Taylor vs Reid (GxG)

Part 6 - {Bonding}

Reilly called me again that evening. She'd let me know the meeting with Abby went well and she got more information. The specifics weren't shared, and I figured she was trying to preserve my mental state. I appreciated it.

We didn't stay on the phone long as I had gone over to my parents to have dinner with them and just hang out. Then I ended up being there the entire weekend and then the entire week. I just felt safer where my mother and father were and knowing it was something we were all going through together was therapeutic in its own way. Reilly and I texted almost the whole time though, and it was...nice. She was being nice. Mom swore we were becoming friends, but I wouldn't go that far yet. She was just being human, I guess. 

The only thing I didn't like about being at my parents' was the memories it brought back. The memories of Ava. The night she died. The night our whole lives were irrecoverably turned upside down. I had a nightmare that woke me at 4 am the morning of Ava's birthday. Lying awake, the remnants of my nightmare clinging to me like a second skin, I felt a familiar sense of isolation envelop me. With its sharp edges and dark corners, my past seemed determined to invade every moment of peace. 

I burst through the door and ran straight up the stairs, my hair and backpack bouncing with the movements. "Ava? David? I'm home!"

There was no reply, and I figured Ava was just in her room. She has been spending a lot of time in her room lately and never wants to play with me anymore. She has got boring but mom said it was typical for a teenager. I didn't want to be a teenager if I was going to be boring. But Ava was already gone. She was already one of them.

I made it into my room and threw my backpack down before leaving again. From the hall, I could hear muffled sounds in Ava's room. At first, it sounded like talking and then like crying. Concerned, I rushed forward and tried turning the knob, but the door was locked. I knocked, and the cries stopped, making an eerie silence fall over the place. 

"Ava?"

"What, Drew?" She asked in irritation, but I couldn't help but hear the fear in her voice too. The silent cry for help.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"You don't sound--"

"I'm fine!" She insisted, her words echoing through the house louder. "Now go to your room and lock the door until mom gets here and leave me alone."

With a frown pulling down my brows and a last look at her door, I left to go back downstairs. I found a knife in the kitchen and returned with it, looking behind me to see if someone was coming. Maybe I should've gone to my room like Ava said but I know she wasn't okay and I was going to help her. Even if she was a teenager and mean to me all the time now. She was still my sister. 

I slid the knife through the side of the door where the lock was like I had seen David do when he wanted to sneak in and out of the house at night. It released and the door crept open slowly. Ava was on the bed, her eyes peeled on the door as I stepped in. She looked scared and her face was soaked with tears as she whimpered in the corner. Her clothes were missing and her bed was messy. The sheets were half on the floor and bloody, the lamp, turned over and shattered. 

It looked like a scene from a horror movie and it made something twist in my stomach.  "Ava?"

"Drew, I told you--" She grabbed the sheets to throw over herself fresh tears brewing in her eyes paired with a look of shame.