First and Forever (Heartache Duet #2) - Jay McLean Page 0,19

seat,” the teacher tells Ava.

Ava starts for a seat in the front row.

Good.

Distance.

That’s exactly what I need.

Next to me, Oscar stands, shouts, “I forgot my contacts today, so I need to move… to the front.” It takes me a moment to realize what he’s doing, but by the time I do, it’s too late. He’s already there, and Ava’s making her way toward me.

She sits down next to me, gripping her bag to her chest.

The teacher starts going through the class curriculum for the rest of the year, and Ava lowers her bag to the floor and kicks the back of Roy’s seat to get his attention. “Psst. Roy!” she whispers-yells.

He turns to her, a glare in place.

She says, her voice calm and filled with clarity, “Just FYI, my mom’s not an alcoholic. She doesn’t even drink. She went to war, to fight for your country, and she was hit with a grenade. It blew off half her arm and half her face, and because of that, she has fucking brain damage. And that brain damage is the reason why she slurs her words. Not alcohol.” She takes a breath, her nostrils flaring. “So, the next time you want to say something about her because you think it’ll get you a few cheap laughs, just… take a moment and imagine if that happened to your mom.”

Roy blinks and blinks, and he stares at Ava as if it’s the first time he’s seeing her.

Meanwhile, I stare at Ava in awe.

“Hey,” Roy says, “you’re kind of hot when you’re feisty.”

I kick his chair again. Harder this time.

Ava scoffs. “Fuck you.”

We spend the rest of the class listening to Miss Salas talk and talk and talk without ever really saying anything. When the period’s over, I turn to Ava, motion to Roy. “That was impressive.”

Ava shrugs. “I’m sick of the world dictating how I feel or how I act or what I do,” she says, her brow furrowed. “I’m over it, you know?”

“Why do I feel personally attacked right now,” I say, half-joking as I pick up my bag and ball.

“Don’t feel like that,” she assures, walking out of the room with me. “It’s not about you, Connor. You just gave me a hell of a lot of perspective.”

We stop just outside the room and turn to each other. “How so?”

“I don’t know,” she murmurs. “I feel like… like my mind is a mess right now, but I’m seventeen, and I’m going to have that same mind for a long time. And that mind is going to make a lot of bad decisions before I learn from them and start making the right ones.”

My eyebrows lift.

She shrugs. “I’m not like you. I don’t have one goal set for the rest of my life. There is no end game for me. But there are two things that I know I want, and the first is to find a way to get out of this shitshow of a town.”

“And the second?” I ask.

With a sigh, she shakes her head. “I gotta get to class. I’ll see you around, okay?”

Today’s pep rally is the same as all the other ones prior. We watch the cheerleaders’ new routine, and then Coach calls us all up one-by-one while we listen to the cheers of our peers. The only thing different with today’s is that Ava is here.

In the stands.

Standing out.

Out of place.

She doesn’t clap or shout or do much of anything. Still, I can’t seem to take my eyes off of her. “She promised Trevor she’d make the most of her last semester,” Karen says, waving her pompom all over my face.

I swipe her arm away, my eyes finding Ava again. “So that means pep rallies?”

“School spirit, you know. Rah! Rah! Rah! Goooo, Wildcats!”

“Huh.”

Karen laughs. “Did you think she was here to support you?”

“No.” Maybe.

“You sure look butthurt for someone who doesn’t even want to be friends with her.”

My eyes snap to hers. “She told you that?”

Karen nods, a twinkle in her eye.

“It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s that I can’t.”

“Uh huh.”

Coach calls out Rhys’s name and Ava smiles, claps for the first time. “See that?” Karen says. “She dumped his sorry ass, and they became better friends.” She pats my head as if I’m a dog. “You should be more like Rhys.”

I roll my eyes. “You should be more like Ava.”

Karen laughs. “That’s one uphill battle I’ll never climb.”

I face her.

She shrugs. “There’s only one Ava in this world, Connor. So, the ball’s in your

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