The Scale

Chapter Eight

         After Carina headed upstairs, Avana settled herself down in the living room with her steaming cup of coffee. It was nice to enjoy the peace and quiet for once. For the past few months, she had been distracted with school work and Jane constantly nagging her about control, and then with Axel and Dominican coming, it seemed as if there was never any quiet around the cottage anymore. Avana simply just sat there enjoying her coffee.

         It wasn't much later that she heard footsteps coming down the stairs, assuming it was Carina again, she got up to refill her cup of coffee. As she stood there in front of the steaming brew, she noticed that it wasn't Carina that came down, but the devil himself.

         "I heard that you and my sister had fun last night," grabbing hold of her coffee, she turned to face Axel and winked at him.

         "Because of your sister, I didn't get much sleep."

          "Well I wouldn't think so," she laughed.

          After realizing what Avana was getting at, Axel glared at her and turned to head downstairs.

         "Thank you," she called before he could shut the door behind him.

         He turned back to face her, closing the door behind him, "pardon?"

         "Thank you," she sighed. "Carina told me what happened, what you did. So, yeah, thanks. For stopping her I mean, I don't know if she would've come back if you didn't go and get her. She is crazy about that kid and doesn't realize how much of a risk he puts her in."

         "She was going to go break up with him."

         Avana choked on her sip of coffee, she sat the mug on the counter trying to recover herself. After a moment of coughing, she was finally able to speak. "She what?" Avana still wasn't sure she heard him right, and if she did, if he knew what he was talking about. Avana knew her sister better than anyone else, and she knew that she would never be the one to break up with Xack, and she always took Xack as a softy who wouldn't have the courage to break up with her either. But then again, with everything that happened three days ago at dinner, maybe it did make sense for Carina to finally break things off.

         "She told me that she was going to go break up with some kid name Xack."

         "Did she tell you why?"

         "Of course not."

         "Of course not," she agreed. After a moment of neither of them saying anything, Avana finally spoke up again. "What were you doing in my sister's room?"

          The question seemed to have caught him off guard when he realized what it looked like, him and Carina staying up all night, him staying in Carina's room after she admitted that she was breaking up with Xack, it didn't paint a very pretty picture. "I stayed to make sure she didn't try to leave again."

         "Mhm," Avana smiled and risked another sip of coffee.

          With the fake accusation in the air, Axel turned to leave again, heading down to the training room.

          Before the door could close all the way, Avana called out one last time, "thank you!" And the door was shut.

           It wasn't until she was rinsing her cup in the sink that she realized her and Axel had their very first civil conversation. And it wasn't completely miserable.