Stella's POV
Arms were around me before I could even catch my breath. Aunt May had been outside tending to her garden, so her arms found me first, then Peter's. It felt like my heart was splitting inside my chest. I had ruined yet another thing, except this time it wasn't a thing. It was Ava. And the worst part about it was I was here being hugged by two people so full of love for me and inside Ava was all alone. Despite what she said, I still didn't want her to feel alone. As soon as I was able to calm myself down enough to see through my tears, I pulled out my phone to text Louis.
Stella: can you call Ava? I think it'd help if you talked to her.
"Stella, what are you doing?" Peter whispered, cupping my face and wiping my tears with his thumbs. Aunt May rubbed my back softly with her fingertips. They showed me they cared about me. I wanted that for Ava.
"C-can you go love Ava?" I asked. God, I hated that fucking stutter. I thought I had gotten rid of it. I had worked so hard to get rid of it.
"Baby..." Peter whispered, even though we weren't exactly a pet name type of couple.
"She... she's going through a really rough time right now." I was still crying, still trying to catch my breath. "She needs someone to love her." Neither of them moved, so I took Peter's hands off my face and turned to face Aunt May.
"Please, Aunt May? I told my brother to call her, but she needs you. Please." I begged. Aunt May put her hand on my cheek for a minute and gave me kind of a sad look before nodding.
"Okay." She said quietly, then she went inside.
"Stella, look at me." Peter prompted. I took a deep breath and turned to face him.
"I'm okay." I blurted. He raised his eyebrows.
"What happened to no more lying?" He asked, then pecked a kiss on my lips. "Stell, she was out of line. She shouldn't have said those things to you."
"She pushed me." I whispered. I had made Peter swear to stay upstairs while I talked to Ava. Ava had never been one to share her feelings with Peter, so I felt like she would've been more receptive to me than to Peter. I just didn't know her feelings were so... full of hatred.
"She's not herself right now, Stell, she's really struggling." He explained.
"I know." I whispered, feeling my eyes fill with tears again. "I just want to make her feel better." Peter kissed my forehead and pulled me into him again, and I tried my best not to cry.
//
Ava's POV
I wasn't tired of breaking things. I completely broke Stella, and now all I wanted to do was go through Aunt May's kitchen and break every piece of glass there was, but I didn't.
I started cleaning.
I couldn't fix what was broken inside of me, but I could pick up Stella's French toast mess. The problem with that was from the kitchen I could hear Stella on the front porch crying and instead of making me sad like it used to, it made me mad. I don't know why. I wasn't even mad at her. I was mad at... I don't know. Me, maybe. How there was something so deeply wrong with me that I couldn't seem to find where I belonged.
"How are you doing, sweetie?" Aunt May asked, putting her arm around me as I stood at the sink.
"Not great." I mumbled.
"Do you want to talk about it?" She wondered.
"No." I replied.
"Do you... want to break something?" She asked. I put down the dish I was washing and looked up at her.
