Ezra

I am sitting at my desk trying to grade papers, but my phone keeps buzzing and I can't stop thinking about her, her smile, her smell, her face. I can't help but think about how she can always have a positive outlook even during the worst. How she is always able to make me feel better. I love her more than life itself. It's hard to think about how we got to where we are now. We have gone through so much. I still remember the first day I met her.

It was labor day. I was about to start my first teaching job at Rosewood High School as the English teacher. I had been out of college for only a couple of months. I was sitting at the bar reading when a beautiful young woman sat just two chairs away from me. She had beautiful dark wavy hair and bright green eyes. She looked a little distraught, and I was a little curious about her. "You alright down there?"

"I'm a bit jet lagged I just got back from Europe."

"Where in Europe?" I asked because I love to travel.

"Iceland."

"I spent some time in Reykjavik, before I went to Amsterdam. It's a great city," I was trying to keep up conversation. I couldn't tell if she wanted to as well or not.

"So, do you go to Hollis?" She asked finally showing interest in the conversation

"Just graduated. I'm about to start my first teaching job."

"Yeah, I-I think I'd like to teach. Ah, I love this song." As a song started to play throughout the room from the speakers.

"B-26," she looked at me and smiled. That smile was just incredibly beautiful and I couldn't help but look at it. "What's you're major?"

"Ah, well, ah, I'm leaning towards English."

"That's what I'm teaching," she let out a small laugh

"Well, and I write, too, but so far it's mostly personal. Just for me."

"I'm impressed," This girl was starting to amaze me even more as the conversation went on.

"Why?"

"Um, I tried writing," I got up and moved to the chair next to her. "I didn't get very far. You're lucky. If you're writing for yourself it's pure passion. Maybe you'd let me read some of yours?"

"Yeah, you really want to?"

"Yeah, You're smart, You've traveled, Great taste in music," There she went with that smile again. It made you want to smile. It was so infectious that I did begin to smile. "I'd like to know more about you."

"Yeah, I'd-I'd like to know more about you to," I don't remember how we'd gotten there, but eventually we ended up in the bathroom making out by the sink. I couldn't help but think who is this girl. She was gorgeous and smart, and we had so many things in common. That evening changed my life. I hadn't known it then, or maybe I had a twinkling of an idea, but I would later fall in love with this girl. I just didn't know about the problems we were going to endure through our relationship. I found out the next day that she wasn't a college student. She was actually a high school student in my English class. This made everything complicated. I tried very hard to stay away from her. But there was something about her, and I think it may have been that I was falling in love with this absolutely amazing person, that just made me come back to her. Our relationship was a secret, I was her teacher, if it got out I would go to jail. We continuously broke up and got back together, and we fought often, but we also fell in love, and I would never take a single moment with Aria Montgomery away. I later resigned from Rosewood High to work at Hollis College. This gave us the chance to be together in public, but we had to be careful. It wasn't the age difference, there was very little of that anyway. It was we hadn't told her parents and I was her former teacher. We eventually told her parents, and that's when everything went wrong. Her dad threatened to call the police if I didn't stay away from Aria. Aria kept calling me and it took everything in my will power not to answer.

I am sitting at my desk at Hollis college thinking about the first day I met Aria and everything that has happened in our relationship, then my phone buzzes again. There are two missed calls and a voice mail. I know who they're from. I already noticed them, I just can't bring myself to deleting them. I finally decide to listen. It isn't against Byron. It's not like I'm trying to contact her. I press the listen button and I hear Aria's voice talking to me.

"Ezra, Hey I'm calling from Emily's phone for obvious reasons," She took a deep breath. It made me wish she was here so I could hold her tight and tell her everything will be all right. "Listen, I really don't want to think about us being over, but whether we are or we aren't it's something we should discuss face to face. So, meet me tonight at eight, um, in front of the clock by Renault square. If you come it means that there's still a chance for us and if not the-," The message is over and all I can do is stare. I have to see her. I look at the time. If I don't leave now I won't make it. I run to my car and start to drive to Philadelphia. I took a detour down her road, just to make sure she isn't there. I am driving faster than I should be, but I turn my head towards her house to see if she is there. She's not, I Exhale and turn my head forward. There's a tree. I close my eyes and see Aria's face. I whisper I love you more than you could ever know, and the car crashes.