A Broken Fate

by Cat Mann

Chapter 14

  Ava Sitting

  “You again?” I said to August as I emerged from Ari’s and my bedroom in the morning.

  “I thought I told you to wear something nicer than men’s underwear to bed.”

  I rolled my eyes at August. “Leave me alone. What are you doing here anyway?”

  “What does it look like I am doing? I live here; remember? I don’t have a coffee pot in my designated area and I like to read the paper in the morning.”

  I eased up on a stool next to him and worked on eating a bowl of Greek yogurt and granola. August kept checking the time on his watch. Ari flew down the staircase tying his tie. He looked down at his watch, too, then to the back door.

  “I gotta run.” He said over a cup of coffee. “Ava, I love you.”

  “Love you,” I said in return.

  Ari patted August on the shoulder. August looked down at his watch again; Ari grimaced then looked back at the sliding glass door.

  “I’ll call you, Ava, in a few hours to check in,” Ari said right before he opened the door leading to the garage. I watched him leave. I felt August shift off the stool. He grabbed his messenger bag and took another sip of coffee. There was a light rap at the glass door, August mumbled something under his breath and slid open the door allowing Julia to enter. August slipped past her and left for work.

  “Hey, Babe!” Julia smiled.

  “Hi?” I looked up a Julia. She had a bikini on under a little sundress. Her sunglasses were pushed up on top of her head, keeping the hair out of her eyes. She walked across the kitchen, her flip flops smacked the backs of her feet with each step she took.

  “It is supposed to be eighty degrees and sunny today. Is it cool if I use your pool?”

  “Whatever,” I shrugged.

  “Cool! Hurry up, get your bikini on and join me. I have some gossip for you.”

  I strummed my fingers along the counter top, thinking of the nicest way to say no.

  “Hurry! We are wasting sunlight!” she commanded.

  “It’s like … nine in the morning.”

  “Yes, and look at me … I am pale. I need all day to even this tan out.”

  “Don’t you have class?” I asked, bemused by Julia’s behavior.

  “Well, yeah but just the pointless ones. I’m cool to skip. A girl needs a break every now and then; you know?”

  And so Julia and I spent the day by the pool sipping ice tea and eating sugar-free popsicles. She combed through pages of gossip magazines and relayed her juicy news, which was nothing more than a semi-scandalous story involving Lauren, her new beau Luke, and an after-hours rendezvous in the campus dance studio.

  “Oh, my gosh!” Julia squealed.

  I had just begun to doze off in the sun. I cracked one eye open and looked at her. “What?”

  “Look!” She shook the glossy pages of one of her magazines at me.

  “I can’t see anything – stop shaking it!”

  “It’s you!”

  I sat up and took the magazine out of her manicured hand. Sure enough, there I was with Ari just outside of Killer Dana Surf Shop. In fact, a few pictures had been snapped of me doing various mundane daily actives. Pictures I had not even known were taken. There was a photo of me climbing out of Aggie’s car to go in to Ralph’s, my hair was piled on top of my head and I was wearing huge sunglasses. There was one of me taken a few weeks earlier in L.A. on my way to one of my doctor appointments.

  “Look Julia, there you are.”

  “Gimmie!” She pulled the magazine back out of my hands and studied a picture of Ari, Rory, Julia and myself just outside of the L.A. restaurant Eveleigh. Julia’s back was turned so the photo only showed her from behind but I knew it was her.

  “Baio heiress, Ava Alexander …” Julia began to read the article aloud. The magazine editorial went into some of the details of my background including the facts that I was bilingual and had grown up in Montréal and then Chicago. The article also went into some of the details of Ari’s and my relationship – mentioning that I had married at only eighteen. After a recap of my life, the piece spoke of my kidnapping and then took it upon itself to tell the world that I was “struggling to cope with my traumatizing kidnapping experiences.” The magazine then asked its readers, “Will the baio heiress be stable enough to one day run her grandmother’s clothing empire?”

  Julia quit reading. I laid my head back in my chair.

  “They don’t know, Ava. They're just a bunch of idiots. No one else could have survived what you’ve survived … ”

  “Julia, just stop.”

  “I’m sorry I showed you.”

  “It’s fine. I needed to know.”

  I fell asleep in the sun in the afternoon and woke to Ari who was angry at Julia for not waking me sooner and for not using enough sunscreen. I calmed him down by pointing out that I had been under the shade for most of the afternoon and then proceeded to show him the magazine article.

  “This will all blow over,” he said as we walked into the house for the evening.

  A pattern ensued. I woke in the morning to August waiting at the kitchen island impatiently. Ari left for work, someone showed up out of the blue at my door and then August took his cue to leave. I hung out with Rory one day. He “needed to use our utility closet” so he could wrap Julia’s birthday gifts. I helped Lauren on her day off from school with a project for her French class and lectured her on the misuse of campus property. This went on for a week. One morning I opened the door to find Andy standing outside. I rolled my eyes, annoyed, and let him into my home.

  “Ari suckered you in to babysitting this morning, huh? Don’t you have work? Don’t you have something important to do?”

  “Yes, I do. But what is most important right now, Ava, is you.”

  “Andy, listen, I don’t want you here. I don’t want anyone here. I had an anxiety attack; so what? It happens. Move on. I am not a child. I do not need to be babysat. I don’t need anyone. Leave me alone. I’m fine!”

  I was a big, fat liar.

  I turned and walked away slamming the door to my bedroom.

  I heard Andy pace the floor as he talked loudly on his cell. I had pissed him off majorly and I was sure to get an ear full from Ari later.

  I heard Andy’s footsteps recede, I heard the door open and shut and for the first time in a long time, I was all alone. I got up and locked all of the doors to the house. I went back to the bedroom and locked myself in there as well. I turned out the lights and I buried myself under the blankets on Ari’s side of the bed.

  My body shook at the violence of my sobs. I gasped for air and wiped my running nose with the back of my shirtsleeve. I was terrified. Every noise I heard made me quiver and cower in fear. No.7 was out there and I was going to die. I knew the only way for this mess to finally end, was to truly accept my fate and give my life to The Kakos.

  My phone rang repeatedly. My cell phone’s caller id display showed that it was Ari calling every time. The ringing made my head hurt and I eventually just shut off the phone.