Page 66 of Honest With You

The pictures?

She raises an eyebrow at me, her mouth pinching. She’s throwing me her classic Ava Torres glare and now I’m scrambling to figure out what she could be talking about. I barely looked at those pictures because I was too busy trying to get to her.

“Baby, I–”

“Spare me the excuses, Jesse. That picture where she was resting her head on your shoulder while you slept? The shirt you were wearing? I bought you that. To match the one I got for Matt’s birthday.”

Fuck.

"Ava–"

I curl my fingers and grip my knees tight to keep from pulling her into me. She's an inch away but I know the last thing she wants is my touch.

She moves to stand and my eyes follow her but I remain seated.

"We're done here. Please leave before my brother has to throw you out." Ava turns to look over her shoulder at me, but her eyes remain fixated on the pool. "Delete my number from your phone. Don't call or text. Don't even talk to me at school. I've heard what you had to say, now leave me alone."

I shoot to my feet, vibrating with the fear that she actually means what she's saying. That my actions led to destroying us... or worse destroying her.

"Ava, baby, please give me another chance. That's all I need. I need you."

She whirls around and for the first time finally meets my eyes. Sadness and anger mar her pretty face. My betrayal etched on her face.

"That's the problem, Jesse. You need me... but I don’t need you.."

She looks down at her feet for a moment, seemingly trying to regain control of her emotions but failing as she swallows audibly.

“Whatever your reasons are for abandoning me on the weekend of my birthday for your ex-girlfriend and completely ghosting me while you were… I don’t want to hear it anymore. You chose to do those things. Like I’m choosing to be done with this. Done with you.”

Ava stares at me and for every miniscule second that she does, I feel her pain shooting at me like spikes to my heart.

She shakes her head at me, inadvertently shaking me from the gravity of my sins.

"I'm done. I gave you space and time to be heard which is more than you deserve. Please leave."

She turns to walk away and my hand shoots up to grab her arm when I'm yanked away forcefully.

Stephen comes into my line of sight. His eyes bulging with anger.

"Enough. My sister said she's done. She also asked you to leave so do that now. Get. Out."

He shoves my shoulder causing me to take a few steps back from the impact.

Through all this, Ava has stilled. Without turning around she reaches from behind and grabs her brother's wrist effectively pulling him away.

Shooting me a murderous look over his shoulder, Stephen practically growls at me.

"See yourself out."

Then he wraps an arm around Ava's shoulder walking her into the house.

I start to follow when Reese comes out of the sliding doors.

This spunky teen who used to be my biggest fan is looking at me with nothing but contempt in her eyes. Disgust mars her features as she wordlessly just points at the side gate that’s for staff use only.

I'm not even allowed to go through the main house.

Igrip the marble tiles around my sink as I struggle to catch my breath. I woke up with the worst bout of nausea to date, just when I had finally fallen asleep. I can’t tell if it’s because I’ve barely slept this past week or because I’ve barely eaten. Either way, between the nausea, insomnia, bouts of vertigo and fatigue I’ve been feeling for the past few weeks and dealing with my breakup with Jesse, I can no longer ignore my body. Even if I have to deal with Stephen and his overprotective ways.

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