by Cat Mann
Chapter 18
Boycotting
I awoke to Ari kissing my cheek before he left for work. Tugging at the blankets, I covered my head, blocking him and he sighed. I knew I was acting like a child but I couldn’t snap out of my angry mood. I didn’t want to go to Margaux’s stupid dinner party.
I got up as soon as the garage door closed and tried to get ready to start my day. There was no hot water left – the price we paid for having six adults in the house, five of whom had to be either at work or at school by nine a.m.
Giving the water situation a pass, I climbed into my car to head for the gym. A look at the gas gauge told me my tank was nearly empty, thanks to Rory and Julia having used my car all weekend driving to L.A. and back. I filled my tank, mentally reminding myself to charge Rory for the gas and for the extra miles he had put on my car.
When I got to the gym, Aggie was already there, despite my anger for her completely overstepping her bounds, I gave her a friendly wave. Then I put my ear buds in and got on my favorite treadmill, one in the back, next to the wall and an out-of-order stair master. My secluded spot would keep people from talking to me, at least that’s what I had hoped. I had Yelle, my favorite French electro pop group, blaring in my ears and was totally lost in a song when Aggie came up to me with her hands on her hips. “What?” I mouthed, without taking out my ear buds. She gave me a nasty look, and then yanked my ear buds out for me.
“Don’t ‘what?’ me, Ava,” she snapped. “What’s this I hear about you not speaking to Ari?”
I stared at her in disbelief.
“I swear, Aggie, I don’t know how you do it. It’s only nine thirty and you already know the day’s best gossip!” I rolled my eyes.
“So, what’s going on, Ava? What could Ari possibly have done to deserve the silent treatment from you?”
“You say that as though Ari can do no wrong, Aggie, and it’s not that I am not talking to him. I am. I’m just boycotting him for a while. Not that it is any of your business.”
“Over this dinner party?” she asked incredulously.
“Yes, over this party. I will go if I have to, but I don’t want anybody to think I’m happy about it. I do not want to be there.”
“You are so spoiled, Ava. You are going and that’s that.”
“You aren’t my mother, Aggie. I am a married adult, I will do whatever I wish. And keep your nose out of my marriage! I know you had a discussion with Ari about my choice to be on birth control. You have seriously overstepped your bounds.”
I pulled my ear buds out of her hand and shoved them back in my ears.
“Great, now you’re boycotting me,” I heard her say as she walked away.
“No, I am not talking to you,” I yelled rather nastily. Aggie shot me a look that could kill and in return, I yelled some nasty remark in French that she would later ask August to translate.
I finished my run in a bad mood and headed back home without another word to Aggie. I washed up and then walked into the main part of the house. The kitchen was full of dirty dishes and the laundry room was full of unwashed clothes. Seething, I unloaded the dishwasher and filled it up with the dirty ones, then cleaned the kitchen. I washed all of Ari’s and my clothes, folded them up and put them away, then cleaned our bedroom and living room.
I couldn’t even stand looking at Rory and Julia’s room, their room was a disaster and they had only been living with us for a few short days. I just shut the door. I went out to the deck and picked up half a dozen towels hanging from the rail and someone’s discarded swim trunks. Each time I moved to pick something up, throw something away, or re-organize something I got more and more angry.
I opened the door to the study and walked straight into that big, stupid box and stubbed my big, stupid toe. I yelled out a few cuss words then slid the box across the floor, causing it to slam against the bookcase. It hit the bookcase so forcefully that my collectibles nearly cascaded onto the floor.
My Macbook powered on and then I sat down to do a little bit of research before my house filled back up with noise. I sat there reading and rereading whatever I could find on the Kakos for a few hours until I heard the front door close. I poked my head out and saw it was just Collin. He gave me a small wave and headed straight towards the kitchen.
August came home a little after Collin, and he came and found me at my desk.
“What’s up?” I mumbled, not looking up from my computer screen.
I heard him make a ‘humph’ noise, as if he were pissed, and I waved my hand at the empty seat across the desk from me. He sat, I finished reading through an interesting article, and then finally looked up at him sitting across from me. August’s arms were crossed over his chest, his face was pinched in an irate stare.
“Please don’t tell me you’re angry about me not wanting to go to this dinner party.” Air left my cheeks from a long exhale.
“What? No … I’m mad at Collin.”
Now he had my attention, and I sat up straighter in my chair.
“Why, what happened?”
“Promise me you won’t get mad.”
“I promise I won’t get even madder than I am already.”
“Okay, fine, I’ll take what I can get,” he said, and then looked at me for a minute as if he didn’t know how to begin. August finally blurted out, “Collin said that you give him the creeps.”
I rolled my eyes and smiled a bit.
“August, that is totally fine. I make a lot of people uncomfortable.”
“What? No, you don’t!”
“Yes, I do, August; you just never noticed other people’s reactions to me before. People like you don’t possess a sense of fear and don’t get creeped out by me, but normal people like Collin do. Don’t be mad at him. Give him time and he’ll come around.”
“What are you talking about?”
By now, August was totally aware of who I was and he knew about my nightmares. He knew about No. 7 but I guess he didn’t understand that I still made normal people uncomfortable.
“August, I am used to making people uneasy. When I was a kid, my mom felt bad for me because I didn’t really have any friends. She worked all the time, so she bought me a goldfish. She put the fish in a little glass bowl and put some shiny rocks at the bottom and tried to surprise me one day after school. Every time I put my face up to the glass, the fish freaked out and swam the short distance to the other side, where it beat its nose against the glass searching for an escape. The look on my mom’s face was sheer sadness. I knew she felt so bad for me, but I didn’t mind. I was used to making people uncomfortable and watching animals run for the hills. I told her thanks anyway and asked her to take the fish to the pediatric center for the other little kids to look at.”
“Ava, that’s the saddest thing ever.”
“Look, August, the point of the story is that I am fine with my life. I have accepted who I am. I have people who love me; I don’t need to be everyone’s friend.”
“But I at least want my boyfriend to like you.”
“I’m serious, give Colin some time. Nora was super uncomfortable with me at first and she finally came around to me and we became good friends. Collin will as well. We just need to find some common ground. Now go and make up with him.”
“Fine, but I suggest you do the same with Ari. It’s just a dinner party, Ava.” August stood up to leave. I picked up a pen off the desk and threw it at him, hitting his back, right before he closed the door.
I heard August say “Good luck” from the hallway and then the study room door opened again. It was Ari. He had a small smile on his face and he looked gorgeous. He had just gotten home from work and he had on his dark suit pants and a white button-down shirt. The collar was open and he had already removed his jacket. Ah, he was torturing me with his remarkable good looks. His delicious scent filled the room and I couldn’t resist breathing in deeply. I tapped my fingers on my lips, trying to hide my smile. He took a seat across from me and leaned back, put his ank
le up on his knee and put his hands behind his head and just beamed across the desk at me.
My mind started to get cloudy, so I gave my head a small shake and tried to look somewhere else in the room, but doing so was difficult. My smile finally broke all the way across my face.
“You done?” he asked, referring to my tantrum.
I surrendered and nodded my head yes.
“Good, are you going to call Aggie and apologize?”
“She started it!”
“Ava!” Ari scolded me.
“Ari, she is overstepping her bounds by butting herself into my personal business.”
“I’ll talk with her. Now, please make the first step and apologize. You know it is only because she cares so much for you.”
I mimicked August’s earlier humph noise, picked up my desk phone and called Aggie to patch things up with her.