The Unfolding ✔

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE.

(Ava's Pov)

A week had passed by and Kelly had returned home.

In all honesty, these past seven days felt as if they moved too fast. Way too fast. It almost felt like all I did was blink and I was greeted with next week. I had mixed emotions about the change of time. I was happy that Kelly had come back, because I was beginning to miss her - but sad because the week had flown by so fast and easily.

I wanted those seven days to last forever. Justin stayed home the remainder of those days and instead of being locked up in his home office, he took the time to get back into his children's lives. 

As promised, he helped Mason with his homework and attended his basketball game, much like the rest of us. He played with Aria, even going as far as getting an old lipstick of mine and smearing it on his lips; acting like a woman as he had a 'Tea party' with her. And then with Drew, he slowly approached him. He stayed with me when Drew had a nightmare, silently watching me comfort him. And he even read him a bedtime story the other night, putting on all sorts of voices and doing hand gestures to engage Drew even more. Drew even giggled.

He was an amazing dad. An amazing man. The more I got to be around him, the more I saw the real Justin Bass. And I loved what I saw. But I hated that I was so quick to judge him at first. He really was an incredible person.

Smiling to myself, I sighed in content. A sudden soft laugh floated into my ears, causing me to glance up with furrowed brows. Kelly was watching me from behind a white sheet she was putting up on the washing line. I furrowed my brows, amusement coiling up inside me.

"What's funny?"

Kelly's grey eyes narrowed at me before she let out another chuckle. The amusement inside of me died down and replaced itself with confusion. Her continuous laughter rang in my ears.

"Kelly," I prompted with a frown. She laughed a little more, before muttering foreign words to herself. I couldn't understand what she was saying, and I listened more closely. That's when I realized she was speaking another language. Greek. As Justin had mentioned she was from Greece before to me.

I continued to watch her with a frown, only hoping she wasn't cursing or making fun of me under her breath. Feeling my eyes on her, she slowly glanced up, her lips etched into a small smile. I didn't return it. Instead, I sent back a frown.

"Oh, don't look at me like that." She playfully rolled her eyes, placing the laundry basket against her hip. 

"Why were you laughing at me?" I mumbled.

She pegged a wet bed-sheet on the line. "Who said I was laughing at you?"

I crossed my arms over my chest. "I would believe that, Kelly, but you were looking at me and then started laughing... Is there something wrong with my clothes?"

I glanced down at my attire, not seeing what was wrong with it. Just a simple white tank top and a jean skirt, buttoned at the top. My feet were protected from the grass we were standing on by white flip flops.

"Of course not," She answered, pegging down another SpongeBob SquarePants themed bed sheet. I believed it belonged to Aria. Well, to her bed.

"My hair?" I continued to ask. It was out, curly and two strands were clipped back, preventing it from getting in my eyes.

"No. It's beautiful." She replied, glancing over at me for a second. My lips twitched into a smile before falling back into a frown.

"Then what?" I practically whined. I knew I most likely sounded like a child.