Page 17 of The Afterthought

I hate that I have to be a buzzkill, but I'll be damned if these two girls will be out partying with a bunch of gang bangers and drug dealers. If they want to step into this life once they turn eighteen, that's on them. As long as Chloe is under my roof, and I'm in charge of her, she will keep her underage ass away from them.

"Ava, can you relax? We're just hanging out with our boyfriends. It's not a big deal." She laughs and doesn't make any effort to get up.

Some of the people close by have turned their heads and are now watching over our heated discussion. I don't care if I embarrass her. I need to get the hell out of Greyson's house. Not because he told me to but because I don't want to be anywhere near him. I recognize Wrenly out of the corner of my eye, walking over to me.

"Hey, Ava, I, um, didn't expect to see you here," she admits with a bit of guilt.

"Yeah, obviously, I didn't know whose house it was. Thanks, by the way, for not texting me back earlier. I thought we were doing something tonight." I'm not really sure what the hell has gotten into her. She was supposed to be my friend, but I don't have time to deal with her shit right now. I need to deal with Chloe because I'm a responsible adult these days.

"I didn't really know how to bring up the fact that there was a party for Grey's birthday. I'm sorry," she confesses.

"It's fine." I'm a bit short with her, but at the moment, I don't care.

Another figure approaches us, and I can already tell without looking that it’s Greyson. His burnt, minty leather scent gives him away. As if this wasn't already infuriating enough, now I have to have him standing there and watching as I try to convince the seventeen-year-old sister I've only known for a few days to leave a party on a Saturday night.

"You're Ava's sister?" he asks her.

She rubs up and down her arms nervously. "Apparently."

"Good, get out," he states plainly before looking over at her friend. "You too. I already told you once. Go the fuck home."

Both of their mouths drop at how blunt he is. Without another word, he turns and walks back into the house. The two of them quickly gather up their things and kiss their boyfriends, and the three of us then walk right out of the house in complete silence.

I made the executive decision to take Andrea home. She can tell her dad whatever excuse she wants for not spending the night, but I can't have her at the house right now. I look over at Chloe in the passenger seat and find her staring out the window, deep in thought. Within no time, we are back at my house. I drop my keys on the table, sighing as I take off my black boots.

Chloe turns to face me once she gets inside. "Do you have any idea how embarrassing that was? Everyone at school is going to be talking about it."

"Embarrassing?" I question.

"Yeah. You don't even know me. You don't have the right to tell me I can't go to parties with my boyfriend."

"I get it. You're young. You want to have fun and fall dangerously in love with whatever the hell your boyfriend's name is." She goes to interrupt me—I'm guessing to tell me his name—but I stop her. "I don't care what his name is. It doesn't matter because he is just going to leave you high and dry and choose the gang over you. That's what they all do." I try not to let some of my feelings about Grey seep into this, but I can't help it.

"You don't know anything. You haven't even been in this town for the last seven years," she says to me, rolling her eyes.

"I know enough. I was you," I admit.

This seems to get her attention because she lets her guard down a bit and eyes me curiously. I pull out one of the chairs from the kitchen table and sit down, giving her a moment to sit next to me.

"Look, this whole situation is still new. We are both two different people trying to figure all of this out. I'm not your enemy, but I won't sit back and blindly let you make decisions that could change your life. At least for the next few months." She stares at me, still silent, so I continue. "When I was seventeen, Greyson and I were supposed to graduate and leave this town. We spent years together and saved up money. He told me everything I wanted to hear until he didn't. He tossed me aside like I was nothing but an afterthought and moved right along with his life. I was angry, so I packed up and left, half expecting him to try and come find me, but he never did. I was crushed. That's one of the reasons I haven't been back in this town since. It hurts to be here and be reminded of what he did."

"You didn't come back to visit your family?" she asks.

"My mom wasn't like yours. She was a drug addict that I never had a relationship with. The only thing she cared about, especially after my dad died, was her drugs. We didn't have nice things or live a nice life. Anything nice I did manage to get for myself, she ended up selling for her next hit. So, no, I didn't feel the need to come back here to visit her."

"You said she died," Chloe says, looking around at the noticeably empty house.

"Yeah, an overdose a few months ago," I state coldly. I think at this moment, she realizes the only reason I came back to this town was for her.

"I'm sorry." She actually looks like she feels bad, which annoys me a little bit. I don't need people feeling bad for me because I had a bad childhood. Lots of people go through their own shit. I picked up and moved on from it.

"Can we just agree to try and find some sort of common ground? I would really like to get to know you." I finally feel comfortable enough to admit it to her.

"Sure, I guess that wouldn't be terrible. The rest of my family is dead. You're all I have. I'm not breaking up with Matt, though."

I laugh at how straightforward she is. "Just be careful and protect your heart. Some lessons just have to be learned. I think we've had enough breakthroughs for tonight, though. Do you mind if we call it and just start fresh tomorrow?"

"Yeah, we should sleep. The bags under your eyes are really hideous right now," she jokes, and I find myself laughing with her before the two of us go our separate ways into our bedrooms. Maybe things will all work out after all.

---