'The silent are often guilty'.
Chapter four
Ezra stopped his car at the red light and threw a glance at the young girl who was sitting next to him. None of them had said a word during the few minutes he had been driving, and the silence was starting to become heavy.
"So, are you used to walking alone in the dark?" He asked her.
Aria looked briefly at him and shook her head in negation. "No, not really, but I needed to clear my head."
He took a better look at her and noticed that her eyes were slightly red which brought him to the conclusion that she had probably cried.
"Is something wrong?" He asked her with concern.
She nervously rubbed her hands together and shook her head. "Nothing I want to talk about."
Ezra didn't insist; she visibly not wanted to talk about whatever was bothering her and it was her right, he knew that insisting would be a mistake.
"You can turn on the radio, if you want," he told her.
Aria was relieved when she saw that Ezra wasn't going to insist, telling someone about what was going on was the last thing she needed and wanted. She reached over and turned on the radio as a song of the Fray, B26 began to fill the car.
In spite of her bad mood, Aria couldn't repress a smile when she caught Ezra softly singing the words.
"What?" Ezra asked when he spotted the young girl staring at him and visibly trying to suppress a smile.
"Nothing," she said biting her lip to prevent herself from smiling.
"I like this song, that's all," Ezra defended himself as the light turned green.
"I can see that," Aria said unable to suppress her smile as a grin played across her face.
Ezra realized that it was the first time that he saw her smile, with a real smile and not a fake one that she would have sticked on her face to greet someone. She was really beautiful, not just her eyes but her whole face.
"Don't make fun of me," Ezra said with an offended tone of voice.
Aria laughed softly. "I'm not; I do love this song too!"
The rest of the ride was quiet, but without awkwardness, both of them listening to the radio in a comfortable silence.
"It's here," Aria suddenly said, pointing at a house. Ezra parked his car along the sidewalk right in front of his student's place. He felt a slight disappointment when he came to the realization that she was going to leave; for a reason he couldn't even identify, he wanted her to stay, he wanted to keep talking to her.
Aria undid her belt and turned toward him. "Thank you for the ride."
"You're welcome," Ezra replied as his eyes locked with hers. Against his will, his eyes traveled from her eyes to her pink lips and he wondered how it would feel to press his mouth against hers, to feel her tongue moving against his, to cup her face in his hands as he would massage her tongue with his. He was so close to her, he would just have to lean toward her a bit and his lips would be on hers; just a tiny bit.
Aria became aware of Ezra's eyes on her lips and a shiver ran through her body. Was he going to kiss her? She didn't want to, but she couldn't help begging for him to do it, she couldn't deny that it was what she wanted, she wanted him to kiss her, she wanted to feel his lips against hers.
As the sexual tension had reached its maximum Ezra suddenly realized which kind of inappropriate fantasies he was having over his student and awkwardly cleared his throat.
"I-I should go," Aria said, trying not to blush.
Ezra nodded. "Yes, your parents are probably worried."
"Good night, Mr. Fitz," Aria said, smiling before opening the door of the car.
"Good night Aria," Ezra replied.
He watched her until she entered her house and, once she had closed the door behind her, he rested his head on the wheel and sighed. He had been so close to kiss her, he knew that he could have done it, for a moment, the temptation had been so strong that he had thought that he was going to do it, and the worse was, that he almost wished that he had.
The following morning, Ezra woke up to the sound of his cell phone. He groaned and took it from his nightstand before pressing the green button when he saw Hardy's name on the screen.
"Hey!" Ezra sleepily greeted his friend.
"So, tell me everything!" Hardy immediately said. "But hurry up before Maggie gets out of the shower!"
Ezra furrowed his brows, not knowing what his best friend was talking about. "What are you talking about, Hardy?"
"Come on; don't play me for a fool! How was it with Samantha?" Hardy insisted.
Samantha! Ezra couldn't believe that he had totally forgotten about her. As soon as he had seen Aria on the road, he hadn't even thought a single time of the girl he had met in the bar even if he had told her that he would join her at her apartment.
"Actually, I didn't go," Ezra told Hardy on the phone.
"What do you mean you didn't go?" Hardy said in a surprised tone of voice.
Ezra sighed on the other side of the line. "I just bumped into someone and…"
"Who on the earth can turn you away from a hot girl?" Hardy interrupted him.
"It was one of my students and…"
"Wait!" Hardy interrupted him. "You didn't see Samantha because of a student? Are you insane?" Hardy got angry on the phone. Ezra sighed but didn't say anything, especially because he didn't know what to say; he didn't even understand himself.
"Look, Hardy, I need to get ready for work!" Ezra said even if he still had two hours before his first period.
"Okay, but don't think that this conversation is over!" Hardy replied before hanging up.
When he arrived at school almost two hour later, Ezra took a cup of coffee from the coffee machine and couldn't repress a grimace when he took a sip of the horrible mixture. He glanced at Mrs. Welsh who had already drunk a whole cup and was having her second and wondered how the middle-aged woman had managed to stay alive. He threw his plastic cup into the thrash can as Ian Thomas entered the room. The E.P teacher immediately went to his younger colleague and flashed him a big smile.
"Hey, Z!"
Ezra clenched his teeth together at the sound of his old nickname; Ian had heard his ex-fiancée, Jackie, used it one time and ever since he thought that it was okay to call him like this.
"Ian." Ezra coldly replied.
"I saw the new student!" Ian said. "Anita or something like that."
"Aria, actually," Ezra corrected his colleague.
Ian shrugged. "Yeah, anyway." He then looked around him to make sure that nobody was listening to them. "Pretty hot," he whispered to Ezra.
Ezra couldn't help the flow of disgust which ran through him as soon as Ian's words fell from his lips.
"That's very inappropriate, Ian!" Ezra snapped at him.
"Oh, come on, don't be such a prude," Ian said, smirking. "Don't tell me that you're not finding her hot!" Ian challenged his colleague.
"She's a student!" Ezra coldly replied. "Now, I have to go, I have class!" He said, and left the teachers' room before Ian could add a word.
He couldn't explain to himself why he had been so upset by Ian's words, it wasn't as if he wasn't used to hearing Ian's salacious comments ,but when he had come to Aria, Ezra hadn't been able to control himself, just like he had lost his temper the day before when Hardy had called her mad! It was as if he was the only one to have the right to find her attractive. He shook his head as the word resounded in his head. It was the first time that he admitted to himself that he was attracted to her, and he suddenly felt really ashamed of his fantasizes over his young student. He needed to get her out of his mind. He was so ridiculous; the girl probably didn't even look at him and would be horrified if she could read his mind. Mr. Tamborelli had asked him to take care of a new student who visibly had big problems and the only thing he was doing was fantasizing over her. He wasn't better than Ian Thomas, and it was a lot to say!
The same day, after school, Aria exited her therapist's office and waited in the parking lot where her mother had to pick her up. It was one condition the doctors had established, she could leave the hospital and come back home, but she had to see a therapist twice a week. The woman, Dr. Sullivan had asked her how her first few days of school had gone and how she was feeling. They hadn't talked about anything related to her past or to what had happened, but she knew it would come and she dreaded this moment. The only thought that she would have to talk about it again, was unbearable.
"Aria?" A familiar voice suddenly pulled her out of her thoughts. She turned over and recognized Hanna, Spencer's friend.
She smiled softly to the blond girl. "Hey!"
"I was shopping and I saw you, you're coming from Dr. Sullivan's office, aren't you?" Hanna asked her. Aria swallowed hard and tried to find an excuse, she didn't want Hanna to know that she was seeing a therapist; she knew it was the beginning of a lot of questions that she didn't want to answer.
"I…no..I," Aria shuttered awkwardly.
Hanna looked at Aria and gave her a small smile. "Don't be embarrassed with me, you know I saw her a lot last year, she really helped me." Hanna explained. "Bulimia; if you want to know," she confessed.
Aria was impressed to see the young girl talking about her disease so naturally and smiled to her. "I'm sorry, Hanna, I didn't know."
"Oh, don't worry, I'm better now, thanks to Dr. Sullivan, she's amazing," Hanna said.
Aria nodded, remembering how kind the therapist had been to her. "Yes, she seems really nice,"
"She is! You will see, I'm sure she will help you a lot whatever you're seeing her for."
Aria was so grateful to Hanna for not asking her why she was meeting with Dr. Sullivan; if there was one thing she couldn't stand in someone it was indiscretion. However, she perfectly knew that no matter how competent and nice Dr. Sullivan was, she would never be able to help her, nobody could, ever.
"So, I have go," Hanna said after looking at her watch. "Did you come here with your car?"
Aria shook her head. "No, I'm not driving."
"Do you need a ride then?" Hanna asked her.
Aria shook her head in negation once again and refused Hanna's offer. "No, thank you, Hanna, but my mother should be here soon."
"Okay, so I see you in school," Hanna said before making her way to her car.
After Hanna's leaving, Aria waited for her mother and, as the minutes passed, she started wondering why her mother wasn't here yet. She removed her phone from her school bag and tried to call her but her mother didn't pick up. After thirty minutes and considering that her mother had probably forgotten and wouldn't come, she sighed and left the parking lot.
She was walking for about ten minutes when she saw Mr. Fitz passing in front of her in his car; he looked at her but didn't even stopped and kept driving. She couldn't help the disappointment which ran through her at this moment but suddenly she saw him park his car in front of the building a few meters above her. He got out of his car and waved at her, giving her a small smile.
"Let me guess, you need to clear your head?" He said when she reached him, referring to to what she had told him the previous night.
Aria smiled and shook her head in negation. "No, I had to see someone in the neighborhood, my mother had to pick me up but she didn't show up."
"Are you leaving here?" She asked her teacher by pointing at the building.
Ezra nodded. "Yes, that's where I live, but don't tell anybody, I wouldn't like to see a troop of girls from school in front of my building!"
Aria smiled as she remembered what Spencer had told her about the girls who had screwed up their tests on purpose in order to spend time with him; it wasn't hard to picture these same girls waiting in front of their teacher's apartment. "Don't worry; your secret is safe with me!"
Ezra looked at her and bit his lip, he didn't know if asking her what he wanted to ask her was a good idea, he wasn't supposed to do it but he didn't resist the urge.
"Do you want to come in a little while? Maybe your mother is just very late and will come soon, you can wait for her in here if you want?" He asked Aria. As Aria seemed to think about it, he wasn't sure if he wanted her to accept, he wasn't supposed to invite students in his apartment but after all, it was not a big deal, he was only offering a student to wait for her mother in his apartment instead of in the street.
"Okay," Aria accepted.
"After you," Ezra told her, holding the door of the building to let her come in. Both of them entered the building and Ezra led her up to his apartment. He took his keys out of his pocket and opened the door, letting her penetrate in the apartment 3B.
Aria looked around her, letting her eyes run all over the tiny but homey apartment.
Ezra mentally cursed himself when he noticed the mess, if he had known that he would have a visitor, especially this visitor he would, for sure, have washed the dirty dishes which was still in the sink. But the young girl didn't seem to pay attention to the kitchen, her eyes focused on Ezra's huge bookshelf which was taking a whole side of the wall.
"Impressive," Aria said in admiration in front of the many books which were lying on the bookshelf.
Ezra smiled, happy to see that Aria had found something good to say about his tiny and messy apartment. "Yes, well, I guess I love reading."
"Really? So weird for an English teacher!" Aria teasingly said, causing Ezra to smile.
"Do you want something to drink? I have some juice or I can make you a hot chocolate or a coffee if you want?" Ezra offered.
"A hot chocolate would be perfect," Aria replied.
As Ezra walked to the tiny place which was considered as a kitchen and started making the hot chocolate, Aria checked her phone to see if her mother had called her back but nothing.
"Still no news from your mother?" Ezra asked her when he noticed the young girl looking at her phone.
Aria shook her head in negation. "No. She must have been retained somewhere and doesn't have her phone with her, I guess."
But deep down, Aria couldn't help but worry a little, her mother was never late or when she was, she at least called.
"And, voilà!" Ezra said, putting a smoking cup on the little table in front of the couch.
Aria sat on the couch, crossing her legs before taking the cup in her hands. "Thank you," she said as Ezra sat next to her, a cup of coffee in his hands.
"So, what do you think of the school?" Ezra asked her while Aria was blowing on her drink, waiting for it to cool.
"Well, it's fine, people are nice," Aria said thinking of Spencer and Hanna.
"What about the teachers?" Ezra asked her with a smirk.
Aria smiled as well and shrugged. "They're okay."
Ezra raised an eyebrow. "Just okay? I heard that the English teacher was brilliant!" He teased.
"Hum, you shouldn't listen to the rumors, he is not that good," Aria retorted, smiling, causing Ezra to laugh softly. He was glad that she felt comfortable enough around him to tease him.
All of a sudden, a ginger cat came from nowhere and jumped on the couch, straight on Aria who managed, just in time, to put her cup down, preventing the hot liquid from falling on her clothes.
"Hemingway!" Ezra snapped at the cat. "Sorry, this is my cat, he…" Ezra started to say but stopped when he saw a big smile spread across Aria's face.
"What?" He asked her, furrowing his brows.
Aria looked at him, smiling. "You named your cat Hemingway?" She said, gently petting the cat, not believing that someone could call his cat after the famous author.
"Hemingway was great, everybody should be proud to have this name," Ezra replied.
As Aria bit her lip, a teasing smile on her face, Ezra complied. "Okay, you're right, it sucks, but I call him Hem almost all the time anyway!"
Aria shook her head, still smiling and took her cup back between her hands. Digging the tip of her tongue into the hot chocolate to make sure she wasn't going to burn herself, she then took a sip of the hot drink, savoring the sugared mixing.
"That's good," she said putting her cup back on the table.
But Ezra didn't even hear her; he was too focused on her lips where a trace of chocolate had been left. At this moment,the only thing he wanted was to press his mouth against hers.
Aria became aware of Ezra's look on her lips and slowly brushed her tongue over her lips to clean them, which only caused Ezra's desire of kissing her to get stronger. He couldn't take his eyes away from her lips; he wanted to kiss her so badly. How was it even possible to want to kiss someone like that? He turned his head, trying to control himself and cleared his throat awkwardly.
"I'm going to put that in the sink," he said pointing at his empty cup of coffee. She nodded and he got up from the couch, walking to the sink.
Aria quickly finished her own cup of chocolate, got up and followed him. Ezra put his empty cup of coffee into the sink at the same time as Aria, causing their hands to brush against each other's.
Goosebumps run down Ezra's body at this tiny contact causing him to swallow hard. They then looked up at each other; Ezra dive his look into her big hazel eyes, both keeping silent, and suddenly Ezra couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't stay here without touching her while every part of his body was telling him to kiss her. Before he was plenty aware of what he was doing, he gently pressed Aria against the wall of his kitchen, took her face in his hands and pressed his mouth on hers.
Aria was shocked at first when she felt her English teacher's lips against hers but soon she began to return his kiss, moving her lips rhythmically with his.
As Ezra was about to pull away, realizing what he was doing, she was the one to brush her tongue over his bottom lip, asking for entrance. Ezra gladly opened his mouth a little wider to allow her entry. Their tongues began to caress each other as she moaned against his mouth.
As his hands snaked along her body, massaging her sides while his tongue was battling for dominance with his student's, Ezra had to admit that it was what he had wanted since the second she had stepped into his class. Her lips had a taste of cherry lipstick mixed with the chocolate she had just drunk, which perfectly matched together.
Aria wrapped her arms around Ezra's neck, pressing her skinny body flushed against her teacher's as they continued to ravish each other's mouths. Ezra suddenly gave up Aria's mouth to let his lips running along her neck causing soft moans to escape her mouth. Her hands tangled in his black curly hair as Ezra placed open-mouthed kisses all along the side of her neck making her groan. Ezra was about to come back to her mouth when Aria's phone rang, a music filling the apartment. They both jumped apart, breathless and confused. Aria hurried to grab her phone which was still ringing and took the call.
"Yes?" She said on the phone, hoping that whoever was on the other side couldn't hear how breathless she was.
"Aria, it's me," her father's voice answered. "Where are you? Are you still waiting for your mother?"
Aria looked at Ezra who was watching her. "No, I mean yes, but I started walking a bit."
"Okay, I'm coming to pick you up, your mother can't," Her father told her on the other side of the phone. "I should be here in fifteen minutes." He added.
"Okay, I'm waiting for you," she told him before hanging up.
"I have to go," Aria told Ezra. "My father is on his way to pick me up."
Ezra wanted to say something but nothing crossed his mind, he was still shocked by the kiss they had shared.
Aria grabbed her bag and hurried to the door, afraid that her father comes sooner than he had said.
"Okay, so I see you in school," Ezra finally said.
"Yes, sure," Aria said, stopping in front of the door. They stared at each other, both visibly uncomfortable, not knowing what to do nor say. Aria hesitated a few seconds and then took a step toward Ezra and gave him a peck on his cheeks before opening the door and leaving his apartment.
After Aria's leaving, Ezra stayed in front of his door, without doing anything. He wanted to tell himself that he couldn't believe what had just happened, but, deep down, he knew that since he had first seen her he had known that he was going to kiss her one day or another. But he couldn't help wondering what would have happened if Aria's phone hadn't rung. He didn't know, but if there was something he was sure of, it was that he wouldn't have been the one to stop.
Aria exited Ezra's apartment and walked a little bit further, not wanting her father to know where she was coming from even if he had no idea where Ezra lived nor even who he was.
A few seconds later her father's car parked along the sidewalk and she settled herself beside him on the passenger's seat.
"I hope you didn't wait too long," her father told her, starting his car.
"It's okay, I walked a bit. But where is Mom?" She asked her father, curious as to the reason which had prevented her mother from picking her up.
Her father seemed bothered by her question and she noticed that he was hesitating to reply. "She's at home, she's not feeling well."
Aria furrowed her brows, wondering why her mother hadn't phoned her to inform her of her bad shape.
"How was your session with Dr. Sullivan?" her father asked her before Aria could ask one more question.
"It was fine," Aria said, not really wanting to talk about that, but fortunately, her father just nodded and kept silence for the rest of the way home.
When she entered her house, everything was calm and there was no sight of her mother.
"Is mom in bed?" Aria asked her father.
"Yes, as I said she wasn't feeling well at all when I came back from work," he answered her.
"I'm going to see if she needs anything," Aria said, taking a step toward the stairs.
"I don't think that it's a good idea, Aria," her father stopped her. "She's probably asleep."
"I won't make noise so if she's asleep I won't wake her up," Aria prompted.
Her father shook his head and looked at her with insistence. "Aria, please, just…let her sleep," he insisted.
There was something weird in his tone, something strange in the way he was looking at her, almost begging her not to going to see her mother. Suddenly, Aria's look caught the empty bottle of wine, lying beside the couch and all of a sudden everything became clear. If her mother hadn't come to pick her up it wasn't because she was sick but because she was drunk. It was the reason why her father didn't want her to see her; he didn't want his daughter to see her mother totally drunk. Her father followed her look and sadly looked at his daughter whose eyes had filled with tears.
"Aria…"
She didn't let him say anything. "It's okay, I won't bother her. I'm going to my room," she said before making her way upstairs, biting hard on her lip to prevent the tears from falling down her face.
She reached her room, dropped her bag on her desk chair and let herself fall onto her bed without bothering of getting her shoes off.
What had she done to her mother? She was a cheerful and happy person before what had happened, and now she forgot her daughter because she had passed out on the couch. She would have given anything to go back to the past, to the time when she was a happy teenage girl, when her whole family was happy, the time when her brother didn't hate her, when her father wasn't trying to avoid her and when her mother could live without a bottle of wine.
She closed her eyes trying to remember how it felt, how it was to be the girl she used to be. But she didn't remember anything from her past; instead, the only thing which came to her mind was the kiss she had shared with Ezra Fitz. When they had kissed, she understood it now, she had felt like she hadn't felt in a very long time, she had felt like she was before, before her life turned into a nightmare, she had felt alive, or, at least, as alive as she could feel after what had shattered her life forever.
So, what do you think?
Thank you so much to those who reviewed the previous chapter.
Also, I haven't gotten so many reviews on chapter three compared to the first ones, I'm not complaining at all because this story has already many reviews for only three chapters, but I was scared that you didn't like this previous chapter, so please review this one so I can know if you like it or not.
Also Rosewood girl 317, about your question, I can't say anything yet, sorry, but thank you for your review.
As usual, I'm sorry for any mistake.
xoxo
