This is another one shot. I felt like doing another thanks to all of your wonderful reviews on my first one :) Thanks to 'ezrialover1' for the idea of this fanfic, I hope you enjoy it!
Bear in mind that this is set before anyone (except 'A' I guess) knows about Ezria. So the girls don't know, nor do Aria's parents. Basically it's like Season 1A Ezria haha. Enjoy!
Also there will be some dialogue that was actually used in the show, although it may be slightly altered and a different character may say it, just to let you know :P
Aria POV
"It's just a small bar," I told Ezra as I handed him a flyer for an open mic night at a bar in Philly for the following evening.
It was a Friday morning and I'd only just arrived at school. I'd been searching online for places that Ezra and I could go to in public, but obviously outside of Rosewood. I decided to check the website of a great bar I'd been to once before, before I left for Iceland. I remember Ali taking us there to see if they'd accept her fake ID. They didn't, so we moved on to somewhere else. We must of visited around 10 bars that night until we found one that would actually serve us, but that place stuck out to me. It was so small, so secluded, and had a warm feeling to it, a kind of charm. It was the perfect place for me and Ezra.
"People will be singing, playing instruments, reading poetry, that kinda thing." I gave him a wide smile, and he seemed to look like he was up for it.
"And you're saying it's discreet? Hard to find? I just don't want either of us to get-" He sounded panicked so I cut him off.
"Ezra, trust me. It's fine. It's like miles away from here. When we went with Ali, there were a few students from the local college there, and a couple of groups of locals. It was really quiet. I thought this would be the perfect place.." My voice faded out quickly, I wasn't sure Ezra was quite as up for this as I was. He must of noticed as he frantically began to talk.
"No no! Aria it is, it sounds amazing. I just want us to be safe, you know? If anyone found out about us you know what would happen.." It was his turn to trail off now, as we both thought about it. If anyone ever found out about us whilst Ezra was still at Rosewood High, we'd be finished and Ezra would be off to prison in no time.
"It'll be fine. You know how much you mean to me, I wouldn't risk it." I rubbed his hand gently and he smiled.
"Okay, it sounds fantastic. I'm looking forward too it. So I'll wait in the usual spot around the corner from your street at 6?" He asked me.
"6 is perfect. You wanna drive there then, or shall we take the train?"
"Mmmm let's drive. We can take things at our own pace, then." He gave the leaflet back to me, his hand lingering onto mine for slightly longer than it needed to. Just then the bell rang loudly, knocking us both out of our thoughts.
"I'll see you last period" I said to him sweetly and he nodded with a smile. I walked to the door and waved shyly, before walking out of there swiftly and went to my first lesson, completely oblivious to the fact that the flyer had fell out of my bag just outside Ezra's classroom..
Spencer POV
"Hanna trust me, the square root of 49 is not 4, it's 7." I laughed as I explained to her why she'd got a question wrong on her Math quiz.
"Jheeze you sound just like Mr Jones. He was insisting that it was 7, too. God, I bet I looked like such an idiot." She puffed out her cheeks and sighed.
"Wouldn't be the first time.." Emily muttered, laughing, but Hanna heard and hit her playfully with her bag. "Kidding, kidding! Woah stop, you're gonna knock me out in a sec, Han." The girls both giggled among themselves as we approached my locker.
"So do you guys wanna hang out tonight, maybe grab some coffee, see a movie? I asked Aria but she's busy, she had to rush straight home, too." I told them, remembering what Aria had said when I spoke to her earlier.
"Yeah sure. I'm not up to much, Em?" Hanna accepted and asked Emily.
"I'm in, I need to get out of the house," she said. "If I have to see the same four walls again for another night this week I may go insane. So movie then coffee?"
"Yeah. I don't know what the movie theater is showing but I'm sure we'll find something."
I carefully entered my locker combination and traded my books from last period, and putting the books that I'd need for homework and studying at the weekend into my bag. I locked it and was about to walk away when something caught my eye.
"Hey guys, what's that?" I snapped Hanna and Emily out of their small conversation about tonight by picking up the colorful flyer that was on the floor. I looked at it carefully and read it out to them.
"Open Mic night, 7pm till late, this Friday..." I trailed off and carried on reading in my head, looking at the name of the place and the pictures printed onto it.
"What's that all about?" Emily asked, not really phased by what I'd found.
"Oh my god, guys. This is the bar that Ali took us to that time! Remember? The one miles away from Rosewood. It was when she was trying out her fake ID, well our fake ID's.." The girls still had a blank look on their faces. "Remember! This is the first place we went to. They refused to serve her so we traveled around a bit more and then ended up in Brookhaven."
Hanna's eyes still looked glazed over, but something was ringing a bell for Emily.
"Oh my gosh, that cute little place! Oh oh oh, and Aria loved it, I remember!" Emily smiled, glad to have remembered, and that's when Hanna snapped in.
"Ah I remember now, it was cute. Why what's that got to do with anything?" She was confused again now, so I read the whole leaflet out loud.
"There's an open mic night there tonight," I told her. "Why don't we go and check it out? It wouldn't of been by my locker for no reason... Maybe 'A' planted it here for us to see? We could take a photo of Ali, too, and see if the owners ever saw her again after we went with her. We could always just go, and if it doesn't mean anything then we can just grab a bite and check out college guys making fools out of themselves." I had a smile on my face that the girls knew meant I was desperate to go.
"Hmm, yeah I guess. It could be fun!" Hanna seemed surprisingly up for it, and so did Emily.
"I should probably call Aria.. I'm sure she'd wanna come, she loved this little bar." I got out my phone and dialed but it went straight to her voice mail. I tried again, and the same thing happened. "Ah well, looks like it's just the three of us tonight then guys" I told them.
"I can barely wait" Emily said sarcastically, teasing me. She knew how much I got absorbed into mysteries.
"It's better than the same old movie and coffee, we need to switch up our normal routine guys!" I had no idea where all my positive energy was coming from, but I loved it.
"Wait.. Did Spencer Hastings just say 'same old movie and coffee?' Jheeze, Spence. How could you insult your caffeine like that?" She laughed and I shook my head, smiling myself.
"We're still stopping off for a latte on the way, don't you worry!" I giggled as I linked the girls and walked out, off to get ready for some serious sleuthing.
Aria POV
"Red or black.. red or black.. red or black.." I repeated this phrase to myself as rushed around my room doing my hair and make-up. I had 30 minutes until I had to meet Ezra around the corner of my street, but I couldn't decide on my tight red dress, which I'd worn for our first date, or my more playful yet dressy black one. I curled my eyelashes and added mascara to finish off my eyes and lightly dusted a layer of powder onto my finished face make-up. I ruffled the curls I'd just created with my fingertips and then proceeded to put on the black dress, followed by my black heeled boots and of course, plenty of chunky, quirky accessories.
I quickly checked I had everything in my purse that I needed, before walking down the stairs and out of the door. Mike was at a friends house and Mom and Dad were both out, so I didn't need to be that discreet, but I still was. I always was before I went to meet Ezra.
It was November so it was already dark by 6pm most nights. In only a thin jacket I was freezing, my skin was visibly shaking, and it seemed to be taking me forever to walk to where Ezra and I always met. I was almost there when headlights lit up my path from behind me. I froze for a second, worried that someone might see me enter Ezra's car, and when the car horn peeped I went cold all over. I heard a door open and I was stuck to the spot, worried that I was busted.
"Aria?" I spun around slowly, relief flushing through me, it was Ezra.
I ran quickly and hopped into the car, making sure I was comfortable with my seat belt and such, and then gave Ezra a playful hit.
"What happened to meeting on the corner? You scared me, I thought I-we were busted!" I said it in an angry tone, but laughed after, realizing how stupid I'd been.
"I'm sorry.. I got held up." He told me, leaning into the back seat and producing 2 large coffee's. "It's like a 40 minute ride, I thought we could use refreshments."
I gave him my widest smile and took one from him. A little bit of caffeine and everything was forgotten.
"And oh yeah.." he began, starting the engine again, "you look goooood." He leaned over and kissed me deeply, each second making the kiss more and more intense. I softened my lips and gently pulled away, conscious of the time.
"Let's get going Mr Fitz" I smiled as I snuggled into him, beginning the drive.
Spencer POV
This car ride was gonna be a long one. Hanna was loudly singing along to her headphones in the backseat, meaning Emily and I had no chance of a decent conversation at all. I turned the heating up all the way as it was getting unbearably cold due to the winter weather. I saw Emily re-reading the flyer again, with a look of confusion on her face.
"What's up?" I asked her,
"Um.. no it's nothing. I'm reading through this again," she lied, biting her lip like she always did in these situations.
"No, Em. What is it?" We were getting closer and closer to the bar, was she having second thoughts about coming?
"No, it's nothing really... I mean, it's just, how do we know 'A' sent this? There was no note, none of the usually signs that 'A' would leave. I'm just confused, that's all."
I looked back to the road and thought for a second, my hands moving to turn the steering wheel at a right turn. I gave a weak shrug.
"I don't know.. I guess you're right, I just feel like anything could be a major clue right now. Anything that could help us solve Ali's murder is worth checking out."
She gave me a swift nod and sat up straight, breathing deeply.
"Yeah.. Yeah you're right." She placed the flyer next to her so it was between us.
"Is this it here? Up ahead on the left?" I looked towards where she was gesturing.
"Yeah, oh my gosh it is. I remember the benches over there! Hanna, we're here."
I was surprised at how quickly she took out her headphones and payed attention.
"Wow I do remember this place a lot more now.. It's so tiny, it's a pity Aria had plans."
"I know, oh well. We'll try not to stay for too long, I just wanna chat with the bar staff and see if 'A' has left us anything. Now, I just need to find a parking space.." I trailed off as I looked around, realizing that pretty much every space was full.
"Jheeze I didn't think it would be this busy." Hanna spoke for all of us. We'd assumed it would be pretty quiet, just like when we'd come before.
"Hey, that car looks so familiar" Emily pointed out a silver toyota not too far from the bar's entrance. I examined it further but it didn't really ring any bells, it just looked familiar.
"Yeah I'm sure I've seen it around school somewhere, oh well. Probably just some jocks come to try out their fake ID.. Good luck to them!" Hanna laughed, remembering how adamant Alison had been when she tried to get the bar man to accept hers last summer.
I drove around for what felt like forever, until finally a parking space showed up, but it was far away from the entrance.
"Looks like we're gonna have to have a little hike to the bar" I laughed as I drove further away from the building to park up.
Ezra POV
Aria and I had been here for about half an hour already and it was great. There was no one here who we'd seen before and the performances were even pretty good. I rubbed Aria's hand slowly and looked at her as she watched the latest act, a singer who was playing a guitar and singing about his ex. Her eyes were fixated on the stage, and her smile was so big. I looked deeply and analyzed all of her, trying to guess what she was thinking, but she soon sensed I was watching her, so she turned to face me and gave me a smile.
"See, I told you it wouldn't be that bad!" She smiled and I laughed.
"I have to admit, I'm having fun," I told her, holding up my hands in a joking fashion. "You want another drink?" I gestured towards the empty glass and almost finished beer bottle on our small table, but she shook her head.
"Maybe later.. But you know, there's a bathroom over there. I've not seen anyone go in there all night.. You wanna recreate our first date?" She gave me a quick wink and I laughed, remembering our first meeting. I hesitated for a second, but realized that I'd seen no one enter the bathroom all night, so I gave into what I wanted, relaxed a little and agreed.
"I'll meet you there" I kissed her quickly as she got up and smoothed down her dress, purse in hand, headed for the ladies room.
Spencer POV
"Hey um can I get a beer?" Hanna asked as soon as we walked in. The bartender laughed at her,
"Sure, you got ID?" He asked sarcastically, fully aware that Hanna was underage
"Ugh, so I see you still don't accept fake ones then.." She trailed off, mumbling under her breath and the man laughed again. I rolled my eyes at her but walked forward to the bar myself with Emily at my side.
"Hey, have you got a sec? I'd love to ask you a couple of questions about one of my friends, I think she might have come here." I tried to be as polite as I could, determined to get answers.
"Erm I'd love to, but I'm sorry, lady, we're kinda busy," he told me, pointing to the long line of customers that was building up at the bar.
"Okay, I understand.." I sighed but then proceeded to take a 20 dollar bill out of my pocket and slide it across the bar. "But I'd reallllllly appreciate your help"
I looked directly at the guy to see him sigh heavily but nod.
"How can I help you?" He asked me, this time in hushed tones.
"Did this girl ever come in here.. alone?" I produced a photograph from my bag and gave it to him, "She may have been wearing a wig some times, a black one.. And maybe in a red coat?" I bit my lip, nervous for his response.
"I'm sorry, miss, but I don't recognise her. She's around your age, right? Probably fooling around with some older guy and drinking herself silly right now." His tone was bitter and cruel, a lot harsher now. I raised my eyebrows at him.
"Yeah well that's kinda difficult for her to do, because she's dead." I emphasized the last word and stared him out.
The guy went quiet for a second, before a strange warmth came to his cheeks.
"I..I'm sorry. It's a busy night. What was her name?"
Annoyed by his sudden change of heart, I was ready to tell him where to go, but I bit my tongue and carried on.
"Alison DiLaurentis.. But she may have gone by the name Vivian Darkbloom. She kinda liked to play around." The man genuinely sighed with regret this time.
"I'm sorry.." he told me, shaking his head, "but if you leave me your contact details and the photograph, I can ask around all the staff tomorrow. I'll let you know, okay?"
I nodded gratefully and thanked him, as I grabbed the girls and pulled them to one side.
"I'll just be a sec and then we can go, I need to pee. Come on." I looked around in search of the bathroom.
"What? Why do we need to-"
"I need the bathroom, and I am not going alone." Emily laughed at me.
"Oh my gosh Spence, we're not 11 anymore.." Hanna laughed, too.
"No, we're not, but I don't wanna get attacked by some horny college boys." I made my point clear and they laughed but walked with me as we approached the ladies room.
Aria POV
"Oh Mr Fitz.." I moaned into Ezra's ear as he nuzzled on my neck. I was sat on the top of the sink with my legs wrapped around his waist as our lips explored each others mouths and other parts of our bodies too..
"What if someone walks in?" Ezra asked me, through quick breathes.
"Please," I replied back, breathless myself, "No one comes in here, even if they do they'd be too drunk to even notice us.." I giggled and Ezra nodded quickly, pushing me further towards the mirrors by the sinks, as I fumbled about with his shirt buttons, eager to see his toned body.
I pushed my body closer to his, letting my hands roam around his back, lifting up his shirt to explore his skin with my hands. Ezra's hands were in my hair, then fumbling around other parts of my body.. I moaned even louder into his ear, causing him to 'shhh' me quickly, but earning a laugh from him, too.
My lips returned to his mouth and we were connected again. We battled for dominance in each others mouths, giggling as my head banged against the mirror as I was backed up further and further on the top of the sinks. A wild rush of adrenaline struck me and in a bold move, I went to undo his belt buckle. Our lips were still fighting with each other in a wild war of passion as I fumbled and fumbled with the metal. I almost got it to a point where I could undo it when..
"Aria?!"
Shit.
Spencer's voice was unmistakable, and I felt Ezra's body freeze against mine, and he didn't turn around at all, his face was turned towards the mirror, blocked by my head. I didn't know what to say. If this was just a random guy, or perhaps a guy who I was legally allowed to be kissing in this way right now, I would of shot right up and laughed the whole thing off, but this was Ezra. He was my teacher. And my best friends had just walked in on us kissing.
A loud laugh came from Hanna who whispered apologies through her hysteria. Emily had a smirk on her face and Spencer was cautiously eyeing up Ezra, who had yet to show his face.
"Aria.. Please tell me that isn't who I think it is.." Spencer always knew what was happening, and Ezra's curly hair was pretty recognizable. I gave her my best fake confused glance but she wasn't buying it.
I hopped down from the top of the sink and stood in front of Ezra who was still yet to reveal himself. I could see his hands shoving his shirt back into his trousers before adjusting his tie slightly. I pushed a piece of hair behind my ear and looked down nervously, twiddling my fingers.
"Wait.. Aria is that?" Now Hanna had stopped laughing as she began to put 2 and 2 together.
My face remained fixated on the ground, and in that moment I realized how interesting a piece of chewing gum stuck to the floor tiles was.
"Aria.." Was all Emily could say, I just breathed heavily and slowly.
"Mr.. Mr Fitz?" Spencer could barely speak as Ezra began to shake his head before sheepishly turning around to reveal his face. It was one of pure shock.
"Guys please, this isn't what it looks like," I began, looking back up at them, but Ezra gave me an eyeful look to tell me that it was hopeless even trying to go there. Spencer just stared blankly at us.
"Oh really? Because it looks like you were getting it on pretty hard with our English teacher!" Hanna was speaking now, and a lump formed in my throat, I was unable to speak. I knew it was a bad idea lying to them.
"Girls, please, let us explain.." Ezra spoke up, trying to make the best of the situation. I was expecting Hanna to bite his head off, but she remained silent, as did the other two.
"Aria... How long has this been going on?" Emily couldn't take her eyes off Ezra, who was looking towards the ground, as she asked me the question.
"We, uh. We met right before school started this year.." I began.
"Oh my god! Since Labor day?!" Spencer sounded angry but I knew that tone, she was just shocked and annoyed at herself that she hadn't figured it out sooner.
I was stood on the ground again now, right next to Ezra.
"I didn't know that Aria was gonna be my student, and nor did she. We tried to break things off when we found out, but.." Ezra put his hands in his pockets and awkwardly rocked. I crossed my arms and gave a small shrug.
"And we're the only ones who know about this..?" Emily asked me, and I nodded slowly.
"Yeah.. And I'd-we'd really appreciate it if-" I was interrupted by Spencer's death glare.
"Don't.. don't look at me like that" I pleaded with her, but she just moved her head, turning it at an angle and quickly turned around, facing the stalls.
"Aria, don't worry. We're not gonna tell. I just wish you'd told us." Hanna said, although it was evident that things had gotten really weird.
"Guys I-we wanted to. But there's so much at stake. Our reputations, Ezra's job. It could all be ruined.." Ezra found my hand and held onto it tightly. "I'm sorry.."
"This isn't just some fling, we're serious guys. We wanna make this work." Ezra squeezed my hand and I looked up at him smiling,
"You seem like a great guy, Mr Fitz, I mean I know you are, b-but you've both gotta be so much more careful, okay? I mean what if I was Hackett?" Spencer was serious now, turning back around.
"Oh yeah, because Hackett would reallllly come to a place like-"
"Aria I'm serious. Surprisingly I don't see anything wrong with this, but other people would if they found out. I just don't want either of you to get into any trouble."
"Us either" Emily and Hanna spoke up aswell.
"I'm gonna give you girls a moment I think. I'll be out there" Ezra let go of my hand and gave me a quick peck on the cheek before nodding to the girls and walking out.
"I'm sorry." Is all I could get out.
"You know, part of me thinks that this is really destructive behavior, and the other part just thinks it's really hot." She gave a large sigh.
"Spence, please. It's not funny. It's the complete opposite. I'm serious about Ezra and it just sucks so much that the whole world would be against us if they knew."
"Ok.. I'm sorry. So where did you meet him?"
"In a bar.." A smile came across my lips. "We were talking about writing."
Hanna sniggered, "Yeah.. read any good books lately?" I gave her a look but laughed.
"Well then on the first day of school I found out he was going to be my teacher, I tried to transfer out of his class but it was declined, and we tried to break things off but it was just too hard."
"Oh my gosh that's why you tried to transfer out of English? I knew there was something up with that.." I could sense the engines running full power in Spencer's brain as she thought back to all the odd times that didn't quite add up.
"I'm sorry Aria.." Emily began, "About this whole situation. But you can count on us to keep your secret, right guys?"
"Yeah totally" Hanna smiled and Spencer nodded, too.
"I mean, they say that there's that one person out there for everyone. That one person who completes you, right? And understands you better than you understand yourself.. Well I really think I've found that with Ezra.. I know it's probably too soon to tell but I don't know.. I just know that if I were too loose him, I don't know what I'd do. You guys know I don't rush into things lightly, but I just feel so safe with Ezra. It feels so right." I sighed heavily with a smile, "I- I think I'm in love with him.."
The girls were all just staring at me now, with smiles on their faces.
"Well I for one approve" Spencer grinned, walking over to give me a hug, followed by Emily and Hanna.
"Wait.. Aria.. Does 'A' know?" Emily had risen a good point and the other girls were now standing by to hear my answer. A simple nod was all I needed to give.
"Okay.. okay. This isn't good. Um. Right. How- how long have they known?" Spencer was trying to be calm.
"I got my first text about it when I was sat in Ezra's class on the first day. But guys, nothing bad has happened. 'A' hasn't tried anything" I realized how stupid I sounded.
"That's how A works. They're obviously not gonna say anything just yet, they wanna wait until you think you're safe, until they're so much at risk that they don't even need to do that much to make it all come crashing down. Be careful, Ar, please." Spencer had a pleading look in her eye.
"I will. I promise." I lowered my voice to a hushed tone, conscious that anyone could be listening. "Anyway, Ezra is planning to leave Rosewood High. He's gonna look for another job so we can go public.. I really think we can make this work." I could sense that my tone was more wishful thinking than a logical answer, but even so, it's what I believed.
"Okay.. Well we're gonna go take off, we'll leave you to enjoy your date" Hanna put a brighter note on the situation and I hugged all of the girls, separately then together before we walked towards the door.
"Wait.. why did you come here tonight?" I asked them, before they opened the door, curious as to why they came back to this little bar.
"Oh, we saw a flyer on the floor at school and thought A had left it, it must of been yours." Emily told me.
"Ah shoot. That's where it went!" I sighed at my clumsiness and proceeded with the girls back into the main room.
"See what I mean, be alert Aria!" Spencer was half joking, half serious, but I nodded, understanding I needed to be careful.
"Spence was convinced it was 'A' wanting us to come here and find something. In a way I guess we did.."
We got to the main area of the bar and I could see Ezra nervously sipping his beer at our table. It was still as busy as it was before, now with a singer providing the musical entertainment. We all approached him and he jumped to his feet.
"Bye Ezr- I'm sorry, Mr Fitz." Spencer turned slightly pink but then laughed, as did Ezra, and the other girls gave him a smile and a small wave as they gave me one last hug, promising to call me later, before leaving the establishment.
"Aria.. What just happened?" Ezra managed a slight weak laugh among all of the madness.
"Don't worry. We can trust them. I promise you." I leaned in to kiss him deeply..
"I'm thinking that we probably shouldn't go back into the bathroom.." He whispered as the kiss heated up.
"Mmmm you're probably right" I purred back, "But I think we do a little too much thinking, what about you?" I pulled away slightly and downed almost the whole of my wine glass. He nodded hastily, not taking his eyes off me.
"Come along Mr Fitz" I said quietly as I got up and walked back over to the bathroom, turning back slightly to see Ezra gulp down a mouthful of beer and follow me.
The End.
I hope you enjoyed. Again, many thanks to 'ezrialover1' for suggesting the idea of having the girls catching Ezria. All reviews are greatly appreciated! I feel like this isn't my best work but idk haha, and I know this was a pretty long one shot but I do have a tendency to write too much! Hope you don't mind, and if anyone has any ideas or requests for another one shot, feel free to message me or write it in a review!
xx
