*listen to the song while you read*
Ezra looks down at his phone. He had been thinking about Aria today and hadn't wanted to take her call today like he usually did, everyday at 4:00. His finger hovered over the delete button but something told him not to. Something told him this was important. For some reason he felt like he needed to listen to this one. Maybe it was because he needed closure. Maybe it was because after all these years, he still had hope they'd end up together.
His finger now hovered over the listen button which he clicked and turned the volume all the way up. At first all he heard was slow breathing and he was sure she had left the message by mistake but after a few seconds she started to talk. It was her voice, but it didn't sound lively or happy.
"Ezra" She cries and she sounds weak. "I need you to come to the hospital in Boston"
Ezra's heart stopped.
"Everyday when we talk, I lie. I tell you about my job and all my new friends but none of them are true. I didn't want you to worry about me while your at your job and working on your book but I need you now. I'm dying Ezra and I don't want to die in my hospital room alone. Your the only one that matters to me. Please come to Boston"
A million things were running through Ezra's head. What could she possibly be dying from? How could she tell him all this false stuff about her life every single day?
The phone felt slippery in Ezra's hands as it fell to the the floor. The words ran over and over in his mind. She was dying.
He arrived at the Boston Hospital in four hours after Aria's call. He was shown to her room right away and she greeted me with a smile. She didn't have the luscious brown curls anymore. Her hair was thin and straight, missing clumps of her hair. She looks pale and she was skin and bones.
"Ezra" She calls, stretching her arms in his direction.
"Aria" He says, pulling her into a hug and taking in all her scents.
She still smelled the same. Like a beautiful lilac.
"I knew I haven't been completely honest with you and I know that I don't look the prettiest right now since I'm pale and have bald spots and way too skinny but..." She gets cut off again.
"You don't have to look perfect to be beautiful" He says, pushing her thin hair behind her ear.
"I've missed you" She replied "so so much"
"I've missed you too" He says, still holding her small body in her arms.
"I wanted to see you one last time" She says, playing with the small curls forming in his hair.
"No Aria don't say that. You're not going to die. Please don't die" He cries, clutching onto her body.
"But I'm going to die, Ezra. I've known about it for awhile. I just couldn't build up the strength to tell you that I had cancer" She says and Ezra shakes his head.
"No no" He cries into her shoulder, although in this situation Aria seemed like the one who should be crying. "You can't leave me"
"But Ezra I need to leave. All this pain, all this sorrow. I can't deal with it anymore" She assures him. "I'm not scared"
"But I'm scared. I'm scared of a world without you. What am I going to do without your 4:00 phone calls? What am I going to do without your happy voice greeting me every time I answer the phone? What am I going to do without you?" He asks in between tears.
His blue eyes were flaked with tears and his cheeks were wet.
"I still love you. So much. I'm not ready to let you go"
"You'll do fine without me. You've lived these five years without me" She assures him but once again he shakes his head.
"No Aria I didn't live without you. We talked all the time. I still thought about you" He says
"And that's exactly what you'll do when I'm gone. You can talk to me and think about me" She strokes his hair.
"Ar, I can't live a day on this earth without you" He says and her heart melts into a puddle.
"I don't want to live without you either but I'm at the end of the road. I'm going to die" Aria states which causes Ezra to cry even more.
Usually he wouldn't cry in front of someone he loved but he couldn't keep it in anymore.
"Every day I would hope one of those calls we shared would involve you telling me that you loved me and wanted to get back together" He says.
"I loved you, Ezra. This whole time I loved you. I wasn't good for you" She tells him.
"You're the one Aria, you always have been" Ezra says. "There's no one else out there for me"
"I want to believe that too, but I'm dying" She says,
She looks into his eyes one last time, before going limp in his arms.
"Aria!" He screams trying to shake her awake but she doesn't wake up.
"No Aria! My only love. Please wake up!"
Minutes later, a nurse had taken her body out of his arms.
"How can she just die like that?!" Ezra cries.
"She had stage four cancer. She wasn't going to last very long" The nurse tells him.
"Why did she pick now to die? When I came here to see her?" He was crying his eyes out.
"Sometimes people wait until they see someone they love for the last time before they let go"
