Page 221 of Heartache Duet

On the other side of the door, I can hear Ava and Trevor whispering loudly, a heated exchange, and my eyes narrow when I try to listen harder. “You’re not calling him!” Ava whispers.

“We need to do something if we want—”

“We’ll talk about it tomorrow,” Ava cuts in. “Just let me have tonight, okay?”

“Fine.”

When Ava steps foot in her room, she’s smiling, but it’s not the smile she greeted me with. It’s not real. It’s not Ava. “Are you ready to get your nudes now?” she asks, sitting next to me.

“I heard you and Trevor arguing just now. What’s going on?”

“We weren’t arguing,” she murmurs, watching her legs kick back and forth.

“It sounded like an argument.”

She looks up at me now. “Did it?”

I lick my lips, try to find a response, but I’m tired, and the last thing I want is to fight her on this. She shifts her hair to the side, revealing her neck, and I know what she wants. I press my lips there, moaning when her hand finds my hair. Her head shifts so our mouths meet, and she pushes on my shoulder, lowering me to my back, and everything else fades when I get lost in her touch, in her taste, in the way she feels naked, her body sliding against mine. The world is silent, so are the raging thoughts that had been plaguing my mind. It’s just her and me, and her whispered, “I love you so much, Connor. Forever.”

When it’s over, she lies in my arms, her head on my chest. “So that’s what people mean when they say making love,” she muses, a single finger running up the length of my torso.

“I guess so,” I agree, keeping my voice low, so we don’t wake the rest of the house.

She leans up on her elbow and looks down at me. “Connor?”

“Yeah?” I reply, holding her hair away from her face so I can see her clearly.

“Do you think we’ll make it? I mean, when you go to Duke, and I… do whatever… Do you think we can do it? Outlast it all?”

“I fucking hope so, Ava.”

“Good,” she breathes out. “Because I really don’t want to live the rest of my life with anyone but you.”

“Me, too.”

She smirks. “Well, you kind of have to live with you.”

“You know what I mean, smartass.” I roll her off me. “I have to go home.”

She sits up, holds the blankets to her chest. Eyes wide, she whisper-yells, “What?!”

I laugh once. “Calm down,” I tell her, slipping into my sweatpants, no boxers. “I just have to go grab my toothbrush and stuff. It’s all still in my bag.” I kiss her forehead. “I’ll be back. Don’t worry.”

She lies back down, settling on her side, and leaves room for when I return.

I rush over to my house, catch Dad just before he leaves for work. “I’m going to stay at Ava’s tonight,” I tell him, unzipping my luggage to get my toiletries bag.

“Should I be talking to her mom about you staying there as often as you do?” Dad asks, standing in the doorway of my bedroom. “It’s not a problem, right? You’re not sneaking around?”

“No,” I laugh out. “Miss D worries when I’m not there in the morning.”

“And her brother, Trevor, he’s okay with it?”

“Yes, Dad.” I find what I need and grab a change of clothes for school tomorrow. “Everything’s good.”

“Okay.” He nods. “And you and Ava, you’re being careful when it comes to intimacy?”

I chuckle, turning to him. “We’re using protection, yes.”

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