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Chapter nineteen
STONE
God,whatIwouldn’t give to silence that fucking mouth. Part of me thinks how dare she, but the other part loves how feisty she is. How she can always handle herself. I nearly exploded when I thought every fucker here had seen that photo of her like that. Thank god it wasn’t actually her. Hopefully by the end of spring break everyone would’ve forgotten about it, but Winnie and Caitlin need to fall back in line. How dare they pull a stunt like that—involving me—without running it past me first? I normally wouldn’t give a fuck, the Oakview and Highland feud is pretty savage, but of course, Ava changes everything. Not that I can explain that. I’m still watching the corner where she disappeared with Cole when Mason claps me on the shoulder.
“What’s up with you?”
“Nothing. What are the plans?” Thankfully, there’s never a party on the Friday leading into a break, so we don’t have to spend any more time with the fuckwits we go to school with. There’s also no dinner without our parents, so I won’t get to see Ava.
“I need a drink and a smoke,” he says just as Reid joins us. “Head over to yours later?”
“Yeah, okay. My dad’s away with Ava’s mum.” Reid’s eyebrows lift. “What?”
“Just you and Ava then?”
“Ava just left with Cole,” I practically spit.
“Ah, that’ll explain you angrily gazing into the distance.” Mason chuckles, but I ignore him, heading to my car.
“We’ll be over later,” Reid calls as I slam the door behind me.
Ava doesn’t come home Friday, and I spend the whole night convincing myself to not head to the club. I assume she’s there. It’s a lot easier to make the right decisions when she’s not right in front of me. Also, Reid and Mason practically move in during the holidays, and I don’t want them to think I want to go to see Ava. I don’t see her at all until Sunday night, when we head into the movie room and find her sitting there innocently like she hasn’t been missing for the last forty-eight hours.
“Where have you been?” She looks over the back of the sofa with her lips wrapped around a lollipop, and I almost combust, but she doesn’t bother to answer me, turning her head back to the TV. “I asked you a question.”
“I know. I just can’t seem to figure out how it’s any of your business.”
“Were you with Cole?” I’ve asked it before I can stop the words, but again, she acts like I haven’t spoken.
“Hi Mason, Reid,” she says with a sickly sweet smile. “How are you today?”
“Great thanks, Aves. Can we commandeer the telly?” Mason asks as he throws himself down next to her in the middle.
“Is it for the fighting again? I hate that shit.”
“No one’s making you stay,” I tell her.
“I was here first, asshole,” she grinds out without looking back at me.
“It’s not even the fight. Stone’s winding you up,” Reid explains as he approaches the sofa. Fucking traitor. “You’ll like these films, I promise.” She nods as if she trusts them already, and it fucks me off how easy they get their friendship to be, even if it’s only outside of school.
“If you shut up long enough to watch anything this time,” I mutter, but she doesn’t reply, throwing her middle finger up at me over her shoulder. Reid sits on the other side of Mason, so the logical place for me to sit is the other side of Ava. I narrow my eyes at him as I get closer and he raises a challenging brow. He knows I’ll look petty as fuck if I don’t sit there, so I do. Then he stands almost immediately.
“I’ll get drinks if you order the food,” he says with a smirk. “I’ll have the usual. Drink, Ava?” He already knows everyone else will have a beer.
“I’ll help you,” she offers. I can’t help watching Ava’s ass in those tiny sleep shorts as she gets up and follows Reid out to the kitchen. When Ava leaves the room and I manage to turn back away from staring after her, I see Mason smirking at me.
“You two are like smug and fucking smugger tonight, aren’t you?”
“What can I say? Watching you self-sabotage is quite entertaining,” he says with a chuckle. I don’t answer him, putting our normal order into the app. Reid and Ava come back in laughing, and I’m reminded how little I get to see Ava like this. Why do I get the inherent need to piss her off? Oh yeah. Because I can’t have her the way I want, and that infuriates me. Misery loves company, after all. She places a glass down in front of me and one for herself, lollipop still in one hand.
“Thanks,” I say warily, and she rolls her eyes.
“I didn’t spit in it—Reid made them. I am merely the delivery girl.” She settles back in, and it might be my imagination or just pure wishing, but I’m sure she’s closer than before. Reid flicks the film on and I try to focus on getting the food ordered.
“Have you eaten?” I ask quietly, leaning into Ava slightly. Only so I don’t interrupt the film for the other two, of course. She turns to me and pulls the lollipop out of her pouty lips again, holding it up as an answer. “Real food, not that sugary shit.”
“Sugar makes you sweet, maybe it’s exactly what you need.” She offers the lollipop mockingly, but she must know by now I don’t back down. Instead, I lean even closer and take it in my mouth, letting it go with a pop when she pulls it back.
“That is pretty good.” Her eyes are blazing as she puts it back into her mouth, and lust shoots directly to my dick. Holy shit. She’s something else. She blushes and wriggles in her seat, turning back to face the film. The fact that she’s clearly affected too makes it even worse. If I pulled those tiny fucking shorts down right now, would she be wet? For me? Knowing exactly how she’d taste if I could kiss her makes my dick swell further. Neither of us moved all the way back, and I can feel the heat from her arm inches from mine. Reid leans forward so he can see me past Ava.
“On it’s way yet?” I blink at him, pulled from my thoughts of Ava when I wasn’t ready.
“What?”
“The food,” he says, with another of those infuriating smirks. Shit, I forgot. She distracted me.
“Oh yeah. Just waiting for the princess to make her mind up.” She scoffs and takes my phone right out of my hand. The smallest graze of her fingers against mine is enough to feel like a spark against my skin. Her eyes flash to mine as if she felt the exact same thing, but just as quickly, they’re back on the phone, adding in her order before giving it back to me and leaving the room. She’s only gone a minute before she’s back with cash that she tries to hand to me, but I stare blankly at her. “I’m not taking your money.”
“You have to,” she says as she leans down and pulls at my pants pocket. I tense, having her hands so close to where I’m semi-hard still—a permanent state around her, even without her hands so close to me. “God knows what you’d expect from the dirty little slut if you actually bought her dinner.” We hadn’t kept our voices low like with the lollipop, which becomes obvious when Reid chokes out a laugh.
“Fucking hell,” Mason chuckles.
Fucking hell is right. Ava’s a firecracker, never backing down or letting me forget what a shit I’m being to her. But that’s good, she shouldn’t forget. Because it seems really easy for me to forget why I’m supposed to be staying away from her. She can have the willpower for the both of us.
We get through the first film and start on its sequel while eating our food with a few more drinks, and it’s nice to be relaxed with Ava and not on my guard. I don’t notice the room has got darker, along with the outside sky through the windows around us, until light fills the room in a flash and Ava jumps at least a foot in the air. She lets out a squeak that seems like it would have been a scream had she not caught herself, and a crack of thunder fills the air as she shrinks back into the sofa. All three of us turn to her, and she sinks a little further into the cushions before steeling her shoulders.
“Sorry, that made me jump.”
“We can see that. Are you okay?” I ask.
“Yeah. It just surprised me, that’s all.” She makes a show of focusing back on the film, so we do too, but her shoulders stay tense. When the next flash comes she still jumps but tries to cover it this time. Is she so engrossed in the film they’re shocking her, or is it something else? She pulls her knees up to her chest, and I want to pull her into my arms. She looks so small. Ava always seems so fearless, ready to take on the world, and I know showing this fear would be killing her. Wordlessly, I stand and pull the blackout curtains all around the room, flicking the lights around us on low. I grab the remote on the way to take my seat again. Feeling her eyes on me the whole time, I finally bring myself to return her gaze when I sit, but I can’t decipher what her look is asking, so I shrug.
“Mason doesn’t like storms,” I say. He catches on quickly.
“Nope! I hate them. Little princess, come give me a cuddle.” He throws his arm around her shoulders, and I want to rip it clean off his body. It’s only the fact that he leaves his hand on the sofa behind her, and her shoulders soften a little as she rests her head against his arm, that allows me to calm myself. At least she’s comforted, even if it can’t be by me. I flick the volume up and the surround sound on when everyone turns to the TV again. It doesn’t cut the storm out completely, but it takes the edge off.
By the time the second film finishes, the thunder and lightning has finished, and Ava has fallen asleep against Mason now that it’s just the sound of the hammering rain.
“Chill, Stone, she’s just relaxed.”
“What?” I ask, looking up at Mason.
“You’re glaring at me like I just killed your dog.”
“Or took your girl,” Reid mutters.
“I’m not glaring at anything.”
“Sure,” Mason says with a chuckle. “I’m gonna head up, want me to take her?”
“I’ll do it,” I say, and he nods, carefully extracting himself from under Ava. He settles her back against the cushions and stretches as he stands.
“I’m heading up, too,” Reid agrees. “Night, dude.” They both use spare rooms on the same floor as Ava and I, the same ones they’ve been using for years.
“Night, guys,” I say quietly. When they’re gone, I watch Ava. I’m pretty sure I was watching her before they left, but they’re probably used to that by now. I don’t want to leave her down here in case the storm starts up again, so I lift her into my arms and try not to feel the warmth in my chest when she sighs and burrows her head into my neck. I carry her up to her room and place her on the bed, tucking her in gently so as not to wake her up, and then I take my place on the chair by her door until the rain stops.
