Fighting For Ava

*02*

"I know she'll mess up her pride one day."

"She's always been a whore."

"Beautiful whore."

"Jeez...I saw those pictures. She was damn smiling."

"She's just a big pretender. Our brilliant girl likes those things too."

Jethro felt his head aching as those chatter and mocking laughter pierced through his ears. He had banged his fist on the table a hundred times and had wanted to hit at the gossip but Gavin had done well to restrain him.

"Let them talk. People will always do." Gavin's calm voice had advised and he could only clench his palm in suppressed anger.

"Do you still have those pictures?" He asked, not looking up from the table. His eyes were just steely on his plate of cold chicken rolls.

"No, I don't," Gavin mumbled, his head shaking along.

"Alright." Jethro breathed and wiped a palm over his face in hesitation. There was a question he wanted to ask Gavin but couldn't as a big pain withheld him from within. He knew what the answer would be and it hurts him to think of it. He wanted to ask if Ava was smiling in those pictures but they had both seen them in his dark room that night. His beloved Ava was grinning, naked, and cuddling some strange boy. Who was that boy? Was he also a student of Riverdale? Jethro's brows arched as he deepened in the awkward thought.

"Heyyy... " Gavin flapped a palm in front of him and he startled back to life, "What're you thinking so deep?" Gavin chuckled but then it was a short little laugh as Jethro was not smiling either. There was a burning question he wanted to ask.

"That boy with Ava," He started and paused, tossing with the fork on the rolls, "Is he also from Riverdale?" He asked softly, his head raising to lock eyes with his friend.

"No." Gavin replied and rested back on his chair, his palms clasping the base of his neck, "But he has some history with Ava."

"Really?" Jethro's eyes bulged with interest and then they shot a glare at a group of gossip where some girl had uttered a derogatory comment about Ava. Gavin traced his look and could only smile when he looked back at him.

"You seem not to know a lot about a girl you so much care for." Gavin continued to beam.

"I've always been admiring from afar, you know." Jethro shrugged, a stray smile coming to his face before it was immediately snuffed out, "So, you said the boy had some history with Ava?" He asked with a clear, keen edge. There was only one boy he had known with Ava and that was no other than the cute Finn Maxwell.

"Yes, the boy is from Neo city, Ava's former school. He was Ava's boy there before she relocated to Georgia." Gavin narrated and Jethro's eyes narrowed in subtle understanding.

"So you're saying what happened in those pictures wasn't coincidental?" Jethro said dreamily as those pictures seem to display in his sight again. Heck...he pushed them off his head.

"No way." Gavin affirmed, wagging his index finger "And you know one thing," He bent forward and lowered his voice for his next statement, "Finn is not to be trusted in all of these."

"Finn?" Jethro snorted in a mix of doubt and surprise.

"Yes. Finn Maxwell." Gavin nodded in a big assurance and Jethro's eyes squinted questioningly.

"Why Finn?" He asked and a wry smile cut across Gavin's face as he sipped at his coffee.

"Who was the favorite for the Gainesville scholarship before Ava joined the school?" Gavin asked back, his smile broadening.