Aria's already annoyed expression grew even more intense as Ezra passed the 'Now Entering Rosewood' sign. Ezra hadn't spoken to her at all the entire car ride letting Aria sit in the passenger seat, sitting in her fuming anger. Aria was too stubborn to be the first person to break the silence, so instead her anger increased as she waited for Ezra to say something. It very well startled Aria when she heard the shrill chirp of Ezra's phone alerting him to a text. She quickly glanced at Ezra's phone that was resting in the cup holder before he quickly snatched it away. He wasn't quick enough though, since Aria clearly saw the notification 'New Message from Corrie' flash across the screen. Aria's eyes trained on Ezra, carefully documenting his every move to try and gage what content of the message was.

"Stop texting and driving," Aria ordered when she saw him start typing a reply back to Corrie. She never liked when her boyfriend would text and drive, especially when he was texting a different girl who was totally into him. Ezra promptly ignored her comment and continued to type back paying the road minimum attention and paying his girlfriend even less, "Ezra!" Aria snapped. Ezra's blue eyes focused back on the road as he sighed dramatically and shoved his phone back into the cup holder.

"I know how to drive, Aria," Ezra replied with just as much anger. It was the first time Ezra had spoken since the incident in the restaurant. His voice usually had a calming effect over her that made her heart feel at peace. However, hearing it filled with so much anger had the quite opposite effect on Aria, making the storm clouds in her mind rage even louder.

"Texting and driving is dangerous."

"I don't care," Ezra said annoyed. Even though the couple was talking, Ezra had yet to move his glance anywhere near Aria's vicinity. Aria, on the other hand, was staring right at Ezra, daggers in her eyes.

"Well you should, it's against the law."

"Well, babe," Ezra spat, making the word 'babe' sounding mocking and hateful, "if I followed the law, I wouldn't get the pleasure of having to fuck you, would I?"

Ezra's comment stunned Aria into silence. Aria couldn't tell what she was feeling inside; hurt, fury, confusion, annoyance. All she knew was that she couldn't spend another minute with Ezra. Not like this.

"Take me to Emily's," Aria said quietly, not being able to even look at Ezra while she said it. The words 'having to fuck you' echoed again and again in Aria's mind.

"Why?" Ezra asked annoyed, not a hint of remorse present in his voice.

"Cause you're being a dick," Aria snapped back. "You're being a jealous asshole and there's no way I'm spending all night with you when you're in a mood like this."

Aria heard Ezra exhale angrily and felt the car jolt forward as he speed down the road to Emily's.

LINE BREAK

The girls sat at the lunch table a few days later playing with the suspicious looking cafeteria food on their trays. Emily had graciously let Aria stay with her the night her and Ezra fought and didn't ask questions when Aria was too pissed off to even provide answers for them. Aria had just told her that Ezra was being a dick but that they were fine, she just didn't want to sleepover at his place. Aria didn't want to admit it, but she was still mad at Ezra, to the point where she avoided walking down the English hallway to get to any of her classes and was dreading having his class next period. It had been three days since their ruined evening and they hadn't talked since.

Tuesday, the day after their fight, they refused to talk to each other and she had skipped his class completely. Luckily, she was not called to rehearsal after school that day so she did not have to deal with seeing his stupid face.

Wednesday, she didn't have his class, so she had no problem ignoring him completely, but rehearsal was rough. Ezra and Corrie had been acting extra flirty that some of the other students even looked uncomfortable.

He tried calling her yesterday, but she was in the shower and didn't feel like calling him back and starting another argument.

"Oh, I forgot to ask. How was Philadelphia with Ezra," Spencer asked with a smirk, eyeing Aria over her food. Aria sighed, obviously Spencer and Hanna hadn't heard. Spencer had been busy with college apps recently and Hanna had been busy with Caleb so she wasn't really surprised by the lack of communication.

"It was infuriating," Aria deadpanned, "He made this whole big scene and we got into a fight on the way home," Aria looked up to see her friends looking at her in mild shock. They had never heard of Aria and Ezra fighting, not because they never fought, just because Aria never really told them, or the argument has always been small enough to get over. In the group of friends Aria seemed to have the most steady relationship, which was weird considering the whole 'teacher/student' thing. "Yeah, he kind of accused me of cheating on him with Noel," Aria threw into the conversation, immediately causing a huge laugh from Hanna.

"I'm sorry," Hanna started dumbfounded, "but has Fitz lost his mind?"

"You would never cheat on him," Emily added angrily.

"Yeah and especially with Noel," Spencer added. Aria smiled at how supportive her friends were. As if Ezra had heard them talking about him, he walked into the cafeteria. A table of nearby freshman pointed out his entrance and Aria heard them exclaim how gorgeous he was, Aria could barely suppress the motion of rolling her eyes. Aria watched him as he walked toward the teacher's table. He was wearing a dark purple dress shirt and khaki pants. He was actually pretty dressed down considering how much effort Ezra usually put into his appearance. His khakis snuggly held his ass in the most flattering way as it did whenever he wore his teacher pants. Aria couldn't help the aggressive voice that would yell 'mine' whenever she would see him. His shirt was rolled up at the sleeves and Aria felt her stomach start to turn into knots as she saw how he had unbuttoned the first few buttons of his shirt. When she heard students idolize him and his looks Aria would always laugh to herself at how silly the idea was, but looking at Ezra now, she really couldn't blame the student body for praising Ezra's gorgeous features. Watching him, Aria regretted not spending the night at his place, only further burying herself in sexual frustration. The strong muscles of his forearms were exposed and Aria could picture, in a perfect detail, how the muscles would strain as he would hold himself overtop of her while in bed.

"So have you talked to him since then?" Emily asked cautiously.

"No. But I'm probably going to call him tonight. Or maybe go home with him after rehearsal. I don't know. But I've been avoiding him and I really shouldn't be."

After a good nights sleep a lot of Aria's initial hurt caused by Ezra's behavior had subsided as she realized how little truth his statements actually held. She had been dating him long enough to get used to his over protective anger, and how it often led with him lashing out verbally. She didn't like it though, and she wanted him to apologize before they jumped into his bed.

"-Mr. Fitz's gets so hot." Aria heard the end of the sentence from the lunch table next to the one she shared with the girls and couldn't help but take interest. Subtlety, she turned her body towards the other table, trying to listen into their conversation.

"He was totally being super moody today. Like he was upset or something."

"Yeah it's annoying and he's been like that almost all week," One of the girls commented. Aria would be lying if she said she wasn't smug with the fact the argument they had a few days ago weighed on him too.

"Yeah, he's great when he's in a good mood, but when he's in a bad mood he's such a dick," Aria almost laughed at loud at how truthful that statement was. Ezra was honestly one of the most amazing people she had ever met in her life and he was such a good and caring person. However, when he wasn't happy with something he would turn into a thirteen year old girl.

"It's so annoying. Like he just needs to get laid. Let all that aggression and unhappiness out," another girl commented back. Aria felt somewhat satisfied to know that she had the power to make him upset enough to a point where even his students caught up on it. She felt selfish for thinking it, but it made her happy to know that Ezra cared about her and about their argument. She was also glad to know that their lack of physical intimacy wasn't just affecting her and that he was also just as pissed off and stressed as she was.

Aria looked down at her phone. Lunch wasn't over for another half hour. Realistically, she could text Ezra and they could meet up in his classroom and talk things over. Aria looked over at Ezra again and was surprised to find him staring right back at her. Even from across the room, his bright blue eyes made her heart beat faster. He broke his eyes from hers only to travel down her body. Aria felt her body respond as if the caress came from his hand and not just his eyes.

His gaze was broken from her when Corrie slid into the seat next to him. She watched with jealousy as Ezra smiled at her. Corrie must have said something funny because they both burst out laughing and she rested her hand on his bicep. They huddled together closely as Corrie pulled out her phone, the two of them looking at whatever was on her screen. When Corrie's hair slid in between the two of them, Ezra's delicately pushed it behind her ear.

"If I saw Caleb touching another girl like that I would scream," Hanna commented, following Aria's murderous gaze. The rest of the girls turned their heads to gaze at the two teachers. Corrie had taken swatted Ezra's hand away from her ear and had teasingly ruffled his hair as if he was a puppy.

"And if a girl ever touched Caleb like that I would cut a bitch," Hanna said angrily, watching her friend's boyfriend flirt with another girl.

"I can't fucking watch this," Aria said. She threw her napkin onto the table and harshly pulled her purse from under her seat. With a huff of anger she exited the cafeteria, doing her best to hold in her frustrated tears.

LINEBREAK

Aria roamed the deserted hallways with no real destination in mind. She didn't want to go to Ezra's class, and the library was closed for testing, so there really wasn't many places Aria could hide out without drawing attention to herself. Once she had swallowed most of the initial hurt, she had texted the girls telling them that she was skipping Ezra's class. If any of them disapproved, they simply kept it to themselves. Aria knew that with as much anger she had boiling inside her, it was safer for her to stay away from him than shoot daggers at him from across the classroom. The bell had rang fifteen minutes ago so there really wasn't much for her to do. She considered going down to the art room to finish up a project when her phone beeped, notifying her of a message.

I know you're in school today. Come to class.

It was from Ezra. Aria almost laughed at his pathetic attempt to control her. Just the fact that he told her to come to class made it 1000 times more likely that she wasn't going. Aria typed back a quick response.

Fuck off.

A sly smile pulled at her lips as she imagined Ezra's face when he read her response. Sure, it wasn't a literary masterpiece by any means, but she certainly got her point across. His reply came almost immediately.

Regardless of what's going on between us, I am your teacher and you are required to come to my class.

Aria's anger grew and she began to type back a reply when another message from Ezra came through.

Don't think I won't fail you, or call your mom, because I will. You still need to respect me as your teacher.

Aria erased the reply she was going to type and started crafting a new, even more sassy, response.

Go ahead Ezra, fail me, call my mom. See how eager I'll be to ever touch your dick again. It's gonna be you and your hand for a lllooooong time.

The fact that she was mixing their student/ teacher relationship as well as their romantic relationship, was a breaking a huge rule they agreed upon. They also agreed not to cheat on each other, so it seemed like all rules were off the table at this point. Her finger hovered over the send key as she contemplated sending the message.

"Ms. Montgomery? What are you doing out of class?"

Aria's head whipped up from her phone screen to look up to the beady eyes of Principal Hackett. She quickly locked her phone and tried to think of a response to his question. Although she didn't want to rely on him, Aria could say she was 'getting something for Mr. Fitz'.

"You know I take skipping class very seriously," he warned. He looked at her expectantly, waiting for an answer.

"I- I was just um-"

"Aria!" a female voice called from down the hallway. Aria turned to see Corrie walking her way, "did you end up finding my keys?"

Aria stayed silent, not knowing what game Corrie was playing with her. However, Principal Hackett looked at her expectantly.

"Um, no, I didn't. S-sorry," Aria mumbled, not quite sure what to say.

"Shoot. I really don't know where I put them," Corrie complained.

"Ms. Nowak, is Ms. Montgomery supposed to be with you right now?" Principal Hackett inquired, directing his gaze to Corrie.

"Yes, she is," Corrie lied smoothly. Aria looked at her, her mouth slightly agape, "I was just asking her to look in the theatre to see if I had left my keys in there."

LINEBREAK

After the interagation with Principal Hackett had came to a close, Corrie led Aria into her classroom.

"Thanks," Aria said sincerely, "that was really nice of you. You didn't have to do that."

Corrie moved to sit behind her desk while Aria was left to examine her classroom. Corrie was a fairly new teacher, and Aria had never had the opportunity to take one her drama classes. Drama was considered an elective at Rosewood High, and Aria spent all her electives with Mr. Fitz.

"I can't have one of my stars getting carted off into detention," she replied with a smile, "Now come pull up a chair and sit down."

Aria's eyes were torn from the glossy poster of Shakespeare as she turned to look apprehensively at Corrie. It made her uneasy enough to be alone with the woman who was more than likely hitting on her boyfriend, Aria couldn't imagine sitting down with her to chat. However, Corrie did just save her from spending a week in detention, so she owed her this.

Slowly, Aria pulled up a chair by the edge of Corrie's desk, which was a lot neater than Ezra's. Every sheet of paper had been stored into a bright and colorful folder and put into piles. Besides the few books that were scattered around her desk, it was almost empty.

"So, first of all. Where are you supposed to be right now?"

"A.P. Lit."

"What teacher?"

"Mr. Fitz," Aria couldn't help the slight bitter tone that laced his name. If Corrie noticed, she made no note of it. In fact, Aria swore that she saw the older woman smile at the mention of his name.

"Oh, Ezra? I'll just text him right now, let him know where you are," Corrie said chirpily. With a definite smile, she pulled out her phone and began to text Ezra. Aria couldn't help the rage boiling inside her. If Aria wanted Ezra to know where she was, she would have told him herself. Aria was also not very keen on the fact that Corrie and Ezra regularly texted each other.

"Do you guys text each other often?" Aria couldn't help the jealous question escape her lips as she watched Corrie send the text.

"Umm, yeah we talk. Mostly about the show and things, you know, planning and what not. I mean, you can probably tell, but he's such a nice guy. He's also so smart and really funny." The irony of the situation almost made Aria laugh. She knew she should change the subject and stop asking about Ezra, but she couldn't help herself.

"Ohh, anything going on there?" Aria outwardly teased with a smile, even though, on the inside she was screaming with rage.

Corrie audibly laughed at the inquiry, "Oh, goodness, no. He's got a girlfriend who he absolutely adores. I mean, just the way he talks about her, you can tell he's just disgustingly head over heels," She finished with a laugh. Aria laughed too, her heart melting, hearing the way Ezra talked about her, "Mr. Fitz and I are just friends," Corrie added, "I don't think he really has many friends in Rosewood. He told me that he met his girlfriend within the first week he moved here and after that, he was so invested in the relationship he didn't really have time to meet anyone else-"

Corrie continued to talk about how She just wanted to be a friend to Ezra, but Aria had stopped paying much attention. She never really considered the fact that Ezra must be pretty lonely. If Ezra and her got in a big fight, at least she still had her friends to fall back on. Ezra didn't have anyone. Perhaps, Aria had judged his friendship with Corrie a little too quickly.

"-and besides, I also have a boyfriend, so it's not like I would ever do anything," Aria tuned back in to hear the tail end of Corrie's comment. Aria noticed how the older woman seemed slightly uneasy when she mentioned her own boyfriend, Matt.

"What's your boyfriend like?" Aria asked, curious.

"He's umm...," Again, Corrie looked down, not meeting Aria's eyes. She let out a sigh before meeting Aria's gaze, "have you ever read the play, A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams?"

"No, but I've read, The Glass Menagerie," Aria answered, a bit confused. Corrie got up from her desk and walked over to a book case on the other side of the room. Aria watched as she scanned the rows of plays and one acts. After a few seconds, Corrie pulled a slim, well worn play off the shelf. After a slight hesitation, she walked back to Aria and handed her the play.

"There's a reason this is my favorite play," Aria looked at Corrie curiously, trying to read what emotion laid behind the eyes of the drama teacher. Before Aria could ask any questions, Corrie changed the subject, "What about you? I think I saw sparks flying between you and Noel."

"What?! Absolutely not!" Aria denied vehemently, "I have a boyfriend, plus I find Noel kind of creepy because he keeps touching me looks at me weird" She confessed. Seeing the concerned look on Corrie's face, Aria quickly back peddled her previous statement, "but I see that he's attractive, and he's really great for the part."

"Aria, If Noel does something that makes you uncomfortable, let me know, okay?" She asked seriously. Aria just nodded, she didn't want to get Noel in trouble.

"And of course you can tell Mr. Fitz too, if you think you'd feel comfortable with him" she added. Aria had to stop herself from laughing at the irony of Corrie's statement. Thankfully, she was saved from having to respond when the bell signaling the end of the period rang.

"Oh, that's our cue," Corrie chimed while begging to pack up her stuff, "see you in the theatre?"

"Yeah!" Aria answered, quickly walking toward the door to make her escape, "I'm going to go talk to Mr. Fitz and get my make up work real quick." Aria was about to walk out the door, but faltered for a moment, "um, thanks for saving me from Principal Hackett and letting me hang out here with you."

"Of course," Corrie said with a smile, "anytime Aria."