Are you coming with us to the mall? – Hanna
Aria groaned as she read the text message before tossing her phone on the table. She rolled her eyes to herself and she could feel Ezra's eyes on her. She sighed and looked over at Ezra, who was sitting next to her on his leather couch, and sighed.
"What's wrong?" Ezra asked, readjusting so that he was looking at her more head on. "Is it A?"
"No, no, it's… it's Hanna," Aria explained. Ezra raised his eyebrows at her answer and she explained more. "Her and the girls are going shopping for prom dresses."
Ezra brushed a piece of hair behind her ear before asking, "So why the frustration?"
Aria reached for his hand before gulping. "I'm just sick of hearing about prom! All I've heard about for the last, like, two weeks, is prom."
"Well, aren't you going?" Ezra asked. Seeing as she religiously went to hoedowns, father-daughter dances, balls, and homecomings, he sort of expected her to go to the biggest dance of all.
"No, I don't want to," Aria muttered, glancing away from him.
Running his thumb over her hand, he tried to get her to look at him. She just continued to look away and Ezra questioned, "Why not, babe? I mean it is your senior prom…"
"I get it, okay?" Aria groaned, looking back up at him. "That's all anyone is telling me… Look, prom is supposed to be when you get dressed up and then you go and dance with your boyfriend; I can't do that."
Ezra gasped a little before shaking his head. "Aria, please don't skip your senior prom because of me."
"But I don't want to go with anyone else," Aria argued, "and I can't go with you."
"So, go with your friends, or, or Holden… if you skip your senior prom, you'll regret it for the rest of your life. Hey, I didn't want to go to my prom, I thought it would be really lame, but I did go and I had fun. And it's one of the last times you'll be with your peers and I really don't think you should skip it," Ezra advised.
Aria just sighed before she smirked and asked, "So were you right? Was prom lame?"
"The lamest," Ezra answered, smiling at the thought. "But, it was prom. At the end of the day, I'm glad I went. And if you go, I promise you'll feel the same way."
"I'll think about it," Aria murmured.
And so she did. She took Ezra's advice, called up Holden, and went to prom. She didn't want to admit it, but dancing, taking pictures, the whole rigmarole… it was worth it.
But at the end of the night, her group was dwindling. Hanna and Caleb headed to after parties with Emily and Alison. Spencer and Toby had headed back to her house for a private after prom. And now, Aria and Holden sat at their former group's table while sipping on leftover punch.
"I had a good time tonight," Holden said, making conversation.
She nodded while fiddling with a straw wrapper. "Yeah, me too. Thanks for coming with me."
"No problem," Holden dismissed. "After all, back in like second grade, I asked you in advance."
Aria looked up from the floor to her date and smiled. She vaguely remembered it and the memory made her giggle slightly. "That's right! Yeah, I forgot all about that."
Holden just smiled before shrugging, "Thanks for asking me. I mean, I wanted to come, kinda, but I didn't have a date. I thought about asking you, but I figured you weren't going."
"Why would you figure that?"
He shrugged again and explained, "I figured that you couldn't bring your boyfriend, so… hey, why didn't you tell me he was once your teacher? When we fake dated, you never told me that."
"Well, it wasn't the type of thing I was trying to broadcast," Aria muttered. "I just didn't want you to judge me."
"I wouldn't judge you," Holden assured.
Aria just smiled before sighing. She was about to ask if they could leave, but her phone beeped inside her clutch. She pulled it out and opened the text alert.
Can you come to the apartment? I have something for you. – Ezra
"Let me guess," Holden started. "Is that him?"
Aria blushed and nodded. "Instead of taking me home, can you, um, can you drop me off at his apartment?"
Holden looked at her, a little skeptical, but after he saw Aria's puppy dog face, he relented and stood up. "What's the address?"
"Thanks again, Holden," Aria repeated, opening the passenger door of his car. Holden just waved her off and she leaned over and kissed his cheek. "I'll see you at graduation, okay? And during the summer?"
He nodded and smirked. "Yeah, I'll see you around. Night." She smiled at him one more time before getting out of his car and going into the apartment complex.
Once she was inside and upstairs, she knocked on Ezra's door cautiously. What did he have for her and why couldn't it wait? He knew it was prom night, so what was so important?
After a few moments, Ezra answered it, but he only opened the door very slightly. "Hey! Good, you're still in your dress!"
"Yeah…" Aria mumbled. "Why? What's going on?"
"Close your eyes," Ezra told her. She did and he opened the door wider. Pulling her inside, he whispered, "Keep them closed, okay?"
"Okay," she whispered back, walking further into the apartment with Ezra. After a few steps, Ezra stopped walking and kissed her forehead before allowing, "Open them."
Slowly, she did as she was told and gasped at what she saw. There were candles and flowers all over the apartment and Ezra was dressed in a tux. She looked over the entire apartment before staring at Ezra. "Ezra…"
He raised his hands and stopped her. "Hold on, don't say anything… I know that this isn't prom, but I wanted to do a sort of substitute for it."
"You didn't have to do this," Aria whispered.
"I wanted to," Ezra smiled. He opened his mouth to say something, but instead he just stared at her. Her hair was delicately pinned to the side, she was wearing a stunning red, sparkly dress, and thanks to the height of her huge shoes, she was almost eye level to him. She was absolutely stunning. "You look beautiful."
She blushed and glanced down while Ezra retreated to the counter. He grabbed a small, plastic box and headed back to Aria. She gazed down at it and grinned. A red and white rose corsage. It matched better than the carnation ensemble Holden had gotten her and she smirked.
"I know you already got one, but…" Ezra rambled. He grabbed her wrist gently and glanced at her, silently asking permission to take off her old one. She nodded as he slipped it off and put the new one on. Once the corsage was on, he kissed her hand softly before walking away and heading towards the window to the record player. He knew what he was about to do was incredibly cheesy and utterly romantic, but he couldn't help himself. When it came to Aria, he wanted to act completely and ridiculously in love since he was.
"What are you doing?" Aria asked, watching as he slipped a record on to the turn table.
He ignored the question as the record began to play. Smiling slightly, he walked back over to her and held out his hand, "May I have this dance?"
She scoffed softly as the first few lyrics of the song Ezra played sounded off.
Someday, when I'm awfully low,
when the world is cold,
I will feel a glow just thinking of you
and the way you look tonight.
Aria smiled and blushed at his song choice as Ezra held out his hand. "May I have this dance?"
She giggled before taking his hand and wrapping her arms around his neck while he placed his hand on her waist. They moved together and Aria sighed happily. "You're such a romantic."
"I thought you said you liked that," Ezra retorted, pulling away a little.
"Oh, I don't like it. I love it," Aria corrected. "It's one of your best qualities."
He just shook his head before extending his arm and twirling her to the music. Aria laughed and pulled back into him. They remained together for the rest of the song, swaying softly and stepping in unison. After a second, though, Aria pulled away and whispered, "Thanks for this. This was the best dance I've had all night."
"Mine too," Ezra joked.
Aria smiled and laughed lightly before kissing him as the song neared its end. Ezra leaned into the kiss and grinned into it. Her lips were so soft; as they kissed and danced, Ezra wondered how on earth he had gotten so lucky.
She pulled away and rested her head against his chest and listened to both the closing of the song and Ezra's heartbeat, thinking to herself about how wonderful her boyfriend was and how he had changed a lousy night into one of the sweetest, most romantic nights of her life.
Just the way you look tonight…
(A/N:) I hope you enjoyed this fluff! I usually don't write such fluffy pieces but I loved writing this and I hope you loved reading it! ((Also I didn't proof read this so sorry for any mistakes!))
Don't forget to review!