A/N: Hey, guys. I skipped a few A/Ns because I wasn't feeling up to talking as myself. Thank you so much to Shanaly and BrooklyninRosewood for the well wishes and condolences. They meant a lot to me. Story wise, I know I kind of yanked the rug out from under you in the last chapter. For those of you who weren't surprised, I'll try harder next time. For those of you who were, at least I'm warning you there will be a next time. Well, back to the drama, eh?

Chapter 9

"Miss Montgomery, are you with us?" Ezra tried and failed to not sound harsh. He felt like she was deliberately ignoring him, and it upset him, greatly. Aria turned her eyes from the window and met his gaze, directly. He was stunned, her eyes were frozen jade and she shot him through with the iciness of her stare. She was a vengeful goddess, whose rage is so cold, it burns. She seemed to debate whether he deserved to be answered at all.

"With you? No, I most definitely am not." Apparently, Ezra's sentence was exile. Even Aria's scent had turned cold, somehow. She was winter, itself. Ezra thought he could shut her out, keep her at arm's length, to spare himself the pain of not being able to really have her. He was an amateur, Aria had taken his rebuff and had turned off the sun. He thought he knew how to harden himself against disappointment and regret. He thought his armor was strong enough to keep out any and all assaults. But even armor becomes brittle if faced with bitter enough cold. He stood in the middle of her polar vortex, and he shattered.

"How would you respond to the spirit of a loved one that came to you asking for something?" The class would not soon forget if he caved in the face of Aria's disdain. He had to push her to answer, he had to maintain control, or he'd be useless as a teacher. Ezra forced himself to keep his expression passive. He showed the class that Aria's mood had nothing to do with him, why would he react to it? Aria pursed her lips and took a deep breath before she answered.

"I would tell the ghost to go back where they belonged. The dead have no right to screw with the living. Whatever lives they had are over, why should they be able to use proxies to continue chasing their pathetic desires?" Ezra had no idea where this was coming from. Aria was speaking as if she had been personally affronted by a ghost, recently.

"You don't think Hamlet needed to know that his father had been murdered by his uncle?" Ezra was utterly stupid when it came to Aria, but not stupid enough to poke at whatever personal "ghosts" she was battling. He would stick to the bard's troubles.

"I think Hamlet's father is a selfish bastard. How does Hamlet even know that the ghost is telling him the truth? What if he's just pissed that Gertrude moved on so quickly? Honestly, what kind of a prick must he have been that he racked up enough sins in a day to be shut out of heaven? He thinks his wretched life was so important that he doesn't hesitate to demand something that will demolish his son's. If you're dead, stay dead. Let the living at least have a chance of moving on and making their own decisions." With that, Aria snapped her mouth shut and returned her attention to the world outside the window. The class was silent, and Ezra wondered if they were in awe of Aria's brilliance, or terrified by her forcefulness. Ezra knew that his answer would be, yes. He tried to bring everyone back around.

"Well, I certainly think if there were any ghosts hanging around here, Aria has sent them scurrying back to the afterlife." A few of the kids laughed, but not without a nervousness evident in their voices. Aria had either stopped listening or had decided to not react. Ezra felt like he was a ghost and his pleas were falling on determinedly deaf ears. "Anyone have a different take on what the ghost asked of Hamlet? Was it unfair?" Slowly, Ezra got the kids talking again, though a number of them agreed with or had been convinced by Aria and now wanted nothing to do with their dearly departed.

The bell rang, and everyone gathered their things and started leaving. Ezra made a sudden decision. "Miss Montgomery, a word?" Aria finished settling her messenger bag across her chest. Her expression and voice were both indifferent.

"Sorry, Mr. Fitz, no can do. I think I should take my seat in my next class. I wouldn't want to be late, you know, again." Aria spun on her heel and strode briskly from the room. Ezra felt like he couldn't breathe, and he began to tremble, slightly. It wasn't because Aria had thrown his words back in his face. It wasn't because she wanted nothing to do with him, he knew he deserved that. It was because right before she finished speaking and until she'd spun away from him, Aria's icy façade had fallen away. Ezra could see anguish in her suddenly teary eyes. Her lips quivered, and he knew she was desperate to escape before she broke down. He imagined he could hear her quiet sobs in his mind, long after she was out of range for his ears. For the second day in a row, Ezra silently begged for Aria to come back. He felt so awful, about everything, that he imagined her responding in that same quiet voice in his mind. I can't, I won't. Please leave me alone, Ezra. It was just in his head, but he felt like he'd been punched in the gut. He responded exactly the way he had been begging, I can't, I won't. The quiet sobs began again, only this time Ezra realized his own cheeks were wet. This time, the sobs were his.

Somehow, Ezra powered through the rest of the day. It was only his second day of working there and he was already relying on burned-out teacher tactics. He had his 11th graders take turns reading aloud and cover whatever chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird he had assigned. When they finished, he asked some generalized questions about theme and foreshadowing. He had his 12th grade College Prep English class read the first act of Taming of the Shrew. He may have been a bit harsh in his assessment of the headstrong and vocal female protagonist, Katharina. He normally wouldn't suggest that she was unreasonable or ask if the students thought she made situations worse by refusing to listen and think before reacting. At least the female students probably thought their new teacher was a male chauvinist of the worst kind.

Ezra's mind remained on Aria. He didn't understand himself. He had made the decision that being anything other than professional with Aria was too dangerous and would be too hard. He wouldn't be doing either of them any favors by forming an attachment of any sort. Even in the face of her beautiful, joyful smile and her sparkling, dancing eyes, he had remained firm and in control. But the second Aria pulled away from him, he fell on his face. Had he thought that she would be understanding? Perhaps he should have talked with her about his reasons for changing his behavior instead of just showing up with a completely different personality from the one she had met the previous day. He wouldn't even give her a chance to show him whatever was in that book that she was obviously excited about. It was most likely something to do with being a werewolf. She had offered to teach him about living with it. In the 8 years Ezra had been suffering with his curse he had mastered ignoring it, denying it, and drowning it. It was ironic that the curse he was trying to escape with alcohol, was the only reason Ezra could drink that much every month without permanent damage to his organs.

But Aria called it their heritage. Aria, a girl with so much inner light that she practically glowed, didn't hate what she was. And without judgement or mocking, she offered to teach him. But, he was so tormented by his carnal desires and how wretched those desires proved him to be, that he threw her offer back in her face. She'd offered him knowledge and understanding, she'd offered him friendship, without asking anything in return. In his entire life he had never been given anything freely, not even love. Now he'd been so self-centered, so selfish, that it didn't occur to him that Aria would feel rejected just because he rejected her. He didn't consider that the inexplicable connection that he felt with Aria obviously went both ways before he decided to sever it. Her iciness wasn't a petulant fit of pique, it was self-preservation. He saw, he felt her pain and he had caused it. Ezra thought that his condemnation of Katharina was his frustration with Aria, but who was unreasonable? Who refused to listen or to think? He was Katharina, not Aria. Only, Katharina was smart and witty and underappreciated. Ezra was an emotionally stunted, melodramatic idiot. And he had hurt the most amazing person he'd ever met. And he still desperately wanted to kiss her, hold her, and make love to her. What the hell was he going to do, now?

Ezra stalled and puttered around his classroom after school let out. He didn't have anything to go home to and he didn't really have anywhere else to go. Since he'd arrived in Rosewood 3 days ago, it could not be only 3 days, he'd only been to the school, the supermarket, the liquor store, and the bar. It had come as a shock to Ezra that it was illegal in Pennsylvania for grocery stores to sell liquor. And since he came into town on a Sunday, the only licensed liquor store wasn't open. That was how he'd ended up at a bar with not enough time and how he lost his ring somewhere in the woods. The occult store, he'd also been there.

Naturally, the occult store made him think of Aria, she had been there when he had. What if they had met there? What if they had found each other not knowing that they would be teacher and student? He would have kissed her if she let him. He would have held her, gotten lost in her, marveled that he, a man who never sought out relationships, too afraid of what they might discover about him, would fall for someone so fast. Then they would have found out the reality of their situation and everything would have come crashing down. Things always did, around Ezra. For the most part, he'd come to accept it, but Rosewood was supposed to be about finding the broken and missing pieces. Rosewood was supposed to help Ezra make sense of the past that tortured him, even when he knew almost nothing about it. Maddie knew more, though. And she knew Aria, maybe Maddie would help him figure out how to apologize to her. He couldn't tell her the particulars, of course, but he could say he'd offended Aria and needed to make amends. Ezra made up his mind and quickly gathered up his things and headed to the parking lot.

Ezra is a very sad and confused little wolf cub. The laws I mentioned about liquor in Pennsylvania were absolutely true when the O.A. started this story. I read that they are currently wrestling with questions about where and how to change the laws, but it was so perfect for the story I just went with it. Please review, people. Gimme something, at least. Remember, Ella is a witch and Maddie is a Vodun expert. Between them they probably know some nasty curses. I'm just sayin…