CHAPTER FOURTEEN

ARIA

"Ezra are you ready to go?" Aria yelled up the stairs. Being cooped up in the house for weeks now, Ezra had decided to take Aria out on an adventure, as he liked to call it. What that entailed, she wasn't quite sure but she was eagerly optimistic. He had packed them a picnic lunch, complete with sandwiches, desert and lemonade. In all honesty, however, she was just excited to spend time with him, alone, in the middle of the day for once.

"Coming!" Ezra shouted. She didn't hear his feet moving, however, so she actually doubted he was making his way downstairs. Rolling her eyes she let out an exasperated sigh. She swore he took longer to get ready than even Hanna. How many plaid shirts did he have to choose from anyway?

Just as Aria was getting ready to climb the stairs in search of him, the doorbell rang. Confused, she turned to answer it. Who would be calling on them midafternoon during the middle of the week? Opening the front door, Aria was met with the sight of an older woman, perhaps in her late fifties or so, sporting perfectly manicured nails, styled hair and designer clothes. She screamed of money.

"And who are you?" The woman asked snidely before Aria had a chance to greet her. Taken aback by her brash question, she was stunned into silence. The pounding of feet behind her alerted Aria to Ezra's presence but she made no move to turn around, instead keeping her gaze locked on the woman in front of her.

Ezra came to an abrupt halt at the foot of the stairs and Aria heard him suddenly suck in his breath as he caught sight of their visitor. "What are you doing here?" he ground out between clenched teeth.

"Well hello to you too, Ezra. Are you going to invite me in or are we going to make a spectacle of this situation for the entire neighborhood to be witness to?" Aria shrunk back at the venomous tone resonating from the woman, attempting to blend invisibly into Ezra's side, begging unabashedly for his protection. He knowingly wrapped an arm around her waist and guided them to the side, allowing the woman to enter.

"Thank you," she told him, staring hard at Aria as she entered the house. "Are you going to introduce us?"

Sighing, Ezra pushed close the front door and turned to address her. "Mother, this is Aria. Aria, this is… my mother." He made no other attempt to further the conversation and Aria watched as his mother let out a dramatic sigh of exhaustion before straightening herself and fully turning towards her, offering her hand. Aria tentatively reached out and shook it.

"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Fitz," Aria told her kindly. Her warm welcome seemed to thaw his mother slightly as she smiled and gave Aria a cursory once over.

"It's a pleasure, Dear. And it's Fitzgerald, Ezra here loves to truncate our last name for some reason unbeknownst to me." Now it was Aria's turn to be shocked. His mother radiated wealth and now she was learning that Ezra's last name was one of great American nobility? What kind of past did he have, exactly?

"As much as I'm enjoying this visit, I'd really like to know why you're here," Ezra snapped. He had lost all patience for this woman years ago.

His mother shot him a cold stare as she replied. "I'm here, Ezra, because you have decided to stop returning any of my calls, emails, or other attempts at communication. You are the only family that I have left and I will not stand to let you fade away into this rustic, poor man's country."

Aria could almost see the fumes streaming from Ezra's ears as he struggled to contain his anger. His arm wrapped even tighter around her waist. "We are far from living in poor man's country, Mother, and even if we were, that life would be a thousand times better without you in it. You've officially seen me. Now please-" He flung open the door, standing aside to usher his mother out of his home.

Sighing, she shook her head before making to leave. "At least I tried to reach out to you. And I did come for another reason, Ezra." Pausing, she took a moment before continuing. "I just want to see him before I go."

Ezra sharply sucked in his breath as he stared out the door, ignoring his mother's presence for a minute before responding. "You know where he is." She nodded her head before passing by him.

Turning one last time towards Aria, she flashed her a soft smile before leaving. "It really was nice to meet you, Aria. Take care of him." With that, Ezra's mother was gone.

All was silent for a time as Ezra and Aria struggled to absorb the impact of the random visit they had just received. Aria was beyond confused at the sudden presence of his mother, but she was even more confused by the short conversation. Aside from Ezra, who did she want to see? Ezra released a large sigh before grabbing his hat and Aria's hand, leading them out the door and towards his truck. He made no attempt at offering any kind of explanation for what had just happened and Aria didn't want to push him for answers. Climbing into the truck, they spent the next fifteen or so minutes in amicable silence, riding along back country roads and simply attempting to calm down from their crazy encounter.

When Ezra pulled off the road, Aria was surprised to find him heading towards a lake of some kind. It was set back half a mile or so from the dirt drive, with no road officially leading to it, but Aria could see the well-worn tracks from previous vehicles etched into the ground as Ezra drove. Parking the truck a few feet from the water, Ezra wasted no time in unloading their picnic and beckoning Aria to join him.

"I'm sorry you had to meet my mother like that," Ezra told her as he avoided her gaze and instead focused on unpacking their food. She reached over and squeezed his thigh, offering a small smile in response. "I know we promised that we'd be completely open with each other, but there's a lot of stuff about me that you don't know," Ezra whispered, staring out at the sparkling water after unloading the rest of their picnic. He made no move to start eating, however, instead picking a rock up and tossing it towards the lake. It skipped twice before sinking out of view.

"You don't have to share anything you're not comfortable with," Aria said softly.

Ezra turned to offer her a weak smile before responding. "You make me feel comfortable sharing just about everything, Aria. And… you deserve to know how I ended up in Winesburg." He again turned his gaze towards the water before continuing with his story. "Growing up, my mother was always more concerned with her image than with my well-being. She fell in love with my father at a young age, they got married and had me, all within the span of a few years. My dad was attending NYU as a graduate student at the time and my mother knew nothing about the life he had come from back here in Winesburg. I doubt she would have married him had she known. She'd never associate herself willingly with people so below her social class."

Ezra released a scoff at the thought of his mother having such high standards. "My grandfather suddenly fell ill when I was about two and my dad chose to come back to support his mother. My mom refused to move out here and they filed for an official separation. He fought hard to take me with him but my mother would have none of it, somehow using her money to gain full custody of me, and I lived with her until I was thirteen. She was unbelievably neglectful, never attending any sort of school function or offering her support for me in anyway, so I didn't think twice when I boarded the first bus out of New York. I had tracked my father down and I came out here to live with him."

Aria was silent as she listened to his story. Offering a small smile, she laced their fingers together in a sign of support as she pressed her body to his side and laid her head on his shoulder. "I guess that's where we're twins, then. The whole bus thing, I mean."

Ezra let out a soft chuckle in reply. "Yeah, I guess we are." He took in a deep breath before continuing. "My father… he broke me out of this shell that I had used to protect myself from my mother's uncaring attitude towards me. He loved me and really attempted to show me that every day. It's because of him that I've become the man I am today. When I was… when I was nineteen, I was out at a party across town. I didn't go out much, so he had insisted I go when he caught word of the gathering. I'd only been at the party an hour or so when Toby came running in. I could immediately tell that something- something was wrong because he was covered in dirt and sweat and there was this look of absolute fear in his eyes that I'd never seen before. He had been helping my father in the barn when a stack of hay had caught fire."

Aria suddenly seemed to stop breathing as she listened to Ezra. She tightened her grip on his hand and turned so that she could fully see him.

"The barn was engulfed in flames and the fire department and ambulance were there by the time I got home. My dad… he didn't make it. I've been left caring for this farm ever since," Ezra whispered, looking down at his feet. A tear trickled down his cheek but he harshly wiped it away. "That's why my mother's here, I guess. She comes out every so often to visit his grave. I think she feels guilty over leaving the both of us but she would never admit to that, of course. Anyways, I've avoided really any kind of social situation since then because I'm tired of the pity that I always get from anyone that knows my story. That's why I took so easily so with you, Aria. You didn't look at me like I was some kind of puppy that has just been kicked because you didn't know."

Aria smiled at him as she smoothed the hair off of his forehead. "I promise to never look at you like that, Ezra. You're the strongest man I've ever known and I will always treat you like that."

"Thank you," he whispered, flashing her his own smile. He softly pressed his lips to hers after a few moments and they spent the rest of the afternoon trying to forget all about their issues waiting for them back home.

What do y'all think? Has Ezra had enough reason to act the way he has with Aria? Let me know your thoughts!