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"Why does she have a key to your apartment and I don't?" Ezra brother asked. "Imagine the things she does in here when you're not around."
Ezra shot him a glare as my cheeks turned red in embarrassment.
"So this is the famous Aria." Ezra's father grinned. "Ezra's talked a lot about you."
I turned to Ezra, silently asking him what exactly he had told his parents about me.
"Good things I hope?" I forced out a small laugh, still trying to get over the initial shock that I was standing in Ezra's apartment with his family.
"Of course." His mother said. "I'm Dianne, Ezra's mother. This is my husband, William."
"It's nice to meet you." I smiled.
"How long have you two been together?" Ezra's father asked. He picked up a random book that was sitting on Ezra's coffee table and began leafing through the pages. I bit my lip as I immediately recognized the book in his hands: The special edition copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, I had bought for him the day he left Rosewood High.
"About a year." Ezra answered.
"Why haven't you introduced her to us yet? Obviously you knew that things were going to work out. I'm assuming you don't paint your nails, Ezra. Look, she practically lives here." His brother gestured to my pile of nail polishes sitting on Ezra's desk as he sat down on the couch.
I tried to hide the deep scarlet blush that was forming on my cheeks.
I was secretly so thankful that Ezra's parents were being so nice to me. Every time I had envisioned the scenario of Ezra introducing me to them, it always ended badly.
"We weren't ready to tell anyone." He revealed.
"Why not?" William asked in confusion.
"In case it didn't work out." Ezra lied smoothly.
"We knew it would work out." I said quietly, unable to stop myself. I tried to hide my growing smile, but failed. Despite everything that the two of us had been through, it had indeed, all worked out.
"Why did you wait so long though? You told us about Jackie a week after the two of you met."
Jackie. Jackie. The name sounded so familiar but I could not place where I had heard it before.
"Please, don't talk about her. It was a mistake and it's over." Ezra said quickly.
"You didn't see it as a mistake when you asked her to marry you." Ezra's brother joked.
I turned to Ezra's brother questioningly. As soon as he saw the look of confusion on my face, his smile disappeared. I turned to Ezra, who had sat down on the couch with his eyes closed and his head in his hands.
"W-wait. Stop. Who's Jackie?" I asked frantically; as my heartbeat sped up every moment Ezra spend delaying telling me the truth about this person.
A moment later, I was shoving random items into my purse as anger coursed through my veins. Phone. Wallet. Gum. What was he thinking? He knew she would be working at Hollis and he applied for a job there without saying anything to me about it? How could he lie to me like that? I thought he loved me. If he truly loved me he would not have lied. My body froze as I heard my bedroom door opening behind me. I let out a deep breath, knowing exactly who was standing behind me. I should have been ecstatic that Ezra was finally seeing my room for the first time. Instead, anger and betrayal were flowing through my body. How could he lie to me?
As I heard the door close behind him, I finally turned around to face him. By the time he finally gathered the courage to look at me, I could see all the guilt he felt visibly portrayed in his eyes.
Good. He deserved to feel like that. He told me he loved me a few days ago, yet now he was lying to me about his ex-fiancée!
"What were you thinking?" I scoffed angrily. "What? It didn't occur to you that she'd be here tonight?"
"No. It didn't, Aria. I haven't seen her since last summer, and she was a TA then."
God Ezra, who cares if she was a TA then? She worked there and now you're working there too! She's the one who broke the relationship off, not you! How do I know that she won't find some way to get back together with you? She's your age and your relationship with her would be legal! The two of you would be able to do everything you wish you could do with me. You almost married her! I though to myself.
"But I can't help but think that you still have feelings for her." I said bitterly. "There's no other reason for you to keep that from me!" I rationalized.
"She is not a part of my life anymore." He assured me.
"Yes she is!" I exclaimed, unable to handle his beating around the bushes any longer. Why was he acting like this? "She's downstairs having wine with my dad!" I bit out.
"I screwed up!" He exclaimed, probably just to keep me in the room a few moments longer.
"Not telling me about her was a lie."
"I'm sorry." He shook his head, disappointed with himself.
I shook my head at him. "Until today, you were the one guy who had never lied to me." I left the room, unable to handle his lies any longer.
"Whoa, honey, are you okay?" Dianne asked as she put an arm around my shoulders.
"Y-yeah. Of course. What do you mean?" I looked up at her in confusion.
What was wrong with me? Was I okay? I had just found out Ezra had a fiancée that he failed to tell me about!
"You kind of spaced out." Ezra's brother commented.
So that's what I looked like when I remembered memories.
"Are you sure, you look really pale. Ezra, get her a glass of water." Dianne said.
I thanked Ezra as he handed me a glass of water. I took a sip of it, letting the ice-cold water sooth my throat.
I had to talk to him in private. I needed to know why he lied to me about Jackie.
"Care to explain what just happened?" William asked Ezra.
Ezra looked at me questioningly, as if asking permission to tell his parents about my accident.
I nodded slightly. I knew that if I kept spacing out like this, there were sure to ask more questions and the truth would come out eventually.
"Aria got hurt a while back, and it caused her to lose some of her memories." Ezra explained.
"Oh dear. You poor girl!" Dianne put her hand over her mouth in shock as she sat down next to me on the couch.
"How much did you forget?" William asked curiously.
I took a deep breath before answering. "Everything about Ezra and some very important things about one of my best friends." I kept out the part about forgetting about my stalker for good reason. I really was not in the mood to explain who A was.
"She forgot everything about you?" Dianne asked Ezra, sympathetically. "Were you together back then?"
Ezra nodded. "It was hard, but most of her memories have come back. There are just a few that are still… hiding themselves."
"Well I'm glad you're doing better now, Aria." William said.
I smiled, in thanks.
"But you didn't answer our other question." Ezra's brother piped up. "Why'd you wait so long to tell us you were seeing someone?"
"We wanted to tell her parents first." Ezra explained uncomfortably, thankfully leaving out some very big reasons why we didn't tell his parents about us.
"Why? Aren't we as equally as important?" Dianne joked.
Ezra shifted uncomfortably. "There were some… complications, we had to overcome before we could tell her parents. We told them first because her parents actually live in Rosewood." He explained.
I shared an uncomfortable glance with Ezra, both of us clearly unsure of what to say next.
"Ezra?" I looked at him nervously. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" I tilted my head towards his bedroom as I silently told him to meet me in there.
"We'll be right back." Ezra told his parents, as he followed me out of the room, leaving his parents and brother confused in the living room.
"What just happened?" I asked frantically as I sat down on the bed in shock. Before he could speak, I interrupted him. "Your parents are here. How much do they know? What do they know? Oh my god, how old do they think I am? Are they going to flip out like my parents did? I'm not ready for this! Oh my god, why didn't you tell me? They're going to kill us when they find out the truth! Oh god, they probably hate me alr-" My rant was abruptly cut off as I felt Ezra's lips against mine. I relaxed into the kiss as he kissed me softly and gently, helping me relax my nerves.
"Shh.." He whispered against my lips.
He placed his hands on either side of my face as he stared into my eyes. "Calm down. Don't worry yourself over nothing."
I took a deep breath as my heartbeat slowed down.
"They don't know anything. And they don't need to know anything that we don't want to tell them." He assured me.
Clearly he hadn't told his parents about us, so how much was he planning on telling them about us now?
"If they ask me how old I am, what am I supposed to say?"
Ezra sat down next to me on the bed. "Honestly, I don't know. I was just as unprepared for this as you are. They called me an hour ago and told me they were driving down to Rosewood from New York. I called you to tell you not to come over in case you were planning to, but obviously you didn't get my message."
"I'm sorry. I was arguing with my dad."
Ezra let out a dry laugh. "I'm sure if and when my parents find out the truth about us, my family will blow up just as much as yours. If not more."
I caressed his cheek and tilted his head so he was looking at me. "Hey," I said softly. "Our parent's opinions don't matter right now. The only thing that's important is that we love each other."
"Sometimes love isn't enough." Ezra whispered.
I shook my head at him in disbelief. Where did he get that from? How could he say something like that? After everything Ezra and I have been through? "How could you say that?" I whispered in shock. "You are the last person whose mouth those words should be coming out of! Have you forgotten that I forgot everything about you?"
"How could I forget that, Aria?" He asked me angrily as he got up from the bed. "I'm in love with you! When you woke up in that hospital bed and asked me who I was… I didn't think I would ever get you back again. I was in love with someone who had no idea who I was." He reminded me.
"Well I know who you are now." I stood up from the bed and wrapped my arms around his neck. "And I love you." I said as I brushed a lock of his hair away from his eyes. "So let's just go back in there and see what happens. We can tell them that I'm sixteen and that we met at Snookers, but we don't need to tell them that I was your student if you don't want to. Personally, I'd rather not." I confessed.
He took a deep breath and nodded in agreement. "Okay. Let's go." He took my hand in his and led me back into the living room.
"There you two are. Everything okay? We heard some yelling." Dianne asked curiously.
"Yeah." I smiled at Ezra knowingly. "Everything is fine."
"I'd like to meet your family. Wouldn't that be fun? All of us having dinner together?" Dianne smiled.
I smirked at Ezra, knowing both of us knew exactly how disastrous a dinner with the Fitz's and Montgomery's would go down. One family knows that Ezra was my ex English teacher, and the other family thinks that Ezra and I were just an ordinary couple.
"Wait." Ezra's father suddenly said. "You said your name is Aria?"
I nodded in confusion.
"Montgomery?" He asked, looking at me skeptically.
"Y-yeah." I replied.
"Did you give Ezra this book?" He held up the book in his hands that he had been looking through.
I nodded, confused on why the fact that I had bought Ezra a book was such a big issue.
All of a sudden, the pieces clicked and I quickly realized why Ezra's father was confused. However, it was too late. William had already read the note I had scribbled on the front page.
"Why do you say that you'll miss him in class and why do you call him Mr. Fitz?"
I won't be able to update for a few weeks because I have finals coming up, but after school gets out, I'll be completely free! Hope you guys liked this, please review!