He had managed to manoeuvre himself away from Aria, leaving her to watch whatever was on the laptop as he excused himself to step out into the hallway, telling her it was something to do with work.
"Who is this?" Ezra spat out, this wasn't a funny joke.
"I need your help, please Ezra." The other line said, the pleading in his tone actually making Ezra feel sorry for the guy.
"Wesley?"
"Yes, and you're Ezra. Moving on."
"Shouldn't you be dead?" Was all he replied, wanting this conversation to be over as quickly as possible. And then it hit him. "Why aren't you dead?! We buried you! Why are you not buried?!"
"Can I explain later? Right now I need your help." Wesley said in a childish tone, impatiently tapping his foot. Ezra scoffed, the anger burning up inside of him.
"I'm not up for jokes right now. Whoever this is can just cut it out."
"I'm not fucking around right now, Ezra. I'm not dead. Go check the coffin. 'Ain't me inside of it."
"Prove it's you." Ezra challenged, waiting for the person to hang up or go silent.
Wesley thought for a moment, before saying something only Ezra knew that Wesley would know. "You walked in on Mom cheating on dad with one of your English professors when you were in senior year." He paused, before speaking again. "I also ripped up your first short story." Ezra's eyes grew wide. No one else knew about that but Ezra, and Wes. He had confided in Wesley, asked his advice. This was /not/ happening.
"That was you?!"
"Guilty is charged." Wesley admitting in a gentle tone, trying to distract Ezra the best he could. "I need you to pick me up."
Ezra scoffed, shaking his head. He had planned Wesley's death so many times, and now he was dead Ezra could be at ease. But no, he was alive.
Fucking brilliant.
"Why should I help you?!" Ezra still thought that this was one of Wesley's friends, just messing around with him as a sick joke.
"Because we both know what happened to your girlfriend." Ezra grew silent, knowing that if he clenched his phone any harder it'd snap in two. That sure wasn't the way to get Ezra's help. "So what do you say? Are you in?" Ezra hung up the phone, shoving it into his back pocket and pushing the door back open.
Aria was preoccupied with the bright screen in front of her, watching each video intently. He let out a sigh, leaning against the door as the last five minutes played in his mind.
"Everything okay?" Aria asked, glancing up at him through her lashes. She looked so innocent, he wasn't going to tell her this. "Who was that?"
"Just my mother." He lied smoothly, completely forgetting that he'd told her it was work earlier. She raised an eyebrow, narrowing her eyes at him before just dropping it, and turning back to the laptop. Ezra glanced over her shoulder at the long list of videos on the screen, the familiar feeling rising up in his stomach. "You okay?" He questioned in a soft tone, laying his head upon her shoulder. She didn't glance at him, not once.
Most of the videos were just the usual, if that was even possible. Just videos of Aria and Wesley lounging around the apartment, eating junk food, watching reruns of reality TV.
And then it went to the next video, one that Ezra had already seen. It was the one of her sleeping. But this time, she looked less peaceful. He eyebrows where furrowed together, her head thrashing from side to side as her toes curled up, until she sunk back into the bed. "Are you doing what I think you're doing?" Ezra questioned in a low tone, glancing up at a dark crimson Aria. Ezra began to laugh, shaking his head in amusement at his girlfriend.
"Shut up!" She said sternly, folding her arms across her chest. "You weren't there, what was I supposed to do?" She tried to explain, skipping ahead to the next video as she knew it didn't end there. That was the last thing she needed, to be teased. He pressed a kiss to her shoulder, brushing her hair away from it.
"I was only on the other side of the phone, you could've called."
"I'm not going into this with you now." Aria said, Ezra talking was distracting her from watching the videos. She had a plan, one that Ezra couldn't know about. She needed to concentrate. "Shh!" He grew silent, watching the video with her.
It was then that it came to mind. Where was the camera now? What had happened to it? Had Wesley taken it? "You should go into work tomorrow, get back into your routine."
Ezra raised a brow, ignoring the buzzing coming from his back pocket. It brought Ezra back from his thoughts, not really wanting to go back to Rosewood.
"I don't want to..." He began, but Aria held up a hand.
"You're going. You love your job." She leant against his chest, pausing the video to glance over her shoulder at him. "I love you, but there's only so much Ezra I can take." Her tone was teasing, as he let out a light chuckle. It's not that he hated his job, he just didn't want to leave her alone again.
"Why don't you give one of your friends a call, they can stop by tomorrow whilst I'm at work." Aria thought for a moment. Spencer definitely wouldn't show up. Emily or Hanna; She really couldn't deal with Hanna moping over Caleb leaving. So she nodded, and grasped up her phone, placing it against her ear as she dialled Emily's number.

-
Emily had agreed to stay at Ezra's with Emily, whilst Ezra went back to Rosewood. Ezra trusted Emily, she was mature and would call him if anything was to happen. But as excited about work Ezra was, part of him was reluctant to leave Aria's side again. He had refused to let her out of his sight in a week, why risk it now? Why put Aria out in the open for anyone to mess with? She was still vulnerable, and as much as she tried to put up the strong front; Ezra could see straight through it. For example, Ezra knew that Aria had picked up on his lie earlier when he had said that his mother had called. No one would've seen it, but Ezra knew.
He wanted to tell Aria about the previous conversation with his -not so dead- brother, but even Ezra didn't want to remember it. Wesley was supposed to be /gone./
Not calling Ezra to ask for help. Whoever had killed him hadn't done a very good job at all.
Unless this was all some big scheme, and Wesley was the person after Ezra's girlfriend.
He knew one thing; Ezra couldn't trust anyone.