Love surprises you - on hold

seven

Grace

   Like most mornings, Grace exits her house to see Ava patiently waiting on her bike, staring at the ground in front of her, Her arms crossed over her chest to warm herself. But today isn't like most mornings. Today's different.

"What are you doing?" Ava questions when Grace doesn't get her bike, instead just walking past her and starting down the street with no sidewalks.

"I'm going to school." Grace answers, feeling Ava's gaze on her as she rides her bike slowly beside her, but she refuses to look at the girl, instead just staring ahead.

"Are we not gonna talk about it?" The other finally asks, her bike swerving as she struggles to ride so slowly. "Grace."

Inhaling shakily, Grace finally replies, "Talk about what?" Suddenly Ava's presence behind her disappears and she turns around to see her riding away.

A few minutes of walking later, an out of breath Ava returns. Her face is red, whether from the fact she must have jogged to catch up, or from Grace finally meeting her gaze, stopping walking when Ava moves to stand in front of her. "I think I'm gay." Ava whispers to her.

Shit, Grace thinks, trying to keep her poker face on. This is the last thing she wants. If Ava likes girls it means that the kiss meant something, at least to her, and that makes it that much harder for Grace to ignore it. "That's good for you."

She turns on her heel, beginning her walk home. "Where are you going?"

"Home." Grace tells her, the wind carrying her voice to the other. Ava makes no more attempts to follow her, which makes Grace both happy and-for some reason-disappointed. Three words circulate through Grace's head as she enters her house, It meant nothing. She has to keep repeating this to herself just to make herself somewhat believe it. She doesn't know what would happen for her and Ava if she doesn't force herself to think this way, something bad probably. She's preserving the other girl's feelings, while also keeping their friendship intact. This is what she has to do.

"Back already?" Will asks, walking in front of her before she can reach her room, "Pretty sure school's still happening." He tells her, looking at his blank wrist.

"Yeah, I'm sick." She replies monotone, adding a small-clearyl fake-cough.

Will chuckles at her antics, "You got fifteen dollars, I gotta get eggs."

Letting out a sarcastic laugh, Grace tells him, "Cigarettes cost eighteen dollars. You can bum one off of me.", Finally moving past him and into her room. She digs through her drawer, pulling out a carton and throwing it at him, hoping he wouldn't catch it. But he does.

Will removes one, slipping another behind his ear, as he lights the one between his lips. "Thanks kid." He tells her, tossing it much softer back to her.

"Yeah whatever." She mutters as he closes her door, leaving her alone. She takes one cigarette for herself, grabbing a cheap lighter from the same drawer and lighting it up, inhaling the smoke as she collapses onto her bed, staring at the ceiling. "It meant nothing." She whispers to no one in particular, shaking her head as releases more smoke. She doesn't care that her room might smell like she was smoking, because her whole damn house smells like it, she's practically grown accustomed to it.

She grabs her phone, clicking on Elijah's number, the one he gave her the day after he asked her out, the one she refused to call even when he stood her up. He answers after two beeps. "Yo, it's Elijah."

"No shit I called you." Grace tells him, anamused, "It's Grace Kelly."

"Oh..." He mutters, before continuing, "Sorry about Friday, stuff came up, you know how it is."

She doesn't. But she also doesn't care. "Yeah it's fine, whatever...you wanna come over?"

It's silent for a second before he chuckles, "I got english in five minutes."

"So?" Grace says, knowing Elijah's skipped more than once.

"Grace, is this a nine am booty call?" He asks, his voice coming through the phone laced with amusement, she could practically hear the smirk he must be wearing.

"What if it is?"

Again it's quiet before he says, "I was joking."

"And I'm not." She replies, feeling annoyed with how long it's taking for a guy who's supposably obsessed with sex to agree to come over. "Do you want to come or not?" Grace asks, taking another hit.

"Send me your address." Elijah says, making her smile, she does what he asked, keeping him on the line as she hits send. "Okay, see you in ten."

The call drops and Grace feels content, smoking the rest of the cigarette before walking into her living room to crush it into the ashtray. She finds Will there, but pays him no mind, walking back to the kitchen and opening one of his beers, thinking this thing with Elijah will go easier if she's at least a bit buzzed.

And then she waits in her room, drinking the beer eagerly, scrolling through pinterest. And then finally, eight minutes later, a knock sounds on the door. Grace exits her room to find-for the first time ever-Will's opened the door before anyone asked him to. Rolling her eyes Grace pushes past Will, pulling Elijah inside by the sleeve of his leather jacket and closing the door.

"Thought you were 'sick'." Will says, sounding half amused as he settles back on the couch, "Your mother gets back at twelve, make sure he's gone by then, enjoy being a slut." He mutters the last part, but the glare in his eyes lets Grace know he wanted her to hear it.

Grace nods, leading the way to her room. "Sorry, I didn't know your dad was home." He tells her, still grinning.

"It's fine, but he's not my dad." She corrects him, stepping forward to pull slightly at his jacket.

"Any reason why you called me?" Elijah asked, taking off his jacket.

She lets out a short laugh, "I thought you knew why."

"Well yeah, but why do you suddenly wanna fuck?"

"It's not suddenly." Grace says, earning another smile from him. "And I just need your help, okay? Can we leave it there?" She doesn't wanna think about Ava while this is happening, and if he keeps pestering her she won't be able to keep the girl out of her head.

He nods, shrugging before pulling her by her waist forward, "You're trying to forget someone?" He whisper making her roll her eyes pointedly. "You can tell me about him, I'm not gonna suddenly back out just because-"

She cuts him off, annoyed that he didn't stop like she asked, so she connects their lips, kissing him hard, to try and forget her, who shall not be named. He kisses her back, squeezing her waist, and groaning against her mouth, parting their lips.

"You taste like smoke and beer." He says, leaning down to kiss along her jaw.

"Are you complaining?" Grace mutters back, slightly embarrassed.

"Nope, just commenting." He tells her, reconnecting their lips and slipping his hands under her shirt. Grace is glad she thought up this distraction. Because without Elijah right now, she'd be obsessing over Ava and would probably end up just getting drunk. This was really the healthy choice out of the two. Sure maybe in a perfect world she could have just talked to the girl, but this isn't a perfect world, it's fucked up, just like the situation they're in.