Under the Surface

Chapter 10: Ava

Ava drove up the twisted, tarmac driveway of Robert's bachelor pad until she put her car in park. It was 9pm, only about seven hours after they both came face to face at the anniversary party. She quickly looked at herself in her phone's camera then started walking up to the door where she rang the door bell. Nearly immediately after her ringing it Robert abruptly opened it and said "come in," then looked around outside after she entered to see if anyone else was there watching. Ava stood in the hallway until he closed the door and turned around and said, "Ava, what the fuck!". He walked into the spacious living area with panoramic views of the wooded area surrounding his house, she attentively followed after him. "Please don't tell me what I've been thinking since I saw you today. Please, please tell me you are actually nineteen years old and not sixteen like Danielle Lawrence." he pleaded, as he sat down on the sofa where she sat down next to him. She gently shrugged and looked down at her feet. "I'm sorr..." she began until he interrupted her and said "fuck!". "What do you think you're doing huh? You're sixteen! You know how that makes me look? If anyone ever found out about this I would go to prison Ava. I'm not a fucking pedophile, okay?" he yelled, going over to a bottle of scotch and pouring himself some. "I know that, obviously! You thought I was nineteen, which is legal. It's my fault I'm the one who lied!" she said whilst she got up and walked over to him. "Yeah, well for my own goddamn sake I hope you didn't tell Danielle" he said, taking a sip whilst giving her a stern look. "As if! You can trust me!" she lied. She trusted Danielle, she knew she wouldn't say a word. "God! Then Danielle would tell Martin and Martin would be so angry that I was fucking his daughter's friend and I'd probably get fired, let alone get fucking arrested for being a pedo!" he said, letting out a loud angry sigh. "Look, calm down. You can trust me Robert, I'm not going to tell anyone about us." she said, with a slight smile as she touched his arm. Robert moved away and said "about us...Ava, there is no longer an us ok? This has to end, this has to end now! I would never have gotten involved with you if I knew you were sixteen years old!" he stated. She gave him a confused look. No Ava, don't...don't cry, she thought. She was extremely sensitive and could cry over anything, something she hated about herself, it made her appear weak. Bethany always mocked her over it. "Robert, please. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have lied. I promise, no more secrets, we can carry on as we did before all this happened!" she said hopefully. "No Ava. This, us, is done. You should leave now." he said, avoiding eye contact with her. She could feel the tears swelling up in her eyes. She turned around to leave before quickly walking over to his alcohol station and pushing his crystal scotch decanter off the counter and watched it crash to the floor, glass and scotch splattering everywhere. Then she turned around and left for good.