Finding Ava ✔

9| He's Max, Max The Stalker

"Sure." I laugh.

"Haha, really funny," Molly grumbles under her breath, rolling her eyes. 

"To be honest, these are the best." Bree pipes up. We all agree at that. 

We all talk for a bit, discussing things like life-long friends do. It feels like we've known each other forever. 

"Psst, Ava, four o'clock," Molly whispers, sitting up on her couch opposite me.

I give Molly a confused look, about to look over my shoulder when Molly gives me a kick under the table.

"Hey! That hurt." I whisper-yell, rubbing my poor leg. Who knew Molly could give such a powerful kick. 

Bree gives Molly a confused look too until she looks over to where Molly was on about and opens her mouth in realization. What or who is it? If its a celebrity like Beyonce, I'm so getting her autograph. 

I doubt Beyonce will be somewhere like here but that's not going to stop me from dreaming. Every. Single. Night. 

"Okay, guys, who is it? What's going on?" I inquire, raising an eyebrow. 

Bree leads forwards. "Your least favorite person." 

My least favorite person? Cryptic much. 

Giving a name will make my life so much easier. 

Giving Bree an expected look to continue she sighs and tells me. Immediately, my head snaps to the side and I do see the handsome devil, who is observing the cakes. He must feel my eyes on him because his beautiful chocolate eyes look up to meet mine and plead with me to give him a chance. 

Like hell, I will. Break my heart once, shame on you. Try to break my heart again, that's a big mistake. 

"Great," I mutter under my breath, giving Max a glare before turning back to the girls who are wearing guilty faces. "Not your fault, it's just a coincidence he's here. Right?" 

Bree and Molly swap looks; hesitantly nod heads. Totally not helping guys. 

Sighing, I pray Max doesn't come over here for round three. It appears nobody's on my side today because he comes over to me. Like why? What did I do to deserve this? I've done everything right in life, couldn't I just have this one time? 

"Ava, please can I talk to you?" He begs, standing to the side with his hands in his pockets. 

"No Max, just leave me alone," I demand. 

"I can't. What happened that day isn't what you think, I still lo -"

"I saw what happened that day." I snap, standing up, walking over to him. "You broke my heart. No, you ripped it out of my chest." I non-humorously laugh. "Don't, ever, say I miss-saw it because I know I didn't." 

Max shuts his gob at that, a regretful look on his face. I nearly scoff at it, like he would regret breaking my heart. Boys like him do things like this for fun. Not caring about the consequences or how the girl feels. It's all just a game to them.

I've seen it happen before to my fellow friends, I've seen how devastated they are. I know how devastating it is. 

"Goodbye Max." I emotionlessly say, leaving no room for further discussion,  sitting back on the sofa. I've said everything I needed to say. 

Apparently, Max doesn't agree with me though.

"Ava, I'm not leaving until I explain myself.  I want – no need - you back. What happened that day will forever haunt me as one of the worst days of my life. I hurt you and by hurting you, I hurt me too. I love you, Ava. I realized that the second I lost you." 

Speechless, I just sit there, processing what he said. Max still loves me? After everything, he did to me? If you love someone you don't cheat on them. If you really loved them, you just physically couldn't. 

"Liar," I claim. 

Max shakes his head. "This is straight from my heart. I am still crazy in love with you." 

"I refuse to believe you," I say. "Please just leave me alone now. I don't want to see you again." 

From the corner of my eye, I can see Max's defeated look.  I don't care though, he ruined me. He's just saying he loves me to try and win my sympathies. I'm not going to fall for it again. 

Max walks away, his shoulders slumped and his head hung low. He exits the cafe, casting a final look at me. I look away before we can make eye contact, I don't want to see his pleading eyes. I fear that if I see them, I will give into him. 

Sighing, I lean back on the sofa, enjoying his comfort. Max might have finally received the message; now he will leave me alone. At least, that's what I'm hoping. 

"Ava, don't you think you're being a bit harsh on Max?" Bree asks me, glancing at the door Max just left through. 

"Hell no. Max made me fall for him, hard and then he cheated on me. He showed off his victory right in front of me." I coldly answer. "He deserves every horrible thing I say to him." 

Bree closes her mouth, giving me an apologetic look as she takes a sip of her hot chocolate. 

"You know." Molly starts, crossing her left leg over her right. "After that summer two years ago, he changed. He genuinely looks upset and guilty about what went down. Do you not maybe think you could give him a chance to at least explain himself?" 

"I don't think I would be able to restrain myself from strangling him for that long," I admit and they laugh. 

"Hey, I have a brilliant idea," Bree announces. I raise an eyebrow at her. She clears her throat and starts. "Well, since he clearly won't leave you alone, maybe you should send him a message." 

I tilt my head to the side. Send a message, huh? Hmm.

"What do you have in mind?" 

"Well, I know Max loves his car, maybe as much as he 'loves' you." Bree puts 'loves' in air quotes. "How about we wreck something that's precious to him to show that if you really were precious to him, that's how it felt for you. You know, make him feel what you feel. Anger, hurt, sadness etc." 

I like where Bree's going with this. This is like a little revenge plan. 

"Bree, you're a genius." I compliment her, smirking at both of the girls. Molly also grins like a madman, it's obvious she's never been in a revenge plot like this before. 

Let's just say, after Max, I went through a rough period where I sort of rebelled against the teachers at my old school and pranked some of the bitchy students. In all fairness, a lot of them deserved what they got.

"Let's do this." Molly giggles, pumping her fist into the air. Bree and I just laugh at her silliness; start devising a plan. 

Max is so going to regret harming me. He's going to regret even glancing at me. 

Because nobody messes with Ava. Nobody.

Word count: 1695

How did you find it? Do you want Ava to give Max a chance?

Ava is a character who doesn't want to come to terms with what happened. She doesn't want to give Max a chance because she doesn't want to remember what happened. Just thought I'd throw that out there. 

How is everybody?

It's absolutely boiling where I am. It feels like I'm melting. (I live in England and hot weather is rare so when we do get it, we don't know what to do). 

Next chapter: 10 | Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Cold