A/N Thank you for the reviews!

"This is for you," said Ezra, handing Ella small velvet box. It was Saturday, August 27, 2014, a relatively warm day in Rosewood. He was sitting next to her on the Montgomerys' porch swing looking anxious as she took the box.

"What's it for?" she asked tentatively, giving him a warm smile.

Ezra rubbed the back of his neck before responding, "I was looking for Aria's birthday present and I found them. I thought you might like them."

"Where were you searching" Ella retorted, "the family vault?"

Ezra looked away sheepishly, "Maybe."

She shook her head, "You don't need to give me lavish presents."

"I know," he responded with a smile, "but I thought of you when I saw them. If my mom were around I would be spoiling her. Why should you be any different?"

Ella harrumphed in response and turned her attention to the box in her hand. "Oh," she exclaimed softly. "They're beautiful."

"They're rubies," he told her. "They belonged to my grandmother."

Ella fingered the exquisite earrings and marveled at the fact that one gem was the size of her fingernail.

"I can't accept this," she protested.

"Yes, you can," responded Ezra with a shrug. "They're yours now."

Resting her hands in her lap, Ella looked at him carefully. "It doesn't mean anything to you, does it?" she asked.

"What?" he asked.

"Everything your father left you. You could care less about it."

"Sometimes I think he would have been happier if he hadn't left me such a legacy," admitted Ezra. "I think I would have been happy teaching at Rosewood High for the rest of my life and living next door, raising my family."

"Who says you can't do that?" asked Ella.

"What you mean?" He was intrigued.

"I mean, you're still that person. Aria would love living in that house next door, and here you're surrounded by friends and family that love you. Nothing has to change."

"But everything has," he said. "Ever since my father died and then you guys came back and I fell in love with Aria and then she found out my last name…" his voice faded in to silence. He swallowed. "Is that even a possibility anymore?"

"Everything is a possibility," said Ella. "It's time to forget about the past and focus on the future."
Ezra was a quiet for a moment before responding with a smile. "Does that mean you'll keep the earrings?"

Ella rolled her eyes. "If it makes you happy," she sighed. She chuckled softly to herself and leaned against the seat.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing," she dismissed, but she looked up to meet his eyes. "You do know that no matter what happens you'll always be family?"

He smiled back at her, "I do now."

September 15, 2014 Aria received a necklace that matched the earrings and bracelet she had gotten for her previous birthdays. A thick gold band encrusted with diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, and rubies, she knew she could not possibly wear it in public. She sat in his apartment's living room and stared at it.

"Why?" she asked him. "You know how it makes me feel."

"There's a reason," he responded with a wry smile. "You just have to trust me."

"I do," she protested.

"Patience," he replied. She threw a throw pillow at him, hitting him in the face. "What was that for?"

"Because I felt like it." She held a straight face for a moment before bursting into giggles. His laughter joined hers and while the rest of the world might not have understood their amusement, it didn't matter. They understood, and they were deliriously oblivious to the rest of the world.

November 16 Aria sat in Spencer's dorm room. She was painting her nails while Spencer sat at her desk and worked on her homework.

"Do you ever think life is going by too fast?" asked Aria, looking up from her toes.

"What do you mean?" Spencer muttered distractedly.

Aria sighed. "I don't know. I feel like the world is moving in slow motion while I'm moving at a million miles an hour. What is it like when you're with Toby?"

Spencer looked up from her homework and thought about the question seriously for a moment. "When I'm with Toby," she started, "the rest of the world doesn't matter. It's just me and him. It doesn't matter if we're moving too fast or too slow because we're doing what's right for us."

Aria looked at her friend thoughtfully. "You really love him don't you?" Spencer smiled bashfully and turned back to her homework. "You're blushing," Aria exclaimed.

"No I'm not," mumbled Spencer. When Aria stopped her giggled, Spencer looked to where she was sitting on the bed. "What about you?" Spencer asked. "What's it like when you're with Ezra?"

"It's like I'm this little bubble when I'm with him and the outside world can't hurt us, but when I'm not with him, I worry about outside forces tearing us apart."

"Like what?"

Aria sighed, "He is nine years older than I am. That will never change. He's a Fitzgerald. There's nothing he can do about that either. And he was my teacher. No matter how hard we try, we can't rewrite the past."

"Don't let the past stop you," answered Spencer. "Remember Toby? We used to be afraid of him."

"What are you saying? That I should ignore the rest of the world?"

"Don't ignore it. Just make it work to your advantage."

"How?" asked Aria.

Spencer half-smiled. "I can't give you all the answers. That would be too easy."

December 8 Aria had finished her last final exam of the semester and was on her way to Ezra's apartment. He had come to the city to pick her up and take her home. She was riding on the subway when the couple sitting across from her caught her attention. They looked so happy, and Aria noticed a ring sparkled on her finger. She was also wearing white.

"Congratulations," Aria said, startling them out of their non-verbal conversation.

"How did you know?" asked the woman curiously.

Aria shrugged. "You just look so happy and in love."

"We are," answered the man. "We eloped this afternoon."

"How did you meet?" asked Aria.

The woman giggled. "We grew up in the same neighborhood."

Just then, the train screeched to a halt at her stop and Aria gathered her things. "May you have many happy days ahead of you," she offered the couple before exiting.

"And you too," answered the man politely. Aria walked out on the platform as the doors closed behind her and watched the train as it sped away.

"I will have happy days ahead of me" she wrote in her journal that night "and Ezra will have many days ahead of him. I just know it now."

January 28, 2015, miles away from Aria in New York, Ezra sat in a bar with Hardy.

"You sure are serious about Aria," commented Hardy.

"Why wouldn't I be?" asked Ezra, taking a swig of his beer.

Hardy shrugged. "I don't know. When you guys started whatever you were doing while she was in high school, I thought that it was for the short-term."

Ezra snorted. "Like you would know a long-term relationship if it looked you in the face, Hardy,"

"Hey," said Hardy, holding up his hands defensively, "I never said I was a love guru, but the odds were against you. I'm amazed her dad hasn't come after you with a shotgun."

"Byron and I have an understanding," Ezra answered. "And Ella helps keep him in check."

"That's good," said Hardy, nodding his head. "Keeping things good with the mother-in-law."

"She's like my mom," replied Ezra. "More than my mom, really. She was there when my mom couldn't be."

"Angels," answered Hardy.

"What?"

"Angels watching over us, isn't that what your grandma used to say?"

"How do you know that?"

Hardy shrugged, "Just because I pretend not to listen doesn't mean I don't."

"What about you?" asked Ezra, changing the subject. "For all your commentary on one-night stands you talk about relationships a lot."

"That's what you think," replied Hardy. He looked across the room to where a waitress was taking an order. "She and I have a date later tonight."

"When did you meet her?" asked Ezra.

"Five minutes from now," responded Hardy, downing his beer and walking towards her. Ezra shook his head in response. "Some things never change" he wrote in his journal later that night.

May 18, 2015

School's been out for a week, and I've been at home since then. Ezra's been next door. I finally visited the tree house yesterday. It's been a year since I've been up there. I have a lot of good memories of that tree house. It's where I fell in love with books…and with Ezra. I started reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. It's amazing how much we change from our days as children and how little we change at all.

I think that same girl is inside of me that knocked on Ezra's door. But I also think there's a woman that is part of me that isn't shy, isn't timid, and isn't afraid of what she wants. I hope someday Ezra writes our story. If Angelou isn't ashamed of her past, then why should I be ashamed of mine? Then again, maybe it isn't his story to tell, but my own I should share with the world. Why can't I write a book if that's what I want to do?

I look at my family and it's so hard to believe how much we've grown and changed. I wish I could have told my fifteen-year-old self that everything was going to be okay, that everything was going to turn out right. I wish I could have told Mike. I think he, more than I ever realized, was affected by what was happening in our lives. It's hard to believe that he finished his first year at Hollis. I thought he would go away to school, but he said he wanted to stay here, at home. I guess he's changed too or grown-up, rather.

Two more years, and I'm done with college. What happens after that? Life doesn't end after marriage; it begins, a new adventure begins. Ezra's been talking a lot about Rosewood, and I think he wants to live here, raise a family here. Are things moving too fast? Sometimes I think they are, and sometimes I don't think they're moving fast enough.