Liberty Coffee Avatrice

Chapter 10

"What on earth are those ?" Is the first thing that Beatrice asked upon arriving to the Silva apartment.

"My slippers !" laughed Ava, proudly showing off what Beatrice could only describe as feet atrocities, they were big Mario bros monster flowers or whatever those were actually called. Extremely atrocious yet entirely Ava.

"Right, sorry, hi Ava ."

Ava giggled a hi back and Beatrice felt her heart beat just a little too fast, which she promptly ignored and focused on scanning Ava's apartment instead. It changed from the houses Beatrice had grown up in, it felt lived in, all the space was occupied and decorated, it wasn't just their house, it was their home.There were books and knickknacks and art pieces and plants everywhere around the apartment yet it didn't feel messy or cluttered, but cozy and safe.

***

The dinner was going well in spite of Beatrice's initial apprehension, she loved spending time with Ava of course but a dinner invitation had been uncharted territory, plus Diego was one of her students and she worried he might feel uncomfortable having her over for dinner.

As usual she had worried for absolutely no reason, all three of them were laughing and chatting and there was no awkwardness whatsoever, it was comfortable, it was fun, Beatrice hoped it would happen again, perhaps next time she would invite them over to her house.

"Miss Young, have you aver been to a winter festival ?"

"Just Beatrice please, we're not at school, and no I can't say that I have."

"Well then you should definitely go with-" Diego yelped and stopped mid sentence, glaring at Ava who was glaring right back, all under Beatrice's amused expression.

"Anyway, Diego's right you should come with us, everyone's going."

It didn't take a genius to guess what Diego had initially meant to say but Beatrice told herself that she didn't care about Ava's reaction. If anything Ava was just helping her avoid more rumors. 

"Alright yes that sounds fun, what is a winter festival though ?"

Both Silvas launched into a very detailed and animated description of the festival and once again Beatrice wondered how it could have taken her so long to realize that these two were siblings.

"But there's thanksgiving first, which means no school !" said Diego all excited, "no offense Mi- Beatrice." he added as an afterthought.

But the teacher simply laughed, as much as she loved her job and her students she was very much looking forward to a few days' break, even if she wasn't planning on celebrating.

"Speaking of thanksgiving, do you have any plans Bea ?"

Beatrice could have easily lied but for some unknown reason but she decided to be completely honest for once : "No, no plans, I haven't spoken to my parents since I moved here so I doubt I'm even invited to whatever dinner party they're hosting, but even then I doubt I'd have gone. Plus I'm British so it's alright."

Diego and Ava shared another look, much softer this time.

"I know you just said you're British so you don't really care about thanksgiving but you should come with us to the Salvius' for dinner. None of us here really have a family or one they're on good terms with at least, so we've made our own you know. And Suzanne and Jillian, they kinda took all of us in, they always host a big dinner for thanksgiving, with all of their kids as they like to call us. They're mostly joking of course but still."

"That does sound very nice, but Suzanne is my boss, I wouldn't want to impose, Ava."

"Nonsense, Lilith and Mary will be there too, plus I assume Suzanne gave you the whole 'you're part of this family' speech, right ?"

The teacher simply nodded, it did sound nice, but surely it couldn't be that easy, could it ?

"You don't have to, but we'd love to have you there, I know I would."

***

After dinner Diego walked up to Beatrice with two controllers and a giant grin on his face, "Do you wanna play Mario Kart ? Ava sucks, it would be nice to finally have a worthy opponent."

Beatrice looked back at him confused, which was soon replaced with a slight panic as she remembered she had told Diego's class she was excellent at Mario kart. 

"yeah about that-"

but Diego just laughed and gave her a pointed look, Beatrice had expected him to look disappointed but it was quite the opposite.

"you knew ?"

"I suspected you were just trying to shut Joshua up."

"A little, but I also just couldn't tell you I was terrible at Mario kart that's embarrassing, do not tell them." Beatrice punctuated her sentence with her best teacher look. And Ava - as she observed them - mentally slapped herself for thinking that suddenly she wouldn't mind going back to high school. 

Beatrice, despite admitting her lack of skills in the matter still agreed to play with Diego, and Ava melted as she watched the two of them laugh and banter lightly. As she watched her little brother give Beatrice tips and tricks and showed her secret passages, as she watched her best friend's face slightly scrunched up in concentration, seemingly taking both the game and Diego's instructions very seriously. Ava felt her heart might burst from watching two of her favorite people get along so well, as she realized Beatrice simply fitted perfectly in the dynamic, as she realized she never wanted it to end. 

Oh.

She'll have to call Camila as soon as Beatrice goes home, this most definitely couldn't wait until tomorrow.