Ryan's POV

After Ava left I started the dreaded task of cleaning up.

I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome of today’s events. I thought Ava would be a difficult person to work with; she can come off as a bit too strong sometimes, but she was obliging and open to what I had to say.  She also had some really good ideas that I’d never considered before and we managed to get a pretty decent amount of work done today.

When Mrs Jones announced that we had to do a partnered assignment I’d been sceptical, since the last time I had to do one of these, I was paired with Jessica Johnson, a girl I knew had had a crush on me since 7th grade. She was really nice and all but spent the whole time acting as if she didn’t know how to do anything so I’d have to help her do it. It wasn’t a pleasant experience.

When I heard that Ava was going to be my partner, well to say I was unsure of how things would turn out was an understatement. But meeting up today was surprising. She was actually really down to earth, albeit cheeky. I had not expected her to push me into the pool!

Scanning the room, the flour and milk and eggs splattered all over the kitchen that I’d have to clean up, I took a deep breath. This was going to take a while…

I was wiping down the counter and the cupboards when the image of Ava peeking around the corner just before I grabbed her, flashed into my mind and I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at how scared she’d been. Given her usual cool composure, I half expected her to not react at all, but the look on her face was priceless!

I’d picked her up momentarily but she was struggling to break free so much that I kind of lost balance and accidently pinned her up on the countertop against the cupboards behind her.

At the time I was thinking ‘Oh shit this is awkward. Ryan what are you doing, this is an exact repeat of earlier this week when you tried to be all cool and ended up slamming her into the lockers. Man that football hit my head hard…’

We started laughing, I laughed because I felt so awkward and stupid and she probably laughed because I actually looked really stupid. But then she suddenly stared at me with her piercing tawny-green eyes and our laughing mood vanished.

It was weird, there was this sort of electrically-charged tension in the air that I couldn’t really explain, even having studied physics and AP bio last year and AP Chem this year…

I my eyes followed her hand reaching up towards my face and I immediately tensed; I’m really sensitive around my face, neck and ears. As you can imagine it gets pretty embarrassing when people discover this weakness! Every time Brad comes home he always sticks his hand down the back of my neck and I freeze up and recoil like a retarded turtle

Her long fingers brushed along my cheek and a tremor wreaked havoc down my body.

OH! Things just clicked. God I’m stupid, she’s trying to brush the flour off my face.  Duh Ryan, why else would she just randomly start stroking your cheek.

I spotted a drop of milk trickling from her hair down to her chin and I caught it with my thumb, running it up her jaw.

The tension I felt around us suddenly become even more charged and there was this magnetic pull that drew my head closer to hers.

Ryan what are you doing… you’re moving closer, her eyes are half-closed…are we going to kiss? It seems like we are…but wait what if I’m reading the situation wrong, what if she doesn’t want me to kiss her? Do I want to kiss her? Maybe? Probably.

Our lips are nearly touching and she isn’t trying to move away. Ok now I definitely want to.

Just as I was about to close the gap **BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP** goes the oven timer signalling that our non-existent cookies are ready.

I jump back in surprise, feeling more jittery than ever. Did all girls make you feel like this? No, I’m pretty sure it’s just Ava that has this effect on me…

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Throwing the pizza boxes into the recycling bin, I turned my attention to the TV which was still on the DVD main screen.

….What Ava said to me before sort of tripped me up. The switch she made from talking about the movie to talking about me was so subtle that I almost didn’t catch it. Not because I couldn’t pick it up, I obviously got it, but because I didn’t expect it to come from her mouth.

It was a nice sentiment though, and I truly did appreciate it.

Brad’s a great guy, he really is, but ever since I can remember, he’s always been number 1 and I’ve been trailing behind him.

Even my first real crush Caitlin Keller ‘crushed’ me when she said that she was in love with my older brother. It was ages ago but hey, this kind of thing is really devastating for a 10 year old!

What I didn’t tell Ava was that the reason I don’t go to Wilson prep like the rest of the kids around here, is because all throughout elementary school, middle school, heck even pre-school, people have always looked at me as “Bradley Haywood’s kid brother” or “the other Haywood.”

So I begged my parents to let me go to a high school of my choice, somewhere public with heaps of kids from all over so that I could be anonymous, and be known for who I was, not who my brother or my family were.

I can’t help but worry about him though, he’s always under the spotlight and he can’t afford to make mistakes…that kind of constant pressure has to be doing something to him.

Picking up the cushions that had fallen from the couch, another memory of Ava and I sitting there before flashed into my mind. Or rather I remember the part where she pushed me down while she was half asleep! That girl must work out or something because she pushed me back pretty easily…or maybe it’s because I welcomed the thought of having her laying on top of me.
At first I was all panicked like, was I supposed to move? Would she be angry if I woke her up now or more angry later for not waking her up? But by this time she’d snuggled up to my chest and her hands were curled into little fists, like a baby. I know it sounds clichéd and kind of retarded, but this position we were in felt so right, so comfortable. There was one part in the movie where the pod opens and Jake can’t get to the oxygen mask in time and Neytiri comes bursting in crying “Jake! My Jake!” and it was so weird because during that part, Ava was mumbling “Ryan….ryan…” in her sleep. I thought she’d woken up so I tried to tap her shoulder, but she just snuggled even closer so that my arm was wrapped around her waist.  Why did she say my name, over all the other things she could have? That’s something I’d like to know. Maybe it was just some random unconscious brain spasm. There were lots of unexplainable things in the world…

Well for instance, I have no idea why I gave Ava my spare key pass and lied to her about me giving them out to all my friends. There’s no way my parents would let me give them out so freely; too many people would try to break into the house once they discovered I lived in Beverly Hills. But for some reason I gave my only other pass to her and said “for the next time you come over,”…I guess I did want to hang out with her again. She’s fun and energetic and down to earth and sexy and – woah I’d better stop before I get ahead of myself, I don’t think there’s much chance that I’m the type of guy she’d want to date.

Bad girls, actually all girls, go for the bad-boys and I don’t think I could be bad even if I tried...

Phew! The house was finally clean again. Hmm but I wish we actually made those cookies, I could really go for some right now. Oh! I just got it. Slapping my forehead with my hand I laughed, Ava called me a 'smart cookie' because of our failed attempt at making them today and because she probably thinks I'm a nerd. I'll have to think of a nickname for her now...
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Comment below if you like having Ryan's POV every now and then!
Cerise xx