Leap of Faith
She stared silently through the oppressed darkness to the cracked wooden door that was sitting in front of her. Staring her down, the locks on the other side bolted shut. The only sliver of light came from the crack between the door's bottom and the dusty wooden floor. She whimpered, trying to pull her hands away from one another, but the rope tied tightly around was too strong and her small wrists were too weak. Even though she was already backed into the dimly lit corner of the room, she pushed herself further, trying to get as far away from the darkness as she possibly could. She couldn't believe that this had happened to her, she assumed she was smarter than this. Letting someone take her without putting up a fight, how stupid could she be, even as her threatening depression started to overcome her? She should have fought, or at least screamed, so that Ezra would have heard her. Even if he didn't want anything to do with her romantically, or so he claimed, he at least cared about her well-being and safety, right?
A ominous creak resounded on the other side of that menacing door. Aria's head shot up as she pushed herself farther into the corner of the room.
"Who's there?" she whimpered frightfully.
Chapter One
Ezra Fitz lay on his couch pondering the days occurrences, more like pondering one occurrence. As he had walked into his first teaching job just eight hours ago, he had found himself overcome with immense anxiety, which had formed into what he would have liked to describe as a full blown panic attack. It wasn't that he was that anxious about his first teaching job, of course he would be nervous, but it was the girl who was sitting in the middle of the room that had made his breathing cease to exist completely.
Her name was Aria Montgomery, assuming the seating arrangement chart was right, and this wasn't the first time he'd met her.
He thought back to the day before, cradling a tumbler of Scotch and sitting at a bar near the campus of Hollis. He had seen her sitting there, her big brown eyes taking in the room around them. The first thought that had come to his mind was that she was one of the most attractive women he had ever had the pleasure of laying his blue eyes on, then, after a moment, he realized that she looked overwhelmingly sad. They had ended up talking, getting to know one another and also locked lips in the women's restroom not ten minutes afterwards.
His thoughts were brought back to the moment he turned from the blackboard and seen her sitting in the middle of his classroom. She had heard his intake of breath and startlingly looked up. As her brown orbs met his blue, he saw recognition in her eyes, followed by sheer shock. It didn't help that a mere hours later she had tried to convince him that this relationship would work. He had turned her down irrevocably, or so he thought.
He came back to reality, sighing deeply and shaking his head as a fist came down on his door again. Don't think of it anymore Ezra. She's your student, you're her teacher.
At that thought he turned the doorknob and swung the door open to reveal those big brown eyes looking up at him with tears in her eyes. "Aria? Wh-what are you doing here? I thought I told you… What's wrong?"
She shuffled her feet and bit her bottom lip, it seemed to be a habit of hers when she was trying to concentrate. He assumed her concentration was centred on not letting tears fall out of those wondrous eyes. "Can.. can I come in?"
"I don't think that would be the best idea." Ezra said as he leaned against the doorframe, really wanting to reach out and hold her, but forcing himself to keep his arms at his sides.
She watched him in silence, still chewing on her bottom lip and then shakily sighed. "I guess I'll.. I'll just leave then. I'm sorry for bothering you."
As she turned to leave, the words bubbled up in Ezra's throat without him being able to stop them from forming on his lips. "Aria, wait… at least let me give you a ride home. It's cold and dark outside, I don't want you out there alone."
Her back was still turned, his arm was extending. Suddenly, her tear soaked voice cut through the silence. "I don't have a home," she whispered, "everyone.. everyone is gone."
I KNOW IT'S SHORT! This is seriously my first Ezria story and I haven't written in a while, be gentle with me, guys. I might continue this, it depends if I get some good reviews!
