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He laid in his bed and stretched his arms straight above him. His muscles felt weak, and Ezra as a whole felt sluggish. With everything that had been going on he had lost pretty much all of his old routines. Exercise being one of them. He decided he should get up and go for a run or something. Just because he had one girl consuming his every thought didn't mean he should become an unfit and fat teacher that was distracted in too many of his lessons because he was fantasising about one of his sixteen year old students. He let out a deep sigh and pulled himself out of bed. He quickly got changed into some exercise gear and headed for his door. He made his way down to the bottom of his apartment building when he changed his mind and opted for his bike.

Once he began riding he felt the familiar happiness that he got from exercise. The happiness that didn't really come from anything in particular. He tried to keep his head clear from thinking of her and concentrate on other things. He considered some of the work he should start creating for his classes and realised exactly how much he had to do. His thoughts were consumed with different papers he should create for different classes, work sheets and class topics. He didn't pay any attention to where he was going, instead just concentrating on work. He looked around at where he was. He was on the outer skirts of the main streets.

"Hey Mr. Fitz!" a voice called from a park bench on the other side of the road.

He turned to where the voice came from and saw one of his students, Hanna Marin standing with another three of his students. Spencer Hastings, Emily Fields and Aria. Aria Montgomary. He gave them a wave and wished he could stop and maybe talk to her for a little bit. But there were others with her. And what type of teacher stops on the weekend to have a friendly conversation with four sixteen year old students. His head started to spin and he tried to push the thoughts out of his head as quickly as possible. His bike ride from that moment had been tarnished. He decided he would find his way back home and figure out what to do once he was there. He knew he didn't want to be alone or bored because he knew what would be the end result.

So once he was home he texted his friend Andrew. He was part of the group that he use to spend all of his weekend with. He wasn't as close with Andrew as Hardy but god knows he didn't need Hardy picking up on what was bothering him these days.

They decided to meet up at a Hollis bar later that night. In the mean time, he would consume himself with different class plans. He didn't find it hard to lose track of time with his work. He was an english nerd through and through and loved spending his time on anything slightly literature related. The great part about the particular class he was working on was that they were starting work on one of his favourite novels, To Kill A Mockingbird. Hell, this class wasn't 'work', he would do it whether he was getting paid or not. He glanced at the time and realised he was already going to be running late. He quickly jumped in the shower and got dressed, grabbed his keys and wallet and drove down to the bar, already running fifteen minutes late. He was practically jogging into the bar when he saw Andrew giving him a slight death stare. He went to the bar and grabbed two beers, hoping the free refill would make Andrews annoyance disappear. He sat down at the booth, and put down the beers.

"Yeah righto you're forgiven."

Ezra laughed and took a swig of his beer.

"So Ezra, what the fuck is going on? Don't think we all haven't noticed your sudden withdrawal from us all."

"What? I'm not withdrawing from you. I've just been busy from work. I'm new so I'm not that great at keeping up with the work just yet."

Andrew squinted his eyes at him not quite believing him.

"Look man I hate to bring this up, but I thought you had started to get over the whole Jackie thing. Not completely I know, but you seemed a little better, but now it just seems like you're hung up on the whole thing again."

Jackie. He hadn't thought about her for so long now. He hadn't realised that he hadn't actually thought about Jackie since he had met her. He was lost in this thought before he realised he hadn't answered Andrew for some time. Andrew must have taken this as a confirmation.

"Ezra you got to get back out there. I know it's shit but Jackie is a fucking bitch. That's it. Fuck can't you see how many girls check you out regularly? The bartender that served you pretty much fell over herself, not to mention since you got here I've noticed nearly every girl in here stare at our booth. And that's when they don't know you're a mad poet!"

"Poet? Where the fuck did that come from?"

"Okay not poet but you're so into all that writing stuff and they think that means you're in touch with your feelings man. They go crazy for it!"
"Do they now." he took another gulp from his beer.

"Don't pretend you don't want a girlfriend Ezra. I know you do. We all know you're a hopeless romantic and fuck man, if girls knew that, that would just be the cherry on top of the huge fucking sundae!"

He considered this. It was true, he did love having someone to put all his affection on and have that company. But the problem was he already had someone he wanted, but he wasn't allowed to have. He mentally groaned at the thought. The point of tonight was to keep himself preoccupied from thinking of this.

"Go up to any girl in this bar Ezra and she will dote all over you."

He looked around. There were a fair few girls around that obviously went to Hollis. Most of them were attractive, but unfortunately they were all being compared to someone they couldn't beat. They were bland and plain in comparison.

He let out a sigh.

"None of these girls are my type."

"What are you going on about? You have a thing for brunettes and there's at least twenty of them here!"

"Yeah but what about their personalities?"

"Well Einstein if you go up to one of them and start talking maybe you'll find out! Surely at least one of them will be doing an english degree."

He was running out of excuses. So he decided to lie.

"I'm just not ready yet alright."

He sipped at his beer. He knew that would stop Andrew from pressuring him. He felt bad for making him think he was depressed and heart broken, but he didn't feel like going after some girl that wasn't Aria.

"Alright I get it. But, I tell you what would help? Pick the most attractive girl in here, go up to her, work your magic, take her home, fuck her, then forget about it. I guarantee you will forget about the other slut."

He slightly cringed. The "other slut" wasn't Jackie. It was Aria. And she wasn't a slut.

"Look I'll enjoy tonight and see what happens alright?" he finished his beer, ready to finish this particular topic of conversation.

"I'll grab us more drinks." With that, Andrew got up and walked over to the bar. Almost instantly, a tall young brunette slid into the booth.

"Hey, I'm Lexi." he looked at her bright smile that was spread over her face. She had green eyes with a big smile. She was actually extremely attractive, until he imagined Aria. All of a sudden Lexi became horrid looking. Great. Now he was going to have to have the awkward conversation that he wasn't interested.

"Uh Ezra. Look um my friends coming back and-" a person standing behind Lexi was staring giving the thumbs up. Andrew. He turned around and went back to the bar, and started a conversation up with a blonde.

Lexi followed his gaze.

She gave a small giggle, "Uh I think he might have become a little preoccupied, Ezra. You might be stuck with me for a while." she gave a smile which he knew was suppose to make his heart flutter. But it didn't. He was already bored for Christs sake. He felt something warm creep onto his hand that was resting on the table. He looked down to see Lexi's small and delicate hands resting on his.

He was desperately marking papers. It was his only free period that day, and was behind. The original plan was after he got home from the bar he would mark the last few papers and give them back today. However that plan was shot to hell the minute Lexi sat down at his booth. Not only was the entire conversation awkward for him, as he tried to signal to her he wasn't interested, but then he highly enjoyed when she kissed him, and he awkwardly had to pull away. The rest of his night was filled with girls trying to seduce him and failing. It was successfully one of the worst nights out he had ever had out. Now, not only did he not have the original papers marked, but now he also had a stack of homework assignments to mark. The other terrific result of going out last night, was Andrew decided it would be a great idea to put Ezra's name down to read out one of his short stories. The Hollis bars did all types of nights to give the college students opportunities to show off their skills. Whether it be music or literature. It was too late to back out and he was dreading it. Sure he had a fair few short stories but reading it in front of people was just plain embarrassing. He looked at the time and realised his next class would start soon. He stood up and began writing some of the topics that would be raised in class.

"Hey." He stopped writing and looked behind him to see Aria slowly walking towards him awkwardly.

"Hi." he put the piece of chalk down and turned around to face her. He put the piece of paper with the work his next class would be doing down on his desk. He all of a sudden felt a little awkward too. He never knew what to say to her when they were in this setting. He nervously put his hands in his pockets.

"I saw you riding around town the other day. Uh, on your bike."

"Uh yeah. I saw you too. I waved. I would've stopped but you weren't alone." he swallowed hard. A lump was already forming in his throat. He looked down, unable to really look at her for much longer.

"Yeah, my friends, they uh thought you had nice legs."

He looked at her after this statement, it wasn't something he was expecting. He couldn't help but smile slightly with her at this. Then, a question popped into his head.

"What do you think?"

She started walking towards the desks in the middle of the room.

"That I was embarrassed that my friends thought you had nice legs."

He let out a small laugh, and walked towards her, closing the gap in between them.

"A little awkward, under the circumstances."

Circumstances?

"Aria, what are the circumstances here? If you know please let me know because this is completely new to me."

"Yeah me too."

She took a heavy sigh, before starting again.

"Maybe this isn't smart."

It didn't even take him a moment to know what he was going to say.

"I promise you it isn't smart."

She looked at him for another moment before she started to walk away in the direction of the door. He wasn't really expecting her to just end it that way, with no further discussion. He wasn't ready for it to completely end.

"But we need to talk."

She stopped and turned to look at him.

"There are things we need to cover that we can't between classes. Uh, I'm home tonight. I can make you one of two dishes I actually know how to cook. But I want to talk to you when I'm not looking over a desk or through Dan Farrens mohawk." she laughed and it looked like she had relaxed a little.

They continued looking at each other for a little, and he didn't even know where any of what he had said had come from. He just knew he needed a little bit more of her before he was ready to end it for good. She looked over her shoulder at the door before deciding to speak.

"What time?"

He thought about it for only a second, while the most part of his head was thinking all about how much he wanted to say to her.

"Seven."

She nodded and gave him a small smile.

"Sevens good."

She looked at him for a moment longer before she turned away from him and headed to the open door.

He stood there smiling a little. He felt like it was unspoken that she wasn't going to come over to his house to speak about how they would make sure nothing got out about them or whatever the original plan was. He didn't even know what the original plan was. He just wanted to say something that would mean he wouldn't have to say goodbye to private conversations with her forever.

He was busy cooking in the kitchen, while one of the most amazing girls he had ever met was standing in his apartment looking around.

He heard a small chuckle.

"Do you use this?" she asked amused.

He turned around to see her standing in front of his typewriter. He started walking towards her.

"As a paperweight. Mostly it's there to remind myself that there was literature before laptops."

She had backed away from the typewriter and was turning in the same spot looking around. He was suddenly extremely curious.

"What do you think?"

"It's nice. Yeah I like it. Thanks for asking me."

It seemed genuine, so he smiled at her.

"You're welcome."

He looked away, with another question floating in his head. However, he didn't know if he was in the position to ask. He decided he would just ask as casually as possible.

"How are things with your parents?" he said it as he walked back into the kitchen.

She let out a heavy sigh.

"Fine." she sat down on his leather couch.

"Mum and dad are having a date night."

That sounded positive?

"Mmm. Well maybe they're working things out." he said positively.

"Well they can have all the alone time in the world but she's...she's going to be miserable when she finds out."

Suddenly his own parents situation from when he was a kid flooded his head.

"Aria. Has it ever occurred to you that your mum might know more about this then you think?"

"No." she said it quickly and surely.

"She doesn't know, that's the worst part." she finished before adding, "Well, almost the worst part."

"Well is it possible that your parents have come to some kind of understanding that you don't know about?"

"No...it's not possible...what do you mean an understanding?"

He decided to tell her. Maybe if he did she would see exactly what he meant and the whole situation with her parents would stop bothering her so much.

"Um, okay." he started to walk towards her.

"When I was twelve my parents broke up and it threw me and my brother into a loop. I found out later they'd both been cheating." he nervously grabbed the tea towel that was hanging on his right shoulder.

"They worked through their infidelity there was just something else that killed their marriage."

He looked at Aria to see an expression on her face he hadn't exactly wanted to see.

"But that's your family."

He started to hear anger rise into her voice.

"Not mine."

He looked around, realising she hadn't seen the point he was trying to make by telling her his story.

"What are you trying to tell me?"

"I'm just saying, that even though your dad put you in this position, it's not your problem to fix."

Her reply was quick.

"I'm not trying to fix it I'm trying to deal with it."

Why couldn't she see that this wasn't for her to deal with? It wasn't something that should be keeping her up at night. He was starting to get frustrated. He replied quickly.

"But they are the ones that should be dealing with this! What you can't see now is that your parents need to deal with this themselves like adults."

She was just as quick to reply to him.

"Like adults." she said nodding, as if he hadn't quite understood what he had said.

"Right."

"Like, I'm not mature enough to deal with this?"

Where the fuck did that come from? He didn't even know how to respond to it.

"I-I didn't say that!"

"Yeah, I think that's exactly what you said. You said I am a child and I should mind my own business."

Okay what the fuck. Considering he hadn't even thought that, there was no way he had said that.

"I guarantee you that's not what I said."

"If I'm such a child then why did you ask me here?"

Okay this was not where he wanted the night to be going. He didn't want to talk about the fact she was a child. In fact even thinking the word with her being the subject of the word, felt wrong.

He calmed himself down and moved towards her, sitting next to her on the couch.

"I invited you here because I don't see you as a child. And that's exactly why we need to figure out what's going on between us."

"Okay. Just leave my parents out of it."

Fucking hell. He had asked her, because he wanted to be there for her. Which, he wouldn't think he had to be if she hadn't come to him in the first place looking for someone to talk about it with!

"You came to me about your father, do you remember that?"

He knew he had said it with probably a bit too much anger, but he couldn't help it.

She stared at him for a moment, angry or confused. He couldn't tell.

All of a sudden she got up and walked towards where her bag was sitting.

"You know what I think I made a mistake coming here."

Lie.

"I don't think you did."

"I do. It's not something an adult would of done."

She gave him a look, then walked angrily out his door.

How the fuck did all that happen? How did it fucking go from him wanting to help her to him accusing her of being a fucking child?

He slammed the tea towel he was holding onto his coffee table, and stood in the middle of his apartment feeling angry and really fucking disappointed.

He walked into class the next day, completely ready to begin the lesson with a passive aggressive indirect call at her. It had been twenty four hours, and yet he was still angry.

As he walked in, he put his briefcase on the desk, and his students began sitting in their seats.

He walked to the front of the class, clearing his throat, wondering where he should start.

"I'm wondering, is anyone else bothered by Adicuses hypocrisy at the end of the novel?" there was no response, but he noticed Aria look up at him from her book.

"No? Well, he's Mr. Do process when it comes to Tom Robison but as soon as Bob Yule gets stabbed he's willing to buy into the sheriffs cover up."

"He was protecting Boo Radley."

He looked to where the voice had come from. Spencer Hastings.

"Protecting him? Protecting him from what, the justice system?" Spencer nodded her head confirming that is what she meant.

"Atticus is an officer of the court and he's conspiring to cover up a crime? And he's willing to let his own son to take the fall for what Boo Radley did?"

Then he heard her.

"It was a trade."

"What was a trade?"

"Mr Ewell would have killed those kids, Boo saved them."

He put his hands in his pockets and walked toward her.

"And Atticus was still feeling guilty over Tom Robinson so he offered Jem to take Boo's place."

She said it as if it was obvious.

"Almost like a sacrifice." she finished.

"Hm. Very noble. Too bad Jem was unconscious. You think he would have had a different opinion."

She wasted no time before she responded.

"No Jem would have said yes."

"You're sure about that."

"He was brought up right."

He stood there staring at her. She had beaten him. He didn't know what to say, and silence filled the classroom.

At that moment, another of his students cleared his throat, rudely.

"I'm sorry Mr. Sperling, do you have something to add to the discussion? Besides phlegm?"

The class chuckled but Ezra was really fucking angry and decided Sperling was the perfect person to take it out on.

"Just, his dad was a lawyer, he could get the kid off...Um, being brought up right had nothing to do with it."

"Really? The whole book is about what shapes us into adults. Or haven't you been paying attention?"

"No no I was just saying that she-"

"No what you were saying was Aria made an attempt to understand this book, and you haven't."

"No I wasn't saying that ."

He looked down at his desk and looked embarrassed. Suddenly it dawned on him exactly what he had just done and he felt bad. This kid didn't deserve his anger.

"Sorry, what were you trying to say?"

The student took a gulp, looking like he was scared to continue.

"Well it would probably be easier for Atticus to get the kid off then to get Boo off, that's all." he looked up at him with hope.

He suddenly realised what he had done. Jesus Christ. His professional teaching career just kept going more and more successfully. He turned around to see the entire classroom looking awkward. He walked towards his desk ready to hand out some work sheets.

He walked towards his car, feeling a tad miserable. Nothing had exactly gone well since last night. It was now eight o'clock and he was only just leaving work. He decided to stay back at work and try and get up to speed with all his marking as quick as possible.

Everything with Aria was going terribly wrong. He had offended her and probably embarrassed her today in class. Oh and she also thinks he called her a child.

He got to his apartment, with his head still madly thinking about her.

He changed clothes and didn't even bother with having a second shower just yet.

Obviously he didn't think she was a child. If he did, he wouldn't be unable to stop thinking about her and he wouldn't be so fucking attracted to her. He wouldn't be interested in her at all.

But he was.

Yes she was young, but in no way was she a child.

He let out a heavy sigh as he dropped onto his couch, letting his head fall onto the head rest.

Nearly as soon as he fell onto the couch, were there knocks at the door.

Terrific. Exactly what he needed, company.

He slowly dragged himself off his couch and headed towards his door.

Before the door was even fully open, a young girl flew into his apartment.

"Okay I have never been so embarrassed in my life. I mean first you complain about me being immature and then you act like that in class like I needed to be protected? And everyone knew there was something weird going on I mean God, what was that?"

He opened his mouth to answer but before he could she started again.

"What! What were you trying to teach me some kind of lesson or something because I totally don't need that from you! And you don't know anything about my parents so don't say that they have some type of arrangement or understanding or something because you don't know them and you don't know me, okay."

He had nothing to say. He didn't have some smart retaliation like he knew she was expecting. But his thoughts fell on her last few words.

"Yeah, you're right."

She looked up at him, completely shocked and taken aback.

"I am?"

"I really don't know anything about you."

She looked confused, and maybe a little hurt? But he didn't mean that in a way he knew she had taken in. He slightly turned around and shut his front door behind her.

He turned around to look at her and all he saw was confusion.

"I want to know you."

He put it simply. He had wanted to know all about her the very first day he met her, and a good time later, he still wanted to.

She still looked at him a little speechless. He realised, this was why he originally invited her over. A part of him refuses to admit that he can't know this amazing girl. He decided he would do exactly what he originally wanted to do before so much shit got in the way.

That was before he started staring into her deep brown eyes, and became slightly mesmerised. His eyes were pulled down to her perfect plump lips and a wave of desire washed over him, like it usually did whenever he was in her presence. He decided to forget everything for a slight moment. He took a step forward and placed his hands on the sides of her face. He leant down and he softly placed his lips on hers. He had just wanted a little something, but as soon as his lips met hers he instantly wanted more. He slid his tongue along her bottom lip, just tasting her as much as he could. She opened her mouth a little wider and he slipped his tongue in. Her arms wrapped around his neck and he reached a hand down to her waist so he could pull her closer. Never had he ever wanted a girl so much. His body became hot and he pulled her even closer. He could feel the curves of her body flush against his and he was starting to become a little mental. He just wanted to have her. Completely.

But he couldn't. And as much as he wanted this, and god knows he did, he did want other things. He couldn't keep doing this to his poor body, so he pulled away and gave her one last soft kiss. Both their breathing had become heavy, and one part of his body was telling him to go back for more, while another was glad he stopped before it went too far.

He was still only inches away from her face.

"Do you want some dinner?" he breathed onto her face.

She nodded slightly and he reluctantly pulled away. He walked towards his fridge, and he heard her breath out a sigh.

He pulled the left overs he had made from last night and put them in the microwave. He set them to reheat and turned around to look at her, while leaning against his kitchen bench.

She had sat on the ground against his couch. He was confused why she hadn't just sat on the lounge but he let it be.

"You know, when I have a place of my own, I imagine it being something like this."

"Really? Why's that?"

"Mmm well, I hate houses that are so modern, that it doesn't even look like someone lives in it, you know?"

He laughed before saying "What, my house looks extremely lived in?"

"No! Well, yeah I guess. It's just got character. It kind of shows a bit of your personality."

He thought that through for a second.

"And what exactly would that be?"

She laughed.

"Probably the world's biggest english nerd."

He laughed with her. Great. That's exactly what he wanted girls to see in him. A nerd.

The microwave went off, and he retrieved the two containers of pasta. He grabbed two forks, before walking over to her. He handed her a container and a fork, before sitting across from her on the ground. She smiled at him before she started eating.

They sat in comfortable silence, before he noticed how much better this tasted then last night.

"Mm, you're lucky. My cookings always better the next day. I make really good left overs."

She laughed at him and looked she looked back down at her food.

"Don't laugh, seriously the pesto will get up your nose and we'll need the jaws of life in here."

Had he really just fucking said that? She was laughing, but he knew exactly how lame that was. He was nervous as. He knew what he had to say to her, but god knows he didn't want to.

She put her food down and he looked down. He really was scared to say this, and he actually had butterflies in his stomach.

"I'm sorry about what happened in class. I was mad at you for walking out of here. It's stupid, but I was. Going after Sperling like that. Not my finest hour as a teacher."

She looked at him sympathetically, before he noticed she looked a little nervous too.

"Well. You're right about me. I am a fixer when it comes to my family. I'm the one planning and negotiating...just trying to keep us together, keep things solid."

"What are you afraid of?"

She looked at him for a moment.

"That things will change. But that's not really helping is it. It's just trying to keep things frozen."

He hadn't wanted to make her feel bad about herself.

"It's human nature to try and hold onto things."

She looked down.

"I feel like my Aunt Ruth. She had her pet cat stuffed when he died...and you'd walk into her house and there's Muggsie on the piano. He's there and she talks to him and there's not really much difference between Muggsie alive and Muggsie stuffed. I mean, he's a cat. Aunt Ruth, she's really happy but the rest of us are kinda just creeped out."

There was a long silence. He didn't really feel like he could say anything, and it looked like she wasn't expecting him to say anything anyway.

"I can't fix this. And if it's going to be fixed, their just gonna have to do it themselves. And all I can do is tell the truth. Or otherwise I could lose the both of them."

He once again didn't have anything to say. It was exactly what he had meant for her to see the other night, and now she was seeing it clearer than he was. All of a sudden her facial expressions seemed to change.

"I have to go. Do you need help cleaning up?"

He looked at her as she was getting up.

He didn't want her to go. Not even slightly. He wanted her to stay and he wanted to talk to her more and find out more pointless stories like the one about Aunt Ruth.

"Uh.." he got up to stand face to face with her.

He could ask her to help clean up, but he knew he was only doing that so she would stay. He decided to just come out and be honest.

"You could stay?"

She looked like she was thinking things through, and then as if she was a little disappointed.

"No, I have to go talk to my mum."

He nodded in understandment but not really in agreement. He didn't know if she was going to tell her mum about the affair or not.

"You're sure about that?" he half meant about talking to her mum, and the other half was asking her if she really wanted to go.

She nodded.

"Yeah. I'm sure."

They stared at each other for another moment before she walked past him to her bag.

He slowly followed her, preparing himself to say his unwanted goodbye.

She got to the door before turning around.

"Thanks Ezra. Again. For helping me."

"You're welcome Aria."

She leaned up and kissed him, before pulling away. She looked at him for a moment longer, before turning around, opening the door and walking out. He lent on his doorframe, watching her as she walked away. She turned the corner, and smiled at him.

He smiled to himself before shutting his door.

Hope you guys liked it. Please review review review! And again, let me know if you want to see anything in particular!