Edited: June 6th, 2020.
~~~
~Avila~
"Chocolate."
"Strawberry."
"Lemon Sherbet."
"Vanilla ice cream with rainbow sprinkles, gummy bears, gummy worms, Oreo chunks, and chocolate chips," I said.
"You could've just said, 'the usual'," Martha, the owner of this sweet little bakery said, chuckling at me.
I smiled sheepishly at her and reached out for my overflowing ice cream cone. I grabbed it out of her hand and gave her grateful smile.
"Thanks Martha!"
"Welcome sweetheart."
Instead of going back to the others who were occupying most of the tables in the bakery, I leaned against the counter and took a deep breath.
"Tired?" Martha asked as she cleaned the counter.
"Exhausted," I said with a sigh.
She gave me a worried look.
"You should really go easier on yourself, sweetheart," she said.
I bit into my ice cream, and shrugged in response to her statement.
"Eh, I'm fine. So what's my schedule for next week?" I asked.
Martha stopped wiping her hands on her apron midway through my sentence and gave me a bewildered look.
"Your schedule is zero hours for next week lady," she scolded.
"Oh come on! Don't do that. This is the one place I enjoy coming to. And besides, if I don't come here, I have to babysit Carlos," I whined, referring to one of the annoying kids in my neighborhood.
She chuckled and shook her head at me.
"Always so stubborn," I heard her mutter as she went into the back, probably to get my schedule.
Meanwhile, I leaned against the counter, eating my ice cream. There weren't many people here today, considering it was about to rain in a little while. Joel always had this theory that eating ice cream just before a rainstorm is the best way to enjoy ice cream to its fullest. Nobody argued with him since every once in a while when it was about to rain, he took all of us out for ice cream. Besides the fact that we always got sick the next day, it was great. Hence the reason why we're all sitting in Martha's Goodies just after picking up Joel.
I heard shuffling behind me and I turned around to see Martha smiling at me. She handed me my schedule and shooed me off towards everybody else. I chuckled and continued eating my ice cream while walking all the way to the other side of the bakery.
Joel had Oliver, Charles, Drake and Jake engaged in a conversation about some sport. Tristan was on his phone, and Antonio and Sam were nowhere to be seen. Sophie was sitting at the far end between Drake and Charles with a fat book in her hand. Tori was sitting on Joel's lap, eating out of an ice cream cup. I pulled a chair and sat in between Jake and Rose, who looked surprisingly calm around each other today.
It's probably the ice cream.
Speaking of ice cream, I turned my full attention back to mine. I finally reached the cone and savoured each nibble of the crunch.
"Whoa!" someone yelled right in my ear.
I nearly choked on my ice cream and turned around to see who interrupted my precious ice cream time. Sam was standing behind me, gawking at my ice cream cone.
"May I help you?" I asked awkwardly, while trying not to spit any ice cream on his face.
"What is that delicious looking pyramid made of?" he asked referring to my cone.
"Umm....vanilla ice cream with rainbow sprinkles, gummy bears, gummy worms, Oreo chunks, and chocolate chips..."
He locked gazes with me and suddenly jerked forward, making me jump back in my seat.
"CAN I HAVE A BITE?!" he yelled in my face.
If it were, anybody, anybody else, I'd probably punch them in the face and tell them to move to Australia and never come in front of my face ever again. But considering the fact that this guy was always smiling, I couldn't just say no to him and crush his dreams.
Taking one last look at Sam's grinning face and then one look at my ice cream cone, I sighed and handed it over to him.
"You can keep the rest," I muttered tiredly.
I heard Rose and Jake gasp from beside me. Sam jumped up with glee and smiled down at me.
"Thank you! I owe you big time. Antonio stole my ice cream cone," he said sadly.
He recovered just as fast and carefully took my half-eaten cone out of my hands. He walked back to his seat and suddenly, I was punched in both arms at the same time.
"Ouch," I said sarcastically. "I can't figure out whose punch hurt more."
Jake gasped and Rose burst out laughing.
"I've asked you a million times if I can have a bite and I always get slapped in the face," Jake whined.
"I blame it on the fact that we're related," I said while leaning forward and resting my forehead against the edge of the table.
Jake continued grumbling, and I zoned him out now. A couple minutes later, I felt a weight on top of my head and I groaned.
"You wanna leave the boys, and head out?" Rose asked quietly.
I nodded and the weight was lifted off my body. I pulled my head up and blinked to adjust to the brigjtness once again.
"Okay, you dudes can chill here. The girls and I are leaving," Rose announced.
"We are?" Sophie asked, finally looking up from her book.
"Yes," Rose stated pulling me out of my chair.
"Have fun and Avila be home before ten," Jake and Joel said at the same time.
I waved them off and Rose started tugging on my arm.
"Awe, I wanna come too," Charles whined.
"Sorry , Charles, but no," Sophie said, while getting out of her chair.
Charles pouted and sunk down in his chair.
"Come on Tori! We can't let the boys ruin you," Rose said, gesturing her over to us.
As Rose was pulling me along, I heard footsteps behind me and Tori soon grabbed my hand excitedly.
"Where are we going?" she asked, looking at me with wide eyes.
"Somewhere," I said with a small smile.
~~~
Twenty minutes later, the four of us were standing outside a certain blonde's house, waiting for her to open the door. It started pouring outside as soon as we reached her street and it didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon.
"Why isn't Bwee opening the door?" Tori asked worriedly.
I grinned at the her and shrugged.
"I guess we'll just have to wa-" as soon as I said that, the door burst open.
Bree stood there, looking like the biggest mess I've ever seen. She was wearing an old t-shirt which belonged to Joy up until last year, and basketball shorts. Her blonde hair that fell perfectly around her all the time, was now up in a messy bun, looking dirtier than ever. Her eyes were bloodshot and she was clutching a tissue box tightly in her hand. Rose gasped beside me seeing her like that and Sophie cringed.
Let's just say that Bree's one of those girls, who look perfect from the moment they wake up, to the moment they go back to bed. Don't get me wrong, she's not a try-hard, but she just has that.... natural beauty.
Right now, that natural beauty looks like it was run over by a truck multiple times.
Without thinking twice, I leapt forward and hugged her tightly. She held onto to me, quietly sobbing in my shoulder. I heard the door behind me click shut and I pulled back from Bree. I kept my arm around her shoulder and I pulled her into the living room.
"Hey Tori, I heard Bruno's been missing you a lot!" I heard Rose gush behind me. "Why don't you go play with him?"
"Yay! Where is he?" Tori asked, oblivious to the situation in front of her.
I made eye contact with Bree and she pointed upstairs.
"He's upstairs Tor," I said, slightly tilting my head in Tori's direction.
Tori ran upstairs, grinning the entire way.
We were all quiet as we made our way into her living room. Sophie went into the kitchen as soon as we entered. Meanwhile, Rose, Bree, and I settled onto the couch in the living room. It was quiet for a while, Bree occasionally sniffling into her tissue. Sophie came back after a couple of minutes with a glass of water. She handed Bree the glass of water and then sat down cross-legged in front of us on the floor.
I felt a weight on my lap and I looked down to see Rose's head. We made eye contact and she gave me a pointed look towards Bree. I gulped and looked to my right to see Bree. She looked distant and lost in thought.
"So," I spoke into the silence.
Bree turned her attention to me and instead of asking her what happened, I steered the conversation around.
"Where are your parents?" I asked.
"My mom's grocery shopping and dad's at work," she stated simply.
Sophie grabbed the TV remote that was sitting on the coffee table behind her and switched the TV on. There was a sappy movie playing which none of us really paid attention to. We were all lost in our own thoughts and I absentmindedly ran my fingers through Rose's hair. Suddenly, Bree's voice broke us all out of our thoughts.
"Did you talk to him?" she whispered to no one in particular.
"No," we all replied.
Bree nodded and looked down at her lap.
"What...what happened?" Sophie asked cautiously.
Bree sighed and shrugged.
"Well, he was perfectly fine until Thursday night. He drove me home like he always does, hung out for a while, and then promised to pick me up the next day. The next morning he never showed up and that was a first considering he always picked me up," she explained the last part with a small smile. Slowly her face contorted into a frown. "...but, he never showed up the next morning. Instead, he called me and told me that-tha-" suddenly, panicked sobs came barreling out of her mouth one after another.
Immediately, we all surrounded her in attempt to calm her down.
"How c-could he d-do that?!" she gasped out. "We were t-together for a year and a half, goddammit!" she yelled.
"Hey, calm down," Sophie said stroking Bree's hair.
"H-how could he break up with me over the phone?!" Bree gasped out, while running her hand over her face.
"Did he tell you why?" Rose asked quietly.
"No. And that's the part that hurts the most," Bree said in a voice barely above a whisper
We all fell silent at that, unsure of how to console her.
"Well, you can't just give up on him like that!" Rose suddenly exclaimed getting to her feet. "You were so close. There has to be a legit reason why he did that," Rose said pacing back and forth in front of us.
"You think I don't know that?" Bree asked. "But he's refusing to talk to me. He just called and told me that he's breaking up with me," Bree said exasperated.
"And what, you just let him?" Sophie asked bewildered.
Silence.
That's all that was heard.
Sophie, Rose and I were shocked. Rose stopped pacing and was standing in front of Bree with her mouth hanging open. Sophie slapped a hand over her mouth in surprise. All we could do was stare at Bree, wondering how in the hell this smart girl with a love of science and how time worked, could be so stupid.
"What the hell?!" Rose screeched.
"You didn't talk to him?" Sophie gasped out.
Bree's jaw dropped and she pointed to herself.
"Do I look like I'm in the condition to be talking to him right now?" Bree screeched.
"He's seen you after our Saturday night blind makeovers, I'm pretty sure you look hotter than that right now," Rose said sarcastically.
"Rose," I said sternly. "I'm pretty sure she didn't mean appearance wise."
Rose gave me an 'Oh' look and sat back down beside me. I turned to Bree with a sigh.
"Look Bree, there's no way that Joy would suddenly wake up one morning and realize that he needs to break up with you. We've seen you guys go through every single stage of your relationship. We've seen you fight, eat each other's faces off during lunch time, making me lose my appetite for the first time, we've seen you get jealous over the fact that Joy spent more time with his paintings than with you, and you spending more time with your books on Astrology-"
"No time to rant Avila," Rose cut in, smacking my arm.
"Right. My point is, we've seen it all and we all can see that neither of you are going to let go of each other anytime soon. So get off your butt and go to talk to him," I said to her.
She sighed and ran her hands over her face.
"Okay," she said in a small voice. "I will, I will. Tomorrow, though. I'll talk to him tomorrow."
Rose, Sophie and I exchanged looks and nodded.
"WOOF! WOOF!"
We all snapped our heads in the direction of the sound and chuckled seeing Tori running after Bruno, Bree's large grey Husky. The poor dog immediately jumped up onto Bree's lap and settled down, trying to get away from a hyper seven-year old.
~~~
"Mommy!" Tori yelled, running into the house.
I sighed, closed the main door and locked it. After kicking my shoes off, I walked further into the house. It was about 7 in the evening, meaning we stayed at Bree's house for a good four hours. None of us spoke about the break-up after that one conversation. Instead, we brought out the action movies and popcorn.
That's the actual way to deal with breakups.
Bree's mom came back just an hour before we left and by then Bree looked better than when we first got there. Fiona, Bree's mom, thanked us all the way out the door in the most subtle ways, making sure Bree didn't notice. Then, I dropped off Sophie and Rose at their houses, considering we did leave the house in my car, and headed to Jenny's house to drop off Tori. Tori was well ahead of me by the time we got inside and I followed after her quietly.
I walked upstairs, realizing all the lights in the living room, kitchen and dining room were off. It was dead quiet in the house and when I got up upstairs, I saw Jenny sitting in her reading chair with a book in hand. Tori probably went in her room by now. Realizing someone else was in the room, J.J. looked up from her book and smiled at me.
"Did you have fun?" she asked.
"Yeah," I said with a contented sigh.
"Before I forget for the millionth time, Tristan's staying in your room," she said sheepishly.
"Tori told me. I mean he's your guest, so I wouldn't expect you to give him the couch."
I then realized that meant he would need the entire space.
"Oh! Do you want me to take my clothes back so he can use-"
"Nah, you only have what, two pairs of sweats and a couple t-shirts?" she asked. I nodded and she continued, "Well then, you have nothing to worry about. You giving up your room for two years is eno-
"Two years?!" I asked flabbergasted.
I assumed they were only here for the Yearly Cup.
"Yeah, up until he goes to college," she said with a distant look. "So where'd you guys go?"
For the next little while, I sat with J.J. explaining how our day went. She was sad by the end of it, hearing about Joy and Bree's breakup. She loved the two of them dearly, so it affected her as well. After it all, I sighed and made a move to get up.
"Well, I'll be off now. Did the guys come here or are they over at my house?"
"Joel came over and said hi, but then they all went over to your house," J.J. explained.
I tried not to cringe. Really. But I couldn't help it.
"All of them?"
Jenny looked at me bewildered.
"You can send them back here, I don't mind. And have you eaten yet?" she asked closing her book.
"Oh no, that's alright. I was just wondering if the newbies are getting along with my brother, obnoxious best friend and crazy uncle. Speaking of food, I got a text from Jake saying that they're ordering pizza, and since it was Joel who ordered, the guys are good for the night," I said.
"Avila, I asked if you've eaten, not everybody else."
I gave her a shocked look.
"Of course I've eaten. But just in case you're worried, I did order an entire pizza for myself!" I said proudly.
"Thata' girl!" J.J. said with the same amount of pride.
"Alright, I'll be off now J.J."
She nodded. At last, I was headed back for my own home. As I walked back, I noticed Antonio's car and Charles' truck along with our own cars on the driveway, meaning all the boys were over still.
I sighed and made my way inside. As I expected, the entire house was bouncing with noise. I kicked off my shoes and put them in the coat closet, considering everybody else's shoes were covering the entrance. I sighed and followed the voices which were coming from downstairs.
The basement door was closed, loud noises echoing from the other side. I sighed in frustration, just wanting to get to my pizza. I slowly opened the door and stepped into the dark-lit room. Every single teenager and one adult, jumped up in fright as soon as I came into view. Well, my shadow came into view, considering the only light in the room was the TV which was behind me now.
Suddenly, everybody started yelling things at once.
"IT'S HER!" Charles yelled, hiding his face into Joel's shoulder.
"OH MY GOD, I WANT MY MOMMY!" Sam yelled.
"WHO STEPPED ON MY FOOT?!" Definitely Tristan.
"WHO ATE THE LAST SLICE OF PIZZA?!" Surprisingly, that wasn't my question. It was Joel's.
I stood in the doorway, still comprehending what was happening.
"WAIT!" Drake yelled. "Look!" He pointed to the TV and everybody snapped their heads up to it.
Suddenly, the most horrid thing I've ever seen, popped up onto the screen. It was so, wrinkled, and bruised up. Her hair, if it was a her, reached her feet and was burnt at the tips. It didn't have eyes, just empty sockets and a crooked smile. But none of that was what caught me off guard.
The thing was covered in blood.
And that's the last thing I remember before passing out. Save for Joel screeching, 'CLOSE IT! CLOSE IT!'. Oh, and the colorful string of curse words pouring out of Jake's mouth.
Remind me to slap him for that.
||~||~||
|Tristan|
The moment the door opened, screams erupted around the entire basement.
Seriously, how old were these guys?
I huffed and turned back to the screen, trying to watch what happens next. But of course, the world hated me so they planted a human in front of the screen, blocking my view.
"Look!" Drake suddenly pointed.
Immediately, everybody snapped their heads in that direction. Except for me.
My vision was blocked by our intruder, who now that I looked at, was Avila. Her back was slightly to me, but I could recognize her anywhere. Afterall, the first time we met was in the dark.
Suddenly, her expression contorted into full shock mode. Her eyes stayed glued to the television screen and her mouth opened slightly. I watched as her eyes lulled back into her head and she swayed slightly in her spot. Without thinking twice I got up, ran past Oliver, towards Avila and caught her just before she fell to the ground.
"Shit!" Jake cursed.
"Close it!" Joel yelled, pointing towards the TV.
Avila fell softly in my arms, with her eyes closed and her mouth set in a deep frown. For a second, she looked almost vulnerable.
Would it be bad if I laughed at that?
And it looks like I wasn't the only one who thought she looked vulnerable. Suddenly, there was a blinding white flash in front of my eyes, and they closed on their own record for a second.
"Awe, she looks vulnerable," Charles cooed, standing in front of me and Avila.
He looked ready to click another picture, but Jake smacked him upside the head. Now that I looked up, I noticed all the guys formed a small circle around us, staring at Avila in wonder.
"She's not as skinny as she looks," I growled out, almost huffing out of breath.
That wasn't all that true, considering I'm in very good shape, and she weighs about nothing.
"Right!" Joel said.
He reached forward and pulled her out of my grasp. Instead of picking her up bridal style, like I was expecting him too, he threw Avila over his shoulder casually and started walking toward the door that lead upstairs, only to have Jake stop him.
"What are you doing?" he screeched.
Joel turned around, looking highly offended. "What do you mean?"
"What do I mean?!" Jake asked.
'Oh nothing, you're just carrying a passed out nerd onto your shoulder like a rag doll. Nothing much,' I thought.
"Yeah! How could you? You're carrying Avila on your shoulder!" Charles joined in.
"Put her down this instance," Jake scolded in Joel's direction.
'Finally someone gets it-'
"Do you want to break your shoulder?" Jake screeched.
We were all silent for a minute, just staring at Jake's outburst.
"I really don't think that's the issue here," Drake said to Jake.
Jake slapped his forehead.
"Right!"
He walked up to Joel and looked him right in the eye.
"You could hurt your neck too. And neck casts are so unattractive," Jake said seriously.
Joel's reaction was something that would've gone viral if someone were recording this.
Actors who worked in Scream would be jealous of Joel's screech. Immediately, he threw Avila toward Jake, and when I mean threw, I mean he literally chucked Avila into Jake's already waiting arms. Sam let in a shaky breath beside me as Avila flew through the air and Jake caught her with ease.
"What the heck are you guys doing?" Oliver gasped.
Joel, Jake and Charles snapped their heads in his direction.
"What do you mean?" Joel asked.
He was either oblivious, or this was a common occurrence in this household.
"You," Antonio pointed to Joel, "-just chucked Avila into his-" he pointed to Jake when he said that, "-arms. She could've gotten hurt," Antonio finished off.
"And she's still asleep!" Charles said happily and then turned extremely serious. "So nobody tells her about this," he said, giving all five of us, a stern look.
"What do we get in return?" Sam asked Jake, Charles and Joel.
The three of them shared a look amongst themselves, and Joel held his hands up, as if saying, 'Chill, I got this.' He took a step towards us and took a deep breath.
"I'll give you all a free meal everyday at one of my McDonald's branches for the rest of the week?" he said hopefully.
"At your McDonald's branches?!" Sam asked bewildered.
"Yeah, I own a couple around here," Joel said nonchalantly.
"Um, by a couple, he means a couple hundred. And by here, he means around Canada," Charles scoffed.
Oliver, Drake, Sam, Antonio and I nearly died of choking on our spits. We stared at Joel in shock, who looked completely unaffected by our reaction, but not in a bad way. He looked almost humble about it.
"So where's the closest McDonald's around here?" Oliver asked, breaking the silence.
"Oh, it's right on Broadm-"
"Guys! Tristan was right, she's not nearly as light as she looks," Jake gasped out.
Immediately, all of us surrounded Jake. Since Avila wasn't waking up anytime soon, we all had an intense game of Rock, Paper, Scissors to figure out who would be carrying her to her room.
Of course I lost the entire game.
So here I was, carrying the actually not-so-heavy nerd up into her room. Everybody else followed behind us, but instead of going all the way upstairs, they stopped at the front door and headed out. I muttered a goodbye to the guys, and followed Joel's directions to Avila's room.
I just hope it's not as bad as the other one.
"Did anyone tell you that you're a fucking nuisance when you're passed out," I growled out in an unconscious Avila's face.
She totally responded.
I scowled at her still passed out figure and managed to open the door to her room using the hand that was under her knees. I hitched her higher into my arms and she managed to get slightly heavier. I mumbled incoherent curse words and walked into her room. Since it was dark outside, I couldn't see what her room looked like, and thank god for that. I was so not ready to see another room full of ugly teddy bears that were calling out to me, asking me to rip their faces off.
I carefully navigated my way into her room, which had a bed right in the middle, lined up against the far wall. It was a small room from the looks of it and somehow, the most coziest place I've ever been in. Without wasting much time, I simply walked up to Avila's bed and placed her down. When I detached from her, I made sure not to pull any of her hair. She grumbled as I finally pulled away, and I scoffed in her direction.
For a moment, I stood back and watched her. Frown lines covered her forehead, her mouth set in a pout. I waited for a sign to tell me what kind of person she was, but nothing helped.
Could I even trust her at this point?
A loud screech had me immediately jump back, making me hit my head on I'm assuming a closet. I scowled, but it was soon replaced by a look of bewilderment.
Jake came barging through the room with a jug full of water. The light coming in from the hallway made every single one of his moves very visible. I watched in horror as he ran toward Avila, who was still passed out onto the bed.
"Haku-Na-Matata!" he sang out loud.
And then...vSPLASH!
Avila sprang up, screeching like a maniac. Her upper body was entirely drenched and she looked beyond pissed.
"JAKE!" she yelled.
Without being told twice, Jake ran out of the room full speed, with Avila trailing behind him. The one thought on my mind was...
'Thank god Sam only wakes me up by jumping on me.'
~~~~~~~~~~~
Read
COMMENT
Vote
f o l l o w
xD