chapter seventeen; blashdkf
"I told you to stop doing that," Ava reminded, pushing his hand away from her face, turning away from him, concentrating on her feet as she swung them back and forth. She shifted from her spot on the countertop, not looking back at Luke.
Luke furrowed his eyebrows, fearing he'd done something wrong due to her random change in mood. He shrugged and, seeing as his shift was nearly over and Jerry was boring the only customer (a man in his mid-thirties who just wanted to buy flowers for his wife and looked like he wanted to fall asleep) with details on fertilizer, he tossed himself onto the counter next to Ava, bumping shoulders with her.
"You okay, darling?" He mused. He was thinking of being romantic and paying for a bunch of flowers that she liked (he was thinking violets, but pansies seemed like they suited the moody, spontaneous girl more) and sweeping her off her Doc Martens covered feet and cheering her up. Then they would confess their undying love for each other and get married.
But that wouldn't be realistic.
And so, he sat quiet and waiting for a response (he was anticipating something snarky, considering Ava loved pushing his buttons and when she was exceptionally grumpy, sarcasm was essential), thinking to himself of why he decided to be a huge dunce and call the person who was so-not-his-girlfriend 'darling', but then again he had been referring to her as 'babe' and 'baby' for the past week and a half. It wasn't like he didn't know, because he unmistakably knew, that this wasn't how friends treated each other. This was beyond the care that most friends had for each other—unless most people wanted to kiss their friends and almost did before one of those said friends sneezed and ruined the movie moment.
Luke was very conflicted because God knows what Ava made him feel and how Luke found her indescribably flawless (sincerely, he didn't think that she could be anymore awesome unless she liked dogs because that would take the cake and Luke would then take it upon himself and voluntarily fall in love with her and if she did happen to become more perfect, he'd be a deadman) and being with her made his insides go 'blashdkf' like an erupting volcano. Which was at a certain point understandable, but it was highly unlikely that he should have felt this way, and that only led to more conflicting emotions. He kept his watchful blue eyes on her expression as she answered.
"Yes, I'm fine. I just want you to stop doing that," Ava disclosed vaguely, fixedly eyeing a painting of Billie Joe from Green Day holding a rose that hung in the corner near (you guessed it) the roses.
Indubitably, her gaze would sporadically wander it's wayward way to Luke eventually, for she held a habit of it, but she forced herself to control it for the time being. She knew that Luke would continue to pester and question her if she didn't make another firm confirmation because that was just the annoying pain the ass person that Luke happened to be, so she grabbed the hand of his that was closest to her and gave it a squeeze. She sighed, unable to resist temptation, and she took a glimpse of him, immediately regretting it. One look at his face and she would melt into a pop punk enthusiasm and geek goop onto the floor and stain his nice shoes. Imagining the scene in her mind made her mentally shudder.
"I like holding your hand," Luke admitted, intertwining his fingers with hers, putting on a warm smile. "A lot. I like spending time with you, too. A lot."
Ava had to bite the inside of her cheeks to stop herself from dreamily sighing, or screaming even. In her brain, somewhere hyped up on ponies and rainbows, a part of her wanted to say And I like you. But then she realized what she was doing and she wanted to stop existing for a moment. She was delusional. It was palpable that she and Luke shared some close connection with each other and they were quite well acquainted (more than acquainted, clearly) and she knew she felt something but she couldn't deal with anything too much right now. She needed to focus purely on just becoming better and better friends with him rather than anything else. Maybe if she turned over every rock, she'd unearth every part of Luke—the raw sides, the bad sides—and the feelings would go away.
She needed her sass back, her tough front. Luke was making her so soft, not weak or any less strong, but he was peeling back the layers and breaking down the walls and he was uncovering the deeper sides to the spunky, galling girl who liked messing with people and shutting them away. Uncovering too much of her. And Ava wasn't sure if she was ready for all of that just yet.
She needed him to be patient, she just needed someone to lean on for now, nothing less, nothing more.
"You're a complete and utter goofball," she covered up, scoffing with a revealing grin on her face. "But I wouldn't have any other person as my best friend."
"I know you wouldn't, my little Daffodil," he cooed, leaning over to pinch her cheek, causing her to groan and try and poke him away. During her haphazard poke-fest, she unwittingly poked him in the eye.
Stupefied, Luke yelped in pain, making Jerry drop a plant pot, breaking it. As Luke soothed his eye and Ava made an expression full of guilt, Jerry scowled and hobbled away, grabbing a broom from behind the counter.
"Can't you crazy kids flirt elsewhere? I actually do my job!" He chided, fixing his bucket hat and sweeping up the broken ceramic and dirt.
"Jerry, I'm sorry. She poked me in the eye," Luke explained, his right eye red and watery.
He continued glaring at Ava who simply howled with laughter in the background, muffled sniggering coming from her as Luke slapped his hand over her mouth to get her to stop making him feel like a fool. Ava, who was entertained immensely, licked his hand which made him screech in horror and feverishly wipe his hand on his shirt, trying profusely to get rid of her saliva.
Jerry huffed and rolled eyes, "Boy, I don't care what your little girlfriend poked. Just get out of here before you make more mess. Your shift is over."
Luke was discombobulated; had time really passed that quickly? Either way, he was so glad he didn't have to work any more (and that he luckily and fortuitously didn't encounter the bratty teenage from before) that he dismissed that Ava was mistaken for his girlfriend for the second time today. He hopped onto his feet, clocked out, and then came back, glancing towards the girl who still remained swinging her feet.
"You coming, or do I have to make two trips back home," He inquired rhetorically and Ava crossed her arms and gave him a smug smile.
She shrugged, sighing. "I don't know. I'm pretty comfortable up here."
(Jerry rolled his eyes once more at them, saying something along the lines of "Idjit, kids.")
Luke's face slowly morphed into a suspicious expression, a smirk developing. He tsked, coming towards her with open arms. "You've left me with no choice."
He hoisted her up by her thighs and swung her over his shoulder, carrying her to the door, her shrill laughter and protesting filling his ears as she slapped on his back and they exited the shop onto the busy sidewalks.
"Luke! I know I said I wanted us to hang out, but this isn't what I meant!"
He changed her position, moving her down so that she was no longer dangling from the waist down, but instead clutching onto Luke by his neck. Their faces were centimeters apart and her legs heedlessly wrapped around his torso. His heart swelled so much it could've exploded. He stared into her brown eyes, regardless of the people bumping into them (including the same mime from the night they met), not sure what to do. Another person brushed into them, Ava only pushed into Luke some more, their lips slightly colliding for a mere second before they parted, letting go of each other. Completely accidental, but still—in the short time their lips touched, they felt something.
Something good.
Ava's feet finally reached the concrete and she sucked in a huge breath of air. She didn't show much reaction on the outside, but inside a microscopic cell in her entire being was running around and rejoicing like crazy. She opened her mouth to say something, but another voice beat her to it. It was neither Luke's nor her own.
"Luke? Is that you?"
Ava watched as Luke contorted a look of gaping surprise and turned around to face whatever—or whoever—he was looking at.
It was a girl, around their age. She was tall and skinny, with dark hair and big, round green eyes. She was pretty, very pretty and Ava suddenly found herself feeling insecure. Though, besides her self esteem dropping, Ava also felt an aura of familiarity upon seeing the girl.
Luke had a case of cottonmouth, his words coming out quiet and stuffy. "Delilah?"
Ava widened her eyes, everything hitting her. She could see the flashes of pain and recognition on her best friend's face.
It was the girl from his pictures.
•••
this is an incredibly short chapter compared to my usual long prose but i have been struggling to come up with a proper way to convey all my plans for this story. i was contemplating if i should write this chapter the way i did with Delilah coming back, but if all works up like planned, it'll all end up okay. luke and ava's relationship will be tested a lot throughout this book because in order to see what your characters are made of, you must break them. they will go through a lot because no relationship is ever completely happy-go-lucky though our two friends seem pretty damn close to it.
also luke and ava's thinking?? it was based off how confused and complicated i am when i like someone because i overthink everything. also, their accidental kiss :-)) everything is gonna take a turn.
also—YES MICHAEL WILL BE IN HERE SOON IM SORRY OKAY. HE'S TOO BUSY AT THE COMIC BOOK SHOP. and Becca, Calum, and Ashton are more important characters than they seem because i know everyone thinks they're just here to tease or play the good cop/bad cop act when it comes to luke and ava. and i know they just seem like the occasional roommates that just show up once in a while but they'll be helping out soon. and before questions, i just wanna say that Jerry from the flower shoppe is based off of Bobby Singer from Supernatural i love spn and bobby so much. (i'm only on season 6, no spoilers please).
—do you think Delilah will be a good character or bad character? will she be manipulative or has she changed?
—whose thought process do you agree with more or understand more? how do you feel about them causally ignoring their chemistry?
—do you want the employees from Carolyn's Flower Shoppe to make more appearances? do you think they will be important in the long run?
—how do you think Delilah will affect Luke and his relationship with Ava? Luke's attitude with himself?
—do you want any other details from this book focused on? (for example; i mentioned something that you think would be interesting or important but i didn't bring it back up again, would you like to see more of it? if so, what is it?)
that's all! thank you if you're reading this! and we reached 1k! thanks for all the support guys, i love you.