They Don't Know About Us (BWWM)

Chapter 12

Ava remembered when she liked Demetrius Harding in the tenth grade in high school. He had some of the most beautiful brown eyes she had ever seen on top of an athletic body that every girl fawned over. He seemed like an absolute dream to her, but he hardly even knew her. She had one class with him, English, and one day he turned around in his desk and asked her for question #4's answer. It felt like her world turned upside down, and Ava told him the answer without a second thought, feeling so grateful that he even bothered to talk to her.

To her surprise, he kept talking to her. Every class period, he would turn around and prop his elbow on her desk, his body adorned in a red varsity jacket for football. They would chat about football games and teachers they didn't like. Looking back, Ava realized how stale the conversations were, but back then she thought that they were life changing because he was just paying attention to her. If there was a lull in their conversation, she quickly thought up a new topic to talk about so that he wouldn't turn away from her and talk to someone else.

After weeks of talking, Ava wanted to take the next step. She recited what she was going to say and what she was going to wear, which was just a floral dress that passed the dress code, so it wasn't anything really fancy. She told him that she liked him, her eyes full of hope as he just smiled at her for a moment.

"Me too. Hey, bring the English homework due today and meet me in the stairwell during lunch. I'll give you a surprise," Demetrius told her before winking and walking away to join a group of his friends.

Ava thought he was going to kiss her or ask her to homecoming. All sorts of scenarios built up in her head as she went through the school day until lunch. She snuck off to the stairwell, something she never did before, and waited for him. She waited and waited, but he never showed up. She figured he got caught up with someone in the lunchroom, prompting her to go back just to see his arm around a cheerleader who was in their English class. She found herself going up to him, feeling the intense stares of his football friends and a few other cheerleaders. "We were ... um ... supposed to meet," she stumbled over her words, feeling embarrassed as everyone stared at her.

"Oh, it's okay. Stacy gave me the answers. Thanks, though," Demetrius replied, holding the pretty blonde close to his side as he smiled a little at Ava.

Ava found herself nodding and quickly walking away, hearing laughter trail her as she rushed from the lunchroom. She hadn't been so embarrassed in her life. How could she think that he actually liked her? He just wanted her answers and a pretty girl under his arm. She couldn't be that for him. Every time she even tried to talk to him, she felt like she owed him something like an answer or a compliment on his football skills.

However, now, with Gavin, she felt like she didn't owe him a single thing, except for a psychology paper. It felt like he actually liked talking to her. He started a lot of the conversations and drove the direction of topics. He put in the effort, and she hadn't had such great conversations ever before. Ava turned her head a little to watch Gavin speak as he laid on his back on the bed beside her. She had to urge him that it was okay for him to lay down on the same bed as her, that she felt comfortable with him. He was so intensely protective over her, even against himself. It only attracted her more to him that he cared enough about her to ensure that she felt safe in any circumstance, even around him.

"I just wanted more for my life than work, which was dangerous. I talked to dangerous people. I did things I shouldn't have done, but my father would have returned the damage tenfold on me," Gavin spoke to her, explaining to her a little bit about his life in Ukraine before he fled to the United States. He hadn't revealed too much, but he let her see a little bit more of his life.

"He hurt you?" Ava asked, turning on her side to face him, a look of disbelief clouding her face. She thought that his father just berated him, but she hadn't realized that he had physically hurt Gavin. The thought saddened her and infuriated her at the same time. How could someone hurt their own kid like that? She never understood bad parents. Why have kids if they were not going to care and love them? So much pain would be saved. So much turmoil and anxiety would be spared. It broke Ava's heart how prevalent bad parents were in the world and how badly it affected their children.

"Just whenever I did something wrong or messed up a business order," Gavin replied, acting dismissive about it. He lifted his hand to show her a few scars on his right hand. "I was tired of getting hurt. I was tired of hurting people. I just wanted to disappear, and now they're trying to drag me back."

Ava's eyes widened a little, realizing what he meant. His father had sent men after Gavin to drag him back to Ukraine to stay in business with him. Gavin was trying to live a life different from his old one, but his father wasn't letting him. Sadness flooded through Ava, prompting her to reach up and grab his hand, holding it in a comforting motion. "You could've told me this sooner. You don't have to keep these things to yourself. If I get caught, I get caught. It'll be bad if I know things or not."

"I also just don't want you to hate me. I'm not a good person," Gavin murmured softly, resting their hands on the bed between them, his fingers twining with hers. "When I met you and you didn't tell anyone about me, I felt like I could dare to get closer to you, like I could trust you. Then, I started to care about you, and I just don't want you getting mixed up with the trouble I'm involved with. I would've done a lot of things differently with you if this all hadn't happened."

Ava squeezed his hand, enjoying the warmth of his skin and how large his hand was compared to hers. "You just wanted to escape home. I understand that. I don't want you to go back to your father. He'll just hurt you and make you do more bad things," she told him, turning her head to gaze at him. She didn't see a dangerous man like she had when they first met. She saw a damaged soul trying to get free. It wasn't fair that he was born into the role he had to play for his father. Whatever bad things he did, like hurt people or do illegal orders she was guessing, she wouldn't hold it against him because that was his father pulling the strings. "Were you a professor in Ukraine somehow?"

"Oh, no. My information and my papers are forged. I just really like psychology," Gavin chuckled, prompting a laugh from her.

"Well, you teach better than a lot of the professors at that school. I guess it helps to actually be passionate about the subject that you're teaching," Ava replied, her shoulder nestling against his.

"I definitely felt passion in that classroom," Gavin murmured, his eyes heavy on hers. A warm smile crossed his lips, his eyes shifting down to admire how her lips curled up in her own bright smile.

"Me too," Ava breathed out, feeling her heart rate start to pick up. They laid so close together, their hands still joined. She could hardly believe the point at where she was at, how her feelings just kept blooming and blooming. It was hard to control herself when he made her feel so listened to, so safe.

"I'm not going to let anything happen to you," Gavin told her firmly, his thumb stroking the top of her hand in a comforting motion.

Ava believed him. She knew that he would do everything in his power to protect her, and she was going to do the same with him. She wanted to keep him safe too, to shield him from the darkness of his past that threatened to trail him and catch up to him like shadows. "I have your back," she replied, silence falling on them for a few moments. She felt his other hand reach over through the dimness in the room and softly cup her cheek. She found herself leaning into the warmth of his touch, reveling in how soft he was with her. She felt his forehead rest against hers a few moments later, the softness of his breath teasing at her lips. She let her eyes flutter shut, her breathing growing shaky as she moved closer across the bed toward him, her hand gripping his black T-shirt.

"I know you do," Gavin murmured softly, his thumb stroking her cheek in gentle motions. His thumb caught her lips in one stroke, softly pulling on the tissue and making Ava sigh at the touch.

Ava leaned up a little, feeling her nose brush his. She knew his lips were so close, and all she wanted to do was surge forward and kiss him, but he was going slow with her. She wanted to take her time. She only had a first kiss once. She felt him come a little closer, the space between their lips seeming to radiate energy. She prepared herself to close the gap, her grip on his shirt tightening. Before she could move forward, a car door slamming outside sent them jumping apart, their heads turning toward the door as car lights blared through the window of the motel room.