A/N: Hey guys! Hope you all are having a fantastic day, and enjoy the second chapter… (I'm going to try and put in a flashback at the beginning of every chapter, at least in the beginning…) Read. Enjoy. Review. :)

Rosewood, Subtract All Tragedies

Chapter Two:

** Five Years Ago **

"You ready to go?" Jason appeared on Aria's doorstep.

He was dressed in blue cargo short bathing suit with a grey shirt thrown on. His hair was haphazardly strewn across his face and his crooked smile all in combination made Aria's stomach turn. How was she so lucky? They had been together almost a week at that point and he was coming by to get her for Noel Kahn's Pool party? The party he had every year just before his parents closed the pool for the winter, which everyone went to.

"I'm ready," She replied, picking up her bag with her towel, and a change of clothes.

"You look cute," He smiled and she blushed as he took her bag for her.

"Have fun," Ella said, coming out of the kitchen with Mike, who was all dressed for Soccer Practice, "Jason, tell your mother I'll pick you kids up tonight, around ten right?"

"Yeah, Noel's dad's setting up a fire for us," Jason smiled and the world was just perfect, "Thanks, I'm sure she'll appreciate that."

They hopped into the backseat of Jason's mother's car, Jason's sister, Alison, was sitting in the front seat. Aria had had few run ins with Alison, but hadn't really come away from any of her encounters with her with a good feeling inside. However, she was Jason's sister and no matter what people said at school, Aria was determined to be friends with her, even if she was a hard person to be around for extended periods of time. She really didn't know how Jason did it.

"Are you excited, Aria?" Alison smiled as their mother drove us over to Noel's house, a couple streets away.

"Yeah," Aria smiled and Ali grinned.

"I have a good feeling about you Aria," Alison said with a knowing smile, "I know we'll be the best of friends."

"I'd like that," Aria smiled as Jason's mother pulled into Noel's driveway.

Half the school was already in the yard, chasing each other around in their bathing suites. Aria smiled as Jason carried both of our bags for them around back and put them by the pool. Alison ran off immediately to meet up with her friends, Hanna and Spencer who were already sitting in chairs by the pool. Noel was smiling as he walked down his back porch steps with a football in hand.

"Jason!" He hollered with a 'big man on campus' attitude, "Catch."

Jason laughed as he caught it, and then Noel's friends Ben, and Sean ran out behind him and the four of them headed out to the side yard to play catch. Then, as suddenly as they ran off, Aria was all alone, and was feeling fairly out of place. Everyone was invited to Noel's party, that was everyone except the kids that hadn't shown up on his radar yet – like her best friend Emily.

"Aria," Alison called, "Come over here!"

"Hey," Aria said as she walked over and took a seat next to Spencer.

"Aria is going to be hanging out with us from now on," Alison announced and suddenly Spencer and Hanna got much more enthusiastic about Aria's appearance.

"You're dating Jason right?" Hanna smiled.

"You're in homeroom with me right?" Spencer asked.

** Present Day **

Ezra wasn't quite sure what he was doing, and why he was where he was. He was standing in Jason DiLaurentis' house waiting for all of the guys to get there so that they could head over to this kid Noel's party. Sean was leaning against the opposite wall, and Toby was sitting in Jason's desk chair. Ezra took a deep breath as he took a seat on the foot of Jason's bed. Jason was throwing his bathing suit and a towel into a backpack.

"Seriously?" Toby asked, "You couldn't have packed before, like everyone else?"

"No, he's the golden boy, he's got to do everything special," Ben joked as he walked into the room, a huge backpack on his back, "And don't you little campers worry, I've got the goods."

"The goods?" Ezra was confused.

"The beer," Ben filled him in, motioning back towards his bag.

"I'm guessing Noel's parents won't be at the party?" Ezra asked.

"They haven't been since we were fifteen," Jason told him, "Don't worry – it stays pretty tame though. It is Rosewood, so in order for the party to fly under the radar we have to keep it to a dull circus."

"Where're the girls?" Ben asked, "I checked in Ali's room and no one was there."

"They're getting ready at Emily's," Jason said and they all nodded.

Ezra took a deep breath, he only had a very vague idea of who Noel was even. All he knew was that he had been brought into the 'in' group which meant that it didn't matter that he couldn't even pick the host of this party out of a crowd, it just mattered that Alison approved of his existence and decided to grace him with acceptance into her inner circle. Whatever that meant, all he cared about was being close to Aria. But of course, didn't matter how close he was to her because she was with Jason, the guy the whole school wanted to build a monument to. He wanted to hate Jason, but he couldn't – there wasn't much to hate.

"So we're meeting them there?" Toby asked and Jason nodded as he zipped up his bag.

"So is Ian going to be there?" Ben smirked.

"What does it matter if he is or not?" Jason asked and Ben shrugged.

"It's just kind of funny," Ben replied, "The girl tries to run the whole show and yet the one guy she decides she likes she can't have."

"Who says that's a coincidence?" Sean asked.

"Hey, I know she can be a little more than nuts sometimes," Jason prefaced, "But she is my sister."

"Ian's bad news anyways," Toby said, "He's always chasing around Melissa like she's catnip or something."

"Who's Melissa?" Ezra asked as he followed the troupe out of Jason's room and towards the DiLaurentis' front door.

"Spencer's sister," Toby filled him in as they went down the stairs and out to Jason's car.

They all piled into the car, Toby volunteering to sit next to Ezra. Something told him that Ezra would be able to find a friend in Toby, not this weird group affiliation, but perhaps a true friend in Toby, and maybe Jason as well – though that was deemed much more complicated. Seeing as he had fallen in love, at first sight, with Jason's girlfriend, Ezra had the feeling that he and Jason being friends wouldn't be the best of plans.

When they got the party, Ezra was shocked at just how well Rosewood could recreate a mock nineties movie pool party with a few more modern twists. There were people everywhere, and a sea of red solo cups and girls running around and playing around in bikinis. There was a group of guys tossing a football around, a Frisbee was whipping around in the air, and the music was merely background to the blaring of shrieks and chatter of the party goers. Luckily it seemed that Noel's house was relatively secluded from everything and anything else.

"You see the girls?" Toby asked Ezra as they piled out of the car.

"They're by the pool," Jason filled us in as he checked his phone.

"Shall we change?" Ezra asked and Jason nodded.

"I have to go deliver these to Noel," Ben said, motioning to his bag, "I'll see you guys by the pool?"

"Yeah," Jason said as he led the rest of us into Noel's house to change.

They left our stuff in Noel's living room and then headed out to the pool in just t-shirts and their trunks. Aria, Spencer, Hanna, and Emily were sitting on the edge of the pool with their feet in, while Alison was attempting to get the attention of a guy that looked like he had absolutely no interest in her, which seemed to be a new and completely unheard of process for her. He seemed much more concerned with where the football he was throwing was going than whatever she was trying to tell him.

Aria, on the other hand, was the true beauty of the party, and Ezra swallowed hard as he caught sight of her. She looked like a swimsuit model, just relaxing on the pool side, and he looked up at the sky for a split second actually wondering how he had managed to get himself into this sort of situation. He had always been excruciatingly careful when it came to girls, and yet here was this beautiful girl that was exactly what he always envisioned, but she belonged to Jason, and something told him Alison would be all to willing to exile him if she had any idea of what was going on.

"Shed your shirts, gentleman," Ben said, rather patriotically, "It's pool time."

"Calm down, swim boy," Jason teased him as they all pealed their shirts off – Jason threw his right into Aria's lap – alerting the girls that they were there.

"There you guys are," Spencer said, looking around at all of them as they each in turn jumped into the pool.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" Aria teased Jason.

She was trying her absolute best to act as if nothing was wrong. Ezra was new, Aria hadn't even been introduced to anyone new in years, there was bound to be some curiosity in her about a cute boy arriving from New York. And, no matter how good he looked standing in the pool, half naked, she would have to advert her gaze and enjoy her boyfriend. Her dependable, loving, gorgeous boyfriend: Jason.

"Treasure it," Jason teased, "Frame it up on our wall when we get a house of our own."

"I am sixteen years old, Jason," Aria seemed surprised with the idea, as she promptly threw the shirt into the water.

"You act like you don't already know you two're going to end up together," Hanna joked as Sean playfully splashed at her legs.

"That wasn't nice," Jason chuckled as he threw his shirt out of the pool and onto a lawn chair behind the girls.

Then he hopped out of the water, and Aria shrieked as he circled back behind her.

"Jason, I swear…"

"What?" He asked innocently as he picked her up bridal style and stood on the edge of the pool.

"You're coming in with me," She said, staring straight into his eyes in a way that made Ezra have to look away.

"I had no intentions of not going in with you," He said as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Ok."

"You ready?"

"OK." Aria repeated in a 'just do it' tone.

Jason laughed, kissed her forehead, and jumped right into the pool. As he and Aria resurfaced there was a distinct battle cry.

"POOL!" Noel was yelling as everyone just started jumping in from everywhere around the pool, including Hanna as Sean pulled her in by her legs.

Aria clung to Jason, with more people in the area, she was hoping that she would be able to lose sight of Ezra. She didn't have much luck with that though, because as more and more people filled the pool their group got into a smaller and smaller space, so much so that Aria was in Jason's arms, Ezra was right up against her. It couldn't have been comfortable for anyone involved, because Ezra very soon got out of the pool.

"I'm going to go get a drink, does anyone else want anything?" He asked, drying off quickly so that he could go into the house without dripping everywhere.

"I'll come with you," Toby offered, hopping out and toweling dry as quickly as was possible.

"I'll just have a bottle of water, if you wouldn't mind grabbing one," Jason said and Ezra nodded.

"We could all probably do with waters," Hanna said, and Spencer nodded.

"It's so hot out today.."

"Why don't we just bring one of the coolers down?" Toby suggested and they headed up to the deck to get one.

"Sounds like a plan," Ezra replied, wiping a drop of water off his forehead.

"Dude, whatever else you're thinking," Toby told him, "Stop. Jason and Aria, they're a good couple. He treats her like a princess and…They're good together, Ezra."

"Yeah," Ezra took a deep breath, "I wasn't gonna."

"We can talk about it later if you want," Toby told him as they each took a side of the cooler, "I'm always up for talking."

"Thanks," Ezra said, and Toby nodded, "I might take you up on that."

"No problem," He replied as they carried it down the steps to the poolside – just as their friends all climbed out of the pool.

"Break out the beer!" Noel called out as Toby opened the cooler, and beers were passed out to the entire party.

Ezra took one, and headed off to the side. He hoped no one else had picked up on what Toby had, but there really was nothing he could do about it now, except sit back, relax and have a cold one. Jason didn't seem to be that upset with him, so there must not have been too much toe stepping, either that or Jason was confident enough with his relationship that it didn't even show up on his radar. It would only make sense for it not to. He'd had the girl for five years, why would he ever think she'd leave him now? The idea of them together that long started to make Ezra's blood boil, how dare Jason have Aria that long? It made him sick, she belonged with him.

Ezra added his third beer can to the pile and picked up another one. He had never been much of a drinker, and he could feel it starting to affect him as he tried to get up. But, he didn't really care because at this point, the pain he felt watching Aria lying on her lawn chair with Jason was starting to fade. Though he wasn't sure whether or not that had to do with the alcohol, or the fact that Jason got up and was walking away from Aria. Ezra wasn't sure where he was going, but he was just glad that Jason was leaving, heading up towards the house.

"Hi, Aria."

"You don't drink often, do you," Aria watched Ezra, slightly amused as he sat down in the chair beside hers.

"No, not really," He smiled, and Aria couldn't help but smile back, "Where's Jason?"

The rest of the party had moved to the house, so they were alone.

"He went into the house," Aria said, shifting a little bit in her seat, "Alison's gotten herself in trouble again, He went in to get her."

"Ali gets herself in trouble often?"

"When Ian's involved."

"Gotcha," Ezra nodded, taking another sip of his beer.

Aria smiled, even drunk he was the cutest thing she had ever laid eyes on.

"We'll all probably go soon," Aria told him, "If the party goes too late the neighbor's will call the cops."

"Right, I'm going to need a ride home."

"Aren't you staying at Jason's with everyone else?"

"Are you staying at Jason's?"

"No, Emily's," Aria told him, "Sorry guys stay at Jason and Ali's and girls spend the night at Em's."

"Shame," He said, starting to peel the label on his beer, "I like you."

"I like you too, you're a good guy," Aria chuckled, and Ezra looked over at her, making sure to make eye contact – sobering up almost completely for a minute that sent a rush through Aria.

"No," He said, his voice dead serious, "I like you, Aria. And I get that you're with… Jason. But, I - adore you. The second I saw you I was…"

"Ezra, you're drunk," Aria reminded him though it pained her, as she saw Jason walking down the steps with Ali and the group close behind them.

"So Em's gonna drive Ali's car to Emily's house," Jason said, stone cold sober, he hadn't even had one drink all night, "And I'll drive back to my place."

"We need to get out of here," Ali was pissed about something, but neither Aria or Ezra could think to care.

Aria's mind was spinning about what Ezra had just said, and Ezra's mind was just scrambled by everything. Being in a new place, a house he had never been to before, the amount of alcohol he had in his system, and all of the feelings he was wrestling down for Aria. He took a deep breath as he got up, just in time to see Jason kissing Aria goodnight, and to puke - everywhere.