us. The future, and all the things we could do with our newfound freedom." She was looking forward to inching their relationship out from behind closed doors.

"Speaking of which..." Ezra slowed the car a bit as they approached a motel on the right side of the road.

Aria looked at the red neon letters reflecting in the side window as they made the turn and grinned. "That was our last break up," she stated, as Ezra pulled into an empty parking space.

"Never again," he agreed as he shifted into park.

Aria touched his hand on the steering wheel and, connecting with his gaze, said, "Never."

This takes place after Aria runs to catch Ezra in the parking lot towards the end of 2.02 The Goodbye Look.

In case you don't know, TA = Teaching Assistant. A student who has taken the course and done well may get a position as a TA. Any questions, just ask.

Guest - :)

maddie - I was hoping you would like that! Even though I wrote that part long before I knew you were a Justin Bieber fan. :)
Also, potato chips taste good with everything. They are my weakness.

Prettylittletale - Maybe I should sneak some grammar lessons into my story so you learn something during English class lol. Thanks for reading! Ezria fanfic beats boring novels any day. ;)

Notinyourlifetimehoney - Thank you. Ezra is pretty different in the books, his appearance and personality and everything, so they're separate in my head. But I totally get why you wouldn't want to read it. If you can get past that though, the books are great. I'm in the middle of the last one now!

I'd like to thank you guys for being so patient and awesome. I need to take an indefinite hiatus while I try to find the time to write down all the chapters I have planned. I know it sucks, but I'll be back! Do not worry! And PLL will be back before you know it!