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Ava: That would be mean.
* * *
Connor: Ava
Ava: Connor
Connor: Hi
Ava: What’s up?
Connor: Can’t sleep.
Ava: …
Connor: I should probably break this habit, huh?
Ava: I don’t know, Connor. I think so, yeah…
Connor: Sorry.
* * *
Connor: Dad and I are about to board our flight home. I just wanted to say I’m sorry for contacting you as much as I did. I guess I’m still struggling to get over you, which is my problem, not yours. And I thought maybe the balloons meant something, but obviously, I was wrong. I guess I’ll see you around. Sorry again.
FIVE
connor
“I’m beat,” I tell Dad, my head rolling against the passenger’s seat of his car as I look up at the familiar street lights.
“Yeah, I bet. You had a full-on few days there, son.”
I close my eyes. “Wake me when we get home.”
“We’re pulling onto the street now,” he says through a chuckle.
“Those few seconds will help, trust me.”
He rounds the end of the cul-de-sac, then taps my leg. “We’re home.”
“Already?” I joke.
We’re out and unpacking our luggage a moment later when Ava’s porch light comes on. She steps out in sweatpants and a too-big Texas A&M hoodie. Jealousy burns a hole in my chest. She puts one earphone in and then sits down on a bench on her porch that wasn’t there before I left. Shifting my focus away from her, I grab the last of our bags from Dad’s truck.
“Are you going to talk to her?” Dad asks.
I shake my head as I make my way up our driveway. “She made it pretty clear that she wasn’t really interested in talking to me much these days.”
Dad mumbles, “It’s hard to know what women want.”
“Tell me about it,” I murmur.
He opens the front door, then takes the bags out of my hands. “Talk to her, Connor. If not for her, then for you. You can’t be in this miserable limbo forever.”
Ava’s lying across the bench when I make it to her porch. Her eyes are closed, her fingers laced and resting on her stomach. I start to leave, my nerves getting the best of me, but stop when I see a hint of a smile play on her lips. “Such a creep,” she murmurs, her eyes snapping open. She sits up, takes out the earphone, and pats the spot beside her. “How was your flight?”
I sit down next to her. “It was fine. Look, I just came to apologize in person. And I guess… to get some clarity on what I can and can’t do when it comes to you. I mean, are we no contact or…?”
