Induction

Chapter 21: You've Got to Be Sh*tting Me

Note:  Early holiday present for you guys!  Feelings get entangled in this chapter. Teen feelings can be so confusing, and Avriel are not happy about it.

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All night, Ava tossed and turned.  After the “twins” commentary, Ava and Gabe could barely look at each other without some sort of tension. It seemed as if they both decided to just ignore each other (as they had been) for the rest of the night. Ava swore that Justine pointed out their matching shirts on purpose. No one would’ve made such a big deal out of it, but leave it to a 16 year old girl to make it an event.

Gabriel was obviously pushing her buttons. He was a man-whore and she’d bet he was making her uncomfortable on purpose.  They way he leaned his body into hers, the way he gazed deep in her eyes---it was all to get a reaction out of her, and she wasn’t going to let him win. She was not going to be one of those stupid, young, impressionable girls who fell for those kinds of tricks. Fuck him and his stupid games.

The problem was that he did get a rise out of her. All she could think about tonight was him. The way his body made hers react was unnerving. She didn’t think she’d ever have such an attraction to any boy at this point in her life. Even Ava had to admit that she was too immature for anything related to the opposite sex. She had never been on a date with anyone, no holding hands, no giggling, and definitely no kissing. So the urge to want to do more with Gabriel did not sit well with Ava. She was not ready for this kind of stuff.  

As hard as she tried to think of something else, those thoughts of Gabriel didn’t leave her so easily. It was going to be a long ass night, and sleep was being a bitch to get to.

*****

A few blocks over, Gabriel sat atop his covers, unable to sleep.  He was pissed at himself for the way he was feeling about that girl. He was always able to detach his feelings for any girl. He was usually calm, collected, and utterly charming with the ladies. But with her, she got under his skin. Whether she pissed him off or made him fucking horny, he couldn’t decide which bothered him more.

He had tried to go to sleep, but he was breaking out into sweats and got too hot. So there he laid, on top of his bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking about the one thing he shouldn’t be thinking about. Her.

He got up, and grabbed his acoustic guitar. When he walked back to the edge of the bed, he spotted the NBHD hoodie he was wearing tonight, and chuckled. Fucking Justine and her astute observation. Deep down, he knew what Justine was up to, but he wasn’t going to let that happen. First of all, Ava was his little sister’s friend, which in the past had been generally off-limits. Why Justine let Ava be an exception was beyond him, because Ava was nothing like the type of girls he usually hooked up with.

 Actually, maybe that was the reason. Ava wasn’t some girl he just wanted to hook up with. She was a girl he wanted to get to know better. To even mention the word girlfriend was fucking with his brain right now. No way in hell was he in the state of mind for that word. His idea of dating was taking a girl out to her desired place to dine, maybe a movie, sneaking back in, fucking, taking her home before he went to bed, then most likely not talk to her again unless he got bored or another girl wasn’t available. Those dates never weighed on his heart. Hell, he’d been accused by a countless number of girls for having no heart at all. It was true though, he didn’t harbor real feelings for any girl before. Never. And not now. It’s not going to fucking happen.

As he held the guitar in his hands, sitting on the edge of his bed, even the songs that came to him reflected his thoughts about a girl he shouldn’t be with.  He settled on strumming out the chord to ‘Best of You’ by Foo Fighters. As he sang the words, he felt worse.