Happy Christmas everybody :) This story was inspired by Lily Allen's version of Somewhere Only We Know (which is written by Oasis), and which I suggest listening to either before you read this or during as it really helps set the tone of the story. Enjoy. Also, there's a line borrowed from The Fault In Our Stars near the end.
"I walked across an empty land,
I knew the pathway like the back of my hand."
Aria.
Snow was falling in thick flurries, covering the small town of Rosewood in a thick blanket of frosty white. Children rejoiced and spent hours building igloos and snow men until their fingers turned blue, and their mothers called them in with threats of coal and Jack Frost. Adults marvelled at the beauty and enjoyed the subtle romance that was a Winter Wonderland, even if it meant they had to spend half an hour defrosting their cars every morning. School was out and the old buildings in the town square were smothered with lights, making the whole place shine. Trees were in every window, and wreathes on every door. It was a magical time for the small town in Pennsylvania as they celebrated the magic of Christmas and the love of family.
Aria Montgomery, however, was not exactly feeling the Christmas cheer that had settled into the hearts of her friends and family. It was Christmas Eve and she had been invited by the girls to go into Philly and get some last minute shopping done, but she had declined, opting instead to stay in bed and watch the snow flutter past her window, cursing the cold and frost as she shivered beneath her duvet. She could hear Mike and her dad outside laughing as they pelted snow balls at each other from behind the forts they had built the day before, and wished that she could find it in herself to join with the festivities but her mind could only focus on one thing, or rather one *missing* thing: Ezra.
They had been broken up for little over a month now and as much as she knew that it had been the smart decision for everybody involved, both emotionally and financially, the knowledge that they would not be kissing under mistletoe, or swapping overly expensive presents which they swore they wouldn't buy this year, or even taking a walk through the fresh snow on Christmas morning killed her. Christmas had always been her favourite time of the year, until Maggie the Grinch stole it. It wasn't fair.
As the snow continued to fall, Aria sighed and flipped onto her back staring at the stick-on stars she had stuck up there when she was ten. Alison had called them tacky and childish, but Aria had liked looking at them, their glow made her smile even in the pitch dark. The room was gloomy enough now that they were emitting a faded glow, as if shining brightly each night had tired them out and the dull light they gave out was all they had left to give. Aria stood up and tore them off the ceiling, tired of everything in her life feeling half empty or just good enough. The adhesive left holes in the paint.
"I felt the earth beneath my feet,
Sat by the river and it made me complete."
Ezra.
"Can I get another please?"
"Coming right up, buddy."
Ezra Fitz was sitting alone in Rosewood's only pub. It was grubby and had a weird smell, but Ezra was grateful for its lack of Christmas cheer, glad to have escaped the tacky lights and tinsel every member of Rosewood bar him seemed to adore.
It was not that Ezra hated Christmas, in fact usually at this time on Christmas Eve he would be dressed in his favourite Rudolf jumper and gorging himself on mince pies. This year, however, with everything that had transpired over the last few weeks he wasn't exactly in the festive mood. Losing both his girlfriend and who he thought had been his son had turned the happy-go-lucky twenty five year old into a bitter man. To make it worse, Aria wouldn't even talk to him. Her attitude towards him was colder than the snow which had been falling consistently for the past three days.
The bar tender passed him his third tumbler of scotch and Ezra downed it in one before placing thirty dollars on the counter and exiting the place where he had met the love of his life fifteen months prior, leaving the bar staff who knew him by name now a hefty tip. He really had to find a new place to drink.
He made his way out of the warm pub and out into the blinding light of Rosewood's town square, stuffing his hands into his jacket pockets. The lights gave him a headache and he walked briskly, hoping to get away from the heartache that usually settled in his heart any time he saw a family or couple enjoying the seasonal festivities. It made him think of all the things he had planned to do with Aria to celebrate their joint favourite time of year. His mind wandered back to the box under his bed, which contained the dozen or so small presents he had gotten her, and a familiar ache settled into his stomach. They were for the dust bunnies now.
"Oh simple thing, where have you gone?
I'm getting old and I need something to rely on."
Aria.
"Hey, Aria! Are you coming to join us?"
Aria looked up from her seat on the porch where she was pulling on her Docs over the thick leggings she had on, having moved from her place in bed for the first time all day. It was four fifteen. Mike was standing opposite her, his cheeks flushed and his hair full of the snow he had been too slow to dodge. She smiled at his youthful appearance, glad to see him enjoying himself for once without walking around with the weight of the world on his shoulders. But still, she couldn't bring herself to join in.
Straightening up from her hunched over position, Aria looked at her brother and frowned.
"Sorry, Mike," she said, softly. "Not tonight."
"Whatever," he replied snarkily, pushing past her and into the house. Aria looked after him and felt worse than she did already; she needed to clear her head.
Walking down the steps, she saw her father hastily moulding a fresh pile of ammunition to launch at his son.
"Dad, I'm going for a walk," she announced to him. He eyed her for a minute before nodding and going back to his snow.
Aria walked down her street, looking into her neighbours' windows and feeling a deep envy when she saw their seemingly carefree happy faces. She knew that she had no idea what was going on in their lives, but she was letting herself wallow in her own self pity, the image of dreary stars which were scattered on her floor making its way to the forefront of her mind.
After ten minutes she found herself on the outskirts of Rosewood's town square, watching the happy shoppers and smiling people go about their business. She wondered if Ezra was here with his new insta-family and felt her heart break a little more.
Turning away from the brightly lit square she went to cross the street and head towards the brew for a cup of their spiced ginger latte, but stopped in her tracks when her eyes landed on a tall man, his hands stuffed in his pockets, gazing at the large pine tree in the centre of the square.
"Ezra," she breathed.
"So tell me when you're gonna let me in,
I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin."
Ezra.
Walking along the icy streets on his way home, Ezra could not keep his mind off of Aria, wondering if she was sitting at home drinking hot chocolate with the girls or out ice skating with that guy Jake he had seen her with a few times. He hated that guy with a passion, solely because he was a symbol of Aria's ability to move on, and his inability to follow her lead. Jealousy and loneliness bubbled in his stomach. Making a decision, he turned around and headed back towards the pub, resigning himself to getting drunk alone on Christmas Eve for the first time. Merry fricken' Christmas, everybody.
He reached the edge of the square again and that is when he saw her, wrapped up in a dark blue coat with an adorable woolly hat on her head. She was staring at some guy across the street from her with the biggest grin on her face that he had ever seen and it made his heart ache. All of a sudden, the only thing he wanted to do was crawl into his bed and hide under the covers so he could pretend that none of the things that had happened were real.
He shook his head and searched Aria out again but she was nowhere to be seen. With a heavy heart, he changed direction again and headed back towards the achingly empty apartment 3B.
"I came across a fallen tree,
I felt the branches of it looking at me."
Aria.
Aria's cheeks were flaming red as she walked away from the man who had not been Ezra, but in fact a married man who was waiting for his wife to come back from the coffee stand. He had found the whole thing rather hilarious but Aria couldn't believe that her mind had convinced her that he was Ezra. With a sigh, she turned back onto her original path towards The Brew.
For some reason, hot tears were starting to fill her eyes, and she realised that it was because a part of her had believed that she would find Ezra out there in the bleak winter snow. She knew that she was still hanging onto the idea that they would find their way back to each other, but decided that maybe it was time to start letting him go, and let the ice surrounding her heart in to extinguish the flame she still held for her former lover.
Blinking away the tears, she burrowed further into her coat and continued on her way to The Brew. The degrees were dropping and she could definitely feel Jack frost nipping at her fingers and toes. The wind was picking up and she struggled to hold onto her scarf. She lost the battle eventually and groaned in frustration as she watched it flutter away into the cold afternoon air.
Finally, she reached the café owned by her mother's boyfriend. She would miss her mother around the Christmas table, too, the empty seat would be a stark reminder of everything that had changed this year.
Pushing the heavy door open she heard the jingle of the bell above the hinge and shook the snow off of her shoulders and head, shivering as the warm air hit her frozen limbs.
"Is this the place we used to love?
Is this the place that I've been dreaming of?"
Ezra.
As Ezra made his way home, he couldn't help but think about Aria and the way she had smiled at that man. It was like all her Christmases had come at once, and it stung. It stung his ego because some part of him was hoping that she was missing him as much as he was missing her this Christmas. His thoughts wandered back to how they had been the previous Christmas, when their only worry had been keeping their relationship a secret, and his jealous ex Jackie working at Hollis. It had been such a simpler time.
Now, though, he just wished he could convince Aria to give them another chance. He would do anything for her, she knew that, he had told her himself. He just wanted her back in his life. He missed everything about her from the feathers in her hair that would tickle his face when they hugged to gentle click of her heels on his hard wood floor to the light in her eyes whenever they would make love. More than anything, though, he missed her being his.
Ezra's meditative thoughts were interrupted as something flew into his face and obscured his vision. Chuckling, he pulled it away from his face, noticing that it was a skull-patterned scarf. It looked vaguely familiar but he shrugged it off, presuming that he had seen it on a student or something.
He looked around him for the owner of the scarf but the only person he could see was at the end of the street stepping into The Brew. He figured it was theirs so picked up his pace, jogging carefully on the icy pavement to catch up with the now scarfless person.
He hopped up the icy steps to the coffee shop and pushed open the door. The room was vacant except for the barista when he walked in, making Ezra frown. He had been so certain that he had seen a woman walk in.
"Can I help you, sir?" Asked the girl from behind the counter.
"Did a woman just come in here?" He asked, looking around again for the mysterious person.
"She's just gone to the restroom," she replied. Placing what Ezra presumed was the woman's coffee on the counter.
"Oh, well, she dropped her scarf," Ezra told her, holding up the offending article. He placed it beside the coffee before bidding the barista a very Happy Christmas and making his way back out the door, shivering as the flurries of snow hit his face.
"Oh simple thing, where have you gone?
I'm getting old and I need something to rely on."
Aria.
When Aria returned from her quick visit to the ladies room, she was confused to see her scarf resting beside her grande coffee.
"Where did this come from?" She asked the girl behind the counter, squinting at her nametag and learning that her name was Ivana.
"A man brought it in, he said you dropped it," Ivana replied as she cleaned down the coffee machine. Aria looked around herself but saw nobody.
"What man?"
"He left. I've seen him around before, though. I think he teaches my sister at Rosewood High… Mr Fitz, or something."
"So tell me when you're gonna let me in
I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin."
Ezra.
Ezra was half way down the street when it suddenly clicked in his mind where he had seen that scarf before. He turned around, intending to march back into The Brew and take the scarfless woman in his arms. He bounded up the steps, slipping slightly on the ice that had accumulated there. He took a moment to right himself and was about to open the door when it suddenly swung open itself, bringing him face-to-face with the woman he had been searching for the entire night, and if he was honest with himself, his entire life, too.
"Aria," he breathed.
"And if you have a minute why don't we go
Talk about it somewhere only we know?"
Aria.
"Aria," Ezra breathed, the heat of his breath sending a puff of white up towards the sky.
The pair stood staring at each other for a long time, long enough for their fingers to start to go numb despite the warmth Aria was letting escape The Brew. Her coffee was forgotten in her hands as she took in the sight of her ex-boyfriend, not quite believing that he was real and in front of her. Sure, Rosewood was a small town, but she learnt long ago that the world was not a wish-granting factory, and could never have foretold that she would bump into the one person she wanted to see more than anything.
"Thanks for the scarf," she blurted out eventually, mentally smacking herself in the head. Out of all the things she wanted to say to Ezra that was far from top of the list. He chuckled slightly, making her insides melt.
"You're welcome." He scuffed his shoe on the ground.
"Do you want to-" he began.
"Can we-" Aria said at the same time. The two of them laughed, both at their awkwardness and at the cliché moment. It was silent for a moment.
"Happy Christmas!" Ezra said suddenly, flashing Aria his famous boyish grin.
"You're such a Christmas dork," Aria chuckled, wondering if it was okay for her to be playful with him.
"I used to be your Christmas dork, you know," Ezra replied, a smile still on his face despite the sadness that crept into Aria's heart at the statement.
"Sorry to interrupt the moment, or whatever this is," came the voice of Ivana from behind Aria, "But y'all are letting the snow in." Aria and Ezra shuffled awkwardly as they mumbled apologies, both embarrassed for annoying the barista. "Oh," Ivana added, "And you're standing under mistletoe."
"This could be the end of everything
So why don't we go somewhere only we know?"
Ezra.
Ezra watched as Ivana disappeared into The Brew, shutting the door over behind her, before turning his attention back to Aria, noticing that a blush had made its way onto her face. Butterflies began to flutter in his stomach as he imagined kissing her again, imagined being her Christmas dork once more. He debated just going for it, just swooping in and pressing his frozen lips to hers, not giving her time to pull away. But the adult and teacher in him knew that he shouldn't. But he wanted to. Badly.
"What are you waiting for?"
Aria's voice was so quiet that Ezra almost did not hear it, but once he registered her words his eyes went wide, searching hers for confirmation that this was what she wanted.
"What?" he asked.
"It's mistletoe, Ezra, there's kind of a tradition involved, or did they not teach you that Upstate?" Aria's voice was teasing and she shot him the most adorable smile he had ever seen.
"I'll show you tradition," he replied, not leaving her time to reply before he pressed his lips to hers. Aria kissed him back without any hesitation, making him smile into the kiss as they warmed each other up with the spark that only they could create.
"Somewhere only we know."
The last line is so cheesy it hurts, but I couldn't think of anything else. Hope you enjoyed, and drop a review if you did/didn't. Temptation should be updated before the New Year :)
-Katie