"Are you gay?"

I instantly choke on my food and cough a few times.

"What?! No, I am not. Why did you ask that?" I ask in a high pitched voice and look at my mom comically. This isn't exactly a dinner time conversation.

"Because you never bring a girl home, Roman. So if you're gay and you’re afraid to come out, just tell us. We'll support you." Mom's brows furrow and she widens her eyes comically to show how serious she is.

I shake my head and sigh, "Mom, I am not gay. I am just not interested in a relationship."

"So you’re a 'bang them and leave them' kind of guy? Not that it's wrong if the girls know the score and you are not lying to them." Dad shrugs and winks at me and I shake my head but smile anyway.

"Rye! You are not supposed to encourage him." Mom scolds him while I try not to bang my head against the dining table. I love my parents but they can be a pain in my ass sometimes. 

Dad shrugs again, "Why not? That's how we met, remember?"

"Didn't need that info, dad." I groan and tune out the conversation as I mindlessly push my food around my plate, not in the mood to eat anything.

While I love dinner time and having a random conversation with mom and dad, I'm just not in the mood today because my mind keeps wandering back to Avery.

"Have you seen the new people that moved here almost ten days ago? I met Ms. Daniels today while she was going to work. She seemed nice and polite." I tune back into the conversation as I hear my mom mentioning Ms. Daniels.

The new people who moved into this neighborhood are the Daniels and by The Daniels, I mean Avery and her mom.

Her house is only a two-minute walk away from mine. I didn't know about it before because simply I didn't care enough to know about who moved in and out of the neighborhood. But I found out about it when I went to her house today. I hate to say this but I’m kind of happy that she's living this close to me.

Yeah, fuck my life!

"She has a very pretty daughter too. We should invite them for a welcome dinner. What do you say, Roman?" I roll my eyes at her very not so subtle attempt to set me up with Angel. I don't think she would even look at me after what I did today.

"I know her mom. She goes to ICHS too and is a senior."

"Soooo, have you talked to her?" Dad drawls out with a smirk and that's my cue to leave. If he knew how much of an ass I've been to her, he would hang me upside down and whoop my ass. No pun intended. 

"Nuh-uh, dad, not going there." I shake my head.

Mom sighs, "When are you going to bring a girl home, Roman? You've never had a serious girlfriend."

"I've never had a girlfriend, being serious is out of the equation."

She shakes her head, "You're just like your dad, always chasing girls for all the wrong things."

"I never chased girls Bella. I only chased you and you know it." He winks at mom.

I need to get out of here before they start kissing in front of me.

"And I never chase girls, mom. It's always the other way around." I smirk and get up to leave. "Thanks for the dinner, love you," I say, kissing her cheek before leaving.

"Like father, like son." I hear her mutter behind me.

****

I mindlessly strum a few strings on my guitar as I sit on my king size California bed and think about today.

Not yours Roman, it's her guitar.

Yeah, it's her guitar, not mine. My hand automatically reaches to my neck to touch her pendant that I always wear and only take off when I'm playing.

The door of my room opens with a whoosh and Garret strolls in, whistling. 

Without any permission, he sprawls on my bed beside me and offers me the hot chocolate he is sipping on which no doubt he got from my mom downstairs. 

"There's a thing called knocking." 

"Not in your own house." 

I roll my eyes and put the guitar aside. Garret notices the guitar and looks at me with a sad smile. "You're missing, Ivory?" 

I lay down and look up at the ceiling as a dull ache spreads through my chest. "There isn't a day I don't miss her."

She was the most amazing person in my life and I loved her more than anything in the world, even more than my parents. But what did she do? She left me. I thought she was the strongest person in the world, she could overcome anything. I used to look up to her, she was my motivation, she was my everything. We were a team, but she decided to quit. She failed me, she failed us.

I look at the guitar beside me and then at the picture of us on my desk. I was ten and we were having a blast on the beach when dad clicked that picture. It was our last picture together. My eyes sting, I still miss her so much. There's this black hole in my heart that never goes away. 

Garret takes a loud, annoying sip and speaks, "This is just a way of distracting you from your thoughts but I am kind of curious too. What happened at school today, with Avery?" 

"Are you replacing Dan in the gossip girl series?" I ask dryly.

"Have you ever seen Gossip Girl?"

"No, but I know he was the gossip girl." I roll my eyes and look at the ceiling again.

My thoughts wander back to the night when I saw Avery at the party. She looked so beautiful. My eyes were glued to her face. She seriously looked like an angel. But then I saw her talking to that Jonathon kid and I'm not gonna deny it, I was jealous.

I mean it's not like we've talked to each other besides threatening or pranking each other. But still, I didn't like that some other boy was making a move on her, so I did what any other jealous man would do, I scared Jonathan away.

I saw everything that happened at the party until the point where Angel fainted. I knew it was something bad because Angel is strong and she wouldn't black out like that if it was some simple bullying. Hell, I kinda bullied her on the very first day and she stood up to me, so I knew it was something very serious.

But me being me, a heartless bastard, I used that in my favor because I wasn't smart enough to plan a prank like her.

Gotta say she's creative as hell.

"Back to earth, dude. I asked you a question. What happened at school today?" He snaps his fingers in front of my eyes and I sigh. 

"Nothing."

"Uh-huh, that's why she ran out of school in the middle of a panic attack."

I pinch the bridge of my nose and take a deep breath. "You are worse than Dan Humphrey. She damaged my car. You know that was the last gift I received from my grandfather, it only fueled the rage I've been carrying against her for all the pranks. So I decided to pay a visit to Mr. Prize and asked for all the information and documents he contains on her." 

Mr. Prize wasn't happy about sharing the information but he obviously couldn't deny me either considering my dad is one of the trustees in the school.

"Her last school's yearbook came too, along with all the other documents and I found that picture, which I pasted on her locker, in that yearbook," I grunt and close my eyes. 

It was kinda odd to see that picture of hers because that girl in the picture and the girl I see now are so different. But without giving it any other thought, I took out a copy of that picture and pasted it on her locker.

I was expecting her to be furious when she saw what I'd done, but what I saw was completely unexpected. She almost had a panic attack in front of the whole school and ran out before she could have a full-blown one in front of everyone, but not before looking at me. The hurt was evident in her eyes. I understood that I fucked up big-time. She wasn't the strong girl at the time, she looked lost, scared.

I called my dad's PA and asked him to get me all the information he could about her. He called me back in fifteen minutes and told me everything. I learned about her past, the truth of that picture, the way she was living her life back in Sea Crest, and all the ugly truths about her past.

I was not expecting that not gonna lie but it hit close to home. She's the strongest she's ever been because she chose to be a survivor, she came out being a survivor, unlike Ivory, Angel decided to not be a victim and to make the best of everything. I understood how much she's been through and how hard she must've fought to be where she's today. She didn't decide to quit like Ivory.

The only option that was left now was to apologize. So I apologized as best as I could.

I obviously couldn't tell her that I knew one of her most important secrets, so I decided to let her know one of my most important secrets without making her realize that.

I sang for her.

No one knows that I can play or sing so well other than Garret and I don't like to do it in front of anyone either because it reminds me of Ivory. She loved singing. I learned how to play guitar when I was seven because of her. I wanted to do everything with her, for her.

"I went to her house and apologized. I asked her to be my friend, but of course, she refused. Who wants to be friends with a heartless asshole anyway?" I mutter and finish the story. 

"Wow. So that girl decided to stamp her feet over your ego but you stamped all over her confidence. Good going." 

"I already feel awful about it, you don't have to add to it anymore!" I snap at him and put my right arm over my eyes.

Both of our phone chirps with a text and I grab my phone to look at it.

Coach: Practice at 5.30 am tmrw.

"I guess we'll need to have an early night today. Get out of my house now." 

Garret kicks off his shoes and gets under the blankets beside me. "Naah, I'll stay with you tonight." 

"Please don't cuddle me." I shiver at the thought of him cuddling with me.

"You're good. I don’t like to be the small spoon anyways." 

"Thank fuck," I mutter and switch off the lights.

"I am not as bad as Dan Humphrey though considering I am not posting this information or some gossip girl site or whatever." 

"Good night, Garret." 

"Wouldn't it be cool if we had our own gossip girl in this school?" 

"Good night, Garret."

"Whatever, good night." 

So I know I kind of gave the wrong teaser in the last chapter, I am sorry lmao. Anyways, did y'all like this chapter? <3
Tap that star to make me smile ;)
Teaser ~ A normal school day

Until the next chapter.
Happy reading
Kiara 🌺