Chapter2-Birthday Part1

"Happy birthday, Aria!" The girls squealed as I walked up to them. They had decorated my locker and I knew there'd be stuff in there to attack me.

I sighed. "Really, you didn't have to do anything special for me."

They all shrugged.

"We wanted to keep things normal." Spencer said, smiling at me.

"Thanks. I don't know if my birthday will be too good this year." I said, opening my locker to find a few presents and decorations popping out. I sighed and pulled my books out from under the decorations.

"Why not?" Hannah asked, leaning against the locker beside mine.

"My brother's getting into trouble, this stupid 'A' thing, and I got my period this morning."

"Damn. Sounds like a sucky birthday." Spencer mumbled.

Everyone gave her dirty looks.

She blushed. "What? It's true. I'd hate for my birthday to suck that bad. No offense, Ar."

I sighed. "None taken. I knew it was going to suck ever since my dad cheated on my mom."

Emily rubbed my arm. "Is there anything we can do?"

Just then Ezra walked by and mumbled just for the four of us to hear, "I need you in my room, Ms. Montgomery."

My friends smiled at me.

I rolled my eyes. "It's no big deal."

"Yeah, right." Hannah said, shutting my locker for me.

"Go already." Spencer said.

"Don't leave the man hanging." Emily said, laughing.

I sighed and walked off down the hall. The walk down to Ezra's room wasn't very far from my locker. I walked into his room and smiled. "You wanted to see me?"

He smiled and pulled me into his arms. "I'll always want to see you, Aria."

I kissed him, wrapping my arms around his neck. "You're not giving out too much homework, are you?"

He laughed, resting his head on mine. "Not too much. Since when do you care about not getting homework?"

I shrugged. "I have gotten much sleep lately and trying to worry about homework will only add to the stress."

"Stress?" He asked, looking down at me. "Aria, is everything okay."

I didn't tell him about Jason. I didn't tell anyone. I couldn't. No matter how awful it was the night, I hadn't told anyone. Some part of me wanted to believe that Jason was only lashing out. Another part was screaming at me, telling me he was dangerous. Maybe he was both. He wouldn't talk about his feelings. So no one knew. "Yeah, I think. I'm just so worried about finals."

He kissed my nose before pulling back. "I'm sure you'll do just fine." He walked around his desk and sat down just as a few students walked in.

"You have to say that, you're a teacher." I said quietly. Damn, I was running out of time with him.

He smiled. "Need a pass?"

"Desperately." I said, rolling my eyes.

He handed me the blue pass along with a slip of paper. My place, seven?

I smiled. "Thanks, Mr. Fitz."

He nodded, blushing a little.

So someone told me that Jason wasn't the bad guy in the show, that Ezra was. I completely understand that a person would feel that way.

And, to be honest, I thought Jason wasn't that bad of a person at the beginning on the show, when he first appeared. So, I'm not going to forcefully make him the bad guy. I want to try to portray him as a 'lost' character, one who doesn't know what he does wrong.

Eventually, he'll become the good guy. But not after some dramatic scenes with him.

P.S. He's drunk in the flashback of part one. He's still hurting from Ali 'dying'.