Hold Me Close: An Ezria Story

It's Time

Aria's POV:

I watched Ezra walk out of the room. I didn't want him to leave because I knew if he did Spencer would ask me about -A. And I did not want to talk about -A. Ever. Again.

"Look Aria, we know you probably don't want to talk about this, but we need to... Did you see who -A was?" Spencer asked me. I didn't have the answer she wanted.

"No..." I said plainly, looking down at my hands.

"Well did you try to take the mask off? Did you at least see if it was a guy's or a girl's body? Spencer continued. I knew it had to be a guy since... But I didn't want to tell them about that.

"I don't know... Spencer I had my hands tied behind my back. I was just trying to stay alive. How could I have seen who it was?" I said thinking back to what had happened. I really didn't want to talk about this.

"You could have at least tried Aria! This was our one chance at finding out who -A is once and for all!" Spencer yelled.

"Spencer, lay off. Can't we talk about this a different time?" Hanna said to Spencer, putting her hand on Spencer's shoulder.

"No!" Spencer snapped, shrugging off Hanna's hand and stepping closer to me. "The longer we wait, the farther away -A gets!"

"Can you please tell Ezra to come back?" I said quietly, cowering into my sheets. I had never seen Spencer like this before.

"No Aria!" Spencer screamed. "We need to get to the bottom of this! I swear if you had just..."

"What the hell is going on in here!?" Ezra yelled as he came running up to the side of my bed. By now I was crying and Spencer was towering over me. Hanna and Emily had stood quietly in the corner.

"I think you need to leave." Ezra said sternly to Spencer as I cried into his chest. "Now." Ezra finished.

"We'll talk to you later Aria." Emily said as Spencer stormed out of the room. Hanna followed behind her and Emily shut the door on their way out.

I cried into Ezra's chest as he kept his arms wrapped firmly around me.

"I'm so sorry Aria. If I had known she would do that I would never have left. Try to calm down, you can't cry . It'll hurt you." Ezra said as he stroked my hair. "Just take deep breaths."

I breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth. Ezra was right. The doctor said if I cried too much it could hurt my stomach.

I finally stopped crying and looked into Ezra's eyes. His eyes were the most beautiful part about him. The way they sparkled when the light hit them just right. They were a gorgeous deep blue color, and had flecks of light blue if you looked close enough. Just seeing his face calmed me down enough.

"I love you." I whispered. "Thank you so much for everything."

"I love you too. And I promise I'm gonna protect you." Ezra said as he held my gaze.

I leaned in and kissed him. His lips felt so good. He put his hand to my cheek as I ran my hand along his hair. Ezra deepened the kiss and laid a hand on my thigh. I sprang away from him, feeling my throat closing as I remembered what happened last night...

-A was holding me down, my hands were tied. I couldn't move, couldn't fight. A hand rested on my thigh. It slowly creeped under my skirt and squeezed. I was lifted off the ground as I felt a hand under my shirt, searching for anything it could find. I tried to fight back but I couldn't go on much longer. I was thrown to the ground and...

I snapped out of the flashback gasping for air. I couldn't remember where I was. All I heard was a ringing in my ears. I looked over to see Ezra standing over me. I couldn't make out what he was saying, but he looked almost as scared as I felt. What was happening?

Ezra's POV:

Aria and I were kissing and I couldn't help but rest my hand on her knee as we deepened the kiss. Then, she lurched backwards and cowered away from me. She started taking short, gasping breaths and was frantically looking all over. I could see the fear and pain in her eyes, but she wouldn't answer me.

"Aria!? What's wrong? Just calm down! Please talk to me!" I shouted. It was like she didn't even acknowledge I was standing right in front of her. I didn't want to touch her again because whatever I did before scared her so much she won't even respond. Something was definitely wrong, and I needed to find out what.

Aria's POV:

The ringing finally subsided and the fact that I was in the hospital came back to me. I tried to steady my breathing but I was still shaking uncontrollably. I looked up to Ezra and he immediately wrapped me in a hug.

I stiffened for a split second but relaxed as he started to trace circles on my shoulder. He pulled me out of the hug and looked into my eyes.

"Aria... What happened?" Ezra said, holding onto my shoulders so I was facing him.

"I-I don't know..." I lied. I didn't know if I wanted to tell him. If he knew what I did, he might stop loving me. I couldn't handle him leaving me, especially now.

"Aria, I know something's wrong. I can see it in your eyes. You're scared to death. And not to mention the fact that whenever I touch you you freak out." Ezra said, his eyes full of concern.

I knew he was only trying to keep me safe, and in order to do that he needed to know what it was that I was afraid of. That meant starting from the beginning. I had to tell him about -A...