"I swear I'm the best singer in our music club." Chris bragged for the umpteenth time. "If it wasn't for me, they would've never gotten that award last year."
"Okay." Ava gritted her teeth, hoping that Chris would shut up for one second. She felt the urge to stuff the napkins in his mouth. Her brain was exploding just to hear him brag about himself all night.
"Look I know you probably don't believe me but it's—" He was interrupted when Ava grabbed the fork and stabbed the meat. She quickly darted a fake smile at Chris who flinched a little for her actions. He cleared his throat to finish his sentence. "—true."
She took a deep breath. Though she wasn't the one prattling all the time, she felt relaxed to have him silenced. It didn't last for long once he started talking again.
"Okay, this is—" Ava paused when she realized her comment would insult Chris. "Never mind go on," She waved her hand for Chris to go on talking as she threw him a genuine smile. She pulled out her AirPods and put them in her ears when he wasn't watching.
Ava never liked Chris. To her, he was just a random guy that had a massive crush on her. She only agreed to go out with him because he asked her out a hundred times already. Ava agreed to go out with him so he'd stop bugging her. She planned to let go of him after a while, but it was definitely going to be tough.
Chris kept blabbering but she heard nothing he said because her music was on the loudest. She smiled and nodded to make him believe she was listening.
He asked her something and she answered him. "Yeah."
He raised his eyebrow and said something else. She turned down the volume so she could hear him.
"Are you even listening?" Chris grumbled.
Ava widened her eyes and bit her smile. "Of course I'm listening to my gorgeous date." She struggled to let the word 'gorgeous' off of her tongue. "By the way, what exactly were you saying?"
"I knew it! I knew you only pretended to hear me." He seemed excited that he caught her lying. "I mean why would you say yeah so blandly when I asked you to be my girlfriend? You were supposed to say it with some pizazz."
"How about we rewind and I don't say yes at all?" She played with her food.
"Or how about—" He stopped talking when the door flew open and three guys in all-black outfits and ski masks walked into the restaurant. One of them walked over to the cashier and pointed a gun at her head and everyone stared with their jaws dropped.
"Nobody moves! Or we'll shoot you!" Another one of them held a gun and pointed at everyone.
The lady at the counter who looked like she needed a change of pants, struggled to hold the phone to her ears. Her hands quivered. One of the guys ran towards the lady and pointed a handgun right at her face.
"Put the phone down!" He yelled. "I said put it down or I'll shoot you!" The guy threatened the lady as she put the phone down with trembling hands.
The guy who pointed a gun at the cashier began to empty her cash register into his backpack.
Ava couldn't sit around there and watched them rob the restaurant. She got up and glared at them. "Leave that woman alone!"
They were confused. Everyone in the room thought she was on some suicide mission. The guy who was walking around the room, threatening anyone who moved to kill them was now pointing the gun at her head.
"Why don't you shoot me? You guys are just a big bluff," she said, pretending to be braver than she is. "You threatened to kill anyone who moved. Well, go on!"
Chris stood up. His hands were fisted, they were shaking vigorously. Ava noticed how hard he was trying to be her hero.
"You dare lay a finger on her! I'll—" The guy who had been pointing the gun at Ava shot something that looked like a dart at Chris. His body got numb as he continued to talk. "Or I'll wah mwah." He fell. His face pancaked against the floor.
Ava smiled slightly at the sight of him shutting up for real this time. Although, she was afraid that he wasn't going to be okay.
The guy who had threatened the cashier shook his backpack. "I got it." When he saw Ava was held at gunpoint, his eyes widened. "No! You can't hurt her!"
"I know, dumbass."
Ava frilled her nose. "So you can't hurt me, huh?"
"Yeah, we can." They defended but she knew they were just lying anyhow. "Where's Josh anyway?" They looked around for the third guy.
The guy with the bag pulled out his phone from his pocket and put it down on the table. While he was searching for something else, the phone lit up with one new message. She glanced at the massage. Before he picked up his phone and read the message, all she noticed was Ava Brown.
"What was that about?" She asked. "Why is my name in your stupid conversations and how the hell do you know me?"
Josh, the guy they were looking for, appeared from the kitchen holding huge brown paper bags that might have been filled with food. "Systems are taken care of!"
When he saw her he paused. "Oh. You got her."
"Yeah. We have to take her in."
"Take me where?" She protested. "You can't—" She couldn't say more when the guy placed a hanky on her face. For a while, she tried to break free of his tight hold, but slowly, she got drowsy. She fell asleep in just a second and they carried her like a sack.
✶•✶•✶
Everything appeared blurry when Ava tried to open her eyes. She heard muffled voices at first but didn't know where they came from. For a second, she also heard shopping bag noises. Suddenly, it dawned on her—she was kidnapped. Ava opened her eyes and sat up like a lightning bolt.
She looked around and saw a guy who was stuffing a huge burger in his mouth. He paused when he saw Ava got up and looked at him. He was holding the burger mid air in front of his mouth which was open wide to gobble the whole thing down. Both of them blinked and stared.
"What's wrong, Josh?" The guy who came in the room laughed at him. "You look like you saw a ghost or—" His jaw dropped when he saw who he was staring at.
"Well, well." He clapped his hands slowly. "Finally, the sleeping beauty is up." He walked over to Josh and pulled a chair to sit down. "You have to wait for a while, hon."
"Wait for a while?" Ava questioned then got off of the bed. "You should've thought about tying me if you knew you wanted me to wait for a while.
"Kristian, we can't let her go!" Josh said and both of them jumped up.
Josh's burger fell out of his hand and he didn't bother about her anymore. "But I wanted to eat you."
"Forget that and help me with this girl," Kristian said and rushed towards Ava.
Neither of them managed to catch Ava but she stopped in her tracks when she ran out the room and bumped into a guy. It was Felix Wilde, the guy who Ava kept her eyes on since forever.
She stepped back a little and fixed her hair. "Felix?" She smiled and modelled, twirling her hair. "You're, you're, um. What was I going to say?"
"Turn around and get back inside." Felix said.
She obeyed and remembered what she wanted to say. "Oh, what the hell are you doing here?"
"We need to talk." He kept walking. When they got into the room he shut the door behind him.
Ava wanted to smile so badly but she kept it in cause the others were watching. "Sure." She bit her lips.
"Would you want to join us?" Felix folded his arm.
"M-me? Join this crap place?" She wanted to say no but Felix was there. She would finally get the chance to be around him so there's no way she would've passed up the opportunity. "Sure."
Felix smirked. "Wise choice."
"So what would you have done if I said no?" She frowned and took a daring step forward. "Why the hell did you all ask me?"
"Remember that time when you tried on clothes in the changing room and walked out without paying?" Josh jogged her memory.
"Uh huh, but that was only one time." Ava pointed out.
"Well you're the only one around our age that has the guts to do something like that. Well, other than us." Kristian debated.
Josh chuckled when Felix cut in. "Plus, you have a little crush on me. You think I don't know?" He said with a straight face.
Ava raised her eyebrows and put on a weird laugh. "Eh—no way in heaven."
"Well we're on Earth, sweetheart." Felix chuckled and wiggled his eyebrows.
She turned away to make sure none of them noticed that she was blushing. He just called her sweetheart and the embarrassment of finding out that he knew she liked him.
Quickly, Ava adjusted herself while clearing her throat and maintained her posture. "Okay, let's get to business. What do I have to do?" Ava asked, trying not to make eye contact with any of them.
Felix persisted. "First, you'll have to admit that you have a crush on me."
"I don't have a crush on you," She argued. Her voice faintly raised in pitch.
Josh enjoyed Ava's reactions. He giggled softly with a hand over his mouth and whispered to Kristian. "She's blushing right now and definitely can't maintain herself for sure!"
"I know right!" Kristian put an arm around Josh and joined in on the giggling.
Ava glared at them and they stopped laughing. Josh accidentally spat out some drink and scoffed out a loud laugh.