"So, is this like- a date, then?"
The question lingered between them for just a moment too long, and Avery immediately regretted asking it, deading his response, and all the ways it could go wrong.
But Gabe only shrugged and gave a half-hearted smirk as he twisted his fork against the pasta, "That was the intention, yeah."
She almost exhaled in relief, fearing her blurted question may have easily made things awkward between the two. "You've set the bar high, Gabe. Let's hope the second one lives up to it." She teased him, sipping her prosecco flute. It was sweet and bubbly, and made her throat tickle a little with each sip she took. It made her feel a little hazy, not disoriented or tipsy, just...fuzzy. Her surroundings were a little blurred at the edges, like paint that had bled between the lines, yet somehow, it only made their secluded spot feel all the more magical.
Gabe had laid out a picnic blanket under the stars, overlooking the ocean below them and the bright constellations above. He'd set out an array of her favourite foods, adding details he'd picked up from her diary, like a bouquet of white lilies, and pine-nut free pesto. Every detail was so thought-out and precise, Avery felt like she was living through some sort of novel. Only boys she read about in books were as perfect and caring and detailed in their acts. Everything he did seemed to reel her in further, everything about him so precise and poised and perfect she couldn't help but wonder if she had dreamed him up.
Gabe chuckled- a light-hearted sound that made her stomach flutter like a lovesick teen, "I poured all my creativity into this one, the second may well end up your typical boring restaurant date."
Avery quirked a teasing brow, setting down her glass beside her. "Boring? Really? You're meant to say you could never be bored when you're with me, because I'm just too fabulous for it to be boring."
Gabe rolled his eyes, his arm coming to rest around her shoulder, a small action that made her cheeks flush pink. She was grateful for the veil of the night, which she could only hope concealed the blush creeping across her cheeks. "I don't care if our next date is takeout in Doug's basement, I'll love it all the same."
"That's more like it," She grinned like a fool, leaning into him.
Avery felt like she was living through a cheesy romance movie. She'd spent her nights scrolling through Snapchat Memories of days out with Gabe, videos of them laughing at school, pictures of them roller-skating or watching movies or going on dates. She always found herself grinning madly. He made her feel things she'd never felt before. And on every photo, no matter how different things were, there was one thing that seemed to be consistent- her smile. Not the polite, pretty smile she usually had in photos. The cheesy, happy grin that she absolutely hated. She hadn't smiled like that in a while.
For the past week, everything had been pretty perfect, or as perfect as life could get, given well...everything. But with no sign of Dodge, Duncan fixed and Avery feeling like your typical lovesick teenager, things were starting to look up. Tyler had been hanging out with Eden's far nicer friend, Jackie, and he'd been noticeably less distant recently.
It felt like things were finally getting back on track.
And her first party- Avery had that sort of nauseous excitement fluttering around in her stomach as she finished up her makeup. She'd never been to a party before, or any sort of social event really. She didn't exactly have many friends back in Seattle.
She fiddled with the front strands of her hair self-consciously as she patted more powder onto her nose. A house party... with alcohol and popular people and probably drugs. She was way out of her comfort zone, Avery knew that much. But her dad had taught her that her that facing her fears was something necessary for growth. And lots of people in one place, flashing lights and loud noise... well, that was like going up against her worst nightmare. Avery mulled over the lecture her dad would give her if he were here. No boys, no alcohol, no drugs, and I'll pick you up at nine, okay? Phone me if you need anything. And please, again, no boys. And she'd have probably replied with something like nine? You better be joking. Rendell would have given her that stern laugh that never gave away if he was truly messing with her or not, and then told her how pretty she looked and hugged her close whilst she swatted him away.
"Are you ready yet?" Kinsey sighed from her sister's bed.
Avery tapped her fingers together nervously with one hand, whilst she popped-down the powder compact with the other. "Yeah, yeah, we can go." She said, banishing all thoughts of her dad, for fear of the tears reminiscing brought to her eyes.
"Jesus do you need a cigarette? You look like you're about to have a meltdown." Kinsey asked half-heartedly.
Avery rolled her eyes. "Spoken like a true addict." She scoffed, slinging her bag over her shoulder and smoothing out her dress. It was blue. A cute pale blue, with a corset-like top and a short skirt, probably so short that Rendell wouldn't have let her out of the house in it. Part of her wished her mom would care enough to do the same. She knew Nina was struggling, but Avery couldn't help feeling as though she had lost both of her parents.
"It's okay to be nervous, Ave. We're both unsociable little shits, this is a tad out there for me too." Kinsey tried.
Her sister snorted. "You give worse pep-talks than mom," She said, "Now come on."
Avery knew from the moment Tyler pulled onto Javi's street that the party was going to be her worst nightmare. His house, for starters- a beautiful modern home overlooking the bay below jutting cliffs was the sort of place Avery immediately knew was typically spotless and impeccably organised. Flashing lights blared from the other side of floor-to ceiling glass, and the ground thumped with the hum of faraway music blaring on speakers. Beer bottles and plastic cups littered the garden and the porch, the odd drunken teens loitering outside in small clusters. The door was already open and Tyler squeezed inside first, Avery holding her breath as she followed after him. Even the entrance hall was jam-packed with people, bodies so close it made her skin crawl with anxiety. It smelt of sweat and sick and vodka, and despite the door being wide-open, the house its self was red-hot. Tyler snuck off upstairs, and Kinsey and Avery managed to push their way into the kitchen, which was thankfully a little more spacious. The white marble counters were littered with bottles of wkd, vodka, beer and those little red cups, crumpled and discarded by the overflowing bin.
Sat by the hob, legs dangling from the counter was none other than Eden Hawkins, her best friend Jackie, and a group of older boys. Avery would have happily took the overcrowded hall rather than this. She started to back away, not wanting Matheson's queen bee to make what would already probably be a pretty terrible night, even worse. But Eden's eyes were already on her.
"Oh, Avery." She slurred, and it wasn't difficult to tell that Eden was already drunk.
Avery rolled her eyes, glancing back at her sister. "Yes, Eden?"
"Have you seen Gabe? I couldn't find him since..." Eden giggled, interrupted by small, drunken hiccups as her friends nudged and prodded each other, whispering and laughing like Avery was a part of some silly little inside joke. "Well, since, uh-"
"Eden," Jackie said, "Don't."
Avery shot the brunette a glare. The only reason Jackie wasn't an utter bitch to Avery too was because she was hooking up with her older brother.
"Since what, Eden?" She gritted, trying to ignore the rising dread in her stomach. Maybe she'd been right about Gabe liking Eden.
But Eden couldn't stop laughing. She ran a hand through her short blonde waves and doubled over in a fit of giggles. All Avery could think about was how infuriatingly pretty she looked, how her laugh was somehow sweet and girlish, how her hair fell across her face, somehow without looking messy. There was no wonder Gabe had wanted her. Avery laughed like a banshee with no regard for how she might have looked.
She snatched a bottle of Smirnoff from the counter and took a long swig. It burned all the way down but Avery swallowed it without a second thought, an idea already blossoming in her head. Stupid and maybe a little unnecessary. But she needed to know. She had to. Gabe wouldn't- would he?
She slammed the bottle down beside Eden, smiling as she blinked back tears. "Let's play a game. Every round you lose, you drink."
It wasn't difficult to get Eden black-out drunk. She was already tipsy enough to agree to a drinking game, and soon enough she was slurring her words and stumbling into Avery, who herself was a little out of it.
"I want... I need to sleep." Eden mumbled, slinging her arm around Avery's shoulder.
"I know." She grunted, heaving Eden up the stairs. "Five more minutes, okay?"
"Are you sure this is a good idea, Ave?" Kinsey asked her sister.
Avery stopped half-way up the stairs. "I need to know Kins. Maybe she's trying to freak me out, and that's probably all it is, but if there's a chance Gabe's seeing her then I feed to know the truth." With her free hand, she flashed her sister the head key. "And this is the only way to do that."
"Or you could go find Gabe, talk to him?" Kinsey suggested. "He'll be here soon."
"Are you helping me or not?" Avery sighed as they finally reached the top of the stairs. She flung open the closest door to her and was relieved to see that the room was empty, save for a few scattered coats. She dragged Eden inside, Kinsey wordlessly following suit. Eden collapsed down onto the bed, sprawling across a pile of jackets.
"Is she...asleep?" Kinsey asked.
Avery nudged her to be sure. But Eden didn't even stir. She was a pretty sleeper as well. Lips in a small pink pout, eyes fluttered closed, no snores, not even a sound. It seemed that there was nothing Eden Hawkins wasn't indisputably perfect whilst doing. She brushed Eden's hair away from her neck, and watched as her skin shifted and morphed, splitting to reveal a small, narrow keyhole in the back of her neck. Avery pushed the Head Key into the gap until it clicked, and then turned it clockwise.
She felt the atmosphere shift, felt the very essence of the room spring to life with magic. She could taste that faint, metallic flavour on the tip of her tongue.
Beside the bed was what appeared to be a giant shoe box. The way into Eden's head. As she approached it, Avery couldn't help but wonder what lie in Eden's twisted mind. Would it be brimming with shoes and boys and gossip, or would there be something more beneath the cliche mean-girl disguise? What did Eden dream of? Her goals? Her memories? As much as Avery wanted to know the truth, prying in someone's head felt extremely intimate.
She wondered what Eden wished for. Maybe she'd lost someone, like Avery had lost Rendell. Or maybe her soul wished for Avery's boyfriend. Maybe it just wished for depth.
Avery glanced at her sister as she pushed back the shoebox lid. "Make sure no one comes in." She said, peering down at the ladder inside the giant pink box. "I don't know how we'll explain this if anyone sees."
And then she started to climb. Down and down and down, past levels that resembled clothes shops, makeup boutiques and hair salons, Avery wondered what secrets were hidden in each one.
And then she reached a level similar to a perfume shop, and something told her to stop going down.
Memories glinted in crystal bottles, and as she wandered the stands, she caught glimpses of faces, people, places. Snippets of things that made Eden who she was toady. She stopped at a bottle oozing negativity, it was shunned into a corner, away from all the pretty, shimmering memories. It seemed like Avery wasn't the only one with skeletons in the closet. She tried to walk past it, tried to look for memories with Gabe's face, she didn't want to invade further, but Avery couldn't tear her eyes away.
She caught just a snipped of the memory. A tiny blonde girl crying in front of a mirror, whilst an older woman who Avery assumed to be her mother, tightened a tape measure around her waist. She could hear parts of the memory, but they sounded faraway, distant, as though her head was underwater. She could hear Eden's mother yelling, telling her she'd gained weight, and she could hear the young girls shaking sobs. It made her heart wrench. She shouldn't be in Eden's head.
And she was going to leave, or at least that was what she told herself, when another memory caught her eye. That blue door from the caves. And a glowing golden bullet in Eden's left arm.
She didn't know what it meant, or how the door had opened, but it made Avery's skin crawl the way the blue, rippling mass beyond it resembled Gabe's painting. She thought back to her first day of school, that art class when he'd painted what she assumed to be some sort of abstract piece. But the resemblance was startling.
She couldn't ponder the door for much longer, because a final memory caught her eye. The one she had come for. Avery plucked the bottle from the shelf and gazed into the hazy memory inside. Gabe. He was talking to her. Yelling, she thought, but this memory seemed muted. He had a look in his eye, something dark and unforgiving she had never seen in him before. Then he twisted a key in his chin, a key she'd never seen before. Then his face started to distort, to blur and shift and contour until his eyes were smaller, darker, his nose more sloped, his lips thick and rosy, and his hair- dark as his eyes, dark as those shadows that haunted her nightmare.
She watched him change again and again, replaying the memory until she could deny it no longer. He was Gabe, and then he wasn't. He was Gabe, and then he was Dodge.
an; super rushed, also lets not question how eden was posessed when theyve not found the omega key- but yeah we ball.