Here is the next chapter to this story. I'm sorry if you've read my comment on the last chapter about this crazy stalker that keeps on leaving me stupid comments on my reviews. IDK what is wrong with this person; but I think that that person needs to just keep their death threats to themselves because I am getting sick of it. If you don't want to read my OCD-Bipolar story don't read it. Why do you have to wish death on someone that is just stupid-you're stupid.
But anyway that's just ticks me off. And I'm sorry for my ranting and go ahead and read the next chapter. I swear I am trying so hard to finish up my other story but the truth is I am just stuck on it. So hopefully something will come to me and I will be able to finish off the rest of the chapter I already have.
Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with Pretty Little Liars and everything about Ezra being -A or hearing about him being -A is just making my head spin... I can't wait to find out the rest of his story-line.
After finally getting the confirmation about Lacy landing and settling in for the night Aria's mind was at ease. She and Jay were at the house with her head resting on his lap and Jay reading the last of his homework which mostly consisted of him grading his papers and getting his next day plan out.
With her Ipad on her lap Aria went over the next few days of her itinerary. She had two meetings in the morning both of them due to wedding planning. She had another one after lunch which is due to staffing and finding two senior volunteers for next week event at the school and the next was to get Keith Liberty's suite ready for when he arrives next month which was only two weeks away.
Carol was helping as much as she could with working on kitchen staff and housekeeping. She retrained some of the younger staff and pulled them up a rank. There really wasn't any management when they had arrived, it was mostly senior workers telling them what to do and when do to it.
"Hey," Jay graced Aria's cheek when he noticed her Ipad draping down and her eye's coming to a close, he took the Ipad away from Aria and saved her notes before placing it on the charger next to him on the coffee table, "Let's get you to bed"
Aria yawned, "I still have to finish the schedules for next week" she yawned again and reached over to get the Ipad but Jay stopped her "Please"
"No," Jay chuckled at her "You need to go to bed and I need to shower before I meet you there"
Aria closed her eyes in defeat "I'm too tired to walk upstairs, can't you just leave me here?"
"No, I don't want to sleep by myself" He mumbled pressing his lips against hers "I love you Aria"
Aria smiled "I know,"
He let out a sigh feeling that heart break. He wanted to tell Aria the truth that he would be leaving in a matter of weeks. But the thought of her face and seeing the depression and his depression of just having her here for the first time in months. Pushed all of those rightful thoughts to the side; all Jay wanted to do was spend more time with her. All the time in the world and after months of planning and getting the timing right; he didn't know if he was or will be able to be there for her during the re-grand opening.
"Come on" Jay lifted her head and wrapped her right arm around his shoulder before hoisting her up in a bridal style position
"My mucho man" Aria smirked kissing his neck "That was gross!"
Jay chuckled as he carried her up the stairs "I've been replacing flooring all day what you expected? Roses?"
Arias made a pouted face "That would be nice."
"You need some sleep. I'm going to shower and then I will join you" he kissed her lips, "Good night!"
Aria let out a loud yawn before burying her face into her pillow "Good night"
Aria knocked on the door of apartment 3B and stood there for a good few seconds before it opened up "Hey" a shirtless Ezra said moving to the side to let her in "You're early" She placed her bag down on the chair and turned to face him "I read the paper"
"I don't know what happen to Ian's body" She stated quickly feeling a little uncomfortable standing there in front of him. Just a matter of hours ago there were in his classroom talking about if they were going to break up and-
"You know you're not alone" he told her sticking his hands into his pockets and walking over to his couch, "I'm not alone" Aria said unsure and Ezra nodded "I know you have your friends but you have me too. You just don't know it"
"You said you wanted to talk" Aria asked making sure they weren't getting off track of what their conversation was supposed to be about. Them.
Ezra nodded and held his hands in front of him as he sat down on the couch, "Ask me anything and I'll tell you the truth"
Aria walked around the table and sat down on the ottoman in front of him as she asked those dying questions… When in reality all she wanted to do was forgive him; to be able to sit down next to one another and not feel that awkward tension about being with someone else.
Ezra told her answers some of what she didn't want to hear. Like still being in love with Jackie when they first met; but at least it was the truth.
"You know what I love about Saturday's?" Ezra asked looking her in the eyes and then at the wall behind her, "It's that feeling I get when I look up at you and realise we have the whole day to spend together!" he looked back at her as she repeated "I know the feeling," He pressed his lips together for a brief moment "So will you stay?"c\
"Babe" Jay said waking Aria up as she tossed and moaned out in pain. He rolled over and turned on the side lamp to see Aria's eye closed tight and her fist in a ball, "Aria!" he rubbed her arm trying to get her to release the tight clench she had on the blanket, "Please wake up!"
Aria opened her eyes and looked at Jay in shock, "What happened?" she asked looking him in the eyes with tears running down her face, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you"
Jay kissed her forehead "its okay you were just having a bad dream"
Aria lifted her head off the pillow and wiped her face before getting off the bed, "I'm sorry" She walked out of the room and headed to the bathroom to look at herself. He was right, she was crying and the dream she just had was so real. As if it happened yesterday and it was replaying over and over in her mind.
She splashed some water on her face and sat down on the edge of the tub before hearing a knock on the door, "Go back to bed I'm fine" Aria choked out, "I'm sorry I woke you!"
Aria heard Jay let out a breath before hearing a few of his steps walk away from the door. She couldn't believe that after so many years she had her first dream of Ezra. Of course she had them before but after taking her mind off of Ezra for the first couple of years when she started working at the hotel. Ezra and her never really crossed her mind until she found herself underneath him having a full on make out session. Oh the thoughts of him and her making out brought out this new sensation. She wanted to feel his touch again, having him caress her cheek his finger gingerly roaming around her outlines.
"Damn" She mumbled to herself slouching down toward the ground until her back hit the tub, "Why am I thinking about him when I have Jay?" she questioned
"Babe" Jay called again, "Can I come in?" he knocked on the door and Aria closed her eyes "Please"
"Yeah" she answered and looked up at Jay when he opened the door, "Why didn't you go back to sleep?"
"I'm worried about you" He answered truthfully "Aria this isn't the first time you'd a nightmare" she looked at him confused, "I tried to wake you up a few nights ago. I guess you don't remember, but you just pushed me aside and rubbed it off." He licked his lips and put the toilet cover down "You had slept walked last night and walked right out the door. I followed you I wanted to make sure you were okay"
"Why didn't you try and wake me?"
"It's not good to wake a sleep walker; they could have an attack or faint. I just wanted to make sure you were safe."
"Where did I go?" She asked curiously
Jay sucked in a deep breath "To an apartment building. And then when you realized that you couldn't be buzzed in you walked back home." He looked down at his fingers as the fiddled them around each other "I don't know who's apartment building is that but I figured it was in your past. You walked without hesitation and-"
"I'm sorry!" She cried cutting him off, "I- I have a lot in my past and right now I just can't talk to you about it"
Jay nodded, "I know there are things that you don't want to talk about. And I know that there are things that I can't help you with. But I want to help you. I want you to be able to talk to me and confide in me."
Aria gave him a half smile, "There's so many things that I want to tell you but I don't want to bring up the pain and suffering that I had gone through" she lied. The truth was that if she told him about what happened she would spill about going out with his best friend.
LINE BREAK
Jay sat tiredly in his classroom trying to go on with the rest of the day but when he realized that his class was just watching him doze off, he sent them to the library to have free time. He couldn't believe that after spending so much time in Iraq or out on some mission that spending one night awake with Aria would drain him. He used to be prepared for those kinds of long nights and now to him it just seemed as if he was feeling older than he looked.
"I saw your kids in the library is everything okay?" Ezra asked walked into the classroom and preaching himself up on one of the desk "Long night?"
Jay yawned" You could say that" he laughed "Its more like a long week"
Ezra nodded "Is it about Aria?" Jay remained silent "So it is. You haven't told her have you?"
"I can't" Jay rushed out "I'm scared if I tell her she's going to break up with me" He tossed the pen in his hand on the desk and rubbed his face "You don't know how hard it was for me to get Aria to even talk to me. Or look at me as if I wasn't her professor." He smiled and Ezra sat in one of the desk chairs "She looked so lost and confused. Like she didn't know what life was and I wanted to fix that. I wanted to be the one that she looked up too and talked too when needed"
Ezra tiled his head and looked at the door, "So what made her change her mind?"
He shrugged, "I was at a conference in Aspen and Aria was restoring the hotel we were at. It was a little run down so she was sent there to boost it up and we ran into each other." Jay smiled widely and thought back to that day "I told her that if we ran into one another after a year and a half than it must be fate. She had to at least let me take her out for one night."
"And then what happened?" Ezra licked his lips. He wanted to know how they got together if Aria never wanted to go out with him in the first place
"I took her to one of the fancy restaurants they had and I wooed her." Jay lent forward, "It was the most awkward dinner ever. Aria's phone kept ringing and her mind wasn't in it. Then finally I pushed her to the limit and I told her that if she never wanted to go out with me why even be here" Ezra laughed, "I brought her attention to me and we had an awesome night"
"So you fell in love with her at that moment?"
Jay shrugged, "I guess you could say that." He looked up from his desk "When I saw Aria I thought who was this girl. I used to even find myself staring at her in the middle of my lectures and have my students teased me about it."
Ezra laughed, "I know the feeling"
Jay looked at him confused, "The feeling of stupidity"
He nodded "The feeling of wanting something that is out of your reach. I know the feeling of keeping things hidden to the outside world."
Jay sucked in a breath "How are you coping with things?"
"It's hard" He admitted "Its hard to walk around the town that you once shared with the love of your life and not being able to see her. Or when you finally see her again she's with someone else."
"Wait" Jay said confused "The girl you are pinning for is in town?"
Ezra nodded, "she is," he furrowed his brows "But she's walking around town with a stick up her ass and doesn't want to tell me the truth. She loves to keep things hidden and tells you vivid lies about what happened," Ezra stood up, "She's dating someone and I can't say anything about it."
"Why?" He asked pushing Ezra to tell him "Why can't you tell her how you feel? Why keep everything bottled up?"
Ezra looked down at his feet wishing that they weren't having this conversation about the same girl they were both loving at this very moment "Because she already knows. It's the guy that she's dating I'm worried about. I don't want to break his heart because of my stupid love lost relationship"
Jay stood up from his desk and walked over to the filing cabinet to take out on of the year books he borrowed from the library earlier in the day "I found this" He walked back over to Ezra, "Who is this guy right here?" he pointed to a picture of Aria and a taller male
Ezra took the book from him and looked at the cover before looking back at the picture, "That's Noel Kahn," He flipped through a few more pages until he landed on a group picture of Aria and her friends. It must have been one of the many that either –A or Lucas had taken "Wow, I haven't seen this in years. And this was in the library?" Jay nodded, "that's funny."
"Why? They even had some from twenty years back"
"Oh no it's not that" Ezra replied, "I just never seen this."
"Your picture is in there along with her mother and you looked better then" He teased, "But I'm glad to hear that you are now attending meetings."
Ezra smiled and handed him back the year book "I've been to three of them and I have one tomorrow. Its interesting hearing about other people that I don't know and having a sponsor but I'm dealing with it. I even went running twice yesterday and I can't tell you how good that felt"
"I can imagine," He told him as Ezra headed toward the door, "Hey, if you ever need anything. Anything at all Aria and I are here for you!"
"I know and thank you!" Ezra smiled once again as he walked out of the classroom thinking that if only he knew how close Aria and he had gotten last week he wouldn't be there for him at all.
OK sorry but I need to say this. In this story right now; Ezra is confused and upset. He is upset that Aria is out of his reach and it's pulling him from doing right and doing what feels right. Jay is his childhood friend in this story he is someone that he grew up with. While Aria is on the other half of his mind and it's just pulling the love that he feels for her in the wrong direction. He want's to be with Aria, he wants nothing but the truth from her. Which makes him even more upset at her. Because she wont tell him what drove her off in the first place. Its the fact that she bounces around the brush about it.
While Aria is just crazy in general and has her own thing going on. She trying to live up to her job title and while she's sleeping with her ex-boyfriends best friend and also is in love with him. She knows that her one true love is Ezra and doesn't want to do anything to ruin the friendship between Jay and Ezra. Also she's confused about doing the right thing verses the wrong.
Hope that kind of makes sense in the direction that I'm writing this story and for those of you who are asking. Don't worry, Lacy and Ezra will have a moment together when she returns or maybe sooner