Rosewood is one of those places.

If you grew up there, you'll know. The street lamps even have this odd aura about them, and the abnormal red hint of color the evening sky tends to take on in the middle of the summer is spooky as it is. The asphalt beneath your feet as you walk the streets feels like it's strung together with lies. The entire town feels like that. Or, at least it does to Aria. It doesn't help having Ravenswood as a neighboring town, either. The Grunwald still gives her goosebumps.

Although she visits quite frequently, Ira and Eleanoire hardly ever get to see Rosewood. Aria doesn't like to have her past associated with the town, and she doesn't want her future to have the same ties. Her children, however, are part of a completely different story. Aria doesn't just want them to stay away; she didn't even want them knowing Rosewood as anything other than a small town on a map. But, Rosewood has a way of creeping up behind you when you least expect it.

That's exactly how she saw it when her father had a heart attack. The twins weren't even fifteen yet, and Aria was a nervous wreck when she heard the news. Obviously she raced back to Rosewood, but that was when it hit her: that town is poison. Byron Montgomery had had a clean bill of health his entire life, and he suddenly has a heart attack out of the blue?! That's suspicious; and Aria thought so, too.

Eleanoire and her mother linked arms as they walked up to the front porch of Ella and Byron's home, and Ira was following close behind them. As they walked along, Aria heard her name being called by a voice all too familiar to her. She turned around, and was greeted by someone she hadn't seen in way too long.

"Mike?" She asked in disbelief as she left her children standing in the middle of the walkway. She laughed ecstatically and began running to greet her little brother. "Oh my god, Mike!"

"Hey!" He chuckled as he embraced her, his older sister, the one he had always looked up to. He hadn't seen her in two years, and catching even a glimpse of his niece and nephew was an even rarer occurrence. He released her tiny form from his arms and held her shoulders gently. "You look great."

"Thanks. Hey, where's-"

Just then, Mona hopped out of the car and walked over to her husband to greet her sister in law. Aria hugged her tightly and smiled at the sight of seeing her little brother so happy. After Charlotte died-was killed-she and Mona got really close. And when Mike FINALLY popped the question, Aria was more than excited to have Mona as her sister in law. It was weird at first, before their friendship really began to blossom, to be hanging out with the woman who stalked you through most of high school; but, Mona really had changed for the better. They were family, and they loved each other.

The way he looked at her was priceless. Aria had shut her eyes while she hugged Mona, and she heard a car door slam shut and little feet stomping on the pavement. She finally released Mona from her embrace, and knelt down to be eye level with her small nephew, Micah.

"Hey, buddy! Long time no see!" Aria exclaimed as she placed a gentle hand on the little boy's shoulder and watched him smile a large, toothy grin. He had a few teeth missing, and that made him all that much cuter. Mike had wrapped his arms around Mona, and Aria loved seeing her brother so happy to have a family of his own. "You've gotten so tall! Soon enough, you're gonna be taller than me!"

"Never, Aunt Aria." He giggled shyly. Aria ruffled his platinum hair before standing up next to Mike, who kissed his wife before noticing that his niece and nephew were there as well. He slipped past his sister and hugged them. It amazed him how much Eleanoire looked like Aria, and how much Ira looked like his father. Mike never knew how different twins could look while still being almost identical.

After they had greeted their Uncle Mike, Aria sent her children inside with Micah to heckle their grandfather. Mona and Mike laughed at the sight of their small son between Eleanoire and Ira, who were giants compared to both the women who were barely 5"2. Aria stood next to Mike, as he looked as if he had something to say.

"You really need to bring them out to Rosewood more." He said happily. Aria just rolled her eyes and smiled, knowing that she had good news for Mike.

"Well, they're going to be heading off to college soon. So, you'll definitely see Ira more than you'll see Eleanoire, unfortunately." She replied as they began slowly walking to the door. Mike looked at Mona, who looked at me, and cocked his head to the right in confusion.

"Why's that?" He asked.

"He'll be attending Hollis College starting this fall as a journalism major." Aria replied proudly. She wasn't usually very vain, but her children were her pride and joy. So, she liked to brag on occasion. Mike whipped his head around to look at her. Aria was confused. Mike was the lacrosse coach at Hollis, so she thought he would look forward to seeing his nephew more often.

"Ira is going to Hollis?" He questioned in a whisper. He hoped this wasn't true.

"Yes, he is. What's up with you?" She replied sarcastically.

"Ar, you do know that he still works there, right? He's the English professor."

"I knew that. I just didn't want to hinder Ira's hopes and dreams by forcing him to steer clear of Hollis. And relax. Hollis' a huge college. I seriously doubt Ira'll run into him there. And even if he does, it won't matter." She answered in a prolonged sigh.

"What do you mean it won't matter? His son will be on campus with him...everyday! Tell me you don't think that's awkward." Mike exclaimed.

"I don't think it'll be awkward at all. Ira doesn't know who Ezra is, and Ezra doesn't know who Ira is. It's been fifteen years since I last saw him; I doubt he even remembers what I look like."

"Wait, go back." Mike ordered. Poor Mona had since been forgotten, so she left us to our business and went to go find Micah. "You haven't told him?!"

"And I don't intend to, either. Ira doesn't look anything like me, so I doubt he'll see the resemblance, IF he sees him at all."

"Aria, are you lying to yourself, too? Even if Ira didn't look like you, he'd have to be suspicious after seeing a frickin' mirror image of himself passing him in the hallway, calling him Professor Fitz."

"Can please stop being so paranoid! I'm the mother here! Please don't say a word about this to Eleanoire or Ira. I don't want them distracted when they're supposed to be planning their futures."

"You may be their mother, but I know what it feels like to be a father. Mona and Micah are my world, my everything. And honestly, I think every man should be able to experience the happiness I feel every day. After Malcolm, Ezra would be heartbroken to find out that you hid his son and daughter from him for almost two decades."

"Since when did you start feeling empathetic for Ezra fricking Fitz? Did you forget that the bastard literally broke up with me when I was almost a month pregnant? I left him countless voicemails, and what did I get in return? Radio silence. That douche started blocking my number the minute we broke up. Mike, I get it. You feel for him because you know what it's like to be a father. But, I know exactly how it feels to a single mother; and I'd rather not have Ezra Fitz come barreling into my children's lives like I know he will if he finds out." She argued passionately.

"Ezra didn't know you were pregnant, Aria. And don't get me wrong, I despise him for leaving you when you needed him most; but don't think that he forgot about you. After Mona and I got married ten years ago, after Charlotte was killed, he called me into his office and asked me if I knew where you were. I said no, because at that point, I still knew him as the jerk who left my sister. He wanted to hire a P.I., Aria. He wanted to find you."

This was news to Aria. As much as she wanted to remain pissed at the man who left her to be a single mother of twins, this information left her feeling that pitter-patter she felt when they used to be together. Her mouth gaped subtly before she cleared her throat and recollected herself. In an instant, she was back to her sarcastic self.

"Was I running a terrorist cell I didn't know of? Why would he want to hire a goddamn private investigator?" She replied. She was completely conscious of her tone of voice, but she watched as Mike laughed it off. Typical Montgomery.

"He told me that he looked everywhere in Boston, but couldn't find anything. I just told him to stop looking, because you didn't want to see him. But, he persisted." He answered. Aria leaned forward in anticipation; she was completely infatuated with this conversation now.

"Wh-what did he say?" She stuttered. The knot in her stomach twisted and contorted until she was sick, and she felt like she needed to know what happened next. She still suffered from PTSD from her dollhouse days, and nightmares about Ezra Fitz would just make it worse. She knew that her parents couldn't keep Ira and Eleanoire occupied for too much longer, and she didn't want them walking in on this conversation.

"He asked me, uh, what he ever did to make you hate him like he assumed you did. And I was under the assumption that you had told him about his friggin' children already, and that he was just being a jackass because he didn't want to pay child support; so, I told him that he left you when you needed him most. But don't worry. He probably just thought I was alluding to college stress."

"You almost TOLD him?! God, Mike, the man's smart! He probably figured out that I was hiding something from him, and that's best case scenario!" She was livid as she spoke. She tried to calm herself mentally before she blew up again. Luckily, she was successful. "Come on. Mom and dad are probably waiting for us."

He nodded and scurried the hell into the house like the sky was crashing down. Aria looked down at her hands, and watched them as they shook like they always did when she was nervous or angry. This time, however, it was both.

After that conversation, she couldn't help but think back to the night that ended it all. She covered her mouth with her hand in order to hold in her sobs as she stood on the pavement, reminiscing about the night that, had it ended differently, would've changed everything.

June 21st, 2011

She stood there, arms folded over her chest, facing away from him with an intense anger boiling inside her. They had been fighting almost nonstop for the last week and a half, and it was really taking a toll on her stress levels and anxiety. The small apartment seemed to stretch out for miles when they stood on separate sides trying to collect themselves before they blew up at one another. That was smart, she thought. If she did let her anger take over or he his, that would make it the fourth time this week they fought with nothing but livid rage between them. In a sense, the love they once felt for one another was gone.

"Why do we do this?" He asked quietly from his corner of the apartment. She had heard him, but she didn't think that his voice was anything but a figment of her imagination at this point. Neither of them had spoken in a solid twenty minutes.

"You ask me like you think I would know." She answered. A tinge of fear lingered after she spoke, thereby shaping her words into a melancholy symphony.

"I'm not trying to antagonize you. I'm just...contemplating..."

"Contemplating what? Me? Us?"

"Don't go there."

"I kinda hard NOT to go there! You're acting like I'm the antithesis of trying to work things out." She sobbed, muffling her cries with her hand.

Although they looked like they didn't, they loved each other still even through all the fighting. The look in Ezra's eyes when he saw tears fall down her porcelain cheeks and her trying her best to work problems out lied just beneath the thin veneer of bitterness at the forefront of their emotions. You just needed to know where to look.

"I'm sorry." He breathed huskily. She turned her head to look at him and saw a certain red blotchiness mask his face. He had been crying quietly during the silence. This combined with the words he said next set Aria over the edge. "It shouldn't be this hard."

"What is that supposed to mean?" She fumed through her tears.

"Aria, we've been ripping at each other's throats for weeks. Maybe it's best if we spend some time apart. All this fighting isn't good for either of us, and I just want you to be happy."

"I WANT to make this work, Ezra. We're just fighting because we're stressed." She said as she calmed down. Her anger had left her since, and she was now filled with despair.

"Are we? Because it feels like we're on completely different sides of this. We're fighting because we have nothing left to do but fight." He retorted.

Nope. The anger had returned.

"Ezra, we are now FIGHTING over why we FIGHT." She yelled. He put a hand to his forehead, and made the most difficult decision of his life. This was it. They were done in his eyes. They had nothing left but anger, and all they did nowadays was lash out at each other. This wasn't going to be beneficial to either of them in the long run.

"I can't do this anymore." He whispered sternly.

"What do you mean you can't do this anymore?" She stuttered after processing his words for a moment. "Are you-giving up on us?"

Her words pained him. But, he had made up his mind. This constant bickering wasn't going to get any better. And as far as he knew, this could've been the eye of the hurricane. It could've gotten worse if he didn't draw the line now.

"Aria, there isn't any love left between us. This won't work. It can't work. I'm sorry, but this-" He paused to gesture his hand towards her and then back at himself."-can't go on. I think you should go."

She was completely mystified. They were over. She let a few more painful tears stream down her cheeks before storming out the door.

No wave.

No last look.

No nothing.

"AR-I-A."

She was torn from her thoughts by Mike, who was leaning towards her through the doorway and waving at her to come inside. She shook her head slightly and wiped the tears from her cheeks before walking inside.

"Hey," He said as he enveloped her in a hug,"are you alright? I'm sorry if I went too far. You're their mother, and I should've respected your decisions."

"No, no. I'm fine. Really, I'm fine. I wasn't crying because of our conversation. I was just-thinking..." She replied as she let another tear fall.

"About?" He questioned deviously. She laughed at his obvious intrusiveness, a universal quality all younger brothers possessed.

"The night Ezra and I broke up." She whispered. "Now that I think about it, I think my constant moodiness was the premise of most of our arguments. I can't believe I found I was pregnant what, like, a week after that? Talk about bad timing."

"You and Ezra breaking up was not your fault." Mike replied.

"Wasn't it, though? I pushed him to break up with me. I was the emotional, clingy wreck." She laughed. "God, I remember storming over to his apartment so fast with the test, only to find out that he had left AND that he had blocked my number. And who could blame him?"

"I blame him. He hurt my baby girl."

She turned around hastily to find her mother, holding an oven mitt in one hand and an apron in the other as she leaned against the doorway. Aria raised both eyebrows simultaneously to signify that she wasn't thrilled with the fact that her mother had been eavesdropping the entire time. But, Ella Montgomery just laughed it off and tucked some of her graying hair behind her ear before hugging her only daughter tightly.

"I have to give the douche bag some credit, though. If he hadn't been around and you two hadn't...done 'stuff,' I wouldn't have my two precious grandchildren I love so much." She muttered into Aria's shoulder. Aria quickly pulled away and laughed.

"Mom!" She exclaimed as she jokingly punched her mother on the shoulder.

"I'm sorry, hon. But it's true! If you two hadn't gotten all down and dirty-"

"Ah, okay. Mom, have you been drinking? This conversation's getting a little uncomfortable to listen to." Mike chimed in.

"A little. Why are you so touchy on this?! You have a son, for God's sake! Did you just forget how THAT happened, or are you just being cynical?" Their mother said with a quick and subtle eye roll. Aria laughed as she watched her brother's face turn bright red, and draped her arm around his shoulders.

"Alright. Enough of that, please. Mom, do you always eavesdrop on people's conversations, or just ours?"

"Hon, you're my children. It's either that or I could pull a Hastings and call TMZ." Ella exclaimed as she cupped Aria's face with one of her hands. Aria smiled and put one of her hands on her mother's. "God, I haven't seen you in so long. Too long, you hear me? You HAVE to come out to Rosewood more often."

A sigh left Aria's lips once again.

"Okay. I literally just had this conversation with Mike, so I'm just gonna tell you so you can get all your frustration and Parenting 101 lectures off your chest before we sit down for dinner." Aria sighed. She braced herself before continuing. "Ira got accepted into Hollis. And I didn't know how to turn him down, so that's where he's going this fall. I just don't know what I'm going to say if he asks me about a certain Professor Fitz in the English department. He's smart. He'll figure it out, I just know it."

She paused before speaking again. She wanted to choose her words wisely. Ezra Fitz was a touchy subject for her daughter.

"I'd say it's about time. He has to find out eventually, and who knows; maybe, Ezra won't even notice Ira. Just be grateful it's not Ellie who's gonna be running into her father every day. That girl is going to make a great lawyer. She reminds me of you when you were younger." Ella calmly replied, her words lacing themselves with sarcasm before she could catch them. That's just how she spoke. And as much as Aria knew that, it wouldn't stop her from becoming slightly irascible at her mother's inability to be serious.

"Mom. You're really not helping right now."

"You know what I think you should do?" Ella asked as she ran her thin fingers through Aria's short hair. Aria shook her head.

"I think that you should sit down for dinner. And, after that, you should write Ezra a letter and ask him to meet you for lunch." Ella stated firmly.

"I would ask you if you're insane, but I already know the answer to that question." Aria replied. Mona called for Mike, and he excused himself quickly. "Like I haven't already tried sending him a letter. He doesn't want to talk to me, and personally, I don't want to talk to him."

"Yes, you do. And I think the circumstances have changed, hon."

"How many times do I have to say it, Mom?! I don't want to talk to him!" Aria yelled.

"Aria, please listen to me. You will thank me later if you just reach out to him. And your blood sugar is obviously on the low side. I got your favorite: Chinese." Ella calmly said, thereby ending the conversation. Aria huffed as her mother led her into the dining room which she knew all too well, and reflected on her mom's words.

She had been right. And Aria knew that. She did need to talk to him. She needed to see him. Although it seemed stupid and slightly inane, she also needed to know if he was alright. He may have been the one who left her to mother his children, alone. But, she needed to know.

After dinner that night, Aria was up far later than everyone else in the house. She sat on the wood floor of her old bedroom with a pen and paper in her one hand, and the worn copy of "Winesburg, Ohio" she knew so well in the other.

She brought that book everywhere. She read it when she was up late at night trying to rock one of the twins to sleep before they woke the other, or when she felt afraid of being in her tiny apartment alone in the night with her two identical infants. It was one of the only books she read to her children to get them to sleep when they were little, and she bought them each their own copy just before graduation. It was a source of comfort for all three of them, even though Aria hated admitting it. It made them feel safe.

Every time she thought she had worded something right, she immediately started over; every word seemed way to good for that son of a bitch, yet still not good enough. As good a writer as she was, Aria was having the most difficult time penning this small, insignificant note. After an hour of starring at both bare, anemic white pages and scribble-covered messes, she decided that to be succinct was to be supreme.

"Ezra F.,

I know, you probably hate me. But, I have to see you, at least one last time. I don't know how you've been, but I hope you've been well. I've been well. I bet you ten bucks you're going gray-I'm kind of going gray, so I'm not judging.

Please, just, disregard our past; look past what happened that summer. Meet me for lunch at the Brew, tomorrow, at noon.

I hope you come. I need to see you.

-A. Montgomery"

Pushing thick tears aside, she grabbed an envelope, shoved her message forcefully into it, sealed it shut, and thrust it into her bag. She was going to leave it on his desk at Hollis the following morning while Ira checked out the campus.

As her eyes began to close, she reminisced sweetly about her teenage years, before her life took an interesting turn. She wouldn't trade them, her little girl and her little boy, for anything. She fell asleep on the floor with her phone beside her (alarm set, per usual), and "Winesburg, Ohio" at her feet.

Thank you so much for reading chapter two of EOTP. I hope you enjoyed it, and I'm very sorry for not churning it out sooner. Most of this chapter is just the brainchild of my sleep-deprived, fever-plagued delirium, anyway:)

What's your favorite part/character of the story so far? Is there anything I can tweak and/or change whilst writing chapter three? Please, don't hesitate to PM me or send me a review-I love talking;))

(Thirty-three days 'til April 18!)

XOXO,

Dee R. L. (ezriaandliars)