LOGINAvaI stood there like my feet were glued to the floor the second Riley’s mom said it. “She needs to leave.”Riley jumped right in, voice loud and sharp. “What the hell, Mom? You talked to her mom for five minutes and now you’re kicking her out? Top-tier adult decisions tonight, really loving the support.”I tried to shrink back, my shoulders curling in, bag still hanging from my fingers like it weighed a ton. My throat felt tight and I could barely get words out. “I… I can go,” I whispered, but it came out so small nobody even heard me over them.Riley’s mom sighed, hands on her hips, trying to sound reasonable but her face said she was done. “Ava’s mother called me right after you left. She said Ava has been difficult for months, skipping school she just got into, lying about where she goes, and now this pregnancy story. She thinks Ava is making bad choices and needs to face consequences.”“Making bad choices?” Riley cut in fast, stepping half in front of me like some chaotic shield
Riley “You don’t have to decide everything right now,” I said, slower, trying to make it simple, “just… come sit in the car, okay? We’ll figure it out from there.”Her mom let out a sharp breath. “If she gets in that car, she is no longer my daughter.”“Wow,” I muttered under my breath, “love the emotional support, really top tier parenting.”“Riley,” Ava said, and there was something in it now, something like panic, like she was about to break.“I’m here,” I said immediately, stepping even closer, close enough now that I could see the bruises starting to form on her arm, and yeah, that made me angrier than I was already, which I didn’t think was possible but here we are.She looked down at her arm, then back at me, then at her mom, and for a second I thought she was going to stay, I really did, because fear is a powerful thing and this was her family and walking away from that is not easy, it’s never easy, no matter how bad it gets.Then she moved.It was small at first, just her sh
Riley The first thing I noticed wasn’t the yelling, which says a lot because there was a lot of yelling, it was the way Ava was standing there like someone had unplugged her from herself, like her body was still there but everything else had already checked out, and then I saw her mom’s hand clamped around her arm so tight I swear I could see the marks forming in real time and that was it for me, that was the exact second something in my brain just went oh we are not doing this today, absolutely not.“Ava?” I said again, but louder this time, sharper, because she wasn’t even looking at me properly, just blinking slow like she was trying to wake up from something.Her mom turned her head toward me like I was an inconvenience, like I had just shown up to ruin her evening plans or something.“This is not your business,” she said, already dismissing me, already turning back to Ava like I wasn’t even there.Yeah, no.“Let her go.”It came out before I even thought about it, just straight,
Ava Her words hit harder than any slap. They didn’t just sting, they sank deep, settling somewhere in my chest where it already hurt to breathe. My eyes burned, vision blurring for a second, but I refused to let the tears fall. Not in front of her. Not when she was looking at me like I had already ruined everything.“I am not erasing anything, Mom,” I said, my voice shaking despite how hard I tried to steady it. I swallowed, forcing the lump in my throat down. “Not until I decide. This is not fair. You are acting like I did this alone.”She let out a laugh, but it wasn’t the kind that held humor. It was sharp, hollow, and cracked right through the air between us. “Not fair?” she repeated, her voice rising. “You want to talk about fair? I have given you everything, everything and this is how you repay me? By turning our family into some kind of joke?”I flinched, but I didn’t look away. If I did, I knew I’d break.“You think people won’t talk?” she went on, her eyes hard, almost unrec
Ava I woke up to cold water hitting my face again but this time it was not my mom waking me up for school or something stupid like that. No, this time she was standing over my bed with the pregnancy test paper all crumpled in her other hand and her eyes were red and swollen like she had been crying for hours already. My heart dropped straight into my stomach before I could even sit up properly.“What the hell mom?” I said, wiping water off my face and trying to grab the paper from her but she jerked it away fast.“You tell me what the hell Ava!” she yelled, voice cracking halfway through like she could not decide if she wanted to scream or break down completely. “I came in here to clean your room because you never do it yourself and I find this? This test that says you are pregnant and then this other paper with Jax’s name matched to it? Your stepbrother? Are you out of your mind?”She started crying harder then, tears just pouring down her face while she waved the papers around like
Ava I threw my hand up before anyone could even start talking again and it came out of me fast, like my patience just snapped in half and fell on the floor.“Okay. Everybody. Hold your horses.”Jax stared at me like I had grown a second head and didn’t know what language I was speaking anymore. “What did you just say?” he asked, slow and confused, like he was trying to process if I was joking or just completely gone in the head.“I said relax,” I repeated, louder this time, pointing between all of them because apparently I had become the manager of chaos whether I liked it or not. “Nobody is doing anything until this test is done properly. No arguing, no shouting, no accusing, no random emotional explosions. We are not doing this circus again in public.”Professor immediately stepped forward like I had insulted him personally and not just asked him to breathe like a normal human being. “You are the reason we are here,” he said sharply, like that solved everything in his mind.“Yes, I
Ava Two weeks crawled by like they were dragging their feet on purpose, but weirdly enough it felt... good? Chloe had already bounced back home the day after that whole disaster and vanished with her suitcase and Riley followed a couple days later, hugging me so tight I thought she was moving to a
Ava I stared at his mouth too long. Way too long. The way his lips curved up. The little dimple on one side. How his eyes crinkled at the corners. Everything about that smile made me feel warm and stupid at the same time. I wanted to kiss it. I wanted to crawl across the table and just sit in his
Ava I woke up at like six thirty, which is basically the middle of the night for anyone with a soul, and my first thought was Noah. Not the organic chem crap we were supposed to study, just Noah. Noah with his stupid soft smile and the way he texted about counting my lashes like a total weirdo. My
Ava He crouched right in front of me, eyes locked on mine like I was the most beautiful, broken thing he’d ever seen. His thumb stayed gentle on my cheek, brushing away that single tear, but his shoulders shook with the effort not to laugh. I was caught completely caught. My fingers were still bur







