I got home at eight and was in bed by 8:15. I lay there thinking about him and his face when I left. I don't think he was expecting that, I wasn't either. I felt awful because all he wanted to do was comfort me and be with me through this tough time and I shut him out. Mike had a lacrosse game at eight so my dad had just left the house. I grabbed my phone and dialed Ezra's number.

"Hey." He answered the phone most likely unsure of my feelings.

"Hey, I feel really bad for what I did." I could've sworn I heard him relax.

"It's fine, I know this is really stressful for you." His tone went back to normal.

"No it's not fine. You would never do that to me and it was stupid."

"Thank you. By the way you didn't want the rest of your salad right?" I laughed quietly.

"No but it was delicious. Thank you for the dinner."

"Come over tomorrow ok?"

"Of course. Hey, do you want to come over right now? Mike and my dad are at Mike's lacrosse game until ten."

"Um, you sure?" I knew he was scared of them coming home early.

"Positive." He told me he'd be over in ten then we hung up. I was really happy he'd forgiven me so quickly but was also kind of mad because I didn't deserve that. I didn't deserve his sweet side right there. I deserved him giving me a hard time and I probably shouldn't have invited him over either. I played on my computer for a little while until he came over. When he walked in I gave him a huge hug and he rubbed my back. We stayed like this for a little while and it felt so good just to feel him with me. For a while we didn't then Ezra spoke up.

"Why don't we watch a movie?" We put on a black and white movie that was only an hour. I curled up on his lap with my head on his chest. He stroked my hair as we intently stared at the tv screen. Then something caught our attention. Out of the corner of my eye I saw headlights pull in the driveway. It couldn't be it was only 9:30.

"Ezra! Go into any room with a window and get out!"

"Why? Aria what's wrong?"

"My dad's back! Now go!" My heart was practically stopped as I ran around trying to get him out of the house. I was just pushing him out of the window when I heard the keys jingling as he walked up to the door. Once he was out the window we smiled at each other and then he walked up front. My dad was inside, but I forgot about Mike.

"Dad! Dad!" Mike was armed with his lacrosse stick.

"What?!" My dad burst out the door thinking Mike was hurt.

"Someone's in the bushes. I saw them run in there." He whispered. My dad grabbed the lacrosse stick from Mike and began to poke through the bushes. I watched the whole thing through the window. Ezra ran out the bushes and tried getting away. He took a wrong step and my dad caught up to him and whacked the lacrosse stick off of his head. Ezra fell face first into the rocky pavement. I ran out to his side and slowly took his hood off.

"Aria! What are you doing?! He could be dangerous!" Mike screamed but my dad just backed off.

"He's not dangerous." I managed to spit out of my clogged throat. As I looked at him, lying there unconscious, I began to cry over him. I tried to wipe the blood from his face but there was too much. "Can you at least call the police?" I was a little annoyed at the fact that they didn't think of it before. My dad didn't budge I think he was still shocked at the force he had used. I sat there with Ezra for two minutes until the police came accompanied by ambulances and fire trucks. I sobbed into my sweater as they put him on the stretcher. Before they left they asked if we were family or close friends. I hopped in the ambulance and told Mike and my dad I would explain later. Ezra had no family or friends out here they all lived in New York. He only moved here for his job. I stared at him the whole ride and kept flashing back to when we met at the bar.

I had a fight with my dad and he had my keys so I walked to the closest place, a hole in the wall bar. I could still see his bright smile and sparkle in his eyes when he looked at me. We started talking about our favorite books since I had 'The Great Gatsby' sticking out of my bag. Then after that we kept seeing each other.

My phone buzzed and I figured it was my dad or Mike so I grabbed it out of my pocket book.

'You thought you would get away with having him over. Well the game must've ended early... Kisses -A'

I was so mad, no I was beyond mad. I could live with A torturing me but Ezra was my territory. I needed to find out who this A was. I looked at Ezra's beat up face and instead of seeing my dad hitting him I saw A controlling my dad to hit him. He was so broken, he looked so pale and helpless. We pulled into the back of the hospital and they rushed him in. I was only allowed as far as the waiting room with the rest of the stress filled people. They were all either crying, pacing or zoning out into their own world. I was going to call my dad but I figured I would wait to explain when I was calm.

"Is someone here with Ezra Fitz?" The lady at the front desk called. I got up and made my way to the front of the room.

"I am."

"What's your name?"

"Um, Aria Montgomery." I told them I was a friend of his in case anything between the hospital and school crossed paths there would be no suspicions.

"Okay have family members been informed?" I knew Ezra had his parents and sister in New York but that was it. The only problem was I had no way to get to them since they didn't know about me yet.

"No, but I have no way to get in contact with them."

"Okay thank you. You can have a seat now." I sat down and cried because Ezra could potentially die because of my dad. For all I know he killed Alison.