"My god, she's going to kill me." He mutters throwing his head back into his seat as he covers his face with his hands releasing a groan.
"You? What about me? I'm her best friend!"
"Yeah well I'm her boyfriend who isn't supposed to get her best fr...
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TWENTY-THREE
Ava was sitting on the couch in the living room of her father's house, the perfect smiles of Wren and her stared back at her as she quietly sat looking at each picture while she waited for her sister and dad to finish getting the snacks and drinks from the kitchen. It was the first time Ava has been back to this house since she found out she was pregnant, and the first time she's talking to her dad after he heard or well found out about her pregnancy.
She still wished her dad didn't find out the way he did and wished that he would have found out the normal way he should have which was from Ava herself and not some insurance bill or a crazy girl named Corey. It wasn't fair for neither Ava or her dad. She should have told him on her own time that way she could live her life knowing that she told her dad reasonably.
"We didn't have any Oreos but we did have Chips Ahoy!." Ava's dad says walking into the living room holding the package of cookies with Wren right behind him carrying a tray with glasses of lemonade. Ava smiled at her sister and father as she took one of the glasses of lemonade along with the package of double stuffed Oreos.
The three sat in silence, the wind roaring from outside and through the chimney. Her phone sat beside her, buzzing every now and then with the notifications from her facebook and messages from Chris, Dylan, and even Grayson but she didn't check her phone, she didn't reply to anything. She just sat there with a blank face and her eyes trained on the blaring fireplace that was right smack center of the living room area.
"Dylan and I got the cake today, so it should be ready for tomorrow." Wren was the first to speak, her lemonade already gone. "We can go down to the freezer and you can see it."
Ava shook her head. She didn't want to think about the gender reveal party tomorrow. She just wanted to sit with her father and sister like the olden times when everything was drama free and she didn't have to worry whether or not she wanted anything to do with Grayson. Obviously, she wanted Grayson in the life of their baby, but she didn't know if she wanted to do what she wanted to do which was raise the baby together like an actual family without the whole dating or marriage thing or raise the baby with terms. Meaning Ava getting a lawyer and getting joint custody. Those were things that their child shouldn't have to go through especially when they aren't even born or were just born.
"Have you heard Grayson's side of the story? You can't always believe what you read or see on the internet Ava." Her father says, his eyes dark and gray.
"What is there to say? The photo was taken around the time of my appointment, he didn't show up." Ava replied shrugging her shoulders. "If he wants to be back with her go ahead I'm not stopping him. I just thought that he had some respect towards himself and others."
Her father nods his head, not knowing if he had the right words to tell her. He never had to face this sort of challenge in his life until now, yet this wasn't even his own challenge it was his daughters and he wasn't sure if he could even help her by making her problems go away.
"What about Chris? Has he spoken to you about Grayson and Corey getting back together?" He asked to which Ava just shook her head at.
Wren sighs from the single chair and shook her head. "I really thought Grayson changed." She muttered.
Ava wanted to defend Grayson because she was so used to it. She has liked the guy for so long but she was slowly losing the energy to do just that. She didn't want Wren's opinion on Grayson to change, but she couldn't help it if it did because her opinion on him is changing too slowly. Only Grayson could change and keep their opinions good but he can't do that unless he realizes what his actions are doing.
Not wanting to talk about last night, Ava stands up from her seat stretching her arms above her head. Her hand instantly goes to her stomach as if she were to protect it from any given sign of danger and walked towards the front door. Her father nor Wren questioned her or made a move to stop her and just watched her walk out and sit down on one of the patio chairs through the window.
It may have been too cold for her to be sitting down without a jacket, but at the moment Ava's body was warm and she needed to cool down and get some fresh air. It was the first day of December and New York didn't have a single drop of snow yet, and as much as that made Ava happy as she could be, she wanted to enjoy watching the snow fall while drinking hot cocoa something that she did every year when it was this time of year. She wasn't sure if she had time to put up a Christmas tree, or to buy all her friends and family gifts when she would be spending all of her money on getting ready for her baby, but she wasn't going to let that get in the way because she still had five more months and two weeks left until she could fully call herself a mother and she shouldn't even be worrying about any of that stuff right now anyway because she had time. It was a little amount of time, but still, time to not stress over these small things.
"Ava Johnson?"
Ava looks up from her shoes, her breath shaky from the emotions running through her body. A lady, no older than forty smiles warmly at her and holds her gloved covered hand out for her.
"I'm Ashlee Knight, Grayson's mother. Can we talk?"
