Heartache and Hope (Heartache Duet #1)(41)

Then I send another message to Ava.

Connor: I just really miss you is all. If you never want to talk about what happened—the kiss thing—that’s cool. Just don’t shut me out, Ava. Please.





Ava


“So, I met Connor,” Peter says, sitting on the couch next to me while Mom sits in her room, alone, staring at the wall because she’d rather be doing that than be around me right now.

Today is a negative day. I just haven’t worked out how bad it is yet.

“And?” I ask, reading back the stream of texts Connor had just sent me.

“And he seems like a decent kid.”

I think about Connor and how much things will change for him now that he’s in the spotlight. He’ll have more friends than he knows what to do with, and girls like Karen… and then there’s me. And right now, he thinks that I’ll be enough, but that won’t last forever, and even after an incredible life-changing kiss, nothing’s changed. I’ll still be me, always, and he’ll get sick of the wanting and waiting, and he’ll move on. I reread the message: Just don’t shut me out, Ava. “He’s a dreamer,” I mumble. A disbeliever.

Peter asks, “What do you mean?”

“Nothing.” I shake my head, rid the fog. “I don’t know what I’m saying.”





Connor


Sitting in the front seat of Rhys’s car, Oscar moans, rests his head on the window. Next to me, Chad, another senior on the team, does the same. “What’s up with you guys?” I ask.

“Not so loud,” Chad groans.

Karen looks past Chad in the middle of the back seat and tells me, “They’re hung-over.”

“Oh man,” I laugh out. “Big night?”

Karen’s lips purse. “Uh-huh. My birthday party last night. I invited you but…”

Shit. I’d completely forgotten. “I had a ton of homework,” I lie.

“Sure,” she says, offering a painstakingly fake smile.



We get to the sports park and hit the food trucks first. Rhys seems to get one of everything while the other two guys pick at their food. Karen’s sitting next to me, and I don’t really know why she’s here, but the other guys don’t seem to mind it so it must be a regular thing. Rhys lets out an ear-piercing belch when he’s done, gets up, and smacks the other two guys upside their heads. “Let’s hit the cages,” he orders, and the two get up groaning, but follow him anyway. I’m still eating my food and so is Karen, so we awkwardly sit in silence. I don’t know what to say, and she doesn’t speak. I check my phone. Still no Ava.

“Look at those dumbasses,” Karen says, pointing to the cages. Oscar’s in the cage, his helmet on backward, balls flying at his head. “You know what they say is the best thing to do when balls are coming at your face?”

“What?” I ask.

She faces me and says, smirking, “Don’t open your mouth.”

A chuckle erupts from deep in my throat. “Hey, how come you don’t seem as hung-over as them?”

She shrugs. “I don’t drink.”

“Serious?” I ask, unable to hide my shock.

She laughs at my response. “We have the same trick, you and me. Walk around with a full cup and no one bothers you…” she says knowingly.

“I drink sometimes,” I explain. “I just have to be in the right mood. What’s your reason?”

“I don’t really know. I tried it once, but it wasn’t really enjoyable, and I’m not one to give in to peer pressure and do something just because everyone else does.”

“That’s… smart. I would’ve never thought that about you.”

She shrugs. “People tend to judge me based on my looks or the way I carry myself. I’m confident, sure, and I like to look nice, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have brains. I have the third highest GPA in our class.” There’s a hint of disdain in her tone, and I wonder if she’s talking about people in general, or me specifically. Because I sure as shit judged her based on everything she just said, and in this setting, outside of school, she seems like a decent person to be around. She starts packing up both our empty plates. “You ready?”

“Yeah.” We stand together, and I follow her to the trash, then to the cages. I say, making sure she can hear me, “Hey, I’m sorry I missed your party. Happy birthday, by the way.”

Her smile is as genuine as her response. “Thanks, Connor. I appreciate it.”





“Jesus. She’s got a reasonable swing on her,” I remark, watching Karen swing a bat as if it came with years of practice.

Rhys fingers the cage, then starts to climb it. “She ain’t bad.”

“Does she hang around you guys often?” I ask, pulling him down when I see one of the attendants start making his way over to us.

“Karen? Yeah. She’s one of the boys. Has been for years.”

“Huh.”

“Don’t let those legs and that pretty smile fool you,” he tells me, leaping off the cage and landing in a squat. To be honest, I hadn’t noticed either of those things. “She’s competitive as hell. That’s why she and Ava got along so well. Put those two in a room together, and they could take down the Chinese wall.”