AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well, it's been a while. I finally finished editing this chapter which has been sitting in my Google Docs for almost eight months. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and I hope I can crank out another chapter before the year is up.

"Alright, I'll tell you a story about my family.

"My father was a thief. He was a small time pickpocket, did some home invasion stuff like what you would see in the movies. He was pretty good at hiding it, too. Mom didn't even find out about it until well into the relationship. Anyway, one day he's out doing his magic act and he gets busted by an off-duty police officer. Dad gets chased through a few back yards and across a six-lane highway before they slap the cuffs on him. He gets two years in Oh-Triple-See, that's 'Oahu County Correctional Center' for everyone that wasn't born in Hawaii. My mother, God bless her, was left alone to take care of my brother Connor who was five at the time, but she's got her chin up because she thinks dad is gonna be out in six months with good behavior. There's a riot at the prison, things happen, dad picks up ten more years on a bunch of aggravated assault charges and they ship him off to somewhere in the Midwest because Oh-Trips isn't set to handle long-term inmates.

"So the old man does his time, he comes back, mom feels sorry for him because she's a saint and probably a little stupid, and he sticks around long enough for them to have me. I'm about...four? No, five months old when dad comes home one night dripping with sweat and a bag full of jewelry and stuff over his shoulder, him and his buddies just cleaned out a house up in Kahala which is kind of the upper middle/low upper class area of the island. So mom absolutely flips her lid because dad swore up and down that he'd never do his magic act ever again for as long as he lived and she kicks him out, right to the curb. He moves to Vegas to live with a grandma I've never met and I don't ever see him again until after mom's funeral.

"Eventually the grandma I've never met dies so dad moves again and starts doing construction work in Seattle. Things are going great for him until one day something happens at the site he's laying rebar at, lift failure drops something on him, totally screws up his knee. He can't work anymore so he gets worker's comp, decent pension, all that. Now Connor, who is actually old enough to remember our father, goes to take care of him despite protests from our mother and in return dad invests in Connor's dream of running a food joint. Sub sandwiches, cheese fritters, all sorts of crazy stuff. Flash-forward six years and one funeral later and I'm living with them on a trial basis since they're the closest family I got. One day, summer break I think, I get back from helping out at Connor's shop and dad says something to me, I think I had left something out and it spoiled, I don't remember. So I scream at him because I'm fourteen and angry, he tries to reprimand me and I pop him once in his bad leg, just drill straight into it, snap his leg brace like a twig. I do it because who is he? All I know about him is that he's some broken old man who abandoned his family. He's not my father, he's just some dude. He hasn't earned the right to tell me what to do because he was never there in the first place.

"Next thing I know I'm getting shipped off again to live with my aunt here and all the contact I get from my brother is a monthly phone call and a couple of texts a week. Last I heard he started seeing this chick named Melanie who's ten years younger than him, but I've never met her and I don't even know what she looks like."

Maya stared at Ezra dumbstruck; her bowl of chocolate gelato was now a just a melted blob under the warm halogen lamps of Ezra's kitchen. They had ended up at his apartment after Ezra found her crying outside Topanga's café. Ezra's aunt wasn't home and he promised he wouldn't tell anyone she was there.

Dinner, which was cooked by Ezra, consisted of scrambled eggs, country sausage (only slightly burnt), and an entire loaf of raisin bread toast. Maya spent most of the meal between baring her heart out and shoveling mounds of egg into her adorable mouth. Ezra just smiled, listening intently to her concerns, her fears, her confusion, and finally the problems in her home life. Not once did Ezra laugh, cough, interrupt, or try to offer advice. Once the food had been eaten and all was said he simply put the dishes into the dishwasher and told her to go to his room and pick out a movie.

Ezra's room was a cluttered mess of boxes and movie memorabilia. His bed took up most of the blue walled room while a single wooden desk without a chair blocked off the room's only closet. Sitting above the bed were two shelves. The higher one was packed to the ends with DVDs and Blu-Rays, all kinds of titles ranging from 60's crime-dramas to Korean soap operas. The bottom shelf however only held three items; a large statue of a mutant dinosaur eating a train, a blue cylindrical robot with a pointy nose, and a highly detailed model of a battleship with a giant gold drill adorning the bow. Maya made a mental note to ask Ezra about these things later and went about picking out a movie.

She returned to the kitchen with three choices, a crime-drama, a monster movie, and one romantic comedy, and took a seat at the counter.

Ezra placed a heaping bowl of gelato in front of her while he opted for a few chocolate-filled croissants and a cup of black coffee. "Huh, I would've never thought you'd pick these." Ezra said while eyeing over her cinematic choices.

Maya shrugged, "I've never seen any of these so I picked them. What's a 'Gamera' anyway?"

Ezra laughed, "Oh, you're gonna learn tonight."

Maya picked up her utensil with one hand while making a "bring it on" motion with the other. As she placed the first spoonful of the cold confection in her mouth though Maya couldn't help but feel a little guilty, Ezra had been nothing but kind to her and all she had done was talked his ear off so far. She decided to take a page out of the Riley Matthews playbook and asked him about his problems, his home life, hoping in some way to return the hospitality he had shown her. At first he declined, saying he didn't want to bore her, but Maya persisted.

"Alright," he finally said with a smile, "I'll tell you a story about my family."

.

"Come on, pick up!" Riley shrieked as she jabbed the hang up button on her phone. She had been pacing her room for a solid two hours after she learned about the argument between Maya and Lucas. This had been the fourth time Riley dialed her friend's number in the last five minutes, every time it would ring twice before getting sent to voicemail. She couldn't decide what was more infuriating, not knowing where her best friend was or knowing that her best friend didn't want to be found. Riley muttered a string of unintelligible expletives before texting Maya again. Finally, after almost three hours of pacing, texting, and calling, Riley's phone chirped out a response.

EZRA: Riley, don't worry, Maya's with me. Just had dinner. I promise she's fine, she just needs some time to herself. BTW, does she like chocolate?

Riley was stunned, why would she be with Ezra? After everything that happened he'd be the last person she'd want to see. Riley bit her bottom lip and tried to think of a response.

RILEY: Where are you two? Everyone's looking for her! Did she lose her phone?

Chirp

EZRA: She has her phone, I heard it buzz a few times. Like I said she just needs some space. I promise everything is fine and we'll both explain it to you tomorrow. Tell her mom she's okay. Now, I'm about to give her a heap of really expensive chocolate gelato and I would like it to not go to waste.

Riley sighed, it still drove her mad knowing that Maya wanted to be alone, but there was at least some comfort knowing she was with Ezra. Riley couldn't help but wonder what was eating her best friend, from what Lucas said the fight wasn't about anything important, it could barely be considered a fight at all. Maybe she couldn't fix this one, maybe she just had to put her faith in Ezra and hope everything would turn out okay like he said. Tapping out a final message Riley decided that it was time to get some sleep.

RILEY: Okay, I trust you. And yes, Maya loves chocolate, ESPECIALLY gelato. I guess this is goodnight then, I'll see you at school tomorrow. Sweet dreams, Ezra.

Chirp

EZRA: Muah! Goodnight, princess.

An infectious smile crept across Riley's face as she pulled her covers over her. Ezra would fix this somehow, Riley had faith in him.

.

"No, no, it's three rotations." Ezra said as he flicked his titanium-handled butterfly knife closed and demonstrated the technique again. After telling Maya his story the mood in the room became uncomfortable to say the least. Not wanting to drag her down even further, Ezra disappeared into his room for some time before returning with a smile on his face and a training knife in his hand.

Maya watched intently as Ezra deftly rotated his wrist and caught the knife's bite handle with a loud clack. "So one," -she flicked the trainer open- "two," -rotated her wrist- "three!" The trainer's handles clacked against each other and a giant grin formed on her face.

"There you go!" Ezra laughed. He spun his very real blade around his thumb before closing it. "I'll teach you that next."

"How did you get into balisong flipping anyway?" Maya asked as she repeated the motions she just did to close the fake knife. "I mean, well, you're like what? Fifteen? How would you even get one of these?"

"I'm not proud of it, but before they sent me here I stole my brother's Benchmade." he replied, motioning to the blade in his hand.

"Wow. He never found out?" Maya asked.

Ezra shrugged, "Probably, it is a four-hundred dollar knife after all. He had like three model forty-two's so I took one. He never mentioned it being missing though. I'm sure my aunt's called to yell at him about it before, but she hasn't said anything about it either."

Maya gently pried the knife from Ezra's hand and gingerly opened it. "You should send it back to him."

"Probably," Ezra replied, "when I get the money for a new one I'll give it back to him. For now though, I'm going to use it to teach you a 'zen rollover.'"

.

Farkle paced an infinity symbol into the gray carpet of his plush room in the even more plush Minkus Manor penthouse. He had been pacing for the better part of the night, unable to just sit still. He wanted to scream, but every time his mouth opened his voice would turn into a yelp. The only time he broke the infinity loop was to pick up his phone from where he repeatedly tossed it on his disheveled bed, dial two numbers and hang up on both of them, then fire off a hastily tapped out text message before tossing the phone on the same spot on his bed and resume pacing.

The date with Isadora had gone well, fairly routine by teenage standards. The movie they chose was good, though distressingly predictable (the fish-out-of-water protagonist and the beautiful-yet-unwanted love interest sail away from their small town), and the bistro they ended up at after the film served the best steak tartare and pate de foie he ever had inside the U.S. Yes, it had all gone well until Farkle retrieved his phone from his jacket pocket and turned it back on.

"Oh…"

LUCAS: 7 missed calls

RILEY: 12 missed calls

After making his way home and returning his friend's calls, the pacing began. He called Maya's phone, Maya's mother's phone, he even found Shawn's number through the magazine he occasionally worked for, but all of it was for not. Maya didn't want to be found and it drove Farkle mad. He tried everything,calling, texting, he even tried tracking her phone, but all he could tell was that she was still in the city.

Finally, Farkle stopped mid stride. He turned, picked up his jacket and phone, and called a cab.

.

"I don't get it," Maya said, the romantic comedy's final credits rolling over the TV's high definition screen, "Duckie was clearly the one who loved her the most! He would've given anything to be with her and she STILL chose the rich guy! What an idiot!"

"Trust me, I didn't like the ending either." Ezra replied as he fished out the last few popcorn kernels from the giant blue and white ceramic bowl on his lap.

"Duckie was funny, he was a snappy dresser, and Andie meant the world to him. I wish I-" Maya's voice caught in her throat, she knew how hypocritical it would be to finish that sentence.

Ezra arched an eyebrow in her direction, "You wanna finish your thought?"

Maya shook her head, "Not really. Can...can we just refill the popcorn and watch the next movie?"

Ezra kept his gaze on her, wondering if he should push for an answer. They had been doing well since both teens had told each other their life stories, finding a strange mutual respect for one another through their pre-teen hardships, it would be a shame if he ruined it. Instead, he picked up the bowl and headed for the kitchen.

Maya let out a sigh that she didn't know she was holding in. There was a shake in her bones, a paranoia that if she had finished her sentence her world would cave in on her. I wish I had someone who loves me like that. She had that though, before she threw it away for a handsome cowboy she had mixed feelings for.

It was too much, too much pain and regret and stupidity for Maya to take. Quickly, she reached for a large leather-bound book that lay on the coffee table and hoped that it contained something that would adequately distract her from the turmoil in her brain.
It wasn't words that Maya found in the book though, but rather pictures, both black and white and in color, spanning generations of what Maya assumed to be Ezra's family. The first few pages were nothing but grayscale photos, portraits of a distinguished couple clad in traditional Japanese wedding garb, a few candid shots of the couple at a secluded beach, and school pictures of two young girls wearing pigtails. The next pages were in color, the two girls from the previous pages now grown up and wearing flower crowns and bellbottoms and holding matching Rickenbacker guitars. The distinguished couple now looked tired and worn, slowly drifting away from each other as the pictures went on. Then there was a boy, blonde and handsome, with an old boombox in one hand while his other was snaked around the waist of one of the girls.

Baby pictures were next, adorable bundles of Asian eyes with mops of black hair. The woman, Ezra's mother, was glowing as she held his brother Connor in her arms. Next to it was a picture of Connor, now a teenager, holding his newborn brother in his arms with all the pride and energy a father would have. Their father, the blonde with the boombox, sat behind them, his arm outstretched to hold the camera.

Maya's smile slowly crept back across her face with the turn of every page. If she didn't know any better she would've thought the family in the book lived happily ever after. Her smile wavered as she came the the last filled in page. There was at least a third of the book left blank which was unfortunate, so many images left untaken. The last picture though, bigger than the others, was of the two brothers, Connor in front holding a maroon Les Paul guitar and Ezra in the back jamming out on his cherry red Flying V. They were on a dark stage in a smoky room, Connor yelling into a microphone while their female drummer who was barely in frame thrashed about wildly.

"That was at Barboza in Seattle."

Startled, Maya turned towards the voice and found Ezra standing behind her, a full bowl of popcorn in his hands.

"Sorry." Maya said sheepishly, "I didn't mean-"

Ezra placed the bowl on the coffee table and pointed at the picture, "That guitar right there," he said, tapping on the Les Paul, "that sucker was the first thing I learned how to play 'Dancing With Myself' on."

Maya studied the instrument with more attention than she had ever put into one of Mr. Matthews' lessons. The guitar, she noted, had a silver Bigsby brand vibrato tailpiece, black and gold control knobs, and a silver pickguard with hibiscus flowers engraved on it.

"It's beautiful." Maya said, remembering the faded dandelions on the pickguard of her great grandmother's acoustic. "Is it your brother's?"

Ezra nodded, "Yep, he's had 'Prudence' since he was maybe twelve."

"He named his guitar PRUDENCE?"

"After the song." Ezra replied, "It took him forever to learn his basic chords, took him even longer to get her to sound like a million dollar guitar. Pru is a knock-off, cheap pick-ups, broken selector switch, but my uncle bought it for dirt and gave it to Connor to give him something to focus on, something to keep him out of trouble."

"Did your mom and aunt name their guitars?"

He shrugged, "My aunt says she didn't. She pawned hers to buy a bus ticket away from my grandparents as soon as she turned eighteen. My mom named hers 'Lucy' because she always felt sky high whenever she played. I named mine 'Eleanor.'"

"Like Eleanor Rigby?"

He nodded in response.

"Well that's kinda depressing."

Ezra laughed, "You have no idea." He took the album from Maya and placed it back on the table. "Do you play at all?" he asked.

"Yeah, a little," she replied, "I got an acoustic at home that I pluck on sometimes."

"Huh." Ezra said. A wicked grin tugged at the corners of his mouth, "You wanna play something now?"

.

Riley had been sitting patiently in her father's classroom on his desk for the better part of an hour, or at least it was an hour in her time. It was all just a dream of course, the room was far too clean and the clock's hands moved at an alarming speed and there were entirely too many chairs. With a fanciful wave Riley dismissed the excessive seats back from whence they came and smiled at the four remaining ones. It was her perfect world, just enough chairs for the people she cared about in her favorite room outside of her home. This was the first lucid dream she could remember having, not including the super romantic Lucas one that she never told a soul about.

Riley had begun pirouetting around the chairs when a soft, yet frantic knocking pulled her out of dreamspace. Lumbering like a zombie, she made her way to the window and clumsily cracked it open.

"Farkle? What are you doing here?" she asked, still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

Farkle waved his phone and gave a nervous grin, "I called, you didn't pick up."

Groggily, Riley shuffled to her nightstand where her phone sat charging. Her eyes threatened to bug out of her head when she saw the number displayed on it's screen. "You called me a lot." she replied embarrassed.

Farkle's default smile persisted, "Did you find out where Maya is?"

Riley paused, she wanted to lie to her brainy friend so badly. She wanted to slap that goofy smile off his face and replace it with some common sense. "Yes." she finally said, her uncharacteristic urges successfully quelled.

Farkle reinforced his smile, trying not to show his impatience, "Are you gonna tell me?"

"Well," she replied, fidgeting with the hem of her purple pajama top, "I don't know where she is, but I know who she's with and that she's safe."

"What-Riley, who is she with?"

"She's fine, she's safe, go home, Farkle. I promise I'll tell you everything tomorrow." she replied. She gingerly rubbed his left shoulder, hoping that the show of affection would calm her friend down. Unfortunately it had the opposite outcome.

Farkle hastily brushed her hand away, "No! Riley, why are you keeping secrets from me?"

Riley's initial reaction was to respond in kind. An accusing finger pointed in his direction, a string of accusations. How dare he be upset when it was his actions that pushed Maya to her emotional breaking point. That wasn't right though, Riley would never do that to her friend no matter how upset she was at him. Composing herself, she folded her hands in her lap and put on her most diplomatic poker face, "Farkle, do you know why she took off like she did? Lucas saw you and Smackle at the movies. She left because she found out that you two are seeing each other. When did you even decide this? When did you suddenly decide to go out with her?"

"Saturday," he replied coldly, "I decided Saturday."

"But why though? You love Maya, you would never do anything to hurt her and yet here you are! Farkle, what happened to you?"

"She went off and chose Lucas, I just decided to not wait around."

"But you do wait around! You waited for me and Maya for almost seven years! What happened, what made you change?"

"I don't know. I just didn't want to be alone."

"That's incredibly stupid."

"Ezra's sentiments were about the same."
"Wait, Ezra knew?"

"He tried to talk me out of it."

"You should have listened."
Farkle gently pulled himself away from the window sill, his gut echoing Riley's last statement. He should have listened. "I'm sorry I woke you up, Riley. Sweet dreams."

.

"Wow, that was…."

Maya stared at Ezra with bated breath, "Was what? Bad?"

"Amazing." he replied, a smile and a slight blush adorning his face, "You're amazing."

Maya's cheeks flushed a similar shade of red as she placed Elanor back into her hardcase, "No I'm not." she said though a melancholy smile.

Ezra threw up a well manicured finger and began tracing circles in the air, "Ah, there it is again. Self deprecation is a horrible color on you." He gently set his mother's guitar on the plush suede couch and turned back to his blonde guest, "Listen, there's that talent show thing after the Winter break, would you...be interested in being my lead guitarist?"

"Lead?" she asked doubtfully, "That's not really-why aren't you lead?"

Ezra casually shrugged, "I'll be singing and I'm not good at juggling both." After a moment of silence he continued, "I already got a drummer and I got my sights on a bassist. I got a song picked out and a place to practice after school, I just need you to say yes. You're already familiar with Eleanor and the lead stuff isn't crazy complica-"

Maya swiftly put her hand against his lips, "Yes, Ezra. Yes, I'll do it."

"Yes!" he shouted. Without thinking he grabbed her wrist and placed a comically sloppy kiss on her palm. "I love you so much right now!" Instantly Ezra knew he had made a mistake, "Oh. Oh, Maya, I'm sorry."

"No, it's fine. It's-I thought he was different."

"Different than who?"

She shook her head and gave him her most high-class fake smile, "Nevermind, I don't want to talk about it. How about you start teaching me that song?"

"Maya, what Farkle did was stupid and idiotic and I told him that it would hurt you. I don't and will never stand by what he did, but you chose to explore your feelings for Lucas after Farkle told you how he felt. Can you really blame him for not wanting to be in pain? I'm gonna go get the sheet music and we'll start, okay?"

Maya nodded, pulling herself into a more comfortable playing position. She tried to ignore the ton of emotional bricks Ezra's words had left in her stomach. Objectively speaking, if a guy had done to her what she did to Farkle she would've made his life a living Hell. Maybe she was the bad guy in this situation. She shook her head and focused on tuning the guitar in her lap and making sure she was ready to blow Ezra away with her musical talent again.

Ezra came back with a stand and a music book and placed both in front of Maya, "You ready?" he asked rhetorically.

The song started low, a barely there rumble of two chords, raising is decibels like a bear waking from its slumber. Ezra began to sing softly, like a gentle winter breeze. His voice warmed as he and Maya progressed though the song, ultimately transforming into an animalistic growl as their guitars screamed to match his tone. Individual chords melted into each other as the players reached the height of the songs crescendo before returning to the rumble it started with.

For never having heard the song Ezra picked out Maya had gotten through with it with surprising ease. She had played the wrong chord only a handful of times, but besides that it was practically a piece of cake for her. She again returned the cherry red Flying V guitar to its case and sheepishly turned to her new bandmate, "Hey, I, um...thanks for doing this. For me, I mean. Letting me stay here and stuff. You didn't owe me anything, but you're helping anyway. I'm not-I don't think I'm worth it though"

Ezra scoffed, "Of course you are. Maya, you're amazing when you don't let yourself get in the way."

"Heh, Farkle said the same thing to me once." she said, melancholy as ever.

"Well, you should listen to him, he can be pretty smart sometimes." He smiled his little crooked smile before turning to the black minimalist wall clock next to the kitchen, "Oh man, it's almost two. We should get some sleep."

"Why? It's not like we're doing anything tomorrow."

Ezra gave her a guilty shrug, "I promised Riley that we'd talk to her tomorrow which means that we both need to go to school."

Maya's hand snapped out and caught Ezra's wrist, "Wait, you told Riley I was with you?"

"Relax," he replied, gently prying her kung-fu grip off his arm, "I didn't tell her where we were, I just told her you were with me so she would stop worrying. She worries about you a lot."

"She does." Maya paused and she mulled over her next sentence, "Do you...like her?"

"Well, yeah, I like both of you."

"You know what I mean." Maya replied, hoping for a straight answer.

"I'll take the couch, you can take my bed." Ezra replied. He knew he liked Riley more than just as friends, but without knowing how he stood with Sarah the most certain answer he had was none at all.

"How about this;" she countered, "we watch this last movie, we sleep in, and then we get to school by lunch. We can talk to Riley then, okay? Besides, I've missed one Japanese monster film tonight, I don't want to miss another."

Ezra smiled before pointing at the guitar cases, "Deal, but you gotta help me put away all the gear."

A/N 2: Chapter title taken from the song with the same by The Eels.

Ezra's monologue was inspired by the one given by Frank (played by James Caan) in the 1981 film Thief.