Vault

Twenty-Three

"I feel like I'm making a mistake," I admit to the phone.

"Why?" Chris asked.

"I don't know. Going out with you guys just felt different in my gut than going out with my boss and his friends does," I explained.

"Well don't go if they make you uncomfortable," Chris scoffed like it was obvious.

"They don't make her uncomfortable, it's just different," Katie explained for me.

"Thank you Katie," I laughed.

"Was work weird since he kissed you the other night?" Katie asked.

"Surprisingly no. Its been normal, which is nice. And it just confirms that he's actually completely fine with me saying nothing would happen between us," I confirmed as I walked away to get dressed.

I changed into a satin royal blue dress. It was simple, stopping at my mid thigh, and the top had a deep v neckline and the material crosses over my midsection. It's a beautiful dress, and I kind of hate to admit that I think Ashton and his friends are going to like it too.

"You know," Katie smirked as she saw me pick my phone back up so they could see me again, "for just wanting to be friends with them, you keep wearing his favorite color."

"I know," I laughed, "but he compliments me when I wear it and we're friends who harmlessly flirt so."

"Okay," Chris scoffed, "you get all salty when we flirt with you!"

"And you guys are different!" I laughed, "you guys are my family. Ashton and his friends are just friends. And I don't think I'd even consider them all to be friends of mine yet."

"Alright, alright," Chris rolled his eyes as he smile grew, "as long as they keep their dicks in their pants we won't have any problems."

"Christopher," Katie and I scolded at the same time.

"She's a grown woman, she can do whatever she wants," Katie laughed.

"Yeah, whatever not whoever. Well you can do whoever you want too, but you better be safe," Chris warned.

"Yes dad," I joked, rolling my eyes, "don't worry. I don't plan on going anywhere besides back to my apartment tonight and they all already know that. I just need to have some fun and stop thinking about Karl."

"You know you don't have to stop thinking about him," Chris pointed out, "you promised not to give up on him."

"I'm not giving up on him, I just can't wait forever. Chris it's been over a week and he hasn't tried to even get ahold of me," I pointed out, "but every day, he's basically all that I think about and it's killing me. I need to get my mind away from Karl."

"He's been miserable," Katie pointed out, "he's coming over tonight with Jimmy and Chandler to cheer him up. The guys finally stopped giving him shit about how he treated you, but he's been miserable since Sunday when he realized you actually left."

"I don't want him to be miserable," I shook my head, "as angry as I was that he didn't say goodbye, I never wanted him to be upset."

"I know and I didn't tell you that to make you feel bad, but I thought you'd want to know," Katie smiled, "I know you miss him."

"Constantly," I confirmed.

"Ava, I hate to be that person, but he hasn't spoken to you because you hung up on him last time," Chris reminded me.

"I wasn't expecting to see his face," I sighed, "and I didn't hang up on him. We talked for a minute and then I told him I had to go and I said goodbye. I've texted him multiple times since then and he never responded. I never straight ignored him. Even on Monday, before that FaceTime call after the Minecraft tournament, he texted me and I was mad because he didn't say goodbye to me and then just texted me hey. But I responded to him, and then he never sent me another text after that."