In Another Life

18 - "What's wrong? You've been askin' but I don't have an answer"

18 - "What's wrong? You've been askin' but I don't have an answer"

Ava was staring at Jace as she bit into her burger, watching how his eyes crinkled as he laughed at some dumb joke Diego had made, watched how he grimaced at the amount of sauce Kyle was pouring into his burger and watched how he turned to look at her when Vania waxed lyrical about Ava refusing to allow phones at their dinner table and how the rule had kind of forced everyone to actually have table converstion and make friends.

She was watching but her mind was still on her phone call.

* * *

"Hi, Ava speaking," she answered, closing her eyes in mortification. What the f*ck was that? Of course he knew who was speaking.

"Oh I'm glad that it's you because I was beginning to wonder if your phone had been stolen," Adam's disgruntled voice filtered through, surprisingly clear for the long-distance call. Technology was really something.

"Adam, heeeey," she said, her voice going high in her guilt. She groaned and sat down, back to the group as their laughter floated around her.

"Hey, ghoster. So I can safely assume that you are alive, you're just ignoring me?" he asked, the hurt seeping through and Ava felt her chest tighten in pain.

"No, I'm not ignoring you," she said softly, tears pricking her eyes as she tried to act like this was something that she wanted to do.

"Ava, is everything okay?" Adam asked, speaking as softly as she had, nervousness colouring the hurt.

She kept silent before clearing her throat. "Yeah, everything is good. How are you?"

Adam didn't answer right away and she knew that she had shocked him by acting like everything was fine. "Things are extremely crazy here. I sent you some pics but you haven't been replying. I guess you've been busy?"

She nodded then realising he couldn't see her. "Yeah, you know school and stuff."

He cleared his throat. "I saw your snap. You guys at the waterpark?"

"Yeah, Ayeleen's idea. We're having a good time."

Ava was biting her tongue so she wouldn't speak more than necessary, trying to remind her stupid brain that it could release all the dopamine it wanted to at hearing Adam's voice but she was here with another guy and that was what she was supposed to spending that dopamine on.

"I haven't been in ages. You have to go on the Thruster. It's amazing."

"Yeah? Ayeleen has already told us that as soon as we digest our food, we have to go there."

"How are you holding up? I know that you're terrified of heights," he asked, concern deepening his voice.

She laughed. "Yeah, it's terrifying but I'm loving it. I think when you forced me on those rollercoasters last year, you made sure that I knew fear could be exciting." This seemed to break the thin layer of ice that had formed as soon as she'd answered.

They both laughed, reminiscing about their family trip to the amusement park and how he'd tried to win her the stuffed blonde monkey, until he'd spent almost all his cash on it. Then Uncle Frank had come and won the thing with one shot, doing a weird dance that had been, quite frankly, mind the pun, embarrassing but he'd won the stupid thing and presented it to her so proudly. Adam had pouted the whole way home until she'd told him that he'd practically paid for it so in her mind he was the one who'd won it for her.

"Do you still have it?" he asked, laughter still in his voice.

"Yeah, of course. It's really comfortable to curl around when I have cramps and Remi is a good listener."