Chapter Four.
2194 Words
Eric POV
She hasn't been home the whole week. Daily I call and daily I am met with nothing but that unpersonalised voicemail. I once asked her why she didn't personalize her voicemail and she said, 'if I send you to voicemail it means you're not important. Why would I leave unimportant people my voice?' I was on that side now and I finally understood how unimportant she wanted people to feel.
I can't call her over and over again. Ava has never been good at pretending, unlike Amy she never plays hard to get, her no is a no and that's the end.
Even comparing her to Amy feels illegal, there is no woman like Ava. She's soft and warm and safety all wrapped up in a bow but she also runs very cold to people she doesn't care about. I have had the privilege of being on the receiving end of her goodness and now that I'm close to losing it, I understand why I have always felt like the luckiest man on earth.
I walk into college looking exactly like how I feel, wrung out and abandoned.
"You don't look so good Eric." Amy is the first one to talk, I have managed to avoid her for the last week but I guess she's coming to me now and I can't do s**t about it.
I dig the heels of my palm into my eyes for a moment as I prepare myself for this.
"Well, my girlfriend has been missing for a week, and I'm kinda scared that when she shows up she will break up with me." I throw myself next to Ken who immediately throws his arm on my shoulder trying to comfort me.
"Eric..." Amy reaches for my hand across the table but I act like I didn't see her and lay my head on Ken's shoulder like I'm his girlfriend. Rather look gay than talk to Amy now.
She gets the message because she stands and makes Ken move so she's the one sitting next to me. I sit up straight and seek no support from her.
"Eric." She sternly calls my name while making me turn my head to her, "you will not ignore me!" She exclaims calling me out.
"Amy. My girlfriend is missing, she's not answering my calls or my texts and we both know you're the reason." I deadpan and she rolls her eyes with an annoyed sigh.
"Ohh My God Eric! I mean when will Ava be mature?" I frown but she continues, "I mean just like Ken said that night, she doesn't own you so she doesn't get to monopolize you. You have friends who care about you too plus you also have me, we have a bond and I care about you and I take care of you." She looks so soft and she sounds reasonable but my chest doesn't loosen and my mind doesn't stop blaming her.
"But Ava is my girlfriend and I love her and I don't want to lose her." I tell her because maybe she forgot.
"Ohh brother!" Anthony snorts.
"What?" I divert my gaze to him.
"You're whipped!" Ken finishes for him with a sound and the action.
"f**k you both!" And I mean it with everything in me. "Ava is amazing okay. She's everything I need." And my heart clenches at the words because I desperately want Ava to hear them.
"Ohh so you don't need me?" Amy's brows are practically kissing her hairline, "what? All these years that I have made sure you got the St-Peters scholarship because of my mom were nothing? You were just using me?" Her face looks very straight so I cannot tell if she's joking or if she's serious but just to stay on the safe side I say, "that's not what I mean Ames. You know I love you." And I can taste the acid on my tongue as I force myself.
"Okay, let's go for ice cream so you can make it up to me." I really, really don't want to go for ice cream but I stand and offer her my hand.
Later I'm at home eating takeout because Ava is the one who cooks. I never learned how to cook and Ava never had a problem doing it for me. The door opens and I'm ready to embrace the love of my life by throwing my entire weight on her but I only crash into Amy and she catches me, "ohh!" The air is punched out of her.
"What are you doing here?" I ask immediately taking two steps from her.
"I like this welcome." She smiles but I glare at her, "relax Eric, I know you can't cook so I brought you food from home, you must be tired of takeout." She looks to the small table near the sitting area and she smiles.
"Amy..." She raises her hand to stop me.
"Eric, I'm not here to seduce you. It's hard for you right now. You just mourned your mom again and you also didn't have the best birthday that you wished for. I'm just here to make sure you don't fall into depression before Ava decides she has forgiven you." I think about it for a moment and let her in after all she really is my friend and I have been getting a little heartbroken.
Me and Amy fall into a routine. She brings me dinner and sleeps over, obviously not together. I sleep on the couch and she sleeps on the bed, I don't want Ava to misunderstand if she ever came. Besides the only reason Amy sleeps over is because she makes me breakfast in the morning and I always make sure that she never leaves anything behind. She doesn't move in nor does she shower at my place, so as a peace offering for treating her so distant, I give her the bed to sleep in.
It's Thursday and we're having some sandwiches while working on our project, the last group project and we want to finish it before Thanksgiving recess.
Amy has been hanging with us to get acquainted to the atmosphere since she's transferring here next year.
"Still no call from Ava?" Nathan asks and I just shake my head. I don't want to talk about this right now. We're going on two weeks now and even on campus I don't see her, she's clearly punishing me so I will let her have the space she needs and when she comes back I'll just be honest with her about my friendship with Amy. I need her to understand why Amy will forever be in our lives but also I need her to understand that she's the only one I love and want to spend the rest of my life with.
"Seriously Ava should just quit–" I cut Amy off by seriously saying, "Ames Don't!!" She raises her hands in surrender and we continue to work.
Later Ames calls her driver and the guy takes us home–well mine and Ava's home. I have been enjoying that perk since Amy cooks for us. The apartment is full of groceries again, I try to protest but Ames just tells me to go wash up while she prepares dinner. I do as I'm told, fighting her just makes her sulk and I will have to coax her with a deal, like when she was upset because I told her not to change the sheets on my bed and she sulked until she got me to agree to her driver driving us to and from campus.
When I come out the overhead lights are off and our small round, dining table is lit with candles that cast a glow into the space.
"Ames..." I sigh as she scrabbles towards me and shushes me.
"You had a week and you're still pushing in school, let me give you something comfortable and homey." I want to say no but then again she will sulk and I'll find myself in a deal to coax her and I know she's going to ask to atleast shower here and I will not be doing that.
We sit and at first we eat in silence but she mentions one memory in high-school when I sent her a loveletter for the first time. I want to get mad or put off but that's still a fond memory for me so suddenly we're laughing softly and reminiscing about my days of chasing her. I can't hate that time even though it ended badly. I hate the ending but the process of chasing Amy Hartford was a fulfilling experience and looking back at it now, it also taught me to live a little. Ames has always been spontaneous.
We're laughing when the apartment door opens, I immediately choke on my laugh because I already know who it is.
Ava walks in and finds Amy and me comfortable, she's not wearing her slippers obviously because Amy is the one who's got them on. I abruptly stand and run to her, f**k her eyes are still narrow, none of their roundness.
"Lo–Ava..." I stop myself and use her name because I finally see her eyes close and they are not shining like they usually do when she looks at me. They remain like they were back at the cabin when she flipped.
She raises her hand to stop me from speaking further but I blurt out, "it's really not what you think!" She tips her head to the side definitely not believing me.
"I'm tired, I'm going to bed. We'll talk tomorrow when your friend is gone." Her voice is so flat and her face gives away not one emotion for me to read except her eyes that remain narrowed with no shine. I grab her wrist because I'm crazy pushing her like that but I need some emotion, I need to know where she is mentally. And I get my answer when she rudely pushes me away, "I said I'm tired." Her voice isn't tight or thick with emotions, it's just flat. Then she walks away to our bedroom, before she dissappears Amy picks that time to loudly say, "guess I'm not sleeping here anymore!" My eyes blow up wide and I slowly turn my head to her and she throws her hand on her mouth and I wonder if it escaped or if she did it on purpose.
"f**k that was so uncalled for!" She whisper yells and I sigh in relief knowing that seeing Ava definitely scared her.
Amy helps me clean up and it helps me relax for whatever I'm going to find in our bedroom. I walk her to the door and she gives me a warm embrace, "call me if she kicks you out. I'll come right away to pick you up." I frown and she smiles, "she's definitely still upset and Eric even you must know that if a woman is upset the man must be the one to leave." I chuckle and wonder why I blamed her for all of this when she has done everything to make sure I get to keep Ava and myself upright enough to fight for her.
I find Ava dead asleep in her outside clothes which is definitely wrong but I get in and cuddle her from behind and have the best sleep of my life since two weeks.
"Eric wake up!" I'm rudely shook awake at–I look at the clock and it's just past 3 am.
"Love it's 3 am...." I complain trying to drag her back to sleep but she stiffens her body and says, "I said we'll talk tomorrow when your friend is gone. It's both of those things." I'm immediately up and rubbing sleep from my eyes.
"Soo.....?" I brace myself for whatever she has to say, crossing my legs and facing her.
"Explain." That's all she says.
I take a deep breath and tell her everything, "Ames has been the one making sure I get the St-Peters scholarship. I mean my essays are good but connection helps you know..... since her mother is the chancellor of our college." For the first time since I saw her at the party, her face flashes with emotion, a questioning look.
"I kept it from you because I didn't want you to think less of me. I wanted to be the strong man you deserve. The one who doesn't need the connections of a girl who stomped on his heart and shoved it down his throat." I feel like such a loser right now.
"Is that why you became friends with her again?" She asks with that flat tone so I just nod and say, "that's how she apologized. She found out through her mother that I was applying and she just helped. Obviously she didn't use it to worm her way into my life but after I found out, I just couldn't be mean to her." I sigh.
"How did you find out?" She asks.
"She told me." Ava nods in understanding.
"Eric."
"Yeah...?"
"Let's break up."
- Writer
