I love how all of us who write Ezria stories that include Jackie portray her as this horrible person; yet we've only seen her on the show once, for like five seconds. It's probably because she broke Ezra's heart... That's definitely why I hate her! Also, I'm going to apologize in advance if at any time you all feel as if I'm making this story go too fast. I have an intense chapter(s) planned for this baby's birth, and I can't wait to share it with you guys! Enjoy!
"Why are you so nervous?" I asked Ezra, whose hand was literally shaking in mine in anxiousness.
"You haven't told your dad about the baby yet, have you?" He realized.
"Dang. I completely forgot!" I exclaimed.
"Y-you forgot to tell your dad you're pregnant?" He started to freak out. "How do you forgetsomething like that, Aria?"
"Because my mom already knew and I figured she would tell him! Ezra, stop." I commanded, as he was about to run from the front door and hop back into the car. "At the rate you're going, you're going to drive yourself crazy."
I stood on my tiptoes to give him a quick kiss, before unlocking the front door. I took his hand in mine and together, we walked into the living room where Mike was watching TV.
"Can someone pleasetell me what is going on with you and Mr. Fitz, Aria?" Mike asked, jumping up from his spot on the couch. "Because this," He gestured to my hand in Ezra's, "Just isn't normal."
"Do you remember when you told me that mom and dad were fighting about some boy in my room a few weeks back?"
Mike nodded.
"Well..." I looked at Ezra.
"Oh God," Mike gasped. "Our old English teacher is your boyfriend?" He asked in disbelief.
I nodded sheepishly before speaking again.
"Something else has happened though... that we need to talk to you guys about... Mom... already... knows." I sighed.
I walked over to the kitchen, looking for Ella. As soon as she spotted me, she came over to me and gave me a hug.
"Did you tell him?" She whispered into my ear.
"Yep."
"How did it go?" She asked.
"Well, aside from the initial shock of it all, not bad. But now... we have to tell Byron and Mike." I bit my lip as I pulled away from her embrace.
"Just take it slow. Don't say anything too fast, and give them time to process this."
I nodded and took a deep breath, before we walked back into the living room together. Ezra was sitting alone on the couch engaged in conversation with Mike and Byron who were sitting across from him. I sat down next to Ezra as Ella sat down beside me.
"What's going on?" Mike asked.
"Are you sick or something?" Byron asked.
Ezra and I exchanged a glance that failed to go unnoticed by my father.
"Well..." Ezra took a deep breath.
"Um, something happened, not long ago... that's going to change a lot of things around here..." I started rocking back and forth on the couch in nervousness.
"What do you mean?" Byron asked in an extremely confused tone.
I closed my eyes for a moment. "Daddy..." I whispered, as tears started falling down my face. Ezra took hold of my hand and held it tightly, probably trying to assure me that everything was going to be okay. "Please don't be mad." I whispered. "It's my fault, not Ezra's."
"Okay, I'm getting scared. What the hell happened?" Mike asked, with a panicked look on his face.
"I-I'm-." I couldn't go on. I looked to my mother for support.
"She's pregnant Byron. Aria's pregnant." Ella said. I watched as the tears that were clinging to her eyelashes spilled over.
"Is this some kind of joke?" Byron exclaimed as he violently stood up, knocking into the coffee table causing his cup of coffee to spill on the table. The hot liquid trailed down from the table onto the hardwood floors. My mom was definitely going to have fun cleaning that up."This is a really sick joke."
"Dad... it's not a joke." I whispered. I looked over to Ezra, who had been completely silent during the whole affair.
"You got my little girl pregnant! You better say good-bye to her now, because you're never going to see her again." He spat at Ezra, before going in for a punch.
"Byron!" Ella screamed at the same time as I cried, "Dad stop!" I threw myself in front of Ezra, shielding him from my father.
"If anyone is going to get in trouble, it's me! Not him! I'm the one who's pregnant!" I was breathing heavily now and Byron was shaking violently from anger. I shook my head in disbelief at the realization that my father, who had, ten minutes ago, been perfectly accepting of my relationship with Ezra, but was now ready to beat the crap out of him.
I carefully watched Byron as he slowly sat back down. Ella sat down beside him and put her hand on top of his, most likely so she could restrain him from attacking Ezra again if Byron came to it.
"You're pregnant by your teacher, Aria?" Byron dug his fingernails into his palm of his free hand.
"I'm pregnant by my boyfriend."I clarified.
"Mike," Ella suddenly said, realizing Mike was still among them in the room. "Why don't you go to a friends' house or something while we talk to Aria and Ezra, okay? You can stay the night."
Mike shrugged in agreement, before disappearing from the room.
"I can't believe this." Byron shook his head. "So you not only got my daughter pregnant, but you are also slowly and painfully breaking my girls' heart with your other child." He stated.
I looked over to Ezra, not sure what to say. My dad was right, in one sense. Ezra opened his mouth to protest, but I beat him to it.
"Ezra and I... are working that issue out on our own." I told him. When my dad did not respond, waiting for more, I spoke again. "We're figuring it out." I assured him. "We'll be okay."
I glanced at Ezra, who nodded in agreement.
"I'm really disappointed in you, Aria. I expected a lot more from you." He looked at Ezra. "You too. You're the older one here. And the teacher. Shouldn't you know right from wrong? And don't you know how to use a damn condom?" Aria flinched at the idea of her dad envisioning her having sex with Ezra.
"Byron!" Ella exclaimed. "Stop! Leave Ezra alone! This was as much of Aria's fault as Ezra's!"
"And why are you being so calm about this?" Byron raged.
Ella was silent.
"You already knew?" He shook his head in disbelief.
"She knew before me!" I defended Ella.
"What the hell? How does that work?" He asked, thoroughly confused. I relaxed a bit knowing the focus of the conversation was off of Ezra. He had already been through enough today and most certainly did not need my dad to pile up the guilt for him.
"She asked me if I was, and I told her I didn't know..." I babbled.
"Aria, I swear, you're ruining this family!" He shouted.
"You know what Dad? You're the one who tore this freaking family apart in the first place!" I yelled.
"I'm leaving guys!" Mike informed us, at the worst possible time.
"And you're just adding fuel to the fire!" He roared at me, completely ignoring Mike. I cowered down and sunk into the couch. Ezra put his arms around me, holding me protectively. I watched Mike from the corner of my eye. His facial expression expressed intense pain and sorrow. I turned back to the scene in front of me, as soon as Mike silently slipped out the door.
"Mr. Montgomery," Ezra finally spoke. "I know that this isn't the most ideal situation you would want for Aria, but can't we make something good come out of it?" He pleaded. "It doesn't have to be completely horrible. Haven't you ever heard the saying, that there's always light in the darkness?"
I looked at Ezra, half out of pure love, and half out of complete disbelief. Last time I checked, Ezra was an English teacher, not a religion teacher.
Byron did not say anything, so Ezra took that as his cue to continue his theory.
"Well, we can find a way to not make this situation a complete lose-lose situation, can't we?"
"My daughter is having a baby with her English teacher at sixteen! What goodcan come out of that situation?" He muttered under his breath, loud enough for all of us to hear.
"Okay, that is enough!" I stood up from the couch and looked at my dad. "Ezra,is NO LONGER my teacher. He is my boyfriend.Okay? Why is that so hard to understand?" I desperately cried.
No one said a word after my comment, so Ezra spoke again.
"I care about Aria more than anyone and anything in the world, and I promise that I will be there for her and our baby forever." Ezra vowed.
"You have two families." Byron shot Ezra a dirty look. "How are you going to take care of Aria and her baby when you're with that other girl, Jaime or whatever her name is?" Byron glared at Ezra.
Ezra did not know how to respond, so he kept quiet.
"I knew it! You don't know! I don't know who you're trying to fool that this is all going to work out Fitz, but it's definitely not me."
I looked at Ella whose face reflected the fear etched in mine. I silently wished that she would interrupt the conversation that was coming up in flames and change the subject. As a mother, she seemed to sense my discomfort, and immediately jumped into the conversation with a whole different issue.
"Are you guys thinking of keeping the baby?" Ella asked.
Ezra and I shared a knowing look, before I turned back to my mom and nodded. "Yeah, we think we want to."
"Where's the baby going to stay when they come? Back and forth, our house to Ezra's apartment? That's a pain." Ella asked.
Ezra and I shared a glance once again.
"Well... I was thinking that maybe, I could move in with Ezra, so that we could be together, like as a family, you know." I bit my lip, silently praying in my head that they would not object to this new idea.
"I don't really like the idea of you two living together without being married... but-"
"No. You're not living together if you're not married." Byron interrupted.
"I was saying," She glared at Byron. "That since you're having a baby, I guess I'll be a bit more lenient."
"What? HELL NO!" Byron exclaimed, looking at Ella in disbelief. "You're going to let them live together without being married? What has happened to you?"He screeched. "You wouldn't even live with mebefore we were married!"
"Dad, we'll be married soon enough."
"Oh my God, don't tell me he already proposed." Byron's body was shaking in rage.
I glanced at Ezra and shook my head.
"Not yet." Ezra told him. 'Not yet.'Ezra had said. Not no,but not yet.My heart rate sped up for a moment, as I realized that Ezra wanted me to be his forever. Forever.He was mine, and no one was ever going to come between us. Not Jackie, not Maria, not anyone.
A moment of silence passed as the atmosphere of the previously tense room became somewhat calmer. Byron was breathing at a normal pace once again, and was slouching again the side of the couch next to Ella, whose hand was in Byron's.
"What are you going to do about school?" Ella asked.
I bit my lip. "I don't know... I'm not sure how comfortable I feel going to school pregnant." I confessed.
"We could do homeschooling?" Byron muttered.
"Would you?" I asked, hopeful. "I don't think I'd be able to handle all the rumors and nasty glares in the halls."
Suddenly I gasped as a realization came to me. "Oh God, what if they find out you're the father?" I motioned towards Ezra. "I can hear the rumors already."
"That's fine, honey." Ella placed her cup onto the coffee table. "You don't have to tell anyone you don't want to. And if anyone asks, you can make up a name of who he is."
I nodded in agreement.
"So now, we're going to need to set you up with a homeschooling program. How are we going to do this though?"
"A girl I know did homeschooling for a year. She said that it's all online classes, so if I lived with Ezra, I wouldn't need an adult or anyone to teach me anything." I said, nervously playing with one of the rings on my hand.
"Just... wait a few minutes before we talk about moving. Let's just... talk about your education right now." Ella sighed.
"If Aria were to do homeschooling, I could teach her English... So she wouldn't have to take an online course for that." Ezra offered.
"That makes complete sense." Ella said.
"Wait. Are you being serious right now, or sarcastic?" I asked, skeptically.
"Both. Don't be offended by this, but I'm not sure how much I can trust that you'll actually teach her during her class time, and not do... other things."
Byron nodded in agreement.
"Would you be able to teach her anything else? Like math or science?" Ella wondered.
However, Ezra started shaking his head 'no' as soon as the word 'math' came up.
"I'm dead awful in Math; can't do it to save my life. That's why I took the English route." He gave a small smile.
"That's so true." I giggled. "Once I asked Ezra for help with my math homework, and he just ended up making me more confused." I smiled at him.
"So we can set you up with a homeschooling program, that won't be a big problem. I assume that you two will get married in the future, right?" Ella said, bringing the conversation back to it's original topic.
Ezra and I nodded at the same time.
"Would it be better if we got married before the baby comes, versus after?" Ezra contemplated.
"It's your wedding, so whatever you want." Ella shrugged.
I bit my lip, pondering everything they were saying. I was only a junior in high school, and we were already talking about marriage and leaving home. All due to the fact that I was having a baby. A wave of sadness washed over me, as I realized that I wasn't ready for any of this. How was I supposed to be a good wife to Ezra, while I was still in high school? How am I supposed to be a good mother, when I still have other responsibilities, like homework, and such? How are we going to pay for anything? I'll have to get a job, and all my dreams of going to college and majoring in English, and writing a bestselling novel are going to go down the drain. I can't do any of that with a baby. I hadn't realized that I had started crying again until Ezra spoke.
"Honey, what's wrong?" Ezra asked, soothingly.
"I-I won't be able to do anything anymore. No more hanging out with friends, no more going to parties, no more fun. I'm just a teenager. I'm still in high school, and I'm going to get married, and move out of my house, and have a baby, all before I graduate. I won't be able to write a best seller after college, and my whole life plan is screwed up, all because I'll always be too busy taking care of a baby." I whispered, as tears streamed down my face.
Ezra soothingly rubbed my back, trying to comfort me. I felt my phone vibrate against my hip and pulled it out of my pocket. I gasped when I read the latest text.
I hear there's going to be a new baby in the house! Hope all goes well and I don't kill them before they even get a chance to live! -A
I CANNOT WAIT FOR TOMORROW! The debut of shirtless Ezra Fitz! It's going to be the greatest day ever! Wow, this was a long chapter (compared to the other ones) Hope you liked it, please review with your thoughts! :)