𝕂𝕖𝕖𝕡 ℍ𝕚𝕞 𝕊𝕒𝕗𝕖

Chapter 6. To New Friends

"She's hot." 

Bradley was sitting in a chair, reading a book. It had been a long day for both him and his mother. At the time Bradley was too young to understand what was going on. All he knew was that he was never going to see his father again. Him and his mother were just sitting there now, his mother silently crying. Bradley heard a door open and when he looked up, he saw Maverick walking into the room with a box. Bradley could tell that Maverick was trying not to cry. 

"God he loved flying with you, Maverick." Bradley heard his mother say through her tears. She stood up and gave Maverick a hug, knowing that he needed it. The two separated and his mother began to speak again. "He would've flown anyway. He would've hated it, but he would've done it." She said as she began to tear up again. Bradley watched as Maverick stayed silent, knowing that if he spoke, he'd cry. Carole placed a hand on Maverick's cheek before walking over to Bradley.

___________________________________________________

2012:

Rooster and Phoenix had just finished their combat training and decided to head down to the gym. It had been a long day for the two of them, not only did they have to deal with Hangman's stupid stunts, but they also had to deal with almost crashing their jets because of it.

 Rooster was on their instructor, he had the shot, but he felt it wasn't good enough. So he waited. Hangman was impatient, and he decided to cut directly in front of Rooster. Almost causing a head on collision for Rooster.

After he told Phoenix what had happened, she decided that he should let off some steam at the gym. When the pair walked in, the first thing that Rooster noticed was a purple haired woman running on the treadmill.

Rooster leaned towards Phoenix, "What are the odds that's Ava?" He asked her. She looked over towards the purple haired women, looking very intently at her. "Seeing as it's her day off, fairly likely." She said as she headed towards the treadmills.

Rooster looked at her in a panic before slightly jogging after her. "What are you doing?" He asked in a whisper. She looked at him with a confused look on her face. "I'm checking to see if it's Ava." She said in a duh tone. 

"I don't want her to think I'm stalking her." Rooster said as his cheeks started to flush red.

Phoenix only laughed, causing the purple haired woman to turn towards the sudden loud sound. It was Ava, and she was staring at the pair now. She stopped the treadmill and headed over towards them. The pair was too busy bickering to notice her making her way towards them.

"Rooster?" Ava questioned, causing the pair to stop and look at her. "Hey, Ava. What are you doing here?" Rooster asked, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. 

"Uh, working out." She said with a hint of laughter to her voice. 

Ava then looked towards Phoenix and stuck her hand out towards her. "I'm Ava. I don't think we've properly met yet." Phoenix looked at her for a moment before bringing her hand to hers. "I'm Phoenix, but you can call me Nat." She answered, shaking Ava's hand. 

Ava turned back to look towards Rooster. "I thought you still had training, what happened?" She asked him, sounding slightly out of breath. 

"Uh, Hangman pulled some stupid stunts, causing classes to be dismissed early." He spoke, trying not to worry her with too much detail.

"Well I'm gonna go back to my treadmill," Ava said as she gave Rooster a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "It was nice to meet you, Nat." She nodded towards the female pilot. "And if you guys are done around the same time as me, we should go get ice-cream after."

Rooster and Phoenix looked at each other with a smile on their faces. "We would love too." Phoenix said with a teasing tone to her voice. Ava smiled as she turned to go back to her treadmill.

Phoenix stared at Rooster for a moment before speaking. "She's hot." A cocky smirk formed on her face. "Don't even think about it." Rooster frowned as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

Phoenix put her arms up in surrender as the two started to walk towards the weights. Rooster's go to was always weights when he needed to blow off some steam. While Phoenix lifted weights so she could someday beat every guy in her Top Gun class in an arm wrestle.

-

Once the pair was done with their workouts, they headed into the locker room to shower and get changed. "Oh!" Phoenix yelled as she walked in on Ava completely naked. "Sorry!" She shouted as she covered her eyes.

Ava laughed as she covered herself up with a towel. "You're good." Ava said while still laughing. Phoenix uncovered her eyes and went to go hop in the shower. 

"It was nice to meet you today." Phoenix said loudly, trying to be heard over the sound of her shower. "It was nice to meet you too!" Ava shouted with the same amount of loudness.

"Honestly, I was worried that you would be that typical girl best friend that was in love with their guy best friend." Ava chuckled nervously, worried that she might've just offended Phoenix. Instead, Phoenix let out a "pfft" and started to laugh. 

"Oh, girl. Number one: Bradley is head over heals for you." Ava smiled ear to ear when she heard Phoenix's words. "Number two: I've known Bradley for years, he's like a brother to me. And number three: I'm a lesbian."

"Oh." Ava said as if everything made sense. Phoenix turned off the water, silence overcoming them for a moment. "So, if I were to be interested in anyone," She paused and poked her head out of the shower. "It would be you." She finished as she grabbed her towel off of the hook outside the shower.

Ava knew that her and Phoenix were going to be great friends. And she couldn't wait to get to know her better.

-

The two females walked out of the locker room together, laughing over some of the stories about Rooster that Phoenix was sharing. "And so he decides that it's a good idea to bribe our instructor, with candy!" Phoenix yelled as the pair began to laugh.

Rooster was sitting on a bench outside of  the locker room. When he saw the two girl's he started to head over to them. "What are you guys talking about." He asked as he walked up beside Ava and wrapped his arm around her waist, causing butterflies to erupt in her stomach.

"We're talking about the time you decided to bribe our instructor with candy after you blew a fuse in an old jet trying to impress some girl." Phoenix said as she laughed at the memory. Rooster just rolled his eyes before leaning down to kiss Ava's temple. 

"So, Ice-cream?" Ava asked. Rooster and Phoenix nod, and the three of them head out the door to go get Ice-cream together.

A/N

I know this chapter is kind of slow, it was mostly me trying to establish a relationship between Ava and Phoenix. Cause we all know that our girls gotta stick together. Also it was my birthday like 3 days ago so if you wanna share this chapter with someone who you know might like this story that would be a great birthday present (; I'm also leaving for Fan Expo in one week so I'll be in Toronto for the weekend so I apologize if I forget to schedule my chapter parts.

Let me know if you have any likes or dislikes and I'll try to add them into my next chapter. And if not, I'll post again in two weeks :)

~ Jo