Hold Me Close: An Ezria Story

Be Patient

Okay so this is my first fanfic so I don't really know how it'll go but I hope you like it! It's meant to take place around 2x04 - 2x05. It's not gonna follow what happens in the show completely. I don't plan on it being super long, but we'll see I guess :) Enjoy!

Aria's POV:

I was sitting in my last period class bored out of my mind. The class was English, but ever since Ezra got his job at Hollis, school hasn't been the same. Sure I'm happy he got a new job and we can actually be public about our relationship, but I still miss seeing him every day. At least today was Friday, which meant I got the whole weekend with Ezra! The dismissal bell rung and I sprang out of my seat and practically ran out the door. I started walking down the hallway when someone grabbed my arm. I whipped around letting a little gasp escape my mouth.

"Relax, it's only me!" Hanna let out a small chuckle.

"Sorry, I've just been a little jumpy ever since... you know, Ian." I said sort of whispering the last part. Ever since we found Ian's body and the whole suicide note made up of -A texts, we know -A is still playing the game, and we're still trying to survive it.

"Yeah, I think we've all kind of been on edge lately." Hanna said looking down at her shoes. "Um...I was gonna go over to Spencer's today, and I think Emily's coming too. We were gonna see if we could find anything else in Ian's note. You think you could come?"

I sighed and bit the corner of my lip. I just wanted to go and see Ezra. "Okay." I said, "But I can't for very long, I've got... family dinner tonight..."

"Hmm does this "family dinner" include making out in a certain teachers apartment?" Hanna said with a smirk.

I shoved her a little. "Shut up Hanna!" I said laughing along with her. "I can stay till 4, Ezra gets home then so I can just head there afterwards. Okay?"

"Kay, see you at Spencer's." Hanna said as she waved and walked away.

I walked to my car and pulled out my phone to see I had one new text message. My first thought was that it was another -A text, but I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw it was from Ezra.

Can't wait to see you tonight :)
-Ezra

I smiled as I read the text and replied.

Me neither. Be there at 4. I love you.

I started my car and drove to Spencer's, but all I could think about was Ezra. I just wanted to sit with him on the couch and watch old movies while he plays with my hair and we just kiss and cuddle and laugh. I pulled up to Spencer's house to see that Hanna and Emily had already gotten there. I got out of the car and let myself inside and walked upstairs to Spencer's room. When I walked in the floor was littered with all sorts of papers and Spencer was looking at something on her laptop. Emily was sitting on the bed reading Ian's note off of a picture she printed off, and Hanna was looking through some papers. Typical Spencer to have us all investigating on a Friday night.

"Hey." I said as I set my purse down and picked up a pile of papers from the floor.

"Hey." They all said mindlessly back practically in unison. I leafed through the papers I was holding and saw it was just a bunch of pictures of the same note. The note that's been haunting us for over a week now.

"Find anything yet?" I asked as I walked over to Spencer at her laptop.

"No." She said, almost angrily. "Just a bunch of useless photos."

I walked over and sat on the bed with Emily and Hanna. "Why do we have so many pictures of the same note?" I asked, seeing that the pile of papers Hanna was looking at was also just a bunch of photos of the note.

"Spencer thinks that maybe there's some clues we're missing, some words that could lead to something." Emily said.

"-A is trying to tell us something, I just can't figure out what it is." Spencer said, not even looking up from her laptop.

I looked over the pictures of the note that I was still holding. I saw the same words we've been looking at for days. I didn't want to think about this right now. I reread and reread the note but nothing changed. After what seemed like days it was finally 4:00.

"Hey, I gotta get going, but I'll call you tomorrow?" I said, not really knowing which one of them I said it to.

Hanna was the first one to respond, saying, "Okay, have fun with Fitz!" The other two looked at me and I just gave them a small smile before walking downstairs and out the door. I basically sprinted down the driveway and to my car. I sped to Ezra's apartment.

By the time I got there it was already 4:30. He buzzed me in and once I got to his floor I stopped and looked at the familiar little brass '3B' hanging from the door. I knocked twice and the door swung open. I immediately fell into Ezra's warm embrace. He hugged me tight and kissed the top of my forehead as I snuggled into his chest. His shirt smelled like the big mahogany desks they have in the offices at Hollis. I pulled away and looked up into his sparkling blue eyes. He cupped my face in his hands and we kissed. Everything just felt so right. In that moment I forgot about Ian and -A and all the crap that's been going on. I wanted it to last forever. Ezra slowly pulled away and smiled at me.

"I missed you." He said, still smiling.

"I missed you too." I said as I pulled him into another hug.

He led me over to the couch and we sat down. He put a movie in and I laid my head on his chest, our fingers intertwined. He let go of one of my hands and slowly traced little circles on my shoulder. He knew I loved it when he did that. We watched the movie and just sat tangled together until it was dark out.