regret of jacob barber - defending jacob

the morning before a tragedy

tonight ava was sleeping over at jacobs house. they've been best friends for a while so it wasn't unusual for them to sleep in jacobs bed. the barbers considered ava as a part of their family. after a night of movies with the barbers, laurie told ava and jake that it was still a school night and they should head to bed. they agreed and went upstairs to change. ava was constantly over at jacobs so half of his closet was filled with her clothes and belongings. ava went to the bathroom to change and brush her teeth. she was wearing a peach colored tank top with pajama shorts. she walked into jacobs room to get ready to sleep. he stared at her for a few seconds. "i've always loved that outfit on you." he says to the brunette. ava smiles and grabs her phone and climbs into bed. she scrolls through social media and lets out a gasp. "ava? what's wrong?" "nothing jake. it's fine. really." ava assures him. "don't do that. tell me." ava doesn't budge. he turns away from her wondering why she gasped. she took a deep breath out of anger and jacob had enough. he grabbed the phone out of her hand. "JAKE! give it back." ava yelled.

post by ben rifikin:
hit jacob barber up for any gay inquires!! he'll be delighted to partake in any...activities.

jacob reads the post and frowns. ava grabs jacobs arm and tells him not to listen. bens "thing" is always bothering jacob and insist that he is gay and calling him several slurs. ava pulls jacob closer to her and hugs him tight. she tells him that she thinks he's amazing and nothing that ben says will ever change that. she runs her fingers through his beautiful soft brown hair. she gives him a kiss on the forehead and turns over and says goodnight. he is unresponsive to her affection, ava can tell that he's hurt and sick of ben bullying him.

time skip: the next morning

andy comes into jacobs room banging on the door. "hey, come on guys, time to get up."

ava and jacob groan in unison. "lets go, rise and shine."

jacob flips his pillow over and continues to keep his eyes shut. "jake, ava, gotta see those eyes." they continue to stay still and ignore andy as he continues to bug them.

"alright, you leave me no choice." andy takes out his phone and sits down onto the side of the bed. "last chance." andy warns.

andy starts to blast the god awful AC/DC song that jacob and ava both despise. ava and jacob continue to whine and finally they both grab the top of the comforter and yank it off of their heads. "we're upppp" jacob says annoyed.

ava stretches and climbs out of the bed and goes into the closet. she takes out jacobs sweatshirt and sweatpants and changes into them. "aves, you have almost all of your clothes here and you still choose to wear mine." jacob says laughing. "mhm! hey, they are extremely comfortable andddd...they remind me of you." ava says while she puts on her rose colored socks. jacob looks down and blushes at her comment. they walk downstairs and laurie says good morning to both of them. she immediately starts to quiz jacob on his upcoming test at school today. andy asks us if we want him to drive them to school. ava says that she would prefer if andy could drive them while jacob said he'd rather walk and get some fresh air. that seemed a little weird to ava since they always walked or rode together but she didn't think too much about it. jacob hugs her and says that he'll see her at school. andy and ava get into the car and drive off while jacob walks out the door to go through the park.

time skip: before english class

jacob usually texts ava before they walk to english so that they can agree on a place to meet so that they can go to class together. ava texts jacob to ask where he is. no response. she texts him again saying that class is about to start and that she's going to walk there alone. after the bell rang, notifying that class has started, jacob wasn't in the classroom. ava pulled out her phone and hid her phone under her desk so that she could text him to ask if he was okay. once she sent the text there was an announcement over the loudspeaker.

we are in lockdown. affective immediately.

the class freaks out and turns off the lights and scurries to find a hiding spot. ava was terrified. she didn't know where jacob was. she thought that he could be hurt. she immediately texted andy to tell him the situation.

andy, our school is in lockdown. i'm scared.

i know, everything is fine. there's no shooter or anything. you're safe. i'll pick you guys up from school later. don't worry.

ava calms down to know that she's not in any danger. andy works within the police department as a district attorney general so he gets most of the inside information. after a few minutes, the lockdown is lifted and the class is able to relax. ava once again texts jacob and asks if he okay. he finally responds and comforts her by telling her that he's ok. he was apparently in the bathroom while the lockdown went down so he had to stay in there for his own safety. ava felt like a weight was lifted off of her shoulders, knowing that he was safe.

after school, andy picked ava and jacob up and informed them of what happened. ben rifkin. murdered. ava immediately felt sick. jacob sat there with no expression on his face.
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authors note- sorry guys, i know this chapter was bit long but it's important!!