Snaked

Three Favorite Boys

Avery's pov

"Ave, come on, let's go home," Luke says, pleading me to go with them with his eyebrows furrowed together in confusion.

I look behind me and Cam and Willie and notice they both have tears in their eyes, making my decision worse. "I-" I start to say but then I see Alex and I can't help but smile at him before he runs past Luke before wrapping me up in a hug.

"Oh, thank God, you're alive," he says before pulling me away and placing a kiss on my forehead. "You look amazing," he says, making me smile even though I don't know what I'm going to do.

"She's not coming, Alex," Luke says, pulling him away from me.

"Ave, please," Alex begs with tears starting to form in his eyes.

"Alex, I just-" I say softly, wanting to plead my case but I don't even know why I'm refusing to go with them. "I can't," I say before turning back to Willie and Cam and walking toward them as my tears finally fall.

"Ave, come on, there has to be some sort of mistake!" Luke says, grabbing my wrist. I don't say anything, instead, I just look up at him, hoping he'll let me go without a fight. "No! I already lost you once, I'm not losing you again!"

"Well, if it isn't my three favorite boys," I hear Caleb say, interrupting us before Willie and Cam come up behind me and grab me, leading me away from them and into a back room.

"Avery, was that-?" Cam starts to ask and I immediately know where she's going with it so I just nod before she sits down and puts her head in her hands, looking oddly deflated.

"Did you know they were here?" I ask, looking up at Willie from my place on the floor next to Cam.

He nods and I look up at him in disbelief that he didn't tell me. "I was gonna tell you, I promise, but they were too quick. By the time I got to you, they had already seen you."

"Who let them in?" Caleb asks, bursting through the hallway doors and walking toward us.

Caleb's eyes land on me before he starts marching toward me, making me stand up and back away from him. I panic when I feel like back hit a wall and I watch as he raises his hand, looking like he's about to hit me which makes years of memories come flashing back to me. "Stop! Please!" I scream as I crouch down, moving my hands in front of my face. When I don't feel a stinging sensation that a slap would leave, I look up and realize that he was just fixing his hair and that he's looking at me with a strange expression. I clear my throat and straighten up as I try to hide the small tears in my eyes. "What?" I ask, putting on my brave face as if I didn't just fall to my knees in fear. I hear the sound of Willie and Cam's shoes against the floor before they appear behind Caleb.

When Cam sees Caleb, she immediately grabs his shoulder and forces him away from me. "What did you do to her?" She yells at him, grabbing my wrist and pulling me behind her, trying to stop me from shaking but it doesn't stop.

"What happened?" Willie asks, waiting for a response and gets impatient when he doesn't get one. Caleb opens his mouth to say something but closes it before shaking his head and walking away.

When he leaves, Willie looks over to me and I take a few steps to get to him before I wrap my arms around his chest as I finally let a few tears fall. I feel Cam's hand on my back and even though I know it's her, I can't stop myself from flinching. Cam rubs her hand up and down my back, trying to make me feel better even though the only person I want right now is Luke, but the closest I'm going to get is Willie.

"Come on, let's go," Willie suggests as he keeps one arm around my shoulder.

I keep both of my arms wrapped around his chest which later causes complications with the stairs so he picks me up and moves my legs around his waist and carries me into my room before placing me softly on the bed. He and Cam exchange a couple of words which I can't hear due to my shocked daze before he leaves and Cam stays behind before sitting on the bed next to me.

"How about we get you changed out of that dress, yeah?" She asks but I just look at her, trying to put together the mess of words I heard. "I'm not going to do it unless you say it's okay," she says and by this time, my mind has kind of caught up so I nod. She hesitantly takes off my heels before grabbing my hands and pulling me into a standing position so that she can unzip my dress. When she undoes the zipper enough for me to take my arms out of the sleeves, she pauses for a moment and I know she just saw the damage my mom really did. She doesn't say anything though, she just stays silent until I'm in my underwear. "I need to go grab something from downstairs if you wanna get changed into some pajamas," she says before leaving.

I change into a pair of silk shorts and top before moving into bed and closing my eyes, hoping to God I don't get those awful nightmares again. Soon enough, I wake up quickly as I come out of a nightmare, freezing but dripping with sweat, I hear two people talking and I open my eyes just enough before seeing Willie and Cam sitting on the couch with coffees in their hands. Cam's head is resting on Willie's shoulder as she fades in and out of sleep herself. Willie rubs her arm, causing her to close her eyes and fall asleep before he grabs the coffee out of her hands and places it on the coffee table. Willie adjusts her head so that her head is resting in his lap before he nods off as well. I turn over and smile to myself, somehow, even in all this mess, I feel lucky to have ended up here with people that care.