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Ava enjoys a night out with Sienna and someone new, whilst also shedding some more light on her past.
Ready to go, Ava stood before the mirror and gave her hair and makeup a final touch-up. She wondered if maybe she’d meet a guy at the club. It had been over a year since she’d been in a relationship, and she was becoming a little lonely for male company.
‘Even if there was a nice guy there, no way would I have the confidence to talk to him!’ shy Ava thought to herself.
A sharp horn beeping outside indicated the arrival of the taxi Ava had called to take her to the club. She didn’t drive, and was thankful for the apparently free taxi service provided by the town of Cornerstone, although she did wonder who paid the taxi driver’s wages.
Ava smiled to herself as she got into the garish yellow vehicle. Tonight was hopefully going to be just what she needed.
After a short drive, Ava arrived at the club just as night was falling. The club was called The Tablet, and it was a sleek, modern looking place that Ava was actually surprised to see in a small town like Cornerstone. The interior of The Tablet was even more stylish than its exterior. Loud music blared from the DJ booth’s speakers, and the club was filled with movement as people danced along to the steady beat. Ava met up with Sienna, who was relaxing on a white sofa and waiting.
“Hey, man. Good to see you!” Sienna greeted Ava warmly.
“Good to see you too. This place is awesome!” enthused Ava, taking a seat next to Sienna.
“I told ya,” grinned Sienna. “Can you believe a place like this exists in such a dud town like Cornerstone?”
“Not really. I was wondering about that myself when I arrived,” laughed Ava. “This place seems like it should be in the middle of a big city.”
“You moved back here from SimCity, right?” asked Sienna.
“Yeah,” nodded Ava with a sigh.
Sienna noticed that mentioning Sim City seemed to upset Ava, and she quickly regretted mentioning the topic. “Sorry,” she apologised quickly.
“Oh, it’s alright,” Ava replied. “I’ve put it behind me now, or at least tried to.”
“Wanna talk about it?” Sienna asked softly.
“That might help, yeah,” replied Ava with a smile. “I’ll need a drink first, though.”
Once they were seated at the bar and their drinks were ordered, Ava began to tell Sienna the story of how she ended up back in Cornerstone.
“Are you sure you want me to go into detail? It might put a damper on tonight,” Ava said.
“If you don’t explain how you ended up back here, I’m just going to assume it’s because you are crazy,” laughed Sienna.
Ava rolled her eyes. “Shush, and let me get on with the story,” she said to her friend.
“I’d known my fiancée, Kevin, since I was a teenager. We’d been going steady since high school, and I strongly believed that he was ‘The One’,” began Ava. “We’d spend countless hours together cuddling on his beat-up old couch and watching TV. There was nothing else I’d rather do and nobody else I’d rather be with.” “After we’d graduated from high school, we decided to move in together. We bought an apartment – it was tiny and shabby, but we furnished it with care and turned it into a home. Soon after, we were engaged. I was happier than I ever thought I could be.” “Kevin worked in business as an executive assistant for a small company. He worked long hours doing intense, tedious work for his boss, such as fetching coffee, organising forms and writing dozens upon dozens of letters to clients.”
“The work left him frustrated and cranky each day. Business was what he wanted to do in life, but he hated being stuck at such a low level in the career, and longed for a promotion. His boss always overlooked him for promotions, though, which made things even worse. Kevin just grew more and more depressed.”
“He started to stay out late every night after work at various clubs Downtown. I knew he was running into all sorts of trouble with all sorts of women and drinking heavily, but I didn’t want to say anything about it and cause yet another horrible fight between us.” “One night Kevin came home from a nightclub drunker and more stressed out than he had ever been before. For me, this was the last straw. It had to stop.”
“I confronted him about how he was spending his time after work was going to lead to disastrous consequences and was ruining our relationship. I told him I knew about how he frequently cheated on me.”
“He told me that I didn’t understand what he was going through, the stress that he endured on a daily basis. I told him that no, I didn’t understand, but that I wanted him to help me understand. I told him that I loved him and wanted the best for him.”
“We argued for hours. He was shutting me out and wouldn’t listen to reason. I knew that our relationship was over, and that I couldn’t help someone who didn’t want to be helped.”
“I told him that it was over, that I couldn’t keep having the same fight over and over again, and that he was starting to destroy me as well as himself. He said nothing and left the apartment. I don’t know where he went that night, and I never saw him again. He came by again two days later whilst I was at school teaching and collected all of his things. He did leave a note behind, however.” “Dear Ava,
I guess I should start by telling you how utterly sorry I am, even though the word ‘sorry’ doesn’t even begin to make amends for what I’ve done.
I’ve found a new apartment closer to the office. I’m hoping if I can arrive early every morning and stay late, working as hard as I can, I will finally get that promotion and maybe all of this will be worth it.
I wish I hadn’t lost you though.
Good luck with everything in your life, Ava. You are a marvellous teacher.
Kevin”
“I cried all night after reading Kevin’s note. Cried because our relationship was over, cried because maybe I could have saved it if I’d tried harder, and cried because eventually I realised he was a pig who put work before anything else.”
“The next day I packed up everything in the apartment and found a new teaching job, any job that would get me away from the city.” “… and the rest is history,” Ava said, finishing her story with a small smile.
“Woah man, I had no idea things were so intense,” admitted Sienna.
“It’s in the past now, where it will stay,” smiled Ava. “C’mon, let’s dance. This is a nightclub after all. I’ll show you my sweet moves!”
“And I’ll blow you away with mine,” laughed Sienna, following her friend to the dance floor, lit up brightly like the sun with rotating spot lights.
Dancing wildly to the heavy beats blasting from the DJ booth, Ava noticed an attractive young man walking towards the dance floor. She wondered who he was, and wanted to talk to him, but was much too shy. Just as Ava was about to ask Sienna if she knew who the attractive stranger was, Sienna left the dance floor to strike up a conversation with him. It appeared that she did know him, and was quite friendly with him, too!
Ava felt a pang of jealousy as she watched Sienna talk to the man she had wanted to talk to herself. However, this jealousy soon evaporated when Sienna pointed at Ava and said something to the handsome man, and then the two came over to join Ava on the dance floor.
“Hey Ava, there’s someone I think you’d enjoy meeting,” grinned Sienna. “I’ll let him introduce himself. You two should get to know each other. We all work together, after all.”
“Hi Ava. I’m Graham Smith, maths teacher at Cornerstone High. I hear you’re the new english teacher? Lovely to meet you,” Graham said, shaking Ava’s hand. She smiled despite herself at his touch.
“Nice to meet you too, Graham,” Ava said shyly.
“Sienna didn’t tell me how beautiful you were,” Graham said softly, timidly smiling at Ava.
She blushed, barely noticing Sienna winking at her and leaving. Ava mouthed ‘thank you’ at her friend, and then resumed her conversation with Graham. The two of them connected instantly, talking, laughing and dancing all night.
As the wee hours of the morning arrived, Ava knew it was time to head home, despite wanting to spend more time with Graham. She had to finish preparing assignments for her class, and try to develop strategies to make them more interested in the class.
“Graham, I had a wonderful time with you tonight,” Ava said bashfully.
Graham smiled at her, his handsome face lighting up. “I had a great time too. How about we spend some more time together, Ava? Dinner together on Friday night?”
Suddenly Ava was filled with confidence. She lent in close to Graham and their lips met in a soft kiss.
“Sounds wonderful,” replied Ava.
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3 Comment(s) posted so far
On Dec 31, 2011 urm0m wrote:
Aww poor Ava, bet she still loves Kevin!
On Jan 2, 2012 martoele wrote:
It was a good idea to give us more insight in Ava's past.
I hope things will turn out well for her!
On Jan 4, 2012 Mangio wrote:
I'm glad Ava opened up about her past... No wonder why she wouldn't have wanted to move back to Cornerstone... i hope things will turn out well for her and Graham
Can't wait for more