Cheers To Puberty

Chapter 14. Ava and Oliver

Recap

"Oh hell no! Don't casualy greet me when you just scared my friend away. What did you do? She is never like this."

Oliver scratches his chin and sighs deeply. "Okay..."

---

Alexandra's POV

"So? I'm waiting..." I say impatiently to Oliver. He hasn't answered my question yet and doesn't look me in the eyes. "Yeah, uh... Actually, I don't know if it's my story to tell." He finally says, still hesistant on telling something, anything.

"What did you do Oliver?" I say in a stern voice. He is not getting away with this. If Ava doesn't want to talk about it, it's because she is either deeply hurt or in a situation where she hasn't figured out what to do yet. As it has been a week since she last sat with us and started acting a bit distant and sad, I figure it's the former one.

"I uhh.. might have said some hurtful things to her." He starts with a regretful look on his face. "Ugh, you do that all the time. What's new?" I roll my eyes. Oliver hurts Ava on a daily basis with his attitude while knowing how she feels about him.

He flinches at my words. "I don't mean to." He tries to defend himself in a hushed tone and looks down at the floor.

"Don't bullshit me. It's always your intention to let her know she has no chance with you. And belief me, she knows."

He sighs again. "Okay, it was stupid. I was stupid. But I didn't think she would react like this. It was no different then what I normally do."

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

Oliver is looking everywhere but suddenly continues. A rant I can barely follow. "Friday, at the party, I had a couple of beers. We met, you left, Ava stayed and there were some people who wanted to play spin the bottle. Her twist fell on me, of course, so I gave her a quick kiss on the cheeck and made a comment on how she would come if I gave her a real kiss. She closed off right after and went home. I tried apologizing, but she just waved it off. Anyways, long story short, I think I hurt her feelings more then I normally do."

"My god..." This time it was my time to sigh. I don't know how such a remark would effect her more then the others. It's inline with what Oliver normally tells her. There must be something else. None the less he's still stupid.

I wack him on the head. "Idiot." He just takes my blow like he deserves it. As he should.

"Have you ever tried talking to her? You don't even know her! She's such a fun and caring person. She deserves so much better then you." I scold him and he just stays silent.

"Ava is an angel and if you ruin her, I'll ruin you." He knows it's an empty threat, I could never 'ruin' someone. The worst that can happen is that he looses me as a friend. I guess we will see how much our friendship means to him.

He rakes his hands over his face "I'm sorry." Which earned him another wack on his head. "You shouldn't tell me sorry. Tell her!"

"Unbelievable..." I mumble as I haul up my backpack and start my way back home. What an idiot.

As I walk home I try to come up with a plan where they could talk things out. Just so Ava can go back to her normal self again.

Suddenly someone bumps into me. "Shoot. I'm so so sorry." I hear a high pitched voice as someone fiercely starts to rub a napkin over my arm. I look up from my arm to my attacker and see the girl where Nick spends a lot of time with lately.

"Sorry really, I wasn't paying attention. Luckily it wasn't raspberry." She laughs annoyingly and winks at me. But my attention goes back to what she's holding. A cone with slightly melting, but deliciously creamy chocolate ice cream. And now half of it is on my jacket...

My eyes catch a presence behind her and suddenly I am very eager to get out of there. "You know what, it's okay. I'll just wash it." I reply quickly after spotting Nick with a cone of his own.

I fastly turn around and pick up my pace to my house. This was awkward, but surprisingly it brought me an idea. So I directly try to text Ava, inviting her to get some icecream on sunday. Keyword try. My foot catches a loose tile and my unathletic self is not even nearly fast enough to catch myself from faceplanting on the street.

I smack to the ground, almost like I do the caterpillar dance, but definitely not as smooth. "Oh no.." pulling my phone from underneath me, firstly checking if there's any visible damage there. Luckily not.

I hear people running up to me. "Lexie, are you okay? What happened?" And while he says that he grabs me around the waist and pulls me up. My legs are slightly wobbly as I'm still trying to understand what is happening right now, which causes me to involuntary lean on Nick. Nick holds me steady and looks at me with concern.

My breath hitches. We are so close. His face only inches away from mine, his lips plump and moisturized from the ice cream he's been eating, his firm grip I feel burning through my clothes and his intense gaze where it almost seems like he truly cares... Alex snap out of it!

"I'm good, all good here. I'm fine, thanks for helping me up. Have fun on your date. Bye." I rush out, trying to wiggle out of Nicks grasp.

Nick slowly let's me go with a sad expression. The girl just looks at me as if I'm weird and tries to hold in her laughter. Thanks bitch...

Once I'm 'free' I don't hesitate to walk away. They were clearly on a date and I don't like that Nick still has an effect on me after all that happened.

Luckily and surprisingly I'm not hurt.
But maybe it's the adrenaline that keeps me up my feet and the bruises will come tomorrow. We will see.

After speedwalking home I step into complete chaos. My mom has her friends over and from the looks of it they certainly know how to open a wine bottle... They look like drunk teenagers.

One dropped her glass and three of them are now trying to clean it up. My mom is on the phone talking on high volume to my dad I guess. And two others are hysterically laughing, on the furge of peeing their pants.

"I'm going to my room." I say awkwardly to no one in particular. I take my shoes off and sprint to my room. I throw my jacket in the laundry and let myself fall on my bed. There I finalize my message to Ava which I didn't continue while walking to prevent I would make an even bigger fool of myself.

When I think back my cheeks flush. It was so embarrassing. How clumsy can someone be?... And just in time for Nick and his side chick to see too. Why am I like this? Ugh.

And the worst part is the giddy feeling I got when Nick held me. He showed genuine concern which woke up the butterflies I had or apparantly still have for him. And the feeling of his touch, it felt like I was on fire.

I sigh heavily. Why?!

As I'm too sad about my own love life, I'm more then happy to focus on someone else's.

I text Oliver to let him know what my plan is, saying that I invited Ava to get some ice cream on sunday. But instead of 'a date' with me, he's there to talk things out with her.

There's only one good ice cream parlor in town, Mia's Gelato. It's the perfect place to have a date or in this case to talk things out. They have cute little boots for two and although it's very open and light, there's a strong sense of privacy. The staff is always friendly and the ice cream is to die for!

Then the obnoxious laughing from downstairs distracts me. I hate it when moms friends come over. It's her friends group from college and it almost seems like they never got out of there when they are together. It makes me want to drown myself.

My mom never drinks wine, but when they're here she thinks she can drink three bottles in one go. And I know I don't have the best relationship with my mom, but when her friends are over she acts like I don't even exist. My dad too tries to avoid these gatherings, so I think he volunteers to work overtime today.

I grab my laptop and scoot over so I sit with my back against the headboard of my bed. My headphones lay beside me, fully charged, thank god. So I grab them and make myself ready for an evening long disney movies. Noise cancelling is my best friend tonight. A bit alone time is exactly what I need anyway.

--------

AN - Thanks for reading! Hope you have a nice day!