Chapter 11
AVA
“Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked Cruz once again.
Having me skate was his idea. He said I needed to get back to my normal, whatever that was in this new reality.
But he was right.
Skating was one of the only safe places I had, so I needed to get back to the things that made me happy—the things that made life worth living.
Cruz gave an uneasy laugh.
“I’m okay, just not sure how I feel about skating.”
This made me smile.
Just then, the doors to the gym opened again, and Micah and Grayson walked in.
When mine and Grayson’s eyes locked, my heart sped up. I hadn’t seen him since the funeral. Before that, our last interaction had been prior to the Halloween party.
Even though the aftermath of that party had been playing on a loop in my mind, the actual party felt like a lifetime ago. Grayson’s eyes quickly assessed me. They went down my body as if he needed to make sure I was fine. His shoulders visibly relaxed.
I felt like a dick for pushing them away, for being harder on Grayson because a part of me blamed myself more than anyone else.
While Micah was part of the crowd, he wasn’t as integrated with Greek life drama as Gray and me, and the fact that Livy’s imprint had tainted us long before Halloween night.
Another thing I noticed was that the bond between Grayson and Micah seemed much stronger, but I suppose the same could be said for the bond between Micah, Cruz, and me.
Blood runs deeper than water.
The blood that spilled all over us kept us together.
“You ever been on the ice, Martinez?” Grayson taunted Cruz as they approached us. It should be noted that his tone was lighter than it used to be.
“Nah,” Cruz answered as he held on to the railing, trying and adorably failing at being nonchalant. “Ice skating is a rich people’s hobby. No foster home is going to pay a couple of hundred dollars to let street kids waddle on the ice.”
It wasn’t often, but every now and then Cruz added tidbits about his childhood that made us feel like ungrateful little shits for taking things for granted.
Sure, Gray’s dad threw money at him instead of affection, but he still had a roof over his head.
Micah’s dad was a lot to handle, but Micah never went without food.
And although I might not have had a mom, my dad sure stepped up.
It wasn’t often that I wondered what life would be like with her here.
At the end of the day, the three of us made do with what we got.
It might have been circumstance that brought us together, but at the end of the day, the three of us had a piece that the other one had been looking for.
Cruz noted the uncomfortable silence that his words had unintentionally caused. It wasn’t his intention to cause guilt, and it most certainly wasn’t his job to make us feel better, but he still did.
“If Grayson can do it, how hard can it be?” He scoffed as he let go of the railing.
The three of us winced as soon as we saw him wobble. I was about to skate over to him to try and help him regain his balance when he leaned, and fell backward right away.
“Omigod, are you okay?” I screeched.
There was a reason I loved my butt pads. Falling on your ass hurt like a bitch.
“The ice isn’t as cold as I thought it would be,” he joked in a strained tone.
Micah and Grayson rushed in to help.
Grayson was the first to offer Cruz his arm to help him up.
“How’s your coccyx?” I asked.
Cruz smirked. “Thinking about my cock?”
My cheeks flamed, and before I could answer, Micah did it for me.
“She means your tailbone, dumbass.”
Cruz didn’t miss a beat. He turned on his charm for Micah this time. “It’s a bit sore. If you’re offering to kiss me and make me feel better, I’m all for it.”
He didn’t wait for Micah’s reply. Instead, he took the hand that Gray had offered. Grayson helped lift him with ease. That was no surprise. What was a surprise was when Grayson guided Cruz toward the boards.
The act was simple, yet it warmed something in me. We had all come a long way since being forced into each other’s lives, but the interaction between those two was something else.
As tentative as their truce had started, now there was genuine trust, and I wasn’t the only one who noticed because Micah turned to me, and I could tell his train of thought was along the same lines.
Once Cruz was stable, Grayson let go of him, and Micah quickly took his place. Unlike Grayson, who wasn’t as comfortable with him, Micah had no problem holding on to his hands and guiding him so he could slowly skate alongside the edge.
Grayson began to scratch the back of his neck, and I immediately took a step closer toward him. My stomach felt queasy, partly due to guilt from this morning. Not because of what happened, but because Grayson hadn’t been there.
Was it fucked up that I kept thinking of us as a group?
I was finally having a good time, which I would overanalyze later. A problem for future Ava.
Instead, I glided toward Grayson. His eyes didn’t leave mine as I skated right in front of him. I opened my arms, and this seemed to surprise him, but he didn’t hesitate. He grabbed me by my waist and pulled me toward him.
He hugged me with both arms, and I clung to him, and immediately chastised myself for shutting him out. I was selfish thinking about myself, but Livy’s death weighed just as heavily on Gray as it did on me.
“I missed you,” I mumbled into his shirt.
“I was worried about you, Ava.” His deep timbre sent shivers down my spine.
“I’m sorry,” I admitted. “I just needed to process on my own. It’s not that I didn’t want to see you guys.”
Grayson didn’t say more. Instead, he kissed the top of my head.
The simple act had a swarm of butterflies in my belly.
I lifted my head slowly, and the intensity in his eyes had me holding my breath.
He was so handsome and strong, the backbone of our group, and I think we sometimes took that for granted.
Just like this morning, and everything else that kept pushing the four of us together, it felt right, and I was going to let myself have that because everything outside our bubble was fucked up.
Since I was in skates, I didn’t want to push up on my tiptoes.
Instead, I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him toward me.
He didn’t break eye contact as our lips got closer.
As soon as our lips touched, I felt a sense of belonging.
I didn’t feel as out of place in the world as I had these last few weeks.
Grayson was the missing piece I needed to start feeling like myself once more.
Grayson instantly deepened the kiss. It was as if he needed me just as much as I needed him. One of his arms stayed wrapped around my waist while the other one traveled down toward my ass. Shivers went down my spine as he not only used that hand to grope my ass but to pull me deeper into his body.
It was safe to say my panties did not stand a chance against the three of them.
The sound of someone falling again, probably Cruz, reminded me that we had an audience. Both Grayson and I pulled back slightly, out of breath.
“Whatever happens next, just know that we’re going to be okay.” Grayson always sounded so sure about it that all I could do was believe him.
When we turned around, Cruz was still laughing on the floor as Micah tried to get him up.
This moment was so lighthearted and fun that I didn’t think anything could ruin it.
Grayson stood right behind me and wrapped his hands around my waist. When he broke the news to me, I didn’t feel as scared.
“We got a message,” he told me, and I immediately strained. I was about to tell him I didn’t get one. “You left your phone in the car, and Cruz deleted the notification.”
Hearing about this secondhand and wrapped in Grayson’s arms softened the blow that the nightmare was far from over.
“What did they want?”
“To fuck with us, but we’re going to get to the bottom of this.”
All I could do was give him a tense nod.
“What do we do now?”
Grayson kissed the top of my head.
“Today we skate, tomorrow we prepare for war.”
This time, the shiver that went down my spine felt more sinister. He was right. Our stalker had taken things too far, and they weren’t scared of the consequences. We needed to stop playing it safe and start getting our hands dirty.
Today we will have fun, because everything that comes after tomorrow will be hard.