FIFTY SHADES OF G'DAY

Chapter 13

As per usual, I was avoiding Ava. It had been three days since she had began to ask me the very question I had asked myself not long beforehand, three days since I cut her off and ran in the opposite direction, and three days since we had last spoken to each other.

I wasn't sure why she wasn't speaking to me, but whatever the reason, I was grateful for it. She didn't seem upset with me anymore, however, as she gave me a soft smile whenever she approached our desk in biology — but that was as far as our interactions went, and for that, I was thankful.

My reasons for not speaking with her were as clear as crystal; I was not putting myself in another position to have my sexuality questioned again. I had already quashed those feelings three days ago, putting it down to a simple phase or the influence of the growing LGBTQIA+ community and their lifestyle becoming more widely accepted by the greater population, and I absolutely refused to have Ava waltz in and make me question myself all over again.

As I walked through the quadrangle towards the school building one morning, I was met with the sounds of that unmistakeable Australian accent, loud and exasperated, being drowned out by an equally loud, and obnoxious, McKenzie. The empty cafeteria they chose to argue in did them no favours whatsoever, their voices echoing off the tall walls and high tin ceiling and reverberating out towards the quadrangle and school grounds.

"I didn't think you'd be this upset, Ava!" I heard McKenzie's whine painfully.

"What, you thought I just wouldn't care?" Ava retorted, her voice raised and tense.

"Yes, exactly! I didn't think it counted," McKenzie responded in her whiny high pitched voice, the sound grating and so unbelievably irritating.

Whatever Ava's response was, I didn't hear it. The school bell drowned out the remainder of their argument and I quickly made my way towards my locker, not wanting to be caught eavesdropping and refusing to face Ava before I absolutely had to.

To say I was happy to hear them fighting would be...somewhat truthful. My disdain for McKenzie Cole had grown significantly since the Australian had set foot in Shore Cross High School. Before that, I'd never paid the auburn haired girl much attention at all — she wasn't popular, nor particularly attractive in my opinion, so she never garnered my attention. Now, however, things were different. She alone was the sole reason I was unable to satiate my curiosity, and the thought of them potentially breaking up made me giddy with excitement. Was I finally going to have the opportunity to quash this feeling, this curiosity, once and for all?

My desperation to avoid the blonde disappeared throughout the day as my desire to know what their argument was about grew stronger and stronger. But as the day wore on slowly I had barely seen a glimpse of the Australian girl. How was it that when I was trying to avoid her she was seemingly everywhere, but when I was trying to find her she was nowhere to be found? Part of me felt bad knowing that my desperation to find the blonde was fuelled by my need to know what her argument with McKenzie was about, but my desperation to satisfy this damned curiosity outweighed my guilt by far.

Rumours of their fight fluttered through the halls throughout the day, but I was yet to hear the same one twice.

"I heard that McKenzie asked for a threesome!"
"Apparently Ava slapped McKenzie across the face!"
"Jenny Davis told Trey Michaels that she saw McKenzie making out with the algebra sub teacher!"

By lunch time I had given up on finding Ava. Each flash of blonde hair in the corridors left me disappointed when it turned out to be someone else, and the happiness and excitement I felt about their fight was beginning to taper. What if they reconciled before I got the chance to find her?