Page 157 of Heartache Duet

“Yeah? How so?”

She sighs, just as a gust of wind blows by, forcing her wild hair to bounce all over the place. She tries to control it, but another gust comes, and her brow dips, frustration forming on her lips.

I set the mug next to me on the bench and take off my hoodie. Then I stand in front of her, order, “Arms up.” With a giggle, she does as I ask, and I slip it over her head, making sure her hair is restrained under the hood. I sit back down, glance at her just in time to see her sniffing the fabric. “Why are you so obsessed with me?”

“It smells nice,” she says through a laugh. “Like post-shower jock and teen spirit.”

“How many jocks have you sniffed?”

“Oh, God,” she moans. “Like, so many.”

“Huh.”

Her rumble of a giggle forms deep in her throat.

I tap her blanket-covered leg with the back of my hand. “So, you got early acceptance to a few places…?” I ask, bringing us back.

Nodding, she says, “I kind of hid the letters from Trevor.”

“Why?”

“Because,” she sighs out, staring ahead. “I didn’t want him pressuring me to go. And he did exactly that, and my mom got involved and said some really harsh things. I ran out of the house, and a few hours later you found me sitting outside my old house.” She tilts her head to face me, wearing a sad smile.

“I’m sorry that happened.”

“It’s okay. We’re dealing with it all now.”

“So, you got a few early acceptances?”

“Uh huh,” she says as if it’s no big deal.

“Where to?” Please say Duke. Please say Duke. Please say Duke.

She inhales deeply. “Just Texas A&M, University of Florida, and UNC.”

“That’s kind of massive, Ava. Like, even if you don’t go, that’s…”

“Huge,” she finishes for me. “And it’s not as if I’m not proud of myself, because I am. I know how hard I worked for it. It’s just that I’m not ready yet. I have a lot of things to figure out before any of that.”

I try to put myself in her shoes. Everything’s so simple for me. I have one goal, and there’s nothing really stopping me from achieving it besides myself. There are so many factors outside of her control and the fact that she manages to—

“You like the hot chocolate?” she asks, breaking through my thoughts.

I take another tiny sip. “Yeah, it’s real nice,” I say, my shoulders tense as I rub my arm, trying to ease the chill of the cold night air.

Ava scoots closer, her hands holding the blanket open for me. I squeeze in, gather the ends of the blanket and wrap them around both of us, shielding us from the rest of the world. I use her body heat to keep me warm. She says, “You shouldn’t have given me your hoodie, stupid.”

“So, give it back.”

“Never,” she whisper-yells.

I don’t mind it, though, because she’s in sleep shorts, her bare legs emitting the most heat. I grasp her calves and pull them over my lap. She wriggles around until she’s comfortable, taking my free arm and holding it to her. With her head resting on my bicep, she says, “I miss these moments with you. When the world’s quiet and we can just be… and it doesn’t matter what we are. We’re just two people who like to be around each other, you know?”

“Yeah,” I agree.

“We don’t need labels, Connor. Friends or not, you’re always going to be the boy who went out of his way to show me that magic is real and that it exists and…” She pauses a beat, her exhale warming my chest. “You’ll always be irreplaceable to me.”

I let each of her words sink in, inhaling them through my bloodline. “And you’ll always be my first.”

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