I remembered the year before, when I thought I was already earning enough to have a small family of my own, and shook my head about how clueless I was. Now, with my bank account almost tapped, I finally realized just how expensive living was when I didn’t live in someone else’s house. After paying all the fixed expenses like rent, the utility bill, and my car insurance, I had little over six hundred dollars left. And that was before I put gas in my tank. Now I also had Ava to sustain, since I doubted Aaron would send me money for her food expenses or water usage. Because I left my apartment at Six in the morning, and didn’t come back before Eight in the evening, I regularly spent between a hundred and hundred-fifty dollars every week to lunch out, and only cooked on the weekends. So, first thing, I would have to learn how to prep meals in advance.
My thoughts were interrupted by my phone chirping with a notification from the phone trap I had placed in the Miller house. A quick call to Mike informed me that Jack had arrived home for the rest of his Christmas break, and was in the process of unpacking his car. The short lived adrenaline rush died down, and I already loathed picking Mia up the next day. Despite Mia’s and Nora’s assurances that they both would talk to him about me being around, I still wasn’t too sure what would happen once we ran into each other. As far as I was concerned, I got my revenge when I publicly knocked some sense into him and his friends. But if it was too public, he could be having a harder time letting it go than I did.
The problems just kept piling up. The parents being broke and threatening to take my money again, Aaron being a shit excuse for a father once more, having Ava in my home despite me telling the family how much I needed some distance for a while, and now the impending confrontation with my old bully. It took quite a while before my mind had calmed enough to let me fall asleep.
Chapter 15
I woke up agitated when I felt the mattress move. Like so many times before, I was trembling, breathing heavily, and felt my heartbeat up to my throat. Then I saw the dark figure in front of me.
I reacted without really thinking about it within a second of waking up, grabbed the intruder by the throat, and pulled my fist back to attack. That’s when I heard Ava’s frightened shriek.
I immediately let go of her throat, but she still fell off the bed. I jumped out of bed myself, turned on the light, and found her right next to my nightstand. She was cowering on the floor, visibly shaken by what had happened.
“Ava! Fuck! I’m so sorry! Are you Okay!?” I rapidly shot those words out as I kneeled next to her and looked her over.
“Yes. Sorry. I’m Okay. That was scary!” She tried to sound casual, but I could hear her voice tremble.
“I’m really so sorry, Ava! I should’ve warned you!!” I was still inspecting her neck, checking for any injuries and marks. “Can you breathe? Swallow a few times, does it hurt?”
“No, it’s really Okay, Tim.” She took a deep breath. “Nothing happened. Danny warned me, but I totally forgot about it.” As she spoke, she moved her head around to demonstrate that she actually was fine.
“She warned you?” I took hold of her hands and helped her get to her feet, making sure she could stand and had proper coordination.
“When I talked with Danny about my problem, and she suggested that maybe you’d be willing to take me in, we got to talking. Since she knew that Maggie and I had listened in on you that night you had one of your ... Not-Panic-Attacks, she thought that, while you help me, maybe I could help you in turn.” she explained meekly. “I couldn’t sleep. New environment, I guess. I thought I could ... just ... slip in next to you. I didn’t expect you to startle awake like this.”
Satisfied with my examination of her neck, I noticed it was just past 2:00 AM. If we were to hit the road now, there was no sense in trying to get back to sleep for the whole hour I would have left after I got back.
“Well, so much to that. If you want me to get you home, I’ll just grab a quick shower.”
“Huh? Why?” She sounded, and looked, genuinely confused.
“Are you saying you want to stay here with me? After what just happened!?”
“Of course.” she smiled. “I told you, Danny warned me. And even after I screwed up, in the middle of your Not-Panic-Attack...”
“Can you stop calling it that?”
“ ... you still recognized me and caught yourself before doing any damage, so I know you won’t hurt me. But, about the thing with me slipping into bed next to you ... Last time I did, when you were still working on gathering all that evidence against the Bookie, I slept really well. Would it be Okay today, too? Please?”
When she asked that part at the end, she put her hands behind her back, poked one of her big toes at the ground, and looked up at me with her best little girl impression: Face downcast while looking up at me with big sad eyes. Guess that always worked wonders with Aaron. Though, I had absolutely no idea why she would ever want to appeal to me like that, despite what Danielle had told me. Only then did I, for the first time, take in her attire. Boyshorts, a way too small, belly-free top, and nothing else. I mulled it over for a moment but, now that the adrenaline was leaving my body, I got tired again.
Reminding myself that, if I insisted on taking her home, my night would effectively be over, I decided to risk it, pulled the blanket back for her, and we went back to sleep with little further discussion. Even though her body was seriously enticing, I was concerned about what had just happened, so I didn’t really get in the mood despite her grabbing my arm and making me spoon her. And, if I was being honest, the plan I had hatched for her would have a higher chance to succeed if I waited a little before making another move on her.
The next morning, I woke up before her, and realized I had roughly twenty minutes before my alarm would have woken us up. I quickly seized the opportunity to start the research for my plan, carefully slipped out of bed, and silently left the room. After unsuccessfully checking her bathroom and bedroom, I finally found what I was looking for in her purse. I was lucky. Her birth control pills came in a dialpak, so, if I wanted to make her believe I messed with them by switching them out, this made it a whole lot easier.
I took a photo of them for later reference, and, following a spontaneous idea, decided to not be too careful when hiding the evidence of my snooping. I deliberately placed her pills in a different part of her purse than I had found them in, and left the purse itself on her bed. I wanted her to notice the purse and ask herself if I messed with it. I hoped she would then notice the pills being in a different compartment, planting the first seed of suspicion in her head.
We actually made it out of the Apartment in time. She kept throwing me suspicious side glances ever since she came out of her room, but didn’t ask me about her purse. She was also a little confused when I told her to pack gym clothes, but, as expected, she simply did what I told her without questioning me. The reveal came when we picked up Mia.
“Morning ... you two?” Mia asked, seeing Ava leaving the passenger seat to sit with Mia in the back.
“She moved in with me.” I addressed her confusion, as I started the car and drove off. I knew it was useless to try and keep it a secret, since Ava would be present in the mornings to come as well.
“Why?”
“Apparently, some people are not happy with the idea of a minor living alone. Ava thankfully volunteered to keep an eye on me for a while.” It took some effort on my part to act like I was glad about having Ava in my home, but I didn’t want Mia to ask unnecessary questions.
“Oh.” she said, throwing Ava a questioning look that didn’t entice her to provide further explanations.
The two of them spent the rest of the drive gossiping between themselves. We had just parked the car when Mia noticed Ava’s extra luggage.