Field of Dreams: Year 1

Truth

Paige's POV:

*flashback*

"Hey," I said as I put my tote bag on the chair and my tray on the table the others were. "What are you doing?" I sat and turned my head to my best friend. 

"Nothing much," Mia said, not looking up from her laptop. "Just a Chemistry assignment that, apparently, couldn't wait," she said annoyed. 

"How is Liv?" Ivy asked as I put my fork in my food, ready to eat. Before I could actually answer, the table moved a little. It was as if someone of us caused it to happen. "I wanted to say," Ivy said again, glancing a little to her left. "What's the deal with Liv? I mean, what's the whole matter with her?" I felt the heat of my body rising. Each and other nerve of my neck was probably visible. I moved my hand away from the fork and moved the table to its first position.

"What's the deal with Liv?!" I screamed, standing up and not caring that all of the eyes in the cafeteria were focused on my back. Our classmates. Our teachers. Students we didn't know. The staff. Everyone was looking at our direction. I couldn't believe how cheeky she was! No, not only she. They three. "She fainted! That's your deal!" I sensed it wasn't going to end well. "She's at home! Trying to calm down! Because as it looks like some people " I mimicked mocking them. "Weren't in the room when it happened," I directed to Mia and Ava. The latter had that same expression she had when Liv blacked out in Ms. Carter's class. I didn't know what was Mia thinking. I faced only her back. She was, obviously, more intrigued by her Chemistry assignment. What was wrong with all those people?! Their friend had fainted! "That's your matter!" my scream echoed around the room. "She's not feeling okay! That's your problem!" I tried to make them feel a little guilty of their behavior. No one said anything. "Couldn't you be a little more concerned about someone you call your friend?!" I cried and shouted at the same time, feeling a little desperate. 

"Paige..." I heard Mia saying from my right. I looked down to her, my anger not wanting to calm down. "Don't do anything you would regret in the future," she told me calmly with her focus on her laptop. Seriously?! Didn't someone care about the situation?

"So you don't care about Liv, too?" I asked abruptly, not leaving time to answer what she told me. She looked up to me and then to Ava. "That was enough for me to understand," I said with the same tone, took my bag, and  looked back to them. "That was enough for me to understand everything I needed to know about you!" were my last words before I got out of the cafeteria through the nearest to the table exit, all of the others' eyes still focused on me. Who cared about them when I had to care about a lot and more important stuff in my life?! One true friend is worth the amount of attention and care a few fake friends don't even deserve.

*end of the flashback*

"That was the end of our friendship, I guess. No one has texted, messaged, called..." I listed as Liv hugged me tightly. "I-I shouldn't have done that," I started to feel guilty for my actions. 

"It's not your fault," Blake suddenly joined. I looked at her, my eyes burning from the tears I held. "I've gone trough the same a few times before," she shared. I shifted a little, so I could feel more comfortable. Liv didn't break the hug, though. "Once I realized that I don't need both them and their opinion in my life, I understood how stupid it was from my side to become their friends at first," I looked at her with a both confused and amused expression. 

"Blake is not the best in encouraging people," Liv said, reading my thoughts and breaking the hug a little.

"She's right," I saw a smile on Blake's face that kind of...calmed me down? "But the thing is," she continued. "Is that you shouldn't care. It's all about that brat Ava," she spat out, this time even I could understand there was something more.

"What do you mean?" I continued the conversation we were developing. 

"Me and Ava," Blake started, and Liv moved away a bit from me, still holding my hand. I smiled to her and directed my attention to Blake, who was now sitting on a chair in front of us. "We were friends. Before," she finally revealed, not showing any emotion in her gaze. "Our parents were were very good friends. They worked together," she clarified. "We were young and became close quickly. Like, really close," was the continuation. "We shared everything. Clothes, dolls, secrets..." she said as if she wanted to hint to something? "Everything was fine until..." she interrupted herself. I told you we were doing that quite often. "We were 10 when everything happened..." she stopped talking. Me and Liv looked at each other. What so bad could've happened back then? We looked back at Blake, who was now holding her left foot, still sitting on that chair. "I was small and everything seemed like an adventure to me!" she said desperately. Liv tool her hand as a sign of encouragement. 

"Go for it," she told her, not letting my hand too. "If you say it, it'll go away," I totally agreed with her, finally wiping the last tear left. 

"Ava did something I can't explain even now," she started again. "She told me that we were going to play a game, and I was so stupid to believe her!" she started blaming herself as if she hadn't told me the speech for not blaming yourself about things like that. That was probably even bigger than her own beliefs about relationships. "I cut off the lighting of the town with a pair of scissors," I saw a single tear falling right on her palm. "We were living in a small town then, and cutting down a little cable caused so many problems for the town and Ava's parents," she continued, no matter her overwhelming emotions. "My parents got fired, we got a few very big fines, got sued, and had to move to another city," I couldn't believe my ears. Ava did that? Our Ava? "When we were leaving, she was there. Smiling. I didn't know what I did wrong to deserve her to do something like that to me and my family," she chuckled. "Fortunately, my parents knew that I couldn't do something like that. They believed me. That was the only positive thing of the whole situation," she looked at us again.

"We'll just stay away from her," Liv proposed, going to hug Blake after a slight nod from me. "We don't want any problems, so we'll stay away from them," I nodded this time to both of them.

"We can't," were Blake's words that put me into another phase of confusion. "Ava Williams is the personification of problems, and she'll not leave you until gets her revenge," she explained, sensing that we haven't understood her words.

"But I haven't told her anything in personal," I noted. Liv looked even more confused. 

"Yes, but you've hurt her ego," she told me, still in the warm half embrace of Liv. "Now she'll do her best to get us back. By ruining our lives. In. Every. Way. Possible."