by Unknown
“Oh, man, I have to do some shopping,” Rory said, nearly reading my mind.
“Yeah, me too.”
“Well, c’mon, Ava Baby,” he said, pulling me up off the couch. “You drive and I’ll buy lunch.”
After grabbing my small, vintage, black-and-white striped clutch, my keys, phone and cash, we made our way down to my car.
Our first stop was Tiffany’s, which was unbelievably packed with last-minute shoppers like ourselves. After a few deep breaths and some mental preparation, I made my way through the crowd to peer down at the glass cases displaying shiny and polished pieces of jewelry. I managed to find something Margaux might appreciate and I fell in love with a necklace that I knew would be perfect for Aggie. Rory kept drooling over an incredibly nice watch, so I quietly asked the sales woman to ring it up for me as well.
Recalling that Andy’s study had caught fire earlier in the fall and that he had lost several books from his collection, I wandered into a bookstore to stock him up on some of the classics; classics including Zorba the Greek, his favorite. Then I went excessively overboard for Lauren and got her three pairs of shoes, some cute boots, a pair of flats and an awesome pair of running shoes that I really loved and was considering keeping for myself. Next, Rory and I decided to hit up H&M and I bought Lauren some new clothes too.
I had no idea what to get for Ari. As Rory and I sat down for lunch, I attempted to pick his brain for good gift ideas. He was no help at all.
“I got him a sweater; you can go halvsies on it with me if you want,” he shrugged.
Rory held up the sweater. It was nice, Burberry, but about three sizes too big. I had a sudden suspicion that he bought it too big on purpose so Ari would just give it back to him.
“Uh, no thanks,” I said with a disbelieving laugh.
The restaurant was packed with holiday shoppers, tables were pushed close together and people shoved nearly one on top of another. I was, to say the least, uncomfortable. Out of the din came a voice, from the guy next to me as it turned out, complaining to some friend I could see only the back of, about how he had spent all of his cash on front-row tickets for the New Year’s Eve Vampire Weekend, Ra Ra Riot show. And about how he had no money left to buy Christmas presents with. He added that he would like to sell the tickets quick for some ready cash.
Ari and I are both huge fans of Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot. I actually had tried to get tickets for the show a while back but they had been sold out since the day they went on sale. I couldn’t help myself; I had to have those tickets.
“I’m sorry,” I said, interrupting their conversation, “I don’t mean to eavesdrop but you actually have front-row tickets for the New Year’s Eve show?”
“Yep, best seats in the house. I had four but I sold two of them a week ago.”
“How much are you asking for the two of them?”
“Five hundred.”
I bit down on my lip.
“Do you have the tickets on you?” I asked and he pulled two concert tickets out of his wallet and handed them to me.
“I’ll give you three hundred cash right now,” I offered.
He sighed in thought, “I can do four hundred,” he countered.
I shook my head, “No dice. Three fifty -- that’s my final offer.”
He hesitated for a moment and I thought I was going to lose the deal. I flashed a brilliant smile.
“Deal.”
Yes!
I took out the cash, handed it to him, took my front-row Vampire Weekend tickets, and slid them into my clutch.
“Oh, my gosh, Ava, I cannot believe you did that,” Rory laughed and rolled his eyes.
“When it’s Vampire Weekend AND Ra Ra Riot, our two favorite bands, the tickets are totally worth the price.”
“And so is Ari I hope,” Rory said with an easy smile.
“Of course he is!”
“You know Ava, he really likes you. You should have seen him that day when he came to talk to me about you. I’ve never seen him like that before. I’m not gonna lie Ava, I did kind of have a thing for you, but when Ari told me that he loved you, I knew I couldn’t stand in the way of that.”
My jaw hit the table, and I had to remind myself to breathe.
“Oh man, I shouldn’t have said that. I just assumed that you two were there already...he’s going to kill me. Please don’t say anything.”
All I could do was nod, smile and muster up a “sure” to put Rory at ease. Then a thought popped into my head. This is Rory; I can get anything out of him.
“What did he say exactly?” I leaned in close on my elbows.
“Oh come on, Ava, don’t do this to me.”
“Please,” I smiled a toothy smile and batted my eyelashes playfully.
“Ah, Ava, if he finds out, I’m dead.”
“How will Ari ever find out?” I made my voice soft and sweet with perhaps just a bit too much inflection.
Apparently, this is all the convincing Rory needed. He is more gossipy than a blue-haired lady after church. Rory scooted his chair closer and leaned in on his elbows.
“Ari was nervous Ava, I’m not going lie. I have never seen him like that before. Ari is always so collected and sure of himself. I had no idea why he wanted to talk to me. When he said he needed to talk about you, I was confused. I had never even really seen you guys talk together. I later found out that he had been sneaking behind my back at night, but whatever, I forgive him for that. Anyway, he told me that he loved you from the minute he first laid eyes on you. He told me he was sorry and that he had tried to ignore his feelings but he couldn’t manage to any longer. He said that he thought there might be a chance that you felt the same about him and he had to find out if that was the case. And he wanted my permission.”
This statement took my breath away. “Oh, pure wow.”
“So… do you love him, Ava?”
“Yes, very much.” My cheeks flushed and my voice was small.
After lunch, we finished our shopping. Rory got Julia a very nice gift, which surprised me, but I didn’t say anything about it. We stopped by baio and I picked out some things for Ari, not really for Christmas but because I felt a little guilt about having pushed Rory to talk with me. I let Rory stock up on a few things, too. The greatest thing about Margaux and baio is that she sells the best pair of aviator sunglasses I have ever found. Ari was always borrowing mine and losing them, so I grabbed a handful for both of us. We went up to Margaux’s office, which was on the twenty-second floor of a building in downtown L.A., but she was too busy to talk with me so I left her gift with her assistant, Delia.
We stocked up on ribbon, wrapping paper and tape and then headed back to the dorm and dropped everything on the bed in my room.
My Morning Jacket was playing through my laptop speakers and we spent the rest of the afternoon wrapping the presents. Ari came from his last exam and eyed the floor of my room. I made my way through the piles to reach him, bounced up on my toes and gave him a kiss.
“We got bored and went shopping.”
“I can see that,” he said with a laugh and pointed to Rory. “Give me a hand with this stuff. Aggie will flip if we are late.”
Ari and Rory filled up both my car and Ari’s Rover with all the luggage and gift boxes. My dorm room looked deserted by the time everything was all packed up. It seemed the only thing I was leaving behind was my old quilt, some books and random pictures of Mia and me. Rory drove the Rover, Ari rode with me in my car, and when we arrived at the house, the two of them spent the next half hour unloading everything.
I sat down on a stool at the island and began to help Aggie with dinner.
“Looks like you guys are moving in, Ava.”
“Yeah, it does kind of appear that way.”
She gave me a kind smile, tilted her head to one side and said, “Hopefully someday soon.”
I smiled back the best I could. I did not intend to move into the Alexander’s home. I had always assumed that, as soon as I turned
eighteen, I would move back to Canada or to Chicago – but that was before Ari, before I found out I was being hunted, before Mia died. Nothing was the same anymore and I had not yet tackled the issue of what I would do in the end. I was still trying to get safely through the present. Maybe I could stick around in California, but I felt certain I would not be living in my boyfriend’s parent’s house.
After dinner, Ari surprised Lauren, just as he had promised he would, by taking her out on his friend’s Catamaran to go whale watching. The trip worked out perfectly. Since I won’t step foot on a boat, whale watching was something the two of them could do together. Ari pleaded with me to come with but he knew there was no chance I would. I’m pretty sure that Lauren was happy about that. Lauren and I get along great, but I think she was having a hard time sharing her brother with me.
After Lauren and Ari left, Rory, Andy, Julia, Nick and I hung around and played poker until Rory started cheating and I had to cut the game short. We resigned ourselves to sitting on the back deck and watching the sunset. The stars came out and before long Ari and Lauren arrived back home. Lauren was grinning and bouncing all around Ari as they came through the big glass door. Ari pulled me up from the bench I was sitting on and into his arms. I took a deep breath of the freshly cut grass, sea and summertime he brought with him. My stomach felt giddy and did a little flip.
“I feel as though I haven’t seen you all day,” he whispered, and then he put his mouth on my earlobe. I let out a little gasp and he took me by the hand and led me back inside.
As soon as Ari closed the door to his bedroom, he turned around and pushed my back gently against the glass wall. Ari’s room looks down onto the deck we had just left. To everyone lounging along the glass wall we were like fish in a fishbowl, or so I thought.
“The glass is tinted and the lights are off, Ava. They can’t see us.” His voice was deep and rough in my ear.
He started kissing me softly again and then pulled back. I couldn’t move forward to meet him because he had his body pressed up against mine. He kissed me and then pulled away again, flashing a mischievous smile at the same time. Ari played his little game a few more times before I let out a sigh in frustration.
“What’s the matter, Ava?”
“You know.”
“Mmm… no, I don’t think I do.” He kissed me again softly then pulled back away.
“You don’t like it when I do that?” I shook my head no in response and he smiled at me.
“What about this?” He moved his lips to my shoulder and very slowly made a trail of kisses all the way up to the little spot behind my ear. My mouth opened up to a little O. I could feel his kisses all through my body down to the bottom of my stomach and through to my toes. Ari slid his leg in between mine so they parted and he could push himself closer up against me. My eyes fluttered shut and I tilted my neck back, allowing my head to rest on the glass behind me. His hands searched my body while our lips danced around on each other’s mouths. Our breathing turned heavy and Ari lifted me up and wrapped my legs around him. My fingers knotted in his hair and I began to let my body take over. I wanted him so badly I thought I might combust. My eyes opened ever so slightly and I found Ari staring back at me. His expression had changed from needy to cautious and he put my feet back down on the floor and gave me a chaste kiss on the lips; putting an end to the passion.
“This is a little bit harder than I thought it would be,” he said, brushing my hair out of my eyes.
“Yeah, tell me about it,” I answered as I blew out a long breath. Ari gave me a sweet smile and opened his mouth as if he were about to say something then shut it again, deciding not to. He brushed his thumb against my cheek then walked over to his bed and grabbed a pillow. I looked at him, puzzled.
“I’m going to go sleep on the couch,” he said, giving me a goodnight kiss. I nodded; as much as I did not want him to go, I knew it was for the best.
My body was frustrated and I tossed and turned over an internal conflict I was having with myself. I had never really thought about having a sexual relationship until I met Ari. But lately it seemed that whenever my lips met his, it was all I could think about. There was a part of me, deep down inside, that was urging, pleading, and begging the other part of me to wait and I couldn’t quite get that girl to shut the hell up and get out of the darn way.
I lay awake for what felt like hours. I couldn’t get comfortable without Ari and a few times I seriously contemplated going off in search of him. I resisted, knowing that he was probably already peacefully asleep.
At some point, I drifted off and as soon as I did, I found that my dreams were packed full. First I was pacing the old familiar hallway with my scissors. I knew by this time that I could not ignore these people any longer and I began walking into the rooms. Some of the people were lying motionless in their beds. I read the charts and saw that many of them had been in a near-death state for a while. I did what I had to do, what I could do, to ease them into their next world.
Andy had told me that someone else might have been taking care of the terminally ill in my hospital dream since deaths had been occurring at a normal rate. He said that the family had been trying to track down the lost descendant of Clotho and that this descendant may have been cutting the threads. I admitted to having been negligent of my duty – I had had no clue that my dreams were anything but a reflection of the turmoil in my life. Andy said that the death rate had been more or less normal in the year prior to Perry’s death but that in recent weeks, the phenomenon of death had come to a halt, and Andy deduced that the last known descendant of Clotho had been killed. With Perry gone, Andy looked for me with even more determination. Little had he known that I was right under his nose.
The hospital dream faded and I found myself in the weird running dream again. I was running through the woods, running fast. I was panicky, searching for something, but didn’t know what. Freezing cold rain was pouring down and I had no shoes on. My feet were covered in mud. I could hear talking in the distance and I stopped, searching for the source of the conversation. The talking turned to screams and then I woke up, icy cold and trembling.
Surprisingly, I had slept longer than I normally do when I have nightmares. I got up and threw on an old, gray, hooded sweatshirt of Ari’s that I had adopted as my own. I brushed my teeth and splashed warm water on my face, then headed down to the kitchen. Aggie, Lauren and Julia were making cookies and Rory was seated at the island on a stool that was excessively small for him.
“Finally,” he said with a humph. “I’ve been waiting forever – get your stuff on so we can go.”
“What are you talking about, and where is Ari?” I asked, looking around the kitchen. Ari likes to sleep in, but the morning was half gone.
“I thought we were running,” Rory answered, “and Ari is asleep on the couch. What’s that all about?” I shrugged my shoulders. How embarrassing. What was I supposed to say – that I couldn’t control myself enough to sleep next to my boyfriend so he had to sleep on the couch?
“Nothing,” I answered, and slipped out of the kitchen to put on my Under Armour and old running shoes before any more questions popped up.
Rory pushed me harder and faster during the run. He left the beach for a stretch of rugged, hilly terrain. I was really beginning to like his style and the cross training we had been working on seemed to be paying off.
When we got back to the house, I hopped in the cold shower and washed all the yuck from my skin and hair and got dressed. I arrived back in the main part of the house to find Julia perched on a stool in the kitchen with her head resting in her hands. She looked utterly bored. I took a seat next to her, breathing in the delicious smell of the cookies baking in the oven. Ari came in with a yawn and a stretch and scooped me in his arms.
“Hey, Baby, good morning,” he said with a smile, then planted a kiss on my lips.
“Morning,” I smiled back. “I missed you last night.”
“Did you now?” His eyes twinkled.
“Mmm.” I nodded.
Julia snorted and Ari peered at her.
“So,” he continued, ignoring Julia, “Rory and Nick are having a party tonight on the beach and asked if I could help get some stuff together. You can come with me if you want.”
“Umm…” I said, making a sour face. Getting firewood sounded like the opposite of fun. I looked down at my toes and came up with a better idea. “I was thinking about going in to town and getting a pedicure.”
“Pedicure!” Julia and Lauren squealed before Ari could respond.
“Uh, yeah. You want to come?” I asked the girls hesitantly.
“Yes, please!” was their very speedy response.
In the end, I found myself at a spa with Ari’s mother, Ari’s sister, Ari’s Aunt and Ari’s ex-girlfriend – not exactly how I thought I would spend my day, but it was actually kind of fun. The four of them backed off from asking embarrassing questions and carried on about Christmas plans and the night’s party. Once our toes were dry, Gianna, Aggie and Lauren decided to head across the street to a giant department store for some last minute things. Julia talked me into sticking around and getting a facial with her. I really liked Julia, at least I thought I did until she opened her big, stupid mouth.
“So what’s it like with Ari?” she asked casually.
“Uhh good…great I guess.”
“Yeah, he can be really sweet, huh?”
“Uh-huh,” I answered, not knowing where she was going with the conversation. She was his ex after all.
“So… have you guys… you know?”
Holy hell, what is it with these people? “Um no, I’m not really like that.”
She stared at me dumbfounded. “I don’t know why you would bother waiting, Ava; you’re only young once and besides Ari is great in bed. Believe me, it’s worth it.” She peered down at her freshly polished nails.
I took a moment letting her comment sink in. My mouth went dry and I could feel the color drain from my face. Ari did tell me that they had been involved romantically, but I hadn’t known to what extent. I guess a part of me knew that they had had sex; I mean they lived right next to each other in the dorms and I’m sure she stayed with him at home on the weekends. Julia certainly is not shy. I guess I just never allowed myself think about it.
