Falling for the Fire

Chapter 17

"Shit," I hissed as I quickly pulled away from Brooklyn.

We both sat back as we watched the car drive in front of us and out of the lot.

I abruptly stood up and looked back at her.

"I better go," I said.

"Hold on," she said as she reached out and grabbed on to my wrist.

I looked down at her hand and she let it fall from my arm.

"Sorry - I, are you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah," I sighed, "I mean...no not right now, but I will be."

She nodded at me before I turned and went to walk away. I stopped momentarily and looked back at her.

"Thank you," I said.

She gave me a small smile as I left and went to my car.

I glanced back towards the door of the event and saw Owen coming outside just as I grabbed on to my door handle. I quickly got inside before he could see me, and I drove out of the lot.

My mind was running a million miles a minute as I drove home, and I decided to call Avery. I'd left the event early after everything that had taken place, so it wasn't that late.

"Hey Ari," she answered, "don't you have that party tonight?"

"Yeah," I said, my voice still sounding shaky, "I'm leaving early...are you busy? Can you come over?"

"Oh, yeah I can..." she said hesitantly, "is everything okay? You don't sound very good."

"Not exactly," I responded, "I'll explain it all when you get to my house."

"Okay," she said, "I'll be there soon."

I got home and quickly changed out of my dress before Avery got there. Hopefully she'd be able to help me make sense of all of this, because I had no idea what was going on.

She came in the front door a few minutes later, and a look of concern immediately came over her face when she saw me standing in the living room.

"Hey, what's wrong?" She asked as she came over and put her hand on my arm.

"I - I'm not exactly sure where to start," I told her.

"Here, come sit down," she said.

We both went over and sat down on the couch, and she watched me as I tried to prepare myself to explain everything.

"Owen must have told Eliana," I started.

I tried to keep going, but I had to pause as I felt my voice crack.

"About...?" Avery asked cautiously.

"My dad," I mumbled.

"What?" She asked as she sat up straighter and looked at me, "why the hell would he do that?"

"I have no idea," I sighed, "but she decided it would be a good idea to make some smart ass comment to me about it tonight."

"Okay what the fuck?" Avery said angrily, "there's literally no good reason for that, from either of them."

"I know," I nodded, "I lost my shit with both of them and left."

"God damn I don't blame you," she said, "Owen is such a fucking puke."

"Yeah, I have no idea what happened," I told her, "I never would've expected any of this from him."

"He tried to come after me and apologize," I continued, "but I basically yelled at him and got the hell away."

"That bitch got into his head apparently," she said, "I can't even imagine..."

She trailed off and then glanced over in my direction, giving me a sympathetic look.

"What could have possibly possessed her to say something to you about that?" Avery asked.

I shook my head and shrugged, her guess was as good as mine at this point.

"I'm so sorry," she said as she wrapped her arm around my shoulders, "if I could go yell at both of them for you, I would."

"I know you would," I said as I leaned against her.

Avery rubbed her hand back and forth over my shoulder, trying to give me whatever comfort that she could. We sat there in silence for a few minutes, and I debated on telling her about what happened with Brooklyn.

The fact that Eliana making that comment wasn't the weirdest part of my night said a lot.

"Something else happened too," I finally said.

"Oh God," Avery responded as she let her arm fall from around me and sat back, "what else did that bitch do?"

"Not that bitch," I told her, "but the other one."

"Brooklyn?" She questioned.

"Yeah but - well she wasn't being a bitch surprisingly," I said.

Avery raised her eyebrows in surprise, and I continued to explain.

"So she came out to check on me, and I obviously thought she was full of shit after how she's been treating me," I started, "but then she told me that she's actually lost her dad in the last year too."

"Oh, wow," Avery said, "that's - I'm sure that probably changed how she was acting towards you."

"Yeah..." I trailed off, "that's one way to put it."

"Why do you say it that way?" She asked, "don't tell me that she was still being bitchy after that."

"No that's - that's not why," I stuttered, "she was actually really nice, even gave me a hug to try and make me feel better."

"Woah," Avery said, "that is odd for her."

"Well," I started, "it gets even more odd."

Avery raised an eyebrow at me again as I continued to tell her what had happened.

"We um, we almost kissed," I told her.

I put my hand over my face the second that the words left my mouth. This was all so fucking confusing.

"You did what now?" Avery asked.

"She hugged me and then - I don't fucking know, I think our emotions were both running high and...yeah," I said.

"Jesus Ari," she responded, "that story took a turn way faster than I was expecting...but what stopped the kiss?"

"A car drove by," I said, "we were sitting out in the parking lot talking, so when we saw the headlights coming towards us...it kind of ruined it."

"Ruined it," Avery repeated, "so you did want it to happen?"

"I - fuck I don't know Ave," I said, "I was upset and she was there and - I have no idea."

I was feeling more frustrated with the whole situation now more than anything. It was too hard to make sense of what was going through my head.

"Hey it's fine," Avery said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get you worked up again, I was just curious."

"It's - I know," I responded, "I'm really struggling to figure this out."

"Well you don't have to right now," she told me, "but I really think you're going to have to have a conversation with Brooklyn."

"Fuck," I sighed, "I know."

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