Chapter 22 – Ava Jade
AVA JADE
“ U h, Aves…” Becca trailed off, and I groaned sleepily, refusing to open my eyes even though light was searing the back of my eyelids. “Wake up, girl. I think someone left you a present.”
That had my attention piqued, but still my stiff joins protested movement as I rolled over in the bed to find Becca standing by the door leading down to the garage.
She held up a smooth black box with a piece of paper taped to the top of it.
Scrawled across it in black sharpie was a single word: Sparrow.
I pulled my pillow back over my head, the whole thing coming back to me now.
The concert. Backstage at the concert.
Me gathering my things and telling Corvus that I needed time to process everything. That I wanted space.
So much for that. He was already bringing gifts to my fucking door.
Prick.
My cunt throbbed at the memory of him inside me, and I clenched, feeling a pleasant ache still there from his size.
“You want me to open it?” Becca asked. “Or should we send it back?”
I moaned in response, disliking both options.
“I vote we open it, and since you’re in no shape to be making any life decisions pre-caffeination, my vote counts for you too.”
I pulled the pillow off. “No, wait?—”
But she already had the top off the box and was staring excitedly down at whatever was inside. “Oh. My. God.”
I sat up, the last remnants of sleep rolling off my shoulders like a bad vibe. “What is it?”
She tiptoed over to my bed like a crazy person and dropped the box in front of me. Black tissue paper spilled out, revealing something in a stunning magenta color. I used my pinkie to lift the dainty slip of lace fabric and my mouth fell open.
It was a thong. A lace thong.
“Look!” Becca trilled, clapping her hands before snatching something else from the box. “It’s the matching set! Look at this thing!”
She held it up to her own boobs through her shirt as though checking to see if she might be able to borrow it.
I grabbed it from her and threw it and the thong panties back into the box, covering them back over with the tissue paper, my heart racing.
Becca calmed almost immediately, settling onto the bed with crossed legs. “I know we didn’t talk about it last night, but I’m, like, hella curious what the fuck happened and?—”
She caught my look and stopped babbling.
“Okay, so I know what happened. I just…I thought you didn’t like him.
I actually thought you hated him. Is it just because he turned out to be you know who?
Because I did not fucking see that one coming.
Corvus James: cold hearted prick, gang member, part-time psychopath, and rock star?
You just can’t make that shit up. Guess all the fan theories are wrong then. ”
She was wrong. So wrong, but I couldn’t bring myself to correct her. I hadn’t fucked Corvus because he was The Bone Man. I fucked Corvus because when I laid eyes on him in that dressing room...I saw him for who he really was. Not for the mask he wore.
I saw his soul. Bared. Naked.
And I wanted to claim it.
Becca laid her hand on mine, and I blinked back to myself, realizing I’d gone quiet. “Hey,” she said. “You totally don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. I may kinda sorta be trying to live vicariously through you. I mean, since…”
She didn’t finish the sentence, and again I was reminded that somewhere out there was an asshole who’d drawn her in and then ghosted her. If he didn’t come back and apologize, I made no promises against finding his ass and forcing the apology out of him.
“It’s fine,” I told her with a forced smile. “I just don’t really know how I feel about it yet. I do hate him. Or, I did hate him. I don’t know. I’m just?—”
“Confused?”
“Doesn’t even begin to cover it.”
She laughed. “Well, with a dick that big, I’d take my time considering my options.”
I cocked my head at her, cheeks tinging red as something uncoiled in my belly.
He’s not yours to get jealous over, Ava Jade. Cool it.
She held up her hands in a placating gesture. “No, I just mean it was a nice dick, that’s all. I think I’m going plastic for a while. The real thing just isn’t worth it sometimes.”
“Ain’t that the motherfucking truth.”
My phone buzzed on the nightstand, and I grabbed it, catching Becca’s barely concealed excitement at the sound.
“Is it him?” she asked, scorching closer.
I shook my head. “Just an email.”
I almost set my phone back down before noticing who the email was from. Vicky . I didn’t know a Vicky. I clicked on it.
To: Ava Jade Mason
From: Vicky Doyle
Subject: Swap Notes
Hey, Ava Jade, it’s Vicky from English Lit. I was hoping we could swap notes for the upcoming project like we talked about. Can we meet? I was thinking maybe Sunday morning. I’m not going to be able to help you if you don’t help me. Last chance. I’ll send you the address later! Thanks.
My stomach dropped.
Vicky.
Officer Vick. He was trying to covertly set up a meeting without drawing suspicion.
Crafty fucker, and maybe a bit smarter than I gave him credit for. I had no idea how he got my email address. He was giving me exactly a week to make my decision.
An impossible decision, but one I think I’d already made.
“You good?” Becca asked. “Is it your hag of an Aunt again?”
I clicked off my phone and shook my head. “Nope, just a stupid scam email.”
“Ugh, I hate those.”
Becca jumped up from the bed to check her face in the small mirror on the desk, rubbing a mascara smudge from beneath her eye.
Her phone went off, and she lifted it eagerly, only to frown at whatever was on the screen.
“All good?” I asked.
“Yeah. Just my dad. Asking if I’m coming home for Thanksgiving.”
“Will your mom be there?” I asked, realizing she only ever talked about her dad, never her mom. I assumed they were separated, but I honestly had no idea.
Becca stiffened, swallowing as she turned back to me, a sadness in her brown eyes. “No.”
“Oh, you don’t get along, or?”
“We did,” she said with a somber smile. “Before she died.”
My heart twisted.
“Guess we have that in common,” she pointed out, and it was easy to tell she was trying to play it off like it was no big deal when it was. She immediately began picking at her fingernails, an act I’d come to realize was one of her stress responses.
“You have a dead dad. I have a dead mom. And our other parents are mostly MIA, other than when they want something.”
I hadn’t told her much about my mom. Only that I hadn’t seen her in years, and only heard from her exactly once. A phone call from a payphone asking me to bail her out of jail.
“What happened?” I asked, getting a sinking feeling in my gut.
Becca clenched her hands together. “It was an accident. A bad one. The wrong place, wrong time kind.”
Her lips pressed into a tight-lipped smile, and her gaze found mine before slipping away quickly. She sighed.
“I’m so sorry, babe. Do you want to talk about it?”
God, I was shit at this sort of thing. How were you supposed to comfort your friends if you couldn’t slay their demons for them?
“It was a long time ago.” She shrugged, and her eyes lit up, hands unclenching in her lap as she perked up.
“Hey! Do you know when Corvus’ birthday is?” she asked after a second, turning a bit to lift a curious brow in my direction.
Um...talk about a one-eighty...
“Why?”
“I’m not sure if I pegged him right anymore, you know? I always thought he was a Scorpio, but now I’m thinking maybe Gemini?”
So, we were changing the subject then. Got it. I laughed for real this time. She really wouldn’t give it up with this horoscope stuff.
“No, I don’t know when it is. Rook’s is next weekend though.”
She gasped. “No way! I thought for sure he was Aries, but of course he’s the Scorpio! Should’ve seen that one coming a mile away.”
I hoped he liked his gift. It wasn’t much, but I had a feeling it might mean something to him. Something more than chocolate cake or anything bought from Amazon. And I wouldn’t make a big deal out of it since Corvus told me he didn’t like to celebrate.
I shook my head at Becca.
“You figure me out yet?” I asked with a challenge in my tone, and she pursed her lips at me.
“You’re a tough one. I think I’ve almost got you, though.”
She wandered back to the bed. “You’ve got to help me figure out the other guys. They’ve legit never had a birthday party or anything in all the years I’ve been at Briar Hall with them. I’m starting to wonder if they were made instead of being born. Like crazy gangster robots.”
We both burst out laughing, and it was hard not to picture it. Which only made it even more funny.
I sighed, swiping a tear from my eye as I calmed down. “Fuck, I think we need to get out more. We’re laughing about fictional gangster robots.”
Becca cut herself off mid-laugh and reached under our shared bed, drawing out two lumpy parcels with the Crow’s Nest address on them. “Say no more,” she announced and ripped into the first one then the second.
She waited for my reaction, but I just stared, wondering what in the actual fuck I was looking at here.
“For the full moon party!” she said when I didn’t get it. “It’s a few days before Halloween so everybody’s dressing up. I got us costumes!”
Truly, I’d been planning to find a way out of going to that, but I couldn’t do that now, not with Becca looking so excited.
Though, if the rumors were true, Bianca, the bitch , was talking shit around Briar Hall about ‘taking me down.’ So, the night might not be a total bust. Maybe I’d borrow the trimmers from under the sink, give her a new hairdo. The idea made me smile.
I lifted silky black fabric from one package, noticing the Prada label on the sheath-like dress, and what looked like horned headbands from the other.
“Do you get it?” she pressed, and I winced, staring between the two items with confusion.
“The Devil Wears Prada,” she said, losing some of her steam. “You know, like the movie? Or the book, I mean, both were fucking phenomenal.”
My lips pressed tight, and she gasped.