Okay, So I have no clue what happened the first time I tried to post this, some people could read it (hits were being counted, but not a lot), one person was even able to review...but others mentioned it wouldn't show the chapter. My computer also didn't recognize the new chapter. I pulled it totally at 12:30 last night, I have no clue what happened on this one, but I apologize and hope FF gets the bugs sorted out.

brandnewx3: Thanks, I'm Canadian and I've never been to New York (I venture there will someday!), so Google Maps is my best friend! I hoping nobody who is actually from New York is reading this because it is strictly from online research, which can sometimes be problematic.

Okay, to answer Notinyourlifetimehoney's question about where Emily is, I feel like it adds to the realism if not all of them can spend the weekend in New York. I know for me and my friends it is rare that all of us are free at any one time, let alone a whole weekend. If/when Aria goes back to Rosewood, it would be far more plausible for ALL of them to hang together, but I didn't feel it was realistic or necessary to include Emily. She is alive and well, but simply hasn't made an appearance yet. This will be an Aria/Ezra focused story, so I imagine that many characters will not be highlighted, please assume unless it is mentioned otherwise that everything is business as usual with the girls back in Rosewood.

Also from the first and second chapter it should be evident that Aria has isolated herself a little from her friends since moving to New York. So, the fact that she isn't putting a ton of emphasis on friends or even family so far should also reflect her emotional state, which is a bit closed off at this point.

Chapter 4: Call Me a Fool

Oh girl I don't know what to say
I feel you love me less each day
You seem so far away
and there's not a kiss that's strong enough I could give to keep your love
to change my mistake

Call Me a Fool-Doc Walker

My English professor was mid lecture on Poe's uses of imagery when my cellphone rang. I wasn't that student. My phone never interrupted lectures; I reached into my bag to silence it. The screen flashed a New York number that I didn't recognize, it wasn't my mom's, it wasn't Jamie Adams from my theater group and it wasn't anyone I knew from Starbucks. My gut told me it was Ezra. I hadn't expected him to actually attempt to contact me, especially not this soon. I felt compelled to answer it. Maybe it was because I wanted to hear his voice, or maybe I just didn't want to risk another voicemail bomb from him.

"Hello?" I whispered, ducking my head low and collecting my purse and binder, so I could exit quickly if the professor noticed and her evil eye got too intense.

"Aria? Hi, this is Ezra Fitz, I just wanted to make sure you got home okay last night, I would have called early but I was teaching all day." The formality, the fact that he included his last name, as if I wouldn't know who it was, as if he was making a call to the home to the parents of a rebellious student, as if I was a complete and utter fool, it killed me.

"Yeah, I got home just fine. Ezra, this actually isn't a good time, I'm in class right now. Would you be able to call back later?" I asked. Half of me wanting never to speak to him again and the other half was melting at the idea that he still cared, even if it was only out of duty or some latent sense of chivalry.

"Class? It is 4:25." He stated.

"I'm out at 5:20" I told him.

"5:20? Is it an extracurricular project? Where at? Can we meet and grab coffee?" He asked in quick succession. He sounded slightly desperate but I didn't tell him my observation.

"I'm sitting in an English Poetics and Theory lecture." I told him,

"Seriously?" He asked, laughing a little to himself.

"Yes, it was actually really good until you called, I should get back to it." I replied,

"Who is hosting it? I should come check it out."

"It's actually for a class," I informed him "It's a closed session, no audits."

"For a class? What class?"

"English 235" I told him, he was prying everything out of me; I would never be able to keep anything from him if we kept talking.

I felt the silence. Then he broke it after a long moment.

"You're taking a university class?" He half inquired half exclaimed, as if testing the words out, as his brain tried to piece it all together.

"Yes, five actually." I said, I kicked myself for saying it. It was the pride in me, the stupid part of me that felt so accomplished for being here and for having 'cheated the system' to make it happen. I was vain and it was stupid and now Ezra had even more information about my life, about me. The girl he didn't deserve to know.

"Really? We have to meet for coffee now, what campus?"

"NYU at the Arts and Sciences campus." I told him in a hushed almost whisper, why was I doing this to myself? Was I really a glutton for punishment?

"Wow. Just wow. At 5:20?"

"Maybe more like 5:30, by the archway." I stated. "See you then." I offered before ending the call. I felt like I was on fire and the professor hadn't even noticed my in class call, so it wasn't from being under scrutiny…it was Ezra.

I couldn't pay attention to the rest of the lecture. I couldn't stop thinking and yet I couldn't really start thinking either. I needed to get out of this predicament so badly! I felt the impulse to balk, to exit through the rear of the building and leave Ezra standing by the archway, alone, exactly the way he left me, well minus the architecture of course. Maybe then I could be the one to leave a vague and polite little message explaining things, like he had. That wouldn't do. I couldn't in good conscience do that to him. I needed an honest way out. My heart couldn't take this; it couldn't handle any of this.

Then I had it, an idea of how to semi-extract myself from this terrible situation. I needed to invite someone else, so that the conversation couldn't venture into the territory of the unknown, and would for propriety's sake have to remain surface level and tension free.

When the lecture let out, I quickly caught up to a girl named Jill who I had a presentation group with earlier in the semester. She greeted me politely, made adequate small talk and then looked like she was ready to leave.

"Uh, are you busy with something else now?" I asked, her expression was slightly confused. "I am supposed to be meeting this guy for coffee…a well, a sort of friend after class and I feel like maybe I shouldn't go alone." I told her, her eyebrows rose after I said that. It was clear she was thinking he was a would-be-rapist or stalker, at very least some kind of awful creep. "Oh, it is nothing like you are thinking, he is very nice and everything but…I just don't want to give him the wrong impression, if you know what I mean." I rattled out quickly, it sounded so rational, so plausible. I felt immensely proud of myself.

She glance at her cellphone, "Sure, I don't have to be anywhere for a few hours." She said, with a friendly smile. I guess she bought my reasoning.

"Thank you so much, I'll bring you Starbucks every class this semester." I smiled, doing an internal happy dance.

"Really! Would you be able to remember I like soy green tea lattes?" She asked, and then giggled.

"Sure I'm a barista, I always have a shift before this lecture, so I'll bring one every week."

Let's do this, I thought. I was giving myself an internal pep talk and Jill for her part was carrying our conversation, I only had to add the occasional, yeah, totally or for sure, as we rounded on the archway.

He was standing there looking good, I wasn't surprised that he looked good, he always did. I hated that I would always fine him striking, so alluring and attractive. It wasn't fair. I was rocking the 'I ran to class from work, messy ponytail hair' and he looked like James Dean. I knew my outfit was impeccable, dark wash jeans, a dark mocha belted tunic dress, warm espresso brown knee high boots, my favourite scarf for this season; it was cerulean and off set nicely with my boots. For warmth I had on a leather bomber jacket that a few shades darker than my boots, so it would almost pass as black but not quite. I was grateful I was at least wearing make-up, I didn't always, it helped that I was required to look alive at work and that for me make-up was essential to produce that effect in the mornings.

"Ezra, this is my classmate Jill; Jill this is Ezra." I told her, "Jill and I made coffee plans, but you are more than welcome to join us." I told him.

"Pleased to meet you Ezra," Jill offered, extending her hand so he could shake it. "You are absolutely welcome to join us." mimicked with a smile

"Thanks, nice to meet you as well, were you planning to go anywhere particular?"

"Somewhere off campus, the coffee house here is terrible." Jill told him, before I could find the words; we hadn't exactly planned anything, so it was difficult to explain where we had planned on going.

"There is a bookstore a few blocks down Broadway, its café is pretty stellar, and would you guys be interested in going there?" He asked.

Not my small alcove from the world? Please not.

To my relief he led the way down Broadway in the opposite direction of my favorite cozy little bookstore, after a few minutes chatting, we ended up at Mysterious Bookshop in TriBeCa.

I was relived, I wasn't sure why, it wasn't as if I owned my little alcove of wonderfulness. In fact I should have wanted them to be prosperous, well supported by my business and my friends. I was selfish; I wanted it to be just for myself and the other strangers that happened upon it.

Ezra and I had hardly spoken and I had already been a little fifteen minutes in his company. I was brilliant. The look he shot me, as we entered the bookstore told me he knew full well that Jill was a buffer. I felt like laughing as Jill mercifully guided the conversation.

"I mean, I like poetics, don't get me wrong, it beats my third year Proust class, but sometimes I'm just so sick of hearing other peoples' interpretations of what Poe meant or what certain things symbolize in their opinion." Jill said, giving finger quotes to 'in their opinion' and rolling her eyes slightly.

"You don't like that literature is so subjective?" Ezra asked, eyebrow raised a fraction, I knew that look, and it bothered me slightly that I could still read him so accurately. The look had been directed at countless students in our English class, it meant that Ezra didn't agree but still had to be diplomatic about it.

"Exactly," Jill smiled.

"I guess for me the subjectivity, the fluidity, the molding of thought; those things are what make literature beautiful." Ezra said softly, to temper the blow of disagreeing. "What do you think Aria?" He asked, I wasn't expecting it.

"Um, well I actually believe those things make literature and art as well, more than just beautiful; I think those things make it timeless, which is essential if one wants to suggest that anything truly meant something in the first place." I told him, the way his eyes seared into me, told me that he liked my point of view, the charge in his eyes made me grateful for the buffer Jill provided.

"Is that your thesis for the term paper?" Jill asked, probably feeling a little left out.

I laughed, in a good natured fashion, she didn't seem catty about it and I was honestly grateful for the intercession and the divide she offered between whatever it was that was burning between Ezra and I.

"It totally should be!" I chuckled, "Hey, let's grab something to drink" I stated pointing to the café in the corner of the sitting area.

"Hey you are both students, let me grab them, what do you ladies want?" Ezra inquired. His eyes catching mine again, burning me, forcing me to quickly chime out a hot chocolate which was the first thing that came to mind.

"Jill?" He asked, turning his attention to her, my heart hoped his gaze had less intensity, my mind told me I was just crazy.

"Do they do those iced mocha things here?" she asked.

"Yeah, I think so; I'll let you know if it is a no go." He said with a smile and then left us to select a table.

Jill set on me quickly, "So you don't want him to get the wrong idea?" She asked.

"Uh, yeah why?" I asked,

"You guys have some crazy sexual tension, that's all I'm saying." Jill stated shaking her head.

I sighed.

"I mean what's wrong with him?" Jill asked and then continued before I had the chance to say anything, "He seems like a great guy, I know you are new here but New York if you haven't noticed isn't exactly loaded with 'great guys'." She informed me.

"I actually just got out of a relationship this past spring; it really shattered me. I'm not looking to date anyone right now." I told her. It wasn't a lie, unless you counted the massive omission, the fact that Ezra was the guy that had left me broken and ruined.

"I'm sorry to hear that…theoretically speaking would you be upset if someone else went out with Ezra." She asked.

"Well, I'm seventeen so technically I'm too young for him anyways." I told her, trying to ignore the ice that was mingling with my blood. It was true, I wasn't old enough to be with him, he had said so himself in fewer and vaguer words. So what right did I have to stand in anyone else's way?

"Age is just a number that's what they say," Jill stated, "but seriously, you wouldn't be upset if say I tried to get a date with him? I mean he is buying us coffee and he doesn't even know me, the last guy I dated wanted me to go Dutch on everything." Jill explained.

I felt my heart beat from inside my chest, it wasn't any faster than normal but it was more apparent somehow, like a tempo in my chest and in my ears was more pronounced. It begged my mind to say something or do something, to dissuade Jill in some way. I couldn't my brain and mouth refused, my pride refused but heart sunk as the words left my mouth with confident.

"It is fine; Ezra is free to date anyone he pleases." I told her with the grace that I didn't feel.

"Thanks, but don't worry I'll try not to dominate the conversation," She smiled, preening with her hair and readjusting her grey beanie hat slightly; it looked decent on her, and complemented he strawberry blonde hair.

"I'm not worried about that," I told her with a false sort of humor, hoping that she wouldn't see that I was worried about something.

Authors Note: If you have any questions, queries, concerns, confusion or would like clarification on anything please leave it in a review. That is how I can see if something isn't worded clearly or is things aren't as obvious as I intend them to be. If people have questions I am more than happy to try and answer them.

P.S Last chapter (before the chaos of that ensued posting chapter 4) got 5 reviews from 149 hits...That is terrible odds. Sure some people might have read it twice but the true is people aren't reviewing. I know it is the psychological nature to assume someone else will review, but guys, the reality is that people aren't. The first step I always take is begging (see above) the next is more drastic and a story is generally removed all together or no longer updated. Some say that it is mean, but I feel I don't have a choice. Would you do to work if nobody paid you? Would you do anything for zero result? Let's not let it come to that, I'll update as long as YOU review.

If you like this story, you need to show you care, simple as that.