Crazy Baby

Chapter 22

I wake up, feeling Ava in my arms. Her body was pressed up against mine, her arms curled up and face against my chest. I feel one of her small legs on top of mine and her other leg touching my other leg. The moment felt perfect, like I shouldn't move until she wakes up. I lay there, motionless, with my arms holding her close to me. I was close enough where I could smell her hair, which smelled of strawberries and cherry blossoms. It was amazing.

I took my hand and put it on the back of her head, rubbing my thumb on her head gently. Feeling her in my arms made me feel like I fell out of reality and was in some sort of awesome dream world that I never want to wake up from. This was heaven.

I stop rubbing her head as I hear her yawn. She stretches out of my arms and rubs her eyes. "Hey, baby." She says, in her tired voice. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine," I reply. "How are you?"

"I'm glad. Are you feeling better from yesterday?"

"Yeah, I can text you about what happened later. I'm not yet comfortable with talking about it in person."

"Okay, that's fine." Ava moved her head and looked at my face.I looked back,making eye contact with her. We both smiled.

We lied like that for a few seconds before Ava came closer and gave me a small kiss on the lips. I smiled even wider, looking at her face. I look at the time on my phone real quick, seeing it was 7:00am on a Tuesday. Ava must've seen how panicked I was because she chuckled a little before saying, "Baby, there's no school today, don't worry."

"Oh..." My face turns red. "Why don't we both get some breakfast?"

"Okay, sure! Can you cook again?" She asks me. "I like your cooking."

I smile and get up, bring her to the kitchen, where I saw my mom, sitting at the table, reading the newspaper with some coffee. We both greet her, Ava sitting next to her and me going through the food we have. I grab out a bag of biscuits and the pack of eggs. I crack some eggs into a bowl, whisk them, then pour them into the pan. I toasted two biscuits and buttered them up as I watched the eggs, putting them on plates with the biscuits as they finished.

I passed a plate to Ava and kept the other. If my mom was already reading the paper and drinking her coffee, she probably already ate breakfast or didn't have time to. I watched as Ava picked up her fork and ate some of the egg and smile.

"You make amazing eggs!" She told me. That made me happy to hear her say.

My mom stood up from her seat and closed her newspaper, putting it down on the table. She sighed and walked over to the door and put on her shoes. "I've got to go to work, okay?" I nodded as she waved at the both of us and left.

"She seems a little down," Ava said. "That was a quick mood change, she was just laughing with me a second ago."

"She hates her job," I explained. "It was the only one she could get, though, and it helps pay the bills."

"What about your job?" Ava asked. "Can't she quit and find a new one while you work and help pay things off?"

"My pay isn't nearly enough alone."

"Oh..."

We sat there in silence for a bit while eating the eggs and biscuit. A ding coming from Ava's phone broke the silence. She frowned as she looked at what popped up on the screen. "What is it?" I ask.

"I have to leave." She says. We both get up, hugging each other. "I'll miss you." We kiss each other and talk for a bit before I walk out with Ava and watch her drive away. I sigh and walk back inside, cleaning up the unfinished breakfast as I'm left alone. Nellie was still sick up in her room and I didn't want her doing anything exciting until she was better.

I walked up to her room, quietly opening her door so I didn't wake her up if she was asleep. I looked over to see her sitting up, playing games on her computer. "Nel, you should be resting." I tell her.

"But I'm bored!" She says, sneezing a few times after that. I can hear her sore throat through her talking.

I sigh, looking at her. "Fine," I reply. I walk out of her room as I watch her smile at the game she was playing. Although she was sick, she was still happy and having fun. She always tried to fake being okay just to go out and so something. She couldn't stand being inside all day. It pissed me off when she did but I could always figure it out as she was absolutely terrible at hiding it.

I walked into my own room, throwing myself on my bed and taking out my phone. I opened up my messages and stared at the old conversation I had with Kevin. My thumbs hovered over the keyboard as I debated texting him. My thoughts made me cave in as I typed "Hey, are you okay?" and sent it.

I watched the three dots pop up as he started typing. My heart dropped when his message came through. "Leave me alone, freak!"

I threw my phone on the ground away from me and turned, facing towards the wall.