Swipe of Fate

Chapter 14

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Riley and I would hang out again as friends, but I would remain wary about Ethan's threats. I invited Riley to join me and Liv and Lewis at a nightclub event we were going to, but he couldn't make it. 

Lewis bailed too, so Liv and I danced the night away as I screamed along with every fuck-men breakup song the DJ played. There were surprisingly many. 

I hadn't invited Max to the club because I was more cautious about him. We were planning for a date the next night -- dinner and board games and then maybe I was going to take Max to a college newspaper staff party. I couldn't believe he was so sweet and safe that he actually was one of the few members of our university's board game club.

But there was a hitch in the plan. I didn't know it at the time, but her name was Hannah. The girl who had been watching me cry, watching me sob over the phone to Ethan that Max meant nothing to me, had told Max every word. That hadn't scared Max away yet, but her insistence that I was somehow crazy (I really wasn't yet!) was eating away at him.

Incredibly hungover from my night out, I awoke to a text from Max.

Hey, Ava... I've been thinking and I don't actually think I want a relationship. So I don't know if we should go out tonight. I know that's what you wanted. I'm sorry.

I should have been enraged. I should have been swearing off men, certain that they were all the same and Max had been just another to use me for sex and then reject me. 

But instead I was....unbothered. Oh well. Max didn't want to date. I wasn't angry like I had been with Ethan. I guess sex didn't automatically make you fall in love like I thought. I clearly hadn't fallen in love with Max, but that's because Ethan's memory always prevented me.

I wasn't upset, but I was still confused, so I sent Max back:

Oh? You seemed pretty sure before about what you wanted. It's okay. I'm just a little confused.

I didn't think much about Max that day. 

I went out to my second night party in a row, this time with Ally. 

We got slightly buzzed and when a police officer busted the party, I looked him in the eye, placed the two beers I was holding on the floor, and Ally and I, along with half of the party, ran across the highway, away from the cops into an Uber that had saved us from the only peril that came from underage drinking: getting caught. 

I was too busy living life to think about Max, but I still thought about Ethan a little.

The next morning, yet another morning known for a (slightly improved) hangover, I once again awoke to texts from Max. At this point, I had kind of written him off. Boys were all the same, you know, and I was handling it well.

But Max wasn't the same.

Ava, I feel like an idiot. The only reason I told you I didn't want a relationship is because Hannah kept trying to say you were crazy after she overheard you talking to Ethan on the phone or something and she said you were crying like crazy. But I do. I do want one. I want to continue hanging out with you.

My life was beginning to feel like a movie, and each day brought a new plot twist. But maybe that was just life. I was beginning to live it, with all the hurt and surprise it entailed.

Why don't you believe Hannah that I'm crazy? The only thing I did on that phone call was act pathetic, but maybe that's enough crazy for ya.

Maybe you are crazy, Ava. But I don't care. Maybe I like that.