Cause for Concern ✓

twenty nine

FRIDAY. 03. DECEMBER. 21.

"FINE, fine!" Ava muttered, huffing in defeat, her bedroom floor creaking quietly in the background as she paced around. "You've made some good points."

"So you'll talk to him?" Max asked, his phone pressed against his ear as he lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. In his other hand was the remote for the TV which had been paused since he'd answered the phone.

After he and Danny decided to leave the night behind them, he'd driven back to his dad's, where he was crashing for the night, and had called Ava almost immediately. He had kicked his shoes off into the closet and brushed past his step-mom with a brisk wave, bounded up the stairs and shrugged off his jacket. By then, the phone was already ringing, anticipating Ava's response.

When he was turning on the lamps on his bedside table, he heard her voice chirping for the first time and, before he even opened his mouth, she was interrogating him about Danny.

"I'll consider it," she hummed.

"Ava," he warned.

"Okayyyyy! I'll talk to him," she groaned, her tone becoming gentle with contemplation. "I might invite him over, actually."

"Thank you," he sighed, massaging his forehead. "You've done us all a favour."

"Yeah, shut up," she muttered. He imagined her rolling her eyes, maybe inspecting her nails. "I guess I may have possibly been slightly in the wrong."

"You? Wrong?" He echoed incredulously, his sarcasm heavy. "No, surely not!"

She laughed and, even if she was a pain in the ass, he couldn't help but grin at the sound of it. "Leave me alone!" She cried, her smile spilling over her words. "It takes a lot for someone who is never wrong to admit that they're wrong!"

"Doesn't sound like a problem you should have to deal with," he muttered, quipping a brow and glancing at the frozen TV screen.

"Hey, I am right a lot of the time!" She protested.

"I'll believe it when I see it," he replied, offering an exaggerated yawn. "Just promise me you'll talk. I don't like seeing him stressing out over his love life just because he wouldn't give you a ride one time."

"Okay, you've made some arguably valid points and I promise I'll hear him out. I'll call him after we get off the phone," she said, her voice becoming gentler. "Can you stop making me feel bad now?"

He smiled halfheartedly and softened. "All done guilt tripping," he joked. "Thank you."

"I owe it to him," she replied. "Anyway, now that that's over with, how's Cole?"

"Cole's fine," he laughed. "Cole is not my equivalent of Danny."

"Uh, yes he is," she retorted. "He's your boyfriend-to-be, is he not?"

"Maybe," he shrugged.

"Maybe!" She imitated, her voice so thin that he almost winced. "What does that mean? I thought it was a definite 'eventually', hopefully a 'sooner rather than later'. What is this maybe business?"

"All I'm saying is that it might be a while before he comes around," he insisted. "I don't want to rush him into anything."

"Not buying that," she scoffed. "He's been way more touchy-feely with you this past week. That has to mean something."

"Didn't realise you were spying again," he mumbled, still smiling to himself.

"First of all, I never stopped," she corrected, presumably shuffling around in bed based on the background noise. "Second of all, it's not spying. It's observing."