I obviously don't own Pretty Little Liars (book series or television show) or the characters. This is for fun, not profit and no harm is meant.
It was at the end of the school year, when the annual Rosewood Fair was being held in the town centre. It was the event of the year when the whole town came out to eat sugary treats, go on carnival rides and explore haunted houses. The adults usually met in groups and sat on picnic rugs, the teens and children ran around like mad with no one really paying too much attention to them as they consumed hideous amounts of cotton candy and played carnival games.
Ezra Fitz had just graduated Hollis College with his Master of Arts in English Literature. He was due to begin working at the local college very soon. He was understandably nervous for this new venture; however it was the career he saw himself destined to occupy from a young age.
He had come by himself to the fair and not for any reason in particular. He felt like he was meant to come. Maybe it was an excuse to do something new before he began work full-time, he wasn't sure. He was dressed in jeans and a shirt, very casual. His curly dark hair sat atop of his head messily, as he pushed it slightly to the side off his face. He began walking around the fair, desperately in search of coffee.
A beautiful laugh from an equally stunning young woman could be heard loudly as she accidently brushed past Ezra as she was running with some friends.
"Sorry," she slowed down to genuinely say to Ezra and make sure he was okay, before she continued on.
Ezra smiled softly at her before she left. As far as unintentional introductions go; that one was definitely not a bother to him.
"Oh, wonderful," Ezra let out as he came across a small pancake stall with the sign 'We also sell coffee' on the main table of the stall.
"One coffee please," Ezra Fitz told the young woman behind the table, who smiled flirtatiously in reply before going to pour the coffee. Ezra smiled kindly at her when she gave him the coffee and he paid her. She was clearly interested in talking more, and he was flattered; but he had never been too good at the flirting that went along with getting to know a woman. It just wasn't a skill he had been blessed with, he had come to accept.
Ezra continued to walk around the fair happily. It had been about 20 minutes when Ezra made probably the best mistake of his life;
Ezra walked straight a short young woman with beautiful brunette curly hair, and spilled his now just warm coffee all over her back. She let out a squeal before she turned around to glare at him, desperately trying to get her shirt to un-cling from her now sopping wet back. Ezra stood there mortified, his jaw dropped, feeling nauseous that he had caused such a situation.
"You're the guy from before, right?" the woman asked as Ezra remembered her enthusiastically.
"Yeah! Uh, yeah, that was me. I'm so sorry. Truth be told, I took my eyes off where I was going. I'm truly sorry," Ezra apologised again, clearly feeling remorse at the whole event, though the young woman oddly began to smile brilliantly.
"Its fine," she said with a laugh as she gave up trying to dry her back. "It really doesn't matter, and I like coffee anyway, so… why not have a random shower in it," she said attempting to make him laugh, which he did as he lowered his head shyly. Her eyes stared at his face curiously, as he stared at his shoes intently. She could tell he wasn't good at this, nor had much experience. She decided to throw him a bone;
"I'm Aria," she said offering her hand out to him to shake. "Though it has been a colourful introduction, I am very pleased to meet you," she said giving off a glorious smile which immediately made Ezra's knees go weak every time he saw it.
Ezra cleared his throat as he ceased staring deeply into her eyes, getting a little lost for a few moments. "Ezra, it's lovely to meet you, Aria. And I'm so sorry about the 'colourful introduction'; though hopefully one day we can laugh about that".
Aria giggled and agreed letting her head nod softly, "Yeah, I think we will," she said truthfully.
"Oh God, I'm freezing," Aria reminded Ezra as she began to jump up and down, flapping her shirt with her hand.
"I don't live far from here," Ezra offered kindly, "You can have a shower, borrow some clothes? Seriously, it's not far," Ezra said. Aria studied his eyes for a moment, before agreeing with a soft nod as they began to walk towards his place. He put his hand softly on her lower back, before yapping it away equally as swiftly; he'd forgotten the coffee had made the shirt completely cling to her back, so he was basically just touching her bare back. 'Moving a little too fast,' Ezra thought with a soft laugh.
"Hey Spence," Aria abruptly stopped and screamed back to her friend, "Ezra's lending me a change of clothes from his place. If I don't come back, this is the guy you tell the police about, okay?" Aria semi-joked as she pointed at Ezra, who meekly smiled at Spencer awkwardly. Though Aria knew already this man was trustworthy, you could never be too sure. After all, they'd only just met.
"So, what do you want to do?" Aria asked Ezra, as they walked along the streets of Rosewood, heading to his apartment.
"I'm going to be a teacher," he responded proudly, slightly puffing up his chest as he did, Aria noticed. 'He's clearly known his career his whole life' Aria thought adoringly.
"And what about yourself? What do you want to do?" Ezra returned to her, excitedly anticipating what she was going to say.
"I'm going to be a writer, or an artist. Maybe both; I'm not quite sure," she replied proudly "though not many people know that about me, so 'shhhh', don't tell," Aria said with a gorgeous cheeky smile, which made him let out a soft laugh as he smiled largely, staring at her smile.
"We're here," Ezra gestured upwards as they opened the door leading to the apartments above. Aria followed without question. "Okay, this is me," he pointed at the first door on the left. He turned the key in the lock and pushed it open, before gesturing that Aria should enter first. She smiled at him softly, before she walked inside slowly. He followed behind, and closed the door carefully, before tossing the keys on his small dining table not far from the door.
Aria stood in the middle of his apartment, looking around in amazement. It was small, but the apartment looked like the apartment she had always seen herself living in one day. There was a neat bed in the corner of the apartment, with stunning bookshelves in the wall above it. There were piles and piles of books along the large windows of the apartment, and another bookshelf on the far wall; absolutely filled with new and worn books, which Aria couldn't wait to search through later. There was a stunning brown leathers couch and chair in the centre of the space which tied the whole room together perfectly. No fuss, simple; her, she thought.
Aria smiled softly to herself as she casually walked over to his bedside table and tentatively picked up the book placed on it. "To Kill a Mockingbird," Aria spoke as she turned around to Ezra while flicking through the book, "It's one of my absolute favourite novels."
"Mine too," Ezra replied in surprise and happiness as he found something they had in common, "I mean, you can tell cause you can see by the spine and the ware of the pages that I've read it about 50 times," he chuckled lightly as he walked into his apartment further, and over towards the bathroom. "Don't you want to get cleaned up?" Ezra asked as his hand pointed over his shoulder towards the bathroom behind him. "Here," he said as he went to the chest of draws and took out a spare shirt and some track pants, "they're not stylish by any means, but you're more than welcome to have these. They're clean, I swear. As are the towels in the cupboard next to the shower," he said as he gave the clothes to Aria who smiled gratefully.
"Thank you," she said as she headed off to the bathroom to fix herself up.
Ezra let out a deep breath when she finally went in the bathroom. He was completely in awe of her, and he'd only just met her. Surprisingly though, he wasn't anywhere near as nervous talking to her as he was with other women; 'almost as if it was meant to be', he thought with a smile as he went towards the kitchen. He removed two cups from the top cupboard as the turned the kettle on to make them both coffee.
Aria returned to the apartment about 10 minutes later wearing his clothes. She walked towards Ezra who was sitting on the couch.
"I know, sexy right?" Aria said jokingly as she pulled the track pants to make them balloon out for a moment. She had noticed him staring a little gobsmacked, so decided to turn it into a humorous event; she could tell he was a sweet guy who was clearly a bit nervous with her company, though he was hiding it well, she thought.
Ezra had forgotten everything else when he saw her wearing his clothes. It immediately dawned on him that if he occasionally had that sight throughout the rest of his life, he'd be the happiest guy in the world; she was stunning.
"I made coffee," Ezra said simply as Aria came around to join him on the couch and she sat down. "Though, I promise not to spill it on you this time," he said with a laugh as she smiled gratefully.
Aria slowly etched in closer to Ezra as she placed her hand on his leg. Her sudden move affected his breathing which quickly went out of regular rhythm, before he held it completely as she moved her face slowly in closer towards his. She softly kissed his lips, before pulling back quickly to stare at his eyes. His eyes took 3 seconds to open again, as he savoured the kiss. His eyes read simply adore, so she leant in to kiss him again, this time with more passion. He clasped his hands behind her head they moved their lips against each other. She moved her hand to his thigh before she pressed her body in towards him more. Her hands then went to his chest and pulled slightly at his shirt as he let out a soft moan, deepening the kiss soon afterwards.
They both stayed there for neither knew how long, as Aria had etched her way to his lap and sitting on his knees; not straddling, just sitting a little way back so they could focus on each other and take it all in.
When they desperately needed air, they both pulled back, but Aria stayed sitting on his knees. She moved a piece of his hair out of his eyes before she stared into them.
"I hope you don't take this as being too forward; but I hope I get to see you a lot more from now on. You're absolutely amazing, Aria," he said as he grazed his thumb over her right cheek.
"I'm not going anywhere," Aria replied, before leaning in slowly to tenderly kissed him again. "I promise, I'm not going anywhere," she said again, before resuming their kissing session from before.
About 30 minutes later, Aria's phone rang for the second time in a row. "Ugh," Aria let out before she scooted off Ezra and went and collected her phone from her jeans pocket on the floor of the bathroom. Aria answered the phone while mouthing 'sorry' to Ezra, who simply smiled in response.
"Hey Spence. Yep, no, I'm not dead. No, I know I wasn't going to be long. Well, we're having a good time, okay? I promise, I'm fine. Spence, I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"
"Tomorrow? What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Ezra and Aria both heard Spencer blare after Aria had removed from her ear. She looked at Ezra and they both laughed a little.
"Tomorrow?" Ezra asked Aria as she gestured her hand towards him, which he stood up from the couch and walked around to clasp in his own immediately.
"I've never done this before. I'm simply suggesting we sleep. I don't want to be away from you tonight. I hope that's not too creepy," Aria asked Ezra, clearly hoping he'd give a particular answer.
"Of course, you can stay here. Uh… would you like me to stay on the couch?"
Aria laughed as she swung his hand with hers while shaking her head and beginning to walk him towards the bed. "No, just, stay here, with me?" Aria asked as he gave a soft smile and nodded slightly. The feeling his possessed when with Aria were completely foreign to him; he knew what she was talking about, clearly feeling them too; neither wanted to be apart from each other. They pulled back the covers of Ezra's bed and crawled in. Ezra lay slightly more to the middle of the bed than usual, as Aria took it as a hint her being closer to him was okay too, as she moved closer into his bed also.
They both turned on their sides and smiled at each other. Ezra slowly lifted his hand up to delicately touch the little freckles and moles over her face and neck as she smiled and closed her eyes. He grazed her cheek with his hand before kissing her forehead softly. Aria then lifted her hand out from under the doona to touch the lines on his face, slightly worn from his big smile, the small freckles scattered across his face as he too closed his eyes as she carried on. Aria then leant up a little and kissed his lips while his eyes were still closed, as his lips pushed onto hers softly; the best he could do having not been expecting the kiss.
"Goodnight, beautiful Aria," he told her as drowsiness began to get the better of him. She smiled softly as she touched his cheek with care.
"Goodnight, Ezra," she responded as they fell asleep next to each other.
Ezra woke to Aria sleeping on his chest. He smiled widely as he began playing with her curls that were spread out across his shirt. His playing with her curls made Aria begin to wake as she turned her head around and pressed her chin to his chest so she could stare at his face.
"Good morning," she said sweetly, her face still waking up.
"Good morning," he said as he ran his hand through her hair again. "How did you sleep?"
"Well, thank you," she replied simply, before putting her had back down on his chest.
"Aria, I'm sorry to do this; but I start my new job in about an hour. I'm sorry, but can we maybe continue this another time. Say, tonight?" he asked, hoping to have not offended her.
"Of course," she said understandingly, as she pulled herself up to his face using his shirt and gave him a tender kiss. "I have to get ready for today anyway," she said. It being Monday and the fact that school was going back today, meant she had to start running anyway.
"Tonight? 7pm? Here?" Aria asked raising her eyebrows quickly as she smiled, making Ezra laugh and nod.
"Sounds perfect. Have a good day," he told her.
"You too, good luck," she said as she darted out of his apartment. Ezra quickly got out of bed and headed towards the bedroom to get ready. Truth be told, he was very nervous starting his first teaching job. It meant a lot to him, being an educator and the respect that came along with the title. He loved helping people learn, and took pride in the work he was about to do.
About 20 minutes later, Ezra was washed, dressed in dress pants, a shirt and vest and was quite pleased with his appearance; though that wasn't doing much to calm his nerves.
Ezra pulled into the Hollis College parking lot and took a deep breath, before opening his car door and walking the distance to the school, gaining confidence as he walked. 'It was going to be a good day,' he thought to himself merrily.
"Good morning class, I'm Mr. Fitz. Welcome to the new school year," he said as he allowed his eyes to dart through the huge crowd of faces in front of him. His eyes met those of a familiar girl in front of him, and his mouth just dropped.
"Aria?" he whispered softly to himself. As Aria was in the front row, eager to learn; she heard his whisper and squinted at their circumstance, giving him an apologetic look. Last night, she hadn't shared that she was just starting college. It just hadn't come up. And she thought he would be teaching at the high school. 'Fuck' Aria whispered to herself as she lowered slightly in her seat.
Ezra shook his head out of staring at her, which was becoming obvious to the others in the classroom, before commencing teaching his class.
At the end of the class, which had been uncomfortable to say the least, Aria ran out. Ezra saw her leave and let his eyes trail behind her. He didn't know if she was upset; if she would ever speak to him again; what she was thinking.
Little did Ezra know though, nothing in Aria's mind had changed. And she was going to go to his apartment that night to tell him just that. She ran before he had the opportunity to un-invite her from coming over; the opportunity to un-invite his new student.
So, I've pushed their ages a little closer together. Ezra is the same age, however Aria is 18.
I'd love to know what you thought of the first chapter, so please leave me a review :)
And if you're interested, I'm currently working on another story at the moment 'Winter Wonderland' which I've written over 20 chapters to and counting. If you're interested, you can find it on my account!
Take care ~St0ryTeller