A Beautiful Fate (9 page)

Ari woke with a jolt. We were completely knotted up in each other. Our fingers were still intertwined and my other hand was covering his face. Our legs were like pretzels. He jumped up, knocking my hand off his face and I gasped. He threw his free hand over my mouth to quiet me. Someone was pounding on his bathroom door. Ari wiggled our knotted fingers free with force.

“Dude, what the hell? Let me in.” It was Rory, he and Ari were suite mates.

“Leave now!” Ari said to me through clenched teeth. I could feel a tiny sting of tears in my eyes. Rory pounded on the bathroom door again and Ari grabbed my arm and pulled me across his room to his door. He threw it open and nearly pushed me out in the hallway. I stood outside the door confused and hurt. I heard him unlock and open his bathroom door.

“What do you want?” He snapped at Rory.

“Nothing, relax. I was just wondering if you had seen Ava this morning. Her friend is looking for her.”

“I just woke up, Rory, so what do you think?”

“Dude, you’re such a jerk. It’s ten o’clock in the morning. Learn to wake up at a reasonable hour like the rest of us.” I heard Ari’s bathroom door slam and I rushed the two steps to my room and closed the door behind me. Mia rushed to my side and engulfed me in a hug.

“Where were you?”

Pointing at the wall, I indicated that I was with Ari. “I am such an idiot.”

I told her how I went with him to his room the night before and planned to end it but instead I curled up with him in bed and when he kissed my head, I melted and lost all my nerve and couldn’t go through with the breakup – or whatever it would have been.

“He kicked me out this morning. I have never felt so rejected in all my life.”

Mia let go of me and stormed out of the room. She slammed my door and threw open Ari’s.

“Can I help you?” I heard him say.

“Yeah, leave her the hell alone. She’s too good for you. You are nothing but a piece of shit.”

She slammed his door and came back in a matter of seconds. I was in shock.

“Don’t let him get to you, Ava. Clearly he is messed up.”

I nodded. Something definitely was up with Ari.

“I can’t believe you did that, Mia!”

“Ava,” she sighed, “it needed to be done… you should have seen him, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I stormed in there and caught him completely by surprise and…”

“Oh, God, Mia, please tell me he was still dressed.”

She giggled. “If he hadn’t been, Ava, I wouldn’t have been able to do what I did. He was sitting in his bed with his head in his hands. He looked… I don’t know, he looked so devastated.”

“Well, that makes two of us.”

“Oh, honey, don’t worry. This will work out, but you can’t allow him to treat you that way.”

Mia and I spent the day at a spa for her birthday. I treated both of us to a pedicure, facial and massage. Sitting back while someone attended to me was relaxing and helped keep my mind from thinking of Ari. My anxiety had been building over the last couple of weeks and now all of it had hit home. Ari was not good for me. It was time to move on from the relationship - or whatever it may have been.

Our floor had all planned a big dinner together at a restaurant in town. Half the people piled up in my car and the other half in Ari’s. When we got there, I sat between Mia and Rory. Ari sat across from me down and down a seat. I refused to look at him. I laughed and carried on conversation much more than I normally would and tried to make obvious the fact that he didn’t bother me. There was an entirely different story going on inside my head. I wanted to hide in a hole and fill it with tears. I was miserable and I hated the fact that I had let a guy make me feel this way. I had always considered myself a strong and independent person, but Ari had proven me wrong in one night.

After our group dinner, we arrived back at the dorms and our floor got more and more crowded. Indy pop music was blaring from someone’s speakers. People played drinking games with cards, games with cups and games with Ping-Pong balls. The party was loud but definitely fun. I think the entire school was there at some point.

“He’s staring at you.”

“Mia, stop looking at him!”

“Oh! He is talking to some girl. You’re safe to peek; he isn’t looking.”

I spun my head around really quick and spied Ari talking to Julia. “That’s his ex-girlfriend.”

“Oh wow, she’s beautiful.”

“Yes, and unbelievably nice, too, so stop it!!”

“Don’t worry, Ava; you are a thousand times prettier than she is.”

I rolled my eyes. “Mia, just drop it.”

“Oh, oh! She’s yelling at him.”

“Mia!” I yelled and grabbed her arm and spun her around. “Stop it; I can’t stand to think about him any longer.”

“I’m sorry. You’re right. Why don’t you just focus on Rory; it’s obvious he likes you!”

“We aren’t like that, Mia...he just isn’t my type.”

“What? Good looking, nice and funny isn’t your type? He even makes a point of talking to you in front of people. Actually, he can’t take his eyes off you either.”

She zoned in on Rory and then he came up and draped his arms around our shoulders.

We hung around the rest of the night with no more talk of Ari. Not talking of him didn’t stop my mind from going back to him every ten seconds, though. He was so incredibly nice when we were alone. Why couldn’t he just be like that all the time?

We slept in on Sunday. Mia started to pack her bags a little after nine. We were going to L.A. to shop then she had to catch a flight home in the evening. I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth when I heard a knock at my door.

“What?” Mia snapped.

“Uh… may I speak to Ava?”

“No.”

“No?”

“She doesn’t want to talk to you.”

“Seriously?”

I don’t think Ari was used to being told no.

I pulled my dorm door all the way open and took out my toothbrush. “What?”

“Can I talk to you?” I gave Ari a look like I was waiting for him to tell me whatever he needed to tell me. His eyes bounced from me to Mia.

“Ok…” he said after Mia refused to leave. “I wanted to tell you I was sorry for yesterday. Actually, I wanted to tell you I was sorry for everything. I haven’t been treating you right and you deserve much, much better than me. What can I do to make it up to you, Ava?”

“I don’t want you to make it up to me, Ari; I just don’t want you in my life anymore.”

“You can’t mean that.”

“I do.”

“Please, Ava; let me make it up to you… please.”

“Do you like me Ari?”

He stood in the hallway outside my room and his eyes burned in to mine “Yes. I more than like you, Ava.”

“Then maybe you should have acted like it when you had a chance.” I closed the door and turned around to see Mia speechless with her jaw on the ground.

“That’s right, Ava! Make him work for it.”

Saying goodbye to Mia was hard. I didn’t want her to leave. We both cried and hugged for an hour before her plane was called. I promised to visit over Christmas and we were already making plans for somewhere far away for spring break.

“You only have nine months left, Ava. Then you will be eighteen you can come home and we will get an apartment together.”

I nodded my head, “nine months. I can do this.”

“You can do anything. Good luck with Ari, I know you really like him. I have never seen you like this before. Just please don’t get hurt.”

Chapter 7

It was late October. There were no more secret nights with Ari. He attempted to redeem himself by starting conversations with me in class and in the hallways. He always smiled at me and tried to ask me questions about my weekend or homework, and I always answered him politely and walked away. I hadn’t gotten over him yet. Truth be told, I didn’t think I would ever get over him. He was on my mind all the time...and talking with him any longer than necessary made my heart hurt.

I started eating lunch at the big table in the cafeteria with Emily and Rory, figuring letting myself be surrounded by others would be my best defense. They insisted I join them, and having company sure beat eating my lunch in my lit classroom alone. Once Ari sat in the open seat next to me, with great effort I ignored him and refused to glance in his direction. He turned to me and tried to talk. I grabbed my books in an attempt to look pre-occupied and walked to class early without giving him any acknowledgment.

He tried to talk to me later in lit. “Hey, Ava.”

I looked up at him, then back down at my MacBook.

“Are you going to Rory’s party on Saturday?”

“No.” Actually, I was considering going to the party but hadn’t made any real plans yet.

“Well, you could go with me if you’d like.”

My heart stuck in my throat, my palms were so sweaty I had to give them a quick wipe on my jeans to dry them. I caught my breath and answered, “No, thank you.” I kept my eyes down, staring straight at my computer screen. If I looked up at Ari, I would crack, swoon and accept the offer.

“Oh. Well, I hope to you see you there anyway.” Ari took his seat and I put my face in my hands, mentally screaming at myself for not accepting his invitation. I obsessed over our conversation throughout the rest of class so much so that I didn’t hear a word the professor said.

Later, Rory and I were walking back to the dorm from the library when he brought up his beach party.

“So, yeah,” he said rubbing the back of his head, “I was wondering if you were coming?”

“Yeah, sure…I’ll be there. I haven’t done anything fun in weeks,” I said and I really meant it. I did need a break from school and the dorms and Rory was one of my best friends here in California – it would be rude of me not go.

Rory looked relieved and put his arm back down. “Great, I’m going to be at home all day helping out, but I’ll come back here and pick you up at seven.”

My mouth went dry. I hadn’t realized he was asking me to go with him.

“You don’t have to pick me up. I can drive – just give me the address.”

“Absolutely not, I want to pick you up - it’s not a big deal at all.”

“Um.”
Crap!
“Ok,” I agreed, sincerely hoping that he did not intend this to be some sort of a date.

We arrived back at the dorm and he stopped in front of my room. I watched as Ari walked by, and was momentarily spellbound. I shook my head, clearing my thoughts, and agreed to meet Rory in the downstairs foyer at seven Saturday evening.

****

“Mom, please, you can’t go.”

“I have to, Ava.”

“Fine, go, but don’t get in that car with him.”

“You are being ridiculous.”

“Mom, I saw it happen! You can’t get in that car with Dr. Spruce!”

“I have to do this, Ava.”

On Saturday morning, I woke to the sound of my screams, drenched in a cold sweat. Barely 5 a.m., but there was no way I wanted to fall back asleep. My nightmares were back in full swing now. So I dragged myself out of bed, added another tally mark on my crumpled paper, cleaned up, grabbed a coffee and spent my day doing some research for class. As a reward for the time I had spent studying, I hit the gym. I ran a full six miles and then returned to my dorm. When I got there, I found a new email from Mia waiting for me. She was gushing about Jack. He had finally asked her out on a real date. Even as beautiful and as nice as Mia is, she always has the worst luck with guys, so I was happy she had found someone worthy of her.

I had started my reply to Mia when Emily and Viola came in my room through the bathroom door.

“Hey, Ava,” Emily said, throwing herself on my bed. “You want to come to Rory’s party with us tonight? His parties are usually pretty fun.”

“Actually,” I said while I bit down on my bottom lip, “I am going, but Rory is picking me up.” I grimaced.

Emily had a grin from ear to ear. “I knew he was into you! I knew it!” She exclaimed. “You two are going to hook up before the end of the night, I bet you!”

“Em, I swear we are just friends it’s not like that.” I laughed and shook my head at her.

“We’ll see,” Emily said with a smile as she and Vi left my room to get ready.

I shot a quick email back to Mia demanding details, then hopped in the shower.

Nervous and unsure, I took my time getting ready; making sure everything was perfect. I left my hair loose, falling down my back and paid special attention to the little amount of makeup I wore.

The question of what to wear was a difficult one. I stared at my closet for ages, not sure of what outfit would be best, until I finally settled on a short denim skirt and a distressed, gray hooded sweatshirt. Paring the clothes with some cute black flip-flops, I was finally ready to go. I walked outside with Emily and Viola who were both dressed in outfits similar to mine, and waited for Rory.