Fifty Shades After

Chapter 16: Greycest is not Wincest

★Ted★

"Could you be anymore obvious?" I smirk at Sophie and she raises an eyebrow. "Ted! Whatever do you mean?"

- "Oh, please." I roll my eyes as I throw myself on the couch. We're in the game room now. Phoebe is entertaining herself with the billard table. She's using number eight to hit the other balls and score in all pockets like if it were air hockey. "Careful with your fingers, little lady." I remind her and she nods with a smile.

Besides the billiard table, there's a row of black leather chairs facing five plasma televisions pinned to the wall. There's an empty bar with neon lights and old vintage route 66 signs. On another wall, there's three Seahawks shirts pinned on frames and on the far other one, there's more picture frames with cars, including the oh- so famous Audi. Behind me, I notice a foosball table, and some vintage arcade games. This is the perfect man cave.

"So then, what? You're dad's wing-man? ...wing wo-man?" I correct myself. She giggles as she maneuvers the joystick of the Pac man game. "You can say that."

- "Well, Jesus, that's no fair." I scoff. "He has himself a pair of wings then." She turns at me and beams. "Does he really?" She says jumping up and down. "And a little extra! Like hermes." Phoebe says as the balls bounce to each other and the walls. "Wait, what?" I ask confused. "You too, Phoebe?" Sophie gasps. Phoebe shrugs. Who isn't helping dad with mom!?

After, I challenge Sophie to a game of foosball and Phoebe keeps score. We're playing, and in less than ten seconds, she scores. "You got lucky." I mutter and she giggles. "Trust me, Ted. I've spent more time here than you think." She threatens and it's game on.

Literally three minutes later, it's 26 to 7.

"Teddy, I think you should just forfeit." Phoebe says cringing at the scoreboard. "Listen to your sister, Ted!" Sophie laughs tossing her head back. I take full advantage and spin the handle to score. I miss. Jesus, I suck at this game. A phone goes off, and Sophie quickly pauses the game to check. "Hello?... Oh, hey,  Melina... Nothing, just over at my Godfather's house. What's up? " She's quiet, and her face changes. She looks,  what?  Upset? Annoyed? Aggravated?

Eventually, Sophie announces her leaving and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't upset. "I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully. I'm just going to meet up with some friends for a party." She says as she packs her phone and wallet in her brown purse. "Alright, I'm off."

- "Good!" We turn to the entrance of  the room. Ava.  Sophie scowls at her and turns to me. "Bye Ted. Buh-bye, Phoebe. She gives her a kiss on the cheek and hugs me. With that, she strolls towards the entrance, completely disregarding Ava. She rolls her eyes and walks up to me. "Hey." She smiles. Ava's has a thin peach flannel and white jeans with sandals. Her hair is in a curly ponytail and her cleavage is a little bit more than exposed. "Hey." I scratch the back of my head uncomfortably. "What are you two up to?" She steps away and begins to walk around, observing the room. "We were-"

- "I was just going. Upstairs to look for Gail. Yeah. Bye!" Phoebe says with a smile and runs out. No! Don't leave me here! Traitor!

I turn to look at Ava who's on the far end of the room. "How'd you spend the night?" She says casually. I really hope she keeps her distance. "Pretty good. It felt strange, since this isn't where I entirely grew up, but other than that-"

- "That's great." She walks up to me. "You seem to be adapting to this lifestyle quite nicely." She says brushing off something on my sleeve. "Oh, no, no. I highly doubt it. I don't think I'll ever get used to it."

- "But, Teddy bear, you have to! You're the heir to Grey Enterprises!" I shake my head. "Honestly, I'm not really sure what I want to do. I think Dad expects me to work with him, but I'm not sure if I'm cut out for that."

- "I'm sure you are." She leans on to me and fixes my collar, her face exaggeratedly close to mine. "You'll figure something out." She whispers. I turn the other cheek and hold onto her hands to put them down.

"Ava," I place her hands on either side of her. "You need to stop." she frowns. "What am I doing?" Feh. Like you don't know. "You're getting too close to me."

- "Oh,  forgive me for invading your personal space, sire." she places her hands on her hips. "No, it's not that."  I drag my fingers through my hair. "Then what is? Is it the bodyguard's daughter?" she hisses. "Okay,  first of all, that bodyguard is our family friend. Second of all, Sophie has nothing to do with anything." Ava scoffs and sits on a leather couch. "Okay, Ted, then what?" she says sardonically. "It's just... Wrong." I shake my head and she bursts into a fake laugh.

"Wrong? It's wrong if I'm trying to call your attention? And you having a schoolboy crush on an ancient hag isn't wrong?"

- "Hey!"

- "What? Are you going to deny that she's older?  You're fifteen, she's almost twenty-two. Honestly, what do you even see in her?"

- "I grew up with her, she- that's none of your business!" I blush. "So what if she's older? Need I remind you of our parent's age differences?" She stands and crosses her arms. "That is completely different. You're underaged." I scowl at her. I'm going there. I know I shouldn't but I'm doing it anyway.

"You're just jealous." she gasps and slaps me.

... Uh,  Ow?!

"Shut up! I'm not jealous of her! She's working class,  why would I?" I snort, my hand still on my stinging cheek. "What is with you people? So fucking what if someone is working class? So what if there's an age difference? We're in the 21st century, get situated!" I poke my forehead repeatedly. "I don't know if you're aware, but my mother is working class,  my mother is six years younger than my dad, and there's nothing wrong with that!" I yell.

I'm now fully aware I've cornered Ava to the wall. She keeps eye contact with me, her face impassive. I quickly back off, and put my hand back on my cheek. "Why do you even care? You and I- we're cousins." she smiles, but it doesn't touch her eyes.  "Our fathers are adoptive brothers. Our mothers are friends. There's nothing incestuous about that." Wait... She's right. Still, it's just too weird. Plus, I'm not exactly too fond of her at the moment. "Whatever. You'll just end up breaking your own heart, Ted." she walks up to me and removes my hand off my face, and kisses my cheek.  "And sorry about the slap. Force of habit." and just like that, she leaves. Force of habit? What does that even mean?  "What is with that girl?" I whisper to myself.

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