After class, Ava was hanging out with the cheerleaders in the hallways, most girls blabbering about the championship game, some about hot boys, but Ava just zoned out and played with her thumbs, leaning on the locker beside her.
Madison close by, taking Ava's hand into hers. Ava saw Max walking past her, the two making eye contact, but Max continued to walk right into the counselors room.
Chrissy walked past the cheerleader group, bringing Ava with her. Chrissy and Ava were probably the closest in that group, well, apart from Ava and Madison.
Chrissy brings Ava into the girls bathroom and shuts the door. Chrissy had teary eyes, and it was obvious she needed to talk to someone. "Hey, is everything alright?" Ava asks, gently grabbing Chrissy's hand.
"I-I think there's something wrong with me." Chrissy admits weakly. "If you need to talk, i'm always here." Ava reassures with a slight smile, "I know, i know. That's why i brought you here actually." Chrissy responds.
Ava nods in response, patiently waiting for the girl to speak. "I'm.. Seeing these weird things.. Like, memories, but they're only bad, and they never end." Chrissy speaks through tears, "And theres this.. Menacing voice, it speaks to me in those.. Nightmares." Chrissy says, squeezing Ava's hand as she speaks.
"And it's like.. A creature, shaped as a human sort of, but just.. Gross looking." Chrissy says. Ava nods, trying not to act confused, but try's to act understanding and comforting. "And it's really.. Really bad nightmares." Chrissy says, sobbing. Ava pulls Chrissy into a gentle hug, the other girl tightly holding Ava.
"It's only nightmares.. Right?" Ava asks softly, letting Chrissy hug her for as long as she wants. "It feels so real." Chrissy says weakly, "And it never stops. It's just the same thing over and over but it gets worse and worse every time." She finishes, sobbing slightly.
"It's okay, i'm here for you, alright?" Ava says, gently stroking the girls hair. "You're a really good friend." Chrissy says, finally breaking the hug. Ava nods, and hears voices outside the bathroom door.
"It's.. It's like you're a ghost or something." Ava hears Lucas say, but doesn't know who he's speaking to yet. "A ghost?" The girl, Max, responds. Why the hell was Lucas talking to Max?
Chrissy then gags and runs over to the stall, throwing up into the toilet. Ava gulps and walks over to her, "Uh.. You alright?" Ava asks, "I-I'm okay." Chrissy says, shutting the stall door. "I'll be out here if you need me." Ava says, gesturing over to the door to leave.
"Please, just, come to the game." Ava hears Lucas say through the door, "Ava would want you there." He continues, "Please. Don't bring Ava into this." Max mumbles, making Ava's heart sink. Did Max seriously hate the girl?
"Good luck." Max says, before waking into the girls bathroom, Ava ran and hid into the stall next to Chrissy. Ava could hear Max breathing shakily, and peeked through the stall crack, looking at the redhead.
Ava could hear pills rattling. She manages to read the bottle through the crack, it was Tylenol. At least it wasn't anything bad. Max took some of the Tylenol, and then Chrissy started gagging and coughing.
"Shit, are you okay, Chrissy?" Ava mumbles, making Max well aware that Ava was in the stall next to Chrissy. Chrissy just retches, throwing up in the toilet. "Hey, are you alright?" Max asks, ignoring Ava's presence.
"Yeah, yes. I'm fine." Chrissy speaks up. "Okay, um.." Max says, walking closer to the stall, seeing Ava through the cracks of the other stall but looking away. "You're sure?" Max asks, "She's fine." Ava speaks up, knowing Chrissy doesn't want anyone to worry.
"Please, both of you, just go away." Chrissy says. Ava slowly unlocks the stall door, making eye contact with Max. Ava quickly walks out, Max following behind.
"Ava." Max says, now walking beside the girl. "What do you want?" Ava asks, not looking at the redhead. "What's wrong with Chrissy? You were in there with her." Max asks, "She's just throwing up. She's sick." Ava lies, "Then what about the championship game tonight? Is she still going?" Max asks.
"Why do you care? It's not like you're going anyways." Ava mumbles, stopping to look at the other girl. "That's not the point." Max responds, sighing.
"Believe me, i don't know what's wrong with her either, okay? Just mind your business as i do the same." Ava says. "Are you angry with me?" Max speaks up, stopping Ava in her tracks by gently grabbing her arm.
"No. Why would i be?" Ava says, "Well.. Because of everything that happened." Max mumbles, "Oh, you mean you distancing yourself from me, and never talking to me as a way to dump me?" Ava asks. "Yeah.. That." Max sighs, "I'm sorry for all of it. I just needed the space." She says.
"I know you did. That's why i'm not upset." Ava says, looking over to see the cheerleaders still at the same spot, not even caring that both Ava and Chrissy are gone, except Madison, who was glaring at the redhead.
"You should probably get back to your girlfriend." Max mumbles, "Girlfriend? What girlfriend?" Ava scoffs, turning towards Max. "Madison. Come on, it's obvious somethings going on between you two."
"T-There's nothing going on." Ava mumbles, looking down. "She's staring at me like she wants to kill me." Max says, making Ava chuckle. "Yeah. I'll go back to them." Ava says, referring to the cheerleaders, making Max nod.
Ava walks back to Madison, who immediately grabs Ava's hand. "Who was that girl?" Madison asks still looking at Max. "Just an old friend." Ava sighs. Max walks past the group, both Madison and Max giving each other death glares.
"I don't like her. You should stop talking to her." Madison says purposely in front of Max as she walked by. Max turned to look at Madison, then to Ava, then just proceeded to walk.
"She's cool, i don't know why you don't like her all of a sudden." Ava says, knowing exactly why Madison doesn't like Max. The redhead hears Ava say that, and walked around the corner with a smile on her face.
A smile that Ava had missed, and the smile that only Ava could cause.
~~~
A secret that Ava has is that she buys drugs. She's been doing them ever since her and Max broke up, but nobody knows. She tends to buy them from Eddie "the freak" Munson.
It was lunch time and Ava was walking to the cheerleader table and once she set her food down, she got up and walked over to Eddie's table, standing behind him.
"Studies have linked violent behavior to the game, saying it promotes satanic worship, ritual sacrifice, sodomy, suicide, and even.. Murder." Ava hears Eddie say in a weird voice.
"Wow, how many sacrifices have you gotten this week?" Ava asks sarcastically, ruffling Eddie's hair from behind him and crouching down next to him. "Hey little Harrington, good to see ya." Eddie says, turning to the girl.
While the rest of his table was distracted she decided to say it. "So, i ran out of weed." Ava mumbles, making Eddie's eyebrows furrow. "I don't think it's normal for a cheerleader to be buying drugs from the freak." Eddie whispers with a smirk.
Ava rolls her eyes, "When can i get some?" She asks. "Later today, how much did you want?" Eddie asks, taking a bite of his food. "Just a dime bag, i don't need too much today." Ava responds with a smile.
"Sure thing." Eddie says, glancing back over at his table. "Thanks." Ava says patting his shoulders before walking back to her table, sitting in between Madison and Chrissy.
"I didn't know you were friends with the freak." Madison said with a slight smirk, "You know, he actually isn't too bad." Ava says, trying to defend Eddie in the best way she can without ruining her reputation.
Madison nods and goes back to her conversation with her friend. "Hey, Ava?" Chrissy says quietly from next to her, "Yeah?" Ava responds. "Are you friends with Eddie Munson?" Chrissy asks in a low whisper, making Ava nod slowly.
"Can you.. Ask him if i can buy off of him?" Chrissy asks quietly, making Ava choke on her drink. "Oh, uh, y-yeah." Ava responds, coughing. Chrissy nods and looks at the other girl thankfully.
Ava was walking out of the building, and saw Max and Dustin talking. Dustin looked disappointed while Max looked like she had a sarcastic smirk on her face, then the redhead walked away.
Dustin looked at Ava hopefully, "Ava!" Dustin shouted, making Max turn around. Ava looked at Dustin weirdly, "What?" She asked confused. "Okay, so, we need another person to substitute for Lucas for our DND game." Dustin says, making Ava groan. "Dustin, i don't play DND." Ava mumbles.
Ava notices the redhead looking over at her but gets distracted by Dustin once again. "I know you don't, but we can teach you, you're a quick learner." Dustin pleads, making Ava roll her eyes. "Dustin, i love you, but i'm a cheerleader." Ava says, hoping Dustin gets the memo.
Dustin looks at the girl blankly. "My reputation will be thrown out the window." She sighs, "I'd help you, you know i would, but maybe just not with this." Ava says, and looks at the boy apologetically before someone taps her shoulder.
"Ava, where were you?" Ava hears someone ask, she turns around and sees Madison. "What do you mean?" Ava asks confused, "After the pep rally. I waited for like, 20 minutes." Madison said, obvious annoyance in her tone.
"Oh, i just got caught up doing something." Ava says, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly, knowing Dustin AND Max were watching the two. "Let's just go somewhere else." Ava says, giving Madison the wrong idea.
"Okay." Madison says, smirking. They walk into the building and enter the girls locker rooms, "You know, you could make it up to me." Madison says, slightly smiling.
"Oh, uh, sure, how though?" Ava asks, "Just kiss me." Madison says, making Ava look at her awkwardly. Madison walks towards the girl, and kisses her softly, holding the back of Ava's neck.
Ava closes her eyes and tries to enjoy the moment, but couldn't stop thinking of Max, and how bad she wished she was kissing the redhead instead. Ava felt guilty thinking that, knowing Madison had feelings for her.
Ava breaks the kiss and just stares at Madison for a bit. "My uh, my brothers waiting for me." Ava says nervously, "Yeah, i understand, i wish we had more time." Madison says with a smirk, earning an awkward nod from Ava before she walked out.
"Little Harrington!" Eddie says from behind the school building, gesturing for Ava to follow him. Once Ava was behind the school building with Eddie, he gave her the dime bag full of weed.
"Don't let your brother find that. I don't need 'King Steve' to beat my ass." Eddie says with a smile, "He wont. He never does." Ava says, stuffing the dime bag into her pocket.
"Oh, Eddie, Chrissy wants some drugs from you." Ava says, "Chrissy? What's up with all these cheerleaders wanting drugs?" Eddie says sarcastically, making Ava chuckle.
"But yeah, thanks for getting me a customer, Little Harrington." Eddie says, winking at Ava jokingly, making her nod and smile.
"See you later." Ava says with a wave before walking away, and gets into the passenger seat of Steve's car. "You know, i kinda wish Robin rode with us after school too." Ava says, sighing.
"Why?" Steve asks with a small chuckle, "You're boring as fuck." Ava admits, looking at her brother blankly. "I swear you become meaner after school." Steve scoffs, starting the car and driving to their house.
Once Ava got home, she locks her door and hops out of her window, and sits on the roof, smoking weed. Ava didn't like that she smoked weed, but it was the only thing that really helped her forget about things.
Forget about Max.
{2042 word count}
Nah i just wanted to say i love the way i ended the two season 4 chapters so far, and i hope you did too. Thank you all for your support while i write these, and thanks for reading. I love you guys!<3