Previously:

"Good morning beautiful." Ezra said, bringing his face up to give her a soft kiss.

"Morning" Aria mumbled sleepily as she yawned, stretching. "What time is it?"

Ezra didn't respond. Aria turned to look at him. Ezra's smile had vanished and had been replaced with a look of pure shock on his now pale face. Aria followed his gaze, her own face turning pale when she realized what Ezra was staring at. Her eyes started to blur with unshed tears as she stared at her bare arm, which had been in full view for Ezra to see when she'd stretched, revealing the angry red marks that she had made just two nights ago.

Chapter 11:

"Oh my God!" Ezra said, sitting up and grabbing Aria's arm. She tried to pull it away but Ezra's grip was firm. "Aria, why would you do something like this?"

Aria stared at the ground as tears formed beneath her eyes. "Let go of me." she said quietly.

"No." Ezra said. "I'm not letting go until you talk to me. I've given you space and that's clearly not working if you're doing something like this to yourself!" he said, waving Aria's arm in front of her face.

Aria stared silently at the ground.

"Aria, we can sit here all day for all I care but you're not going anywhere until you talk to me." Ezra said firmly.

"Why? So you can just send me to a psychiatrist?" Aria spat.

"I told you I wouldn't force you to see a psychiatrist, but right now I'm seriously considering." Ezra shot back.

"You're not my parent, you can't force me to do anything!" Aria said angrily.

"No, but I'm pretty sure that you don't want your parents to find out about this." Ezra said.

"Are you seriously threatening to tell my parents?" Aria asked angrily. "Because I don't have enough to deal with as it is!"

Ezra took a deep breath and tried to control his anger. "Aria, I know that you're dealing with a lot, but this" he gestured to Aria's arm, which he was still holding. "is not the way to cope with these things."

"How I deal with my problems is my business not yours." Aria said, trying again to free her arm from Ezra's grip.

"I'm sorry for trying to care about the girl that I'm in love with." Ezra replied angrily. "Aria, I get that you're upset about everything that happened but can't keep shutting everyone out like this and then doing things to yourself and expecting us not to worry."

Aria was silent for a moment before responding. "I don't want to be here right now."

"Well, until you talk to me you're not going anywhere." Ezra replied.

"You can't force me to stay here." Aria said. "I have school."

"I think this is more important than school and I can call your mom and tell her that you're not coming because you had something to deal with. So yes, I can force you to stay here." Ezra said evenly.

If looks could kill, Ezra would be more than dead. Aria glared at him with so much anger that he almost backed down but he knew that he couldn't, not if he wanted Aria to get better.

"You can glare at me all day but I'm not just going to stand by and watch you ruin your life." Ezra stated.

Aria continued to glare.

"The sooner you talk, the sooner you can leave." Ezra promised.

"You know what Ezra?!" Aria shouted suddenly. "You want me to talk? Well here it is. I saw my best friend lying in a car with blood all over her. If that's not enough, everyone's always looking at me, waiting for me to snap. Oh, and let's add the fact that my friends and family think I need to go to a freaking psychiatrist because I'm crazy!"

The room was completely silent after Aria's outburst as Ezra stared at her, stunned. Aria glared back at him, tears streaming down her face.

Finally Ezra broke out of his trance and tried to wipe the tears from Aria's face but she jerked her head away from his hands. Ezra let his hands drop to his lap before looking at Aria and speaking.

"When I was in middle school I watched my best friend die of cancer." Ezra said, catching Aria off guard. She opened her mouth to say something but Ezra shook his head, gesturing that he wasn't finished. "We had been best friends since we were in diapers and from the day he was diagnosed I felt helpless. Ryan always put on a brave front, acting like everything was normal because he knew how all this was affecting me. Through all his treatments and finally, his last few days, Ryan knew how I felt and he was always trying to keep my mind off of his cancer, instead trying to keep me busy with basketball or video games, things like that. But the day he died, I was so upset and angry at the world for taking my best friend away that I started doing things that I'd never normally do. I started picking fights with the older kids, talking back to my teachers, pushing my friends and family away and just lying in my bed for hours, staring at a picture of Ryan and wishing that I could just see him one more time. After a few weeks my parents forced me to go to a psychiatrist. I was literally kicking and screaming all the way there and I wouldn't say a word when I was with the psychiatrist. But then, one day the psychiatrist started to tell me about how she'd lost someone dear to her too, and she told me that was why she'd become a psychiatrist. Little by little, I started telling her more and more about Ryan, how he was always there for me, how he'd always kick my butt at basketball, how he always managed to make me laugh when I was angry. And, little by little, I started to look forward to my appointments, to share my memories with Dr. Brooks. She really helped me and I started to be less irritable, started studying harder. I found a purpose for living again, and I wish that I had gone to Dr. Brooks sooner."

Ezra hadn't even realized he was crying until he felt Aria's hand wiping away his tears. He looked up at her and smiled, taking her hand in his.

"I'm so sorry." she whispered. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Ezra shrugged. "It still hurts to talk about. The pain never completely goes away, you just have to learn the right way to deal with it."

Aria nodded and took a deep breath. "Maybe you're right. Maybe it's time for me to see a psychiatrist." she said with a faint smile on her face.

"Are you sure?" Ezra asked. "Because I promised you that I wouldn't force you into this."

Aria nodded. "I'm sure. Thank you for sticking with me through all of this. I know I haven't exactly been easy to get along with lately but hopefully that will change soon."

Ezra held Aria's hands, rubbing gentle circles on them with his thumbs. "I'll stand by you no matter what. That's a promise."

Aria smiled. "Let's go book me an appointment for my psychiatrist." she said, squeezing Ezra's hand before getting up.

Sorry this chapter is extremely sad. It was necessary. I might be posting a happy one-shot soon though, so stay tuned for that! Please Review! It really makes my day to hear from you guys and I really want to know what you guys think of the story, or if you have any suggestions or anything let me know, even if it's a typo or something small (I hate typos, they drive me mad when I see them).

xo Sobia