Worth It

Step Four

"So, how was your sleepover?" My mom seemed in a good mood when she picked me up shortly after lunch.

"It was fun! How was vacation?"

"It was wonderful." What she didn't say was that she wanted me to have been there.

"That's good." I sat back in my seat and thanked God again that I didn't have to go on that vacation. Any time relatives were involved, it was all pinching cheeks and playing checkers while breathing in old people smell. When we pulled into the driveway, my family ran out to greet me. I noticed they were all gorgeously tanned except Victoria.

"Ava!" She yelled, engulfing me in the smell of sunscreen and a tropical breeze.

"What did you do, stay inside all day?" I asked her.

"No." I thought she was joking until I saw how serious she looked.

"Trust me, Vic was at the beach twenty-four hours a day." Lexus answered. "And she still looks like that."

"Wow." My sister just couldn't tan.

I snapped a picture as quick as I could, while she was distracted.

"What was that for!? Delete it!" She screamed when she realized what I did. She hated pictures more then anybody else.

"Memories." I said quickly. Then I went and hugged the rest of my family so Vic couldn't kill me. "I missed you all so much."

"We missed you too Ava." My younger sisters said. I highly suspected they didn't mean it, but it was enough that they said it in the first place.

"Now come on, we have stories to tell. So many things happened..." Vic dragged me to the backyard where we sat around on our deck and told stories until dinnertime.

The tales they told did sound great, but I didn't regret staying behind. Apparently they spent most of the time on the beach behind my grandparent's house. Of course, they were stuffed to the max because that's how grandparents are. Oh, and Vic also met a guy.

"Was he cute!?"

"No, stop. The conversation wasn't supposed to go this way."

"Please. Just tell me everything and it'll be over with."

"He was kind of cute, but I'm not interested."

"Yeah, I figured."

"You did?"

"Yeah, your heart is already taken by a certain guy whose name starts with N and ends with ick."

"I don't like Nick! He's just a friend!" A lightbulb went off in my head and I figured I could try my made-up crush test on my own sister.

"Okay, okay. I'll drop it. He has a girlfriend anyway, does he not?" She nodded. Her eye twitched slightly and her hands clenched into fists.

"But that doesn't matter. What happened at Alice's?" She recovered.

"You're right, it doesn't matter because nothing will change the fact that he's a jerk."

"He is not!" She defended. "He just...he's..."

"...cute, rugged, handsome." I stretched the last word and Vic flushed red.

"He...no." She started fidgeting nervously.

"She's probably better for him. Do they live close?" Her eyes widened and I could see the internal battle going on in her expression.

"He talks to her more than me." She said quietly.