Define Ezria

Chapter 45

When people say "things are back to normal", they usually don't mean that someone hasn't been murdered or run over in a while. Contrary, that's exactly what I meant when mom called to ask how I've been two weeks after my short trip to New York with Ezra. School had been hectic. Trying to juggle the fast approaching finals, college applications and the school play was far more stressful than I had imagined but in a good way. Those were the things kids my age are supposed to be stressing about.

The girls and I always felt like our teenage years were robbed and while the rest of our classmates were messing around at the mall on the weekends, we were giving statements down at the police station.

Normality, I didn't mind. I tried hard to avoid Jackie at school and had been spending a lot of justified time with Ezra since the play was to open in two days. Mom had called to ask for front row seats, which were surprisingly hard to come by. The entire senior class of Rosewood had a part in that damn play since Ezra was giving out extra credits to all the students who participated in it and God knows we needed all the extra help we could get on that department.

I've always had a vague idea of what I wanted to do with my life, job wise that is, but now that I actually had to make a serious decision that would affect not only my future career but my relationship as well, I was at a loss.

Even Spencer, whom everyone had assumed had secured a place at every Ivy League school in the country, was struggling to make ends meet with her applications. I wasn't the only one who had been through it, this past year. We were a package deal if anything happened to one of us, it happened to all four. That's why I didn't waste a second in telling them what was waiting for me in New York if I wanted to, asking for their advice.

To my surprise, all three of them had been extremely skeptical, which put me on a defensive mode. Ezra had done all that for me. What was to be skeptical about? They had always asked me where did I see this relationship going, well there was their answer.

I was pretty sure Ezra was terrified of Spencer, and my suspicions were confirmed opening night when she rushed up to me and him standing at the makeshift wings of the stage going over the play one last time.

His eyes widened and his Adam's apple wobbled like he had trouble swallowing. If we weren't in this situation I would have found the whole thing very amusing.

"Mr. Fitz" Spence addressed him without looking up from her papers, "Eric broke the lightbulb in the dressing room and Lara is refusing to put on makeup to the rest of the cast since she believes her talent is being wasted and she could be working at MAC, and that is a quote".

She snapped her binder closed and only then seemed to realize I was beside poor Ezra who was rubbing his temples taking in the new developments.

"Right" he cleared his throat "I'll go deal with this. Will-will you be okay?" he turned to me, avoiding Spencer's critical stare burning into his scalp and I nodded, not trusting my voice.

I never was the one to get stage fright or nervous about public speaking but lately I was more and more unsure of myself. They had dented me, leaving behind a trembling stammering mess."Pep talk?" Spence asked when he was gone and I nodded again, handing her my notes.

Since I had a big enough part in the play I had handed my assistant duties to Spence who seemed more than happy to have complete control over something again. I had caught her slapping a donut out of Em's hand, earlier, because the sugar was threatening to mess up her dress.

"Does picturing the audience naked really work?" I asked her and peeped through an opening in the dusty curtain at the people already filling in.

"Well Ezra will be in the audience and we already know you've seen that piece of ass-"