Define Ezria

Chapter 44

"This town is toxic" I mumbled and my hot breath caused the frozen car window to fog, momentarily obscuring my view of the crowded streets of Brooklyn.

Ezra was so taken aback by that statement that he hit the break a little more aggressive than necessary causing my small body to jolt forward. "New York?" he asked in disbelief easing on the break again.

"No" I rolled my eyes at his overreaction and went back to people watching as we looked for a place to park. "I meant Rosewood. You really don't understand how bad it is until you see get out of there and see that there's a bigger picture".

"Not to disagree, as a writer I think loving New York over every other place is a predisposed characteristic, but I don't think Rosewood is the problem. More like the people, and the small town mentality that surrounds most of them."

I snorted at that first part, even though he was right and nodded at the last, which he didn't see and went on talking.

"I thought we agreed that Rosewood and everything associated with is banned from today's topics of discussion, you made the rules remember?"

"Rules only exist to be broken" I gave him a wink to lighten the mood but made a mental note to not bring it up again. Today was about us, getting away. Strangers among strangers in the most beautiful city of the States.

I had come up with a lame excuse the night before as to where I'd be all day today and although Dad didn't look very convinced, I must have looked extremely desperate for him to not push it any further and me getting away with just the promise of having my phone on me the whole time. I had also sent the girls a short message on the group chat asking to cover for me if something went south, before hopping into Ezra's car at the crack of dawn to make the two hour drive early enough so we wouldn't miss the whole day.

I was worried about the drive; us truly alone for two hours with nowhere for me to hide or escape, but fortunately enough, I fell asleep as soon as we hit the highway, only waking up when Ezra put his hand on my thigh to tell me we had arrived.

"There" I said, pointing to an empty spot next to some trashcans that were dangerously overflowing. They don't show you that side of New York in "Gossip Girl", I thought to myself as we got out into the freezing street and the stench of garbage and urine hit us with a velocity.

I still had a little trouble putting my entire weight on my leg so I latched onto Ezra and together we made our way into a tiny coffee shop that looked like every writers wet dream.

It was barely 9 am by the time we sat down and a very tired-looking waiter stood over us tapping away on his electronic thingy magigy. "What can I get you guys?" he asked without looking up and was gone as soon as I was finished asking for extra cinnamon.

I looked around at the rest of the clientele and smiled realizing most of them were probably college students or aspiring-somethings, typing away on their laptops barely aware of their surroundings.

"This can be you" Ezra said following my gaze. "Heck, this will be you soon enough."

I turned to look at him, searching his face for any signs of regret or bitterness and found none. He really wanted me to follow my dreams and succeed which normally should have made me happy but being me I had to overanalyze it.

If I was going to move here next year or go to college anywhere for that matter it would mean that we wouldn't be together. I could not see any possible scenario in which I stay in Rosewood but at the same time the thought of being apart was equally appalling.

"Wanna get rid of me that bad?" I blurted without thinking and immediately regretted it by the change of his demeanor. "That's not... that's not what I'm saying" he exhaled, visibly fed up.