So sorry for the late update, but I tried to make it up to you with this chapter. However, my classes started again so I'm really busy at the moment so I'm gonna need some motivation for the next one.. So drop me a review or EzrA Fitz will hide in your closet (I know you wouldn't mind but whatever).

Parts in italics are basically Ezra thinking about the time he met Aria. As always, huge thanks to Marcia794 for her patience :) Enjoy!

*This chapter is for Jessie xo*

Chapter 11 - Nothing Wrong About Us

Ezra's POV

"Colpo di fulmine. The thunderbolt, as Italians call it. When love strikes someone like lightning, so powerful and intense it can't be denied. It's beautiful and messy, cracking a chest open and spilling their soul out for the world to see. It turns a person inside out, and there's no going back from it. Once the thunderbolt hits, your life is irrevocably changed." - J.M. Darhower, Sempre

The bell rang and the whole class started gathering their things to go, after I assigned them their homework for next time. Class today had been a blur; my mind was focused on one thing, as always. Being with Aria again after all this time was making concentration more than difficult, as images from the night we had kept invading my mind and making me lose it a little now and then.

8.30 am. She's always here once the classroom is free of first period's students. My mind wandered again back to her determined face while she was possibly working on how to handle this new situation before her. I knew that she would never trust me again that easily. I had kept the truth from her again and again and there was more to come. She didn't know yet about my past with Alison and although it had barely been my fault, I had known her. I had kissed her best friend in a bar and I had kept all this stuff from her. She would never forgive me. But I wanted to be honest with her from now on, so first I confessed about everything that happened when I first saw her in this classroom, one year and a half ago.

The moment I turned around to face my class, my eyes seemed to focus on their own on a single face among the others. It was the first face I wanted to see; but the last face I wanted to see in my classroom. I couldn't believe what was happening to me, my thoughts and feelings just summed up in a single phrase that escaped my lips too. Not a good way to present yourself in your first class ever.

Way to go, Mr. Fitz.

The most amazing girl I had ever laid eyes on was sitting there, one row over the windows, looking at me with her huge hazel eyes and a shocked expression that sure as hell mirrored mine. How could this happen? Only hours ago we were making out in a bathroom and now she was there, she was my student and I had to start teaching her English literature. I was so screwed.

And not only that, but she also was Aria Montgomery. Montgomery. She was Byron's daughter. This couldn't be happening to me...

In addition to that, the weirdest thing happened after our class came to an end. My phone rang with a new text message and my breath was caught in my throat, as the phone slipped from my fingers and crushed on the desk with a loud bang.

'I see you keep repeating your mistakes, falling in love with a minor again? Dianne wouldn't be happy with her son; at all.

Does orange fit you btw? xoxo -A'

What the hell was that? Who the hell was A? How did they know about my past with Alison? How did they know about Aria? And what did my mother have to do with all this? And what was that about oran.. Oh. Right. Jail.

I didn't know if I was falling for Aria, and I sure as hell hadn't fallen for Alison, but that A was right. Aria hadn't been my student the previous night but she was my student now and starting an affair with her would be illegal, unethical, stupid and dangerous. For both of us. No matter how much I would love to feel her lips on mine again and her small hands tangled in my hair as our mouths consumed each other, it was wrong. It may have been love at first sight, but I had to let go.

8.35 am. Where was Aria?

I had made my decision. I would talk to her and make it clear that we would never see each other again outside this classroom. And then she stormed in, more beautiful than I remembered her, still that brave little girl with the huge hazel eyes. She said that our new situation didn't change things, that she was still the same girl who had me amazed a few hours ago, that we could still be together. Of course, that couldn't happen. No matter how much I wanted her, I couldn't risk everything, like my place in Rosewood High. Which, by the way, I had because of her father.

When I first spotted her sitting in that bar I thought 'Who is this girl?'.And Aria might claim that she was still that girl, but this wasn't true. She was my student now. What would people think about her, having an affair with her English teacher? And of course, the idea of the orange uniform was not at all appealing.

However, the fact that I first thought of her, the consequences to her reputation, indicated that I was already falling for her. Mildly translated; I was so screwed.

It was difficult to pretend that I didn't care about her but the messages kept coming and there was nothing I could do. Someone knew about us and if I did anything to win her back they could possibly turn me in. I had no idea who this person was and what they wanted from me. Maybe money? The first text mentioned my mother, so maybe it was a psycho who knew my last name was Fitzgerald and wanted to threaten me. I wasn't so afraid of the police though; there was another message that got my attention.

I had learnt from Aria that Alison had been her best friend (well, I already knew that, but I could see in her eyes how much she loved her) and she was in so much pain about the loss. As a result, I knew that revealing my past with Alison to her would make her hate me. The text that had me scared as hell said that Aria would receive photos of me and Alison kissing if I didn't end what we had. What did we have though? We had nothing yet, and we would never get the chance to make it something beautiful. How could I do this to her?

However, when I saw her in the church, so fragile and sad, I knew there was nothing to be done. I needed to be with her, I wanted to protect her and make her smile again. I had to be with my Aria. Wait - had I just said my Aria?

8.40 am. Was she okay?

I was afraid that this freaky person would I talk to her and I really didn't want to lose her. Once I made the decision that no matter what the odds I would fight for that girl, I made a deal with A to keep their mouth shut. I didn't know what the future would bring but the idea of being with her made everything else seem little and unimportant.

8.42 am. I am calling her.

After Aria reassured me that she was okay and that she would be here in a few, my mind went back to worrying again. Last night, she hadn't let me explain further. And a small part of me regretted it; she had to finally know the truth. I didn't want to keep lying to her, I hated myself for that.

But a bigger part of me was glad that she didn't let me talk. Firstly, because I had missed her. Like hell. And I needed this more than I could admit, even to myself. I needed her. Secondly, because deep inside I knew that once I talked to her, it would be over. The future I always dreamed of with her would be crumbling down around us in the blink of an eye. Aria was stubborn, so stubborn, and she wouldn't let this go. Ever. She couldn't stand being lied to. I knew this from the very beginning but I chose a small amount of time with her until it would all be over, rather that not having her at all. I didn't have the strength to let her go. When she was telling me that she loved me and she would keep fighting for us I believed her; but I also knew that she would change her mind soon.

The bell rang and just then I noticed that the classroom was almost full of my second period's students. Just when I was about to stand up and make a brief plan on today's class on the blackboard, four pairs of high heels stormed by the door.

''Sorry we're late, Mr. Fitz!'' Spencer said in an apologetic way, looking at the floor as the group walked in the classroom and towards their desks. Only for a moment, I caught Aria's eyes and noticed a light blush covering her cheeks. And at the moment I knew that her friends knew everything that had happened last night, good and bad stuff.

'Good morning, everyone.' I said out loud and turned to the board. Once I was finished, I launched in to day's class on our last novel, Jekyll and Hyde. How ironic, I thought. Little did I know that a single student wouldn't let my job be so easy today. I was sitting behind my desk correcting some papers while the class was working on a brief essay about the novel, when my phone vibrated with a new text message.

'Those pants look extremely sexy on you Mr. Fitz - Aria'

I cleared my throat and looked up just to find her hazel eyes looking straight into my blue ones. I tried to hide my smirk as I tore my eyes from her gorgeous face and typed my response. She never signed her texts with a simple 'A' for obvious reasons.

'You are supposed to be working right now. Don't make your English teacher mad at you. - E'

I looked up again and saw a mischievous grin spreading on her full lips. Only moments after my reply, my phone vibrated again.

'I wouldn't mind being punished for my disobedience ;) - Aria'

I saw her staring at me under her long eyelashes, her bottom lip captured between her teeth. I coughed and adjusted myself in my pants, and then I made a show of putting my phone back in my briefcase. Aria had a huge pout on her face and I gave her a smile, shaking my head. When she kept the same expression, totally disappointed at me, I winked at her and went back to my work, trying to ignore the way she had crossed her legs and the way she was still biting her lip, knowing that it drove me crazy.

Last night I was so afraid that she would hate me today. And I was secretly glad that she attacked me on that couch, in case that was our last chance to be together. What if she never wanted to see me again? Once I told her what I had done all these months, once she learned about Alison, how I knew about her father's secret, how I had got my job in Rosewood High..

The chances of being with her after all those revelations were really slight but I would try and fight to make her see that once I met her, everything had been about her. My whole life had changed into an endless fight to keep her safe and keep her mine. She could even hate me, but she could never doubt my love for her.

The bell rang and brought me out of my thoughts as the students handed me their essays and emptied the class one by one. Aria remained in her seat and once everyone was out, she stood up and came in front of my desk.

''So..?'' She trailed off and I indifferently looked up to my sexy girlfriend.

''Is there anything you need, Miss Montgomery?" I used my teacher-like voice that made her roll her eyes. Then she leaned closer so I had a full and fantastic view of her cleavage.

"My punishment." She whispered seductively and I groaned.

"You really should stop doing this in class, Aria." I said and averted my eyes from her beautiful.. everything.

"A promise is a promise, Mr. Fitz." She giggled when my eyes bugged out of my head and I decided that two can play this game. I stood up and walking around my desk I came to stand in front of her and without touching her, I whispered in her ear.

"Detention will have to take place somewhere more private, don't you think?" I heard her intake of breath and my hand twitched by my side, craving for the slightest touch of her. She nodded, unable to form any coherent words as she kept her eyes on my lips. She wasn't taking that here though. "Wait for me after sixth period." I said and with a small smile I turned around and back to my desk.

From the corner of my eye I saw her smiling too, as she exited the classroom. The rest of my classes were calm and the usual - I didn't have a permanent distraction two desks over from me and that was helping me focus on my job. After sixth period ended, I couldn't hide my excitement. My encounter with Aria had been very promising and I kept trying to put aside any dirty thoughts that tried to fill my mind.

My beautiful girl was waiting for me two blocks away from school, where we usually met at situations like that and I picked her up from school to 3B. My heart skipped as I took her in; she was so beautiful I would never get used to it. She was standing on the sidewalk, playing with a lock of her long hair between her fingers, but she seemed nervous. You could say it was dangerous to pick her up from the middle of the street in daylight, but that corner of Rosewood was really silent -that's why we had chosen it- and I didn't think that anyone would notice a two seconds encounter while a girl enters an uninteresting silver car. Or I just prayed they wouldn't.

She saw me approaching and quickly checking our surroundings, she jumped in the empty passenger seat, after I opened the door for her. She gave me a smile and I took her hand interlacing our fingers as I drove to my apartment. It felt so good being with her again.

"How was your day?" I asked her, trying to make small talk.

"Good," she replied. "But nothing like second period." She said and gave me the sweetest of smiles. I laughed and brought our joined hands to my lips to leave a kiss oh her tiny hand.

"Why do you always have this thing off?" She muttered in exasperation and when I just shrugged, she turned on the radio. She instantly turned on the volume and started humming to a song I'd never heard before.

When you whisper, yeah baby when you lean in

I get that crazy crazy good kinda feeling

"Who's singing?" I asked, totally sure that I knew all of Aria's favourite songs.

"Oh, it's a new one. I love her songs!" She replied with a smile and went back to her singing, her honey voice filling the car and making the girl on the radio seem pale in comparison.

Baby you sound good to me

Baby you sound so good to me

Mm mm mm like a melody

The song was cool though; I had to give her that.

Reaching my apartment, the playful mood was soon diminished as I noticed a small frown covering Aria's face. I chose not to mention it and I silently and constantly prayed to God that she hadn't decided to make me talk about my 'secrets'.

We entered the small place and she headed for the couch, throwing her stuff on the floor and crushing on the place we've spent countless hours kissing or just holding each other. She seemed totally at each in my place and this made my heart flutter, that meant she still felt safe here, like this place belonged to her too. Which it did. I was about to offer her something to drink but I cut myself before any words could escape my lips; this would be too formal, right? This was home, she could go open the fridge and eat or drink anything she wanted (well, not now because it was basically empty), she could use her key to come and leave anytime she felt like it, she could use the shower and sleep in my bed, especially do other things on it. Speaking of which, there was a thought that kept bugging me all day. Now I was her teacher again and although we had been in the same situation more than once, we had never had sex while I was practically her teacher. Would this mean anything to her? Would it make things more complicated than what they already were?

"What are you thinking about?" Her voice echoed in the small room and I looked at her direction, trying to clear my head and give her a convincing smile.

"Nothing." I shrugged and turned to the cupboard in search of anything edible, as I hadn't been getting any food in my system for the past couple of days; only scotch. After a few silent moments I felt a tiny hand grabbing my shoulder and forcing me to turn around. I let out a heavy sigh and did so, my breath catching in my throat at the intensity of her stare.

"What's wrong?" All the previous playful mood was gone and now there was only seriousness in her eyes. Why did I keep doing this to her? Once I made her happy, I always destroyed it by doing or saying something that clouded her mood again. I hated this.

"Do you regret last night?" I let out without even thinking.

"No." She replied almost instantly, not even blinking, not thinking about it twice. "Although I have a lot of reasons to regret it, I don't." She confessed never breaking our eye contact.

"Why?" I asked her softly and absent-mindedly rested my hands on her waist, my body craving the contact, wanting to feel her warm body close to mine.

"Because of what you said earlier, because I keep lying to everyone, because now you're my teacher again.." She trailed off. Talk about soulmates. "Because now I have a boyfriend." Her words struck me and I quickly took my hands off her waist, feeling guilty like I was touching something that wasn't mine. Noticing my reaction and the confused look I had, mixed with deadly jealousy, she tried to change her earlier words.

"I mean, I'll break up with him as soon as possible. It's just.."

"Wrong." I finished the sentence for her, preferring to say this word myself than hear it from her.

"No, not wrong." She said and came closer to me again, cupping my face in her palms. "Nothing is wrong about us." she whispered and standing on her tiptoes, she touched her lips to mine.

After we spent a few hours under the covers, Aria had to leave and return to her house because her father would be asking questions; she was also muttering something about ''a dress to get rid off". She gave me one last kiss and closed the door behind her, and just like that my apartment was empty again. You'd think I would be accustomed to an empty apartment by now, considering that I had been all by myself for a while. But I really hadn't. Nobody can live on their own and I knew it so well. I couldn't live on my own and I needed Aria by my side. There was hope that I would get to keep her this time, but it was so tiny and it got lost in the part of logic inside me that screamed that my days with her were numbered..

Not being able to stay in any longer in that small room full of the scent of her shampoo and sex, I grabbed my briefcase and walked to the brew, wanting to get some fresh air in the meantime. It was early evening and Rosewood was mostly eerie, an atmosphere adding to the weirdness of this place. I arrived at the brew and occupied a small table by the brew, after ordering a big black coffee (Aria had made me addicted to coffee, although she preferred hers not so simple, adding flavors, extra milk and other things that turned the coffee into cake.)

I was in the middle of correcting a very long and pointless essay (seriously, what was in their minds?) when I saw someone on my peripheral vision walking in the brew. A moment later they approached the cashier and gave their order. That voice.. That's when I turned around and my eyes almost bugged out of my head.

"Rose?" I managed to mutter in a daze mostly to myself but obviously loud enough for her to hear it. I saw her freezing for a moment and then she slowly turned around with a surprised yet shocked look on her beautiful face.

"Ezra?" It felt so surreal meeting her after all these years, but everything felt the same. She hadn't change at all. Then she squealed and closing the distance between us she fell in my open arms, tears running down her face. I felt like a teenager again like when I would ran to her after epic fights with Dianne or when a girl had dumbed me. I gave her a tight hug with a huge grin on my face until we pulled apart and smiled at each other.

"What are you doing here?" She asked in a giddy voice, her eyes shining with tears of joy.

"No, what are you doing here? I live here." I replied taking her hands in mine; I had missed her so much.

"Actually, I just moved here." She said and bit her bottom lip. That was something Aria did all the time, something that drove me crazy. Of course, Rose doing it didn't have that effect on me. Rose was like my sister; Aria was my insanely hot girlfriend.

"Are you serious? How?" I said, not able to believe this. Rose had always been the person who made everything better, she had been the one who brought the best out of me and made my life better. All that before I lost her, of course. "You have so much explaining to do." I said in a serious tone. I've always felt betrayed by the way she left and I never stopped thinking of her.

"I know." She said and turned her gaze away. A few moments passed and she left my hands to grab her coffee from the counter. "Do you have any time?" She asked with a smile and I nodded, regaining my seat behind the small table, Rose sitting opposite of me.

"I know the way I left and never contacted you was unforgivable," she started, her eyes fixed on the cup she was holding, "but I always missed you." She finally said with a sigh and looked at me. I smiled.

"Me too." I replied and she gave me a smile of her own. "So, how have you been?" I asked and we both started laughing. Last time we saw each other was after graduation, so to say that we had some catching up to do was an understatement. Suddenly, I wanted to learn everything I had missed all these years and share with her everything that had happened in my life too.

"Well, where to begin from?" She let out a small chuckle and I nodded. Then a thought popped in my mind; how the hell would I talk to her about how I had been? You couldn't exactly describe my life as normal. Sure, I know that she would never judge me for my choices, but revealing my life to her would be weird. Leaving A out, even.

"What did you do after school ended?" That was something easy to begin with.

"I studied Law, in Paris."

"Wow." I replied and she rolled her eyes. "But I didn't know that you hated everything here so much that you would move an ocean away." She chuckled and shook her head, but suddenly she seemed uneasy.

"And you? Hot english teacher or..?" She trailed off and arched an eyebrow at me. I laughed and nodded, my passion for literature and writing was something everyone knew from a young age.

"Pretty much." I replied and she laughed until her smile turned into a frown.

"Is.." She took a deep breath. "Is he okay?" She asked with her lips pursed and I noticed that her eyes were getting wet. She didn't need to explain who the question was about. Hardy.

"He's fine." I replied and smiled at her, making smile too as she gathered a tear that escaped her eye.

"I owe you an apology, Ezra." She said in a small voice.

"You don't owe me anything. I just need to know that your life has turned out to be the way you imagined it." I said, taking her hands in mine once again. Her past with Hardy had basically destroyed our friendship. The three of us used to be inseparable during high school, but after they became something more than friends things changed. "Are you happy?'' I asked.

She looked at me but she wasn't really seeing me and I realized that her story would be complicated too. She just shook her head and smiled sadly and there was pain in her eyes. Just when I was about to ask her for more, my phone vibrated. I left her hands and grabbed it from where it was placed on the small table, smiling when I saw who the text was from.

'I know it sounds pathetic, but I already miss you. xo Aria'

Rose cleared her throat and I instantly looked up to find her looking at me closely, a grin on her lips.

"What's her name?" She asked and I couldn't hide my own smile, even though it had been years she still knew me so well.

"Aria. She's the most amazing girl I've ever met." I replied, "no offense." I added, making us both laugh.

"Is she a teacher too?" She asked me, still smiling and I could see in her eyes that she was happy for me. It was a pity her smile would fade after my answer to her question.

"No, she's not." I said and my face became serious while she seemed confused. "But she is in the school I work, just not as a teacher." Rose looked at me still confused, until my last words sank in and probably her lawyer instincts kicked in too, because her mouth gaped open and she gave me an incredulous look.

"Dude, you are so screwed."

Maybe they hadn't realized it yet, but she and Hardy had to be soulmates.

See you soon - hopefully.

Love you xo