Thank you so much for your reviews! I loved reading them. Especially the rants about how much Marlene has screwed up. It was divided, but I think you guys wanted Ezria before the time jump, so I'm going to do that, I just won't do it immediately. But, since you guys loved it so much, I have to continue.

Aria lay in her bed curled up in a ball. She was second-guessing everything she had ever thought. She had sacrificed her own happiness for Ezra's, but it had been a week and Emily said he still sat in the back of The Brew every day off in his own little land. Eventually he'd move on. He'd have to, right? Maybe he'd be lucky enough to find someone great that could make him smile again, just as Aria used to be able to. Maybe she'd be that lucky to find someone else she could confide in the way she could with Ezra. Hopefully. Maybe that was just dreaming because she knew there'd never be another Ezra. Not someone that could comfort her or make her feel as loved as he did, but now she had to move past that.

"How about shopping?" Hanna asked, barging into the room. "I need to do some shopping. Caleb's on top of me again. He thinks that because we had sex, we're this lovey-dovey couple again. God, I hadn't had sex in over a month. Can't a girl just want some fun?" She started going through Aria's closet, looking for something new and not so over-the-top Aria.

Aria laughed at the blonde, feeling the warmth flood her cold, exhausted, body. It was probably the first time she had laughed since before the dollhouse. "Han, you two are the lovey-dovey couple. He just loves you. Stop shooting him down."

She turned around, an arched eyebrow aimed at Aria. "Well, you're one to talk about shooting people down. I'm sorry, does Ezra loving you and doing nothing but trying to be there for you while you yelled at him, ring a bell?"

She sighed. She definitely deserved that one, she knew. She was the worst one to be giving relationship advice considering where she stood in the romantic department. Her scoreboard currently sat at- one ex-boyfriend/ex-best friend/ex-confidant, two broken hearts, and one creepy photographer that won't take no for an answer. Not exactly the rep to have when you want to preach about relationships. Still, she'd hate to see something happen to Hanna and Caleb. They were so adorable together and they understood each other. She'd never seen Hanna as happy as when she was with Caleb. If something happened to them, Aria was just going to have to give up hope in relationships.

"Okay, shopping," Aria agreed. "I need some time to not think. I've been doing too much of that. And every time I go to the photo studio, Clark pops up." Sure, the guy saved her life and she was grateful for that, but he drove her crazy. They could be good friends if he kept it at a friend's level and stopped trying to ask her out.

"Maybe dating is just what you need to get your mind off losing Ezra," Hanna suggested.

Aria stuffed her things into her purse, forcing a smile. "I will date someone when I find someone I want to date," she reasoned. She switched off her light and took a deep breath, leading the way out of her childhood home. She really didn't know if that were true because she would always look at a guy and find their flaws. She compared every tiny detail to Ezra. "Remember what happened last time I tried dating?" Andrew was another reason she didn't want to date. He was creepy in more ways than one. He might not have been Charles, but there was something very off about him. She didn't even care about him at all. He was just a rebound type thing. She wanted to make herself believe that she could move on and be with someone else. All her life, she had been independent and self-sufficient, and then Ezra came along and ruined all of that. A might've helped him, but still. She depended on Ezra for everything, and it was so hard to find that person she used to be, because the truth was, she wasn't that person and she'd never be that person again. She had changed since high school started. Some of it she was proud of, and some she wasn't, but she was still a different person. Dating her high school English teacher was part of that identity and it was hard to shake. She loved him. She always would. She just had to hope that it wasn't her identity forever and she could find her independence again.

"Okay, fine, but there are still some good guys out there that aren't creeps."

"Not in Rosewood."

Hanna started up her car and switched through the radio stations until she found one she liked. "You dated our stalker! How in the world is someone like Andrew or anyone else worse than that?"

That was something Aria wished she could erase from her memory. She still didn't understand how she could love him so immensely after he used her for two years. Maybe it was because deep down, she knew he was telling the truth when he said that he stopped the book when he realized that he was falling for her. And when he said that he started it again after they broke up just so he could finally catch this creep. His intentions may have been deceitful when they met, but they ended with the best intentions. That was why she loved him despite his flaws.

"Can you please stop bringing that up? He saved us from the dollhouse. We could still be there if it wasn't for him. He's done a million things for us that we'll never be able to thank him for. Toby was part of the A team, Caleb's sketchy as hell. He got close to you so he could be a spy for Jenna. I don't think Ezra's much worse."

"You cannot call my boyfriend sketchy, okay?"

"And you can't call mine our stal…" Hanna looked over at her while she cringed at the words. He hadn't been her boyfriend in months. Why she was suddenly calling him her's was beyond her since they weren't even friends anymore. "Ezra's not our stalker," she corrected.

"I give it a week before you're eating pie and slipping."

Aria shook her head in disbelief at the way she said it. "You did some slipping of your own last week. Don't judge me."

They drove past The Brew and Aria hesitantly looked that way. Ezra's car wasn't out front where it was usually parked. That wasn't the only thing. The café was completely closed up. It was only 3 PM on a Saturday. It was usually busy during this time. "Hanna, did you get coffee this morning?" Aria asked her.

She shook her head. "No. Mr. Fitz took an impromptu trip up to New York and closed The Brew. The only other place was that crap fest down the road with the coffee that tastes like boob milk."

Aria laughed. She had never had their coffee, but never wanted to, courtesy of the reviews it got from her friends. They were probably just spoiled by Ezra's coffee. The lack of good coffee was the farthest thing from her mind, though. It was that Ezra had just up and left, leaving his business and everything else behind. That's what scared her. He loved his business. He wouldn't just leave it unless something was really, really wrong.

"Do you think you could call Ezra? Maybe ask him when he plans on returning. Tell him you need your coffee because without your caffeine, all your friends hate you." That wouldn't be lying. It was very true. Hanna was like the Grinch without her caffeine.

Hanna sighed. "I'm not going to be the messenger for you two. If you want to talk to him, you're going to have to do it yourself. Besides, the girls and I agreed that there would be no personal issues discussed with him. Other than Emily working for him and us getting our coffee, we're not linked to him."

"And when did you decide this?" Aria asked. She obviously hadn't been present for this meeting, because if she had, she wouldn't have agreed to it. Though she knew it was easiest, it wasn't easiest for her. She needed to make sure Ezra was okay. He didn't really have friends to lean on, other than possibly Nicole, so she didn't feel good about him being alone like that.

"When Spencer hijacked your car and called an SOS at your house." She said it as casually as someone would say that they went to the store to get some groceries.

"My house? Without me there?" Aria asked in disbelief. They all considered each other's houses their own, but Aria didn't know that went as far as to have meetings without the home occupant there.

"Well, yeah. Spence had your car. It just made sense."

Typical Hanna was at it again. "I think I'm going to be sick," Aria mumbled, her head falling back against the window.

"Not in my car!" she exclaimed. "Jeez, I didn't think it was that big of a deal. We won't meet at your house anymore."

Aria just looked over at her best friend and wondered how in the world she could be so smart and so dumb at the same time. Still, she stayed quiet, trying to figure out how she was ever stupid enough to tell Ezra that she wanted nothing to do with him. She had lied a lot, but never as bad as she did that night. They said their 'I love you's,' but that didn't make anything better when they ended up separating for good afterwards. She just wished she could tell him one more time or at least know how he was and where he was.

"Take me to his apartment," Aria blurted, clearly not thinking straight.

Tell me what you think and give me some ideas of what you think should happen at the apartment.