Hateful Saint by Ivy Blake
Chapter Ten
Ross
After Ava complied and fulfilled my wishes by sitting on my face - a moment that still managed to give me a hard on just from thinking about it- I’d been over at her place every evening for the rest of the week.
“I’m glad to see you guys slipping back into your old ways again,” Ava’s mom said to me as she opened the door to let me in.
“Yeah, it’s nice,” I said with a smile, knowing that me and Ava were up to much more than our old ways.
“She’s probably got headphones in or something, so just knock before you go in.”
“Sure thing.” I took off my shoes and went upstairs, trying to conceal my excitement from Ava’s mom. I know that I saw Ava every day at school, but it’s not like we hung out together. The most that we could do was trade looks during lunch. Miss Wilson was not having any talking in geography and I preferred sitting beside Ava in near silence as opposed to standing outside in the hallway for chatting too much.
On top of that, our timetables had us on opposite sides of the school most of the time, which pissed me off to no end. On the other hand, I wasn’t ready to tell the whole world about me and Ava. I’d barely told Nate and Austin. I still couldn’t figure out how much she liked me- which had never been an issue when it came to girls.
Most times, girls threw themselves all over me, which was sometimes great and sometimes just downright annoying, but at least I knew where I stood with them. Ava, on the other hand, was an enigma. One moment we could be laughing and flirting, the next she’s pissed off about some shit I’ve said that she doesn’t agree with, and we’re sitting in silence. While I found it frustrating, the back and forth was clearly not enough to stop me from coming over. If anything, it made me want to see her more.
I was determined to break through that layer… among other things.
I knocked on Ava’s bedroom door and pushed it open before she could respond. I was half hoping to find her getting dressed, but even though she wasn’t, a smile still broke out on my face when I saw her sitting by her window reading a book with her headphones on.
She looked fully engrossed in whatever world she had disappeared into, that she hadn’t noticed I was there. Part of me was tempted to run up and scare her, but I also didn’t want to ruin her peace.
I closed the door quietly behind me and watched as she turned the pages of her book. My breath caught in my chest. It was like every day she grew more and more beautiful without even trying. Watching Ava read, I felt stuck in a trance. She was often so focused and serious that it was nice seeing her properly relaxing and in her element, even if I was coming off a bit stalkerish.
After a few moments, I cleared my throat and the sound startled her.
“Shit, how long have you been there for?” Asked Ava as she slid her headphones off her ears so that they were hanging around her neck.
“Not long,” I said with a smirk.
“I don’t believe you,” she shot back, her eyes narrowed playfully.
“Will you believe the fact that I’m actually excited to work on our project today?”
“Not in the slightest.” Ava giggled, and it was the cutest sound.
“Well, I actually am, but I’m more excited to do this…” I walked over to Ava, my eyes locked on hers, marking her as mine. She set her book down beside her, her eyes wide in anticipation. Using my finger, I tilted her chin up and lowered my head to kiss her. Ava met my kisses with passionate enthusiasm and, as usual, her warm tongue on mine made my head spin.
“We’ve been doing this a lot lately. Surely you’re bored by now,” she whispered against my lips, her soft fingers caressing the back of my neck.
“Not even close,” I said before biting her bottom lip. Ava moaned and instinctively my hand shot out and wrapped itself around her neck. I growled as her eyes flew open, displaying the look of submissiveness that I was slowly growing addicted to.
“I can’t wait to be inside you,” I growled as I palmed her boobs gently.
Ava’s lips curled into a smirk, and she gave me a teasing look.
“Who says I’m going to let you do that?” she said coyly.
“I know how badly you want to feel me between your legs,” I said, my hand now on her thick thighs. Ava shuddered with pleasure as I ran my fingers lightly on her inner thigh, creeping closer and closer to her clit.
“Maybe I do, maybe I don’t,” she said breathlessly as she tried to keep her cool. “Either way, we can’t do anything while Mom is downstairs.”
“We can-” I started.
“But we’re not going to,” she said pointedly, cutting me off. I released Ava from my grip and sat back, rearranging my stiff erection in my pants. I knew it would be best to stop and cool off or else there was the risk that I’d lose all sense and just pin Ava down onto her bed and have my way with her.
I knew she wanted to go further just as badly as I did. The speed with which she got soaking wet was a bit of a giveaway, but I wasn’t one for disrespecting other people’s parents. Especially ones that had known me since I was a kid.
“Does your mom have any plans to leave the house any time soon,” I asked with faux nonchalance.
“Not today, you horny bastard,” Ava teased, punching me playfully in the arm.
“It was worth a try,” I said, shrugging. “Now, onto this project.”
* * *A few hours later, to our surprise, me and Ava had actually finished our project. Our posters looked a lot better than I’d expected them to and, for once, I was actually proud of the outcome of a collaborative effort. Besides football, I rarely participated in group work. I was used to coasting and getting good grades, and besides, there was always someone to pick up the slack, so why stretch myself thin working with people I barely cared about?
“I’m surprised you were able to concentrate for so long,” said Ava as she admired our work. “Mrs Wilson would be proud.”
“Surely I deserve a prize?” I said, waggling my eyebrows while giving her my signature charming wink.
“You get the joy of having completed your work,” Ava said in a teacher-like voice that made me chuckle. “At least it’s finally out of the way.”
I was meant to be at Nate’s soon; I said I’d hang out with him and Austin because I’d missed our last two gaming sessions, but I wasn’t ready to leave Ava’s house just yet. Usually, the more time I spent with a girl, the quicker I got tired of her, but with Ava, that was simply not the case. I knew I’d felt similar when we were kids, but this time was different. I knew a big part of me wanting to be around her a lot had to do with something lurking in my pants, but it was more than that.
It was simply being in her presence that made me feel good. Ava made me forget everything that was going on, especially the shit storm lying in bed that was Mom.
“You wanna watch something for a bit?” I asked, hoping that she’d say yes.
Ava checked the time on her phone and gave a shrug.
“Sure, I’ll grab my laptop,” she said.
I jumped into her bed and got comfy in her pillow collection. Ava sat down beside me and opened up her laptop, allowing me to see the Netflix homepage.
“Is there anything you want to watch in particular?” she asked as she scrolled through the different selections.
“You can pick,” I said. I couldn’t care less what we watched, as long as I could steal a few more moments of her time.
“No complaints,” she said, giving me a fake stern look as she selected The Good Place. Ava sat back in bed and I put my arm around her shoulders, pulling her into my body. Her scent was fucking intoxicating, the familiar smell of strawberries and vanilla hitting me like a truck. Our bodies fit together perfectly, and I had no desire to move.
“I’m not complaining,” I breathed into her hair as the episode started.
It was cute to watch Ava laughing out loud and getting excited about the show- clearly she’d watched it before, but that had only made her enjoy it more. I also loved how she had to force herself not to tell me spoilers when she got too excited. Seeing how much she was enjoying the show and how close it was to her heart, I made a mental note to myself to watch the rest. Hopefully, I could catch up with Ava before the newest season came out.
“Do you want to watch another one?” Ava asked, her finger hovering over the keypad.
“I should probably get going,” I said, annoyed that the time had flown away from us.
“Of course, no worries,” said Ava, a tinge of sadness crossing her face.
“I liked it, though. I’m definitely gonna watch more,” I said before kissing her on the forehead.
“Really?” Ava’s eyes widened, making her look like a Disney princess. Cringe, I know, but it’s true.
“Absolutely.” A smile broke out on her face, and I leaned in to kiss her gorgeous mouth.
Before I could reach it, Ava’s phone started buzzing. It was between us on the bed, and she quickly scrambled to grab it.
“Who is it?” I asked as I watched her fumbling about with the screen.
“No-one, it’s urm…nothing” Ava said quickly, as she silenced her phone and placed it face down on her bedside table. Clearly, whoever had called had rattled her. Ava’s previously calm and happy demeanour had changed quicker than the weather.
“Doesn’t seem like nothing,” I said. Why was she lying to me?
“Just one of those marketing things, they’re so annoying,” said Ava. Even though she rolled her eyes in annoyance, I still got the sense that she wasn’t telling the truth. She kissed me on the cheek before jumping out of bed and stretching out her body. “I’ll walk you down,” she said.
“Thanks,” I said, my eyes landing on the phone once again. I wanted to push it, but I felt like I would look like an idiot if I pressed Ava for more information, and it turned out that she was telling the truth.
What gave me the right to pry into her personal business like that, anyway?
I didn’t like to think of the possibility that she could be hiding something from me, but at the same time, she was her own person and I was probably being paranoid. Being raised by parents that lied as if it were an Olympic sport kind of did that to you.
* * *As I approached Nate’s house, I still couldn’t shake the weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. Even though Ava had given me a quick kiss goodbye- outside so that her mom couldn’t see, I still felt uneasy about the whole phone thing. I was getting in my head too much and knew that I really did need the boys to help set me straight.
I could hear speaking coming from the back garden and knew Austin and Nate would be in the gaming room. I went round the back and knocked on the window, startling both of my friends. Seeing them jump brought a smile to my face, and I realised how much I’d missed seeing them regularly outside of school and football practice.
“Finally man! What took you so long?” Austin exclaimed as I walked into the gaming room.
“I had some project to do with Ava,” I said. I tossed my backpack aside and grabbed a beer from the drinks cooler.
“So you guys cool now?” asked Nate, his eyes still fixed on the flat screen TV. He was being attacked by a massive swarm of zombies, but was defending himself pretty well. I hated to admit it, but it was pretty impressive to watch.
“Yeah, you can say that,” I said, an involuntary smile coming to my face.
“Bro, are you fucking her?” Austin slammed his beer down on the table, his mouth wide open.
“Wait, I thought you didn’t like her? What’s going on, what did I miss?” asked Nate.
“It’s complicated, things are different now I guess.” I took a long swig of my beer and was glad for the familiar warmth it sent to my stomach. Since I’d been spending so much time with Ava, but the time I got home and eaten dinner, I hadn’t had the time to drink.
To be honest, I hadn’t felt like drinking for a few days now, at least not to avoid thinking or feeling things.
Drinking was different when I was with the guys. It was just part of the routine.
“To be fair, you did ditch us for her at the beach, but I didn’t think it was anything serious,” said Austin.
“Oh yeah, you abandoned us!” said Nate, turning to face us now that he’d paused his game.
“What’s the deal with Ava?”
I tapped on the side of my can as I looked for the right words to say. Even though the three of us were basically brothers, we never really spoke about our feelings in this capacity. Especially not me. I was usually the joker amongst us and I suddenly felt out of my depth now that all eyes were on me.
I hadn’t spoken to anyone about my feelings with Ava. It felt like whatever it was that we shared belonged to us, and I didn’t want to taint it in any way. But at the same time, it felt like keeping shit like that private was causing some distance between me, Austin, and Nate.
I took a deep breath and allowed my words to fall out.
“Obviously I was pissed at her for the shit that happened before she left, but Ava did apologise. Then we had this project together, so we’ve just been doing that…”
“Bruh, it won’t kill you to just admit that you like her,” said Nate, a mischievous twinkle in his eye.
“Yeah Ross, you’re not kidding anyone. It’s not like we haven’t seen the way you look at her at lunch,” Austin added. Maybe I hadn’t been as low key as I thought I was being. They’d caught me in a trap and if I denied it, they’d just press me more. Besides, I didn’t want to deny my feelings for Ava. They were more real than anything I’d ever known. Sure, I was still trying to figure out if I could trust her, but that didn’t change how my heart felt.
“I like her. Like a lot and I know that’s crazy but-”
“Shut the hell up. What do you mean that’s crazy?” Austin interjected with an eye roll.
“You guys were like this.” He wrapped his middle finger around his index finger. “Of course this was going to happen at some point.”
“He’s right,” Nate added. “I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner. Well, I get that you guys have history or whatever, but you know what I mean.”
“It’s just mad. I don’t know how the fuck I’m supposed to navigate this,” I said honestly. “She’s literally not like any other girl I’ve messed about with. I feel like I end up overthinking shit.”
“Just be honest with how you feel, but don’t come on too strong. That might freak her out. Match the energy she’s giving you,” said Austin.
“Yeah, don’t do too much,” said Nate.
“When do I ever do too much?” I laughed. Austin and Nate shared a look, and we all laughed together.
“Fine, I’ll keep my cool, noted,” I said before finishing off my drink.
“You wanna play something?” Nate gestured to the TV, and I nodded, deciding that it was probably best to take my mind off Ava for a bit. It was guaranteed that thoughts of her would keep me up tonight anyway, no matter how hard I tried to fight them.
