Thank You

4

A/N: This is the chapter a promised Rene a week or so ago, sorry it took me so long :P

Marissa knows something. She calls Kirstie back the next day with the news that Avi hadn't come back to hers that night even though he was supposed to. He'd been there two nights prior, Kirstie curses having just missed him.
      Marissa gives Kirstie a few more options to check out, but only one seems plausible, and she can't believe she hasn't thought of it already, his parent's house.

It is lucky that his parents still live in the same place, and its lucky Kirstie knows where that it is.
     She makes the trip to Visalia that afternoon; she is a woman on a mission. She pulls into the driveway behind a black car that is already parked there. Kirstie almost sighs in relief, she knew that car, that black car, it's Avi's car. The only thing that could possibly go wrong would be if Avi's parents were borrowing the car.
     Kirstie approaches the door and knocks, and waits. She looks up at the peephole as she hears approaching footsteps. She can't see anything, but she comes to the conclusion that it is Avi when she hears the footsteps retreat again. She isn't letting him get away this time so she knocks again, this time louder. He doesn't come back and she has to assume his parents aren't home right now or else they would have answered the banging, right?
      She gazes to the left of the house, there's a little path there, so she decides to follow it around the side of the house and past the beautiful garden that wraps the building.
     Kirstie comes to a closed ranch-slider and she can see him slumped in an armchair. She can't decide if she's relieved to see him or angry that he ignored her. He's on his phone so she decides to call him and see what he does. She holds the phone to her ear, waiting, and she sees when he gets the call because he twists in the seat to look into the entryway at the front door. And when he turns back they lock eyes, his widen, hers narrow.
     There is no escaping her now and he knew it, and she knew he knew it. But she's still pissed off at how long it takes for him to come and open the sliding door for her.
    "Why are you avoiding me?" She asks the second she can squeeze through the door, pushing past him. "Oh god, you need a shower," she turns away from him so she doesn't need to smell him.
     "What's the point? My life's fucked. I mean I'm assuming that's why you hunted me down? Because of everything that happened?"
    "Just because your life's fucked doesn't mean you don't shower." She looks around, "I hunted," she does air-bunnies over that word, "You down because you wouldn't answer my calls moron! I was worried."
     "You were worried?" He asks, surprised.
     "What did you think that was when I messaged you about if you needed to talk?"
     "You messaged me?"
     She steps right up to him, jabbing him in the chest as she talks, "Don't you play dumb with me Avriel."
    His eyes widen and he stays silent.
     "I messaged you and you replied thank-you." She pulls out her phone to show him. "That is you," she points at the two messages between them.
     "Okay so maybe you sent that and maybe I replied, but I don't remember it," he shrugs.
     "And does it matter to you that you don't remember? That you smoke too much weed these days to cognitively function?" she gets louder as she speaks.
     "Shhh," he panics. "My parents don't know about that."
     Kirstie looks around the room again even though she knows that there is no one else there. "Are your parents home then?"
      "Nope," he chuckles.
      Kirstie is about to make a smart comment about being loud but she stops herself. Her eyes narrow as she realises why Avi smells so bad, it isn't just B.O, and there is something else too. She slowly looks up at him, "You're high right now aren't you?"
     "Okay Kirstie, not gonna lie, I smoked it about ten minutes ago right where you were standing outside that door. I'm not dumb enough to do it inside my parents house," he laughs.
     Kirstie shakes her head as she tears her eyes off of him, "Unbelievable," she sighs. "So, is everything she said true then?" She asks but she doesn't want to look at him.
     He pauses as if he doesn't know what she's talking about.
     "Trisha," she spits.
     He is paused a few moments more before finally answering, "I don't have herpes, she pulled that out of her ass... Oh, and I didn't fuck her, I mean she wishes," he chuckles.
     But Kirstie doesn't laugh; she doesn't find any of this funny so she slaps him across the face.
     Avi doesn't look at her for a long while and she waits. As he finally turns to face her again he says, "That would have hurt more if I didn't have a beard."
     Kirstie's face turns red with anger, "What the fuck is wrong with you!" she screams and shoves him. "She was right, you have such a fucking problem!" she shoves him again.
     "Do you know why she did what she did? It's because I wouldn't sleep with her, I crashed on her couch for like two nights, I didn't live with her. And the bag of shit she's saying is mine: is not, my shoes yes, but what the fuck are Grammy bags and where did she get them? By the way those were my favourite shoes and she still has them," he pouts.
      But Kirstie doesn't feel sorry for him. What she assumed was true, Trisha over-exaggerating, was true so what's new? That's her thing. She's starting to realise that maybe Avi was stupid enough to stay with Trisha, even if it was only for a couple of nights. He should have known better, even if he was under a weed cloud. But she gives in and asks, "How did you leave your shoes behind and nothing else then?"
     "Well I was wearing a different pair of shoes when she hit on me. My favourite shoes were somewhere else, maybe by the door, I can't remember. But after she hit on me I hightailed it out of there, I packed like mad and got everything except those damn shoes."
     "Which are unfortunately shoes you wear in every second photo taken of you," she sighs. "And that's why everyone believes Trisha."
     "That, and you guys didn't stick up for me," he frowns.
     "Avi, how could we stick up for you when half of it's true?" She runs a hand down her face in frustration.
    "She said I was a horrible, evil and manipulative person, do you think I am that?"
     Kirstie hesitates, she knew he is at least a little manipulative, he is very good at talking people into things, but he isn't horrible or evil, that's just Trisha going too far. "Avi you're not evil, but we still couldn't defend half-truths, it was easier just to stay quiet, sorry," she apologises.
     "What do you mean half-truths?" Avi asks, clearly hurting.
      "I mean so maybe you haven't slept with Trisha, but you've slept with a lot of other women and maybe you've hurt them somehow? Not physically but mentally, you know?" She hesitates before she continues, waiting to see if he has a reply, he doesn't. "And you do smoke weed, quite possibly as much as she says now, even though you seem to be having a pretty lucid convo with me right at this moment." She stops because she can see that there is no laughter left in him, no stupid jokes. "Avi, do you remember when I told you that we shouldn't be friends anymore?"
     He nods, "Clearly."
     "I did that because you weren't a healthy friend for me to have-"
     "You've told me this before, whatever the hell it means," he speaks bitterly.
     "I wasn't finished," she says calmly even though she wants to bite his head off. "You weren't a healthy friend for me to have because of the lifestyle you were starting to lead, smoking weed and different woman in your bed every other night."
     "It didn't start like that!" He snaps.
     "No, but it got like that, I could see it was going that way and I was not going to be friends with someone like that!"
     "Then why the fuck are you here?"
     "Because! Despite all the shit you're doing I still care about you! I want to make sure that  you're okay and because you're not I'm going to make you okay!" She screams.
      Avi stands there in shock, he hadn't realised she cares so much, let alone at all.

A/N: I hope the super length made up for my lack of updates all over the place. And it'll be nice for a change to have my notifs light up with something positive after everything that's gone one the past couple of days :P

Hannah.