Our Little Secret

Chapter 32

I quickly stepped back from Isabel and turned to see the mortified look on Ava's face as she stood in the hallway. She had a birthday card in her hand, and she looked like she wanted to throw up.

She'd come to surprise me on my birthday, and this is what she had to walk in to. I was officially the worst.

"Ava...what are you -" I started.

"Don't you dare ask me what I'm doing here," she said as she cut me off and glared at Isabel.

"Hey, here's your birthday card," she continued as she stepped into my office and threw it on my desk, "I'm so glad I came by to surprise you."

She pushed past us and walked out into the hallway.

"Hold on, please Ava," I said as I walked after her.

"I don't even want to know Skylar, honestly," she said, not even turning around to look at me.

I was already planning on taking my lunch break, so I followed her out of the building, and Isabel was close behind.

"Ava come on, I'm sorry but will you let me at least talk to you please?" I pleaded with her.

She stopped when we all got to her car and finally turned around to look at me. The tears that I saw welling up in her eyes nearly killed me.

"Talk to me about what Skylar? How you're with my ex and didn't bother to tell me? Is there really anything else to say?" She asked me angrily.

"Ava I - " before I could say anything else, she continued on her tear.

"How long has this been happening?" She asked as she motioned between the two of us, "are you just sleeping together or what?"

"No, just let me - " it was no use, Ava kept going.

"You know what, I should've stuck with what I said before, I don't think I want to know," she snapped.

Her face was bright red and the tears continued to form in her eyes. I could feel my hands shaking as I was overcome with guilt.

"And you," she said through gritted teeth as she pointed at Isabel, "when you said you wanted to break up with me because you had feelings for someone else, I didn't think you meant my fucking best friend. Were you just drooling over her the whole time we were together, or what?"

"No!" Isabel quickly chimed in.

I raised my eyebrows and looked over at Isabel. I had no idea why they'd broken up, and that reasoning made this whole situation look way worse.

"Don't act surprised," Ava said as she turned her attention back to me, "I'm sure you knew this whole time, didn't you?"

I'd never seen Ava this mad before, but I didn't blame her at all.

"No, I had no idea," I quickly said.

"Ava this is my fault," Isabel cut in, "blame me, but don't be mad at Skylar."

Ava's eyes shot daggers at Isabel before she responded, "how cute of you to stick up for her, but you're both shitty for this."

I didn't even know what to say at this point, and she was right. I knew she was going to need some time to cool off, and I didn't know if there was anything else that I could tell her that would make any of this better.

Ava wiped tears from her eyes and got into her car, slamming the door after her.

She sped out of the parking lot as I put my hands over my face and held back tears of my own. This couldn't have gone much worse.

"Mother fucker," I said in a muffled voice.

I felt Isabel's hand on my back, and I took my hands away from my face and turned around to look at her.

"Why didn't you tell me that I'm the reason you and Ava broke up?" I asked her.

She was the last person I wanted to be mad at right now, but I wasn't very happy that this was how I found out about their breakup.

"I - I wasn't planning on acting on anything, I was trying to keep it to myself," she said.

"Fuck Isabel, you still should've told me," I said as I rubbed my eyes.

"Damn it," she said as she put her head down, "I know, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking."

"That's really why you two broke up? Because you had feelings for me?" I asked.

"I mean Ava obviously didn't know it was you that I had feelings for..." she started, "but yeah."

She slowly looked up at me, and I couldn't help but feel my anger towards her start to fade away.

"It's not that I didn't still like Ava or anything," Isabel continued, "I just um, I kind of started to like both of you, and I was confused. I couldn't be around the two of you like that."

"So do you still have feelings for Ava too...?" I hesitantly asked, partially scared to hear the answer.

"No," Isabel quickly said as she shook her head at me, "I realized a while after we broke up that it was just you."

I felt a slight grin come across my face as she assured me of her feelings, but the happiness that I felt was short-lived. I quickly came back to reality and remembered the situation that was still at hand.

"Yeah I know," Isabel said, seeming to read my mind, "we still have a mess to deal with."

"Yeah..." I sighed, "this is the absolute last way that I wanted Ava to find out."

"I think I might need to give her some time before I try to talk to her again," I continued.

"You can stay with me if you need to," Isabel said.

"That's probably a good idea," I nodded, "I better go grab some stuff from the house while she's not home."

"You're sure she's not there now?" Isabel asked.

"Pretty sure yeah," I said, "I think she probably went back to work, but if I see her car there or anything I'll go back later."

"Okay, call me after work?" Isabel said.

I nodded and she reached over and grabbed my hand.

"And I'm really sorry," she continued, "about the way this went, and for not telling you everything that I should have."

"I know," I nodded, "I'll call you later."

I let my hand fall from hers and walked away towards my car. I wasn't extremely happy with Isabel right now either, but she was kind of all that I had.

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