It's always been you

Dinner

Aria's POV

I don't know what's going on with Ezra but he hasn't spoken to me since my mother's invite for this dinner party tonight. I've been trying to find him around school as I've lost my phone and I don't want him to think I'm ignoring him if he's trying to get hold of me, but he's totally avoiding me. He doesn't look in my direction at all in class, and the minute the bell goes he's gone. To make things worse, he's going to have to talk to me tonight at dinner as he was the only one who could make it, and my mum felt bad cancelling it. I'm allowed to invite a friend but I'm still deciding if that's a good idea as I really need to talk to Ezra alone. I know for a fact my dad will ask me to give him a tour of the house, he always does when we have new guests round. So I'm thinking of inviting Spencer but asking her to come an hour late so she'll be just in time for dinner, and I have some time to get Ezra alone. My mum's been checking on me frequently as I've been in my room hardly talking to anyone. I tell her that Spencer will be late and she just smiles, I would usually talk to my mum about things like this, whenever I have boy trouble she's the one I go to, or Spencer, but right now I feel like I have no one. 

As mum and dad are busy cooking and making the house look tidy they ask me to e-mail Ezra from my mum's laptop to check he's coming, it sounds sad but I'm more than willing to do it if it means I can talk to him and get a reply. We talk for a little while which puts me in a better mood, even though he thinks he's talking to my mum. 

Ezra's POV

I've been so selfish towards Aria but I just can't face her, partially from fear of what I'll do and partially because I feel so betrayed. Well, I'm going to have to pull myself together soon as I'm going to be at her house, having dinner with her and her family. I've never felt so strongly towards someone before, I can't explain what I'm feeling and I know I can't end it. I really don't know what's going to happen but I can't think about it right now. I need to go to the shops to buy some wine and flowers and get dressed. I may be mad at Aria but I still want to impress her, it seems the more I try to get her out of my head the more I realise that recently everything I've been doing I've been doing so she'll notice me. It makes me even more of an idiot, I've been making her notice me when I've been ignore her and getting away from her as quickly as possible. 

When I'm at the shop I pick out some nice wine that goes well with pretty much any meal, and a bunch of roses. It's risky but the roses are for Aria, I'll find a way to give them to her without it looking suspicious. I don't know if it's an apology for being a jerk, or an apology for whatever I'll do after that but either way she needs to know how much she means to me. 

I put on a dark blue suit and leave the top button of my shirt undone as I don't want to look too formal and leave to go to her house. Driving in the car I start to have seconds thoughts and think about turning back and saying I'm ill but I know how unfair that is on Ella after she's prepared this whole evening because she didn't want to let me down. 

Aria's POV

I hear three knocks at the door and the butterflies go crazy in my stomach, I'm excited and scared all at the same time. I hear my mum call and tell me to open the door, I don't want to but I can't tell her that so I take deep breath and open to see Ezra standing with a bottle of wine and roses looking amazing. My initial thought is that I wish he was here for me, picking me up to take me on a romantic date in public, but I'm quickly brought back to reality when I realise I'm just staring at him in awe. He looks around and realises my parents are in the kitchen and hands me the roses. "I'm sorry." He whispers and I look at him confused. "I'm not sure what for yet." He says and walks into my house leaving me standing there clueless. He walks into the kitchen and greets my parents in his usual charming way and I hear the dreaded sentence come from my dads mouth. 

"Aria will give you a tour of the house, won't you Aria?"

"Course." I say with a small smile. I take him into the living room and he takes both of my hands knowing that no one can see us. He takes my phone from his back pocket and gives it to me. 

"You left it at mine, and I uh, saw a text from Spencer. I seriously thought you were mature enough not to tell your little friends about us." What the hell is he talking about? Why has he kept my phone from me all this time whilst he's been ignoring me? 

"So it's mature to avoid me and not face your problems? I guess I'll just do that too then." I take the phone from his hand and walk away, and tell my parents he'll have a tour later. I look through my phone and see so many messages from the girls and a few missed calls from my parents from where we've been looking for it. Ezra appears into the kitchen with an apologetic look on his face and I have to turn away, I can't give into his eyes. 

"Aria, why don't you sit with Mr Fitz in the lounge whilst we're just getting ready?" My dad suggests and I guess I have to go along with it. Part of me wants to talk about this anyway, I'm so mad that he didn't just talk to me and give me chance to explain that actually it's his fault that Spencer knows about us, and it's only Spencer not all my little friends. We walk into the lounge and sit down as he just looks at me. 

"It's only Spencer who knows, and she only knows because you gave me my phone in English when I told her the night before I left it at a guys, she worked it out that you were the guy as there was pretty much no other explanation. Maybe if you spoke to me rather than run away from me all week I could explain that, she's fine with it and whether you believe it or not she cares about me and wouldn't tell anyone about us." I see him look down at his fingers as he's playing around with them. I feel bad for acting so stroppy with him but I think he was acting unreasonable when he was jumping to conclusions. He finally looks up at me and the hurt in his eyes makes me forget everything, I just want my Ezra back. 

"The roses are for being an idiot, I'm sorry." He mumbles and it breaks my heart a little. 

"How about that tour now? I'll show you my room." I say with a wink trying to lighten the room and I see him visibly relax and take my hand. I tell my dad we're looking around as I pull Ezra into my room closing the door behind us. He stands for a minute just looking into my eyes and leans in to kiss me, I return the kiss and he walks me backwards into the door, pushing me against it.

We must have lost track of time as my parents call and say Spencer's at the door, I look at Ezra and I can see he's nervous about seeing her knowing that she knows about us, but I kiss him on the cheek to reassure him that it's fine. We walk down stairs and my dad looks at us confused, probably wondering how a tour took so long but Ezra quickly explains that we got talking about my book collection in my room but Spencer's looking at me with a smile knowing exactly what was going on. 

"Well dinner won't be for another 10 minutes, you girls can go upstairs and do whatever." My mum says smiling, thinking she's doing me a favour getting me away from my English teacher. Spencer and I sit in my room and she asks how the confronting went and I explained everything to her. 

"Wait, did you guys... Do it?" She asks and I laugh. God no.