'it's so weird, instead of hiding in your apartement we can really go out together and do things.. things that couples do. And we can finally replace that picture with the bags over our heads with a real picture with real faces!' Aria said. And she smiled. The hiding.. it was finally over, completely done. 'What are those things? Things that couples do?' Ezra asked. Aria looked at him, not sure if he was joking or not. 'Well.. we can have lunch together, we can feed eachother icecream in the park. Go on real dates, hold hands..' she answered. Ezra smiled. 'Where do we start?' he asked, 'I thought we already did..' and Aria looked at their fingerlaced hands. They were walking on the campus of Hollis, the place of Ezra's new job. She laughed. 'Aria.. I think we both know where we need to start' Ezra sounded pretty serious. Aria sighed. she should have seen this one coming. 'I know.. but it's so hard..' she said. 'Yeah, but if you really want people to start thinking about us as a couple. We really have to start with telling your parents.' and Ezra looked Aria in her eyes. 'I know.. you know what? Let's do it, tonight. Just join us for dinner, because I don't want to wait anymore. I don't want to go back to hiding in your apartement again. Because I'm happy when I'm by your side and I can't keep that happiness to myself any longer.' Aria didn't know where that came from. She just said what was on her mind. It was the truth. And Ezra was more than happy to hear it. He smirked, leaned in and he kissed her. 'tonight's okay' he said.
Ella and Byron sat on the couch. Aria was leaning on it. They were all waiting for Ezra to say something. Come on Ezra.. you can't back out now! Tonight's the night.. Aria thought. She looked at him, trying to convince him to just say it. Ezra took a deep breath 'We.. wanted to.. tell you something.. clearify something.' he looked at Aria, so did her parents. Aria nodded and that was a sign for Ezra to go on. His facial expression was sceptical. But he manned up. 'I'm.. I'm in love with your daughter.' Aria held her breath. A silence.. They waited for Aria's parents to say something.. they didn't. Byron and Ella looked confused. They didn't fully assimilate what Ezra just said. Ezra noticed that they didn't understood him very well
'I love Aria' he said.
Ella reached for her husband's hand, Byron bit his lip. Aria saw what happened and decided to get up and support Ezra and to explain herself. 'We met before school started this year.' there was a silence again. Then there was a noise of someone coming down the stairs. It was Mike. 'Mike.. you should go back upstairs..' and Ella looked at him very serious. Mike ignored it. 'I want you to know that this started before Aria was assigned to my class.' Ezra aimed his words to Ella and Byron again. 'before what started?' Ella was obviously confused. Byron didn't say anything yet. But they all knew that wouldn't last long. 'What do you mean before she was assigned to your class?!' Byron obviously wasn't too happy about his daughter being involved with a colleague. Ezra wasn't scared anymore, the word was out. 'She wasn't in my class then..' but byron interrupted him 'Then?!' everybody could see he was trying his best to keep his voice down. 'This.. can't be true..' Ella said. 'it is! really' Aria responded quickly. Ezra held her hand. Her mum still didn't get it. Nobody in the room did. Even Aria and Ezra. This wasn't what they expected. Why couldn't people just be happy for them? Love is love right?
'I love him' the words were coming out of Aria's mouth before she could think about it. 'This was going on.. This happened when you were her teacher?!' Ella said it with a huge disbelief. 'Yes' Ezra responded. Byron got up from the couch 'Do you understand what you're saying?' he asked angrily. 'Yes I do.' Ezra answered politely. Aria didn't know what to say, it all was going so fast. she could hardly keep up. 'No I don't think you do, because if you did.. You wouldn't be standing here! You wouldn't dare!' Ella was trying her best to not cause a scene, but it wasn't working out that well. Byron noticed that too; 'Aria, go upstairs and take Mike with you.' 'No!' she said. 'No, I'm staying here.' she looked her dad in the eye. He looked at Ezra 'If this is true, what you're telling us..' 'It is!.' Ezra was scared. the man in front of him acted calm but everybody knew that he was just pretending to. 'What I'm hoping that can happen is that..' 'No,' Byron interrupted Ezra 'what's going to happen is that you're going to leave this house, right now' he said that, but Aria knew there was a sentence that came after it: or else, you can be happy if you're still alive tomorrow! but Byron left it unsaid. Byron walked up to Ezra. 'Mr Montgomery..' 'End of conversation!' 'Dad just..' 'No I'm Not telling you I am just asking you to..' but Byron couldn't finish, Mike jumped between the both of them and hit Ezra with his fist on Ezra's lip. 'MIKE!' Aria screamed. There was a silence.. Everybody was speechless. Ezra's lip was bleeding. Mike walked to the front door and opened it. The message was clear, he wanted Ezra to leave. And Aria's parents were agreeing with him.Ezra looked at Aria, 'Maybe you should go' she whispered.
