Lacrosse Lovers

Summary- Ian's dead so SOMEONE has to be the new lacrosse coach, and that's Mr. Fitz. And coincidentally the assistant coach is Aria. On Mike's lacrosse team. With Noel. So they have to be very careful. But Ezra can't help looking at Aria in those short shorts. Oh boy.

Chapter 10-Hardy's Home

I apologize in advance for any typos.

General POV

Kesha's Blow rang throughout the apartment a lot louder than it should have, waking Ezra. He sat up, rubbing his eyes. Aria whipped out her phone and answered it quickly to stop the noise.

"Hello?"

"Aria! Where have you been? You disappeared last night! I called all of the girls' mothers and they said you weren't with them. I'm at Ali's memorial now and was just at her grave a few minutes ago. Aria, sweetie, where are you?"

Her mother was yelling so loud through the phone Ezra heard her, and once he did he mouthed, "Holy crap."

Aria's mind went into hyper-drive. And whenever her mind went haywire she became the best liar ever. "Don't worry, mom. I'm safe."

"Where are you safe?"

"In Ezra's apartment," Aria said calmly until she realized the wrong thing slipped out of her mouth. Ezra slapped his forehead knowing things could only go downhill from here.

"What? Why?"

"Well, you know that mystery boy?"

"Yeah…"

"Yeah, well that bastard broke my heart and I needed to clear my head so I went for a walk. It started raining and I was too cold and wet to go anywhere. But, luckily, Ezra drove past the library-where I was-and he took me to his apartment because it was closer and I was literally freezing to death. He was going to call you but it must have just slipped his mind. Would you like to talk to him?"

Ezra's jaw dropped. That was the most intelligent, well thought out lie he'd ever heard.

"Um, no. Just thank him, will you. And will you ask him to drop you off at the game today? Mike's riding with Noel and I can't take you, and since you're already there…"

"I'm sure it will be fine, mom. Love you, and I'm sorry."

"It's okay, hun. I'm just glad Ezra found you. I love you too. Bye."

Aria ended the call and saw Ezra smirking at her. "What?"

"You are a pretty little liar," he smiled, pronouncing each syllable of the last three words defiantly for emphasis.

"And you're a handsome, tall truther," Aria teased.

Ezra wasn't sure how to respond, so he kept quiet. He noticed how beautiful she looked; without her makeup, hair thrown in a messy bun, and half of her clothes missing.

He cupped her face before kissed her gently and breathing out, "I love you."

She placed her hand on top of his, taking in the cliché of the moment. Right as she was about to respond, a knock came to the door.

"I'd better get that," Ezra sighed, taking himself away from Aria. Not many people came to his apartment unannounced. That's why he shut the door immediately after he saw his best friend standing on the other side.

Ezra laughed, and Aria tried hard not to. Hardy rolled his eyes from the other side and called, "Ezra, let me in; you know I don't care if your girlfriend is in there with you."

Ezra swung the door open, fearful that Hardy might yell something else down the halls.

"Hey," Hardy greeted as he walked in. "Hey, Ez, don't seem so tense. It's only me." Aria giggled at this, which brought Hardy's eyes to her. He walked over to her and took hold of her hand gently. "You know, Miss Aria, you get more beautiful each time I see you." He brought her hand to his lips then kissed her hand gently.

Ever since Ezra's reading Hardy knew their secret, and made sure that the two love birds knew he knew. He'd stop by every now and then entirely abruptly and, quite honestly, in the middle of one of Aria and Ezra's 'moments'. Aria was actually pretty impressed that he didn't walk in on them the night before.

Hardy let go of Aria's hand and threw himself on the couch, landing perfectly in the center. "So, what have you two been up to?"

Ezra shrugged. "Nothin much, you?"

Hardy sat up on the couch, facing Ezra and smiling. "You will never guess what I did, dude."

Ezra just rolled his eyes; the last time Hardy said something like that he'd found 50 cents on the curb. "What?"

"I got an apartment here in Rosewood and got myself a job!" Ezra started laughing and Hardy asked, "What?"

"You almost got me there, now seriously, what happened?"

"I'm not kidding. I'm working in the library, and my apartment is only a few buildings over from the library."

Ezra stopped laughing and smirked. "That is very impressive."

"I know. Hey, you wanna go out for some burgers? My treat; I even have the cash to pay for it."

Ezra looked at his watch. "Actually I have to go to lacrosse practice. Our game is at two." He put his coat on and helped Aria into hers, as Hardy laughed.

"You play? At your age? Dude, that's a new low."

"First of all, I coach. Today is our first game and we have to prepare. And you're 5 months older than me, remember?"

Hardy scoffed. "At least I don't laugh in my sleep. Can I come? Please?"

"Sure, we could always use the support."

PLLPLLPLLPLLPLLPLLPLLPLLPLL

"I can't believe this is happening," Ezra sighed. They were losing hard. Twelve points hard. And with a minute left, they might as well forfeit.

"They aren't doing anything you told them, and since Mike got benched…" Aria was trying to be supportive, but her eating the snow-cone that she'd bought from a better-than-average-looking guy wasn't helping. Aria told him not to be jealous of Jeff because it was only for a school fundraiser. Ezra ignored that, only thinking about how dumb of a name "Jeff" was.

"Hey, not my fault he got benched and got a slip." Mike had made the mistake of being 'too violent' in the game and the ref gave him a slip and told him he was benched for the rest of the game. And since Mike was benched the team's score stayed at 6. And that was in the first quarter.

After the game Ezra tried to be as encouraging as possible. The mom's offered to buy ice cream, and that's when Hardy spoke up.

While standing at the top of the bleachers Hardy yelled into the bullhorn he'd taken from Ezra. "What are you doing? Ice cream after a defeat like that? No, we're going to stay here and show you what you did wrong and how to fix it. You will not be the losers."

This caught the boys' attention. "What are you going to teach us?" Noel piped up.

Hardy smiled. "I thought you'd never ask." He ran down the bleachers and smiled. "First of all, you were way too slow. Let's run the bleachers." Ezra smirked and followed his best friend as they ran through the home team bleachers with the teenagers trailing behind them; they ran through every aisle one-by-one twenty times.

Once they'd finished that they scrimmaged. They scrimmaged until it was basically impossible for either team to make a point, and that took a while. The moms had stuck around giving out waters and bandaging 'boo boos'. Kristina even stayed, encouraging Mike and feeding him bites of her snow cone (the moms borrowed the school's "Fundraiser Snow Cone Machine") during his break time.

They had sweat, passed out, threw up, cried (poor Davis…), and fallen many times before they'd finally gotten it perfect enough to tickle Hardy and Ezra's fancy.

Ezra looked at his watch: 10:48 p.m. Everybody had gone home in the past twenty minutes and he was the only one left. He went to grab the last bag and saw that Aria had fallen asleep on the bleachers. He smiled and picked her up as if she were a small child, balancing her on one hip as he grabbed the final bag and fastened in on his shoulder. Once the bag was secure he made a seat with his arms for Aria to rest in as he crossed the field on the way to the parking lot.

They'd gotten to his apartment a few minutes later. He laid her on the bed and sent her mother a very general text saying: Sleeping at one of the girls' houses. See you tomorrow. He knew she planned on doing this herself, but had missed the opportunity by dozing off. He kissed her forehead gently and sighed.

Today had been a long day.

PLLPLLPLLPLLPLLPLLPLLPLL

Three weeks had passed by and the team was doing wonderful. The past three games were great; they won every one by a long shot. Ezra's relationship with all of the guys was better, and so many of them had beaten Ezra at the end of practice that the after-school ritual had been abolished.

Mike and Kristina were getting closer. Mike still couldn't get the three words out of his mouth but Kristina's "Date Bracelet" now had 16 beads, 3 buttons, and a safety pin (don't ask).

Aria and Ezra weren't doing as good. Hardy spent every waking second with Ezra, stealing him away from Aria completely. She felt like a total third wheel and stopped making her random visits to Ezra's apartment all together.

"So, what are you going to do about it?" Spencer asked from her comfortable spot on couch, looking at her friends who were scattered around the kitchen. Aria was hanging out with the girls today at Spencer's house to drain herself from her own self pity.

Aria plopped herself onto the couch next to Spencer. "I don't know!" she groaned as she went to take another bite of her ice cream, only to realize that she'd finished the small carton already.

"Why don't you talk to him? Maybe he doesn't realize what he's doing," Emily offered, giving Aria a fresh small carton of ice cream.

"And if he's doing it on purpose, dump his sorry ass and join me in Single's Ville," Hanna said. She had been dumped yet again and was still feeling bitter. But, knowing Hanna, she'd get over it soon enough.

Aria sighed, ignoring Hanna entirely. "Emily's right. Maybe he doesn't realize what's going on."

"Yeah, I bet he has no clue. Just talk to him, Aria, I promise it will be okay," Spencer encouraged her.

PLLPLLPLLPLLPLLPLLPLLPLL

As Aria knocked on the door she immediately regretted it. She wasn't sure if she was ready for this confrontation. The door swung open before she had the chance to walk away.

"Hey," Ezra smiled. Aria could tell it was forced, as if he'd just received bad news moments before.

"Is this a bad time?"

"Why would it be a bad time? I always have time for you." He inched closer to her to give her a kiss, but she pushed him away and walked in. "Did I do something?"

Aria whirled around and answered flatly, "Yes."

"What?"

"You always have time for me Ezra? Not the past couple of weeks! You only have time for Hardy." Ezra laughed which riled Aria up even further. "What the hell is so funny?"

"You say it like it's a bad thing, Aria."

"It is a bad thing! You don't make time for me anymore."

"I didn't make time for you before, Aria."

Aria scoffed. "Yes you did! We hung out all of the time."

Ezra smiled lightheartedly. "Don't take this the wrong way, but, that's when I had no one else to hang out with. And I've tried to set up dates with you in the past three weeks and you were busy seeing your friends."

Aria stopped for a second, letting all that he'd said sink in. "That-that's different. Entirely different."

"How is it different? Aria, we're more alike than you think."

"In some ways we're exactly the same. But in some ways we're polar opposites."

"Name one," Ezra scoffed.

"I don't lie to you." I must lie to you more than I think, because that was a lie in itself, Aria thought immediately after.

This took Ezra by surprise. "Excuse me? You lie to me all of the time."

"I do not!"

"Yes, you do!"

"About what, exactly, Mr. Ezra Fitz?" Aria demanded.

Ezra picked up his phone slowly and shoed Aria the text.

Hey, Ezzy, you're little girlfriend doesn't feel loved. How about you make love? Haha, I bet that would boost her self-esteem. It also boosts your chances of going to jail. Have fun with THAT. TTYL, Ez. Don't worry-I will be back to haunt you. Xoxo -A

"Who's "A"?"

Dun. Dun. Duuuuuuuuuuuun. XP

My "A" note was terrible. And I'm truly sorry. :(

Okay, so, .dreamers proposed an excellent idea, saying I should do a spin-off with Kristina and Mike, and Mike tried to say "I love you." SO, I'm going to make this a little more interesting by posting a little epilogue type thing at the end of this story. It will be a big list of all the ways Mike COULD have said "I Love You" to Kristina, but failed, then it will list the one way he DID say it. Some of them will be used throughout this story, though. I think it'll be great, how about you? If you have any ideas for this, please don't hesitate to tell me. I'll most likely add it and give you credit for the idea.

Sorry it took so long to update. I would have had it earlier but my sorry excuse for a brother deleted it. D: Why couldn't all brothers be as wonderful as Mike (in this story)? Ugh.

Guess what I learned? I was watching an Ian Harding interview and he said that he couldn't play lacrosse to save his life. Hahaha Oops XD

Oh, and no, I don't know why I had the need to (put every other word in parenthesis) but I did, and I apologize.

Please review :) This chapter took me forever and I'd really appreciate the feedback :O

Love Always,

-randomness