DISCLAIMER: I do not own the characters in the story and I am not affiliated with Pretty Little Liars—the cast, the writers and creators of the show, or the book series. All characters featured in "For Now" belong to the creators of PLL, but I do claim the story line as my own. :)

Sooooo... hey hey hey to those of you reading! :-)

So, here I am, and here this story is! It's a NEW one

I've been basically non-existent here on Fanfiction, and was going on unintentional phases of being gone from tumblr. I kept saying "I'll be back, I promise" via tumblr, and hoping that some readers would see it too. It really just took me a long time to actually sit down and decide how to start from where I left off. I ended up really feeling bad for delaying the post updates, and I wasn't wanting to disappoint and lose people's interest (because you guys have been so good to me since the very beginning), but the fact of the matter is that I really had to do a lot of work on myself and put the focus on getting through my days in one whole piece. I thought about how I needed to show I was still dedicated to my stories, and you guys, and I was really finally able to do that and get back to the writing I promised. You guys have no idea how awful I felt about being so inconsistent, basically disappearing for a while, but I also wanted to make sure I could create the stories into what I wanted them to be and, at the time, I really couldn't do that.

So thank you if you've been sticking with me :-) And thank you if you're a newcomer! Writing for you guys is a pleasure, and I'm so happy you took time out of your day to read my work! Feedback is especially appreciated to, so thank you, thank you, thank you in advance! :-) It seriously means more than I could ever really begin to say, and I hope you all know that there is so much appreciation for everything you all have done for me by giving me support and a community to come to :-)

I hope there's an interest in this new story! So hopefully you enjoy and please leave me some feedback so I can know whether or not this is something to continue! :-)

Aria sighed as she pulled out the two containers of photos she had in her closet, having to sort through the numerous amounts of pictures to find the ones that she wanted to use to put together a special gift for Spencer Hastings, her very best friend, in honor of her engagement and being asked to be her Maid of Honor.

Hanna and Emily had been chosen to be her "superior" bridesmaids, as Spencer worded it, with a giddy grin on her face. They were so happy to see her with a certain excitement she really couldn't contain. It was hard to read Spencer most of the time; it was easy now, with Toby's proposal making her light up and think about a future that would be all theirs.

So, with that, Aria, Hanna, and Emily decided that they'd be in-charge of all the engagement festivities, wanting to make this time special for the Spencer they'd always been able to count on. Now was a good time to let them try repaying her for all she'd done for each of them, and Aria wanted to start by putting together something personal, regardless of being apprehensive to open the containers that were filled with memories.

She sighed heavily after having moved the heavy containers full of photos to her living room so she could begin sorting through them. She knew Spencer would love the gift, which was why she was going to dig into the containers that held memories, ones she now wanted to avoid.

Family photos. Ha, the Montgomery family. More like a case of 'we-fucked-up.' She was bitter over the family dynamics and shifts that happened during her later adolescence. She saw her mom as strong growing up, and Aria still thought about how great her mother was at being what her and her brother needed. Ella Montgomery was great at hiding all the sadness. Now, Aria still saw her mom as strong, but looked at her with pity. She never recognized how often her father had taken a shit on their family. For that, she hated Byron. Oops, daddy issues. No fucks given here. (Okay, maybe a few.)

Friendly photos from high school. Bitches. I never liked them anyways. They were fake and mean. Screw that. Screw them.

And Ezra Fitz. Fucking asshole. Bastard. Jerk. Player. What a big fucking joke that all was. Why the fuck? Okay, don't cry, Aria. You're fucking ugly when you cry. Okay, fuck you for crying.

Ezra Fitz, the 21-year-old college student she'd met her freshman year at Rosewood's college. She was 18, but the three year age difference her father was disgusted with meant little-to-nothing to Aria when she'd found Ezra. And it actually wouldn't have been that big of a deal, had Ezra not been a former student of his that pissed him off on the daily because of his insight and wisdom. Yup, my dad. He hated Ezra for being too passionate and smarter than him at literature.. and life.

A secondary education major, with an emphasis on English, Ezra was charming and charismatic, intelligent and passionate, loving and open-minded. They'd pass each other on Hollis College's campus grounds often, in-motion to the next class or activity on their agenda. She was attracted to him because he was, for lack of a better word, hot. Just hot. And beautiful. So the attraction was undeniable, but the hard part was finding out if there was anything there. Most importantly though, she had feelings—real feelings—for him, just as he had for her.

Their relationship was blissful, if Aria could choose one word to describe it. The attraction was there, the chemistry left them being able to talk forever about so much more than what laid at the surface (and later, they were actually able to talk about a "forever," certain it would be theirs to claim). Life was beautiful, freaking beautiful with him. He was freaking beautiful, he made her feel freaking beautiful. Freaking everything was freaking beautiful.

She shuffled through the pictures, momentarily becoming bitter and all-too-emotional over what she saw, but soon paying no mind to ones that quickly flashed in front of her.

Occasionally though, she stopped on a photo of her and Ezra. Every single one captured a moment in their two-and-a-half-year relationship, some candid, others taken by Ella as she beamed at them, truly taken by Ezra and happy for them. There were ones that friends had taken at get-togethers, while some were ones Aria or Ezra had taken of the two of them, often turning out awkward. But the photos were of them, nonetheless, and they were perfect.

Fucking perfect. Fuck that. Fuck perfect Ezra. Fuck the perfect little faces we made and times we shared. Fuck the illusion of forever. Fuck our relationship. Fuck the time I spent loving him, fuck it all. Fuck those two-and-a-half-years of wasted time.

She spat profanities when she saw pictures that were taken during their last months together. She saw a naïve Aria smiling up at Ezra, the "love of her life" and "soul mate." She was a sucker for him, wrapped around his finger. And while he looked just as happy in those photos, she inspected him, studying his face, any body language signals she could pick up. Nothing. Nada. No clues, no hints as to what was going to come, and what exactly was going on in his mind.

She also looked at herself, shunning the person in the photos who was oblivious and way too in love for her own good. She'd smiled up at him, in mid-laugh, and he'd looked down at her, seemingly beaming with the same love. Asshole.

Beyond that though, she looked at her features. She stared at her belly, wondering what could've been. She looked for hints of her own secret she'd been keeping for the past seven months, though she didn't know that she had one to keep at the time.

/

Nearly two weeks after she and Ezra had broken up, called it quits, she was in pain. Not just the emotional, my-heart-is-fucking-breaking, I-fell-in-love-with-an-asshole pain and heartache that also raised her blood pressure because she was "going to kill the bastard," but a physical one that kept her heaving over throughout the morning one day.

What she didn't expect to hear was that she had been pregnant. The key word: had. She'd been only a few weeks along, and had lost the child, or whatever it technically was at the time. Aria had been shocked (and somewhat devastated, truthfully) to find out she was pregnant. She wasn't ready, certainly not without a father to help raise the baby. Damn Ezra.

But she was completely distraught by the following news she'd received: that the child she was bearing, that she didn't even know about—what kind of mother doesn't know about their own child?—hadn't even survived the first few weeks in her womb. Was she really that toxic? Everything and everyone around her seemed to be going to shit anymore.

Regardless, the fact that she had been pregnant and carrying what would've ended up being a child—her child, her and Ezra's child—was overwhelming. Motherhood wasn't something she'd planned for a while, parenthood wasn't on the "to-do" list her and Ezra discussed—for at least the next two or three years.

Obviously, Aria wasn't ready—she so wasn't ready. She was a college student, halfway through her four year program and not officially decided on what to do with her English major and she just felt that she was simply too young. She was only about to be 21, and not only would a baby have been a huge bump (literally) in the road, but she was also reeling from the emotional heartbreak from the sudden and unexpected breakup with Ezra, which also brought up the point that the baby would be fatherless.

Okay, not fatherless, she'd thought. Ezra would have been a great dad and only she would have wanted in her child's life, putting aside her own bitterness towards him. Besides, he'd have a right to know about his child and would have wanted that relationship with him or her.

Regardless of all the cons to having actually ended up being pregnant without there being a miscarriage, she'd still thought about it—motherhood and what it meant, and it brought a feeling of warmness and comfort, and it was followed by another aching loss and realization. She'd lost the baby.

It'd been another blow—a second hard one to come along and take her off her feet. And she promised herself, too, that she wouldn't tell anyone—she'd deal with it on her own, on her own terms and conditions, and without the input, overbearing ways, and pity from anyone.

/

Looking at her stomach in the photos made Aria look at her own. It was flat; she would have big and round, somewhere around eight months pregnant, had she not lost the baby. She didn't know how she felt, really. She'd been too emotionally confused and worn-down to think about and make sense of her feelings.

She stopped sorting. It was time to put it aside and refocus her attention elsewhere; she knew she'd need to go through the photos in increments so she wouldn't be overwhelmed with either the amount of pictures there to sort-through, or the feelings, emotions, and memories that would come from searching for and shuffling through photos.

/

FINISHED

"Aria, what the fuck?!" Ezra snapped, angry and frustrated, and looking at her with a scowl on his face.

"It's just to make an appearance. We'll go, show ourselves enough to be accounted for, and then be done with it," she attempted to reassure and further explain the situation to him. She leaned the back of her hips against his counter, with the center island separating them, and Ezra leaning the front of his body it, his palms laid out flat as he stared down at them.

He was resisting, though. "Aria, I do what you need me to do for the sake of your family, but I am not doing this whole 'family reunion getaway' with the Montgomery's. I always told you that there would be no family reunions," he persisted, his position unwavering.

Ezra's stance was held with good reason

"Yeah, well, what about at our wedding, huh? And then I get to be surrounded by the Fitzgeralds," she countered and spat out. At this time, she also crossed her arms, showing that she was not planning on backing down either.

"At least there's a legitimate reason as to why my family is opposed to us," he said, implying something deeper. Aria knew. "But your family has no reason to continue hating me. Hell, I don't even know why they hate me in the first place."

"Okay," Aria said, taking a stance as she could feel herself growing agitated by the conversation; they'd talked on numerous occasions about Ezra's perceived hatred from the Montgomerys that Aria insisted wasn't actually there—putting aside the opinion of her asshole father, whose ideas didn't really matter anyway.

"Get that out of your head, Ezra. Seriously! They don't hate you by any means, okay? My father is the one who's a prick about it all still. My mother and Mike love you, and so do the people in my family that actually matter to me. As far as I'm concerned, I could really give two fucks beyond that. I would be the one freaking out if my family didn't approve of you, considering I plan to spend a long time with you. So stop being so insecure about all of this, please," she explained.

"It's the fact that your father has made me feel like an outcast in his presence, and that he's got his ideas that seem to be a bit infectious. He can't get over that I was his freaking student, and that I'm now dating his daughter," Ezra said, frustrated and defensive. He, too, crossed his arms against his chest to show that he wasn't backing down; he wouldn't go to this charade being put on by the Montgomery family when he felt anything but welcomed by them.

Aria huffed. "How many times do we have to discuss this?! How many times do I have to tell you that my dad is a fucking prick who doesn't matter!? God, Ezra. Two-and-a-half-years and you still don't understand this, and I can't explain it to you enough! I don't want to have this discussion for the rest of our lives!"

"Okay, Aria, I have to have the same god damn discussion with you every time we go to visit my family," Ezra countered.

"It's the fucking Fitzgeralds! I have the right to be scared out of my fucking mind, considering you have questioned the sanity of your own mother. The woman hates me, Ezra, just like most of your apparently 'too-good-and-classy-for-me' family! I have reason to feel uncomfortable just because of the Fitzgerald last name!" Aria exclaimed, beginning to pace in front of him from the tension.

"I'm a Fitzgerald, Aria," Ezra spat, taking offense, seeing as how he'd made his own path in life and left behind that life and most of the name.

"No," she persisted, beginning to point at him. "You are a Fitz."

There was silence and tension in the air soon after.

"Ugh!" Aria said, throwing her hands in the air, mid-pace. "Why are we even having this conversation?! It's always the same thing, over and over again, and we always get worked up and start bickering, making the same points each time and never getting anywhere! We can't avoid each other's families, okay?! So why is this still an issue?!" She was pissed, looking at Ezra with his jaw clenched.

"Because, Aria!" Ezra then took his turn to raise his hands in the air in frustration. "I asked your father, and he said 'no.' Flat out 'no.' I tried everything, for Christ's sake!"

Aria stepped back, a little astonished. She was silent for a moment. Marriage. Oh my god, marriage! Soon-to-be Aria Fitz! Hello, this is my fiancée. Hello, this is my husband. Oh my god, it sounds perfect! This is everything that it's all come down to—marriage, vows, "I do," a "yes" to forever.

She was giddy, but it was muffled by the fact that she could also picture Byron, saying "no," that Ezra wouldn't be good enough for her. And the fact that he wouldn't grant Ezra—them—permission was still upsetting, not only because that meant a lot and was a part of becoming engaged, but also because, regardless of his tendency to be a dick, he still really hadn't warmed up to it—to them—at all. He wouldn't approve, and that was a blow to her too.

So she stood there, just staring at him, a little bit lost on what to say. The tension had disappeared, replaced by a disappointing sadness, one that was reflected on both her and Ezra's solemn faces. She then looked down at her feet, moving and shuffling them a bit while she stayed in the same position, trying to think of what to say.

Her vision was blurry though, and she didn't want to cry. It'd always been "Fuck Byron," but it still mattered to her, to some degree, that he would allow for them to be married with his blessing. An engagement and marriage, and wedding, without his support just put a damper on all that bliss that was supposed to surround that time. It was special to a girl to have her father approve of the guy she loved and wanted to spend her life with, even if they didn't exactly have a good relationship.

There was then the fact that Ezra asked. It meant he'd been thinking about marriage too, just like she'd been. A lot lately, actually. It wasn't just a discussion, or something they were entertaining—he wanted it just like she did. Butterflies filled her stomach. Marriage was an actual thing they wanted with each other. Like, really, actually wanted. A forever. They both agreed they wanted a forever—they weren't just saying it.

And Ezra had tried to set it into motion, but Byron shut down any plans Ezra had had to go there yet. Or ever. Ugh, queasy now. Fuck Byron. No, really, fuck Byron.

Ezra stood there too, thinking about it all. He didn't want to say what he was thinking, what he knew he needed to put out there. He'd already jumped the gun, probably way to early.

Yeah, they had been together for over two years, but considering that they'd both started out with no intention of ever wanting to be married and so committed in that sense, it was probably a little wild for him to set it into motion. They'd talked, yes, but saying it, and starting to find ways to go about all the details, was completely different.

Then he became weary, anxiety raking him as he anticipated her response. He was still curious to see how she would react after realizing that he'd actually taken the next step to beginning planning to ask her to marry him.

Aria then glanced up at him, a bit teary-eyed by the gesture, even if it discouraged their chance at marriage. She didn't know where to begin, so she simply looked at him, her mouth slightly gaped.

Marriage. Ezra. Married to Ezra. My marriage to Ezra. Her thoughts drifted to how lovely that all sounded.

She inhaled deeply, then closed her eyes and cleared her throat before bringing herself to open her eyes. "Ezra…" She already trailed off. "Er, uhm, I don't know what to say… because… honestly, this is crazy. You were planning to ask me to marry you?" she asked, excitement lingering in her voice. She was beginning to grin.

Ezra hesitated, but then proceeded to nod slightly. A look of remorse crossed his face though, and Aria's face dropped.

"What?" She asked softly, hesitating to even go there because something told her that this wasn't right. She tried to reverse the impression she'd given, that she was excited to get married. After all, maybe he was just asking Bryon for future reference and not planning to ask for at least a little while longer. "Listen," she said, reaching for his hands and putting them in hers before continuing. "We don't have to get married, not anytime soon. I'm sorry my excitement got a little ahead of me, I just was, you know, being a girl and—"

Ezra interrupted, dropping his hands from hers as he began. "Aria," he said shakily, softly. "I realized something."

Aria looked at him, tilting her head slightly to the right, obviously puzzled by his vagueness. Now she could feel herself becoming a little anxious and on edge, though she didn't really understand why; it all just felt… weird and a bit strange.

"What are you trying to say, Ezra?" She said softly, though her eyes narrowed because she knew he was wanting to find words. Words for what?

He took in a deep breath. "U-Uhm…" He cleared his throat again, nervous and scared to say it. "There's… there's not really an easy way to say this…" He paused for a second, really looking at her for a few moments before he broke the gaze. "Byron saying 'no' and… and all this family stuff…" He looked a bit pained for a second, again taking in another breath for some courage.

He continued after a moment passed. "I-It just… It's not going to happen," he choked out, hesitating to even look at Aria, who he could feel staring at him, probably blankly.

She inhaled shakily. "Wh-what is that even supposed to mean?" There was an edge to her tone.

He continued to look down. "It means that I think… I think it's time to… uh… uhm… call… call it quits, Aria." He glanced up at her for a split-second, getting just a glimpse of the distraught look starting to take over her features.

"The fuck?" She muttered, looking down with a blank stare on her face as the reality set in. This was definitely not what she was expecting. And now, now she didn't hold back tears—she'd blinked them back to try to delay them, but they started to fill her eyes too quickly and they then started to stream down her cheeks. She was quiet though, letting it set in.

Ezra swallowed back his own emotions, kept them in check and not allowing a tear to break through. He kept his composure, but felt like he was going to collapse inward.

"Ezra," Aria said, her voice shaking, but no longer as soft. Or soft at all, for that matter. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

Snap. That's what Aria did.

"Fuck you!" She cried, bawling but still holding her own. "You bastard!" She stepped towards him. "Look at me!" She demanded. "Look at me, you fucking coward! If you're going to break my heart, stop looking at your feet! Fucking stop and look up at me, asshole! Look at me through my tears and say it." She spat, her tone harsh and cold. "Look at the girlfriend you've had for two-and-a-half-years and tell her that it's over!" She was yelling, nearly screaming, with her heart throbbing and tears she had been fighting breaking through.

He wouldn't though—he couldn't.

She kept yelling. "What the fuck?! What the fuck, Ezra?!" And then she was shoving him. At first, she'd caught him off-guard and he'd stumbled a bit, but afterwards, her petite body was doing nothing to affect his strong build. She was exhausted, stopping, but heaving and sobbing.

"Aria," he tried, but couldn't speak. Because what could he really say? His heart didn't want it, but it didn't make sense to stay together when they would have disapproval from both ends, her father not even granting him permission. He'd talked to Ella and he had her support—he had Mike's too—but he needed Byron's.

Why was really a mystery to him because the guy had been a bastard since the day he first saw Ezra even talking to his daughter. Maybe it just felt cordial and needed—they'd be family and he did want his acceptance in that way, for him to be okay with calling Ezra his "son-in-law." And then Aria wouldn't have to deal w ith not having his permission—what that would do to the barely-existing relationship she already had with her father, and what it could potentially do to their's.

Ezra wanted Byron's blessing, though he knew it would be hard to get. But he wanted it so that there would be no overwhelming tension or ill feelings, and so that he could find some common ground with him and know where he stood. And Byron's permission would also mean something bigger—acceptance into the family. Ezra realized that, if he couldn't have that, they wouldn't live in "holy matrimony." It would be the Montgomerys versus the Fitzs, with only two official Fitzs and one still, by blood and relations, belonged to the Montgomerys in a deep-setted way because blood was thick like that.

Ezra knew Aria wouldn't leave or become manipulated by her family, but he also knew she was loyal, regardless. And she'd be constantly pulled in two directions. And, as far as his family went, they would come to see they didn't matter anyway and begin to play nice. Wes, his little brother, didn't even have to play nice, though, because he genuinely liked Aria. His kid cousins loved her, too. She even had the approval of his five teenage cousins, and had won over two of her aunts and uncles. But, indeed, there was a lot more to go, and the Fitzgeralds still were very different—something that Aria might never be able to fully adapt to or understand.

Family was a seemingly insensible reason to end a long-standing, steady and stable relationship with the girl he loved completely and fully, but family was supposed to be a foundation. And even though both of them were oddly distant from their families, they still needed to be able to have them united in some way.

It didn't need to be another "Montague and Capulet" feud—the Fitzgeralds and Montgomerys would need to sort it out. But two-and-a-half-years of family drama on both ends was exhausting and wearing on their relationship. He couldn't do it; he didn't want to watch Aria fade away from him in five years, ten years, however long it would take. He didn't want to deal with that because he just wanted Aria.

It wasn't just family either, he'd insisted to himself. I mean, there are other small things. He couldn't really think of them though, but surely they were there. He and Aria were by no means a perfect couple, but it all worked.

Until he decided it just wouldn't.

And ended it.

Per usual, thank you for reading and, seriously, please let me know if this is something you'd like to see more of! Maybe like 15-ish comments with positive feedback? I don't like to set numbers, but it's been helpful in the past to see how people are responding and what the reaction is to the story line and writing of a specific piece :-)