Pretty Please Don't Pinch Me

24. The Betrayal

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I'm slightly out of breath as I walk through the door and I call out to see if anyone's home.

"In here honey," my mother calls from the lounge room. I join her on the couch, and can see she's curled up watching a movie.

"What are you doing home?" I ask. "Don't you have work?"

"I wasn't feeling very well today, so I decided to take a well deserved day off," she proudly announces.

It definitely is well deserved. I can't even recall the last time she took a day off.

"How was your night?" she asks, pausing the movie. "Marnie told me you were invited to a fancy art event. I think you know how I feel about Poppy, but I'm glad you managed to get out for the night."

"Yeah, I had a pretty good time. The venue was amazing Mum - really cool people there. I probably had a little too much to drink, but Poppy went off and did her own thing the whole night, so that was a small bonus. The only thing was, was that she left me with Max."

"Max?"

"Yeah, he's seeing Poppy I guess. Though he didn't really act like it because I couldn't get him to leave me alone. One good thing came out of it though," I explain. "Harry and I are on speaking terms again. We spoke about the rumours, and it turns out that's all they are. Just rumours."

She looks relieved. "That's brilliant news honey. I knew he was a lovely boy. You don't come across people like him every day."

I know she isn't referring to his fame or status, but himself as a person. She sees what I see in him apparently, and approves wholeheartedly. What more could I ask for?

"I ended up staying at Harry's for the night." I inform her. "Nothing happened," I cut in quickly, "but I probably wasn't in the best state to come home."

"Ava," and she holds her hand up to stop me from rambling even further, "You don't need to explain anything. You're a responsible adult, and your father and I trust that you'll make the right choices."

I give her a big hug and decide not to mention my second run in with the paparazzi. She doesn't need to worry at this time, and I don't want to ruin the little moment we're having.

"Did Scar have a nice time last night? I haven't seen her in over a week. How is she?"

Oh no. Now there's that to explain.

"She's good Mum," I blurt, skirting around her first question. "I'm in yesterday's clothes though and need a shower. Do you need anything while I'm downstairs?"

"I'm good darling," she replies, before getting back to her movie.

Before I get in the shower I place my phone on charge as I've let it die again. How irresponsible of me! I have a horrible habit of letting it get to that stage in the last few days. I hop in the shower and let the hot water run onto my back. It feels so nice to finally wash my hair after last night. When I get out, I quickly throw some shorts and a singlet top on, and hear my phone vibrating like crazy.

I check the notifications and am surprised to see that it's my Twitter page that's going off. I wait for my home page to load and am speechless as my number of followers has increased from around 300 to 6,000 in probably a matter of hours. I'm not stupid. I realise that my name has been leaked somewhere to the public, and am no longer going to be referred to as 'Mystery Australian Beauty', but Ava Sinclair.