Love Me Like I Do

chapter 3

Ava slammed the door of my room as soon as both of us were in. "Attacked by thieves huh!"

Ughhh..

"I didn't ask you to go over there! What did you do!"

"I didn't want to fight him, okay? He provoked me. I wanted to tell him off for what he did to you"

Ava still looked very angry. Her lips were pursed "provoked you??! How's that an excuse? You said you weren't going to do anything stupid"

"How was what I did stupid?" I asked, rolling my eyes heaven wards.

"It was.... You.... How could you just rush head on into a stranger's house without thinking!"

"I didn't rush.." I started to say but then I looked closely at her face. She was blushing hard and I understood instantly. She wasn't worried about what I did, she was worried about Stefan and what he'd think about her after this. Somehow, it made me even angrier. I risked my head to defend her and all she cared about was that ass hole. "I get it now" I said, nodding slowly "you still care about that jerk"

She blushed even harder.

"You're unbelievable. Stefan is a total ass"

"That's not what ..." She tried to change the topic "wait, how did you even get his address???"

"My best friend was going to a guy's house alone. I needed to know a few things about him" I said bluntly. Although, even I wasn't sure that was the reason.

"You snooped around in my phone"she stated, surprise in her voice.

"Since when is that a problem?" I asked angrily. Ava and I have never been one to keep secrets. At all. As soon as she told me about him three weeks ago, I made a few findings about him. His background, age, where he lived and what he did.

She sighed "it's not. I just don't approve of what you did is all. What if you'd gotten in trouble?... Or more hurt than you already are?"

"I was careful, Ava..I told you, I didn't want to fight him. He said something that provoked me" I bit my lips as what he had said replayed in my head

"He insulted your race?"

I didn't want to tell her what he'd actually said so I looked away and said "yes.." very softly.

Ava sighed again "so, you beat him up?"

"Broke his nose" I said.

"Are you sure his family won't press charges? What thing were you talking about to mom?"

I smiled, a wicked glint in my eyes "while he was blabbing about sleeping with a minor, he didn't know I'd recorded the whole thing" I said, holding up my phone "right here"

Ava's eyes widened "wh...h...."

"It's okay, Ava" I said soothingly "no one will hear about it unless it's absolutely necessary"

She was quiet for a few minutes after this. She ran her hands through her already messy hair, multiple times. She was nervous, possibly thinking about a lot of things. I watched her, wordlessly.

After a while, she said "I've gotta go over to him tomorrow. I need to apologize for all this. Sometimes, you've gotta let me handle things on my own, Lee"

"What?" I wasn't sure I'd heard well.

"I am going over to Stefan's tomorrow!"

Had she finally gone crazy? If she went anywhere near him anytime soon, he could harm her or worse. "You're never seeing Stefan again." I stated.

"No."

I was getting very angry again "I wasn't asking, Ava"

"Neither was I" she replied. " Stefan and I love each other, respect that. I'm sure the whole girlfriend thing was a big misunderstanding that we're going to fix soon. Stop sticking your nose in my business"

I dunno what made me do it but the next thing i did was play out the recording for her to listen to. Something I'd originally been avoiding so she wouldn't get hurt "you know what your darling Stefan called you?" I asked, as the recording played on. The look she was wearing was hard to read "He called you a worthless slut. If you ever go near him then maybe a slut is exactly what you are." Not waiting for a reply, I stood up, picked a bag sitting on a chair in the room, and went out of the room, slamming the door much harder than she had.

"Is everything okay up there?" My mom shouted from downstairs

Neither of us answered. I went out of the house without a word, got on my bike and rode away.

* * *
Narrator's P.O.V

Alex rode for 10 minutes before she reached her destination. The community park . It was almost completely deserted. She didn't stop there tho. Getting off her bike, she continued further, pushing the bike along.

Just a little beyond the park was a small orchard, surrounded by many trees and bushes. Alex stopped beside a big oak tree, rested the bike against it and slumped at the side, running her hands through her hair, sighing deeply.

After sitting like that for a couple of minutes, when the sun was setting, she reached into her bag, took out an already rolled joint, lit it and took a drag. She had been smoking since she was 14, when she'd found some in her brother's room, who was 16 at the time.

"Alex! You don't come in my room and just.. Touch things" he had said softly to the stoned Alex who was lying face down on the floor.

"Why is the sky upside down?" She had asked hazily.

He had put her to bed and covered up for her till she sobered up. They had had a good laugh after that. When she turned 15, he taught her how to do it properly and let her smoke a few times with him after that.

I miss him. She thought now as she exhaled through her nose. Her mind was racing. She was confused, unsure of everything at that point. She was going to smoke that feeling away.

"Hey..." A familiar voice said softly, about thirty minutes later, as foot steps approached Alex who was still slumped against the tree "can you not run off like that next time without your phone?"

"Ava...." Alex said. She felt butterflies in her stomach at the sound of the voice but dismissed it as an effect of the 3 blunts she'd already had. She turned to look at Ava. The setting sun had cast a beautiful glow around her face. Why was she this beautiful?