Heartache and Hope (Heartache Duet #1) - Jay McLean Page 0,76
to school, and I didn’t want to wake her so—”
Corey interrupts him. “So you just didn’t bother going to school at all? Or not tell anyone where you were or what you were doing?”
“Jesus, Ava!” Trevor yells. “Goddammit, you have that phone glued to your hand twenty-four-seven and all of a sudden it’s not—”
“Stop!” I yell back. “Don’t take this away from me!” I swipe at the tears refusing to stop and look up at him. “Please,” I beg, my voice cracking, my heart breaking. “Today was the best day I’ve had since Mom got back, and I don’t want you or anyone else taking that away from me, okay? I said I was sorry. But I just wanted one day, Trevor. Just one day when I could act my age, when I could be careless and reckless and… God, I just wanted to be a seventeen-year-old girl spending time with a boy I love—”
“You love me?” Connor cuts in.
I drop my head in my hands, humiliated. I glare at Trevor, imploring him. “Can we just go? Please!”
“Ava,” Trevor sighs out. “There has to be consequences…”
“I know.” I stand and head for the front door. “And I’ll deal with them like I always do, but please… just enough, okay? I just…”
“Hey,” Connor coos, wrapping me in his arms. “It’s okay.”
Tears blur my vision when I look up at him. “I just…” I don’t want to go home, I admit only to myself. I don’t want to go home and live in the darkness now that I know what it’s like to breathe in the light. “I just have to go home.”
Connor
Dad waits until Trevor and Ava are out of the house and for sure out of earshot before speaking, his tone a lot calmer than Trevor’s. “Your coach called. You're suspended for a game, and they assured me that no matter what Ava says or does, this time it has to stick. They’re using you to set an example.”
I nod, keep my gaze lowered. “That’s fair.”
Dad sighs. “Connor, if you want to tell me what happened, I’m happy to listen.”
“Nothing,” I say, looking at him for the first time since I entered the house. “I picked her up this morning, and she mentioned she hadn’t slept well because of her mom…”
Dad nods, urging me to continue.
“And by the time I got to school she was fast asleep, and I… I don’t know, I felt bad waking her, so I just kept driving.”
“What did you guys do all day?”
Shrugging, I give him the truth. “I ended up parking near a lake, I guess, and we just spent the day… just…”
“Being teenagers?” Dad asks, a compassionate smile tugging on his lips.
“Yeah,” I confirm through an exhale.
“Well, I’m sure Ava needed that,” he says, sympathetic.
“She did. She does.”
Dad stands, stretches, then starts pacing the living room like Trevor did. I’d ask if we’re done here, but I know him… there’s more. I just don’t know which way he’s going to flip it. He sits back down at the spot he left only seconds ago, his elbows on his knees. “You have to start thinking long term here, Connor.”
I almost fail at hiding my eye-roll. “I know. The end game. I get it, Dad.”
He shakes his head, rubs his chin. “It’s more than that now,” he explains. “If you care about Ava like you seem to and you want a future with her, you need to think about more than just now. And while now is good for you guys, great even, you need to think about the future. Because if you want her in your life for more than now, you have to find a way to take care of not only her but her mother… because that girl—she’s never going to leave her mom. And as much as she loves you, she loves her mom more, which she should.” He pauses a moment, before asking, “So how are you planning on doing that, Connor? Taking care of both of them emotionally and financially?”
My head spins while I replay every one of his words, over and over. I think about what I want in my life, in my future, and the only thing I see is Ava. “I go pro,” I declare. “I have to.”
He nods. “So, what you do now is going to determine what happens tomorrow. You got that?”
“Yes, sir.”
He stands. “Right now, your focus is what?”
I release the only truth that makes sense. “Basketball.”