Ava stumbled forward out of bed, tripping over her feet and computer cord. It had been a long, lonely night. Cait had been out of town—family emergency or something like that. Ava could no longer remember the reasoning why, it had been long forgotten along with the myriad of classes and assignments she’d had over the last few days, drowned in a haze of Jack and pot. She had been this miserable a year ago, after finding out the truth about where her mom lived. She’d tried firewhiskey for the first time then but had quickly developed an aversion to it. It burned terribly going down and so did Jack, now that she had a lucid moment to think about it, but ever since Steve had introduced her to Honey, she’d realized just how fun it could all be. Jack Honey had a sweetness to it that comforted her. And she needed comforting greatly. No one wanted her, not Emery, not the Healer’s academy, not her mom, not Lauren.
She felt really, really stupid. And now, she was late and feeling really, really guilty. Not only had she been skipping classes, but she had been canceling her friendly hang-outs with Arnold too, coming up with all manner of different excuses. But today she felt better. It was raining out and even though the gloomy weather should have made her feel even more upset, she found herself commiserating with the sky—happy it wasn’t trying to force it’s cheerful sunny attitude on her for once. Running her tongue across her teeth, Ava grimaced at the scuzzy feel and quickly brushed them, running a comb through her tangled hair and tossing a few crumpled bills into her bag to buy a pack of gum on her way over to the park where they’d arranged to meet. Maybe since it was raining he would text to cancel or to switch venues, but Ava had forgotten to charge her phone and so she left the little device blinking red on her dresser before stepping out to embrace the perfect rain.
When she arrived at the designated park and she saw Arnold standing there, holding an umbrella, patiently waiting, she felt sick to her stomach. She had canceled on him time and time again and he was still there in the rain waiting for her, carrying an umbrella. He was a true best friend. In those moments, Ava ached to be back at Sonora before things had gotten complicated and she’d found out the truth about her mom. She’d had it all together then, well, mostly. She’d known what she was going to do, she’d had everything mapped out. And then one thing after another hadn’t quite worked out the way she’d wanted it to. And what was it that she had done?
She looked away from Arnold and his umbrella in shame. This, this wasn’t how she wanted to live her life, following Cait and Lauren and their ridiculous friends around, now just Cait and her ridiculous friends since Lauren had decided to quit school and skip town. Ava looked down at herself in her ripped tights and the skirt which lay limply against her legs from the rain, the plastic raincoat not being long enough to cover it. The rain bounced on the clunky rainboots she’d stuffed her feet into that morning, bulky mismatched socks pressing uncomfortably against the toe and ankle space, and rolled into puddles on either side. She adjusted the strap of her cloth purse which was slipping off her wet shoulder and tucked some of her wet hair behind an ear while her hand was up there.
Arnold with the umbrella started to turn—or at least it looked like he was starting to turn, and she ducked behind a bush to straighten herself out. She had let Arnold see her like this one time too many, dazed and scrambling to put herself together from the night before. Her fingers ached a little from the cold rain and she adjusted her grip on her bag so the rings wouldn’t fall off. When had she started caring about things like alcohol and pot more than her studies? School had always been the one thing that got her through everything when she was younger.
She didn’t want Arnold to see her like this, bleary eyed and dirty, not when she was certain they’d be chatting about her recent behavior when really all she wanted to do was slip back in bed and sleep it all off. But she couldn’t stand him up either, not when he’d come for a walk despite the rain. Ava hesitated, feet frozen in the mud, her legs twitching as she tried to decide to approach Arnold or not. The sound of footsteps approaching startled her and she let out a breath as a man in a dark trench coat bustled by her, clutching a briefcase tightly to his chest, presumably to keep it out of the rain. Her eyes flicked back to Arnold standing on the hill and then she left.
OOC: Arnold’s appearance with the umbrella confirmed by his author. Ava's thoughts on Emery not wanting her because of all the misunderstandings each had of each other back in school but also the news of Emery's new girlfriend which she would have heard through the friendship rumor mill/grapevine as confirmed in chatzy by his author.