AVA
I woke up early morning to Leigh's fingers fondly tracing my cheekbone. A smile spread across my face at the comfort his fingertips rendered to my system.
He looks effortlessly beautiful, laying next to me, on the same pillow, shirtless and his lustrous chestnut hair unfurl over the pillow.
I couldn't ask for any better view to wake up to.
I brought my hand along his slightly long muscular neck, featured with thin veins and a very noticeable Adam apple, additionally prominent when he whispers, "Happy Birthday, Gorgeous."
I must have turned scarlet, just holding his meaningful eyes contact that glows with affection and admiration for me.
After that, he didn't speak, and I was grateful because I didn't know where to start after my dramatic event last night that he was a first row audience of.
For another hour, while the sun shone through the glass walls of my room, we had maintained our positions, watching each other silently with dancing butterflies in my stomach that roused goosebumps over my skin.
If only I could shout out on top of the roof for how grateful I am for this.
Having Leigh this summer is the greatest victory life could offer. It felt like winning a premier league cup and champion league cup at the same time, only not having to celebrate them because lifting the title in the middle of the field meant getting that title snatched away from me.
His eyes were stunningly brilliant and steady even though we had barely had three hours of sleep, but then again, he is Leigh Boyce. He would pull off flawlessness and perfection even after a hundred years of labour. Unlike me, I am sure my burning and raw eyes confirm my long night of endless tears and sleeplessness.
When his eyes moved to my mouth, I nibbled on my bottom lip, as it excites me just having him watch me intently with lust in his eyes. That enough made me feel worthy for a girl who's not even close to what he deserves.
Some months ago, I thought nothing like this would ever exist. I thought it was game over for me. I had thought of him with slender tan skin girls, those who match his class, and I had hated myself for letting what we had slip away. But here we are, still wanting each other, even better than before.
That's when it dawned on me, Leigh truly loves me. When he said it, he really meant it. Even after leaving for University, with different gorgeous girls around the campus, he still came back for me.
I open my mouth to tell him I am sorry for last summer, and everything, it seems I will be apologising for the rest of my life, when a soft knock behind my door, thief us of the special solace. And I should've been pouting, but my eyes expanded at the alarming notice.
Someone was coming.
"Get out," I exclaimed, shoving him out of bed. He fell unexpectedly and groaned at the impact.
Shit, did I hurt him?
My heart went crazy. I crawled to the end of the bed and climbed off, instinctively, to check his situation.
He was frowning so adorable; I could kiss him for eternity.
"You went all Hulk Hogan on me. That is no nice way to approach a lover in the morning." He whines dramatically, sprawling around the floor.
Seeing he is in good health, I shoot him a steady look with inward eyes.
"Leigh?"
He rolled his eyes like a spoiled brat, overpowering my serious expression; a smile slipped into my face at his playful mood.
"What should I do? Hide in the closet or under the bed?" I sarcastically offer.
"No." I object boldly and grab his hand, pulling him up. He wouldn't move, or I was too weak to move home. Either way, it was a useless attempt, but I kept trying. "Leigh, I am serious get up. If it's Lilith or mom, they will freely use those places."
"You let them use your personal areas?" His upper lip quirked up. His green eyes dilated with amusement beneath his long eyelashes.
"Mom, only to pick up laundries, and Lilith is good with invading privacy." I excitedly explained, still trying to pull his unbudgeable body up, with him reluctantly remaining calm despise the knocking from the door.
"Seems we are out of options." He smirks as he notices me gawking at his smooth, tightened torso; I almost drooled. "Earth to Ava." He waves his hand, and I swallow, composing my heavy breathing. I swear I must look like a blend tomato sauce, oh with chilli, because my cheeks are beginning to burn from embarrassment.
"You are cute." His lips curve into an amusing smile.
"Leigh, get up." I embarrassingly exclaimed, blushing harshly.
"No."
"What do you mean no? you will jump through the window." He finally let me pull him up, pushing him towards the open window in the oversize shirt that makes me look so small around him, given his impressive athletic physique.
"What?" He tried to run away, but I caught him back.
"You are a quarterback. You can do it." I slapped his back, giving him a go, and his eyes narrowed at me quizzically.
"Yup, a quarterback, not parkour." He whispered with emphasises, an inch away from my face even though there was no one around us. "You don't expect me to jump down from the second floor through the window." He finishes as we both look down through the window to the huge pool at the bottom.
"Romeo did, and you will do just so," I conclude and push him forward.
"This isn't some fiction. We are talking about a person's life here. Think logically."
"Stop being dramatic. There's a pool below. You will be okay. I love you." I rush, kissing his bulged pec and shoving his while he screams my name.
Giggling, I run back to the bed and settle under the duvet cover, my free hair flipping through the process.
"Come in," I call for the person across the closed door.
And my supposed mother came through, holding a wooden tray adorned with breakfast and a face so brighten with a pleasing smile.
"Look, it's your birthday. Sunshine."
Oh, please, so this is her making progress with food?
"It was also my birthday last night." I reminded her since last night didn't turn out good.
"I made you breakfast and this tiny cake generous for your stomach." She smiled while I sat up against the headboard of the bed, pretending to rise from sleep for the first time today and stretching my limps.
Mom settles opposite me, setting the tray in our middle with a cute little cake among perfectly homemade breakfast.
I yawned like the minor criminal that I am.
"Blow the candle." She urged and changed her position, coming around me, just too close; she wrapped a hand over my shoulder, blanketing me with her flowery scent. "I can't believe how fast you're growing up, seventeen? It's a pretty number.
I incline and blow the single candle without wishing for anything, mainly because I've stopped believing in wishes coming true since last year.
"Humans are meant to grow, mom."
"Indeed." She agreed and kissed my cheeks. The urge to wipe it was too strong; I had to ball my fists. "Eat. You will like it."
Before I could stop her, she stuffed a grilled tomato in my mouth, followed by fried mushroom, then sausage. I am going to choke. I have to wrap a hand over my mouth to signal her to slow down while I struggle to chew and swallow those in my mouth.
She watches me all the time, stroking my hair with one hair and holding a full spoon of baked beans that I crave to have in my mouth, given the delicious bites I've started on. But I won't tell her. She doesn't deserve to know that.
"Was it Christian who made it?" I asked ignorantly, well not sincerely ignorant, for I am fully aware of mom's food when she cooked it. Even with my eyes close, I could taste the goodness of her handwork. And I know these were among it.
"No, I did. Why?" Her face dropped, and my phone went off from under the pillows.
Reluctantly, I find the device with the obnoxious sound and stare at the screen while directly replying to my mom.
"I don't know, just wondering because you've stopped making food in the house."
"Who is it?" She asked instead, ignoring my perhaps insult.
"My aunt," I said as I accepted the phone call.
She must be calling to wish me a happy birthday, just like every year.
"Hello? Oh, good morning, my American people." She smiled warmly, just as my mom would.
Auntie Catherine and my mom are so identical. The resemblance was too strong; you could take them for twins.
Back then, in the holiday seasons, when we would watch mom and auntie's old photo albums with Sawyer's dad, Sawyer and I had always believed our mothers were twins. They were both petite and shared the same hair colour and eyes colour, their lips shape were similar, and even their personalities sometimes seemed equivalent, at least before mom became America's queen bee.
"Good day, darling." Mom said to her sister.
I must say I am impressed, she has sustained their relationship.
"You two look so adorable. Sawyer, come over here and see these beautiful people."
Excited, aunty Catherine stood for her favourite inbuilt window bench and headed into the very familiar small house covered with the prettiest wallpaper.
The moment she got to the tiny kitchen we had always baked biscuits and cakes, Sawyer's head popped up on the screen.
Her forehead wrinkles before a smile softened her confused reaction, and she blurted out, "You two have made up?"
"Made up for what?" Her mom retorted, utterly oblivious of what her daughter meant.
And when no one answered, she pursued the person closer, she could find. "Sawyer?"
"My alarm. Ding dong ding dong, goodness," Sawyer exclaimed and slapped her forehead with her palm in a very way that said, this is my cunning cue, but take it, I'm out.
"I have to go get some potatoes for dinner." She added.
"We have potatoes." Auntie Catherine gapes in shock at her daughter's trick.
"Not enough. See you later, mom." Sawyer kisses Auntie's cheek and waves on the screen at us, "Happy birthday, cousin, break a leg."
And with that, the thud of the kitchen back door came up, confirming her exit.
"Please don't break a leg, Ava." My auntie worriedly cautioned. "I can never calculate that girl." Meaning my cousin.
"They're all like that." Mom said in agreement with a soft laugh while pulling me to her. I couldn't help rolling my eyes.
Her arm is basically smothering my throat. I could hardly breathe smoothly.
"Indeed. How are you doing, Ava? You look worn out? Anything wrong?"
Oh yes, your wicked sister, named my mother, had abandoned me because she has now gotten new stepchildren, and my life is falling apart from the constant bullying from my sister ever since Leigh came back, and that is because whenever he is around, I lose all my guards and become vulnerable to stand for myself. Ask me why? Yes, I am in love with him, to the length and depth I've never wanted anything and to the width, I do not understand how it's only him in my mind.
But I didn't admit that out loud. I stayed quiet and let mom respond, "She is just tired. I woke her up from sleep." The woman finishes, still caressing my fake blonde hair.
"I can't believe you're seventeen. You're growing up into an excessive beautiful woman, well-mannered and agreeable." Auntie Catherine smiled, and suddenly she became emotional and dabbed under her eyes with a napkin. In case you haven't noticed, sensitivity runs through these family genes.
"Beautiful, that is confirmed. Well mannered... Hmmm-but agreeable? Even Ava wouldn't agree to that." Mom arches her brows at me when she opposes.
Duhhh
"My mom consider me now intolerable." I broadcasted freely to my Auntie.
"She accused me of hating her." Mom points out challengingly.
"Of course you do. You choose everything over me." I retaliated competitively.
"That sound absurd to even say." Mom was provoked when she accused.
"Alright, now I sense the tension." Said Auntie Catherine.
"There is no tension. It's been only icy here." I sarcastically mumbled under my breath, pushing the dangling locks of hair behind with my fingers, frustrated, and looked away from the screen.
Although they all heard me, and Auntie Catherine frowns, "Oh my sweetheart, how could you ever thought of that?"
"She hates me." Mom sadly claimed, and stubbornly I refused to deny that.
"I shall not interfere, for anything I will say could easily incline to a misconception, but I will say one thing only, as a sister and an aunt; you two need to start talking because from what I can tell, there are a lot of unsaid feelings you two had buried from each other. And that's not the two of you. You were the happiest family I used to know." Said Auntie Catherine through my mobile phone speaker.
"Thanks, Catherine." Mom appreciates her sister's statement while I remain mute, pushing to the wall of my back all the good memories before mom had to fall in love and become this elegant obsessed woman, who want to please fake affluent families and barely even save a life like she used to before.
Yes, my mom hardly performs her job in the hospital because she's primarily busy organising and attending fancy clubs events and flying places with her successful husband.
"You are always welcome. And Happy birthday, darling. Please have fun, eat anything and laugh a lot."
"Thank you, Auntie Catherine." I forced a failed smile, and the call ended.
There was this painful twinge I felt inside; it was agonising, it wouldn't stop, and the pain wouldn't resolve. The ache only kept evolving. It was like there were thousands of cracked open holes in my heart and were all spilling blood from every rift.
"What is this? Who brought it?" Mom asked, provoking me to look back at her.
She was examining a red rose and a small note she picked from the nightstand. Why and how do I get a rose and a note on my nightstand?
Shit. Of course, he will leave a rose. But how? We had been here together as far as I can remember.
When my mom began unfolding the small paper, I panicked and almost flew to reach it.
"Mom."
"Come on, let's read together." She whines when I snatch the paper and toss it into the other nightstand drawer, she wouldn't reach without taking a round around the bed.
Seriously? So now I don't have privacy?
"Why do you smell like Leigh?" She thoughtfully asked when I settled back next to her, sticking her nose in the air and sniff consideringly.
Dang it, not only do the flowers and the whole bed smells like Leigh, but even my bloody shirt was his.
My heart began to beat so fast it might come out of its cage.
"Ava, I know you feel like you need to hide a lot from me, but you shouldn't. I will listen, I swear."
Does she...
"I hate how we fought last night." She added, having no idea the pounds of tension she had lifted over my shoulders.
I smile awkwardly to ease the paleness of my skin.
"Would you promise me that?" Mom asked and brought a hand to my face, stroking my cheeks with her knuckle.
I nodded simple, and she smiled, "So who's the admire?"
"Somebody." I lied.
"Is that somebody, Lucas?" Mom, like a detective, kept digging, and my eyes blinked in the direction of her thoughts.
She doesn't suspect me. She doesn't even see me falling for her stepson.
It was a good thing and should bring me some relief, but why do I feel guilty and bad?
"Yes." I lied again, my heart squeezing in my chest.
"I knew you liked him." Mom laughs.
"We are just friends."
"Friends trading roses?"
Then the door swings open and reveal an enthusiastic Lilith's in her pyjama and Christian casually dressed.
"Who's a year closer to adulthood?" She dances towards me with a wrapped box in both hands, twerking intentionally to embarrass her dad.
"No need to be so theatrical, Lilith. You did a lot too much last night." I sarcastically pointed out when she jumped onto my bed, almost flipping the breakfast tray and its contents, some tea had to spill over the duvet.
"Careful." I heard both adults in the room in unison, but none among the two of us listened.
"Come on, don't get too moody. Or are you on your period on your birthday? That will suck, though. But I have you covered, girl." She convinced excitedly. But I am definitely not on my period. "Here, Happy Birthday." With a glowing spirit, she shoves the quite huge box before me, shifting the breakfast tray herself.
"Thanks." I smiled. Thrilled to see what's inside, I eagerly rip the wrapping paper and expose, "A parcel of tampons?"
Confused, I look up at the exhilarated-happy girl clapping her hands.
How is this a birthday present? How is she excited?
Oh, of course, she's laughing at me.
"You need to start using it to suck everything from the inside, stop letting your world revolves around pads, try other adventures."
"Lilith, some respect, please." Christian embarrassingly asked his crazy daughter while, with a twisted face, I try to ingest the situation around here.
"We are talking about woman hygiene, dad. I'm truly disappointed for your stand against feminists." She turned the table, accusing the flushed man, who appears to be battling with alternatives for an escape.
"What? No!" He stuttered.
"Do you have problems with our menstrual cycle, dad?" She forwardly questioned, folding her arms across her chest, boldly facing him.
I felt sympathy for the poor man.
"Please stop talking about it." Mom interfered and climbed out of bed, strolling to her husband.
Gladly, Lilith obliged and let it slide.
"Well, today we tend to have fun, isn't it, dad. So Ava, get up." She said and grabbed my hand, pulling us both down from the bed.
"I don't know about that. I have some books to start on. I promised Evie I would read some numbers of books." I apologetically shook my head and refused.
"Come on, don't be a party popper." Lilith pouted, wriggling my hands. "Let's have some fun. You've been with books every day-today is your birthday. You deserve some change. I promise to be on my best behavior." She released my wrists and stepped back gleesomely, lifting one hand with her crossed thumbnail over the pinky finger. In short form, it's a promise gesture. "I will be so nice wrapped with goodies. Besides, don't you think dad's deal is quite considerable? A new car for college and an apartment of my own? I will do anything, even selling my body."
"I pray not." Mom nervously exhale.
"I am just kidding." Lilith rolled her eyes and heaved. "Besides, I heard dad saying there will be no rules today. You get to choose what you want."
Surprised, I turn to mom, "Really? With your consent?"
"I didn't say that?" Christian began, but mom cut him off, "Uhm... Don't you think I can?"
"I don't know; you've been disagreeable these days." I shrugged in Leigh's overshirt shirt that no one noticed.
"Your mom is really fun." Christian praised his wife, kissing the top of her hair.
"Ah-ah, I doubt."
"Try me."
Oh, she really doesn't know what she is getting herself into.
Before I could respond, Lilith wrapped an arm over my shoulder. "Let me get this straight. Is this you agreeing to celebrate your birthday?"
"Aha." I nodded, my gaze boring on mom.
"Oh my gosh." My over exaggerating stepsister screamed in my ear, almost destroying my hearing. But I didn't wince or shift. Instead, I held mom's challenging stare. "So how will you like the party? I have a lot of connections. We will pull this off before evening."
"I am not partying, Lilith. We will just go out around the city; there is a lot to do in Vagas, isn't it?" I asked her one of the lines she had once said to me.
"Please take us to paradise then. Let's have no mercy on dad's credit card. He was harsh on us last night."
"I don't think this is a good decision." Christian began, but mom interrupted him in a surprising elated manner. "Oh no, there's no shopping limit today, so let's get going, girls."
Stunned, I chuckled at the weird woman wearing my mother's face.
Am I alive, or is this from a dream I wished could be true through the good sleep after Leigh had tucked me to bed?
"God, I wish you saw Leigh dripping wet in his pants this morning. I swear he must have fallen into the pool," Lilith whispered.
Shit.