Ella and Ezra One Shot
After their conversation backstage, Aria had dismissed herself, going off with her friends. Ella had said hello to a few people, but was ultimately flustered. She had never seen Aria cry so easily so many times. The cause, without a doubt, was Ezra Fitz.
How many times did Ella have to see her daughter crumble over that man? What was this? Five? Six? And it was crystal clear to Ella that Aria wasn't about to tell her what ugliness went down. Ella hated diving into her daughter's life like she was about to, but sometimes a mother had to do what they had to do.
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Ezra sighed morosely for the millionth time that day. He reluctantly shoved more of his belongings in the boxes he had picked up from UPS and tried not to think of her. But she, Aria, was all he could think about- and had been for the last week. He had resigned from another job because of her and he was putting his apartment up for sale and leaving town because of her. But the problem that was before him and the cause of their relationship getting shot to hell, he couldn't say that was because of her. It was all because of himself.
All because he couldn't stop thinking about the story. All because he had planned to get close to those four toxic girls. All because he ended up falling in love with one of them. God, things would have been easier if he hadn't fallen for her. He could've written the book, got it published, and earned praise for it, but no, he had let his goddamn feelings get in the way.
And along the way, he had hurt the one person who never gave up on him. He had lost his brother, his mother, Maggie, and Malcolm. Now he had lost the only close person to him- Miss Aria Montgomery. If he were to die tonight, no one would give a shit. The one person that would've, he screwed over beyond repair.
He opened his next dresser drawer without thinking, emitting a gasp from his lips. It was her drawer. He stared at her belongings and contemplated throwing all the things in the garbage, but he didn't have the heart to. That small, nagging voice of hope kept calling out to him- leave it, she'll remember they're here and come and get them, and once she comes to get them, win her back. But, she wasn't ever coming back.
He stared longer than he should have at the items. A pink scarf, two thongs that she had left him on purpose, a few pairs of ugly patterned socks, and a couple of toiletries. Ezra let out a small sigh picking up the travel size of shampoo. He inhaled the familiar, flowery scent and felt his eyes dampen. The smell was almost comforting, but it didn't compare to holding her in his arms and actually smelling it in her hair, not a tiny bottle.
Ezra decided that he would tackle the rest of his drawers later and moved to his closet. Before he could open the closet, though, he heard a knock on his door. His brow furrowed as he thought of the possible visitors. It could be Aria, but he doubted he'd ever be graced with her presence again. It could be one of her friends, coming to tell him off, but he doubted that as well. Emily already had, Spencer was busy with her own crap, and Hanna avoided him at all costs.
Curiosity and want carried him to the door and he took a deep breath standing before it. He quickly wiped his cheeks and ran a hand through his messy hair. If it was Aria, he didn't want to look like the mess he was. Holding his breath, he swung open the door. Once he saw who was behind it, his jaw dropped.
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Ella cautiously stepped towards apartment 3B and tried not to think about how many times her daughter must have done this walk. Before she knew it, Ella was at his door. She thought of running away and never saying anything about this ever, but couldn't. She was in too deep now; she couldn't back down. Once she knocked on the door, she heard him shuffling around in the apartment before finally reaching the door.
As he opened it, Ella fumed at just the sight of his face. He hadn't shaved in days and whatever went down was clearly taking a toll on him too. She watched as his face fell and filled with shock. Sighing, she nodded towards his living room, "May I come in?"
Ezra slowly nodded his head and stepped to the side, letting Aria's mother inside. He watched as Ella took in the clearly beat up space. He had tried to clean up, but his lamp still subsided on the ground, papers were still in a messy pile near the couch, and glass covered the front of his main book case. "Um, sorry about the mess," Ezra stuttered.
The wheels in Ella's head started turning and she spun around to face Ezra. "Ezra, did… did Aria do this?" she asked in disbelief. Ella doubted it was anyone else, but damn. By the looks of it, this was after the cleanup. What had he done to her daughter for her to get this destructive?
Ezra shrugged, "Ye-yeah, she did. It's no big deal though." He watched as Ella contemplated some more before he spoke up again. "Ella, why are you here?" he questioned bluntly.
Ella lowered her brow and pointed to the couch. "Can we sit?"
Ezra nodded and sat down beside her, praying she wouldn't catch a glimpse of the photos piling up near it. This talk would be even more heated if she realized he had creepy pictures of Aria before the two had even met. And that was something Ezra couldn't cover up.
The two former colleagues sat awkwardly before Ezra started, "I didn't know you were back from Europe."
"Yeah, I got back two days ago," Ella explained. Deciding to cut to the chase, she continued, "Ezra, I haven't seen my daughter cry in her whole life as much as she has in the last forty eight hours."
Ezra immediately felt guilt tugging his heart strings as he swallowed down a lump in his throat. Not knowing what to say, he was happy when Ella furthered her speech. "Now I don't know what happened, but I do know that you resigned, you and Aria were having trouble with the whole Malcolm situation, and I know that my daughter is more broken than I have ever witnessed in her whole eighteen years. I mean, this is worse than when Ali died."
Ezra would've laughed at the comparison, but under the circumstances, he couldn't. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry that you have to watch her deal with this."
Ella narrowed her gaze. "I have watched my daughter cry over you when something bad happened, but until yesterday, I had never seen her regret anything about your relationship. Yesterday, she screamed about how it was, quote, a big fricking mistake."
"She said that?" Ezra murmured. He felt his eyes grow wet again and once more was reminded of how horribly he had screwed up. He couldn't blame Aria for thinking they were a mistake, but it still hurt.
"She did," Ella confirmed, watching carefully as he processed the cruel words. "I have to ask, what happened? I don't mean to pry, but I also don't mean to sit back and do nothing."
Ezra gulped again at the painful irony. Things wouldn't be nearly as bad if he had stepped up and confronted A, opposed to what he had really done; sit back and done nothing. "I just… I really messed up."
"Did something happen with Malcolm? Maggie?" Ella asked.
Ezra cocked his head and muttered, "Oh, I thought you knew…"
"Knew what?" Ella pried.
He hated telling people. Given, he had only had to explain the whole ordeal to a couple of lawyers, his mom, and Aria, but every time, it hurt him all over again. "Um, Malcolm, he wasn't mine," Ezra whispered sadly. "That's… that's kind of why Aria and I got back together." Ezra wasn't sure why he was being so open with Ella, who could easily run to the cops and be the voice of his daughter, but Ezra kept talking. "I know that I was her teacher again but-"
"But, you two can never stay apart," Ella interrupted.
Ezra smiled sullenly, knowing it was true. But he also had quite the feeling that he and Aria would be staying apart forever from now on. "We got back together, and it was great, but then… then, she hates me and I'm sitting here alone, in a trashed apartment, packing up boxes."
Ella glanced over to where he was looking and spotted quite a number of moving boxes. Turning back to Ezra, a teeny tiny part of her felt for him. She remembered how devastated Byron was after he had knowingly messed up. Ella couldn't help make parallels with her daughter's relationship. "Does Aria know you're leaving?"
"Oh," Ezra started, "she knows. She came here, told me she never wanted to see me, and told me to leave town."
"You're leaving your whole life just for her?" Ella said, not really thinking it through. But, she was quite moved by his actions. It comforted her knowing that Ezra would truly do anything for Aria, even after an ugly break up.
Ezra nodded and spoke as if doing whatever Aria wanted was the most obvious thing in the world to do. "Yeah, I am. That's what she wants and if that's what it takes for her to be happy, I'm not afraid to do it."
Ella sighed and rested more comfortably against the couch. "Well, Ezra, I have seen you two go through so many bad things that should've ended your relationship months before this-"
"But you didn't see what happened last week," Ezra interjected. He knew where she was headed, but felt that if Ella knew what he had caused, she would be feeling otherwise.
Ella pressed on, "And I can almost assure you that, even if the break is longer than you would like, you and Aria are going to meet again. And it's never off the table with you and her."
Ezra thought of just telling Ella what really went down, but decided against it. "Ella, once Aria tells you what happened, you'll realize just as much as we have that it's officially off the table."
She was about to ask for the truth, but knew it wasn't her place. Ella also knew that Aria would probably eventually tell her anyway. She stood up to leave and looked down at Ezra. "One of the first times we ever talked, I told you that when Aria's hurt and she wants to shut you out, you could die of frost bite. And now, I think it's a shame that you didn't take that advice."
Ezra smirked at the memory before standing up. "I can definitely feel the frost bite right now."
Ella gave him an awkward reassuring smile before they walked to the door. Ezra opened it for her, but stopped her before she could exit. "Wait, Ella," he mumbled.
Ella turned and tilted her head. "Yes Ezra?"
"The next time you talk to Aria, could you do me a favor?" Ezra begged.
"Possibly," Ella offered. "What is it?"
Ezra swallowed down the rock that had formed in his throat and let a stray tear fall down his cheek. "Just tell her I really did love her. I really do love her. And that I never, ever meant to hurt her like I did. And tell her I'm sorry."
Ella listened thoroughly and noticed that he was on the verge of breaking down due to his voice cracking. She guessed that the second he closed the door, he'd start crying like a baby. "I'll be sure to tell her. Goodbye, Ezra."